五育

Was listening to radio Capital 95.8 yesterday and heard this sharing on '五育' (5 aspects of education). It sounds somewhat like Howard Gardner's Multiple Intelligences which proposes 8 types of intelligences in human.

Anyway, this concept on 五育 gave me some insights to what perhaps a wholesome education encompasses.
1. 德育 (Nurturing moral values)
2. 智育 (Nurturing cognitive skills and wisdom)
3. 体育 (Nurturing physiques)
4. 群育 (Nurturing skills on human relationships)
5. 美育 (Nurturing a beautiful soul)
 
I had deep impression on 美育after listening to the program. It is about cultivating a beautiful heart, always appreciating the beauty of things and seeing the good side and loving oneself. 
 
Zhirui is a girl with a beautiful heart. She has acute sense of people's emotions and would make it her duty to help alleviate the pain from the person in distress. Just a week ago, we were at Ye ye's house. As usual, doting Ye ye brought Zhirui to buy some goodies. They came back with a packet of pokki biscuits. After opening up the packet, I gently reminded Zhirui to distribute the biscuit around before having one herself. So, happily she fluttered around the house like a fairy giving away biscuits. When she finally settled down to enjoy the treat, we heard a wailing sound.. Oh! It's Ye ye 'crying'.. (He's acting upset becos he didn't get any biscuit). I saw Zhirui's face went blank for few moments. Gathering back her thoughts, she quickly ran over to Ye ye with one stick, and ran back to me. At that point, we could see that Zhirui was on the verge of crying. And as we consoled her, she broke down to cry. 
 
Nai nai (Granny) said Zhirui has a heart of a Buddha. "She must have felt responsible for making Ye ye sad." I felt the same too. Zhirui is so kind-hearted. I was deeply touched by such a beautiful soul..
 
Recently, my conservative father reminded me not to let Zhirui cultivate vanity (hmm.. i suddenly realize where my bad dress sense comes from). But being a little lady, I felt it was ok for Zhirui to admire herself in front of the mirror. Being happy and feeling good about oneself is important in building one's self esteem. Well, at least such feelings should not be based wholly on appearance. To do that, parents must help children see their inner beauty (character, attitude, thoughts..) by praising them when they display such attributes. Concentrating on the good will produce more good. Caution: the contrary applies too. :)
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Ya tou with her signature smile and cute hairdo.

懂礼的孩子

"有教就有, 没教就没有"-- Teach me and I shall know.

Every parent of young children should know and believe in this Chinese phrase.. because it is a plain fact. Besides just being a plain fact, to some parents serious in the parenting business, it is a harsh fact.

As Chinese, i felt fortunate to be able to inherit traditional moral values from my ancestors. From filial piety to humility (八德- 孝、悌、忠、信、礼、义、廉、耻) and many more that form the foundation of our character. Talking about filial piety, there's a recent national campaign on this-- a multi-million dollar short film was produced and aired on TV and cinemas. (Marpig, if you haven't seen it, do catch it on youtube.)

I've no idea how this happened. But is definitely heartening to us. Zhirui at her tender age of 22 months has started to reciprocate her love and graciousness. When I tell her that Mummy's hands are tired after carrying her for a while, she would initiate to get down and walk on her own. She would pick vegetables for us on the dining table, massage Gong gong's back and serve him water when he visits our place.

One evening we were at Ye ye's house and ye ye brought her a packet of biscuits. I told her that to let everyone else have a piece of biscuit first before taking one herself. She did it and we praised her. From then on, she seemed to learn the virtue of placing others before herself. Whenever we bought goodies, Zhirui would remember to offer us one before eating.

On another occasion, we were in the lift and suddenly Zhirui said something. I didn't understand it that instant. Then after repeating the sounds, i realized it is, "No jumping on the lift. Can jump on the floor." "Ohh.. yes you are right Zhirui! No jumping on the lift. Can jump on the floor" My face was written all over with shock and joy!

Then one time, Zhirui caught me red-handed for not walking the talk. We were preparing to have our meals. Think Daddy brought Zhirui to wash her hands. And when we all sat down at the table, Zhirui blurted, "Mummy forget to wash her hands." I wish i could dig a hole and hide myself.. hahaha.. Even sb was laughing at me.

真的是 "有教就有, 没教就没有"!

Happy feet

What's the definition of swimming?? Loosely speaking, it is the active movement in water, carried out by animals (i believe in all cases?).

To little ya tou, she took on a broader perspective- anything moving in the water is swimming. hehe.. So you'll hear her say this when she scoop some rice into her soup- "Mummy, rice swimming." I'll smile at her when she say this.

Ya tou, like me, does not like to be wet. Hmm.. no wonder my amniotic fluid was low during pregnancy.. :) She will protest against showering her hair everytime. So i've not been optimistic about her going swimming...

Strange as it can be.. she has been telling us she wants to go swimming, usually after finding her swimming float (while ransacking her cupboard) or passing by the swimming complex along the way to Granny's house.

Well so we granted her wish a month ago. We went to Yishun Safra but were turned away as we were not members. To not disappoint her, we detoured to Yishun swimming complex. After dedressing her bare to a just piece of panty, Daddy took her towards the children's pool. This was the beginning of a 40 minutes coaxing of Zhirui to step out of her comfort zone (the wide-spaced steps leading to the pool). She hovered between the first and second steps, refusing to go further. Daddy lured her in by playing throw-and-catch game with her float, which finally succeeded!

Once she's into the pool, she began flitting about with her float like a hummingbird. Zhirui, well done in conquering your 'self-perceived limitation'! I was not happy to tears, but was definitely beaming with joy and clicking my shutters away to capture the great moment. haha.. :D

During the second trip to the pool, that was just a week later, she took just 10mins to condition her mind.

And during the last trip, when I joined her, she didn't need any conditioning. Way to go!

Ahh.. The joy of being parents, part of it, is helping your child to be a better person than the day before and at the same time, be a better parent than the day before.

A voyage in the sea of classics

Opps i've been lagging quite behind in blogging.. Many new experiences have added into ya tou's life, many concepts have crossed my mind regarding parenting, and many funny episodes being a mother to ya tou..

Hmm.. ok let's touch on the new concepts i've learnt regarding early childhood education first. It's not the traditional kind, widely researched, proven and textbooked theories/concepts. But something amazing yet very back-to-basics.

Recently i revisited a VCD which had been in long existence in our house. It is a lecture by Prof Wang Cai Gui (王财贵) about promoting classic recitals (读经). In the beginning of his lecture, he dressed down on the current education system that is ruining our young-- forcing children to swallow down age-inappropriate knowledge/skills-- in the midst, killing their innate spirits to learn.

I relate this well, especially in Singapore context where i grow up in, children often get frustrated for not being able to grasp concepts and therefore, give up learning. They develop lots of negative feelings towards learning. Because the education system set this standard, every parent and child have to struggle to meet the mark. A Chinese proverb "拔苗助长" describes perfectly. Literally, it means pulling out the young sprout to assist its growth. How foolish! The fact is once our brain are fully developed at about 18 years old (and provided our brain are well-developed), we can comprehend things with ease. Right now, think many young brains are poisoned by stress, frustration, rejections, low self-esteem..

So what can we do about this? Well, for one, you can migrate. haha.. Or revamp the education system (guess one needs to be 'up there' to do it), or enhance your child learning capacity and buffer your child from brain-poisions (negative feelings, attitudes towards life). Negative energy shuts the brain down.

Prof Wang has a solution ie. classic recitals. Classics like The Analects (论语), Tao De Jing (道德经), The Great Learning (大学) are repositories and essence of immense knowledge and intricate language. For example, to record infinite teachings into finite documents, one needs to use a concise and accurate way of expression. In Chinese, this way of writing is known as 文言文. Reciting and memorising these classics can help to expand the neuron network of the brain. The golden period to do this is between the age of 0-13years. Furthermore, early exposure to classical music and different foreign language is also a way to make more connections. I'm also planning to bring ya tou to the art gallery for art appreciation! :)

Having said here, Marpig if you are reading, you may start to help me bring some more foreign language cds back from UK.. :)

Anyway, I've been focusing on German for past year. Got a couple of audio cds for ya tou. Well I've yet to hear any "Guten tag" slipping from her lips. Interestingly, she picked up some Spanish "Ola" and "Adios" from the 'Lots to Learn' children dvd series.

An early switch to Sping Brainy Kidz

On 30 April when I went to pick up Zhirui from nanny's house, tz confided to me that she wish to cease her babysitting service and that day shall be the last day. The news struck like a flash of lightning on a sunny day..

I fully understand the reasons behind tz's decision. Her health is getting poorer and her children must have been very concerned about this. But somehow, I felt my eyes wet when telling her "it's ok". I was sad. Not because nanny couldn't babysit Zhirui anymore, but why I'm such a bad mummy who needs to rely on others to take care of my beloved child.

Accepting all these which I've long expected, sb and I decide that it's time for Zhirui to enter a childcare centre. Ya tou really enjoys learning and we believe she'll be happy in the enriching environment.

Immediately next day (Labour day), we called up Joy from Spring Brainy Kidz about the early enrolment. We had previously inform her that Zhirui will attend the centre in mid-May or June. Gladly, she welcomed us and gave us a centre tour on the same morning. Zhirui looks happy with her new school.

On the first day of school, we were greeted by Joy and Stephanie who conducted the toddlers class. Zhirui was more interested in the kitchen toy set than teacher's class. The month's theme is creepy crawlies so there was a nature walk outdoors to find insects. Zhirui and her friends had lots fun observing ants, butterflies, grasshoppers in the garden. At about 11 plus, Zhirui started to get unsettled and asked to go home. Stephanie, the school's principal shared with me the emotional roller coaster Zhirui might experience during her transit into the new environment. To make this less traumatic for ya tou, she advised that I bring Zhirui home and gradually increase the Zhirui's school hours in the days to come.

Second day, Zhirui showed great enthusiasm in going to school again. She could recognise the school's front gate when our car drew close. Stephanie advised that I play the 'missing game' later for 2 hours and come back after ya tou's shower at 12pm. The key is to mentally prepare her by telling repeatedly mummy will be going out and will be back at a specified time to pick her. It's important to keep assuring the child. So when Zhirui was happily engaged in her art work, I bid goodbye to her and left.

When I returned, Zhirui was showering. The moment she saw me, she beamed happily and screamed "Mummy is here!" haha.. :) Stephanie said that she did asked about me when I was away.

On the third day, Zhirui somehow knew that I was going to play missing again. She refused to make eye contact with me when I told her that I'll be going away. (Stephanie said Zhirui is ignoring me, a way of expressing her disacknowledgement.. very smart child!) But i still need to go... I told her i was leaving when she's busy playing. Came back at 2.30pm (supposedly her nap ends at 3pm), to find that she's participating in the teachers' meeting. :) Again, she screamed, "Mummy's here!" when I appeared. haha..

I wanted to bring her home but ya tou was quite keen to stay longer. So we stayed together till outdoor play. There was rain so the children were grounded indoors. But when it reduced to light drizzling, I can't bear to withhold Zhirui's eagerness to play anymore and gave the green light. The air was cool and fresh. I took off Zhirui's shoes and let her run barefoot on the soft wet turf. Joy was quite amazed. She said most parents are very protective and won't allow teachers to do that. "Why not?" I thought. :)

Shame and Humility (恥)

Shame [sheym] noun
- an uncomfortable feeling of guilt or of being ashamed because of your own or someone else's bad behaviour
[extracted from Cambridge online dictionary]

Zhirui is indeed a mature toddler. Sounds contradicting? hee.. yes, I mean it, she is a mature toddler. :) For one, she knows the humility (恥).

Since the day Mummy bought her the 'Little Mr and Miss' characters panties, little Zhirui has been pretty keen in wearing them. So much so that she didn't want to wear any shorts/skirt over them. Daddy says she is 'super girl'. :D kakaka..

As we were preparing to leave the house one morning, Zhirui, proudly in her panties, refused to wear her shorts. "Shame shame, liu liu xiao..." But no matter how much we explain what the appropriate 'gai gai' attire should be, she insisted being little super girl.

Then Daddy said," O.. if you don't wear shorts, auntie will laugh at you.." Just at this point in time, a neighbour pass by. Guess she overheard our conversation with ya tou and said, "O.. shame shame.. girl girl didn't wear shorts." Zhirui immediately turned into a cooperative child and wore her shorts.

Two days later, super girl reappeared and stood firm in wearing her panties without shorts. In the midst of the struggle, a familar sound came. It's the opening noise of Auntie Miah's gate. "O! Auntie is coming out! She is going to laugh at Zhirui for not wearing her shorts." Wow, I've never seen such swift trotters. She slotted her legs into the shorts within split seconds and was done before Auntie reached our door.

Haha.. my little ya tou.. you do know how to save your face. Very smart! :P

Are you smarter than a 5th grader? <百萬小學堂> after thoughts

hmm.. can anyone or has anyone define what a wholesome education is?

I feel that being the parent of a preschooler is a visonary task and definitely more intricate than that of a primary school kid parent.

Why? Because at this age, you are setting the foundation for your child.. Any brick layed now will have effects in her future. As the brain is actively making connections now, it may be possible that inappropriate connections are made due to info she receives from her environment, and this may subsequently shape her character, values and perception. O my.. now you see why my shoulders are always so heavy. :(

The Taiwanese had their version of the US variety show "Are you smarter than a 5th grader". Just watched an episode with SB this morning at 1am. Here are some questions asked in the show.
- How many 'white' and 'black' keys are there on the piano?
- Is the composer of xxx a French?
- What is the element that make up diamond?

As we watched the show, we felt quite (annoyingly) puzzled why a school-going child has to know how many keys there are on a piano. Seems to us that the modern education system is still obsessed with knowledge acquisition. Not doubting the power and usefulness of knowledge, perhaps emphasis can be reduced more.

I remember among my friends, we used lament about this, "Why study so hard to learn integration and differentiation (math)? Don't even need to use it in work now. All the calculations are done by the computer.."

Hmm.. should there be an education revolution? I don't know.. but for sure, I won't demand Zhirui to know how many of keys there are on a piano. keke.. :P