Know the ABC..

This is another worth reading article for parents who would like to encourage their children in recognizing the alphabet. Read on :)

How to Encourage Kids to Recognise the Alphabet

4 May 2011

CHILDWISE
By RUTH LIEW in ParenThots

MY three-and-a-half-year-old daughter started kindergarten this year after having been in a nursery. In the previous setting, she did not do much academic learning. 

My girl is now facing difficulty recognising and remembering the entire alphabet. The teacher has given us cards with the alphabets she still doesn’t know and we are to help her learn them. 

My husband and I try our best to go through the letters/words with our girl and have used many “props” like cards, books, etc in the process. 

We are beginning to get worried about her lagging. We are also concerned about pushing our child before she’s really ready to learn all that’s required of her. I hope you can give us some insight and tips. – Worried mother, Sarawak

There is more to reading than just being able to recognise the alphabet or doing spelling. Children need reading readiness skills such as being able to speak the language, listening, experiential background, visual and auditory discrimination, perceptual motor skills and interest.

Parents can do more than just getting children to recognise the alphabet and rote-learn words. Children will learn the meaning in print through hands-on and fun-filled activities.

Reading aloud to your child is one of the best ways of getting your child interested in the printed word. When you read to your child, she will learn that every word is made of the blending of sounds and they stand for the names of things and people. She will also gain pleasure from interacting with you during story time. By reading, she understands how words fit into a phrase or sentence, and the beginning of that stage happens when the child understands the concept of nouns, verbs, pronouns, adverbs and other forms of speech.

As they mature emotionally and cognitively, children with an expansive range of vocabulary will develop a love for reading. 

Learning a list of words will not make your daughter a better reader. She may memorise the list of words in their shapes and sounds. Sadly, this does not mean she is progressing in her reading skills.

Many children get turned off by the idea of reading and writing because the process of learning is just too frustrating when they are not ready. They get labelled a failure at a young age.

Read to your young child at home at all times. Start with simple storybooks with beautiful pictures. Engage her in conversations about the characters and the plots. Dramatise the tales you read in the books.

Write down her stories when she shares them with you. Have her dictate her story for you to write word for word. Later, she can illustrate her story. You may end up with several self-authored books that both parent and child can be proud of.

Research shows that a child’s sense of self is critical to his achieving success at work. Children who are confident and skilful are better at handling stress.

You can involve your daughter in all kinds of household activities that require reading and writing, like making a shopping list, doing up a menu for dinner, writing reminders and even making up greeting cards for relatives and friends.

To motivate your child to learn to read, she needs your encouragement and support. The kindergarten teacher may only require her to learn letters and words, but you can do more for your daughter. You will help her develop literacy competence through her love for books.

Inculcating reading habits in children

I wanted to keep and share these great tips from a mom taken from Paren Thots. I hope both Ethan and Eli will grow up loving books :) And talking about books, do you know you can order books from Book Depository without having to pay for shipping fees? Yes, thy offer free delivery world wide and I've already ordered and received a few books from there ;p

Anyway read these 6 useful tips if you too want to instill good reading habit on your children :)

1- Bring our children to the nearest library every week.
We used to live in Hamilton, New Zealand, for 3 1/2 years. There are some local libraries available there for everybody. So, every week without fail, we would bring our children to Hillcrest Library to borrow some books, CDs and puzzles. They really love to spend their time there. Right now, we make sure that we will buy some books every month so we can have our own mini library soon!

 2- Spend about 30 minutes per day to teach them phonemes.
The best way to teach is to make sure that it's going to be an interesting approach like using starfall.com as a tool or any kind of teaching tools. I used flashcards with my eldest daughter but with my second daughter, I have to let her choose what she likes to do as she has a shorter attention span compared to her sister.


3- Play “I spy with my little eyes" whenever we go out.
It's a must for us to play this game because it can also help me to redirect their attention while waiting in the car before we reach our destination. As both of them have recognised letters and even phonemes, I always ask them to spot some words or letters around them.


4- Prepare a nice corner or even a conducive room for our kids to learn.
Kids love to see something colourful and exciting. So, we have dedicated a special corner with a special bookcase, table and chairs for them to sit and read their favaourite books. They can use the place any time they like and they have regarded it as their special place to have fun!


5- Story time every night.
This is a must even when we are so tired and busy. At least we will spend about 10 minutes to tell a simple story or choose a page from their favourite story book. Sometimes we even create our own story when we want our imagination to run wild!


6- Make a book as MUST for their birthday present.
Every time other people ask what to buy for our kids' birthdays, we prefer that they buy more books rather than toys. Our kids love them too and they never get tired or bored with books compared to toys. They will only get excited about new toys for few weeks and then they will completely forget about the toys.

Children see...children do..

Celine shared this video on FB  - scary but good as a wake up call or reminder not only for parents but those who look after children too...

5 Tips to Develop Positive Kids

I received this in my inbox today and thought it is a good article as reference and reminder for me. Hope you'll find it useful too :)

5 TIPS TO DEVELOP POSITIVE KIDS

 I have a confession. Despite the fact that I work to develop positive leaders, schools and teams, I’m not naturally a positive person. The research says it’s not my fault. Turns out some people are born with a more positive disposition while others are born with more of a negative disposition. But there is hope. The latest research in neuroscience and positive psychology demonstrates that we can mold our brains and ourselves to be more positive, which is great news for me and my children.

For the past ten years I’ve researched and practiced countless strategies to enhance positivity. I’ve worked really hard at becoming more positive which I guess is why I’ve become a good teacher. I’ve seen the fruits of these efforts in my life and in the people I’ve taught—most importantly my own children. I’ve seen how simple strategies and daily rituals can make a tremendous impact on their mindset, belief system and outlook on life.

I believe that positive kids become positive adults and as parents we can play a significant role in shaping our children’s perspective and mindset. In this spirit I want to share with you several tips to develop positive kids.

1. Success of the Day - Each night before bed, at dinner or while taking an after dinner walk ask your children their success of the day. The success could be a great conversation, an accomplishment at school, something they are proud of, a situation where they helped someone, etc. The important thing is to help them focus on accomplishments instead of failures. When we help our children expect success, look for success, and celebrate success they find more success and gain more confidence. Of course they need to learn from their mistakes and failures, but let’s help them to not dwell on them.

2. Bedtime Prayer - A ritual such as this provides your children with a foundation of peace, security, and confidence that gives them the strength to take on the daily challenges of being a child.

3. Implement the No Complaining Rule - It’s a simple rule that says you’re not allowed to complain unless you identify one or two possible solutions to your complaint. This empowers children to become a driver of their bus instead of being a passenger griping on the bus. They also learn to use complaints as a catalyst for positive change and positive action. Visit www.NoComplainingRule.com

4. Teach them the Positive Shark Formula, E + P = 0 - This is from my latest book, The Shark and The Goldfish, which is a story about a nice and positive shark who teaches Gordy the goldfish how to overcome his fear of change and find food. After all, Goldfish wait to be fed. Sharks go find food. The formula reveals that we can’t control the (E) Events in our life. But we can control our (P) Positive Response to these events and our response determines the (O) outcome. This formula helps children develop a strong locus of control which is a perspective that through their beliefs and actions they have an influence on their life. They come to believe that they are not a victim of circumstance but rather a hero in their own inspirational tale and that they can turn their challenges into opportunities and transform bad events into good outcomes. This helps them stay optimistic and believe that their best days are ahead of them, not behind them.

5. Feel Blessed instead of Stressed - As parents we need to realize that children, like adults, deal with a lot of stress...and stress is the enemy of positivity. Well, the great news is that when you are feeling blessed you can’t be stressed. The research says we can’t be stressed and thankful at the same time. Thus, a simple ritual is to help your children identify 3 things they are thankful for each day. You can create a gratitude journal together or you can encourage them to write these blessings on their blog, diary or simply talk about them at dinner. And anytime they are feeling stressed you can encourage them to recall something they are thankful for.

I encourage you to think of your child’s mind like a garden. Each day you want to help them weed their negative thoughts and plant positive thoughts. One day of weeding and planting won’t do much. However if you practice these strategies each day, over a week, a month, a year, a lifetime, the garden grows more healthy and vibrant. Nurture your child. Take time to coach them and nourish them with lots of love and positive energy and you shall see the fruits of your efforts.

Stay Positive,

- Jon 

© The Jon Gordon Companies, Inc - www.JonGordon.com | 904.285.6842 | Info@JonGordon.com

Ethan@playschool

We received Ethan's Progress Report Card from his playschool a few days ago...

 Here's the report on his general skills and attitude developments... (click on image for bigger view)

And this is what his class teacher says about him ;p

According to his teacher, overall he is okay...just that he can't sit still and VERY PLAYFUL...apparently he is the only one that cannot sit still...he will only join the group activities for a short period of time before he starts to wonder around and does his own stuff  ;p Do you think we should be concerned especially seeing not a single 'A' in his report card? BTW, A = Good; B = Satisfactory; and C= Need Improvement.

Personally, I think it is too early to worry because after all he is still in playschool ;p He should still be playing and having fun.. besides I do think he has improve although maybe not as good as others but I still think he has improve tremendeously in terms of speech and following instructions as compared with before ;)

Yup..that's my boy alright :)

"Tee-hop" means thank you

Ethan has his own way of saying things at times.

Like any other parents, we try to teach some basic or courtesy manners to our children to encourage respect and appreciations of others. 'Thank you', 'please' and 'you're welcome' are pretty common ones. However, Ethan some how refuses to say those words. It was only recently that he finally started to use the word 'please'. As for 'thank you' this is his own version ;p It's either he is baby talking or simply just teasing me ;p

Ethan in Playschool

We've enrolled Ethan in playschool since 4th January so that he will have more activities thus be able to learn more new things. Furthermore, he will be able to socialize more with children of his age and hopefully be more discipline and independent. I think teachers seems to be better at it then parents or grandparents as we tend to be soft hearted and spoil our own children or grandchildren ;p More importantly I want him to have some activities so that he will not feel neglected when Eli arrives since he will be pretty occupied at school during my confinement and maternity leave.

We've have expected that there will be some resistance from him or any child that goes to playschool, day care centre or school for the first time. He didn't realised that we will leave him at the day care on the first day. He probably thought we brought him out for an outing to play at the school and have some friends around. He didn't even realised we were gone when we left him alone there. It was only after sometime that he realised we were missing and started to sob for a while. But his teachers told us that not for long as he was more fascinated with the amount of toys in the centre ;p But he learnt pretty fast as the next 3 days was a bit of a struggle to leave him there as he protested and cried when we left him.

It was a heartache to hear him cry but we just have to bear with it as that's what all parents will have to go through once the children starts going to school...and not only the crying but also having to bear the possibility of the children getting sick more frequent while adjusting to the school bugs. In fact Ethan had to rest at home for 2 weeks the other day as ordered by his paed as his cough and flu didn't go away for almost 3 weeks plus high fever after kept getting infected...his paed did warned us that this is expected till his antibody get adjusted to the new environment ...he even told us that he won't be surprise if he keeps seeing us for the first few months...I thought to myself oh dear what have we done...but then again it is something we will have to go through sooner or later anyway...

After the 2 weeks rest from playschool and him fully recovered, I thought we will have to start all over again sending him to school...but surprisingly it wasn't as bad as I thought...although he did resist and sob for a while but only for a very short while before he started playing with the toys there.

As of now, I'm glad to say that there have been improvements and changes in him since he started schooling. He listens to instructions and can wait for his turn as opposed to previously. He also plays with his new found friends there and got pretty attached with one particular teacher i.e. Teacher Jojo ;p Just this morning he didn't want to let go of hubby's hand when he sent Ethan to the playschool but as soon as he saw Teacher Jojo, Ethan totally forgotten abt hubby! haha...The only concern I have is that he is still not eating the food at the centre...the teachers said he is still new and still adjusting to the new environment...but luckily he still drink his milk and now mixed with cereal since he doesn't want to take rice at the centre..and he eats his bananas without fail everyday. I'm please with that coz at least banana is still carbo so he won't be starving. I do bring him some biscuits or toasted bread from home too in the morning. So at least he still have something in his stomach...just hope he will start to accept the food prepared at the centre soon..

Overall we think he does like being in the school despite the mild protest in the mornings coz each time we fetch him after work he will not exactly want to go home per se. In fact, he will sort of want to show us what he can do in the school by playing with some of the playground 'toys' like the slide, the rocking horse etc. He even protested when we carried him to the car to bring him home ;p

But what I like most is seeing his happy smiley face whenever he sees us in the evening...just show how glad he is to see us and that he misses us hehehe....the thought of it just melt my heart :)

On the way to the playschool for the first time

He was pretty much occupied with the toys there that he totally forgotten abt me and hubby ;p

Enjoying himself :)

In his school uniform and sunglasses ;p

30 months

Ethan turns 2 years 6 months today. Although he doesn't really speak in complete sentences yet (except for some like 'keep the hat', 'keep there', 'open the door', 'what's that sound', 'who's that', etc) but he has shown improvements on his vocabs. He is able to identify more animals/objects/ shapes on his flash cards or books. In terms of colors he does seem to be able to tell red, blue, green and yellow although he gets confuse at times ;p He doesn't really know how to properly count his 123 but at least he seems to be able to differentiate between 1 and 2 now.

He is also able to 'sing' though not in full but rather bits and pieces of the songs or wordings of a few songs such as Twinkle-twinkle little star, O McDonald, London Bridge, ABC song, Itsy bitsy spider, and Row row row your boat and other songs that catch him fancy or any of his favourite cartoon programmes.

Food wise, he does take his vege and meat/fish but he can also be pretty choosy. He usually takes his fruits i.e. grapes (his fave), banana, papaya while having his lunch/ dinner which is unusual as most children or even adults will take only after meals hee... the cut fruits also serve as a bait to get him to eat his rice hehe.. He still loves only his milk (180ml 3-4 times/day) and water (which can be a lot!). He will however take a sip or two of other drinks but that's about it which I have no complain ;p For breakfast, he either takes Jacob biscuits, plain white/butter bread or buttered toasts, cheese, mini hash brown, noodles or porridge. I used to give him hard boiled eggs but he doesn't seem to like it now. We're grateful that he takes his vitamin c (crushed and with a bit of water on a spoon) and Scott Emulsion (original flavour okay...) daily without fail. When he got on the weighing machine recently the reading shows 17kg (with his sandal on though) !!??

29 months

Ethan at 2 yrs 5 mths

Weight: 16.1 kg

Height: 89-90cm (approx.)

And we finally remembered to let him have a go on his new car booster seat whihc we've bought a few weeks ago but kept forgetting to replace his car seat with it ;p

A bit apprehensive in the beginning...

then he got excited... I asked him to "play" the violin while listening to the music and he happily did :)

Enjoying the rest of the ride to his class at Musikgarten which I will blog later...

Lil' E turned camera shy?

I've just noticed this new attitude of Ethan last week after hubby told me about Ethan's new behaviour...he seems to have shied away or rather dislike his photos to be taken by me lately...Probably due to the fact that I've not been taking his pictures as often as before for the past few months... thus probably he is not accustom to the idea of his pics being taken again and again by his paparazzi-like mommy anymore ;p Maybe I should start taking more pictures of him again ;p

Here are some pictures of him trying to hide his face from the camera heee...

'tis was the first time I notice him trying to avoid the camera thanks to hubby's alertness ;p

See the hand ;p

Notice the hand again...
Finally he managed to hide almost all of his face ;p

Comfort habit??

I saw and read this interesting article this morning and thought I should share it with those who have little boys that may have similar "comfort habit" ;p I would also like to archive it here in my blog in case I do need some kind of info or reference in the future coz afterall I do have a growing little boy at home ;p

Wednesday August 20, 2008
Comfort habit
Childwise By RUTH LIEW

Star Online News

Concern:

Excessive self-touching should be viewed seriously.

MY three-and-a-half-year-old son is quite active and adorable. Of late, I caught him playing with his penis. It surprised me and I tried hard to be discreet in handling the situation.

I asked him what he was doing and he replied that he was just playing. He then asked me to turn away or watch TV or carry on with what I was doing and leave him alone to play.

The third time, I caught him off-guard. I asked him why he was playing with his penis, and whether it was itchy. I also enquired whether anyone had touched him there.

He quickly changed topic and ignored me. When I probed further, he said his dad taught him. I asked my hubby and he said he never taught him that.

I then told my son that he lied to me and that it was not right to lie. Then he named his cousin brother. He kept on changing his answers each time I asked him.

Just yesterday, he locked himself in the bedroom. I couldn’t get in and he finally opened the door after one or two minutes.

I asked him what he was doing and if he was playing with his penis again. He said no.
I pulled down his pants and his penis was erect. I then asked him if he enjoyed doing it. He said it was itchy down there.

Is this something unusual or part of growing up? I’m worried that he will continue to do this elsewhere, or when he is on his own.

Both my husband and I never behave badly and we hardly get intimate with him around. I wonder what caused him to react in this manner.

A babysitter is looking after my son. She is also looking after two girls, aged two and four. – Worried Mother

----------

Answer:

First, start by taking your child to see a medical professional to rule out a medical issue, such as infection or even possible exposure to sexual abuse.

When a preschooler shows excessive self-touching, you have to look into the matter seriously. Barring all medical issues, it is normal for a preschooler to touch himself as he explores and develops body awareness.

Often, young boys will touch, scratch or tug in that area. In the course of doing this, many toddlers and preschoolers discover that they get a pleasant sensation from touching themselves.
Dr Gwen Smith, retired paediatrician, mother of five and grandmother of seven, says that children at this age are discovering their own bodies.

Your son has probably found that this is an interesting part of him. It is not necessary to attribute his behaviour to someone else having taught him to do so.

He has no knowledge of sexual function. His behaviour is not immoral although socially unacceptable to people who are not used to dealing with small children.

Dr Smith added that it is better not to reinforce his interest by paying a lot of attention to his behaviour. Distraction is the best approach. Don’t make him feel guilty. This is often a self-comforting behaviour.

You may also want to consider whether there is any reason for him to need to use a comfort habit at this time. Is there a new sibling or a new teacher in school? Are you moving house?
Find out if your child is upset over certain changes in his daily routines. Don’t call attention to this by discussing it with other adults while he is there and listening. Any sort of attention will reinforce the behaviour.

Avoid confronting your son with questions that may worry or frighten him. You may want to take some time to explain about his body and his private parts. You can also talk about privacy like when he goes to the bathroom.

If you feel uncomfortable with his self-touching, keep him occupied with “hands-on” activities such as playdough, building blocks, craft play and simple cooking activities.

It is also advisable to do spot-checks at his babysitter’s house. Make observations of your son at play with other children as well as his interactions with other adults.

It is important to know what is going on at different times of his life. This will help you deal with the developmental changes in your son.

There is a parent and child learning together session at Children’s World Kindergarten in Subang Jaya this Saturday, 10am to 12pm. For more information, call Anne (012-653 4975/ 03-8025 9910). This is a community programme.

Is your child materialistic??

As I was scanning The Star Online this morning, I came across this interesting news article on a study to examine whether child materialism is linked to self esteem. According to the study, there seem to be direct relationships between the two i.e. if you have a low self-esteem child, the probability for him/her to be more materialistic is higher. This seems to be more apparent for those between the age of 12-13. The rationale behind this was said due to these teenagers trying to make up for all the frustrations that they face during that stage of their life. However, one of the researcher did mentioned that "...giving children positive signals from their peers can boost their self-esteem and lower levels of materialism. "

I do hope my baby will not grow up to be a materialistic child as not only can it put a big hole in our pockets, it would not teach him to appreciate things around him later in life too. Hmmm...do you think buying branded stuff for him will influence him to be materialistic in the future? Oh btw, here's the news in full.

November 30, 2007
MYT 3:00:44 AM

Child materialism linked to self-esteem - study By Kristina Cooke

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - How much children focus on having the latest gadgets and designer gear may have more to do with their self-esteem than peer pressure, targeted marketing or bad parenting, researchers said.

In two studies reported in the Journal of Consumer Research, they found that materialism spikes in early adolescence and declines by the end of high school, mirroring the years children are most prone to teen angst.

Between the ages of 12 and 13 children try to compensate for low self-esteem through material goods that they think will make themselves feel better, or that they think will raise their status among their peers.

"While peers and marketing can certainly influence teens, materialism is directly connected to self-esteem," said Professor Deborah Roedder John of the University of Minnesota.

"As parents, if we understand that, it helps us cope with the frustrating experience of having a 12, 13 or 14 year-old who is always asking us to buy them expensive clothes, and expensive computer equipment," she added in a media interview.

John and co-researcher Lan Nguyen Chaplin also showed that giving children positive signals from their peers can boost their self-esteem and lower levels of materialism.

They brought the children together in a summer camp setting and asked them to write down positive adjectives about their peers, such as "smart" or "fun". When the 12 and 13 year-olds read the pleasing descriptions of themselves, it drastically reduced the high levels of materialism.

John and Chaplin measured self-esteem by asking the children to rank to what extent they felt phrases such as "I feel good about myself", or "I'm just as good as anyone else" applied to them.

To find out how materialistic a child was, the researchers asked them to make up a collage to answer the question "What makes me happy."

The children that chose more material goods such as money or brand names over sentiments such as being with friends or no homework were seen as having higher levels of materialism.

Copyright © 2007 Reuters