How Can I Tell Her About It???

A few days ago, I received a phone call while working. It's from our kindergarten teacher.

I held my breath as she announced the audition result through phone. Our daughter was not selected. :(

At the same moment, images of her eyes shining while practicing flashed through. You see... our little girl loves to perform. She wanted this part. She knew the text by heart, has been practicing even without me.

Afterwards, I dialed my hubby. Wailing over the phone, I lamented to him... Oh no... how can I tell her? I told him that part of me was upset too... How can they not wanting my baby??? My ultra-reasonable other half reminded me that we're dealing with other parents' 'babies' too, here.

In the evening, upon reaching home, hubby quickly asked me, "How? Have you told her?". With a shrug I shook my head.

I waited for THE perfect moment, and soon it was bedtime. Inside my heart... there's a tiny but brilliant idea, a wish that perhaps, she'll even forget about it. In that way, perhaps, I won't need to let her down.

However, again, my great voice of reason throw another scenario... How if she heard it from her friends... That'll be even more fatal.

So I put her in my lap, and told her that her teacher called me. Immediately she stiffened. Not dilly-dallying, I told her that they've selected the other kid. As expected, tears welled up. As I hugged her and rubbed her back, I mouthed to hubby, "You see... you see...?"

We sooth her that it's not because she's bad... Simply because the other kid is better than her. It's okay to fail, because at least she has tried, gave it her best shot. And finally, she brightened up a tad hearing that there'll be plenty opportunity in primary school.

Drifting off to sleep, I smiled at the thought. Today, my daughter has learned to fail. Quite gracefully, I'd like to think. A vital life lesson well learned.

As for me, I learned that there will be no perfect moment to deliver upsetting news. It simply has to be done.

[Through the eyes of a child] If you put your mind into it, you can do anything you want

Recently, my six-year-old daughter told me while being coaxed to practice more, "I know... if you put your mind into it, you can do anything... "

Startled by this sudden surge of wisdom, I was quick to reply back, wide eyed and all... "Where did you learn that?"

And guess... her answer both surprised and soothed me at the same time.

"From the TV"

Well well well...

I remembered struggling to decide when she was a newborn whether we can let her watch TV. That's after extensive research that mostly uncover the evil side of the magic box.

Finally, I myself was lured into the temptation of adorable characters (anyway... hubby and I watched Hi-5 during our exam study in university... happily commenting all through about the comical aspect of the bunch. I wonder whether it's karma that bring our firstborn into loving the Nathan-Kathleen-Kellie-Charli-Tim combo so much in the first 18 months of her life).

So for us, TV is OK, as long as it comes from DVD/VCD. I am still a scared of all the commercials presented.

But slowly the kids found their way to Okto, a children channel in Singapore. Thankfully that happened after they are fully assured that no, they cannot behave like ones in commercials. And equally no, being on TV does not mean the toys or food can materialize at home. Whining or not.

So there... after the journey, glad to hear that children, too, get little nuggets of life wisdom from TV. :)

[It Works] Letterland

Long time ago, I was a little skeptical about Letterland. I thought of it as just another one of hyped-up-commercially-exploited creation.

However, we've been converted now.

[+]
1. Catchy tunes. My 3 years old son has been humming the tunes for a few months now.
2. Fun fun fun stories. Even my daughter cannot stop reading the book.
3. Bright beautiful colorful characters, both in illustration and in their story roles.
4. Well developed method of phonics introduction, making it easier for children to remember. 5. We did zoo-phonics with our first one, and we're impressed by the more wholesome approach. From single sound introduction, to digraphs, to more as we've yet to explore.
6. Letterland has almost everything we can think of. Games, workbook, storybook, flashcards,... To make learning continuous and fun.
7. They are available everywhere, not exclusive from the school.

[-]
1. Limited range of product in Singapore.
2. They don't provide free online games as other brands do nowadays.
3. Some stuffs are literally breathtakingly expensive.

Another one is minus for me, plus for my son. He can't stop doing the workbook. So one book was finished up pretty quickly. :)

Tamiflu

My daughter and I walked out from the clinic. With a very puzzled look, the six year old asked me, "Mommy, I never mention of tummy ache, why did the doctor gave me tamiflu?".

Hmmm... I found it funny. Now as I'm typing this I'm not sure whether you do too.

Anyway, in that case I'll share our experience with tamiflu. Within hours, many well meaning friends warned me on the... I can't find an apt word for this. Maybe scary? They mentioned that reported side effect include serious hallucination, depression, deliriousness, etc.

I quickly google it. And true, many posts popped up. One lady even described it as five day of being mad. But a few mentioned too that the medicine is very effective.

Hubby and I decided to proceed. We believe that the do won't prescribe it if it's not safe.

So, none of the above encountered, many thanks to Him. But also no significant improvement observed.

Of course, being the wishy washy me, I still think that there might be bacterial infection, on top of the viral one. So it could've been worse without tamiflu.

Kindly note, this post was written with only an experience sharing objective. From a mommy to other mommies.

Kids Clinic @ Bishan

Darling daughter recently had nasty bout of high fever (for the first time, she exceeded 40degC). It lasted for 5 days. Friends and family were very supportive, lots of prayers for the poor girl.

A few also questioned the medicine. I know they only meant well. When the fever shot up, she looked very limp and weak, I myself wonder whether I'm doing the best for her. But amazingly I had this thought, that her doc surely has given the best possible treatment.

I came to realize how much I trusted her pediatrician, Dr Oh Meng Choo. She is thorough, even with very long queue outside, accurate, and kind.

The staff are great too. Helpful and friendly.

I am still impressed with thoughtful system implemented in the one pediatrician clinic. It works. Well, not perfectly, but they are indeed efficient.

Three nights in a week, they are open at night. Great help for working mothers!

So there... To all mommies who need a good doc:
Kids Clinic @ Bishan
Blk 116 Bishan St 12
#01-28 Singapore 570116

Tel: 63568909
Fax: 63569336

http://www.kidsclinicbishan.com/

PS: For a good doc, I'm willing to wait for an hour or two. So please be prepared. To me, result worth the wait.
PS2: I am also not fond of giving a lot, various, strong medicine. Dr Oh's prescription is normally simple, rarely antibiotic unless necessary.

PS3: She also does an excellent ear piercing for kids. First creamy local anesthesia is applied on the earlobes. Then the piercing is done in swift and comforting manner. Nice!

[Good Brand] Learning Horizon

In a typically kiasu manner, I've dutifully gone around Singapore to search for suitable courses for my kids.

To share, my 'suitability' criteria: interesting for the kids, can be useful in near future, affordable, time slot is squeeze-able into our established routine, and the last one is added after many painful experiences. Last one is the school management.

I've come to appreciate friendly school management office.
1. Simple admission and withdrawal rules (none of those few pages of fine print, which requires you to blah-blah-blah... but only in the even of preceding blah-blah-blah...)
2. Friendly helpful staff (none of those fierce stare with crumpled eyebrows, as if you're emitting some nonsensical utterance). And clean too... (<-- hastily added, remembering a few that manned the reception desk while blowing noses, cleaning up nails, *shudder*)


(Admittedly, sometimes I do make allowances for those that doesn't fit there. But only when the lessons are outstanding, and my kid depends on it)

Here is one with outstanding service. My son actually out-grew one of their program. And after trying to find others, we quited. But we only manage to stay away for a few months. I contacted them back, asking for new  classes. So now we're in again.

It is : Learning Horizon
Located at Yio Chu Kang Grassroot Club
http://www.learninghorizon.com.sg/contactus.aspx

And not only that, you can expect quality teachers there too...

Happy learning! :)

[Through the eyes of a child] Smile to the world and the world smiles back at you

From times to times, my six year old daughter can be one grumpy girl. Not a proud thing to confess, but she is.

And she's also been blessed by the power of speech. More or less, the gift enables a certain feature which talk back, reversing logic, remembering all past ruling I've made... To put it simply, sometimes I do beg her to stop *shamefaced* Am at her mercy. (I think most humanly mother will, because this situation is normally coupled with the other kid demanding attention, and the phone rings, or the water spills... Mother knows best).


What I observe, and I told her too, is that normally if she's calm and happy, things flow smoothly for her.

Quantitative proof comes in forms of abacus homework. (Abacus is a form of calculation method using series of beads, and the homework is not for the faint hearted. Simply tons of it) Whenever she does the problems in foul mood, there will be tons of mistakes.

I think for a kid, this is a good visual proof. So our little lawyer does agree with me on my above theory.

Then recently she told me that she forced her friend to smile. (Things that they tell you after works are still fascinating at this stage)
Me : Why?
Her : Because when we smile, other people will smile back to us!

After some probing, turns out that she observed a passing lady smiled a lot, bless her, and many people smiled back at the lady.

So there you go... smile... expect the best from life and from the world... and they will smile back right at you. :)

Oh Mannn... Already???

My daughter (in other posts is often referred to as kid-no-1) is going to be 6.

But, in her limited flying time, she's been kissed (yes, on the mouth, thank you very much), developed a highly-suspected-crush on a boy (who kissed her, but hey, one gotta admit... he's quite a looker), became very conscious on the opposite sex (refused to go into a room when there's no girls around, teachers are not counted as girls), and... now started ringing her friends to and fro (after her friend rang her at 11.30PM, we announced that no phone calls between 9AM to 9PM).

How the phone calls are linked to the others? Because, yes, they are discussing boys! Who said 'love you' to who... Again, Oh Mannn...

Before children, my husband always told me that he'll suffer minor heart attack to see our daughter's boyfriend.

So, can you imagine him now?

Weary Daddy kept on asking me, 'Were you like that when you're small? It must have been your gene. I didn't know girls until age of 10!'. Needless to say, I took, and am taking, it as a rhetorical question.

My normal retort, which doesn't answer his question nor my inner wonder, is that 'We don't have Internet back then'.

Pity on our children. How they're going to cope with our grand-children... let's see in hopefully 20 years time.

PS: In case you're wondering, no, our kids are, so far, not exposed to adult show. They barely set their eyes on soap opera, or some romantically inclined TV series or movies. Not because I set the rules, simply because they are not interested.