It's been a long time since we took a real holiday. Our last was in 2005 in Penang when Caitlin was three (my profile photo with her was taken then). She enjoyed it the most as it was her first experience (that she was really aware of) staying at a hotel and playing on the beach and in the sea. I remember that she was somehow very fascinated with the light switches at the bedside table and kept playing with them until one of the bulbs blew!
It's time for another holiday. School is off for a week mid-August and there is a long weekend for the National Day holiday on August 31. These few days, I've been looking around in the internet, newspapers and my Amex brochures for good deals, free stays, cheap flights, points redemptions, etc. Obviously, it is another holiday with Caitlin's interest in mind, to give her an experience of travelling in an airplane, or coach, and using her passport. (Parenthood forces you to change your priorities;I am still longing for my snorkelling, kayaking, shopping and foodie trip somewhere I've not been to before preferably....)
Planning a holiday, especially with a young child or children in tow, is a little harder. We can no longer simply rough it out or schedule a hectic itinerary and hop from one place to another at a moment's notice. The destination selected should preferably be kid-friendly, etc etc etc. (parents with young kids, you know what I mean). And it gets harder when you are on a budget and time restraint since we've yet to have money come down from the sky (we're working on that!)and there aren't many vacation days for Eugene just yet.
Hopefully, I can pin down someplace suited to all the above concerns soon.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Educational Materials
Since being a SAHM/WAHM, I spend time on the internet sometimes looking for free online educational material to cut cost. Caitlin is at that age where she needs and wants to learn many things and getting books and material from bookstores locally can be limiting and expensive.
There's just so many websites with free, printable, downloadable or affordable material if they are for sale. Some even come with teaching guides, advice, newsletters, forums etc to help parents. There are also educational online games, although I'm not too keen on promoting that. Most kids including Caitlin tend to get hooked to them and spend hours in front of the computer, jeopardising their eyesight and missing out on physical exercise, free play, and outdoors time.
I've just touched the tip of the iceberg of websites, info, materials etc available through the internet. Some sites I've come across are:
PBS, Fable Vision, Fun Brain, Nick Jr., Starfall, Family Education Network,and Caitlin's all-time favourite game site My Little Pony .
Just last week, I was looking for music manuscript sheets for Caitlin to practise wiritng her notes. Her music school did not have the manuscript book with large-size staves for little hands, so I went online. And I found it. It's great because I can select and re-size the various manuscript sheets and print them out for free. This is the website.
And for homeschoolers, there are so many sites with good materials, curricula, guides and information, although I don't know which is better and more suitable.
There's just so many websites with free, printable, downloadable or affordable material if they are for sale. Some even come with teaching guides, advice, newsletters, forums etc to help parents. There are also educational online games, although I'm not too keen on promoting that. Most kids including Caitlin tend to get hooked to them and spend hours in front of the computer, jeopardising their eyesight and missing out on physical exercise, free play, and outdoors time.
I've just touched the tip of the iceberg of websites, info, materials etc available through the internet. Some sites I've come across are:
PBS, Fable Vision, Fun Brain, Nick Jr., Starfall, Family Education Network,and Caitlin's all-time favourite game site My Little Pony .
Just last week, I was looking for music manuscript sheets for Caitlin to practise wiritng her notes. Her music school did not have the manuscript book with large-size staves for little hands, so I went online. And I found it. It's great because I can select and re-size the various manuscript sheets and print them out for free. This is the website.
And for homeschoolers, there are so many sites with good materials, curricula, guides and information, although I don't know which is better and more suitable.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Inner beauty
This e-card really got me in stitches when I viewed it while choosing a card to send to my good old friend Siew Lin who is celebrating her 39th birthday today. Happy Birthday Siew Lin!
I hope that as we age (sounds like I seem to be thinking quite a bit about aging these few weeks right?), we will continue to retain our beauty, and grow even more beautiful. I mean more of our inner beauty, although it is also good if we could keep those lines, wrinkles, sags and bags in control!
In this extremely commercialised and competitive world which shouts so much about appearances, first impressions, fashion, brands, it is so easy to get caught up with looking good on the outside and forget the more important aspects of attitude, behaviour, values, etc. Just by leafing through any newspaper or magazine, you can tell that a large chunk of advertising revenue for print publications (and probably other media) come from industries involved in personal care and beauty such as apparel, cosmetics, slimming, fitness, beauty treatments, for women AND men.
What good is it if a person looks like Ms Universe but when she starts speaking, her lips spew nothing but words of conceit, pride, self-centeredness, vulgarity (the list goes on)? This brings to mind a well-dressed woman (stranger) I was standing behind, descending on an escalator in a busy mall one weekend. She had with her a young boy (presumably her son) not older than 10 years. Further down, another lady was struggling with her fully-laden supermarket trolley to get off upon reaching the end. Yes, we have people like that here, I don't know why....
The lady with the young boy exclaimed loudly in a public attention-seeking manner, "Goodness, how stupid can she be? So stupid, so stupid! Look boy, she's so stupid!" I actually did think the same in my heart too, but it is one thing to think that, and another to proclaim your thoughts to the whole world, and worse still to your young child using such words. What a 'fine' example she set for her son.
All that stuck to my mind after that was no longer a picture of a well-dressed, educated upper middle class lady, but an ugly one with that contorted, sneering face, whose son will probably grow up to become a spoilt, ill-mannered, obnoxious rich kid with no heart.
There are so many such parents and children out there nowadays it's scary to imagine the kind of society my daughter is growing up in.
I hope that as we age (sounds like I seem to be thinking quite a bit about aging these few weeks right?), we will continue to retain our beauty, and grow even more beautiful. I mean more of our inner beauty, although it is also good if we could keep those lines, wrinkles, sags and bags in control!
In this extremely commercialised and competitive world which shouts so much about appearances, first impressions, fashion, brands, it is so easy to get caught up with looking good on the outside and forget the more important aspects of attitude, behaviour, values, etc. Just by leafing through any newspaper or magazine, you can tell that a large chunk of advertising revenue for print publications (and probably other media) come from industries involved in personal care and beauty such as apparel, cosmetics, slimming, fitness, beauty treatments, for women AND men.
What good is it if a person looks like Ms Universe but when she starts speaking, her lips spew nothing but words of conceit, pride, self-centeredness, vulgarity (the list goes on)? This brings to mind a well-dressed woman (stranger) I was standing behind, descending on an escalator in a busy mall one weekend. She had with her a young boy (presumably her son) not older than 10 years. Further down, another lady was struggling with her fully-laden supermarket trolley to get off upon reaching the end. Yes, we have people like that here, I don't know why....
The lady with the young boy exclaimed loudly in a public attention-seeking manner, "Goodness, how stupid can she be? So stupid, so stupid! Look boy, she's so stupid!" I actually did think the same in my heart too, but it is one thing to think that, and another to proclaim your thoughts to the whole world, and worse still to your young child using such words. What a 'fine' example she set for her son.
All that stuck to my mind after that was no longer a picture of a well-dressed, educated upper middle class lady, but an ugly one with that contorted, sneering face, whose son will probably grow up to become a spoilt, ill-mannered, obnoxious rich kid with no heart.
There are so many such parents and children out there nowadays it's scary to imagine the kind of society my daughter is growing up in.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Disturbing 'pictures' in my mind
Eugene and I were travelling on the KL-Seremban highway, on the way home from the city centre last night at 11pm and got caught in a traffic jam. It was a Friday night so the heavy traffic was expected with people still out and about and also returning home southwards to places like Seremban, Melaka and Johor for the weekend.
The jam triggered some thoughts:
Why is there still a jam when the recently-launched Smart Tunnel on that stretch was supposed to ease traffic flow?
Then came some detours due to road works. Why work on the roads on well-known peak-hour Friday night?
Why has the government spent billions to build a light rail transit system and reform other types of public transportation, and yet people still prefer to drive?
While stuck in the jam, a series of police outriders and escort cars whizzed by with sirens and lights to get us to move aside for one heavily-tinted VIP car to zoom past.
Why should anyone, even a VIP like a minister for e.g., be given the 'royal' treatment in such instances? In order to understand the plight of their citizens and voters, shouldn't they get themselves down to their level to know what their people experience in order to help them better?
And why the heavily-tinted windows on their cars? The degree of the tint is definitely beyond the permitted range set by the government's road transport department. Eugene recently bought a used car and has yet to get possssion of it because it did not pass the road transport deparment's inspection. Its window tints were apparently too dark and the previous owner has now got to strip them off before handing it over to Eugene. Why such double standards?
I have lived in Kuala Lumpur since 1992 and nothing much has changed in such experiences of mine.
There are of course other issues that bug us like the income tax system. Upon reaching home last night, I received a letter from the income tax department requesting payment of over some RM900 of additional taxes for income earned in 2004. It's now 2007...On top of that I had just paid an additional RM3000 plus early this year....
Then there's stuff like human rights and freedom of religion, for e.g. here
and here.
So what's wrong with these pictures?
The jam triggered some thoughts:
Why is there still a jam when the recently-launched Smart Tunnel on that stretch was supposed to ease traffic flow?
Then came some detours due to road works. Why work on the roads on well-known peak-hour Friday night?
Why has the government spent billions to build a light rail transit system and reform other types of public transportation, and yet people still prefer to drive?
While stuck in the jam, a series of police outriders and escort cars whizzed by with sirens and lights to get us to move aside for one heavily-tinted VIP car to zoom past.
Why should anyone, even a VIP like a minister for e.g., be given the 'royal' treatment in such instances? In order to understand the plight of their citizens and voters, shouldn't they get themselves down to their level to know what their people experience in order to help them better?
And why the heavily-tinted windows on their cars? The degree of the tint is definitely beyond the permitted range set by the government's road transport department. Eugene recently bought a used car and has yet to get possssion of it because it did not pass the road transport deparment's inspection. Its window tints were apparently too dark and the previous owner has now got to strip them off before handing it over to Eugene. Why such double standards?
I have lived in Kuala Lumpur since 1992 and nothing much has changed in such experiences of mine.
There are of course other issues that bug us like the income tax system. Upon reaching home last night, I received a letter from the income tax department requesting payment of over some RM900 of additional taxes for income earned in 2004. It's now 2007...On top of that I had just paid an additional RM3000 plus early this year....
Then there's stuff like human rights and freedom of religion, for e.g. here
and here.
So what's wrong with these pictures?
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Sleep gets in the way
Why do we have to sleep? There's so much more I could do if I didn't have to rest or sleep. I could read and write lots more, and seriously listen to music to fully appreciate it, especially at night when Caitlin is really asleep and I can do these things undisturbed.
By the way, this picture of Caitlin sleeping was just taken half an hour ago. Don't all our children look like innocent little angels when they are asleep? Actually, they are indeed innocent little angels sent by God to bless us. It's only when they are awake and wreak havoc around the house that they become mischievous little angels!
When Caitlin realises she has done something wrong and I'm likely to reprimand her, she'll say "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I love you mummy. Are you angry? Mummy smile?" That feels like cold water poured over my fire.
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