It’s the start of school holiday this week. The Husband is planning to bring us for a short holiday in November. Both of us have difficulties in taking our annual leave in December because 1) V will be serving his reservist for one month, and 2) my office has a planned shutdown in end Dec – week of Christmas.

We wanted to go to somewhere near, simple, short and hopefully, without the need for applying leave from work. So, the idea of going for a weekend cruise immediately came to our mind. We went for a cruise vacation on Star Cruise Virgo a year ago, and we really felt like going there again.

Unfortunately, the price has increased so much in just one year’s time. The package price for a family of four on a 2N weekend domestic cruise costs a whopping $1800! With this price, I’ll rather buy three air tickets and fly to Hong Kong. So, we scrapped the idea of going for a weekend cruise.

I told V that as long as we’re together, and with our dear son, anywhere is a good place. Any time that we get to spend together as a family is precious to me. He is most happy to hear that. We can reserve our resources to plan for a better holiday next year when our schedule permits.

So, we brought Little Edison to Sentosa Island last weekend. Together with our parents-in-law, we planned for a picnic at Siloso beach. Little Edison is so thrilled to swim at the seaside and play on the sandy beach again.

What he like most about the beach are 1) when the waves washed over his little feet, he will laugh with joy, 2) when the waves pushed him backward to the shore, he will shout with excitement and 3) he can play with the sand, draw them with his hands and even roll his body on them. The sand on the beach is so clean and fine.

But there is just one thing that he hates about the beach. Guess what? It’s the shower facility in the public toilet that is not equipped with water heater. He just hates to shower in cold water.

Little Edison and I at Siloso Beach – fantastic weather! 

My MIL, Little Edison and V at Beach Station Carpark

Little Edison after a swim and a refreshing shower (in cold water)

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One of those little things that V and I promised each other is that we must try to return home and have dinner together, with Little Edison every day. Family dinner is the most important part of my day. I’m so thankful to my mother-in-law who cooks healthy home-cooked food for us every weekday – so we don’t have to rush home to cook.

During dinner time, we’ll talk about the bits and pieces of our everyday. My parents-in-law will update us on the little things about Little Edison, from what he ate for lunch, what he did in the afternoon to what time he poop. Interestingly enough, we don’t feel bored hearing the same conversation every day.

That’s my first rule of achieving work-life balance – to return home punctually for dinner.

Second rule – this is also one of the things which I’m adamant about is that work should NOT be brought home. Again, replying to urgent work e-mails from home is often unavoidable but we should still keep it at minimum. Other works should be put aside. We should try to improve our productivity at work so that we don’t have to “over-time” at home.

Now that we’re without a helper, we also found ourselves in another set of problem with our house chores. Initially, I tried to do everything on my own and I got frustrated when I neglected other important things like teaching Little Edison to write, spending time with V etc.

So, we made resolutions to at least put aside some time on evenings to coach our son in his study – doing worksheets, practice writing and reading story books. This usually takes 30 to 45 minutes, and then we will spend some time together – either watching TV or playing games before going to bed.

After Little Edison goes to bed at 10pm, we will try to do some house chores together (if there is still energy left). We split the house chores and have a roster for it. It helps us to stay focused and ensure that our house runs smoothly – and without frustrations.

Here is my typical weekday routine:

• 6:15 am: Wake up and prepare for work.
• 7:15 am: Wake Little Edison up and prepare him for school.
• 7:40 am: Drive him to school and go to work after that.
• 8:30 am: Reach office and start work.
• 6:00 pm: Leave office to my parents-in-law’s house.
• 6:15 pm: Play with Little Edison.
• 6:45 pm: Family dinner time.
• 8:00 pm: Return to our home.
• 8:30 pm: Shower and settle down.
• 9:00 pm: Study and home work time.
• 9:30 pm: TV and games.
• 10:00 pm: Little Edison goes to bed.
• 10:30 -11 pm: I go to bed.

I’m thankful that I still have 7 to 8 hours of sleep at night. Being a full-time working mother and without a helper, I couldn’t be happier with this.

But the down side is that there will be minimal “me-time”. I’m also slowing down in other activities like blogging, reading a book, watching my idol drama etc. Hopefully, I can still maintain this blog with weekly updates about our family.

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For at least twice a year, Big Tree will set-up a booth in Little Edison’s school to sell a wide range of books and educational products. This usually happens during events like Parent-Teacher Meeting and Parent Orientation. This is also the time when I hunt for new educational products for our boy.

Last week, I stumbled upon this new product called Smart Tray from Junior Learning. Little Edison was totally captivated by this product when he saw it on the booth. It is quite similar to Noddy Fun Book. It has a tray and ten numerical plastic boards that are developed into mathematics, reading and spelling activities with a self-checking mechanism.

I bought the first set – Spelling Accelerator and this is how it looks like. The Spelling Accelerator kit ($28) comprises 25 activity cards from three different levels. The Smart Tray has to be purchased separately at $21.

I’ve been practicing the Spelling Accelerator with Little Edison for the past one week and he totally enjoyed it. It’s a really wonderful product, and I’m so delighted to share it with you today.

This video from Junior Learning will show you more information and how to use this product.

I can see him absorbing new words and learning to spell by using phonics. With all the repetition, he can quickly recognize the missing letters. This product makes learning spelling lots of fun, as compared to the mundane memorizing technique.

Besides Spelling Accelerator, you can also find Reading Accelerator and Number Accelerator sets. The same Smart Tray can be used for all these sets. I’m planning to order them too.

If you are interested to try out this product, you can get them at Big Tree. They have an office and showroom at Toa Payoh, but I haven’t been there yet. I’ll need to go down one of these days to get the Reading and Number Accelerator.

And if you’re already using this product, let me know your thoughts about it. I love to hear from you too!

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Gangstar West Coast Hustle - iPhone Game

Little Edison showed me this game on my iPhone yesterday. He has been playing with the free version for quite a while but it has limited function. He is interested to get the full version.

He: Mama, can you download this game for me?

Me: Let me see. (Clicked on the Buy Full Version button, the screen goes to my Apps Store)

He: Yes! Yes! You need to buy from this store. (He sure knows what Apps Store is)

Me: But you need to pay if you want to buy this game. (It shows US$4.99)

He: Mama, can you buy for me? Please…..

Me: Okay. (I punched my iTunes password and the game is downloaded to my iPhone)

He: Thank you! (Jumping in delight)

I can’t remember how many paid games I bought for him, but most of them are below US$10. He loves gangster and war fighting games. I’ve been amazed at how he has learned to navigate the iPhone and to use the control buttons on the screen to play the games. No one taught him how to play, and he figured it out all by himself.

Kids nowadays are so smart and they pick up things very fast too. It’s really remarkable. Do you agree?

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A group of mommy bloggers are coming together to raise awareness and to raise funds to help hungry children all around the world. I was delighted when I was invited to participate in this fund-raising activity.

Recently, it was reported in the news that the world’s population has crossed the 7 billion mark. When I read that more than 1 billion people in the world are malnourished, I felt a sudden heaviness in my heart.

We’re truly blessed to live in a country with no food shortage. Many of us are not aware of the other part of the world where most of the starvations and dying happen. Particularly in countries plagued by poverty and scarce resources, millions of people live in fear, not knowing where their next meal will come, or if they will even survive until the next meal comes.

When I read the stories of these three children from the Children’s Hunger Fund website, I felt so sad. Like any parent, we have a soft spot for children. Seeing these poor children with trouble getting the food their bodies need to survive is indeed heartbreaking to us.

 I asked myself what I can do to help them.

Firstly, I can make some donations to them through the Children’s Hunger Fund (CHF). This is a Christian nonprofit organization that works to alleviate the suffering of children in impoverished regions across America and around the world.

Since CHF began in 1991, they have distributed more than $927 million in food and other resources to serve the needs of more than 10 million children in thirty-five U.S. states and seventy-two countries worldwide.

I can’t believe it that I can buy 100 meals for just US$5! I log-in to make a donation. The whole process took me less than five minutes from registration to payment via credit card. It’s quick and easy.

Secondly, I’m writing this post to urge you to please help these hungry children. You can go directly to this page to buy hearty meals for the hungry children and to give them hope to survive. All it takes is just US$5 for 100 meals! Of course, you can contribute more if you like. You can also visit this page to make a direct contribution (either one-time or monthly) to areas that are most needed i.e. disaster relief and back-to-school program.

Last but not least, if you have some ways of communicating to others (blogs, Facebook etc), then please spread the word. Thank you in advance for your kind contribution to Children’s Hunger Fund.

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