Negotiation Skills

The other day the kids were fighting over a piece of coloured stone. We had collected this stone from the beach during Chinese New Year. I laughed when I heard them arguing over a stone. The older one looked at me in surprise and asked "Why aren't you scolding us?"

That made me laugh harder. I told them that they are silly to fight over a stone. Brothers and Sisters must love each other. Why fight over a stone? "I can't remember whose stone that is. You both settle it yourself." I told them.

This is how they settled....

Girl: I remember we both had a stone. That orange one is mine.

Boy: No, its mine.

Girl: What about the shell. This shell is mine.

Boy: No, this shell is yours. Oh! Sorry, its a bit ugly and scratched. I accidentally put it in my car bag and accidentally scratched it. This one is yours. We try to remember it so that easier next time lah. This one that is a bit ugly because I accidentally scratched one, is yours.

Girl: This stone is mine.

Boy: Ok. Ok lah. This stone is yours. And remember this shell that is a bit ugly already is yours.

Girl: Ok.

End of Fight. The girl got the stone she wanted and the boy got the shell that he wanted and mummy just sat there laughing.

Sick on Concert Day

His sister had a stomach virus a week before his concert. She was vomitting and had to be given a suppository to stop the vomitting.

Each day I worried that he would get it too. I tried to be careful. I wiped and clean the toilet seat whenever she vomitted into the toilet bowl. I tried to keep them apart. I did not allow them to share food, toys etc.

On his Concert morning, he woke up very early and excited. All morning he asked me "Is it evening yet?" I was happy that he had not gotten his sister's stomach virus or his daddy's and mummy's cold.

Just before lunch, he vomitted all his breakfast in the car while we were coming back from an errand. As Murphy's Law would have it, he kept on vomitting after that. He could not take in any foods, not even any fluids!

By evening, we asked an almost tearful, hungry and boy in pain whether he still wanted to go to his concert. We told him its ok if he didn't. There will be another concert next year. He said he wanted to try.

So we brought him to the venue to try. We brought him there before 5pm. His turn to perform was past 9pm! He was supposed to introduce his act. He walked on stage tearfully. He looked tired. He had not had any food since morning. His stomach was in pain. He felt like vomitting. However, the brave boy, introduced his act with a loud strong voice, drawing good applause.

He went on to dance, play music with his kindy percussion and sing in the choir with his friends till past 10pm. He had been at the concert venue for 6 hours! He had been without food since breakfast which he threw up, so perhaps it would be more accurate to say since supper the night before. Still, when we got home, the poor little one could not go to bed immediately. I had to bathe and wash his gel filled hair at 11pm!

The next day, he continued to vomit and his body rejected all food and fluids. He couldn't even take water without vomitting. We used his sister's suppository (when the paeditrician saw his sister, she had given us his dosage... just in case.... because these things are so contagious). It was no use. He had not had any foods or proper fluids for two whole days.

It was Sunday. Our usual paeditrician was closed. We took him to another, who gave him a jab. Finally by Sunday evening, I was able to give him a few teaspoons of plain white porridge and he slowly started to recover from then.

I am so glad that he is recovered now. I was so worried because he was starting to look so malnurished from 3 days without food. He looked so tired and weak, in pain occassionally and uncomfortable. I was worried about dehydration too.

I was worried whether we were doing the right thing to allow him to go on with the show. He would have been so so disappointed and so we allowed him but we worried throughout the show. Especially when we saw his pale thin face on stage! Thankfully, I think because he wanted so much to perform, he managed to "tahan" his pain and discomfort in order to do so.

Thankfully, he is recovered now and is slowly getting back to normal diet again.

Paper Aeroplanes

My kids love to play paper aeroplanes. All you need is some paper. You can use coloured paper and stickers for decoration if the fancy strikes you but really, all you need is some rough paper.

My kids prefer the coloured paper with the stickers, naturally. As you can see in the picture above, they look very pretty don't you think? Plus they are really fun to play with too. Its more fun to fly paper aeroplanes outdoors where there is a little wind.

We have a little booklet on how to fold paper planes but we also go to the internet to find new free paper plane designs occassionally. Its easy to find paper aeroplane designs over the internet.

We have become quite a bit of a pro in folding paper planes and have a few which we memorized. Even my 5 year old can fold one or two designs on his own without referring to the book now. :)

I like the following site which has many free paper aeroplane designs. If you're the type who prefers to watch rather than read, than you can access some of the designs on How to fold paper aeroplanes videos from the Paper Aeroplanes YouTube Channel instead.

I also like the catchy line from the site "LEARN TO FLY" which I will borrow here....

So, are you ready to LEARN TO FLY? Get flying with your kids by learning to make paper aeroplanes today. Its fun. Its easy. It is not time consumming. They will love it!

List of Publishers for Educational Children's Books in Malaysia

I love to shop for books. At the moment, my current "love" is shopping for Educational Children's Books. When shopping for quality children's educational books, I think that the publisher is very important.

Here are some publishers of children's educational books that I know in the order of my favourties. Please note that I did not link to the homepage but rather deeper into the educational books that I shop for which is educational books for Primary School children. I also did not provide the full names but rather the shortened names for the publishers.

1. Oxford Fajar
2. Pearson Longman
3. EPH Publishing
4. PelangiBooks
5. LeeBook
6. Cerdik Publications

If you know of any other good publishers for children's books, please feel free to share by providing the website. Thanks.

Where do you like to shop? At physical bookshops or online bookshops like Peekabook.com.my

He, She, I ..........

He........

• has to practise his lines for introducing his class act at his kindy concert
• has to memorise his Malay Ejaan for Friday
• has to memorise his Chinese Spelling for Monday
• wants to play swordfighting with me (because his aunty gave him some hand me down swords, shield and mask to play with)
• just received some story books we ordered from Scholastics and wants to read them all

She.........

• has to practise a song for her music test in school next week
• has to practise drawing a themed picture for her art test next week
• has to study pages of text book for her Physical Education theory test next week
• has completed some tests but still has more and more tests after next week
• has to memorise her Chinese Spelling
• wants to read the new story books
• wants to play the piano but has no time

He.........

• is not feeling very well

And I...........

• HAVE A HEADACHE!