Christy @ Kidsrsimple, Author at Kids 'R' Simple

It’s the simple things that count..

At the age of 34, I have 3 kids, a loving hubby, a healthy family, healthy parents and parents-in-law, a cosy home, a stable job, and best friends’ support as and when I need it. At this point in time, I would like to stop and appreciate my life as much as possible.

Having 3 kids

It is my wish since young to have 3 kids with my true love. I achieved it last year and I can proudly say that this is my greatest achievement in my life at this moment. All my 3 kids are my heart and soul. They complete my life. I love them more than I love myself.

A loving hubby

Getting married to your true love is just the beginning. Learning to live with each other through differences , understanding to the extent that we can read each other’s thoughts and learning to forgive and forget takes many years, in our case, 9 years and still counting. It takes lots of heated, unheated, big and small arguments, shouts, heartache and tears to know the person who sleeps beside you every night well (I am grateful we still share the same bed and still hold hands while sleeping). And the most precious of it all, after all these ups and downs, character differences, suspicions on off-track marriage, financial woes and house chores fights, I still think that given a thousand chances to choose again, I will still choose the same husband.

A healthy family

This is what I pray for every night. As long as all the 5 of us are healthy and happy, I am contented. And whatever that may come with parenthood woes and life’s unpredictable rainy days that may shower upon us , I can face them strongly.

Our family

Healthy parents and parents-in-law

My parents and parents-in-law are healthy. My dad had just survived a major operation in removing prostate cancer. He is still strong and healthy and I count my blessings to have him back in good health. I cannot imagine how I would be able to take it if any untoward may happen to any of them. Hence, I am just as contented to know that at this time of my life, I have healthy parents and parents-in-law and am happy that my kids are fortunate enough to enjoy the love of them all.

A cosy home

We sold our 1st house and what a stroke of lady luck to strike upon us, I can’t be happier that we bought our current house which is just next to my parents’ house. This is almost a dream come true to be able to have my own family and yet still stay so near to my parents. I have more opportunities to show my filial piety to them and more time to be with them while they are still by my side. Our house is cosy even though it is at most times messy with toys littered around, and it has minimal cleaning and tidying. It is our home and it provides warmth to our kids. It is a warm shelter to keep us off uncertainties and keep us safe. No matter where we go on earth, or even to the moon, we would still want to return to this wonderful place called HOME.

A stable job

As much as I would love to be a SAHM (stay-at-home-mum), I have little choice but to choose work to supplement the family income. Even though it is not something I enjoyed doing, I am contented for now that I have much work-life balance and understanding bosses and colleagues. Most importantly, I still have my own income to indulge in unnecessary but nice-to-have treats for me and for the kids.

Best friends’ support

I have 3 great best friends. All of whom I can count on if I ever need any help. One of them is my soul confidante. She is my hanger when I go shopping with her as she helps carry my bag due to my backache, my listening ear, my problem solver, someone whom I call whenever I need a person to talk to so that I do not doze off at work, someone whom I share my heartache, my innermost secrets and good and bad news with. I do not think I will ever find anyone like her on earth and she is my BEST FRIEND.

ZY and me

I know there are many people who have much more accomplished lives than mine, so many friends who are much more successful in their careers, lead sedentary lives or high side of lives (just by looking at their facebook photos). There are others whom I envied as they are comfortably living SAHM lifestyle and enjoying their kids without sacrificing time away at work. At times, I may feel inadequate and yearn to lead a tai tai lifestyle (tai tai means rich wives) which is stressfree with loads of time to waste away. But when I look back at myself, my kids and my family, I have so much to be thankful for.

I think I am contented.

A simple and relax birthday celebration for a 6 year old

Most mums will celebrate their kids’ birthday with much fanfare. In our family, only the 1st birthday is a bigger party to celebrate our kids’ first year’s milestone. For all birthdays after that, we prefer to have a simple celebration with our close families, which often may seem more of a family gathering for the adults and fun play time for the young ones.

I am not a party person, but I love to organize and plan parties for the little ones. I usually leave the food part to my husband, and activities part to myself.

Early this month, we held a simple birthday celebration for YH who turned 6 this year. Prior to the celebration day, I printed a crown from picklebums for YH to decorate and wear on his birthday. I printed a tiara for XX too, so that she can join in the fun. Almost everything I do for one kid, I have to think for the other 🙂

The party started with a steamboat dinner fully prepared by my dear hubby, kel. The kids sat on one small table and finished their food pretty fast, while the adults ate for a full 2 hours, eating and chatting away. After the dinner, it was art and craft time! All the kids (6 of them, including my XX and YH, the other 4 are their cousins) sat around 2 small tables and started making a turtle which they would be bringing back home. I gave them each an egg carton as the turtle’s shell. One pompom and 2 eyes for the turtle’s head. 4 pipe cleaners for the turtle’s legs. And each a paint brush and paint to decorate the turtle’s shell.

Voila! Here’s the end product of the cute little turtles the 6 kids did! Of course, I helped them along in gluing the pipe cleaner legs to the shell. As some of the “legs” did not glue on properly, I used a stapler to do the job which I believe could better tolerate the kids’ rough playing of the turtles especially for the boys.

While waiting for the turtles’ legs to dry, the kids played with Lego Duplo blocks. After that, each kid went home with a small gift and the turtle they make. But not before 2 birthday songs (one in English and one in Chinese) and a piece of KungFu Panda cake each.

Among the kids, the oldest is a 13 year-old teen and youngest is a 4 year-old kid. I was glad that the teen (my beloved niece) joined in the art and craft and enjoyed painting her own turtle. The youngest managed well with help from the older kids.

This was a simple birthday celebration cum family gathering. No fanfare, no wows, no rules, no stress. Yet, I feel is the perfect celebration I wanted for everyone. Relax and simple. And then, there’s a Part 2 to the celebration. On the actual day of YH’s birthday, he was treated to a SPECIAL day of fun with just kel and me and him. No other kids. So that all attention is to be showered on him and just him!

What’s your preferred style of family celebration?

Learning Math – Simple Division using bottle caps

Division using bottle caps

My girl has started on learning “Division” in school and I know it is not easy for her to grasp it as a new topic. Yet, this concept is in everyday life and she just doesn’t know it’s called “Division”.

If you had read my earlier post “Learning Math – Mass using Lego blocks“, you would have known that I have been trying out simple Math concepts for my 2 kids using Sarah’s (from Frugal Fun for Boys) method that she uses for home-schooling.

First we start with some bottle caps (we had 12 of them). Then, I asked XX and YH to draw on a piece of paper each with 2 columns as the following:

1st column: Numbers 1 -12 – This is the number of bottle caps that we used in all.

2nd column: “Each person has caps.” This is to write down after dividing the bottle caps between the 2 kids, how many bottle caps does each person has.

Again, my kids love the decorating part for their papers but this time round, they spent lesser time on it.

So, the games goes – I started with 1 cap and ask them:

Question 1 – “Is 1 an even or odd number?”

Question 2 – “Can it be divided equally between 2 persons (XX and YH)?” If their answer is “Yes”, they put a tick beside the number 1 on their paper, otherwise, they put a cross.

Question 3 – “How many bottle caps will each person get?” And here they have to write down the answer in the 2nd column. (XX actually answered yes in Question 2 and her answer for this part is each person will get “half” the cap, haha, it is not wrong even though that’s not the answer I am looking for. Clever girl!)

And the game goes on with 2 bottle caps all the way to 12 bottle caps.

YH's check sheet

Even before the end of the game, they began to see an “AB” patterning but still does not know how “Division” concept comes in here. That’s when I had to explain to them that by doing this activity, we are learning on “Division”. This is simple division of 2. As XX already understand multiplication, I wrote down the number sentences for 2 x 4 = 8 vs 8 bottle caps divided into 2 persons, i.e. 8 ÷ 2 = 4. After writing a few more examples, she began to understand the relation between multiplication and division. As for my boy, it is a little more challenging to understand the big word “DIVISION”, but he could grasp the concept of dividing bottle caps equally. Also, he understood more on what is odd and even numbers.

XX and YH had fun playing this activity while their baby brother YT was reading and playing with bottle caps by the side 🙂

YT reading @ 6th mth

Do you have simple and fun learning for Math or other subjects? Share with me! I would love to hear new ideas to play at home!

Learning Math – Mass using Lego blocks

Balancing object YH balancing with Lego blocks

I have been thinking how to teach simple Math concept through play that will interest both my 8 year old XX and 6 year old YH. I found so many resources in countless excellent blogs in the blogosphere. One of them is on learning the concept of Mass using Lego blocks, a hanger and simple objects (found in Frugal Fun for Boys blog). This is timely as XX happens to be learning Mass now.

First, get a hanger and 2 strings / ribbons. Then, with 1 string / ribbon, tie a Lego block as a starting piece so that later on more Lego blocks can be fixed to it and the other string / ribbon tied to any object that is not too heavy. Next, I got XX and YH to each draw a simple score board with 3 columns with the following:

1st column: OBJECT – What is the object being weighed?

2nd column: GUESS – How many Rectangular Lego blocks do you think will balance the object?

3rd column: ACTUAL – The final answer to the number of blocks that will balance the object.

Score board

XX and YH took quite some time to work on this score board, simply because they were busy decorating their score board, and we have not even started anything yet!

The kids enjoyed the activity and we tabulated the scores with guesses that have the correct answers. 2 points for the correct answer and 1 point for close to correct answer as a consolation.

* You would have noticed that the 2 pieces of score board in the picture look weird. That’s because when we tabulated the score, YH was not happy that he lost to his sister by 1 point, and he did a naughty act by spitting some saliva on his sister’s score board. I, too, did a naughty thing to scrap the saliva back onto his paper and there you see XX’s paper was cut short to remove the saliva portion, and YH’s paper was torn a hole as he tried to wipe off his own saliva. It’s a norm to see them squabble over such minute things. And equally a norm to see me deviate from the goody, yummy mummy supposed by-the-book way of punishment.

Off center balance

Oh, and one interesting and unexpected learning from this activity is that when each child took turns to weigh their Lego blocks, they shifted the Lego string position. This resulted in off center balance of the hanger as the centre of gravity had shifted. When initially we saw that it took 10 Lego blocks to reach balance, it now could not balance and required 12 blocks instead due to the string shift. I had a good opportunity to demonstrate that the position of the strings at the 2 ends of the hanger was important in determining the balancing act of the object and the Lego blocks. And the kids were pleasantly surprised by this new finding!

Try it with your kids and you will be off to great, simple fun learning!

Positive thinking – the way to remain SANE!!

It’s been a month since I returned work. It has been a whirlwind of events and all these have been taking a toll on me physically and mentally. It is truly a test on my endurance and adjustment period for all in my household.

It started with the baby refusing the milk bottle when I was at work and drinking less than 100 ml in the day time. Everyday I called home to check on the baby, I heard his cries. Because he was not drinking enough in the day, he compensated by waking up 3 times in the night. I don’t mind feeding him but the frequent night feeds affect my well-being and I was worried I may fall sick which will lead to lesser breastmilk production. We tried different milk bottles and decided to just stick to one so as not to confuse the baby further. We settled on Tommee Tippee with compliments from my sis-in-law.

After all attempts, and after one and a half weeks, the baby started drinking 100ml non-stop one day. And kel took the credit for it after some trial and errors with my mum’s stand in to take care of the baby. A pediatric check up showed the baby gained only 50 grams in a month! Well, at least it wasn’t negative weight gain! I have to think positively to feel better. At least he had started to drink milk.

Then after the baby caring part had been settled, I was still adjusting to the routine of been back at work, pumping milk in the office, coming home to my kids and busying myself till midnight daily. I was feeling the fatigue with the night feeds and it did not help that XX started behavioral problems in school (This will have to be in another blog post). And I truly neglected the middle child YH. Before I could manage the adjustment and changes, some events happened and I have to take over the cooking on weekdays!!

My routine looks like this:

Everyday after my kids sleep at 1130pm, I prepare the soup ingredients, even wash vegetables, pack back nicely in plates and boxes and put in the fridge. I wake up half an hour earlier the next morning before I go to work to cook soup, pump my milk, steam my pumps, eat breakfast, put the clothes in the washing machine, wash up, change clothes and out of the house. In the evening, I come home, store my pumped milk, steam my pumps, prepare the dinner and cook, set up table, eat dinner, bathe myself, feed the baby, bathe the baby, wash dishes if kel is not at home, supervise piano practice, supervise homework, play with my kids, make the baby sleep, story time with my kids and when they sleep, get up to prepare the ingredients for next day’s dinner.

Initially I was so stressed up by the new cooking responsibility that I cried, took it out on my children and found that my milk supply seemed to be dwindling! I had negative thoughts and felt miserable for a while. Then I decided that I cannot continue self-pity. I am sure there are people who are in a worse situation than me. My kids and family need me, the baby needs me, especially my breastmilk, I have to be sane and healthy to run the household!

I started delegating household chores to kel. He helped out with the dishes whenever he is home in the evening. He helped out with mopping the floor (I cannot stand dirty floors, which affect my mood greatly). I only do the house chores that disturb me if left undone. For instance, a clean and tidy dining table and a clean sink is MANDATORY. I force myself to do minimal house work during the weekday so that I can spend time with my kids. I designate Sunday as no housework day whenever possible so as to have a rest myself. I force myself to think positively. I take pride in my cooking when my kids say they love all the dishes I cook and finish every single rice in the bowl. I ask my mother-in-law who is taking good care of my baby to feed the baby more frequently in the day time, and within days, the baby wakes up once in the night and I can sleep a little better.

I stop taking out on the children, and learn to stop whatever I do and look them in the eye whenever they talk to me or want to show me something. I carry the baby with me when I do minimal housework in the week nights. I carry the baby with me while supervising piano practice and homework. I start a time-table with my kids: Monday is a board game night, Tuesday is a play clay night, Wednesday is assessment books night, Thursday is free play night, and Friday is a art and craft night. I started this so that I do not need to think of what to do every evening with my kids and they can look forward to different activities every day. And not forgetting, reading to all my 3 kids before sleep. This is something I choose not to miss if possible.

Well, I think I have a crazy routine, but so far, with great support from kel (who doesn’t like to do housework) and changing my mindset to think positively, I have so far survived for a month. I need to go on strong and never did I think that staying healthy and happy is more important than now. Some of these will be a passing phase and things will get better. I hope…