Music benefits the brain, research reveals

Here's another article that reiterates the benefits of music, particularly learning to play music.

Northwestern University scientists have pulled together a review of research into what music -- specifically, learning to play music -- does to humans. The result shows music training does far more than allow us to entertain ourselves and others by playing an instrument or singing. Instead, it actually changes our brains.

The paper, just published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, is a compilation of research findings from scientists all over the world who used all kinds of research methods. The bottom line to all these studies: musical training has a profound impact on other skills including speech and language, memory and attention, and even the ability to convey emotions vocally.

So what is it that musical training does?

Read on here.

Abok abok sago

Today I attempted abok abok sago. I remember learning how to make it when I was in Form One or Two for my Home Economics class. That version required banana leaves where you wrap the sago in a pyramid-like shape with the leaves. The recipe I used today simply requires you to steam it in a tray.

Here's a picture of the final result. It didn't turn out perfect as there were some grains of sago that didn't cook through. I increased the steaming time a little to try getting the grains cooked, and what turned out was a slightly tough, chewy 'kuih' instead of a soft, moist one.

Oh well, as long as it still can be eaten!

Perseverance

It's strange how children tend to listen to other adults like their aunts, uncles or teachers more willingly than their own parents. It's like God made them our children to test us parents more so that we can be better people/parents (looking at the positive side!).

It's always been an uphill battle daily for me to get Caitlin to practise her musical instruments. While she enjoys the lessons, practising is another thing. She finds it hard to put in extra effort to learn something new as she is impatient and wants to get it right at the first time itself.

However, it was surprisingly different yesterday. That's where the part about listening to other adults instead of parents comes in. At chapel session in school, they were taught the lesson of perseverance. The teacher showed them Horton Hears A Who. It's a movie she's watched before. We took her to the theatre to see it and she enjoyed it. I remember sharing with her the moral of the story too; even with the other Horton story we read together - Horton Hatches The Egg. But I guess it somehow didn't hit home when it was me telling her.

After she told me about her lesson about perseverance with Horton, I took the opportunity to remind her about it while we were practising the piano. It hit home this time and on her own accord, she just kept practising one piece repeatedly. She could tell she was improving slowly with more practice and was happy about the outcome. Later at night, she did the same with her drums. She was happy. So was I.

This morning, she said "I'm going to have perseverance again today." It was a heartwarming moment. I hope this attitude can continue forever!

P.S.  I'm reminded to have perseverance too, I guess.

Upside down Thursday

It's Thursday again today. Last week, I missed my Cooking Thursday. I can't remember why. I must have been occupied with something else. I've been meaning to try my hand at making the old classic pineapple upside down cake for some time and had scoured the internet to look for an easy recipe.

Believe me, when I Googled 'pineapple upside down cake', it presented me with tons of recipes. Some called for unsalted butter and brown sugar, some said I had to use a skillet, and uncommon ingredients, etc etc. All that put me off. I'm the lazy type when it comes to cooking -- the recipes must be simple to follow, the ingredients easy to find, and the dish is something that fussy eaters here will eat or at least try.

I happened to be at a bookstore a few weeks ago and chanced upon a handy pocket-sized recipe booklet with the cover photo of  pineapple upside down cake! It was like it was calling out to me. Although I have more than enough cookbooks that I read and hardly use their recipes, I couldn't resist getting just another one for my collection. It was only RM9.90 so I didn't feel too guilty. It's by Betty Saw, a well-known local 'celebrity' cook and cookbook author.

Well, enough of my longwinded intro.  Here's the result of today's Cooking Thursday, out from the oven not too long ago (pardon the poor quality pic again, just too lazy to climb upstairs to get the proper camera!).

It's without the maraschino cherries and pineapple cream. Although the touch of red could have made it look more attractive, I was being practical. I didn't want to purposely go out to get the cherries which will end up being dug out and dumped into the dustbin because people here don't like the taste of it -- it's like a combi of cough medicine and cockroach (it's usually flavoured with oil of bitter almond). Plus, I don't think it's healthy food due to the preservatives and food colouring used. The same goes for the pineapple cream. I already used a whole block (250g) of butter and 250g of sugar for the cake. I think we can do without the additional 250g of butter and 150g for the decorative cream (as shown in the picture above). 

Now, what shall I do with this nine-inch square cake? There's only three of us at home. Gotta taste it first and see if it's 'passable' to be shared with 'outsiders'! Haha....

Rollercoaster-ing

It's been a rather tiring few weeks lately. The demands of supervising a school-going child's academic and co-curricular (music education only in fact) progress can be quite draining if you have an eight-year-old who behaves like an 18-year-old! Plus the man of the house has been 'missing' quite a lot lately due to demands of his work during the just-over World Cup season, travelling outstation over weekends and returning late on weekdays.

After five years of being a SAHM, it's getting rather dull and boring for me more frequently lately as I chug along semi robot-like with the daily routines of home, school, childminding, cooking and blah, blah, blah (yeah, that does indicate my present state! LOL!)

I've toyed with a number of ideas and stuff that's been up in the air or on the backburner all this five years' long while, even some grandiose plans when I was all excited at the start of my new career as SAHM in 2005.

Some include getting more exercise, upgrading my writing skills by going for some writing courses (gosh, the choices are rather limited here and track record of those offering them don't seem greatly enticing to be honest), going for cooking classes, writing my great big novel, starting an hourly childcare service (on second thought, I must be crazy to have thought of this!), reading more 'serious' books, rekindling my on-off affair with music and the piano or even a new instrument....

Then last week, an old friend called and asked me to join in her idea of FUN in starting a blog (oh yes, yet another one which makes it seven in total for me...) that gives the "skinny on where to eat, stay and play" which is the tagline for the blog, appropriately named Two Skinny Moms. We've so far contributed one post each. Check it out here. Thanks, IC!

Last week, C's school organised Bahasa Malaysia Week and among the activities was a show-and-tell. In two weeks' time, it will be English Week and there'll be show-and-tell too.  Her English teacher has asked the class to start preparing for it and to present it to her today. Although the teacher told the class about it last week, this dear girl, as usual has to leave it to the last minute. She, and me and daddy of course(!), had to crack heads to come up with an interesting topic to show and tell. Gosh, this girl is super picky and turned down many of our suggestions until I suggested football, World Cup, and her favourite player. Then only, she got excited.

So she wrote her script last night, mostly about Kaka, the Brazilian football star she recently read about in a kid's magazine. We learnt that Kaka's full name is Ricardo Izeczon dos Santos Leite. No wonder why he's called Kaka! And he started his football career at age 8 with a local football club. What amazing talent!