Monday, May 12, 2014

Reading Books

Don't feel sad if your kid don't like to read.  

 

No matter how hard much you push them, they simply don't like to read.

 

May be it is time to look at what he or she fond of.

 

Jay loves to build things using Minecraft or LEGO.  So, what I did is I bought a lot a lot of Minecraft guides, Lego instructions and so on.  And mix it with all the rest of the books.

 

Surprisingly, he reads those beginner guides of Minecraft.  And patiently he can finished reading 

half of the books in a day.  Those books usually have smaller words and very thick.

 

So, some kids are like this.  They like to read what they love to read.  So, don't force them.

 

 

Now you know why we recently install a new bookshelf just to place their books so that they can easily access those books at any time.  Previously, we place the books at mutiple places.  And sometimes, little Kay could not even reach to it.  Now, look at it, the bottom 6 shelves are theirs. 

 

The F Word

That day at the swimming pool, one of Kay Kay's swimming class students was shouting "F*cking Hell".

It came out from the mouth of a may be 7-8 years old kid.  He was clearly frustrated with something and out from his mouth, it was that F+H words.

Where do kids learn all these "bad words?"

In my opinion, there are mainly three main sources.

1.  From the movie.  If you watch some of the Hollywood movies, you will find that the F words kept appeaering in those movies.  The kids may not know what does the F word means, but the next thing you know after they watch the movie, they automatically "copy" the word into their small little mind.  And one day, don't be surprise that the F word slipped out from their mouth.

  So, when we picked the movie or TV shows we need to be very careful so to avoid those movies that has vougar language in it.

  When you have Netflix, Hulu at home, you have to be careful too.  So, the best is to watch Hollywood movies when the kids are asleep.  I don't think you want the kid to learn the F word that early.

  When you download Hollywood movies from the torrent sites, you got to be careful too.  Because all these movies and TV shows that you downloaded are 100% not censored.  So, the chance to catch the F word phrase are quite high.

  Some parents may not even realiaze this, and think that it is so cool to bring kids to watch Hollywood movies.  So, you will need to be careful about this.  So, next time when you bring kids to watch Hollywood blockbusters, please be mindful about it.  

  Yesterday, I was showing my boys the Simpsons cartoon show.  I like to let them watch this latest episode because this is the episode where Homer Simpson's trapped inside the Lego fantasy world of his as he likes the moment he spent with his daughter playing the Lego bricks.  So, what I did, is I actually watch that episode first before I show to my kids.  And before the show, I told both Jay & Kay that, hey, the TV shows has one occasion where it says the "S" (Stupid) word.  At first, Jay refuse to watch it, because he says got "S" word in it.  I then told him that it is OK.  As long as you know that saying "S" words is not polite.  They understand it.

  Last month, I also watched the Captain America - Winter Soldiers first and have actually know that there are not much vulgar langues in there, then, I brought them to see it, and they enjoy it very much.

2.  From the Parents.  Most of the time, kids are learning from their parents.  I see a lot of parents speaking bad words in front of  the kids.  For example, at a Lego store, a daddy talked to his son, "Who is so stupid put the things here?" of course, when his kid heard it, he will says the same thing, same way.

I even caught my wife sometimes swear unintentionally in from of our kids.  This is when she is not aware of that Jay or Kay is around her.

Kids look up to the parents in every thing.  They learned everything from their parent.  They learned the way how their parent speak.  So, if the parents ill treated the domestic maid at home, "Why you so stupid?"... The kids soon will pick up those lines.

Now, just imagine, when the parents start to swear using the F words.  What will the kids do?  They learned.  They think it is right.

So, when we are with our kids, we will have to watch out our mouth.  Everything from our mouth has to be clean.  When you read papers, magazine, and watch TV and you saw something unpleasant, and out from now where, the anger strike you, watch around you, to see if your kids are around or not.  Don't say the F word in front of the kids.

In our home, learning how to RESPECT other people is top priority.  I have made it very clear that if the kids did not say nice things to our domestic helper, they will get very severe punishment from daddy.  You have to set rules for your kids so that they know why they cannot do that or do this.  Especially saying the F words.

3.  From his/her friends.  Because parents of the other kids sometimes may not be so strict.  So, they let them watch movies that has not be screened thru, or say the bad things in front of their kids.  So, those kids learned it and use it almost daily basis.

We can change those people but what we can do is to train our kids.  Let them know what is called bad influence.  Teach them young, so that they know what they can do.

Everyday, have a pet talk with your kids.  Find out what is going on at school.  Sometimes, you can ask if anyone speak of F words?  Jay will tell me that so and so speak of F word.  And what will Jay do, Jay actually will go and tell the form teacher about it.  So, let the adult or form teacher to handle it.

Always remember, how you teach your kid is how your kids most likely going to grow up into.  So, the more time you spent on your kids, the more time they will learn your way.  Always be mindful of things that you teach them.  Run simulations in your mind to see what will happen after they picked up this and that.  Kids always in learning mode.

Good luck!

Oh ya... one of the useful tip is to bring them to Haw Par Villa.  There, bring them to the "Hell" to show them what is "Hell" actually means.  Bring them to see "If people always swear in bad words" what will happen to them.  Show them the horrioble, bloody image displays.  Those punishment images hopefully will scare them a bit.  hahahahahaha

 

Jay - Best Ball Striker

Date:  May 12, 2014

Yesterday, Jay Jay received his third medal.

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He is doing very well in his golf lesson.  He listen, he is focus, and with his body size and strength, he is able to hit the ball well.

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Last month competition only has 1 medal.  Both boys and girls compete for the single medal.

He made it thru the payoff with his consistent swing at the club.

The videos of his swings is collected in below’s link.

http://miniliew.blogspot.sg/2014/05/jay-his-third-monthly-competition.html?utm_source=BP_recent

So, this is the “Best Ball Striker" medal.

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So far, he already pocketed “Chip & Putt Winner” medal.

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and “Target Golf Winner” medal.

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Next week will be another competition.  Not sure what is it yet, so, this week, he needs to go practise on Vesak day.  :)

After that, he will be able to pass the GAT test, some junior proficiency test so to get a “Yellow Tag” to be able to play at the Millennium 9-hole course.  Hopefully gets it and I can bring him and play during June holiday.

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Kids are like this.

Whenever they did well in an event, you must continue give them encouragement.

I am glad that the golf school gave lots of such encouragement.  So far he got all the 3 medals, and he is going for the 4th medals.

Of course, as parent, we also give a lot of encouragement.

Guide them, let them practise more.

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Let them figure out how to conquer the slope of the green.  Let them figure out how to hit a long putt.

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Out of all the sports, i.e. Swimming, Badminton, Tennis, Taekwondo, Soccer, etc.  This Golf is the only sport that make him feel happy, and he is willing to place more focus in in.  At least when he grows up, he should be able to play in business golf or social golf.  

Outliers says, give opportunity if possible, and let them practise more (10,000 hours) to master it...

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Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Lego Master Builder - Yoshihito Isogawa

Date:  May 6, 2014

Mr. Yoshihito Isogawa is a real person Lego Master Builder.

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He actually wrote these three fantastic books to teach kids & adults how to build simple Lego machines.

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Last week, Isogawa-san hold a Machines & Robots workshops at Liang Court.  WondersWork @ Liang Court invited him to come and give a workshop to the kids.

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Since he is here, Jay bought two of his books for him to sign his autograph.

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Happy Jay got his signatures on two of his books.  Yeah!  This is the first time Jay Jay meet an author of a book, and ask for the author’s autograph.  Cool!

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Click the following links to check out his work!  

http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A//www.isogawastudio.co.jp/legostudio/index.html&sl=ja&tl=en

Look at this piece of art work.  It is a tape dispenser with a blade to cut the tape.  HaHa and it is build from Lego bricks.

He is truly a master builder.

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The kids are waiting to see his work.

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He brought a lot Lego machines that are made by him.  All these machines are very simple machines but yet complicated.

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The workshop started around 2:40pm as we need to wait for the Obstacle competition to finished.

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Oh, they have to wait for the MC - Ms. Reiko to finished the MCing the Obstacle course.

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Isogawa will deliver his presentation in Japanese, and Ms. Reiko will translate it to English for the kids. 

Today workshop the kids are able to touch Isogawa’s work and play with it.  

When Isogawa take out his Lego machines, all the kids stand up and move towards the table to take a closer look.

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Later the kids touches all sort of different kind of simple machines.

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The color recognition robot.

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The Lego Mindstorm EV3 robots.

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Jay has learned from the workshop the followings:

1.  Lego bricks can be used to build real tools.

2.  It does not have to be a very complicated designed for the machine to work.  See how few bricks Isogawa-san uses to build all these wonderful machines.

3.  He learned about the Hydro power lego machines.

Most importantly, Jay & Kay had a lot of fun during the sessions.

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Saturday, May 3, 2014

A Simple Birthday Meal

Date:  May 3, 2014

This week, I had to go to Jakarta for a couple of days.  But I came back on Wednesday as it is my wife birthday.

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Option 1:  Go out and find a restaurant and buy a bottle of wine and celebrate.  Spent a couple hundreds on the birthday meal.

Option 2:  Stay at home, cook a simple meal, open a bottle of good wine and celebrate.  Spent lesser on birthday meal.

So, I asked my lovely wife and she says option 2.  No a single hesitation.  Wahahaha

So, I bought two pieces of Kobe Beef to cook for her.  And she loves it!

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The fatty meat is not as lumped as Wagyu.  The fat is evenly distributed.

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Let’s cook it.  Grill it.

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One with olive oil and the other without olive oil.

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It is a thin piece, so no need to cook for so long.  Remember to use the aluminium foil to wrap it to self heat for another few minutes.

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The meat was very tender, and it is indeed very different from Wagyu.

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It is much more juicy and tasty!

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No wonder she so happy!

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For the kids, I cooked the beef bee hoon with tomato sauce.

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For a final touch, I added in some mushrooms..

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As for the wine choice, non other than the 2005 Amarone Classico.  Nice!

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Of course the kids are very happy of the Birthday Cake.

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Let’s light it up!

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 Kids, let’s sing a birthday song for mommy.

Happy Birthday to Wife Wife.

 Let’s blow the candles.

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And finally cut the cake.

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So, in summary ….

1)  We had a great meal.  Not cheap for a home meal, but great meal.

2)  This is the first time all of us ate Kobe Beef.  Kobe Beef was banned from exporting until 2013.  So, if you eat Kobe Beef outside of Japan, it is either illegal or it is highly chance of “fake” Kobe beef.

3)  If I took them to high end restaurant to eat the Kobe Beef, I think I need to spent > $500.

4)  We open a good wine for the steak.  If you go out restaurant, the corkage will be extra $50-$100.

5)  The kids and take their own sweet time to eat, to play and setup the birthday cake, takes lots of pictures.

6)  So that night, I spent may be less than $400 for the birthday meal but it brought happy faces to the home.  

7)  So, guys, try it.  Cook for your wife.  It’s cheaper that way.  WAHAHAHAHAHA

Friday, May 2, 2014

Jay & His Third Monthly Competition

Date:  May 2, 2014

Last week, Jay had his 3rd competition in golf training.  Every month, the coaches will let the kids to compete against each other so to demonstrates what they have learned in that month.

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Let’s check out his progress for the last month.

Addressing the ball.  We spent about 15 minutes to warm up before the class start.

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The finishing seems OK.

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Still need to fix a bit of the posture here and there.  Chicken wing definitely not there.

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OK, let’s the competition begins.  Each students get two shots.  Each shots one point.  And it has to be “perfect addressing, perfect finishing” and the get the ball fly up straight into the air.  

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Jay’s turn for the two “perfect shots” needed to be evaluated by the two coaches.

And he nailed it.  I taught him to do practise shots before hitting the real shot.

And I am glad that he listen and did exactly that.

It is a 3-way playoff between Jay, Anna & Martina.  Like Jay, Martina also had two medals back in February and March, same as Jay.

He nailed his shot again.

OK.  Martina is out.  This is the sudden death between Jay & Anna.  Anna tops the ball, she standing behind looking at Jay and hope Jay did the same.  But too bad, Jay nailed the shop again.

So, looks like Jay going to get his third medal two weeks later.  :)

With 5 minutes left before the lesson, the coaches let them try to chip the ball into the white ring area.

Although top the ball, Jay did bring the ball inside the ring.  Well done!

This is one and the only sport that Jay feel very good in playing.  That is because of his body size and strength.  

It is good for him that he got this sport to build up his strong self confidence.  Kids sometimes needs 1-2 such sports that can boost their self esteem.  So, if this is the sport that make him feel good, then, this shall be the sport that will follow him from young.