NagMummy

The experience at Little Neuro Tree turned out pretty well so far. M enjoys her classes and looks forward to it every week. Each 1-hour lesson is so packed with activities that I sometimes find it a tad too intensive.

One good thing is that I’ve managed to restart the flashcards at home although I’m doing it quite randomly now (whenever I remember and feel like). The advantage of  flashing the cards in class is the kids (maximum of 6) are all seated with parents behind them and the teacher in front across the table. At home, M is always trying to snatch the cards away from me but she is usually one of the most attentive in class!

Each class typically also includes songs, memory games, activities for training fine motor skills, pretend play, learning about concepts like fast and slow etc. Hence, the pace of the class can be quite fast – good for kids who are easily distracted but not so good for kids like M who often need more time. I try to replicate some activities (putting beads through a wire, tearing and cutting paper) at home so she can take her own sweet time.

I definitely agree the class is not just for M. As a parent, I also get to learn about how to introduce some concepts to M and different games we can play with them at home. It’s true that some activities and concepts are covered in any typical playgroup curriculum. But parental involvement and 1-to-1 attention can enhance the learning experience.

It’s also true this once-a-week class don’t come cheap (to us). Come to think of it, we may never know if we are fools for spending this money

So we did sign up for the programme after the talk (if you read my previous post). In fact, we are about to start our second term (12 weeks) with them. Anyway, here’s our journey so far…

I started reading up on Glenn Doman’s books first (when M was around 1 year old), starting with ‘How to teach your baby to read’ and ‘How to teach your baby Math’ and so on. I became aware of The Shichida Method around the same time. As there were no readily available reading material here, I ordered three of his books from Japan.

The power of the right brain amazed me enough to want to experiment on M. But I did not want to spend too much money such that my expectations will become unrealistically high. So I decided to go with the home-based Glenn Doman method. We first bought the English set from GD Baby. By the time I got started, M was 14 months and almost walking.

Not exactly the ideal time to start, but anyway I tried to flash the cards when she was ‘confined’, like when she’s on the potty or in the high-chair. Soon after, I started the Glenn Doman Math set but this time we bought the kit direct from US instead because it was a more basic set and cheaper even after shipping cost. M was not always interested in the cards, crawling away quite often.

I continued with the cards anyway. But as M was very easily distracted, I find myself flashing less cards and also less frequently. Occasionally, I stopped for a couple of weeks before starting again. I do not think we got very far really… definitely not like what others could achieve.

The flashcards slowly became forgotten and I stopped before M turned two. Then recently I was packing the flashcards and though if we should give them another try. Since I haven’t been too successful at home, I thought it could be time to seek some ‘expert’ help. As I’ve read quite a fair bit of negative feedback about the local Shichida franchise, I decided to go for another outfit, Little Neuro Tree. There is a relatively new outlet near our place.

More in my next post…

I was asked during the preview talk of a brain stimulation centre (Little Neuro Tree) whether I thought the right brain or left brain was more important. I muttered “left, because it’s the brain we need for daily life” One second later, I realised I must have just slapped myself in the face for saying that in a preview talk selling the power of the right brain.

According to an article in The Daily Telegraph, the functions of our left and right brain hemisphere are summarised below:

Other interesting facts about our brain development. Most of us are left-brain dominant by the age of 6. From birth to the age of 3, we operate in a right-brain environment. From the age of 3 to 6, we gradually shift from being right-brain dominant to left-brain dominant, resulting in the left-brain becoming the ‘conscious’ brain and the right-brain becoming the ‘unconscious’ brain.

Hence, the window of opportunity for most right-brain training techniques is supposedly during the first 6 years of a child’s life. Proponents of these techniques say children whose right brains were stimulated early on will be able to tap into it in future, giving them an edge over those who are not able to.

But is that the case? I know a friend who could remember the telephone numbers of 40 classmates effortlessly back then in secondary school. I doubt she went through any special brain stimulation programme. And for most of us, our right brains mostly developed its ‘power’ in our normal daily stimulation.

Separately, I met some extraordinary people at the Autism Association some years ago. One kid was able to speed read, finishing books at record time. Another kid had super memory and was able to remember TV drama serial scripts, probably from when he started watching them! But the catch here is they are both left-brain damaged people, forcing their right brain to continue being in dominance in their daily operation.

So yes, I still think the left brain is more important! (if I had to choose one)

p/s: find out if we signed up for the programme in my next post

We spent 3D2N at the Siloso Beach Resort early this week. This was our second ‘holiday’ with M. Compared to our first ‘holiday’ at the Marina Mandarin Hotel last December (also 3D2N), this was definitely more enjoyable!

Well, the pool and the beach was enough to keep M happy over those few days. And for me, it meant no cooking and cleaning! The only issue that marred the ‘holiday’ was lack of sleep. We are generally quite happy that M is an independent sleeper except when we’re not at home, because we have to share the same bed!

We considered getting an additional bed but given that it’s a new environment and that it costs $60 per night, we decided to try our luck and put her between us. The result was kinda expected – kicks in our sleep and interrupted sleep.

It makes me wonder how couples survive co-sleeping with their kid/s everyday! Anyway, it’s clear to us that we’ll need an additional bed for our next holiday, which will hopefully be out of the country. My last overseas trip was like three years ago!

I used to be quite a happy-go-lucky type of gal. Nothing really worried me excessively throughout my smooth sailing childhood-teens-early adulthood. But motherhood can really change our lives beyond our expectations. The worry wart must have started growing on me the day I found out I was pregnant. And its probably grown quite substantially over the past few years.

From the days of “Is the foetus growing well?” to “Is she eating enough?”, I have come to realise that I may never be able to get rid of the worry wart for the rest of my life. With a young kid, there’re just too many things to worry about!

To start with, M was/is a very small foetus & baby & toddler. At our detailed scan when I was 5 months pregnant, we were informed that M’s growth was behind her peers – her dimensions were actually below the growth chart, meaning she was below the 0 percentile! And with many charts flashing in front of us, we were informed that her laggard development was of a concern. The consultant in charge of the scan even mentioned the equivalent of a ‘vulgarity’ – abortion.

Silly as it sounds, I actually burst into tears there! After consulting my gynae, I went for an amniocentesis for peace of mind. Luckily, the test result came back favourable and she maintained a steady growth rate throughout the rest of her gestation, even though she continued to be small. But the amount of worry I went through during that hoax was unprecedented in my life!

Although that episode is now behind me, I’m still faced with many little worries about M. In any typical day, things I can worry include “Is she going to eat her food”, “Is she going to fuss during her shower?” Will she be cooperative during nap time?”, “If she doesn’t take her nap, is she going to be cranky during class?”, the list continues..

Fortunately, life with a lively and blissfully ignorant toddler can help one forget about the future sometimes and just live in the moment

Last Saturday, M and I ‘performed’ for the first time on stage! It was the annual concert at the music school (Seimpi School of Music) where we attend her music class. All we needed to do was tap the wood block to the beat of the Barney theme song. In the same item, older kids played the song on the keyboard.

Because of their young age, parents had to accompany toddlers (1 to 2 years old) on stage. Hence, I was there with M (in purple) for that 3 minute item. I am never comfortable on stage so I looked to her teacher a lot for her cues to make sure I do not embarrass both of us!

And it turned out better than I expected. During the rehearsals in class, M had never allowed me to control the wood block, insisting on tapping at her own pace. During the actual performance, she must be too awed by the audience to even try to tap the wood block. I had full control of the wood block! And even though she can sing the Barney song quite well, she hardly moved her mouth during the performance.

Overall, I would say it was worth the trip. I had initially thought of not participating because the time of the concert coincided with M’s nap time. But thought it’ll be a shame if we couldn’t be there. Surprisingly, she turned out to be very cooperative, falling asleep right after we reached home – without any struggle!

And that was M’s first performance and we sure hope it’ll be her first step out as a musician…

Just two weeks ago, both M & myself fell sick. I started coughing one day before her and we both had fever, cough and runny nose nose at the same time. Horrible experience. I needed rest to get better myself but still had to take care of a sick child who was more fussy than usual.

Lucky my husband was able to work-from-home to help me out. Anyhow, after 3 visits to our GP (General Practitioner) in 3 days and a week of fever, cough and runny nose medicine, M’s nose was still runny. We thought it’s time to seek an alternative opinion – Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).

M visited a TCM Practitioner for the first time last Saturday. After a lot of questions about her eating habits, sleep pattern and bowel movements, the doctor diagnosed that she was of a 热底 constitution – meaning she was the type who tend to get ‘heaty’ easily.

She also advised us to dilute M’s milk (because she doesn’t drink much water) and to offer fruits at room temperature (not straight out of the fridge). She prescribed a bottle of runny nose medicine and a powdered concoction – 川貝, 健脾散, 冬蟲夏草 -  (1 month supply) to strengthen her respiratory system, spleen and overall immune system.

All in, these set us back by $216! – $16 for the runny nose medicine and $200 for the powder.

Our first attempt to give her the medicine was a failure. We didn’t think she would drink it from the spoon so we added 10ml of the medicine to her milk which made it turn brown, like chocolate milk. She sucked one time and gave her bottle back, saying it was "very sweet”. Haha… funny, we thought but it doesn’t help. Next time I tried using a spoon, she snatched it over, poured it into her breakfast bowl, took a sip and gave a funny face. The next few attempts proved not too encouraging too.

Whatever… her runny nose cleared itself a few days ago so I kinda gave up too. Let’s hope the expensive powder works! We add it to her morning milk feed and she has finished it every time so far Too hungry to think…

p/s: I gave half the bottle of the medicine away to M’s cousin who took it very readily! I’m saving the other half for myself

Like most people staying in flats, we generally kept our doors closed and minded our own business. It’s not surprising then that alot of flat dwellers like us do not know our neighbours beyond their faces.

I moved into my mother-in-law’s flat after getting married. We stayed there for 2 years before getting our own flat. During those two years, I almost never talked to any of the neighbours and barely said ‘hi’ to a few.

But this changed when M came into our lives. We moved into our own flat just 2 months before M was born. And since then, the rate at which we know our neighbours is way beyond the previous 2 years at my mother-in-law’s place. Granted the population demographics may be younger here, but I think it’s because of the presence of M.

We can now easily talk to neighbours, from primary school children (which M will address as “kor kor” and “jie jie”) to elders (“uncle” and “auntie”). It’s so natural for everyone to play with a young child, which usually leads to conversations about her age, her development, childcare centres around the neighbourhood, which block/floor/unit we stay in, the price of our flat etc… I think I’ve also become friendlier around M.

It’s really nice to know neighbours a little better. Our neighbour downstairs brought our “broken” bamboo pole which landed on their clothes back to us! We’ve chatted on occasions and they probably also noticed it was M’s clothes on it.

So thanks to our little ice-breaker, we no longer need to avoid stares with our neighbours in the lift!

We’ve been quite divided about the language we should use at home for some time. Although I grew up in a Mandarin and Teochew speaking family, school and work have made English a very natural part of me. During our dating and pre-kid days, my husband and I conversed mostly in English or Singlish.

When M came along, we started deliberating on the language we should use at home. Most parenting books recommended that one parent use one language in a two-language environment. Since I was more comfortable in Mandarin than my husband (who grew up in a Hokkein and English environment), we decided that I will converse with M in Chinese while husband converse with her in English.

But we found it really tough keeping to this arrangement. First of all, I honestly do not know the Chinese terms for a lot of words, quite a failure I think. My husband, on the other hand, often breaks into Mandarin or dialect in his conversations with M. And so we basically ended up speaking Singlish…

I looked at people around and found there were generally three different approaches. 1) English only – Rationale being it’s the first language in schools here and so mastering it still takes first priority. 2) Chinese only – because of the China’s emerging world status and that kids will definitely pick up English in school. 3) Whatever – parents in this category do not think any conscious effort is needed to keep to one language at home.

Anyway, here’s what we are doing now – English most of the time and Chinese (or dialect) with the grandparents. It’s just more convenient!

I just can’t believe this is my 3rd Mums’ Day! Yes, M is only 2 but because she was born in March, I got to ‘celebrate’ my 1st Mums’ Day just 2 months into motherhood. I remember a relative wishing me “Happy Mothers’ Day” and I was like “Huh?” This event has traditionally been all about my mum.

Anyway, I don’t think I enjoyed my 1st Mums’ Day. I was still struggling to figure out Baby M and was not exactly ready to ‘celebrate’ it yet. I was happy enough if she did not start crying every evening around 7pm.

I definitely had more reasons to celebrate my 2nd Mums’ Day. M took her first steps around then and was more manageable overall. I had also grown more confident of my mothering role. Still, I don’t remember any special celebration except dinner with my family.

I don’t expect this Mums’ Day will be any different from the last one. I’m actually not bothered by it as well. I’m not the type who expects flowers every Valentines’ Day and Mums’ Day kinda falls into the same category for me. (Flowers are nice to have on any day of the year!)

Still, I was really touched yesterday when we visited a friend. Their 6-year old daughter showed me a card she prepared for her mum and she wrote in both English and Chinese how much she loved her mum. Heart warming!

As for me, hearing M say “ I love you, mummy” is enough for now!