Parental guidance

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Children, family, fitness, health, healthy-living, kids, parenting, physical activities, running, sport

Like any loving parent, I want to make sure my children live a happy and healthy life.

Kids are easily impressed, but keep them healthy is, of course, easier said than done.

Since Kindergarten, my eldest son was enrolled in the running club at school. Its 45 minutes long (including warm-up and cool down), twice a week throughout the school year (expect winter break), for a course of 2.5 Kilometers.

My baby does not like to give up half an hour of sleep, and he most definitely does not enjoy running.

Regardless, he has improved immeasurably. Now in his second year, his endurance, speed, and overall performance have given me plenty of hope. Let’s just say I didn’t think we could make it this far.

My son dreads every moment of it, but he now has more confidence. Meanwhile, I find Pokemon cards and extra game time an excellent form of motivation.

Our job as parents is to make the right decisions, to guide and play a role in deciding our children’s future.

Unfortunately, they don’t always agree with our judgement.

Preserving our Heritage

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bilingual, Children, culture, family, heritage, language, life, parenting, Vietnamese

At a family gathering the other night, I was complimented on my Vietnamese speaking skills. I was flatted, as it came from a Vietnamese citizen who is recently studying in Canada on a student visa.

Thuy noticed that in North America, many Asian youth of my generation speak Vietnamese with an accent.

While it pleases me to know that I’m fluent in my native language, I fear the same could not be said of my children.

It’s our fault the boys don’t feel comfortable communicating in the mother tongue: My husband and I use more English when speaking to our friends and even to each other. We speak mostly in English to our children. It’s so much easier because they’re already well adapted to this culture and its language, as are we.

But much like everything we learn, without practice we will eventually forget. And I don’t want them to lose their identity, or the connection to our culture.

It’s our responsibility as parents to pass on the things we’ve learnt, to teach our children the family history and help them maintain their heritage.

For my resolution this year, I vow to teach the boys on becoming bilingual speakers, at the same time deepening my own roots.

This isn’t an easy task, as it is never easy to break a habit.

We’ll have to challenge ourselves, push out of our comfort zone, resist the urge, and make a conscious effort to choose the difficult choice.

It is a long-term commitment with a slow progress. But as long as there is progress, there is hope.

So, here’s to making progress in 2013!

Get involve parents!

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Children, education, family, future, learning, life, PAC, parent involvement, school

Education is the key to your child’s future AND life. Getting actively involved is one of the most significant ways you can help.

Not sure what to do? Start by joining the PAC at your child/children’s school. PAC, which stands for Parent Advisory Council is a parent volunteer group working together with the common goal of supporting and creating a better education in your school district. Meetings take place once every couple of months, about an hour long. All parents are welcome to attend.

By showing up you get to voice your concerns and give inputs, connect with other parents and become knowledgeable in all school activities and events. From there you can see how you fit into the school and volunteer as your interest suits.

Our council tackles fundraising events which raise money for playground and school equipment, classroom allotments, partner in reading program, books for the library, fieldtrips, and so much more! Parent’s involvement is hugely important to our school and its students and our community. In fact, you’ll likely find a PAC member at almost every school event.

Becoming a PAC member allows me to be a part of the school and a bigger part in my son’s life. My son and nephew LOVE seeing me around their school and classroom; it really makes them feel special. I get to know all their friends and see how they interact in a different environment. The best part is knowing that I’m making a difference.

There’s always a position for parent volunteers. We’re really one of the most efficient unpaid organizations!

Get involve and help secure a successful future for your children!

Chopsticks: traditional utensils for asian cuisine.

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asian culture, asian utensils, Children, chopstick etiquettes, chopsticks, family, food, life, training chopsticks

The other day, while eating at a local sushi restaurant, my four years old son showed a sudden interest in chopsticks and asked if he could use them. I spent a few minutes showing Christopher as we waited for our orders.  He was even more impatient then his older brother and it quickly became very frustrating for both of us.  But literally less than 10 minutes he was able to work these sticks and was using them the entire time we were there. Our son has always been a keen learner but my husband and I were completely flabbergasted.  If you’ve ever tried using these tapered sticks you’ll know it requires a lot of coordination: the proper technique is to hold the base in a stationary position while the top is held like a pencil.

If your child hasn’t quite comprehended this concept, you can always resort to training chopsticks, which are connected at the top and has loops for their tiny fingers to secure.

No training chopsticks? No worries, watch this video to make your own.

Chopsticks are used in many countries in Asia including Vietnam, China, Korea and Japan, but it was believed to have originated in ancient China.

In Japan, the chopsticks are more pointed and in Vietnam or China they are blunt at the tip.

These traditional eating utensils are most commonly made of wood/bamboo, plastic or metal. I prefer the wooden ones as they seem to have better grip. One could also use it for cooking and they’re usually inexpensive. Unfortunately, these deteriorate faster than the other materials. Metal chopsticks are often used by wealthy family, they’re durable and easy to clean but are slightly slippery.

Here are some main things you need to know about Chopstick etiquettes.

• Do not stick your chopsticks vertically into a bowl of rice as it look like incense sticks used in a funeral and death in general.
• Do not dig or search through a bowl of food.
• Do not use chopsticks to point, as it is rude in any culture to point.
• Do not pass food from chopsticks to chopsticks.
• Do not shovel food directly from your rice bowl into your mouth.

Back to school

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back to school, Children, education, family, learning, parenting, routinse, school, success

The beginning of the school year is generally a time of high stress with back to school shopping, practicing healthy food choices, bedtime routines, extra curriculum activities, meetings, and the list goes on.

So far though, I have to say we’re off to a great start.

With a full schedule, our last two weeks has gone by faster than a blink of an eye, but thanks to a methodical and structured routine things have been running rather smoothly around here.

Parents, routine is key. It’s one of the most important steps to achieving a successful future for your children.

The sooner you establish a system; you’ll reduce the level of stress and frustration on both you and your child. Children NEED stability and consistency in order for their development to effectively reach its full potential. This habit will most definitely have a strong impact on their learning ability as well as their level of success in life.

It will automatically improve your life.

My baby is expecting his first adult tooth!

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adult tooth, blogging, boys, Children, family, kids, life, losing baby tooth, milestones, motherhood, stay at home mom, tooth fairy

Tyler is officially a big boy! They say losing a baby tooth is the ultimate sign of becoming a big kid.

My son first discovered his tooth was wobbly three weeks earlier, on our trip to Lafarge Lake when he heard a “crack” as he bit into a corncob. There was this uncertain, and almost frightened but excited look on his face as he tells me, “ I think my tooth is wiggly.” My heart just melts in that instant. I couldn’t help but have this huge smile that seemed to go all the way across my face. Times like this that I absolutely appreciate being a stay-home mom, I get to be there for every single milestone, however big or small.

Tyler came home from the park last week, extremely ignored by this tooth which was quite loose at this point. I wanted to wait for the dentist, whom we had booked for following week, but my husband suggested we do it the old fashion way: with a string. I was nervous, but mostly afraid that if we didn’t do it correctly; leaving any broken piece in the root socket that it would give rise to complication such as pain or infection, and thus possibly affecting the adult tooth.

After some research and a few YouTube videos, I was more confident in our success rate (what would we ever do without YouTube?!). Tyler was scared, but agreed to do it for extra game time.

Floss was the recommended choice and to either pull up or down on the tooth, instead of forward. The floss slid out on the first two attempts to pull it upward. On the third try my hubby pulled it the opposite direction and it came out clean, with very little blood and was almost painless. Whew.

Tyler was thrilled to find that the Tooth fairy had left him a whopping $1.30!

Money matters

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allowance, blog, Children, chores, crafts, family, kids, lifestyle, milk jug piggy banks, money, money management, money talk, parenting, Parents, recyclable craft, recycling

There are children who constantly ask for THINGS. Luckily, mine aren’t the type. Rarely would they pester us into buying toys or anything else they might see the other kids with, and when we explain why they can’t have it, they simply accept it and that would be the end of it.

But as of late, my six years old son wanted pretty much everything he saw! SO, of course this meant for an immediate intervention. It was time for the talk. Did you know parents are more afraid to have the “money” talk than they do about drugs, sex, bullying, etc.? I find this interesting. I guess it’s because parents aren’t great at managing money themselves.

Anyway, after a long conversation on the ride home from the mall last week, I really felt that Tyler understood. We talked about prioritizing financial decisions and the difference between WANTS and NEEDS.

This whole thing got me thinking about allowance and chores. And so we sat down as a family that night to discuss this topic. We decided that the boys would get $2 a week for doing chores and they can earn additional coins ($.01-$25) depending on good behaviours, etc.

I made it very clear that from now on we would only pay for their food, clothes and school expenses. They will have to pay for things they want. For example if they like to go to Chuck E Cheese they will have to use their money to buy tokens, etc. They were thrilled anyway.

I’m hoping this will teach the boys responsibility, work ethic and the importance of earning things……aaand possibly budgeting and money management? Maybe? Hey, kids are remarkably intelligent, this might just work.

So for craft day (every Saturday), Tyler suggested making piggy banks. Did i mention my son is a genius? He gets it from me of course. 🙂

Milk jug piggy…Aren’t they just adorable?!!

All you need are: acrylic paint (three coats), empty milk jug, egg carton (legs), buttons (eyes), pip cleaner (tail), construction paper (ears), and a marker.

As usual the kids had a ton of fun getting paint everwhere.

 

To sit or not to sit?

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blog, blogging, boys, Children, lavatory, life, lifestyle, parenthood, parenting, pee sitting down, random thoughts, thoughs

As much as I like the idea of men sitting, I really don’t see much sense in banning urinals in men’s washroom and making it illegal or politically incorrect for men to pee while standing up, like the feminists of Western Europe are determined to do.

My sons were both potty trained by their second birthday.  There were the occasional accidents during the night but otherwise they were completely diaper-free, not even pull-ups. Patience and persistence definitely paid off, and it sure helped to have a couple of very cooperative boys.

Since two, they have urinated standing up. The splatters has minimized now that the boys no longer need the stool and their aims have gotten somewhat more accurate. Ideally, I would love for my sons to empty their bladder as they’re sitting down. I would think that’s every mother’s dream. However, my husband thinks it’s unmanly (unboyish?) for boys to pee sitting, but then again, he’s not the one cleaning the washroom. Anyway, since I am not a man and don’t know how these things work, I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

Lately, I’ve been noticing some puddles around the toilet. It doesn’t help to narrow down the perpetrator when there’s four potential suspects. So, I’ve been doing some reading and found that it’s normal for boys/men to sit during micturition. In fact, a lot of men do it, but not in public, which I agree with, and especially at night time, according to many forums and the Is it normal for men to pee sitting down? pole. I’ve since presented this information along with the pros and cons of this topic to my loving partner. I would like to say that he sided with me after hearing the logics, and seeing how the pros have outweighed the cons, but it was the persistent pestering that really did the trick. Never underestimate the power of nagging.

At some point my children will choose for themselves what best suits their needs. For now, while I still have some power, I think I might retrain my boys, only when they’re in my lavatory anyway.

Headless Chicken

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childhood, Children, extra curricular, family, moms, mother goose program, parenthood

I’ve become one of those moms who run around like a headless chicken, putting their children in all sorts of extracurricular activities. But, I have a perfectly good reason of course.

Our family had just moved to Canada and become permanent residents in ’92. And though my parents could barely speak a word of English, they worked really hard to provide for us five kids. I couldn’t be more proud or grateful for their courage and strength.  I know it is a privilege just to live in Canada, but as a child I was envious and always did wish I could be like the other kids, and got to do the things they did. Somehow I think it would have made me more confident and sociable in high school.  Oh well, it just meant that I had to work twice as hard to fit in.

Now that I am a parent it only makes sense that I would want to provide my children with the opportunities that I did not have. SO, for the last almost three years my sons have been enrolled in swimming, skating and piano lessons. Some people think it’s not necessary while others fear that we may have over worked the boys. The way I see it, it’s like going to the park except, they’re at the pool or the ice rink, etc. They’re playing while their brain is simultanously absorbing information.

I find swimming lessons to be important because it is a life-saving skill and can ultimately save their life one day or someone else’s for that matter. On the other hand, music is said to enhance their intelligence, coordination, concentration and foster creativity. It simply helps higher their academic achievement and improves their learning ability. While Ice hockey is a proud Canadian sport. So I say it is necessary. Although to be fair, I do have the advantage of being a full time mom, it’s part of my job description after all.

You can tell someone is a parent when…

Tags

Children, family, humour, kids, parenthood

1. They have ZERO social life.

2. All they talk about is having ZERO social life.

3. Their best friend is their spouse/significant other.

4. They know the names of characters from Treehouse.

5. They know what Treehouse is, or exactly what channel it’s on (and possibly the only channel they can enter without even looking at the remote control).

6. The home screen of their phone is that of a little person.

7. Their FB profile picture is also of that same little person.

8. They constantly update their FB profile of cute pictures that once again is not of themselves.

9. They have abnormally long conversation with random children (wait, that also applies to pedophiles).

10. They either drive an SUV or a Van (again, pedophiles. Why do I keep thinking of pedophiles?)

11. They assume ever person talking to random children for extended period of time and own a large vehicle is a pedophile.

12. They visit the grocery store more than the average person.

13. Their grocery list almost always has 3.25% homo milk written down.

14. One of their most visited stores is Toys R Us.

15. They always have awesome ideas for a child’s birthday present.

16. They know what an exersaucer is.

17. They are a morning person, when they never were before.

18. They sleep early on Friday nights. (see 1.)

19. They write blogs on a Saturday night. (also see 1.)

20. If you’re reading this right now changes are you are a parent, or you’re interested in becoming one or you’re like one to your niece or nephew.

If all of the above applies to you and you’re Not a parent then you my friend are a PEDOPHILE! Just joking.  Okay just don’t stock my children, plsss.