Auld Lang Syne

Doesn't singing the song "Auld Land Syne" give you a very special feeling? It gives me a special feeling. We usually sing it at the stroke of midnight to say goodbye to the old year and hello to the new year but sometimes we sing it on the last day of school too.

I remember singing Auld Lang Syne with classmates, college mates, colleagues, girl friends, boy friends. Haha. The list is endless. Joining hands with arms across bodies gives a very warm feeling. Out with the old and in with the new. Let bygones be bygones as we head on to the new year. Sometimes we sing it with tears in our eyes as we say farewell to each other at the end of the school year.

So blogger friends, shall we sing this together online in cyberspace? Hehe. Happy New Year 2008 to everyone and may you all have a good year ahead. Thanks to those who dropped by with your wishes while I was not around. :)

An adventure and a gift rolled into one

Ho! Ho! Ho! I'm Santa. And I'm available to write several personalised letters to your child to help them find the gift that YOU have purchased for them.

Imagine your child's delight as they receive these personalised letters from Santa requesting them to help solve some mystery and puzzles which will lead them to the gift you have hidden for them.

This novel idea of an adventure and a gift rolled into one is available from http://www.giftventure.com/ Its wonderful for children from ages 4 through 12, the age of adventure. The puzzles require certain skills, younger children may require some help while the older ones can solve the mysteries on their own. Children this age love adventure and they love receiving letters in the mail. My two are delighted to find letters addressed to them in the mail. They usually get those from the fast food or book store chain cards mailers which we have reqistered.

This personalised mail adventure is even better. You can use it for gifts for any occassion, not just Christmas (although a letter from Santa would certainly delight any child). Don't worry if you're late. Theres a Late Christmas Gift Adventure too in case you're late.

For other occassions, you can select other mythical characters to send the letter to your child, like this lovely fairy princess for example. You select the hiding place for the gift and give some information on your child's personal interest and favourite game and the rest will be done for you.

Your child will receive a series of letters from this character in pretty stationery in the form of a mysterious story with puzzles and games that they have to solve. You can select from a standard or package delivery. Standard means a series of 3-4 letters will be mailed directly to the child every 3 days whereas Package means you will receive all the mailers in a single package for you to distribute in your own timeline.

Sounds exciting? It will certainly be exciting for a child. The letters leading to the gift and solving the adventure may even be more exciting than the gift itself and something nice they will remember from their childhood.

Happy Holidays everyone and Happy Gift Hunting. I just love this time of the year and shopping for gifts.

MG's Top Ten Parenting Tips

Here is my Top 10 Parenting Tips for the day:


1. DO NOT STEAL!

2. DO NOT COPY!

3. DO NOT TAKE WHAT IS NOT YOURS!

4. DO NOT PLAGIARIZE!

5. DO NOT PASS OFF OTHER PEOPLE'S IDEAS OR THOUGHTS AS YOUR OWN!

6. DO NOT COMMIT LITTERARY THEFT!

7. DO NOT PRACTISE FORGERY!

8. DO NOT ACT DISHONESTLY!

9. DO NOT TAKE WITHOUT ASKING!

10. DO NOT CLAIM OTHER PEOPLE'S WORDS AS YOURS!


And this, my dear blog readers is directed to the one who needs my Parenting Tips the most ie the blogsite which calls itself Parenting Details. (fake site)

Oh, I almost forgot. Read my blog post to find out more: Help! Someone is copying my entire blog! A short summary; It has come to my attention that the above fake site has been copying the contents of this blog Parenting Times.

I'm keeping this post sticky for a while. Please scroll down for my latest post. Thank you.

The oldest kid to enter kindy

Recently I took both the kids to a kindergarden open day to register the older one for kindy next year. She will be 6 next year. My other boy is 3 going to be 4 next year. When I looked around at all the other kids being registered, most of them look younger than my 3 year old!

It would seem that kids these days are entering kindergarden younger and younger. I was given the impression that 5 years old is now the norm (and that I was rather abnormal to let my kid stay at home till 6) but the kids I saw were not 5 years old. They were definitely younger. My kid was most definitely the oldest. There was no one near her age. Hahaha.

I'm not really bothered. I think my girl is ready for kindy now. She is excited about it and looking forward to it and we have discussions about it. Now if I were sending my 3 going on 4 boy, I wouldn't be able to have any discussions with him about it and I can forsee that he'd probably cry buckets. So he stays home with me for at least 1 or 2 more years.

Do you support caning in school?

I normally write stuff about education and kids on this blog but this matter is related to my personal experience and feelings about the matter so I have put it on my personal blog.

Would the readers of this blog hop over to my personal blog to give me your opinion on caning in schools? Here is the url:

Going to school should be a pleasant experience

Thank you and have a nice Thursday.

Merry-Go-Round Ride

The kids wanted to have a go at the Merry-Go-Round at IOI Mall recently. Its RM2 per kid per ride. This was how it went.

First Round

Yeah Yippeee Wheeee Hahahahahahahaha

Second Round

Hahahahahahahaha Hahahahahahahahahah

Third Round

Its too fast. I don't want adi. I don't want adi.

Fourth Round

I don't want! I don't want! Waaaaaahhhh! (Its ok. Don't worry. You won't fall off. See? You can hold on to the pole and theres a seatbelt too.)

Fifth Round

Sob. Sob.

Sixth Round

Hehehe

End of Ride

And would they want another ride the next time. You betcha!!

Help! My kids speak Chinglish

At home we refer to poo as "pangsai" (in hokkien) or simply "umm mmm" and pee as "Shee shee".

I have no idea why but the kids love toilet talk. They would often come to me to describe their pee and poo. I guess that this simple process fascinates them. Well, they use Chinglish in their toilet talk as well.

My boy: Look mummy, I have two umm mmms

MG: Are you done?

My Girl: No, I am still shee sheeing

Looking at the bright side, at least they know their participles and singular/plurals. Lol!

Her First Children's Dictionary

"A gift of a Dictionary equals to a gift of a whole new world of words and knowledge." - MG

"How to spell this word?"

"What does this word mean?"

After hearing these questions from my girl several times a day, we finally got her a Children's Dictionary of her own. "You can check up the meanings and spellings of words on your own using this dictionary", we told her. However, that first dictionary we bought was too simple for her. Almost all the words that she wanted to look up was not available in the dictionary.

So we hunted for another and eventually found the MacMillian Fully Illustrated #1 Dictionary for Children. It is an excellent Dictionary for Children. We all love it. The illustrations are beautiful. The coloured index at the sides make it easy for a child to use. Even her 3 year old brother loves it. He would open up the pages and read AAAA, BBBB, CCCC, till he reaches ZZZZ. Lol!

As for my girl, she is totally absorbed in it. She would sometimes "read" the Dictionary like a book, flitting from one word to another. (Since the explanation of one word naturally leads to more new words that she doesn't understand. Some of the explanations may be a little hard for her as its meant for children age 8 -12 (She's almost 6 now but I hope that this Dictionary can last her till 12 and continue to encourage her love in books and reading) so I will explain those to her. Using this Children's Dictionary as a guide, I can answer her questions about the meaning and spelling of words with ease.

This Children's Dicitionary receives a big thumbs up from MG. :)