Twenty Toys You Don’t Have To Buy

By Colleen Moulding

Fed up with forking out for the latest piece of over-hyped plastic? Answer “What can we do now Mum?” by making toys from items you will already have around the house.

1. Shops. Save all your empty grocery cartons for a week or so and you’ll soon have a shop any aspiring grocer would be proud of. Gluing down the flaps makes cereal boxes, jelly packets etc. look unopened. Clothes, shoes, and toys can all be used as “stock”. Paper bags and real or play money add to the fun.

2. Paper balls. When the kids keep arguing suggest that they throw something at each other! Paper balls are easily scrunched up from torn out magazine pages to make “ammunition”. When it’s time to tidy up, stand the waste paper basket in the middle of the room and see who can throw the most in. A rolled up magazine makes a good “bat” too.

3. Doctors/Nurses. A roll of white toilet tissue makes this game much more fun as Dads, Grans, teddies or dolls are mummified before your eyes. Plastic medicine spoons and cardboard box hospital beds for toys are extra props that make the game last longer.

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Open house, open hearts

Last Friday, we attended one of our students’ birthday party cum Deepavali open house. We were a little surprised to be invited as this student of mine gets plenty of tongue lashings from me (he has lots of potential but is prone to sloppy work – I can’t stand it when people stand in their own way of progress!) Anyway, we were happy to accept his invitation. Especially me, as I am a huge fan of Indian food!

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As it turned out, the food was fantastic! Mutton rendang (yum!), sambal chicken (drool…), fresh thosai made on-the-spot (4^th serving, please!) and loads of satay (can’t get enough of it!) Great free food aside, I was really thankful for something else.

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Childhood Fears

by Traci Pedone and Susan Ligon

Fear and anxiety lower your child’s confidence and self-esteem if he doesn’t know how to overcome them.

Set the stage for him to enjoy a freer, more fulfilling life.

• Increase your child’s understanding of how these unwelcome fears can keep him from enjoying life. Common foes include fear of the dark and separation anxiety.

• Give him strategies for defeating them. Specifically:

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HAPPY DEEPAVALI!!

Wishing everyone a blessed celebration!

God Bless…

Chee Seng

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Interesting Site!

I found a very interesting site through my friend Pearlie’s blog. It’s called “and we also read.”

This is from their Introduction page:

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about ReadKL

This is a site about the books people read in Klang Valley. This is a celebration of those who choose not to stare into space while on the train, in queues, waiting, or walking around.

ReadKL is the place for the ones who banish blank stares, who read when it’s too easy to do anything or nothing else. We don’t care who you are, what you look like, what you’re wearing, what your language is. You were reading, we found you, so you (& your book) belong here.

contributors wanted!

goes out in public a lot (obviously) +
carries a camera everywhere +
takes a steady picture with a good eye +
has a steady internet connection +
doesn’t scare the public when asking for photo permission +

you up for it? drop an email to dizzyfirefly (gmail).

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Sounds like fun for a reader like me! Grab your camera and let’s spread the joy of reading!

God Bless…

Chee Seng

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Praise your child!

When my daughter was about four, she suddenly decided that she wanted to help set the table for dinner. She didn’t ask our permission or anything, she just went to the cupboard and started taking out the plates. When we asked her what she was doing, she said she wanted to help us.

At first we were worried that she might break the dishes or hurt herself but we didn’t want to dampen her enthusiasm. So we let her be. After that we praised her for her effort, and thanked her for helping. We also praised her for trying to be careful and neat. After that, she was so eager to help set the table every day – and she continues to be more careful and neat! She has now graduated to wanting to help wash the dishes. And she has set herself the goal of learning how to cook next year!

This little incident is actually an illustration of a much more important fact:

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SeedsAsia’s Power One Workshop

Learning, Having Fun & Developing Good Habits Early

Power One is an activity-packed workshop organised by AsiaWorks, a leading training company. This workshop is especially created for student to challenge them to think out of the box. Each Student will understand their personal learning style, creative ways to use their brain and simple habits to improve their personal performance at school and at home. It’s open for children ages 9 to 12 years old.

Date & Venue:

From:	Saturday, November 8, 2008 at 9:00am
To:	Sunday, November 9, 2008 at 5:00pm
Location:	AsiaWorks Centre @ Crystal Plaza, Petaling Jaya
	Jalan 51A/223, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia

For more information, contact:

Phone:	0379569417
Email:	tatikamal@gmail.com

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Fatherhood

by Traci Gray

Before the industrial revolution, fathers often worked side by side with their sons and instructed their children in spiritual values. When industrialization took over the American landscape, fathers left their farms and headed to the factories. Fourteen- to 16-hour workdays set the stage for the absentee father.

Eventually, fathers came to be regarded as merely breadwinners who fulfilled their paternal duties by providing.

But is that image changing again?

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What’s Your Personality?

In preparation for a church leaders’ retreat, one of my church members sent me a link to a website that offered free personality tests. It was quite a simple thing, and I easily finished in about 5 minutes. I got my personality profile a couple of minutes after I submitted my questionnaire.

What’s interesting is the accuracy of the profile! I would say that the analysis was at least 95% spot on! Even more interesting was – now I understand myself much better. My wife took the test too – she understands herself much better too. And now I understand her much better and she understands me much better!

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What defines us?

“46 percent!” cried the little girl, “But that’s so bad!”

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And she burst into tears.

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She was just a little girl (8 years old) and she had just finished a test. She was hoping for spectacular results as she was someone who had high expectations of herself. Obviously she was disappointed with the marks she achieved.

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The funny thing was, she didn’t seem to appreciate the fact that the test she took was for secondary 2 students – 7 years ahead of her school grade level!

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