Language development

One of my Secondary school friends found me on FB and we got chatting. She said that she enjoyed reading my blog and I went, "Blog?! What blog? I have a blog? Oh, that blog! Hmm, it's been untouched for I-don't-know-how-long already." Anyway, admitted that I wasn't keeping up with it and will get back to posting on it. So, here I am, checking back in after 2 years of hiatus! 

So, what have we been up to? Plenty, I must admit. Both children are in school now and I'm doing work that I enjoy on a casual basis.

With the youngest one in Prep this year, we've been through quite a lot of struggles. Started with "I don't want to go to big school", to "I don't care, I'm going to school tomorrow even though I'm hopelessly sick". Then there's meet-the-teacher session when her class teacher told me that she's not articulating her words and they would like us to work on it together. 

Therefore, an update on her speech now, after almost 2 years after checking with our Speechie friend. I'm grateful to my friend who had great confidence in little miss' speech development. Never once did she say that my child had a problem. Yes, she's late in talking, but that's because she's learning three languages at the same time. Yes, three. Can you believe it? We speak Mandarin at home. Little Miss had her dose of English at church, playgroup and kindy. But because she wasn't talking, we signed with her. She's better at signing than talking at one stage, but at least she got her message across and we had less tantrums. 

When she started kindy at 3.5y.o., she could only speak Mandarin. Her kindy teachers learnt sign to communicate with her. She even taught them a nursery rhyme "I can sing a rainbow" in Auslan. By the end of the first semester, she was speaking in English and using sentences, though she wasn't articulating each word properly.

When Prep started, she could communicate in both English and Mandarin and we stopped signing with her, though that came back every so often as we were so used to it. Now, mid-way through the year, she's speaking so much better in English. Her buddy in Term 1 said that he couldn't understand her. Her buddy in Term 2 could communicate with her! For someone who only started speaking English a year ago, she's improved by leaps and bounds. 

So, if your child is also delayed in speech, I certainly would recommend seeing a
Speech Pathologist to asses the situation. And trust your gut feeling. I know it sounds cliche, but it's true. As a mum, I know my children best. 

PS : Hope all you mums had a wonderful Mother's Day on Sunday!

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Mummy, why does it rain?

Ever had one of those simple yet difficult to answer questions from your children?

I was caught off guard by this one some time back when it rained for a few days.

My 6 year old asked me this while we were out for a walk. She saw the dark clouds in the sky and asked, "Mummy, why does it rain when the clouds are dark?"

A dozen thoughts flashed through my mind : How do I explain the water cycle?  How do I explain how clouds are formed? Why do the clouds turn dark? etc.

Then, by the grace of God, He gave me a very simple yet relevant explanation. Here goes!

I told her, that clouds contain water. When it gets really heavy with water, it turns really grey and dark. When it cannot hold the water any longer, it will rain. I can tell from the look in her eyes that she still didn't quite understand.

Then I used the analogy of our bladder. I said that the clouds are just like our bladder. It contains the water that we eat or drink that is not absorbed by the rest of the body. When the bladder gets really full, like the dark clouds, we need to go to the toilet and wee. Similarly, when the clouds get really full, it has to release the water and do a 'wee'. Sphere: Related Content

The Tooth Fairy

"Mummy, I have a wobbly tooth!" my 5.y.o. yelled out excitedly from the bathroom.

This was early in the year when my 5 y.o. had her first wobbly tooth. She had seen many others with wobbly teeth before her and was looking forward to hers.

"Will the tooth fairy come?" she asked.

"Of course not!" I laughed. "There's no tooth fairy!"

"But why do my friends say that the tooth fairy will leave them money?" she questioned.

"That's just mummies and daddies leaving money for their children" I replied.

"Oh, but I want some money for my tooth," she said.

"I'll give you a dollar for your tooth," I said.

"But Ruby said that the tooth fairy gave her $5," she told me.

Wait a minute. $5?! For a first tooth? Let me get this right. There are 20 baby teeth in her mouth. Does that mean $100 for the lot?

We settled for $2.

Glad we sorted that out.

Now, she has 3 teeth out and collected in a prized tin box. She doesn't ask for money either, just excited to see a new tooth growing strong and well in her mouth. Fascinated, I must say.

And just in case you're wondering, the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and Santa Claus do not exist in our house. Just like Cinderella, Rapunzel, Ariel, Snow White etc are fairy tales and do not exist. Sphere: Related Content

Speech Development

About 4 months ago when my youngest turned 2y.o., I called up a speech pathologist friend. I spoke to her about my child's speech development. Well, more like lack of development.

We speak Mandarin at home, she is exposed to and understands English through playgroup and church activities, and we use Auslan as much as we can.

So, when I called up this friend, I told her that my 2 y.o. only says 5 words. For both English and Mandarin combined. She told me to make a record of words that the little one says and the signs that she knows and we'll compare in a month's time.

When I heard that, my first thought was, "Of course! Record, record, record! Why didn't I think of that?!"

I kept records of her activities and diet from birth, but never thought of keeping a record for her speech.

Anyway, I started recording and found out that she has about 50 signs but her verbal vocabulary did not exceeed 10 words. It'd take her a week to say a new sound, but she signs straight away and remembers it. Is she a visual person and not an auditory one?

After a month, my friend and I chatted and she said that my 2 y.o. is on par with others her age. She is learning 3 languages and for her, sign is more dominant. I was told to expect delays of at least 6 months for her verbal languages to come forth.

I was relieved to hear that, but on the other hand, still frustrated that she's not going the way I wanted it to be.

As parents, we worry all the time. If children are advanced in learning, we worry that the schools are not able to keep up with them. When children are behind their peers, we worry that they cannot catch up and that schools are going too fast. There's no satisfying a worried parent.

However, I took comfort in knowing that my toddler is developing well and according to the average children's benchmark. She's happy, growing and communicating, though not in the way that I had hoped she would.

I was reminded that my Creator God knows what is best for her and has her life and pathways in His plans. He will watch over her growth and needs. I'm here to guide and equip her with the tools for this earthly life. As I place my trust in Jesus Christ, I know that my child will never be lacking in anything with Christ as her Lord.

I put my worried mummy thoughts into His hands and I know that she will talk in her own time. For now, I shall enjoy the peace and quiet while it lasts. Sphere: Related Content

Road trips overseas

A few weeks ago I went to Malaysia and Singapore with my family. One thing we noticed before we left, was the use of car seats. There were no regulations that require tourists to use car seats for children.

In Malaysia, car seats were not required even for the locals. In Singapore however, the locals need car seats for their children. Tourists exempted.

Can you imagine the joy my children had without having to buckle the seat belts?!

I was constantly watching them, making sure that they're not up to any mischief and had to look ahead to make sure that the next turn or bump will not fling them out the window.

I'm sure my family and friends will tell me that I worry too much. I must admit that I did!

We are so so so protected by child safety laws in Australia that I know my children are buckled in and safe in the event of an emergency step on the brake.

Even though I had brought toys and books to occupy them on the roads, I wasn't comfortable giving any to them for the fear that they'd lose their balance and hurt themselves.

But one good thing about road trips overseas is that every scenery is new and the children just looked out of the window and take in all the differences they see in a new country. Sphere: Related Content

Travelling on a budget airline

I haven't been posting as we've been away the last 3 weeks. Seems like a long time to go on a holiday, but when you have young children, time just passes by.

We were excited to fly again, confident that we have everything we needed for the trip.

We packed very little clothing as we were flying to visit family and there will be clothes there that we can wear. The did however, have a luggage of entertainment and food for the children for the plane rides and car trips while overseas.

This trip we flew with Scoot. They're a budget airline. The fares were cheaper than the usual ones that we used to fly with. For the 4 of us, we could save between $900-$2000.

It was interesting to note that children were not given any discount for the return flight, so we did one way tickets for all of us to our destination and the return home. There was a selection of meals to choose from that was part of the fare. We picked one from the menu for the children and for both of us adults, we paid for the premium meal. Unfortunately, there was no choice of food and we didn't really know what we would be served.

And thus the adventure began.

The trip to our destination was a day flight, so I had lots of entertainment (we didn't purchase the in-flight entertainment package) packed for the children and food to snack on. Everything went well. The children were woken up at 5am to get to our airport. We had some breakfast before boarding and they were excited. I have calculated my time perfectly that the little one will be tired about an hour or two after we were in air and should sleep.

Checking in through customs was a breeze, though having to unload mobile phones, keys and other metallic stuff from our backpacks were a hassle. Why would one have their keys handy when going overseas?!

Anyway, we boarded and the plane started its journey. At this moment, the little one decided that she should sit with mummy instead of the older one. And so a tantrum ensued. It was pacified with stickers and 'Oh look! Outside!" and a vitamin pill as a last resort. We didn't have any trouble with air pressure, thank God, and the rest of the flight went rather well. The girls played play dough, read books, snacked, and actually had a nap. We arrived at our destination feeling encouraged that it went smoothly.

The return flight, however, was not quite as expected! First, it was a late night flight. Children were tired, cranky and upset that they're leaving all the fun behind. The older one wanted to sit with me, and so did the younger one! My husband literally held the younger one down in her seat till the seatbelt sign went off. Stickers didn't work, vitamin pills didn't work, crackers and drinks didn't work either. It was mummy or shrieking.

My husband and I looked at each other and had the look that said, "Can we make it through the night?"

As soon as the seatbelt sign was off, both children were on me. I truly felt like an old gum tree with two koalas. Except that these two wriggle and fight.

We were served our meal pretty much within 45mins into the air. We all ate some. I prayed for a good night's sleep for the children and us after the meal.

Took our children almost another hour after the meal to finally fall asleep. Both of them wanted to sleep on my lap. I can't remember what happened, how it happened, but the older one eventually went to daddy and slept on his lap. The younger one, however, needs to lie flat to be able to sleep. And guess what, we only had 4 seats. One for each of us. I was relegated to the floor at one stage, because the younger one took 2 seats all to herself in dreamland.

It was a good flight as soon as the children fell asleep. We were both tired too and took the opportunity to catch some rest.

We were glad to be home in our beds once again after the long flight back.

The husband and I talked about travelling again in the future and we both decided that for our own sanity, we will pick the mainstream airlines. At least we wouldn't need to bring that many snacks onto the plane and have a good selection of meals and snacks provided.

Scoot only provided us with one meal and for all other foodstuff and drinks, we'd have to pay for it. The range was not good enough to accommodate allergies.

When it comes to flying, the hours were not ideal for young children. We are thankful that our children coped quite well with the awkward hours.

All I can say is, be prepared when travelling on a budget airline with young children. Know your children, know what to expect and think ahead. Sphere: Related Content

Coping with illnesses

Illnesses are something mums don't like to deal with. Children are extra cranky and clingy. Mums are worn thinner than ever before.

We had a series of illness in our household the last couple of weeks.

First it was hand, foot and mouth disease which puts the little one out of contact with other people. She couldn't understand why she had to stay at home while the older sister goes out in the car. The sores on her arms bother her.

Then it was the older sister who had flu.

Then we all had head lice.

It was constant washing, washing, washing. Keep the toys clean. Keep your fingers clean. Keep the furniture clean.

We're getting to the end of all these and I look forward to a more normal life.

Clingy, cranky children aren't fun. A mum worn thin doesn't help either.

But, I know, I don't have to do this alone. God is there to strengthen and keep me going. His love allows me to love my children even more. His patience allows me to listen and spend time with them. When I feel like I am exhausted of all love and patience, He is the one who refreshes me and fills me with overflowing abundance. Sphere: Related Content