Here’s a sneak preview of my new baby that has kept me busy over the past weekend.  Heehee.  It’s all pinky and girlie.  Okay, details coming up soon.  So watch this space!

Forget the costly flashcard system.  I’ve been using books and mostly powerpoint slides to teach my kid. From his ABCs and 123s to currently teaching him to read words. And to me, it has been effective. 

He has also been using the PC to play games and do simple surfing by himself.  That’s him on his favourite Wiggles website, using our normal adult size mouse.  He loves to click and drag objects and I think it’s really a good activity to train his hand-eye coordination plus improve his patience.  While he doesn’t know how to get on to his fave websites yet, he does know how to navigate around a site pretty well.  And if the bandwidth is low, he’ll even complain that “the loading is slow.”

Like, what do you expect with a mum who spends most of her waking hours in front of the PC?  But chill it.  My kid doesn’t spend all his waking hours in front of the terminal.  Only a total of an hour a day at most, and at different intervals. 

That I can ensure…at least until he knows how to boot up the system by himself.

I received an email from Lynette Tan, a student of SMU inviting me to attend their  parent-child communication talk as well as to give them some publicity on my blog.  While I’m not certain if I will attend the talk, I’m most happy to help them publicise their event.

The free talk is titled Talking With Your Child and is part of the SMU module to help enhance parent-child communication on the topic of sex.  

It will be held on Saturday, 4 November 2006 at the Lee Kong Chian School of Business from 0930 to 1330.  The speaker is Ms Liz Gay, a certified non-violent communication trainer. 

RSVP required.  Please contact:
lynette.tan.2006@smu.edu.sg or cheryl.ong.2006@smu.edu.sg

Being parents these days is really tough.  Not only do we have to provide for our kids, we need to know the right communication techniques and not come across as too over bearing or protective.  At the same time, we still need to be extra vigilant in order to keep them out of trouble. 

I have blogged about how some mummies are manually keeping track of their kids and joked about hiring a professional to do the job for me in time.  It might not have to be that extreme but with children today being able to access to a whole gamut of computer tools, we do need to be very technologically savvy to keep track of their activities.  I’ve even read of parents having to resort to sophisticated survelliance software to monitor their kid’s online activities.  And to think that I thought such programs were only used to monitor spouses!

Some will probably irk at the thought of spying on their kids and find this totally intrusive and ridiculous.  I do too.  But think about it.  There are too many weirdos lurking online.  Do we want to take the risk to let our kids, especially those who are more gullible, fall prey to these predators?  It’s a fine line between privacy and responsibility really. 

Fortunately for me, my boy is still young and I still have time to think about this.  So perhaps I should find time to attend the talk and pick up the communication skills first.   

Oh, before I forget.  Refreshments are included for the free talk.

Yesterday, when the three of us were having breakfast at a McDonald’s we always frequent, I saw a lady with long wavy hair walking in with two little girls.  I thought she looked vaguely familiar but I couldn’t place her face then.  Thinking that she might perhaps be a parent from Gavin’s school, I continued to eat my food without saying anything.

A short while later, Gavin said he wanted to drink our tea and his dad got up to get a spoon from the counter.  Now, all this while, dad was sitting with his back facing the crowd and had no idea who was walking in or out.  When he reached the counter, he stopped and looked at the lady who was at that point busy ordering her food.  He turned to look at me and mouthed the name of the lady.  Apparently she was his old friend, and someone I know by sight.  Before he could say anything to her, I signalled him not to acknowledge her and he came back to our seat.

I don’t know this lady personally but I’ve seen her a few times.  She used to be my husband’s friend years ago and was a ravishing beauty then, being an ex-stewardess and model.  While she didn’t look exactly stylish or chic yesterday, she was at least well attired and groomed.  And that was the point.   

I was nothing close to that.  As a matter of fact, I was sloppy.  In an old shabby T, slightly tattered bermudas and a pair of dingy flip flops.  On top of that, my hair was dishevelled, I was bare face and I had my nerdy looking glasses on.  Well, 101% dorky!

So I didn’t feel up to meeting anyone we know.  What’s more if it’s a lady who is well known in the looks department and a friend of my husband.  No way am I going to risk his reputation by letting her scrutinise me and then go and make some negative comments afterwards to others about his wife.  Oh yeah, I’m dead sure she would because she definitely isn’t an immortal angel.  And let’s face it.  That’s what we do all the time.  Commenting in passing or in thoughts about how others look.

But even if I was slightly better groomed yesterday, I wouldn’t have been keen to exchange greetings with her.   I can’t explain accurately why.  Maybe it’s a woman’s instinctive behaviour when it comes to meeting someone good looking of the same gender.  Or maybe it has to do with the fact that my husband thinks she’s good looking. 

Then again, perhaps it’s just me.  The insecuresmallmindedpettyshallow me.

More handmade jewelries!  A galore of pretty necklaces, earrings, bracelets, anklets and rings crafted by my friend Ashes.  Her designs are really sweet and the amazing thing is that she acquired this jewelry designing and making skill on her own.  Just like that. 

In fact I’ve been happily wearing some of the crystalline accessories made by her since last year for most casual outings.  And of late, she has gotten more serious in this business so I like to lend her some support here. 

You can find all her designs at Aly’s Krystallinos.  Her pieces are very reasonably priced and she’s able to customise to requests as well.  Plus, she’s right here at Singgieland.  

Say, it’s about time to shop for that X’mas gift isn’t it?