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Monday, February 10, 2014

Thankful Tuesdays: Trusting in God's timing

I met an old schoolmate in church the other day, and learnt that she was expecting twins! She said she was scared, because she wasn't sure how she was going to manage. However, she also shared about how God's timing was good: her husband didn't have to travel as often as he usually does during her first trimester, when she was battling bad morning sickness. And while there were lots of questions and worries, I was encouraged by how she was willing to trust God to bring her through.

And as I reflected upon our conversation, I was struck by God's good timing, especially in the area of parenthood. Being a parent is tough. You have to care for a helpless infant that is totally dependent on you. Being a mother, you would have to battle sleepless nights, work out feeding issues, change countless diapers even when you are so tired you can't see straight. Then they start growing into toddlers and your heart stops every time you see them take a fall. There are the issues of disobedience, of hard-to-feed fussies, of fevers and visits to the emergency department, of tired nights soothing night terrors or little ones who still need you to comfort them every three hours. And then later they become teenagers and you get another whole new lot of challenges. Some nights you lay in bed thinking if you've messed up your kids, and wonder how on earth can you bring up these little ones well.

It is not easy. But then I also saw how God had timed it all: giving us our fussiest baby later, when we had the experience of caring for two babies behind us. When we were more or less settled back home in Singapore, instead of when we were in Germany. With Junior J we struggled with feeding, with getting him to sleep, with reflux. But that was when we only had one child and had a little more time to sort these issues out. Lil J was the easiest in terms of sleep and feeding issues when he was a baby, and that coincided with our move overseas, when we were on our own most of the time.

As we struggled with various issues of parenting, God provided various friends who were also going through similar issues, and we could keep each other in prayer. When we started exploring the idea of homeschooling the kids, He provided a community of other homeschooling parents, some who were also just starting out. On tough days, there is always some respite: a hug from Junior J, surprise happy mail, some silly joke from Lil J. Some days may be really crazy (they say you're not supposed to cry over spilt milk, but there are days spilt milk really makes me want to cry. And yell.), but I know He doesn't give me more than I can bear.

All in all, this week has been a tough week. But He has provided, and He will continue to sustain, and for that I am so thankful.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

The first week of homeschool

This was our first "official" week of homeschool. The hubs was on leave for the past two weeks leading up to Chinese New Year, so I didn't have a schedule or planned activities for the kids, as they were happy just hanging out with Papa. Then the hubs went back to work this week. Thus far, I must say things have been a lil crazy, since Baby J seems to be one of those clingy babies that need to be carried most of the time. The evenings are the worst, where baby is cranky, and the two older ones are getting tired and start fighting over all sorts of things, and I'm rushing to get dinner ready.

But crazy times aside, it has been quite a week of learning (for me especially!). Learning to pray hard for wisdom. Learning how to plan things so that it flows with everyone's rhythm. Learning how to teach Lil J to fall asleep on his own during naps and at night. Learning what piques their interest, and what the kids do understand or don't understand. Learning to deal with matters of the heart, like their attitude towards learning, above matters of the head (the academic bits).

This week, we started on a little phonics (five minutes from Teach Your Child to Read), and a little writing (we're waiting for our Handwriting Without Tears books to arrive, and meanwhile are just using an exercise book), plus Junior J gets to practice his reading with a couple of Bob Books each day. He more or less can read easy readers on his own, however, he tends to read by sight, so I'm hoping this would help him along his reading journey.

In the evenings, I rely alot on puzzles to keep the boys from fighting.
This one (a birthday gift) has been keeping Junior J busy.

Lil J has been asking to do "mama school" too, so I've been trying to give him puzzles and math manipulatives at the table. This little boy has a really short attention span, but I'm glad that he's trying to focus, and is actually interested in the tasks at hand. He's never been one to sit through a book, however, this week we've been reading and reading and reading (and not once has he asked to watch a video, something he used to do previously). He especially loves "The Big Green Pocketbook" and "Owl Babies", and we've read both a few times this week. I'm thinking of planning activities for him based on the Before Five in a Row curriculum, and we'll see how that goes.

We've also been dabbling in art everyday. I love these sessions, since the house is the quietest then (unless Baby J is fretting!). Thus far, it's been open-ended with just paints and paper. We've experimented with mixing primary colours, and gradually mixing white paint into a single colour. It's interesting to see the boys at work. Lil J just experiments with mixing the paints and blopping them all over, while Junior J has started painting real life objects/scenes on his own accord, something he didn't do previously.

It was supposed to be a heart stamping session for Vday...

... but he turned his into a circuit. He was painting in the battery and said the blobs were charges.

The older two have also been helping a lot more at home. They help with the laundry, they set the table, they clear their plates and cups after meals and they wipe the table. Clean-up time is still quite a challenge though, as they are always getting distracted, but we've started using a chart with stickers for certain chores, so I'm hoping that might help.

The boys have also been getting an hour or so outdoors to just run about and explore. We've gathered loads of pods and fruit, and I'm hoping to start filling up nature journals. In fact, I'm hoping to do lots of things with both of them, but for now, I'm just going to take it step by step. After all, I keep reminding myself that it's progress, and not perfection we're aiming for.

All in all, I think it has been a pretty good week. Tiring though, but I'm looking forward to next week!

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Junior J's 5th: Dino party games

We played only two games for Junior J's party. Puzzle "excavation", where the kids had to dig through a tray of crepe paper to find puzzle pieces, and figure out what goes where. Sort of like how the paleontologists have to figure out which bones belong to which dinosaur. There were more than 10 puzzles in total, so it wasn't that straightforward, even though the puzzles were pretty simple in themselves! The kids had to sometimes swop pieces, so they had to work together.

I printed, laminated and cut up the puzzles and pictures from here, here and here.

Then the kids also tried their hand at excavating dinosaurs. I was contemplating using sand, but the thought of 7 kids flicking sand everywhere was quite scary! So we tried freezing dinosaur figures (from Tom and Stefanie) in containers and giving the kids spoons to chip at the ice (no forks, since they might hurt other little fingers). This took quite awhile, so our game-master poured warm water over some blocks to speed up the process a little.

They had quite a bit of fun just banging away at the ice blocks, but also had to be careful to ensure they were chipping at the ice and not at the dino itself, in case they damaged them! And they got to bring home the dinos that they excavated out. Cleaning up was straight-forward: just a quick wipe of the floor with rags and we were done. We asked parents to bring an extra set of clothes for the kids, just in case.

There were some other games that I thought of trying. However, this was the first time we were running games, so I wasn't too sure if the kids would be interested. Thankfully, they still managed to keep themselves occupied the rest of the time!

PS: For more game ideas, pop by to this post about an awesome dino-themed party by another mum!

Monday, February 3, 2014

Thankful Tuesdays: What birthday parties are about

So our oldest turned five, and we celebrated his birthday with a party at home. I really wish we could have invited more guests (my apologies to all of Junior J's other little friends!), but with limited space at home, we decided to keep it small. So we ordered a couple of platters of sushi from Sakuraya for lunch (we didn't have time to cook since the party was after church):

... and a yummy chocolate cake from The Patisserie, which we dressed up with dinos that I printed out .

This round, I didn't really have time to do much in terms of party decorations. So it was just some balloons, a whole lot of crepe paper streamers, and I recycled the birthday "banner" from his 3rd birthday party.

I don't know about you, but I have this internal battle every time one of our boys' birthdays rolls around. I love planning and preparing for parties. I love the crafting, all the DIY projects, the planning of games or activities to go with the theme. However, sometimes I wonder if we make too big a fuss when it comes to birthday parties. After all, it's just to celebrate a kid becoming one year older, and sometimes all that money and effort pumped into the party isn't really appreciated by the birthday child or his/her guests.

However, during Junior J's party, I was reminded about what parties are about. It's about relationships. It's about friends and family coming together to rejoice in a year of growth. It's about little friends playing together.

It's about laughing together and enjoying the simple things: tossing balloons and rolling around in crepe paper.

It's about seeing parents and children playing. It's about making new friendships and hanging out with old friends. It's about learning to play together.

It's about helping hands, from porpor's special sushi (for Lil J who has food allergies), to kongkong helping to take photos (all the photos here were taken by him). And the godparents chipping in to help run the games (the godpa was so good at it, he's been booked as gamemaster for all future parties) and cleaning up after (thank you, godma!).

So it's about love. It's not about the cake or how pretty it is, or how great the party packs are, or whether there were helium balloon or beautiful dessert tables. Parties are about people, gathering to celebrate. To celebrate a year of God's love and faithfulness. To give thanks for a year of growth.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Thankful Tuesdays: And now, you are five.

Dearest Junior J,

Oh my. First we were counting the months. Then months turned into years. And now, you are five years old. Somehow, the years seem to whizz by faster and faster, just like how you've been running faster and faster.

The past year has seen you grow up alot. You've become so much more sensible, and its lovely to have conversations with you about this and that. Some time ago, you were asking me about antibodies and antibiotics, and I was trying to explain to you the difference between the two. And you listened, and asked me how I knew so much. And then declared "you don't get to be a Mama if you aren't smart!".

I see alot of myself in you. You love to potter at home. You're an introvert, just like me, and hanging around people for a long time does get you tired. However, you've opened up a lot more and love playing with your friends. You and Lil J get up to all sorts of mischief, and both of you are always fighting, but the times I see both of you getting along and playing together warm my heart. One thing that amazes me is how much love you shower on your littlest brother. You always take care of him, and will try your best to soothe him when he is upset (and when the cries get too loud, you concede defeat and tell me "I think he needs you, Mama!"). You love just sitting next to him and letting him hold your finger. I hope and pray that all 3 of you would continue to grow and love each other.

You still love to doodle and now you like grabbing a scissors and doing random bits of cutting. You're obsessed with reading and watching Magic School Bus books and shows. And you are still a dino boy, and declare to your Sunday School teacher that you are a "dino expert". You get upset when books draw T-rexes with 3 claws instead of 2 (that's an Allosaurus, not a T-rex!). When you feel threatened (in a group with new friends, or when you're angry) you start to roar like an angry T-rex that has a toothache.

You've really grown up this past year, and I'm looking forward to another year ahead.

Happy Birthday, my big boy. We love you so much, and always thank God for you.

Love,

Your Papa and Mama.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Monday Made: DIY dino family T-shirts

Hello! Junior J had a party yesterday to celebrate him turning 5, and he wanted a dinosaur theme this round (if you can remember, we did an "under the sea" theme when he turned 3). I wanted to make personalized mini tote bags for his guests, and since I was at it, I decided to make us dinosaur T-shirts as well.

These were done using fabric paint (from Art Friend) and freezer paper (from Cold Storage). I cut out the shapes and lettering from the freezer paper using a Silhouette Cameo, which I recently purchased second-hand. Having the cutting machine really makes things faster, but you can also try hand cutting out the shapes with a pen-knife and cutting mat (which we did the last time). Unfortunately though, the blade of my machine was blunt, so even after I tweaked the settings, the machine didn't cut cleanly for some of the alphabets. So I ended up having to cut out some stuff using my scissors! (And was wondering why on earth I agreed to the dino theme since the names are sooo long!)

After the shapes and letters were cut out, I ironed on the freezer paper onto the T-shirts and daubed fabric paint using a sponge (I used one of those dish-washing sponges, you know those with steel wool on one side and a sponge on the other?).

I also decided to go with ombre colours, so I started with a darker shade on the lettering, and gradually mixed in white fabric paint as I sponged the colours upwards. I loved how the colours turned out, especially my pink triceratops!

Oh, and we bought our T-shirts from Hang Ten (for the adults), and Tom and Stefanie (for the kids). I used an old white romper for Baby J, but Tom and Stefanie sometimes stocks those too. I love how affordable the T-shirts in Tom and Stefanie are, plus they come in graduated sizes, so its possible to find a perfect fit (something hard in our case sometimes as Lil J is pretty small for his age!):

I'll post a more detailed tutorial for freezer paper stenciling soon, since I kept getting questions about how this is done. Meanwhile, have a great week!

PS: I've realized that white T-shirts for kids don't go really well with parties. The two older boys promptly got chocolate cake stains on theirs! Now, if you know a place that sells good kids' T-shirts in various colours, please leave me a comment and tell me where!

Monday, January 20, 2014

Thankful Tuesdays: A quick post

Hello! The hubs is on leave, and we're pretty tied up with spring cleaning and prepping for Junior J's party among other things. So I'll keep this short. Today, I'm just thankful for that extra pair of hands at home, and of course, for these 3 very different lil boys. And for the baby carrier, because that is where Baby J seems to be spending most of his time in. Plus that everyone is more or less recovered, except for baby who still has a runny nose.

How about you? What are you thankful for?

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Thankful Tuesday: So you want three kids?

Everyone in this family has been sick the past few days. Baby's still recovering from the previous cold he caught. Then Junior J caught some other bug and spread it to the hubs. Both of them more or less recovered, then me and Lil J caught it (second bug in a row, poor kid!). I was all woozy and had to spend Monday and today snatching naps when I could because I could barely keep my eyes open. And just across the past two days we've had:

:: 1 vomiting incident on the bed.

:: 2 leaky dipes: 1 on the sofa and the other on the other bed that didn't get vomited on.

:: 3 am washing up sessions, because both hubs and I crashed into bed when putting the boys to bed. I crawled out after nursing baby to settle the dishes, plus those dirty sheets.

:: 4 am sessions with baby who refused to sleep until 2 hours later.

:: 5 rather grouchy people in the family.

This, on top of the usual craziness (read this to understand what I mean!). I was starting to hear all those voices in my head, those that usually ask me "why do you want so many kids? Can't stop at having just one?".

Anyway, bad week aside, I must say I have lots to be thankful for:

:: God's faithfulness. Never failing.

:: The hubs, who was on MC on Monday and took the older two so I could rest.

:: My mum, who very nicely took both the older boys off my hands today for the first part of the day.

:: These three. Who drive me bananas, but who also brighten up my days. My heart always glows when i see the older two playing with each other (when they are not fighting that is), and how they care for their lil baby brother.

Baby, don't cry... Uh Oh, what have I done? Mama come quick!

Junior J loves patting his lil brother and hanging out with him.
He even observes how we calm the baby down, and uses "SSSHHH SSHHH" noises like us when patting Baby J.

:: A brief respite on Sunday, before the rest of us fell sick. We attended an awesome birthday party (it was science-themed and the kids all wore their Papa's white shirts as lab coats) and Junior J had lots of fun!

:: Appliances that make life so much easier: I am so glad for our dishwasher, which reduces our dishwashing load by a large amount. And during these sick days, our washing machine and dryer have been working overtime through the night.

So, yes, we're chugging on. Still thankful. And if you ask me, would we have this many kids if we had a choice? Yes, definitely. Puke, mountains of laundry, crazy days, but still worth it, and no regrets (and read this for more reasons why!).

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Thinking Thursdays: A book a day (and one super promo!)

We've been slowly easing into our homeschool routine, and I keep reminding myself to take it slow, so that I don't crash and burn. So for now, all I aim to do is to read and discuss one book with Junior J. On good days, we manage to squeeze in a lil math or science, but on challenging days I just aim for that single book.

So we've been reading all sorts of books, ranging from "The Magic Schoolbus" series, to longer stories. "Steam Train, Dream Train" (which we purchased from Amazon) was one title that was a hit with both the older boys, simply because it had elements that they both loved: animals, toys, and of course, the train. Lil J sat with us and helped to count cars and trucks and animals, and pointed out various colours and animals. Junior J and I discussed the various train carriages that were introduced (I never knew these as well, so I learnt alot too!), and how they were suited to carrying various loads. It was satisfying to see how much learning we could actually squeeze out of just one title!

Discussions aside, we've been enjoying books featuring the Berenstain Bears. I love how these form a springboard for me to talk to Junior J about various life issues, from fighting with his brother, to sharing his toys, bullying, and even visiting the dentist! (We purchased some of our titles from the Campus Crusade bookstore, and also scored this pack of 8 titles off the Groovy Giraffe.)

And speaking of the Groovy Giraffe, we have a discount code for all you blog readers! You can enjoy 20% off their already discounted items in the "Education" category, with just a minimum spend of $30 storewide. Just key in the discount code "mmum20" at checkout! The discount is applicable for both the books in the "Reference" section, as well as for assessment books. I've already spotted a few titles (like this atlas for children, as well some pop-up books on space, earth and the human body) that we might buy for ourselves or as gifts. And assessment books seem to be a staple for kids in school these days, so I'm sure this promotion would be pretty useful! This promotion is valid until 31st January.

You can also get 5% off books in the other categories, with the discount code "mm05". However, do note that you cannot use both discount codes at checkout. Have fun book shopping!

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Wordless Wednesday: Never alone

Occasionally there come moments that are so photo-worthy, you cannot help but snap a photo. However, sometimes, all you have is your old wonky iPhone, but to me, such moments are better captured in a blur photo, then to have no photo at all.

So this is one of those grainy iPhone shots. Baby J was fretting in the cot, and along came Lil J, who was reading his baby book. So Lil J opened the book (upside down if you notice), and told Baby J a story ("once upon a time, there was a... once upon a time"). Then Junior J came and started reading his book (as you can see, he knows how to actually flip the book with the pages facing baby J, so that he can see the images). And both were reading to the baby, and the baby stopped crying. For a few minutes that is. Enough for me to get whatever I needed to get. I must say I'm enjoying this period before the littlest is old enough to get into fights with the older two!

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