My boy started bringing homework this school year. I was actually shocked the first time he brought one. But I thought it would be better to train them to do homework while they're young. Some might not understand this... but if you live in Malaysia, you would know that the education system is very competitive. So even at a young age, they are taught how to read, write, and what not.

When I sent my son to school the first time, I was shocked that they were expected to be reading a book already. I grumbled a bit, how could a three year old child read "whizzy and alzy?"

But then I realized their reading learning follows two programs: one is reading by recognition and another is by phonetics. So I was okay with the idea. My son could read (only) by recognition now. I am okay with that. And he likes to read very much. I'm scared that he would be needing prescription glasses soon.

But if ever he does, I know I could get a cheap but has a good quality pair of eyeglasses for my boy. In fact, you can get an $ 8 Rx eyeglasses. And by now, you would know that I am talking about the eyeglasses from Zenni Optical. I just saw Zenni Optical on TV!!! ...from my computer. Anyways, any thing is possible having an internet nowadays. I think they're really doing well because their eyeglasses are cheap comes with good quality. High five to Zenni Optical!

I just asked my boy that if ever he needed to wear a pair of eyeglasses which style would he prefer... and he chose this:

We started sending Schenker to Helen O'Grady Drama Academy in January this year. We thought this could be a good exposure for him as he likes to drama a bit. He was enjoying it. But because of our travels, we had to skip some of the sessions. When we came back from our trip in Macau, Hongkong and China, the real drama started.

The drama school apparently was having practice sessions because they had a drama showcase to show the parents what they learned for the first quarter. My boy only had two sessions left. And he was given a magician role for one of the acts.

But before we could go on with that, you must hear this one first. Since the start of this year, he has been telling us that he wanted to be a police when he grows up. Before that, he wanted to be a doctor. Not sure of the dramatic change though. But kids are kids and they can change preferences. I remember my husband's ambition when he was Schenker's age now was to be a street sweeper or a janitor. Probably if they were living in NJ, he would want to be one of those NJ trash removal workers. LOL. On the other hand, at that age, I wanted to be a househelper. Obviously kids' ambitions change overtime. So I don't have a problem with Schenker wanting to be a police when he grows up.

And so, when he was given a magician role, he refused it. He wanted to act as a Police. But there was no role available for cops. He disliked it so much he refused to do anything.

So on the drama day, he had a drama. He didn't wanna do anything. He was standing on the stage stiff and playing with his magic stick.

Now he doesn't wanna go back to his drama school. There goes his future acting career. LOL.

Anyway, I believe that the role of parents is to give them exposure to different areas while they are young. I'm sure it would be a joy to discover their gifts and talents while they are young so we could help enhance their God-given abilities.

Drama out. What's next?

When Schenker was younger, he actually asked one of his cousins if he knew about Jesus. I think because the cousin was one year younger (and he was too young), he didn't understand what Schenker was asking. He ignored him. He asked again: Do you know Jesus? After asking he got a first slap on the face. LOL. Well, of course I couldn't believe my eyes. But dismissed it as they were still very young. Schenker got slapped because he wanted to share about Jesus. I hope he gets rewarded for that. LOL.

Anyways, last week, he decided to take his Bible to his school. We allowed him to do it. He said he wanted to share the story of David and Goliath to his friends. We were glad because at such a young age, he already has a passion to share his faith to others.

So I asked him if he got to share about the story of David and Goliath when he came home. He said he couldn't find the story anymore but he asked the teacher to read, apparently. And so the Hindu teacher read the Bible in front of the class! It's amazing how God's word was shared by a Hindu teacher. All because my boy wanted to share the story of David and Goliath to his friends.

It never ceases to amaze me how God can use little ones to share His word. I hope that Schenker will not stop sharing his faith. And I pray that God will continue to use Him in any way he can.

My girl is showing readiness to go to potty by herself. She can actually do the no. 2. And sometimes she doesn't want to wear her disposable diapers at all. But there was an accident. And it was the job no. 1 that did it. I'm not quite ready to train her because we're still busy on organizing our stuff in the new house. But I guess she has started training herself already. LOL.

I have actually researched about potty training when I wanted to train my first child. In fact, I have written about an article as to when is the best time to potty train our kids. That time, I had all the time in the world to do research and write about my findings. Those were the non-paid blogging days:

When is the best time to Potty train them kids?

So, when actually is the right time to potty train them kids? Our oldies would say that we can start potty training even as young as 6 months!Age is one factor to consider to start potty training. However, age is not enough to consider. According to this source there’s physiological, psychological and physical factors to be considered.

Phsysiological readiness means the child can control his bladder. I noticed that today, when my son asked me to go with him to the bathroom coz he wanna wee-wee, i saw that the nappy was still dry. And the last time I changed his nappy was like more than 2 hours ago already.

This also means that a child must be willing! Willing to sit on the potty – when we bought our son’s potty, and we told him it was going to be his potty and he was going to do his “job” there, he refused to sit on it. Let alone touch it!

Psychological readiness means the child is able to recognize that he’s doing it (wee-wee or void). I think the fact that he asked me he wanted to wee-wee was a sign that he’s ready psychologically. Also, if the child is aware that he’s doing it, then he’s ready. My boy used to not care even if he has done it already. Let mommy smell it and it’s good enough! Now, he complains when he did it already. “Mommy, I wanna change nappy.”

Physical readiness means the child can walk to and out of the bathroom, can sit, and pull his pants up and down. Now, I wonder how mothers can train a child who’s not physically ready yet. I’m sure they had a very tough time, they had to carry and do everything for the child. Maybe, if I was willing to do all this for my son when he was not walking yet, probably I would have one difficult time, with my bulging tummy and all that! Kudos to mothers who sacrificially do all these for their kids!

Things to remember when we start training our kids to potty is never to push them to do it. The more we push, the more they resist, and all the more it will be so frustrating for mothers. Also, when they show readiness and tell you they wanna do it, acknowledge it and give him praises. This way, it will encourage him more to tell us when he’s ready to go. Also, we need to be really consistent and patient in the process.

Last but not the least, when it comes to potty, we not only check whether our child is ready or not, we also check ourselves whether we are ready or not because if we’re not ready, we’ll just contribute to the stress in the process. Both child and the mother (or whoever is training the child), must be ready. This way, we will be assured of smooth and successful result!

Hope this article helps for those mothers who are planning to potty train their kids.

I have given up the food meme Yummy Sunday that I have been hosting for a few months now. After that, I changed my template to make it more suitable for my blog's theme now. I have lost my blog list in the process. Please forgive me.

If your blog link is not here, please give me a shout out so I can put it back. Thank you so much.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

This is just one of the things I like about the internet. You can apologize online. Of course, it is better that if you think you offended somebody, you would make a personal apology. But apologies in general will do too (sometimes it takes real humility to really ask for an apology face to face). I have to work on it myself.

Other things you can do online is to make general announcements. You can always do baby announcements if you're having a baby. You can even announce your engagement, wedding, birthday, etc. Isn't internet a real blessing? I thank God for it!