Archive for July, 2009

WW- New Skates

My latest addition – Rollerblade Twister 243

We bought this pair as a upgrade a few weeks ago. Now I can skate more confidently with Ryan during our weekly rollerblading lessons.

My previous pair was a pair of K2 skates. It didn’t give me as much support as this current pair.

Ryan’s Skates- Rollerblade Micro 8.0. (Which will be in cold storage this month due to his injury). He can really  fly like the wind when he puts them on. He really loves to wear his skates.

Do you go rollerblading with your kids during the weekend?

TT- Surviving an afternoon at A & E

Ryan after being put in cast

Yesterday afternoon I really had a bad scare. I received a call from Ryan’s school. His teacher told me that he has fallen and he was crying badly as he couldn’t move his right arm. Hb and I immediately took off from work and brought him to see a doctor.

The pronosis wasn’t good. He was referred to KKH to have a X-ray and had to see the bone specialist there.  The waiting time and moving from one doctor to another at KKH was agonizing. The X-ray that he took showed that there was a fracture in his left elbow. He had to be sedated and his hand “fixed”  Ryan was given a low dosage of Ketamine before the minor procedure took place.

Seeing him being jab was really heart wrenching as he was screaming his head off when the needle was jabbed into his thigh and the nurse and I had to restrain him. I knew it was for his good and tried to soothe him that the procedure would be over soon. However whatever I said was to no effect in easing the pain he was feeling. It took about an hour after his arm was put back together before he fully awoke.

Ryan is in cast and has to stop all physical activity for 4 weeks. It really pains me to see him missing his favourite swimming and rollerblading lessons. ( Not mentioning the $$ in skipped lessons)

Behaviour Modification – Impatient (Part 2)

In the last installment on Behaviour Modification I mentioned about dealing with my pupils who were “fresh“.  In this post I will be addressing a very common bad attitude- Impatience.

Bad Behaviour- Impatience

Antidote: Patience, Self-control, Serenity

How many times have you been guilty of saying this sentence- ” I want you to do it NOW!!”

I personally am guilty of doing very frequency while teaching in class. In this world of ours everyone is striving for instantaneous gratification or acknowledge.

With the growth of online shopping, fast food delivery services and more and more applications having the “one-click” approach most of us have grown accustomed to having instant results. This can spell disaster especially while bringing up our younger generations and teaching them the virtues of Patience.

Impatient kids /adults want things NOW. They are not inclined to wait for their needs/wants to be attended to.  They can’t care less about the feeling and needs of others as they selfishly demand that everything /everyone adhere to THEIR schedule and fancies.

Borba has a 5 step plan on how to create Impatience.

Step 1- Make your Kid Wait- and Don’t  Give In

The time which you make you kid wait can be pre-determined by their age and the seriousness of the issue on hand.

When dealing with my 2yr old pestering me to let him bring him out to the park to play I will let him wait till I have finished my task at hand (doing the laundry) before taking him out. I would explain to him that I will need to finish hanging up the clothes before we can go. If he is willing he can help out with it or the only other option is to occupy himself till I am done.

No amount of whining and scream will make me finish my chore faster. In fact the more he whines I will deliberately take a slightly longer time then usual just to teach him that it is important that he learns to wait.

Step 2- Stretch Your Kid’s Patience Little by Little

Borba has some interesting tips on calming the child down when they are being impatient.

Freeze- Don’t move until you feel in control

Hold your breath- the child is to hold their breath as long as possible then take deep breaths.

Count- This is commonly used technique for cooling down.  You can count along together with
a younger child.

Sing- For young toddlers get them to sing their “A-B-C’s” or other simple songs.

Stretch- For older children they can pretend to be a scarecrow or leaf falling
slowly to the ground.

Once your child has learned to control his temper he will slowly learn how to wait and be more patient.

Step 3- Teach them the difference between “Needs” and “Wants”

Delayed gratification can be in action for this. Checking off the dates on a calendar or showing a countdown chart to the “delivery date” of a much wished for toy will let the child learn the difference between “needs” and “wants”.  If the child forgets about the item it will only show to himself that he really didn’t “need” the item after all.

Step 4 – Take a Stand Against Interrupting

I really hate it when my pupils interrupt me while I am delivering my lessons in class. It breaks my train of thought and it takes me several moments to compose myself before I can continue with what I have planned to do.

I will acknowledge the child’s question or presence and kindly tell them to wait till I have finished writing on the board or giving my instructions before I am able to address their concerns.

It is important ,especially for younger kids, to spell out to them the time frame that they have to wait.  You also need to point out ” inappropriate times” whereby it is unacceptable for them to interrupt. Ie: When someone is busy in the toilet or asleep.

Step 5- Reinforce Patience

Give your child some postive reinforcement. It does wonder in instilling the preferred behaviour in the child.

” Thank you for waiting for your turn. I can see that you are being patient.”

” I noticed that you were being patient with your brother when you let him play with the toy first.”

It will take some time before you can see an improvement in your child’s behaviour.

If you really want your child to show the virtue of patience you must first show that you are patient- Dominique

By modeling to your child that you too can take turn and wait to be served you are showing that he can do the same too.

With both the adult and the child working on being less impatient it will do wonders in improving the bond between parent and child.  Let’s try it out today!!

Weekend Reflections- Sticking to my To-Do-List

This the 1st week I am posting to this new meme of mine- Weekend Reflections.

This week I am reflecting on  perseverance and trying to stick to my To-Do-List.

At Work

I have managed to complete  80% of the marking that I have this week.

My class is on schedule or slightly fast in the learning of the curriculum and that has freed up time to do more creative and out-of the box activities with them. I am aiming for more integrate learning experience which is not so textbook oriented. This week we had  time to make paper dolls in class during our art lesson as a starter activity to the unit on Clothes we Wear which I am currently teaching for English. The kids were thrilled , including the boys, as they could make costumes for the paper dolls based on their favourite cartoon character Naruto, Ben Ten etc.

At Home

I managed to get the  laundry on alternative days at home and the clothes pile on the sofa is nearly non-existent this week.  Hooray!!  Since our home makeover it has been easier to keep the place neat and tidy and I am simply loving it.

With the Kids

The boys have just started their  twice nightly Japanese lessons with me.  After sourcing around I managed to buy some  Japanese flashcards for them. I initially wanted to make some for them but haven’t had the time and energy to work on them. They are loving this new language and look forward to getting to the end of the 100 words.

How has your week been?

If you want to know more about how this meme started read here