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.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Friday, June 18, 2010
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.
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.
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