Took me a few rounds around downloading several apps, trying out different avenues to finally settle with blogger.com. I'm a new mom, sort of, to a perfect human being named Phoebe (of cos she's perfect- I made her, you see).
Sometimes I have random thoughts, or things I would like to share as a mom, and as an early childhood educator. I have been in this field for the past 6 years, going on 7. The joy from growing with the children is impeccable and fulfilling (definitely blood- boiling at times), but mostly the good stuff.
This morning kel and I went for the Asia Parenting Conference 2016, he signed us up and we got up early in the morning to attend this seminar and let me tell you this- the key to learning, to even absorb and find something useful is to enter with an open mind, and to throw away the assumption that you know everything. Well, I don't, neither do an educator who has been teaching for the last 30 years, they don't. There is always something to learn, be it from good practices or not-so-ideal practices. Always be open to new knowledge.
These are some of the nuggets I took away from the conference:
> Speaker Edwin Choy (Parents as coaches)
How you treat your child, how you see your child will translate to their self worth, to how they see themselves. The importance of self worth is in preparing them for the future to learn how to fend for themselves. You will be doing an injustice to them by doing and deciding everything for them, so much so that they do not know how to cope when they meet with adversities.
Father figures are very important to the family dynamics and how the child will turn out to be, Dr. Choy's research has shown that most children with poorer emotional health and behavioural issues, part of the reason is due to the absence of the father figure in their lives.
How we raise our children, will be the change we want to see in the world, as you are directly impacting your children's children, by your parenting styles.
Refrain from valuing our children based on performance, as this sends them a message that their self worth is based on how well they perform, be it academically or in certain skills. They need to know that it is okay to fail, treat failure as feedback, learn from it, try again and they will learn to grow up as resilient beings who believe that their learning has no limitations but only possibilities.
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> Speaker YY Low (Nutrition and Psychology)
Vitamin B12: Cognitive and brain function (not produced by our body)
Vitamin D3: Produced by our body under sunlight **hence see in relation the benefits of exposing our children to outdoor activities.
DHA: (Omega 3 oil) not produced by our body, essential for brain functioning- cell growth and neurotransmission
Carnosine: only from meat, enhances mood, prevents overeating
Found in meat, fish and eggs..., therefore it is not advisable for young children to be restricted to a vegetarian or vegan diet as they will not be able to benefit from the vitamins they can absorb from meat, fish and eggs that cannot be produced by their bodies, thus affecting their cognitive development.
Always start the first 10 minutes and last 10 minutes of your child's day with positivity (be it with words like I Love You, or a big hug)! Your positivity as a parent will directly affect your child's emotional health and mood as you are the first point of contact every first 10 minutes upon waking up and the last 10 minutes before they fall asleep.
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> Speaker Dr Ng Meng Lek
Children with poor observation skills will tend to take a longer time to recognise the difference in alphabets and characters, thus affecting their comprehension skills when they grow older. Introduce games like spot the difference to engage their observation skills through play so that they can spot the difference in symbols and words eg. 大太, o and a, hence increasing reading speed.
It is important to teach children how to learn, learn the concept, and know how to apply in different situation, instead of teaching heavy content. Teach a child how to learn, and they can learn anything.
For example, if you master the concept on how to learn language, you can learn countless languages.
Teach your child the right values and they will have a strong value system for life.
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While putting Phoebe to sleep, my mind just came up with this short poem.
Random, but I guess it is reinforced from the nuggets that I have received today.
Roses are red,
Violets are blue.
When you love your children,
They learn to love too.
Faithfully penned by
Connie Soh-Sie
25/11/201
P.S: Please pardon the alignment of this post as this is all typed in from iphone6. Enjoy!
