Humour – HO & MO

HO: House officer
MO: Medical officer                                                                                                                                                

A HO is infamous of frequently getting emergency leave (EL) in the last minute for just minor problem.

This time he just did it again by sending SMS to the MO, "Hi Dr, I'm so sorry that I have to take EL today. I'm having runny nose. I really need to rest."

Then he sent another SMS, "I've tried very hard to look for replacement but really couldn't find any. I hope you don't mind. I'm gonna rest now."

After a while he got the reply from the MO,
"It's ok. You please rest in peace. Bye."

Protecting our Kids: Bullying

Jing Xuan and I were at a children playground the other day, while JX was happily playing the slides, there was a ~4 years old girl creped behind him and intentionally shouted loudly at him. JX was stunned. I was at not too far away and witnessed the whole situation, the girl seemed to be excited and enjoyed getting over her ‘target’. I brought JX to the other side of the playground and JX continued to play. Anyway, I noticed this little girl was spying at JX again, so immediately we left the playground.  When I looked back, coincidently I saw this little girl pushed her ‘new target’ off the playground’s staircase causing the poor little kid to fall down. I looked around and couldn’t see any of her guardian stepping out to stop her rough behavior.

I hate to label a 4 years old as a bully but I was really shocked to find out that bullying can starts so young. I wonder where she learnt this domineering behavior from, others around her? Or it’s just part of her personality? 

I looked at my little boy…I know as a parents, I cannot stick my head in the sand,  live in denial in the hope that bully will not happen to my child. I need to arm myself with strategies to educate my child to stand up for himself. I think, as children get older, and when there comes a situation where a peer is looking for someone to pick on, it is important that our children not be seen as “easy targets.”

Besides, from young age , we as a parents have to help our child learn to empathize, care & respect for others. Instead of blindly believing our child would never bully anyone, we have to teach them NOT to bully people. We need to address all the different forms of bullying with clear definitions.

This is a link discussing about bully, which I found it quite useful - 
The Learn to be Buddies Series

So, what you would have done if you encounter the similar experience as we did? I would like to hear your thoughts.

Homemade Flash Cards- Counting Clovers

Jing Xuan loves numbers recently, he is keen to play with the stacking rings and he has been requesting me to count the number of buttons on his clothes everyday!  Since I still have some leftover round shape stickers so I decided to make some flash cards with numbers and let JX ‘count’ by himself whenever he wants.

I am not sure if JX  really understand the concept of counting. I just take the opportunities everyday to count together. For example, while setting up for meals -  "One spoon for daddy, one spoon for mommy, one for you! One, two, three, three spoons.” When my brother pays us a visit,  there’s another spoon on the table, I will bring the count to four. I think as he grows older, he will eventually understand the idea that adding more objects increases the number counted (whereas taking away objects decreases the number).

I really love this easy made educational toy.   

Related post: Stacking Rings

Mega Bloks!

Mega bloks is a fun open ended toy for kids,  kids can use their imaginations and come out with any structure they wish.  I always enjoy building structures together with JX but recently an idea struck me that what if I just built the base and let him extend from there.

    

JX was very focused whenever he started getting serious to build his ‘structure’, he has used until the last piece,  and ‘ TAA DAA'!!’ this was the end result!

Free inflatable swimming pool from Huggies

Huggies Malaysia is giving away free limited edition inflatable swimming pool with purchase of RM80 and above worth of Huggies Dry Comfort in a single receipt from 1-11-2001 till 31-12-2011. Look for the form as shown below if you wish to make the redemption -

 

JX and I have a great time splashing in the pool at our yard this morning, thanks Huggies for this medium size pool ! ^_^

Related post: Play tent

Ops, those were not scribbles!

 

I set up a drawing session for JX last week where he could freely choose any art materials that he wanted to use and mix & match them as frequently as he wished. I didn’t suggest JX what to draw or how to draw as I didn’t want him to use my drawing as the basic for what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to draw. I just drew alongside with JX.

As the drawing progressed …

Mommy  : “ See, mummy is going to draw a cat.” {I drew a cat}

Mommy: “ An elephant.” { Again, I drew an elephant}

Suddenly JX pointed to a blank space and said : “ A bear.” Then he proceed with some scribbles using a blue colour crayon. After scribbling, he pointed to the scribbles again and said : “ A bear.”   

Who would have guessed that these blue scribbles were actually representing ‘A bear” ? 

I looked closely at ‘the bear’ that JX drew, they were really very simple lines but I was glad that through his narration, I got to see what idea that he was trying to share.  （＾ｖ＾）

Related post: Experimenting With Art Materials     Drawing Is Fun!

Letter B

   

Related post: C Is For Caterpillar

Butterfly Painting

 

JX enjoyed this butterfly painting very much,  I will cut out more butterflies next time. ^.^

Related post: Experimenting With Art Materials

Stacking Rings

I always thought that stacking rings are a big hit to babies & toddlers but not until I bought one for JX… he seemed not to like it!

I spent some times to guide JX how to put the rings back to the cone by introducing the concept of big vs small. To start with, I showed him the biggest and the smallest rings since the size difference is obvious. Anyway, he still prefers to push the smallest rings through the cone and when the ring didn’t fit, he straightaway lost his interest.

Since round shape stickers continue to be JX’s favourite at home now so LK decided to add ‘numbers’ to the stacking rings using these stickers. And, finally it turns out to be a success!

JX loves to stack the rings according to the numbers and of course, all rings fit well in the cone.  I was surprised to find that he learnt numbers 1-12 quickly through this play. He could sort out the sequence of the number and play independently by himself (another way for mommy to gain sometime for myself).

Kids learn best through play, don't you agree?

 

Related post: Sundaying

Happy Birthday, sweet husband!

 We have a happy & warm evening celebrating LK’s birthday. Nice ambience and great food at Italianese, The Gardens Midvalley with JX quietly enjoying the freshly baked breads & delicious pizzas for the whole one hour dinner time. And, not to forget cakes from Secret Recipe! （⌒▽⌒）

I have so much to be thankful for in my life, and this is definitely one of them.

     

Another Way To Reused Junk Mails, Old Catalogues and Magazines

For the last weekend, LK and I spent most of the time cleaning our apartment. We found many junk mails & catalogues ( which filled our letterbox everyday) in our storeroom so we piled it up and decided to donate it to a nearby recycling center. 

Anyway, before we gave it away I prompted myself with a question: what could I do to re-purpose all these ‘colourful’ junks?

Hmm….

How about changing them into some colourful collages?

Hence, I cut out those beautiful pictures from these junk mails/ catalogues &  old magazines and categorized it according to it’s colour.

This was the first time JX was introduced to collage, so the very first thing I did was to teach him how to glue. I provided JX with a piece of blank paper (as the base) and a bottle of glue, then I started to show him how to use the glue and how to place the pieces on the paper.  I also showed him what would happen when I did not place enough glue.

JX was eager to try out this new ‘toy’, he first explored what this sticky (and probably messy) thing called ‘glue’ was by his hands. I gave him plenty of time to explore the property of the glue and how the glue felt when it dried off on the hands. After JX got bored playing with the glue, he started to imitate my act (which I showed him earlier) by trying to apply the glue on the pre-cut materials and paste it on the paper. I sat beside him and provided him with help and guidance whenever he needed. Besides, I asked him questions like – “ JX likes to eat apple, can you paste the apple? ” “Can you find another yellow car and paste it down here?'”

It was fun to see how JX trying to glue down the pieces with too much/too little glue (and also sometimes he had forgotten to apply any glue). I hung the collages in his room and he really loves them. For the past few days, he has revisited them few times per day, pointing to each pictures and expecting mommy to name them and also tell him more about those pictures. I have planned for 2 more different colours collages next week, will share it out then.  

DIY : Glow In The Dark Galaxy of Stars for under RM3

1). This project requires -

a. A medium sized box ( I wrapped the box with some left over wrapping papers so that it looks more attractive to JX).

b. One packet of glow-in-the-dark stars (I bought at RM3, it comes with moon and comets)

c. Mirror ( this is tentative, the purpose is to create some reflective images. This is to increase JX’s curiosity).

d. Others as shown in the photos to the right.

 2). First, make an opening by choosing any side of the box and cut an ‘ I ’ shape. The opening serves as a viewing window for kids ( I didn’t take photo for this step).

3). Stick the glow in the dark stars, moon and comets.

 

4.  Ready for viewing! （⌒▽⌒）