Ryan has always been an inquisitive child and I’ve enjoyed the questions he asks. He’s now 2 years and 4 months and he knows his alphabets (well, singing his ABCs, that is), counts up to 10 without assistance and up to 20 with some help, knows colours and his all time favourite is purple, speaks in long sentences and carries a tune rather well for a little guy his age.

Lately, the more difficult questions have come. From asking what us object names which is easy peasy to answer, he now asks questions that I need to think hard to answer.

Last week he asked me what is love. Then yesterday he asked me what is “around”, “everything” and “anything”. To us it’s an easy word. But try explaining those words to a kid! But I do answer his questions no matter how difficult it is to try to make him understand. I don’t know if he understands me but he still uses the words correctly anyway.

He is very curious, and tends to ask a lot more these days. Whenever he sees anything that seems extraordinary to him, he would ask the what, how, why questions. When he saw a car parked on the side of the highway needing roadside assistance, he asked what was the uncle doing. He also asked me why there are so many clouds in the sky. When he watches Barney, he would ask for the names of the kids and ask why he said this or that. So I’ve really got to pay attention sometimes in order to answer his questions properly.

This is getting real fun although tricky…but it sure is fun still for us to learn how far along he has come!

To read more parenting related articles, click here: Life As A Mummy

The more difficult questions are now coming…

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It was a while back when I first wrote to ask for opinions of other parents regarding potty training their kids. Back then I was quite keen to get started on training Ryan to use the potty. But the suggestion then was to let him take his time and be ready at his own pace.

So it was left at that. But recently we started asking Ryan if he would like to try using a potty since he can already tell us when he needs to pee and poo. He was alright with the idea and sometimes even seemed keen when we talked about buying a potty when we go shopping.

But for a few times when we went to check out potties and tried to get him to test some out just so we know it fits him, he refused and wanted to walk out of the shop. So we couldn’t buy any. The strange thing was that during bed time, he would come and tell me that I forgot to buy him a potty!

Anyway, finally the daddy managed to get him to try out some potties when I wasn’t around and bought him 2 sets, one for home use and the other at the babysitter’s. We have yet to start him on it but looking forward to it tonight.

I just hope that we don’t get overwhelmed by all that smell from the potty…he does eat quite a bit and sometimes even he can’t take the smell of his own poo and showed signs of wanting to vomit! Hahahaha!

Speaking of eating a lot, I’ve pigged out so much during lunch time that I’m feeling sleepy all afternoon. If I keep eating at this pace, soon I’m going to need a good and safe fat burner product!

So anyone has any tip for this newbie mummy trying to potty train a 2-year old?

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Do you often find product mailers in your post boxes? We used to get plenty from housing developers and hypermarkets. So much so that most times they are unseen and simply dumped into the bins.

Lately there are a whole bunch of mailers for services in the area of children development and enrichment lessons. I would’ve thrown these out in the past too but I think now is the time I start to take notice of some of them.

Do you believe in sending your kids to all kinds of lessons? I know parents start their kids off to some fun lessons or classes as young as two years old. Most of them would start off with Gymboree or something similar. I have yet to start Ryan off on anything, actually, and am wondering if I’m depriving him of something. Do you think I am?

Anyway, as much as I think it’s good to let kids learn as many things as possible from a young age, I believe very much too that it should all be done in moderation. I do not wish to load his day full of lessons from one hour to the next the whole day through, so much so that his remaining free time will be spent at home trying to catch up on some given homework or practise on his musical instrument for his next class. I want him to enjoy his childhood as much as possible doing non-class stuff.

So whilst I may glance through some mailers and brochures to check out what interesting enrichment classes are out there, I won’t be all too hyped out about registering him for all things dumped into my mailbox. If I feel suffocated with just these mailers, imagine how Ryan would feel going to all these classes!

All kinds of classes seem to be mushrooming these days from the regular tuition classes to Kumon lessons to speech and drama too. Even tertiary education courses are getting more diversed these days if you noticed, people nowadays can do courses on drawing and developing animations for games to some specialised medical coding training courses too. What a world of difference to what we had during our time, the boring old stuff like accountancy, nursing, law school, business administration, etc.

So now, if I were to send him for one or two classes a week to have fun, which would you recommend? The key thing is really for him to make some friends, have lots of fun and whilst at it, learning a thing or two.

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I love it whenever I see Ryan showing care to others. Some may see his actions as being a cute little busy-body but I feel that this is a good foundation to help build up his caring and helpful character.

Ryan first started to offer his help whenever he saw me folding up the blankets and clothes. I will let him “help” me with the work although he doesn’t really do them the right way. At least he feels that he’s able to offer help and that his assistance is accepted and appreciated. I think it is an important achievement for him to feel he’s being useful. Don’t you think?

Over time he’s grown to be a caring little toddler. Whenever he sees someone in pain, he would lean close and offer a kiss. If you have a wound, he would ask you to apply some cream or medicine and will later ask if you are okay or not. I love that he cares!

Yesterday his daddy was carrying him in one arm and the other was loaded with some bags. He asked his daddy “Papa, heavy or not?” to which the father said yes. He then offered to help him carry some bags and his daddy agreed. I never knew that he understands the concept of heaviness and to offer his help too! We really shouldn’t underestimate kids and their ability to know what’s going on around them, huh?

He also likes to run into the kitchen sometimes and ask me “Mummy, what are you doing?” when he sees me leaning over the copper kitchen sinks doing the dishes. But I never allow him to stay in the kitchen with me because I fear him hurting himself there with all the electrical appliances not to mention reaching up to hot water and sharp objects in the kitchen.

So my little boy has yet to learn how to help me do the dishes but perhaps will soon be allowed to do so when he grows up a little more. I always have this nice vision of a kid standing on a little stool next to the parent at the sink, helping to wipe the dishes dry whilst the parent does the washing and they both chat about the day. Gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling.

I look forward to more pleasant moments like this where I can witness Ryan growing into a caring person. Something worth nurturing, don’t you think?

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At the point when Ryan is going to turn 2, I have yet to look into finding a suitable pre-school for him. Of late, there have been a few more reasons and push factors for us to consider sending him to school soon.

My only contention about packing him off to a pre-school is the health factor. We all know that once a child attends school, he or she is bound to be exposed to more illnesses because of the exposure to more people.

Apart from that, I am quite keen to explore this early start to a pre-school for Ryan. Simply because I think he feels lonely and needs children company and he’s bound to make friends there. He’s always stuck with us adults and though he does have other cousins his age, he doesn’t get to meet them often at all.

Furthermore, lately he’s been asking where his friends are and I don’t quite know how to answer. He even grabs his toy Elmo and Cookie Monster and says they are his friends! That breaks my heart, to think that he has resorted to claiming his toys to be his friends.

I’ve been recommended a few pre-schools to get Ryan started but honestly, I haven’t done my own research on these recommendations. I know those who recommended the schools to me have good intentions, but at that time I thought it was a little early to get started.

When I was schooling, I didn’t even look very much in advance to find a suitable university not to mention do proper GMAT prep, so how hard can it be to look for a pre-school? As it turns out, it may even be harder than finding a good university!

Now that I’m beginning to toy with this idea of sending Ryan to pre-school, these recommendations are coming in very handy. At least they’re a start of some schools for me to find out more on. Otherwise, I think I would be quite at a loss to get started on where to find these pre-schools!

What about you? When did you begin to scout for suitable schools for your kids? If you haven’t already started like me, when do you intend to start?

Also, those who have recommendations and thoughts or ideas to share about toddler’s schooling issues, please share your thoughts. We all would appreciate learning more from other parents out there.

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