Updates

It has been quite sometime since I last wrote in this blog. Ethan is now 4+, Zachary is 2+ and they have a little sister called Sophie who is now 6+ months old. Both Ethan and Zachary are still going to childcare centre and the little Sophie is looked after by her grandparents.

Growing Pains

Ethan is four and Zachary is two now. Even the younger brother now knows how to say "No" and rejects the first offer of anything you give him to eat or things you encourage him to do. He wants to do things "his" way.The issue of sharing is difficult to teach to a four-years old. Instances of both brothers wanting to play the same toy or game is common. Shouting and yelling to show their displeasures is frequently heard. One solution to avoid a dispute on sharing is to select toys or games that can be played by two persons. Some examples, we found workable, are picture/letter card games, finger/brush painting where both can do it at the same time, puzzles or a tri-cycle for two.

Social Skills and Interactions

Ethan and Zachary are both placed in the care of one Child Development Centre during the day. For Ethan, this stage of development is crucial. Ethan, not only can remember the names of all his friends in the centre, he is also at ease with all the friends around him in this interactive learning environment. With the guidance of his teacher, he learns to develop confidence, social skills in group playing/exploring, sharing, problem solving, communicating with his friends and build up his vocabulary in expressing himself to his teachers and friends.

Zachary is adapting well in a new environment of the Child Development Centre with unfamilar faces (friends and teachers) around him. With brother Ethan in the same centre does help a bit. We noticed he had learnt to feed himself, messy at times. For those with broadband Internet, you may download a movie clip of Zachary enjoying his peking duck sauce.

Activities of a 16-Months Child

Besides eating, drinking milk, sleeping, bathing and toilet training, a 16-month baby has periods of time where he is active and running around. If no toy is available, he will improvise his own activity to further develop his motor skills and senses. As care givers, we must constantly find ways to provide opportunity for him to challenge his own senses of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting and touching.

At the same time, his brain is also capturing all the experiences of the day. The next day, he will request for a re-run (or repeat opportunity) for reinforcing his own preferences on one or more activities he has experienced the day before. At this stage of development, he will have more opportunity to experience the senses of touch, sight, hearing and taste (during meals). Smell is too early to introduce at this stage. One reason is the problem of possible allergy the child may have.

Creative Minds

 

One of the means to nurture creative minds in children is to expose them to music and the art.

Expanding the Learning Space of a Child

Through innovation, we can improvise any challenging real life concepts for the young minds. Knowledge like learning space of a child, has no boundary.

First Experience of Snowing in a Mountain Resort

The mountain resort in BreckenRidge, Colorado USA is at altitude around 10,000 ft. It can snow at night and early morning and sunny in the late afternoon during summer.

When I Don't Sleep, Nobody Sleep!

When a child has mastered sufficient motor skills, he will try all options to venture into every corner of the house. He will explore anything his hands can get hold on. He will attempt to climb up to any elevated level. At this 15+ months, he will create more dangers for the parents and the caregiver. Constant supervision is necessary during this stage of development. So when he don't sleep, nobody will.

First Taste of Solid Food

Babies from six months onwards should start to experience "solid" food in addition to milk. As babies' teeth are not form yet and managing "solid" food in the mouth is a new experience, it is recommended that some form of preparation is required. One easy way is to get a mini food chopper and prepare the food to a "pasty" state - like those bottled baby food available in the supermarket. Next is to consider what to introduce to the baby. We can use rice or baby "brown" rice together with any combination of pre-cooked fish such as threadfin fillet, cod fillet or batang steak, sweet potatoes, vegetable, carrots, potatoes, etc and mashed them up with the chopper The water can come from the boiled rice or just boiled hot water. To experience new taste, baby bottled dessert can also be included in the menu.During this period and in between meals/milk, it is also good to introduce baby biscuits like Farley's Rusks. This will allow the baby to learn to coordinate with the hands and the biscuit and to enjoy eating solid food all by himself.

Equal Love

The economics of planning for a family is to have the children relatively within the age range. This will allow the equipment & clothing purchased for the first child be reused for the second or even the third child - at least for most of the items. If both parents are working, external or grandparents help is the way to go about the situation. Other problems will surface as the children's logical & emotional brain start to question the events happening in front of them. One very common situation is the perception by the elder child thinking uneven love is bestowed to the younger brother or sister.

This kind of behavior is very easy to detect on the elder child if the parents pay a bit more attention to the situation. It is not easy to define or to practise equal love unless we are considering something "physical" like buying toys to every child during Christmas. Even talking too much to one child can be perceived as giving too much attention to one and neglecting the other.

Social Grace

With a notice posted inside the lift cubicle, it's a message to tell the would-be-culprit that we mean business, but this also tell our visitors that this housing neighborhood has a social problem, i.e. someone (children and/or adults) is using the lift as a toilet! The message projects a wrong attitude to the would-be offender. He is not doing the anti-social habit not because it is wrong to do it, but because he is afraid of being caught by the authority.

How to reduce the occurrence of such unacceptable social behaviour? I believe good social habits start at home - during the early stage of child development we called it toilet training. The next stage is in the play centers and finally it must be reinforced in schools. Down the process of living & learning, something must have gone wrong with a small number of people staying in housing estates that have this kind of "urine in lift" problem. These people causing the problem does not know peeing in the lift is wrong. For those of us who have experienced intense need of a public toilet, occasionally, we definitely know the true meaning of "relieve" after the job is done in a proper environment - and definitely not in a public lift!

My Grandson at 6 Months

Besides the normal developmental skills described in development charts, I noticed this is the time the baby is attempting to "venture out", that is to propel himself (by his own initiative/method) towards the toys he would like to get to put into the mouth. Three points are of relevance here and they are (1) any danger falling from height (e.g. from the bed), (2) any toy with small parts that may be detached and swallowed by the baby and (3) any hard surface (e.g. edge of bed) that the baby's head may bump onto; as his motor skills are not fully developed yet.

The First Three Years of Child Development

These are the most challenging, demanding and also most satisfying years for the parents and the caregiver - almost 100% attention is required. These are the years where the child is too young to go to a child care center. At this age, the child only requires the basics and that is (1) proper milk/food, (2) living in a safe/quiet environment, (3) have plenty of suitable toys to see, touch, hear and to play with and (4) inter-acting with the child with lots of communication (by speaking/singing), inter-play and love.

Initially, the child can only communicate through crying or sounds of response, comfort/discomfort. It depends very much on the attention of the person looking after the child to pick up these signals. At later months, sounds or facial expressions of satisfaction/dis-satisfaction, happiness/unhappiness, shock, etc are also developed.

How well the parents and the caregiver master the skills of bringing up a child can be roughly gauged by the number of crying instances. It is alright if the child cries because he is hungry, wanting to sleep or feeling discomfort or sick. It is very important that the parents and the caregiver master the skill of understanding baby's cries (communication) to react to the child's needs appropriately. This will reinforce the bond and provide the child with security which is also needed by the child. The crying instances should gradually be less and less frequent as the child grows. One should avoid developing a child to communicate through crying in wanting something from you.

Joy of Parenthood

Joy of Parenthood is in its memories

Ethan and younger brother Zachary

Bringing Up a Family

Many research is done on this and also many books have been published on this topic. As no two individuals are the same, there won't be easy to find what is best for each individual of the family. We are very much influenced by the way we are brought up and as parents, we try to provide our children with the best. There is truth in this saying ... if a child lives with acceptance and friendship, he learns to find love in the world.

Every parent want their children to grow up normally and will nurture them along their life journey with proper guidance and encouragement. But, what if, in the course of their development, some "issues" arises, how do we as parents or caregiver react to the new challenges and take appropriate course of actions.