But my teacher said...

Teacher's words are really powerful. They are seen as figures of authority by the little ones and they really listen to them. Sometimes when faced with a choice they would pick what teacher said rather than what mummy and daddy said.

How often have you heard this phrase "But my teacher said...." Well, I hear it quite often.

"But my teacher said we shouldn't do this."
"But my teacher said we must not eat this."
"But my teacher said we should write it this way!"
"But my teacher said we have to do this."

Well, I'm happy with my girl's preschool teachers. She loves them though I don't think she respects them enough.

With teachers being such an important person in our child's life, its ok now at preschool but what about later. I worry about what sort of teacher's our kids will have later on. The too lepak kebangsaan school teachers or the overly strict chinese school teachers. Why does it have to be so extreme? Why can't there be an in between? No doubt we parents are our kids most important teachers in life but it does not lessen the importance of the teachers she will face in school. Worry worry worry. I worry about everything. Lol!

Two of Everything

Previously I used to scoff at those parents who buy two or more of everything for their kids just to pacify the kids.

Now, horror of horrors! I am one of those parents! We sometimes would buy the kids the same toy or book or whatever to stop them from fighting and shut up in trying to appear fair to both of them. We try not to do this all the time but I'm afraid we do it quite often.

For example, sometimes, when we see a nice book (which the boy isn't developmental ready to read yet) or which is more more suitable for the girl so we buy it for her. We would tell the boy. "No, sometimes we buy things for you and sometimes for your cheh cheh (sister)." when he insists that he wants one too.

Or we would have this scenario. "Mummy, I only have 2 books, he has 3!" "How come he has and I don't have?!" Then we would say "No, sometimes we buy things for you and sometimes for baby."

Well, we do try our best not to be taken in by their sad faces and our guilt. We try to be fair and all but sometimes we buy two of everything. *guilty*

Mirror Image Writing in 4 year old

My 4 year old son writes most of his numbers and alphabets in mirror image or reversed. Numbers 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9 are written the other way around. Alphabets like D, E, F, L, P, R, Z are also written backwards ie facing the other way. He also tends to write from right to left. He is left-handed.

I was beggining to get a little worried because I read that some children with dyslexia may reverse or transpose letters when writing. (I also read that dyslexia is not a visual problem that involves reading letters or words backwards or upside down, nor are such reversals a defining characteristic of dyslexia.) Still, I was worried.

Then I came across some forums and learned that its quite normal at this age. If your child does reverse or backwards writing and you are worried, you can check out the following links.

Mirror Writing
Five Year Old Writes Backwards
Writing in Reversed Letters

Updated 2014: These days you can help your child overcome backwards writing and letter reversals using apps like this one. LetterReflex App for iPad and iPhone.

Happy Mother's Day

I may be over 40 but I'm still mad about cute cuddlies and glitters like a little girl. I'm actually still a 20 over trapped in a 40 year old's body. Hahaha. I was searching for a nice graphic for Mother's Day and was delighted to find this cute graphic. There's lots more. They're all so cute, I couldn't decide which to post.

Anyway, I just wanted to wish all the Mother's who visit this blog a very Happy Mother's Day. May all your wishes and hopes for your children come true. May they turn out the way you would like them to. And remember, When the going gets tough, the Mother gets going!

Remember this too:

When your child tires you with too many questions, be thankful they can talk

When your child tires you by running around for you to chase after, be thankful that they can walk

Be Thankful, Be Happy and Never Complain about being a mother (Ok, you may "complain" for just this one day on Mother's Day. Haha.)

You may lose your sleep, your figure and your temper but....

Being a Mother is the greatest gift of all (sounds cliche but it is)

Its the gift of joy abundance

If you have ever looked at your own child's antics and find a silly grin still pasted on your face for minutes afterwards, then you know about the joy that I am talking about.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Using a Simple 100 Bead Abacus to Teach Maths to Kids

Recently my boy learned to count on his own. He had taken two toys and wanted to take two more and he said to me "two and two makes four". I tested him by asking him what will happen if he takes three more toys and he said "two and three makes five". I was so excited and quickly bought him a math activity book to teach him further because he was ready for it. I thought him to count using his 10 fingers.

Later on, when we were relating this incident to his father, my boy suddenly asked his dad, "Daddy, how to count five plus six?" (because he only had 10 fingers and that was all I taught him). Daddy laughed and went out and bought him a 100 Bead Abacus the next day. (Another excuse for Daddy and Mummy to buy a "toy".)

I've never learned counting using an Abacus before. Certainly not those Chinese or Japanese Abacus and not even a simple basic 100 Bead Abacus. So as usual, I searched around the web and was delighted to find this site RightStart Mathematics. As usual, I'd like to share it with you. Its mission is to help children understand, apply and enjoy mathematics.

Using the Abacus helps the children in math by visualisation instead of mere rote learning. It has a simple explanation of how to use the Abacus to teach math. It even has an interactive Abacus to try out. Here is another interactive Abacus from another site to test out. If you're not sure whether your child will like the Abacus, you can let them try out the interactive one first.

I also like the children's counting songs to help children memorize counting from 6 to 10, about the months of the year and about number writing. Great site for teaching kids math. My kids love the abacus. It has rekindled their interest in math.