First Flight

We have been waiting and waiting all holiday and the day was finally here.  For the children, it was the first time they were traveling in airplane.  For me, it would be the first time in ... 10 years?

SW could not fall asleep the night before, and complained why we could not go earlier, why the sky was not bright yet, and at the airport, about why we had to wait more than an hour after check-in and why the plane took so long to take flight.

Do not be mistaken, there was hardly any queue at check-in.  I suppose that was because we reached the airport early.  Firefly is considered expensive compared to other budget airline. So there were fewer passengers while the rest of the queues were from Tiger Airways.  It is priced so most likely because it is the only airline that flies to Ipoh directly from Singapore.  Per ticket costed around S$138 per one-way ticket, RM232.  You can fly to Kuala Lumpur at half that rate by Tiger Airways or AirAsia, depending on the period you are flying, and whether there were promotions.

We took Firefly from Singapore to Ipoh in order to avoid the long hours of traveling by coach to Cameron Highlands (9 - 10 hours).  I had booked my flight tickets via the Fireflyz website about 3 weeks ago, and was also able to reserve my own seats.  I chosed seats away from the wings, not realizing I ended up right next to the propeller instead (sweat and pray).

The children were not that inquisitive about what there was on the plane until I showed them how to pull down the window shield.  Instinctively, they started playing and trying to figure out what other 'gadgets' there were, rather to my regret.  It was a small airplane, pretty full, and the last thing I wanted to was to draw attention to ourselves turning ourselves into pests.

I sat with CH, and behind us were Mom and SW while HM sat across the aisle beside Mom.  I had planned to sit where SW and Mom were sitting but I got up the plane first and there was hardly any space on the aisle for me and my luggage to move back, so we stayed put.  Good thing we are small-framed...there was little leg room for the bigger Europeans.  Beware of carrying bulky hand-carry too, as the cabin space above our heads is limited.  Mom had to shove hers under my seat, thus limiting her own leg-room.

CH and SW each had a window seat, to their delight.  When I took my own first flight at 12 years old, I fought with sis and bro over one window seat and I won, with Sis sitting next to me, and Bro, then 5, stuck in between both our parents, sulking.  Poor Bro.  He refused to take any photos and covered his teary face with the flight cushion.

CH was beaming all the way, sitting next to me.  She loved looking down at the clouds and the land below.  She asked Mom for paper and pen to record her experience.

I was surprised they served inflight refreshments on an one-hour flight.  Choice of peanuts or muffin, juice, coffee or tea. There were 2 stewardesses on board (SW asked me who they were), and I have no complains over their services.  The toilet - it's clean, but I cannot imagine how the bigger Europeans can use it without closing the door - oh I forget...men stand.

We rushed to get up the plane, but on getting off, I remembered to snap a picture of the Firefly.

In this picture, you can see the hills of Ipoh in the background.

Learning Music

Music lessons can be costly.  It is a long-term commitment, and I hesitate for the longest time to enroll my children in any of them.  

SW, seven, has picked up the violin when he entered Primary school this year.  They are weekly lessons conducted in groups, taught by an outsourced music teacher.  SW is fond of the teacher, Mr. Quek. The course fees at SGD105 per 10 lessons works well on my purse string.

We had never planned for SW to learn the violin.  SW wanted to learn to play the trumpet but his school only offered brass band as CCA for Primary 3s onwards.  For him to have a head start in music, I suggested the violin and he was keen.  Since then, he had been learning nearly a new song each week.  Here is a recording that I made of his playing recently.

Audio recording of SW playing violin: Go Tell Aunt Rhody

The greatest challenge in learning music - or every other thing, I suppose - is regularity of practice.  For a young child learning music, parental involvement is crucial.  Over the last few months, I have been diligent, negligent, encouraging, demoralizing, patient, touchy, in short, not exactly proud of myself.  But from these experiences, I have learnt that I have to sit with him and give him 100% of my attention when he practices.  It makes a whole world of difference whether he has an attentive audience.   For instance, it is different when I just yell out to him to 'get to practice' when I am still doing my laundry or trying to round up an email.  The attitude I received in return was sluggishness. 

My husband is a believer of Nature.  "If you need to push him to practice all the time, you might as well give it up!"  There is much truth in this because after a while, you realize you spend more effort trying to get your child to practice.  You start taking on the role of an authoritative and pushy parent and it makes you feel absolutely lousy, and you feel like giving up.

But of course, we must identify the cause of the sluggishness.  That was when I realized it was I who has forgotten the importance of being focused.  Once I got my child to focus on the instrument, and encouraging playing his best, then I spend less time trying to 'push' him to practice.   At this stage, I really have no idea how long it will take for him to cultivate the internal drive to pick up the instrument to practice everyday.  I could only take one step at a time.

My 5 year-old daughter, CH, is interested to play the keyboard.  Like in the case of my son, I did not jump straight into giving her formal piano lessons.  I have a Kurtzweil keyboard which I bought about 20 years ago with the first 3 months of salary from my first permanent job.  CH likes to play around with it, so I decided to try teaching her on my own.  

I recall attempting to teach her when she was 3 and 4, but they were flops.  She had refused to watch me demonstrate to her and insisted on playing in a haphazard way.  It was taking me too much efforts to coach her, so I let it go.  Now that she is 5, she seems more ready to listen and learn.  Perhaps she has realized she wasn't going anywhere on her own!

From the internet, I found PIANO BY NUMBERS.  I was tempted to take up the program, but decided to try using my own number notations to teach her instead.  In my younger days,  I used numbered scores to play some Chinese pop music.  Chinese instruments like the Er Hu also uses similar key notations, which is using numbers 1 to 7 to represent the notes C to B.  It was with this method of numbered key notations that I kicked start CH's home music lessons.

From there, CH learned to play some familiar nursery songs using her right hand: 

After about a month or two, CH was able to play Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars, Jingle Bells and 2 other Chinese folk songs (客人来，火车快飞) with her right hand.   Thereof, we moved on to these books which I bought from Yamaha Music School:

I picked this series upon my sister's recommendation as they are suitable for young beginners.  There are colorful pictures and child-friendly layouts with fun-filled activities.  With basic background in music, I was able to set her off in picking up the keyboard.  As to how far we will go with this, and for how long, again, we will take one step at a time!  

The Stress of Parenting

"There are 6 triggers for bad behavior: tiredness and hunger; an immature brain; 

unmet psychological needs; intense emotions; parental stress; 

and a parenting style that activates the alarm systems in a child's lower brain."

 - The Science of Parenting by Margot Sunderland, DK.

I got up at 5 this morning, unable to go back to sleep.  Thoughts about CH made me pick up this book - again.

Tiredness and hunger - CH is constantly asking for something to eat.

An immature brain - "Trying times with under-fives are often the result of immature brain systems" - Oh yeah, CH is only 4.

Unmet psychological needs - What could that be?

Intense emotions - Have I been missing her cues?

Parental stress - I have been rushing for deadlines.  Figures.

A Parenting style that activates the alarm systems in a child's lower brain - A good reminder that I need some self-reflection and adjustments.

For now, I'd better dig into "Mastering CSS" before waking the kids up for school.

Happy Birthdays!

If I ever make notes on my calendar, September would be a month that is filled with birthdays, including my own!

My niece celebrated her 2nd birthday recently at Mcdonald's. It was the first time I attended a birthday celebration at Mcdonald's.

We did not have a tradition of celebrating birthdays except for our grandparents, and as a kid, I have never attended any of my friends' birthday parties. Somehow though, you could roughly figure out how a birthday celebration at Mcdonald's would be with the balloons, games and gifts for the little ones. However, the choice of the outlet made a difference.

The location was at Rideout in Queensway. It has a good playground, a little park for the older kids to roam about, and without a big crowd, space for the adults to sit back and relax, have a bite and catch up on things.

I do not recall when getting presents for kids had become difficult for me. Although there are a lot more variety of toys and merchandise these days, I find it harder to decide on a good present because you do not want to duplicate what the kids already have. Giving money in red packet becomes an option. Fortunately, my 6 year-old helped me decide what to buy for her little cousin.

"We will get her Duplo! We have lots of that in school and she will love them too!" SW says that because he is a fan of Lego. I am very glad that he knows Duplos are for younger children. I thought that was a good choice since CH still plays with them at 4. And the more pieces you have, the bigger things you could build.

Today is LA's 5th birthday. Sis just told me that when we bumped into her and LA on our way to the library.

"CH, today is LA's birthday! Would you like to get her a present?" I asked CH as we went our separate ways, agreeing to meet for lunch later.

"Oh! Yes, mommy!"

"What would you like to get her?" I asked and continued walking, having the least idea what we could get her.

"Why don't we buy her a surprise?"

I laughed, "Surprise isn't an item you can buy, CH!"

I never thought of gifts and surprises that way. Does this 4 year-old really understand what the word surprise mean? What does a surprise look like? Why not? It is the thought that counts, isn't it? All gifts are surprises, aren't they?

On our way home after lunch, CH did not want to part with LA and refused to go home. "Where are we going, mommy?"

"Home, CH, we are going home now." I had to put my foot down.

"Mommy, can we go to LA's Birthday Party?"

I laughed again. Not because LA isn't having a birthday party, but from the earlier 'buy a surprise', CH makes "LA's Birthday Party" sound like a location rather than an occasion!

First Ballet Class

Last Thursday night, CH attended her first ballet class - ever!

CH - first from the right

'Ever' because she had waited a year for it. Indeed, it is a quarter of her life. There were classes for 3 year-olds but the lesson time was not right for us. We used to peep outside the classrooms, watching the older girls at their practice. She would smile as she watched, admiration beaming through her eyes.

"Ballet is not just about wearing pink tutus and looking pretty, you know," I used to whisper into her ear as we watched. "Can you see the jie jies (big sisters) are trying very hard to lift up their legs and keeping in balance? You need a lot of strength and practice..." I wonder how much did get in.

Personally, I am a believer of delayed gratification. Watching others at it do wonders in building up life-long interest and helps in identifying real wants. Nevertheless, it is difficult to determine how long to delay and wiser to leave it to chance - I suppose. So, when we finally received the phone call that a class was starting at the time convenient for us, we were delighted! CH kept asking me,"Am I going for ballet lesson?" as if she could not believe it was true!

Perhaps we were already familiar with the place, perhaps it was the same teacher we have been watching - CH did not need any warming up and readily joined in the circle. I stayed and watch until she kept turning around to see me, loosing focus.

I was happy with the teacher. The little moves had stories to them and the girls took to them easily, with giggles and laughter.

Good toes, bad toes, naughty toes, walk on high-heels, mermaid's tail, (thigh-fly)butterfly, reach for the sky (to straighten their backs) were some of the terms the teacher used for some routine moves.

Before she stepped out of the classroom, she gave her teacher another smile, waved goodbye, and bent down to touch the wooden floor. Couldn't believe she's finally in a ballet class for real?

"When can I come back here for ballet, mommy?" CH asked as we left.

Kind? Not with Kinderjoy!

Ah-yi (aunty) bought this for me and kor kor (brother),

but I want them ALL to myself.

So LA helped me put stickers all over them.

Princess stickers!

So they will ALL be mine!

You know, mommy, that's when good girls

become bad girls!

- CH, with a wicked grin, over Kinderjoy -

Psuedo Pleats

This hair band was a rare find, and I thought it gave me an idea of how CH would look in long hair.

I bought the hairband when CH was 2+. Now 4, it still fits her well. Unfortunately, it is rather warm to wear in the hot weather in Singapore, so CH only wears it for dress-up. Below is how she looked the first time I tried it on her. You cannot see it here, but she was folding her arms wondering what I was up to!

Memories to Keep

A new school term has begun. SW is in his second year of Kindergarten and CH in Nursery, her first year in a new school. Both their birthdays fall at the beginning of the year, which means they are soon a year older - another reminder that they are no longer babies... Nevertheless, it pains me less to cherish the memories than to wish I could hold on to them... that's what keeps me writing and taking videos and pictures.

The all-new PCF uniform from Punggol East

I admire and adore the scrapbooks that some mothers make. Give me a scrapbook magazine and I'd drool all over it. I used to hoard things thinking I could make something out of them, but I'd collect more stuff than I had time to make. I try to be more rational now that I am married with children because not only do you need to find good spots around the house to display your works, you'd also need to organize the left-over materials lest they become the eyesore of another.

Yesterday afternoon, while CH got totally knock out after her first day of school, sleeping a rare 4 hours, opportunity arose for me to do scrapping. I attempted a close substitute which took up only virtual space, whether to make or to display.

Blogs are such memory keepers!