Wednesday, October 20, 2010

ENROL TODAY FOR AN AWARD WINNING MUSIC & MOVEMENT PROGRAM FOR TODDLERS!

This is the first Kindermusik experience I had with my son Tristan. We absolutely enjoyed the class, so much so that I took up the course to become an educator. The best thing I took from the class apart from the valuable knowledge on how to educate my child at home, stimulate his brain growth with music and other activities. Amongst these was the special time we spent together bonding. He is 4 yrs now and still remembers the story book we have and the music we listened to 2 yrs ago. This toddler age come and pass very quickly, so grab the chance and bring your child to a Kindermusik Class and experience it for yourself! (Trial Class is available, Please contact me for more information 0167585842)

A 5-SESSION MUSIC CAMP FOR CHILDREN FROM 1.5 TO 3 YEARS

ZooTrain.jpg

Your toddler and the train make a natural match - always on the move. Bring your own stuffed animal for the petting zoo. Wear long white socks on your hands for polar bear paws. Make craft Sing songs for clapping time and use music to help children regulate emotions.

Lesson Dates: 30 Oct, 6, 13 20 & 27 Nov (Total of 5 sessions on Saturday)

Lesson Time (Choose a class):
(Class 1) - 10.00 a.m. to 11.00 a.m.
(Class 2) - 11.20 a.m. to 12.20 a.m.

Last Enrollment Date: 20 October 2010 (Wednesday)adventures_materials_zootrain.jpg

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Lesson Fee: RM 200

Home Materials: RM 145

What you and your child will get:

1. Hardcover book

2. Funky chunky animal shaker - in elephant or giraffe shapes

3. Home CD includes the slip-in lyric book

4. Certified & Experienced Kindermusik Educator conducting the class

5. Fun & Exciting learning environment!

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Please see attached the Registration Form and Terms & Conditions.

Only enrollment with Full Payment received within the said dates are considered.

To learn more about Kindermusik, please go to

http://www.kindermusik.com/Classes/Classes.aspx






Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Working from home. WAHM

 Foreword 

Thanks to internet, working from home is made possible to everyone now. Especially for mothers who wants to be there and care for their child while contributing to the household income.

Personally it was heartbreaking for me to leave my baby in the morning and spend all day at a 9 hour work + 4 hour travelling and coming home exhausted. Forget about spending 'quality time' with the kids, kids need your quantity time!

So here I am, a work at home mom WAHM, exploring ways to make money online from the comfort of my home and trying not to compromise my time with my kids. I am not going to tell a lie and say it's easy and everyone can make big bucks online. That's because it is not easy! I left my job 3 yrs ago, and I am still learning, still experimenting, still exploring. Every day is still a challenge balancing work and being a mom, but it's worth the work and it can work!

Working from home is still work, it's just a different type of work. It's not easier, probably much harder in the beginning, and it forces you to take a steep learning curve, you need to invest more time initially and you need to keep it up. But it is flexible, there's still schedule but it's in your own hands.

Join me as I explore ways to earn money online, trying to convert my active income to more passive income and not exchanging my time for money. Join me on my journey down the path of success! Published on
9/8/10 3:50 PM

Monday, June 21, 2010

Nursing beyond one year any benefit?

Trevor is 18 months today and I'm still nursing him99%. Only offer formula when I'm away or when my nipple is very sore and need to rest.

Coincidentally 2 person asked me if I was going to stop breastfeeding last week since Trevor is already over one year, telling me that there's no more value in breast milk after one year. If you think there's no value in breastfeeding after a year, wait, check this out :)

Interesting articles about nursing beyond one year:)

Contrary to common belief and some doctor's advice to stop nursing beyond a year, they might be misinformed. This is what research has shown. World Health Organisation also recommends nursing 2 years and beyond.

FROM
La Leche League International

http://www.llli.org/NB/NBJulAug90p99.html

What Research Shows

Research shows that babies may benefit from nursing beyond one year. One benefit is nutrition. Research has shown that second-year milk is very similar to the first-year milk nutritionally (Victora, 1984). Even after two years or more it continues to be a valuable source of protein, fat, calcium, and vitamins (Jelliffe and Jelliffe, 1978).

A second benefit is immunity to disease.

A third health benefit is avoidance of allergies.

Psychological Considerations

Any mother who has nursed an older baby knows the tenderness and feelings of closeness generated by nursing a little one who is old enough to talk about it. We don't need medical journals to tell us it's rewarding for mother and baby.

FROM kellymom.com

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/ebf-myths.html

Visit the link to find out the TRUTH about these MYTHs.

MYTH: Mother’s milk becomes less nutritious after the first year.

MYTH: The immunities in mother’s milk are insignificant after the first few months.

MYTH: Extended breastfeeding makes a child overly dependent and can cause psychological harm.

Nursing After the First Year

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/bfextended/index.html

I nursed Tristan till he was 26 months and self weaned when I was 3 months pregnant with Trevor. Due to hormonal changes, my milk supply when down and probably taste different ( judging from Tristan reaction when he suckled, let go and looked at my nipple with a weird face. ) He stop asking to nurse after that.

I am still nursing Trevor till as long as he wants and as long as I still have milk. :)

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

The Gentle Revolution

On the bookshelf of my dad's room, sits this book: " How to multiply your child's intelligence" by Glen Doman. I think he bought it when my mom was pregnant with my brother. I noticed it, but never picked it up before.

When I was pregnant with my first boy, my dad passed it to me to read. Then, I wasn't much a 'reader' I couldn't read books without pictures and I would fall asleep after a page or two. I took it and just left it in my book shelf. Don't get me wrong, I was planning on reading it later. :)

After I became a mother, I realised that reading is a necessity and I needed to read to learn how to educate and parent my child. And I wanted my children to grow up to love reading, to cultivate a good habit. Gotta set an example.

With this desire to learn more, I actually started to love reading. The more I read, the more excited I got. I started reading books on Attachment parenting, on babywearing, on breastfeeding, on love languages of a child, on personal growth, on how to be a Work-at-home mom, on Montessori,... and finally I pick up another Glen Doman book - 'How to teach your baby to read & How to teach your baby math' from a 'junk' sale - I knew it was a good book ( I thought: buy it first since it's cheap, I'll read it later on when I get time :)

And finally I got the time to flip through some pages, I read that it's easier to teach a 1 year old to read then a 2 years old, it's easier to teach a 3 year old to read than a 6 year old. Trevor is going to be 1.5yrs... I better hurry before I miss this golden age. ( the kiasu-ism in me sprung up! Hehehe) I am not all out to 'win', I want to give my child the stimulation and everything I can to let his fullest potential shine. No pressure, just joyful learning and bonding. :)

I am still in the first few pages of the book and I am surprised that this book has so much more to offer. It's is 'revolutionary'! It doesn't just tell you, ok 1st step, do this... then do that. Your child will become a genius!

No it talks about the potential in each baby to learn to read at an early age, and how they have studied over 20+ years and gave life to children who were brain-injured. These children were told that they will be a 'vegetable' for the rest of their life as they can't walk, talk or move by themselves. But through a prescribe method of training, these children can walk, talk and read like a average or some exceed an average well child.

I've yet to discover how to teach my baby to read, will update you more once I get to that part. Here's a video to share.



http://www.gentlerevolution.com

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

MummyHugs is on Facebook!

I am trying to set up a Facebook Page or a Group for MummyHugs- My baby Sling Businesses.
But I can't decide which one is better a Page or Group. I goggled it and found 2 interesting articles.

Facebook Pages Vs Group by Mashable
Facebook Group vs Page: which one is best for your business? by Talking Heads

I decided to create A Page as it is viewed as a entity on its own and not personally related to me.
Also it can be listed on google search engine. :)
So... here's my newly created MummyHugs Fan Page!

http://www.facebook.com/pages/MummyHugs/112623885443254

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Kids say the darnest things! :)

Tristan started saying a lot of things that surprised me. It's amazing how children learn and pick up language. He only need to hear it once and he can use it like a pro.How to use what word when. :)

He's vocabulary is pretty good for his age (3+), he is using words like:

'modify'-daddy taught him about car modification

'team'- he asked me if I was strong, I said yes of course and he said: " then you can join my transformer team. Pretty good. moving from 'I' to 'team'. hhmmm :).

I have a puzzle about the human digestive system so he's pretty good with it. He can say 'oesophagus', 'intestine'... and can explain where the food goes and what happens :)

'hangar' we kept passing by this new exhibition hall and Tristan kept saying "Ma, that's a Hangar". Well this is quite embarrassing cause I don't know what a hanger is, I thought he meant 'hanger'? Ha, he saw a documentary on Discovery channel and Uncle Raj explained to him once and he could remember and apply that. It's true.. the hall looks like a hangar. :)

'Inuit' now who lives in a Igloo? Most people would think the answer must be eskimos! But no, the answer is Inuit. The correct term to use for people who lives in Igloos.


Trevor is now 13 months,
hasn't spoken much yet, but he's taking interest in reading which is great! And he can say :
1) 'ish' as in Fish. He was watching the penguins swimming in the water at the bird park. He kept saying 'ish ish ish' maybe he thinks they are fish-they are swimming like one :) or maybe he is right cos its' feeding time and the penguins are having fish for lunch.(see the picture -> the boys are mesmerized with the penguins)
2) 'Psss' in Please
3) 'Ssssh' as in Shoes
4) and other random syllabus of sounds or babbling: I just learn from Kindermusik seminar that these sounds are called echolalia…babbling gives the child the opportunity to use and control the mouth, throat, and lung muscles.
5) And some Signs : Here's also an extract from my Kindermusik class: From early in infancy, it is evident that Baby is aware of his environment and has the desire to communicate. Introducing signing to hearing babies has the benefit of allowing Adult and Baby to communicate before Baby’s vocal chords are developed enough to speak. This form of communication raises self-esteem, eliminates the frustration of not being able to communicate and engages Baby as an active participant in the learning environment.

Trevor can sign : Aeroplane, Apple, Bye Bye, Elephant, Milk
I've been signing everything I know to him: Eat, Please, Stars, Dog, Cat, Boat, Bird, Banana.
He hasn't sign back but he understands when signs to him.

---------------------------------------------
Well I guess children are never too young to learn and some people assumes that certain words or concept is too difficult for children. But they are never too young, and there can be a simple way that they can understand words, concepts, ideas and how things words. So don't underestimate a child's capacity to learn and use correct terms for everything. Their minds are keen and memory sharper than many of us! :)

Here are some links I found on language development in young child

Language Development Institute
- has a chart which shows when a child can do what in terms of language development

Teaching your child speech and language

Top 6 ways to teach early language skills

Some tips from me :) Try it!

- Personally I believe that treating children with respect and they might look too young to understand but they have the ability to understand.

- Have patience and take time to talk to them in the way that they can understand and always speak the truth.

- Create a love and curiosity for learning, be amazed and show enthusiastic in learning.

- Read everyday! have a bookshelf full of age apropriate books that the child can easily access by himself. Before bedtimes are great time to read.

- Bring them everywhere with you if you can. Kids learn a lot when you expose them to different environment, different situation, weather...etc.

- Make everything a learning experience. e.g. You can talk about anything and educate your child from them. Bring their attention to their surroundings and let them use their senses to learn.For example you can ask: " Look what is that?Do you know what it does?" " Listen, can you hear the birds singing? ", " Can you feel this? what does it feel like?"

- Bring learning to life. Tell them and they might forget, but if you let them see and experience water for themselves they can remember better. Let's say if you are teaching your child about water, it's easier for the child to learn about water when he is playing with water.. etc. bath time. And you can then teach them concepts of wet/dry, full/empty, float/sink...etc :)

- Singing to your child and singing together. Listening to music on the CD player is great, but singing with your own voice encourages your child to sing along and they learn the words and language very quickly with songs. When you sing to them, they can listen and watch how to you pronounce the words clearly and it's a great for bonding too.

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Sneaky Chef to the rescue!

Well... what can I say? Keeping to the new year resolution is going to be tough! My goal is to wake up early ~7:30am, get Tristan to school early or on time, get some work done, pick him up from school on time, lunch at mom's, spend time with boys at home in the afternoons , go for a walk, prepare dinner and sleep by 9pm. I would say Day1 went as planned! Horray! ( but I should learn not to get too happy first ) Day2 I was so tired from Day1's activities that I woke up bit late... Day3 Trevor got fever at night and I didn't get much sleep! So there goes my schedule! But at least I met some of the goals- 2 boys slept by 9pm! So sleeping troubles are ok, but eating habits are far from ok... Tristan only ate Roti Prata and Egg with runny yolk ( Roti Tampah), Cheese, Yogurt and Ice Cream for the past few days! I manage to get him to eat a bite of banana, a sip of kiwi milk shake... I think that's about it! I try to pack some fruits for his snake in school, I gave him 7 little grapes, I found 5 little grapes left, hopefully he at least attempted to taste some grapes. Oh... I am so burried in my troubles that I realised I didnt blog about Tristan's unique eatin habits. Tristan eats only egg white, fish, cheese, yogurt, he used to love bread but not much lately, sausages & nuggets are the only meat he will eat. He literally pukes at the sight and smell and no to mention taste of meat... all meat Chicken, pork, lamb, beef... no meat at all- we thought it was a phrase but it's been more than 6 months that he didn't take meat. He doesn't like vegetable at all now. Fruits - he would drink fruit juice or milk shake, doesn't eat much fruits. Knowing my troubles with Tristan's eating habits. My sister in law gave me a The Sneaky Chef to the rescue for my Christmas present!I am reading it but it was a sequal to The Sneaky Chef so the techniques are only mentioned briefly. I went to to the library and borrowed it the PART 1! In brief, this mother had troubles with her picky eaters. She tried everything from getting advice from nutrionist, pediatrics, making food look interesting, cooking with kids to make them more interested in food, bribing, threathening... etc.... and at last through her own 'labortory'-aka. kitchen, she found out that her kids will eat the food without complain if it was their favourite and it taste good. So she came up with all sort of recipes and experiment hidding healthy ingredients in seemly unhealthy food. Turning mealtime from battle ground to peaceful family social time! That is what I desperately need right now! I dont know how am I going to cook with the two boys but I'll try for the sake of decent family mealtime without a fight! So far so good, the book is easy to read and I can so relate to all the troubles she went through with her children. I'm definately going to try some recipes and see how it goes! Only one small trouble is all these recipes have very little pictures (I love pictures, less words to read for a busy busy mom) and most of the recipes are western-style kinda food. See if I can intergrate some of the Sneaky Chef technique into the Malaysian recipes. :) Well this is my project for now! Wish me luck. http://www.thesneakychef.com/ I actually blogged about another book call Deceptively Delicious some time back, I browse it at the bookstore but didn't buy it because it has no pictures (or very little) And I and not commited to cooking then... but anyway, it's also another 'hiding healthy food in unhealthily kids favourite food'. http://www.deceptivelydelicious.com/site/

Friday, January 01, 2010

IT'S 2010!

I picked up my pen today and started writing 'to do list'. I wrote the date 1 Jan 0.... Hey.. it's 1 Jan 10! I've been writing 09 for the past 365 days that it's hard to change to habit. It stuck me that time flies! And it's time for New year resolutions!

I've learn my lesson and thanks to my dear brother's reminder to keep my resolutions short focused so it's achievable! No point trying to reach for the moon when you know you cant fly yet. take small reachable steps which will take you closer to the ultimate big goal of my life.

I use to write a long list of what I want to do for the NEW YEAR but I get so exhausted and discouraged half way down the road when I don't accomplish half of what I wrote and worst still I re-write those list for the following year's resolution. So the list just get LONGER!

This year's goal is going to be more focused and more achievable.

MY NEW YEAR RESOLUTION
I am going to keep to a tight- disciplined time schedule for me and my family- namely my boys so that Tristan & Trevor will sleep and eat better, I will have more time for myself, my health, for my husband, for service to others and for my business. Prioritize and focus on improving the jobs and responsibilities I have at hand!


So here's to a great year ahead!
Happy New Year!
May this year be fearless, blissful, fulfilling and let's live this year without regrets!


Found this online on HOW TO KEEP TO YOUR NEW YEAR RESOLUTION
http://www.ehow.com/how_5800702_keep-new-year_s-resolve.html

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