I was talking to Ryan’s babysitter about some schools that we preferred over others and our intention to send Ryan there in the future. She was previously a teacher and she was telling us how some parents found difficulties in getting their children to their preferred schools.
She told me a story about how a parent she knew donated some school furniture like desks and chairs to get goodwill from the school and finally managed to get their children in there. Wow! Is that really what people have to do these days to get into good schools?
Have you heard of any similar stories about gaining entries into schools?
Ryan is going to turn 3 in a few months and up to now, he’s never really been socialising much with other kids. He does play with adults and older children, but never kids at his age.
We’re thinking of sending him to play school next year but before that, I thought it might help to send him to some interactive sessions like Gymboree to get him used to the idea of mixing around and learning together.
Anyone has any thoughts on this? I haven’t checked out what are the options of such classes for kids his age, I only know and heard of Gymboree. Any similar ones which you highly recommend?
We’re also trying to encourage Ryan to pick up Mandarin language. He speaks only English now and doesn’t quite want to learn Mandarin even when the babysitter tries to teach him a few words here and there. I suppose he finds it a bit of an alien language after being exposed to only one language so far. So if there are some of these classes where kids are also encouraged to pick up a second language, that’ll be great for him too. Or at least be exposed to other kids who speak Mandarin so that he will want to learn the language and communicate with his new friends.
How fast kids grow these days…I can’t believe it’s been 3 years since he came along. From the days this blog talked about him as a baby, today I’m talking about education and school already.
It won’t be long before I start talking about college and university too, huh? 
But that’s looking too far forward…by then not sure whether this mummy still has the stamina to blog, more likely being online to search for wrinkle cream write-ups like prototype 37c reviews. Haha!
But I’m sure I’ll have a blast of a time being a mummy all through the stages of “growing pains”…
At one time Ryan wasn’t eating well at all. We were upset and wondering how we can make him eat more. That’s when we tried out Pharmaton Kiddi which is produced just for kids. It helps to improve their appetite through the use of lysine as part of the supplements used in the syrup.
It tastes sweet and syrupy, so we had no problem getting Ryan to take it. He took a teaspoonful every morning before breakfast. We were amazed that the same day he took it, his appetite improved! Not sure if it’s a coincidence that he was hungry, but whatever it is, it worked. After finishing a bottle of Pharmaton Kiddi, we stopped giving it to him and wanted to see how he is without it.
Good to note that he still ate quite well without it. That was many months back. Now he’s still quite alright with his appetite so we haven’t started him on it again. But we do have an extra bottle at home, just in case we may need it.
So if you have problems with handling your kids’ appetite, you can give Pharmaton Kiddi a try too. I think they have an adult version too. If I’m not mistaken it’s just called Pharmaton. But make sure you read the label on the packaging. It must contain lysine for it to work. But I think most adults don’t need such a supplement, more like things to suppress the appetite like adipex than Pharmaton to improve it, right? 
Ryan loves chocolates, whether it’s the normal milk chocolate, white or dark ones too. In fact, he loves all the sweet stuff so I also try to not let him go overboard with them although he really loves them. For one thing, it’s not healthy to have all that sweet junk food. Also, all that sugar makes him real hyper. He’s already hyper enough as it is, extra sugar in his little body spells trouble for us to keep up with a highly energetic Ryan.
I’m sure most kids love sweet things. But remember to not let them have too much. Sweets, chocolates, puddings, etc are fine treats once in a while but remember to watch how much they are taking per day. Can’t be good for their teeth too
These days it is believed that child obesity is more rampant compared to our generation because kids these days don’t go out there to play as much as they grow up. They sit at the computer screen or TV screen all day long, and the effects of consuming sweet things will play a part in contributing to obesity too apart from their lifestyle habits.
Surely we don’t want that for our kids, and for them to suffer the emotional challenges on handling that, and worst still some in their teenage years secretly go on diets or even pills to trim down. And we know the dangers of diet pill side effects so better start them off right from the very beginning.
Sometimes we may not realise it, but this kind of problem can stem from us parents because we allow them to cultivate such eating habits and even lifestyle. So parents, do our part well and we will have healthy and happy kids!
Last night we were taking a short ride in the car when Ryan stared upwards to the sky and looked at the full and bright moon shining down on us. As we kept driving, he kept staring at the moon until it was out of sight.
After some turns here and there, the moon came back into sight and he would be so thrilled to point out to me again that we’re able to see the moon again.
Just then he asked me, “Mummy, the moon cannot move but how come it’s following us?”
I was very happy with his question as it shows how curious he is about things and it even crossed his mind that how can something that remains static can always seem to be in view to us.
I explained to him as simply as I can that the moon is positioned very high up in the sky and when it’s so high up there, no matter where we go, we will always see it. And that’s why it seems as though the moon is “following” us around.
I don’t know if that explanation was good enough for him, or whether he understood it. But he just nodded and said “Mmm….”
Wow, I gotta go read up on those online encyclopedias on things like that so that I can be more prepared with better answers next time!
