yoongz

July 10, 2012August 15, 2012

No TV = Good, Computer Games = Bad…

Is parenting really all that simple?

Or maybe the question to ask is: Should parenting really be all that complex; with all these eternal arguments about exactly how many minutes of television programming our kids should watch and exactly which programmes are appropriate?

i’m not saying that all these concerns are not valid. Yes they are very valid issues which parents should deal with. However, it is not the end all and be all of raising a child. You are not a failure is you let your child watch an hour of cartoons while his friend is only watching 20 minutes. Your child will not become instantly hyperactive from an extra 15 minuntes on computer games. You have not let the next generation down if you do not insist on extra reading time every other day. Children will not fall to pieces if you yell at them once in a while when there is a need to.

To me, parenting is a very individual thing; what works for you and your child may not work for your best friend and his/her child. Which is why i really like what Flappiness has to say:

Here’s what we know for certain about raising children:

1. They need to know they are loved and valued.

2. They need to be protected from illness and harm.

3. They need clothing, nourishing food, and shelter.

4. They need an appropriate education.

5. They need opportunities to play and safely explore their world.

That’s about it. It doesn’t matter what race, religion, or tribe you hail from, this is what you need to grow into a healthy, well-adjusted adult. And I just want to take a moment to say to all of the parents out there whose children are receiving these five basic things: You are a good mom. You are a good dad. Your children are who they were meant to be all along. You’re doing a good job — not matter who is suggesting otherwise.

Flappiness is a mum to a NT (NeuroTypical) child and an Autistic child, she writes from her heart and she writes honestly and beautifully. Click here to read the full post.

brent20121-271x300 — This 7-year-old cutie needs a family… could that be you?

Now i want you to hold that thought about giving your child all those 5 essentials in your head, at the same time, look at this picture of this sweetheart, Brent. Isn’t he just a cutie?

Keep holding on to those 5 basic things: Love, Protection, Nourishment, Education, Opportunity…

Brent has not all the basic things a child needs to grow up strong, healthy and well-adjusted. He does not have the love of a mummy or daddy. He does not know that there is a single person who truly, deeply cares for him (i’m sure the staff at the orphanage do care but they are stretched thin at best). His protection from illnesses are at a minimum, if there is any at all. He has serious need of good medical care. He is fed what the orphanage can afford, which i’m told isn’t much at all. He can only dream of an education and without an education, without someone to believe in him and champion for him, there are no opportunities for him.

There are people who do care for him (just look at his adoption grant – an amazing US$10209.35) and we do pray very hard and give where we can. However, what he truly needs is a family, a family to love him, to care for him, to show him life can be so much more. Please do pray for Brent. Please do share his story, advocate for him so that his forever family can find him. Of course, if you can help his adoption grant grow further, please do that too.

To read more details from his profile on Reece’s Rainbow, please click here.

Praying that every child can have these 5 fundamentals in life.

syc

July 8, 2012July 7, 2012

Supporting A Friend…

Today is all about my friend and fellow-blogger, Karen Cheng.

She is simply amazing… i went to uni with her and already thought she was pretty great at that time… we graduated and i left my beloved Perth to come home to Singapore (not a bad thing, but at that time, i would have given almost anything to have stayed in Perth – that, however, is another story).

So we lost touch and then i found her blog through a friend. i started following it and it just completely floors me how wonderful she is and how she really does take life head on and lives it to the fullest. She writes about her passion for fashion as well as about her bustling life with a loving husband and 3 cute boys.

supportfriend20120708a — Karen’s email to me on 8 May 2012…

She is now doing a most awesome thing – she is going to do a 200km bike ride to raise money for cancer research! Now she is only a recreational bike rider at best, to begin with, so 200km over 2 days is a huge thing. (Bike riding just has no appeal to me – sigh. So i am in awe that she is doing this.) She has been training lots, getting up at 5am or 6am in the mornings to get in some training before her full day starts with 3 very active boys to take care of.

i have been a terrible friend in that i have told myself i would support her and help her promote this cause when she first announced it back at the beginning of May. But i got busy and forgot.

supportfriend20120708b — Karen’s email to me on 27 June…

Then at the end of June she sent another little note to say that her birthday wish (her birthday was just a few days ago) was to reach her goal of raising AUS$10,000 for cancer research and appealed to us to help her with that birthday wish.

Now i am going to do my very tiny part and i’m asking if you would do your part too. Please visit her fundraising page to read her story. Or read this post on her blog to find out more about this. Do donate to this very very deserving cause.

Thank you very much for every little bit you give towards this worthy cause.

syc

July 6, 2012

Rented and Collected…

Yep, we have rented our violin and even though mummy (who still can’t believe how trusting they are here) told him he won’t be able to bring it home till August when he does start lessons, the violin is now sitting in it’s case, lying next to the now unused child-sized guitar (mummy is still sad about that but hopeful that he will pick it up again).

That’s correct, you read right – we rented the violin and brought it home with us. Did we have to start paying from July, instead of August? Nope. And the contract for rental was also very simple; it just states what was rented, what’s the value of each item, name, address and contact number of renter (that’s us), how much is rental fees each month and that was it. There wasn’t even a start date or any long conditions of rental. There was just a few lines at the bottom of the A5 sheet (ya, not even an A4 official looking sheet) which states that if rental is for less than 3 months we have to pay for at least 3 months and if we return the violin after 3 months of use, we would have to pay for new strings to be fitted for the next renter. i asked her (the violin shop lady) how she knows when we start – she said she will just make a note, where i’m not sure. Also she did not say that we must pay our fees every month, she did not even note down how often we should or would be paying the fees. She just gave us a few payment slips and told us to pay regularly; how often is up to us. They trust us to pay regularly on our own accord, starting in August.

Where i come from, that’s just not the way things are done. If you did business this way, you would most definitely be taken advantage of and make a loss. But here things are soooo different – there is a trust between service/goods provider and customer. People expect that you would be honest and civil and hold up your part of the deal. In German, i believe it is called “anständig”, which dict.leo.org translate to be fair, becoming, decent, honest, modest, proper, self-respecting, square. i don’t think there is a single word in English which fully describes what this German word means.

Anyhow, i’m getting carried away here. Back to the violin rental.

So we went with a friend whose little girl also chose to play the violin. It was a great time of trying out different violins (so many sizes and tones). i am so happy to have gone with someone who has a music background and get some help on picking a good violin and she also asked questions i would not have think to ask. Thanks my dear.

Here are a few photos:

Camera 360 — Left: she is measuring him for length of arm. Right: she is letting him try playing.

For the last week or so, since we got the violin at home, he has been taking it out of its case and “playing” it (ok, so he is just running the bow over the strings at the moment – but still 😀 ). He is just as excited to start lesson as he was when he made his choice a month ago. i’m excited for him too.

Now this is not a cheap instrument so i wanted to be sure that we took good care of it. Where do i go for help on this? Well, the internet, of course 😉

There are so very many website and Youtube videos which teach everything from how to store your violin properly to caring for the strings and telling you about things like dampits (the use of which is debated among musicians). The one very important thing i have learnt is that the instrument must not be subjected to extremes of temperatures and humidity. This can potientally cause irreparable damage to the very expensive wood body of your instrument. So we now are on a new journey to learn as much as we can. Hopefully the teacher will give us more guidance along the way.

i leave you with these 2 websites which i found helpful about the care and maintenance of violins; The Sound Post and ViolinOnline.

syc