tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4419965918181176432024-03-14T04:47:23.799+08:00The Kam Family "Raising children in Singapore" The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.comBlogger1006125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-58573819349374513872020-11-13T20:23:00.000+08:002020-11-13T20:23:11.875+08:00How do you get your child to read books? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I was NOT growing up to be a bookworm type of kid. I chose play than read, given any and every opportunity. But I did study when it's time to study hence I was given a lot of freedom by my parents to play. Win-win, right? Thankfully, later on in life, reading has always been one of my favorite things to do. Whenever I have time, I would choose a book than many other activities. I read mainly Chinese novels and sometimes English novels. Non-fiction is totally not for me - will take me maybe 10 days to flip a page, LOL! So I don't read stuff that makes me more intelligent but I read as a past time hobby. After became a mum, surprisingly I read more than I used, especially added one category of books, i.e., parenting, to as I have stopped watching TV programs and HK drama totally, as I really can't squeeze out time for this kind of time demanding, though absolutely entertaining, hobbies.<br />
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But truth to be told, the time I spend on my phone is still quite substantial and I don't always show a good example to the kids. But at least they know that I DO read. I like to think that we did something right when they were young, and we did manage to provide the right environment and gave them the supports they need (get them books, bring them to library often) for them to read. They definitely read more than us. And surely, if we turn on the TV or offer them the iPad or computer, they would turn to the electronic stuff without a second thoughts. Which is why we are still limiting their time on gadgets, for as long as we could.<br />
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<br />The two recent books that I read are of medical stories written by two very talented neurosurgeons and brilliant writers, one American one British, and both books are wonderful reads. Bring me to tear many times and I have total respect to all surgeons! It really is not an easy profession, it takes so much of a person, sacrifice many things, to be one.<br />
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Reading a book will continue to be one of the common scenes in our household. We hope our children grow up loving books and continue to grow their reading habit!<br />
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What's your tips to cultivate reading in children?The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-57899270901138613002020-03-04T19:48:00.000+08:002020-03-04T19:48:45.700+08:00Ortho-K kiddos loving their glasses-free life!Time really passes in a blink of eyes!<br />
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How long ago since I last blogged? It's a few months long, since July 2018 that is! Nothing too special to keep me busy with, but the normal routine, and the age really catching up which really tires me out in the evening, especially my eyes - presbyopia getting worse and worse, so I try to avoid looking at the screen at night.<br />
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Well, I wanna write this blog post to update about my kids' journey with their Ortho-K, because many friends and readers have asked about it. It's already more than a year since they first used their Ortho-K lenses (read <a href="http://www.thekamfamily.com/2017/11/myopia-control-ortho-k-lenses.html">HERE</a> and <a href="http://www.thekamfamily.com/2018/02/the-girl-with-her-ortho-k-lenses.html">HERE</a>). Some friends/readers went ahead and their kid(s) are embarked on the same Ortho-K journey, while some are still undecided, for various reasons. I personally think it is one of the best things that happens to my kids (i.e., to be glasses-free), hence I do not mind spending some time to share more.<br />
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Most importantly, verdict from the kids - there is only one conclusion from the kids -<b style="font-style: italic;"> <span style="color: blue;">"Loving it!" </span></b><br />
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They love being free of glasses, especially when they are doing sports, and during PE classes. Generally it is nice to be not wearing glasses at school. It is very funny that on the last day of school, their principal saw me and asked me how come both Hao Re and Xi Yu don't wear glasses anymore? Funny because she only asked after more than a year, haha! The Vice Principal and many other teachers and parents already asked me in the first couple of month when they first started Ortho-K.<br />
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Both of them joined a sailing camp back months ago, and then both moved on to the next level in the following months, and now Hao Re moved on to yet another and another level while Xi Yu decided this is not the sports for her. Being glasses-free really cut down a lot of hassle, else with the water constantly splashing onto the glasses, risk of the glasses being knock over, etc, which might put them off from wanting to do more with sailing, or any other water sports for the matter. Ah, and swimming! The girl just requested to restart with swimming again after a long hiatus, and I think she is going to love it to be able to see clearly with the swimming googles on. This Ortho-K just came at the right time and we are really grateful for it!<br />
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<i><b><span style="color: orange;">Sailing - a new sports that the boy picked up and really likes it!</span></b></i><br />
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<i><b><span style="color: orange;">Surf-boarding at Sentosa at a friend's birthday party (so handsome, yes I know I am biased)!</span></b></i><br />
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Oh ya, and they did a spartan race earlier. It rained very heavily the night before, and hence on the day of Spartan race, it's water puddles and mud everywhere! Again, thanks to Ortho-K, the kids need not worry about their glasses and have had a really enjoyable Spartan race with a group of friends.<br />
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<i><b><span style="color: orange;">Our Spartans! </span></b></i><br />
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The kids have gotten so used to putting the lenses on in the morning and taking them off at night. All they need is a couple of minutes in the morning (really very easy) and 5 to 10 minutes at night (they do not have any issue with putting on the lenses since the first month or so). The lenses are easy to be taken care of, and easy to be cleaned with because it's hard lenses, so they can feel it easily and because it's coloured, so it's easy for them to see it (and spot it when it dropped in the earlier trying months, must nag on them once in a while to follow SOP strictly so the lenses not fell).<br />
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With Ortho-K, the progression of the myopia should be halted and not to progress any further (the last we went back for check up a couple of months ago, their degrees maintained as it is, and it's more than one year already!), we still remind them to keep all the good reading habits - read under sufficient lighting, with the right posture etc. And also still keeping their usage on gadget at the very minimal, so to make sure they get enough rest for their eyes.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Enjoying their outdoor glasses-free :-) </span></i></b><br />
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I think in recently months, Ortho-K has gained more popularity, as I see more kids started on the Ortho-K. So far from what I have heard, reviews are all very positive. I sincerely hope that with Ortho-K being more popular and more common, it also becomes more affordable and hence it benefits more children at the long run.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Normal daily life is more cooler without the glasses on too! </span></i></b><br />
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Their optometrist is, Brian, as always, very supportive. He is easily contactable via whatsapps, whenever I contact him, I got a reply within minutes. To me, this is important - if anything goes wrong with the lenses (let's face it, anything can happen anytime) or anything unusual with their eyes is observed, I would want immediate response from the optometrist as I ain't taking any risk for their eyes.<br />
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If you are interested to find out more, feel free to make an appointment to visit Brian to find out more.<br />
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<a href="http://web.aerov.com.sg/">AeroV Orthokeratology Clinic</a><br />
Phone: +65 9858 1308<br />
Address: Thomson V Two, 11 Sin Ming Road, #01-15/16/17, Singapore 575629<br />
Opening Hours: 1000HR-2200HR daily (except Monday)<br />
Email: brian@aerov.com.sg<br />
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Last, but not least, a photo of the girl, who is looking so ladylike and so pretty without her glasses!<br />
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(p/s: If you are following my Instagram or Facebook, yes you might have seen these photos before. These are some of the photos taken in 2018. When the kids grow older, the amount of photos taken is actually getting lesser, ops, so not that many photos for me to choose from, haha!)The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-74354652368392051872018-07-25T21:02:00.001+08:002018-07-26T17:54:10.460+08:00Keep on cooking and blogging and...... I have been very quiet on the blogsphere, well, there are many reasons (excuses) for this, but my social media (FB and IG) remains active nevertheless. In fact, I have spent (am spending) a little too much time on social media, ops!<br />
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Anyway, life is pretty much the same - a pair of full time working parents with 2 primary school going kids - the daily routine is pretty much the same (one of the reasons why I blogged less, as not much excitement nowadays hah!).<br />
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Thanks to our two very independent kids, who do their homework on their own initiatives (okay, I admit, sometimes with a bit of nagging, though the kids and the hub said the nagging is totally not needed, oh well), and very rarely needs my help. I don't even have to revise English and Chinese spelling with them, as they take full control (and responsibility) of their learning. And yes, they are still "tuition-free" up till now!!! I only step in about a month or so before the two main exams, SA1 (in May) and SA2 (in October / November), to make sure they do revision proper and give them some worksheets and past year questions to practice on. On normal days, they are not given any worksheets at home. This will continue as long as they are still coping alright with no complain from their teachers (and get acceptable grade, hehe).<br />
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So they are still on the "play" mode at home most of the time. Screen time (electronic game and TV) are still being controlled strictly by the Tiger Mum. So they have sufficient of time for unstructured and free play every day. They have enough time to read fictions and non-fictions, and comics and whatever, and they still have time to do arts and crafts, go outdoor, play at the playground, board games, Lego and other forms of play.<br />
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That's for the kids. While for the mum, well, still the same - same job same routine.<br />
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So this mum still arrives home early and continues her second job as the full time housewife / mum. Still cook a lot. The hubby is still very hands-on with the house chores so this mum spends most of her time in the kitchen, while the house chores are mostly done by the hubby, lucky me!!<br />
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With my frequent posts on the social media platform with the food that I cook, there are friends asked if I have stopped working and become a full time mum. The answer is obviously, no, which they would then continue to ask how do I find time to cook and do so much with the kids?<br />
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I start the day early so I come home early, so I have more hours to spend at home in the second part of the day. I do not watch TV/drama at all, so that have saved me a lot of time. And I don't play any game of any sort. I spend my free time on my family and myself (like browsing on social media, read a novel, and learn new things from the world wide web). Nothing too spectacular and no secret formula here. Just do whatever I can as a mum and a wife, and be myself.<br />
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This blog has existed for 11 years, exactly (it's the anniversary today!!)<br />
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I do want to keep this blog alive. But often I am lack of motivation / inspiration, but full of laziness and excuses. I should't give myself too much pressure, as writing a blog post does use up quite a bit of time (and age is really catching up). Will continue to blog whenever I can :-)<br />
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Ending this post with some recent food posts on my social media. See you next =)<br />
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The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-26329282963533660322018-03-25T23:02:00.000+08:002018-03-25T23:02:26.783+08:00Full time working mum survivor tipsPosted a few "survivor tips" for full time working mum, FTWM, (or could be applicable to all mum in fact) on the Facebook page a few weeks back, which came to me kinda randomly. I am not someone who are very good with words, often can't really use words to express myself effectively (funny that I call myself a blogger, for 10 years, haha!). But I guess I speak from the bottom of my heart, although I don't use beautiful words or phrases, but I speak sincerely and genuinely, of my feeling and ideas, of my sharing, of my comments and reviews, and that's why I am still a blogger up till today, despite a rather in active one, LOL!<br />
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Anyway, here goes the tips (re-posted from the Facebook page).<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: blue;">FTWM survivor tip #1 - Prioritization</span></i></b><br />
Working mums have limited time to be spent on kids and family. Be very sure what's on your top priority, the second and the the third, and focus your time and energy on those. Be very realistic on what you can do within the few hours that you have. Cooking? Cleaning? Surpervising kid to practice musical instruments or do homework? Exercising? Playing board game?
Those are the top priorities are must do; and those on the lower priorities are good to have but not a must.<br />
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What are your priorities?<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: blue;">FTWM survivor tip #2 - build a routine</span></i></b><br />
Work out a routine that works well for everyone in the family and stick to it. Many reports have described the benefits of having a routine for the children, especially younger children, so they know what to do and know the parents' expectation.
E.g., bedtime is 9pm - be consistent with them going to bed at 9pm, and explain to the kids why deviation is allowed at times (don't allow deviations to happen too often, and if you can't come up with an explanation then don't deviate).
Of course not saying must stick to the routine 100% all the time, but to allow some flexibility and not to make it stressful, it shouldn't be. A good routine is more for everyone in the family to have the right expectations on what's going on.
And very importantly - it should be YOUR routine, that works for YOUR family. There is no right or wrong, but one that works for YOU.<br />
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Do you have a family routine that everyone agrees on?<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: blue;">FTWM survivor tip #3 - ensure their love tank is always full!! </span></i></b><br />
If you have not read or known about "The Five Love Languages (for children)", you should! If you don't want to read the whole book, there is plenty of information on the web, just Google it. My kids' school talk about this too! We are not Christians but we can apply the concept all the same. Works well for us!<br />
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The 5 love languages are -<b> <i><span style="color: orange;">receiving gifts, quality time, words of affirmation, acts of service, and physical touch</span></i>.</b>
Know which love language(s) speak to your child, and then do the necessarily to make them feel your love. If you know what works for him/her, you can fill up the love tank in minutes, not necessarily need to spend a lot of time / money. Keep it simple but sincere 用心去爱💕.
A child who have full tank of love is an emotional stable child. An emotional stable child is very reasonable and very lovely to be with. FTWM flares up easily because of the long day of work and tiredness, an emotional stable child can calm us down too!<br />
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Do you know your child's love language(s)? Go find out if you haven't.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: blue;">FTWM survivor tip #4 - be guilt free!</span></i></b><br />
You know the reason why you are a working mum. Whatever is the reason, you have to accept that it is the route that you are walking and hence to live as one. If you can't choose what you love to do, then at least love what you are doing. Be clear of the path you are walking, if you don't, may be it's time to do some reflection.
We sure would miss some of the "first", first walk, first food, first performance, first whatever. Why focus on the first, when you know there is second, third, fourth..... it's going to last for days, weeks, months, years, or even a lifetime! Will be good if we are around, if we don't, then we would sure will catch the next one.
Hence don't live with guilt. Or even worse, to use material stuff to repay your guilt. There is no need to. We are always doing our best for the children/family, and they know it and appreciate it.<br />
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Just be present. Be there. Be the real mum of who you are. Be yourself!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: blue;">FTWM survivor tip #5 - always keep your promise, but don't over-promised!</span></i></b><br />
If you know the leave of absence that you are going to apply may not always be granted, then maybe get the leave approved first before you promise your kid that you will be attending his performance, or whatever.
Breaking a promise has a big negative impact to the kid. Better be realistic. Check your schedule, check for impoetant meeting dates, check for days you can't take leaves for whatever reasons, before making a promise.<br />
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If there is that one survivor tip that you are going to share with fellow mummies, what would that be?<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">The days are long but the years are short. They grow up in a blink - this photo was easily 3-4 years ago!</span></i></b><br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;"> I want to fill my memories with more of the good and sweet ones. To be remembered of as a loving and caring mum. I will try harder to stay calmer, be more patient, be less naggy, to stop flaring up on small issues, and to throw lesser temper! Cherish the very moment with the loved ones :-)</span></i></b>The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-9886077766552936052018-02-21T22:32:00.001+08:002018-02-21T22:32:46.102+08:00The girl with her Ortho-K lenses<i><span style="color: blue;"><b>(Disclaimer: I am not a professional healthcare practitioner, but just sharing my experience as a myopic mum who has 2 myopic children)
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Thank you for reading the first post on <a href="http://www.thekamfamily.com/2017/11/myopia-control-ortho-k-lenses.html">the beginning of our journey with Ortho-K lenses</a>.<br />
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I have received quite some messages from friends and my blog readers to ask about Ortho-K. Some have heard about it and wanted to know more, while some have not heard about it. I hope this series of posts would serve as a awareness for more people to know the options available for myopia management.<br />
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After the school opens, Xi Yu has totally gone off the pair of spectacles. Since then, her friends, her teachers, and even the principal and some parents who have seen the un-spectacled girl, have been asking about her. All were pretty amazed with the transformation on Xi Yu - she looks pretty different with glasses and without glasses on. Her teachers joked that they can't recognise her on the first day.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">What do you say - big different of the before and after look?</span></i></b><br />
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She is very happy to be glasses-free, as that gives her a lot of freedom - don't need to clean the glasses on-off, don't need to adjust the glasses sitting on her nose brick every few minutes (those wearing glasses would understand what this means), don't need to worry breaking her glasses acidentally (and get scolded), and most important of all - she has 100% clear vision ALL DAY LONG, on the very second when she takes off the lenses, it's all clear till night.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">We may not understand the technicality of these photos of the eye topology, but I could definitely see the different, could you? One set is for left eye and the other set for the right.</span></i></b><br />
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Both of her eyes were adjusted within 1-2 days! The pair of lenses prescribed by Brian, and custom-made for her from the manufacturer at the US, fits her so well that her high degree of myopia (about 500 degree each eye!!!) was adjusted very quickly. After just one night, more than half of the degree has been adjusted, and after 2 more nights, she needs the glasses no more! Brian has prepared 2 pairs of glasses for her (including in the package), one is for half the degree, and the other at a quarter of the degree, together with her original full degree pair, she has 3 pairs of glasses to standby, but she didn't need any since. We are all very pleased with the outcome.<br />
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She just, loves, loves loves it! But then, what took me so long to share this second post?<br />
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That's because she refused to put on the lenses for the first few months! Yes, not days, not weeks, but months! I think it's about 2-3 months, and until one fine day, she decided to let me try again. We have used all possible methods to make her put on the lenses - even up to the points of threatening, but she still refused. And mind you, we were not asking her to put it on herself, but I would be the one who does the job, but still, can't move her a single bit. Honestly, I had lost my cold many times, but luckily, I have a super cool husband who always keeps his cool and reminds me to. Also, <a href="http://web.aerov.com.sg/">Brian the optometrist from AeroV</a>, was able to keep his calm and march on. He is very patient, and reminds me time after time to be patient and should never force her into putting on the lenses. And he didn't give up and didn't say any negative thing or make any negative comments, really grateful for that. I did force her a few times, yes my bad, so I was lucky that she still let me try, because she said she loves me more than she loves herself so she doesn't want to let me feel upset, awww!<br />
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For that few months, we made regular visits to the shop (as Hao Re needed to go for check up also, that will be another post for Hao Re's experience), and every time we had to stay on for half an hour to an hour, talking to Xi Yu to let us try putting the lenses on, which otherwise would have been a quick 10 minutes check up for Hao Re. We have asked her so many times on what's stopping her, what's bothering her, what's scaring her, but we couldn't get an answer. She said she is not scared, no pain, no discomfort and the only consistent answer is "I don't know", grrrrr!<br />
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Since we couldn't get an answer from her, so tried to think through what could have happened. It could be the first time when we asked her to put on the lenses on her own, it's probably too much to ask from the then 8 years old. But we wanted to let her try at that time, because there are 8 years or younger kids who can do that. Just not my girl. Too overwhelming for her on the first try. So my advise is to know your kid well and decide for her whether she can handle the lenses on her own, or not. If not, then parent should step in to help until one day when she is ready. Hao Re is on the opposite end, he did it on his own since day one, and refused to let us help - is this because of the gender different, or one year older (more mature), or both.<br />
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After that particular day, when I managed to make the lenses go into her eyes, I was so overjoyed! So happy and so relieved that I nearly cried! It's like a big burden lifted off my shoulder, ha! From then on, she has no problem to wear the lenses to sleep. After two weeks or so later, she said she wanted to try to take out the lenses on her own, and so she did! Saved me so much time, and it's especially helpful when school reopened - cut down one task for me during the morning rush hour. I am happy to help her put the lenses on at night, since we are not rushing for time, and at the same time, I could ensure the hygiene level is high to minimise possible contamination, as compared to if she does it on her own (she could have touched 101 things after washing her hands before finally get to her room and touches the lenses). One day I will let her try.<br />
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We do not face any problem or whatsoever since the first day she put on the lenses. Have been about 3 months now, and everything is well. We still go back to AeroV for check up to make sure the eyes are healthy (very important to check the eyes thoroughly!). But since it's been stabilized, the visits become more spaced out, from weekly to monthly to bimonthly, and eventually maybe once every few months. We just have to make sure we keep the hygiene level up and handle the lenses with care.<br />
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I think the girl should be very grateful for the innovation, whom has invented this amazing ortho-K lenses and be grateful to Brian who introduced the Ortho-K lenses and make our experience a pleasant one!<br />
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I am most grateful that she can keep her myopia at the current degrees and increases no more - that's what most important to me!<br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">Disclaimer: This is the first post of a blog post series, sharing with you our experience of employing ortho-k lenses for myopia control, sponsored by AeroV Orthokeratology Clinic. </span></i>The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-55640822610527656812018-01-31T22:47:00.001+08:002018-01-31T22:47:18.608+08:00How do we control screen time for the kids?We did an interview with The Straits Times, or the Life Features of The Sunday Times, to be exact, on the topic of "<a href="http://www.straitstimes.com/lifestyle/teaching-kids-to-sniff-out-fake-news?xtor=CS3-19">Teaching Kids to sniff out fake news</a>", with their correspondent, Venessa Lee. It was a novel experience for the kids to be asked by a reporter about what they knew about the topic and were encouraged to share their opinion / knowledge / experience. I think they have responded pretty well! And when they saw their own faces on the newspaper on Sunday, they were so happy with the novelty - to see themselves on the newspaper, with a big photo no less, and what they have said is now shared with all the people who read a copy of the newspaper! And their friends also joined in to share the excitement, very cute!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Life, The Sunday Times, 28th Jan 2018</span></i></b><br />
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While I was being asked on how to teach the children to differentiate what they hear is fake or real, I couldn't help but to think that this is, rather, a bigger problem in adults, who have unlimited access to all the online media and social media, including all the group chat apps, and we are just flooded with information, including uncensored information and information with unknown source, every day or even every hour if not more frequent! And we tend to share information that we received without verifying the authenticity of the information. Yes I am guilty of that too! Though I am trying very hard to resist sharing before verifying, in case information received is from untrustworthy or unknown source, or even false news, but often times, my fingers moves faster than my brain cells do. Just within one click and a piece of non-verified information would be shared with a few or tens or hundreds of friends, depending on which platform I am at. We adults certainly need to learn to be a lot more responsible when comes to information sharing to make our society a better place to live in. On the other hand, it is a good thing that we have easy access to all sort of information within a click, but only if we use it responsibly.<br />
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Well, as a parent, as what I responded to Venessa, for my children of age 9 and 10, we can still control their screen time strictly, control their online time, and basically they are still living in a controlled environment at home, and at school. So the most common questions that I get from my friends, after reading this article, are:<br />
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<li><b><i><span style="color: blue;">Do your children really get only 2 slots of 30 minutes gadget times per week?</span></i></b></li>
<li><b><i><span style="color: blue;">How do you do that?</span></i></b></li>
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My answer, is - yes! Because, I am, a - tiger mum, roar!!!<br />
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We are pretty strict with the children when comes to things that matters to them most - healthy growing! So we are very strict with bedtime <b>(sleep)</b>, food and drink <b>(eat)</b>, and <b>(play)</b> the activities that they do (minimal screen time, so more time for reading, unstructured play, and outdoor)! I am a tiger mum that way, but no, I can't be strict when comes to them practicing musical instrument or revising homework, I tried but I couldn't, thus I am taking a more relax position in this areas, rather than making myself stressed up because of this.<br />
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Since the school reopened, they are given 2 slots of 30 minutes per week for their gadget times, which they would usually choose to play game on the iPad. No promised TV time, but we would watch TV once or twice a week together as a family, or let them watch some programs of their choice. And no scheduled screen time during weekend because weekend is for family, since both parents are working. This is what we discussed and agreed upon. We also agreed if they show consistent improvement in their learning attitude and good behavior, we can then discuss on increasing their 30 min to a longer slot. Or they wait till school holiday, which they would be allowed 30-60 minute slot every day (very generous, right!). Oh, mind you, similarly, the 30 min time slot can be cut short or taken away if they did something wrong. For example, start to play game before completing their homework - that would cost them losing a precious 30 min slot.<br />
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Wouldn't they pester me for more screen time? No, they won't. Because once they start pestering, they would get lesser than 30 minutes. It is the most effective way, no nagging and no negotiation needed. We simply follow what we have agreed on, pestering won't work.<br />
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How do we do that? We don't just force down the restriction to their throat. But we talk to them about the pros and cons in using the gadgets. The reasons why we are so concern about the excessive screen time. The danger of uncontrollable screen time. We tell them examples that we have heard of about the damage done to a person who is addicted to game. We ask them questions, like make them think why is playing games so addictive, what do you get out of it, and how much game time is enough if given the freedom.<br />
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We make them understand and agree with us, that at this age, they still need parents to control their screen time, because they can't exercise self disciplining, yet. We let them try, i.e., did not control their screen time for that few hours, and they agreed with us that it is true that they can't stop playing and putting down the iPad when the agreed time is up. We tell them that we keep this open and as soon as they think they can exercise great self disciplining - gadget is for them to keep with no password applied - until that day, they are under our watch.<br />
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The conversation and communication with the children happen often, whenever opportunity arises for us to talk about the topic. It is very similar to how I managed to get them to understand and choose healthy food - a long process and a lot of hard work, but the outcome is totally worth it!<br />
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Not only that. With their age now, they have a lot of conversation with their friends at school. And they would come back to share with us who is spending more time playing game and who is playing less, and they can see very well with their own eyes and associate kids who spends more time with gadgets and kids who don't - the different is very obvious, especially those at the extreme ends. So that helps to speak to them very clearly the damage excessive screening time can do.<br />
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We do wish, one day, we can pass on our old phones and tablets to them, with no restriction imposed! Till the day comes! For now, tiger mum rules! ROAR!The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-25928312508804230352018-01-17T22:44:00.001+08:002018-01-17T22:45:46.402+08:00Give your love to the needy children <div dir="ltr">
Chinese New Year is just around the corner, and that means we are going to start our engine making CNY yummies! </div>
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This year we gonna do something different. Remember last year we have <a href="http://www.thekamfamily.com/2017/01/project-ev3-fund-raising-with-home-made.html">Project EV3,</a> which we taught the kids to work for what they want. They actually loved the idea, so they have been waiting for CNY to come so they can make some money again. They have thought it through and decided that they do not have any material needs for now, so they said "let's give the money to others who need them!" I can't tell you how proud I am! So yes, this year, we are going to sell CNY goodies and donate all the money that we receive from the sales of the CNY goodies to some needy children. </div>
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Up north near Chiangmai area, there is a small centre for the displaced kids. The displaced children are either the hill tribes who has no identity due to poor education of parents hence they didn’t get registered as Thai citizen, and has no right for free education, or some of the kids are the Shan, from the mountain of Myanmar but they got chased out from the homes because the army wanted their land. And they fled to Thailand, so they are neither Thai not Burmese. The most cruel part is that if the kids are left out there they will become easy target for human traffickers. </div>
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The centre is providing the shelter that they need. They are not any big organization, but run by volunteers, and the main funds are raised by friends, and friends of friends like you, and me. We got to know about this centre as one of my husband's cousins and her families and friends, drive up north every year to visit the children, to bring them love, and to help them with things they need, like to fight cold when winter arrives, as much as they can during the few weeks they are there. They are real people that we know, who are doing very noble and interesting work, and we would want to support them, support these children, and hope you would too!</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Thank you very much for your kindness! </span></i></b></div>
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The centre now has about 45 kids ranging from 5 to 17. When they finish high school they will leave the centre to either sponsored to college or find jobs. A little support from us would help them in a great way! Thank you!</div>
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So we will do our part to get some CNY goodies ready for this initiative. </div>
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Much as we love to bake peanut cookies and pineapple tarts, which are the most popular CNY goodies (we love these too and we had been baking these for the past few yaers!), but we can't do it this year as the oven decided to stop working.</div>
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So that's Plan B. We gonna use the wonderful food processor and our trusty Chinese wok and make arrow head chips instead, yes, another popular CNY goodies. It's quite easy to make really since the toughest part of the job, i.e., slicing the arrow head, is done by the food processor. So then the toughest part now is to stand there for many hours to deep dry it. but the process is really simple - remove skin, slice, deep fried, cool down, sprinkle some salt (optional), and done!</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">This is the pilot batch (trial) that we made a couple of days ago, which were all gone in one sitting, ops! </span></i></b></div>
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We will cover all the ingredients cost, and of course, there will be no labor charge, so every single cent received will go out to reach a group of needy children!</div>
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There will be 50 tubs of home made arrow head chips, with no preservative and no additive, and each tub selling at $20 each (not the glass bottle shown above, but the usual CNY plastic tub with red cover). We like the chips a little bit thicker than those usually sold, as it makes it more "bite-able" and more flavorful, and hope you will enjoy it too. </div>
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Please support! If you would like to give more, you are most welcome! Like I said, every cent received will be giving to the children. </div>
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Thank you very, very much, on behalf of the children! </div>
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And in case you have not seen or do not know what is an arrow head {芽菇,慈菇,茨菇,塘菇}, they look like this. Arrow head is only available about one 1-2 months before CNY. It is a must have dish in our family, which my mum will remove the skin, cut into 4 quarters, and stir fried with Chinese leeks and roast pork. When it is cooked this way, it tasted different from the fried ones, it's like a mix between yam and potato :-p</div>
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And wishing all a prosperous new year! 恭喜发财 万事如意!</div>
The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-45832393671499049052018-01-08T23:33:00.001+08:002018-01-08T23:33:31.620+08:00Marching on to P3 and P4After a relaxing holiday, we were all ready, sort of, to start another year!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">First day of school! They are happy to be able to walk to school this year!</span></i></b><br />
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Though this is already week 2 of 2018, I am very proud of myself that I can write something in the early of the year!<br />
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Nothing much happened in week one, just need to get their routine worked out, and to hear about their story of their new form teachers, and other subjects' teacher - some are "old" and some are new - some they are happy to get back to same teachers, some they wished they could get another one, ha!<br />
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For Hao Re, there is no change of class. Yes this school doesn't do streaming at the end of P3, which I guess it was due to the small number of pupils. For this year P4, there are only 4 classes with less than 30 pupils in each class. So maybe there isn't much value to further divide up the small cohort. But Hao Re did tell me they have to mix with pupils from other classes when comes to Maths and Chinese class. Not quite sure. But this boy is happy to be with his friends, all of his last year's friends! And he got his favorite teacher, his arts teacher, to be his arts teacher again this year - for the 4th year that is!<br />
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For Xi Yu, there was some kind of streaming at the end of P2. She couldn't be in the same class with most of her best friends in the past 2 years. She has a bit of anxiety for that at the beginning. i was a bit worried too, as it took her 2 terms in P1 to finally settled down in class, she is shy like that. But she was given a duty to be buddy for a P1 student, together with another classmate, and she soon builds up good relationship with this new classmate, and happily declared that she found a best friend already, happy for her! Wish that many new friendships will be forged throughout the year. She still meets up with her best friends from last year during recess and chat a lot, girls! On top of that, she has become a librarian this year, the Head Librarian some more, though we are really not sure what does she has to do, and neither does she, haha!<br />
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For their study, we are still taking the "wait-and-see" approach. So for now, we are keeping our hands off. We expect them to take initiative for their study - pack the bag, do their own homework, do their own revision, etc. If they don't say anything, we would assume that everything is fine. We have told them that we are always here whenever they need us, just has to sound out. Though, truth to be told, I still nag / remind time from time to time as I couldn't just sit back and relax, while the hub is great on that.<br />
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With Hao Re at the upper primary this year, I am keeping a close eye of his work and study attitude and how well he is coping with the heavier load (so I heard). We do not give him any pressure or expectation, but we keep emphasizing that he has to have a right learning attitude, don't have to be right all the time, but he must learn sincerely and put in his 100%. Let see how he goes. I know of areas that he is weak in, but for now, I am waiting to see if the new teachers this year can do anything about this. I would step in to guide him if his weakness continues to get worsen.<br />
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While for Xi Yu, she is still very steady with all the study subjects, so nothing I need to think about for now. Just have to keep on encouraging her to focus and do her work neatly and nicely, as that translates to her learning attitude.<br />
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And today, it's the hub's birthday. This poor man gets more and more neglected over the years, with Hao Re's birthday 4 days before him, and with the school opening, we are always busy and occupied during this period of time and can hardly plan anything for him. This year, we have home cooked dinner and then headed out for some nice ice cream and waffle at The Daily Scoop.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Every moment spent together is L.O.V.E!</span></i></b><br />
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Wish the love of my life - live happily and healthily!The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-76788086547239494382017-12-28T23:43:00.001+08:002017-12-29T10:49:30.982+08:00Back to School 2018Just few more days and 2018 is here!<br />
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Download this special <a href="http://emag.kiasuparents.com/back-to-school-2018">"Back to School 2018" e-Magazine</a> from KiasuParents, which loaded with useful tips for new school term! And if you scroll down to the last few page, you will see an article "Live well, eat well" contribute to none other but me.<br />
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<a href="http://emag.kiasuparents.com/back-to-school-2018">http://emag.kiasuparents.com/back-to-school-2018</a><br />
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We didn't go for an overseas holiday this year, and so there is nothing too exciting to talk about. Thankfully there was no complain from the children as we have emphasized to them that going for an overseas holiday is not a given, and they understand that. The adults go to work as usual, and the children go to student care as usual. There were outing to library on weekday nights, some play dates, park /playground, and we packed in more fun, locally and across the causeway, for the children over the few holiday weekends. And that's pretty much about it. They read and draw and write a lot. And of course some game time on their gadget, which is limited to 1 hour per day starting in December, and also 1 hour of TV per day (it's a lot more than what they have during school days so they are happy with this quota, and quota will be revised once school opens, haha!). I just asked them today, and they said it's not a bad holiday after all, phew, easy to please children we have :-)<br />
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Preparing for school to be opened on the 2nd January 2018, is a big item on my plate. Getting the books, stationary, shoes, uniforms for two children is quite a tough job, to be honest (<b><span style="color: blue;"><i>TIPS:</i></span></b> 1. Get from school workshop and not from Popular, as not all books available at Popular and you may need to make several visits to finally get all books, 2. Buy on the last week as some books may not be published or made available at the bookshop till the very last minute).<br />
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Lucky for us is that the children don't sleep in during school holiday, they wake up at the same time as the school days. So that they can give me hug and a kiss, and to bid me goodbye, before I leave for work, how sweet, right! So no change to their routine, except that I need to get them sleep slightly earlier, as we have been a bit more relax with their bedtime (go to bed at 10-1030pm, which is one hour later than school days).<br />
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Next thing is the meal preparation when school opens. We have talked about it, and they both do not take my suggestions to buy food from the canteen, but request that I continue to be their food supplier, and they have got the daddy to support them fully. No rooms for objection, ha! So just few more days, and I have to wake up earlier, i.e., at 5am, to prepare for their recess and lunch. Oh well, I have been doing that for past 3 years, so just press on, no big deal! But I still hope there will be some interesting canteen stalls this year and they would agree to buy from the canteen. Both of them didn't spend a single cent in school last year and the year before, can you believe that?!<br />
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Thanks to KiasuParents for giving me an opportunity to write an article on their Special e-Magazine, Back to School 2018, where I share my view on healthy eating, a topic that I hold dear to my heart. You will see my article "Live well, eat well" on Page 17 of the <a href="http://emag.kiasuparents.com/back-to-school-2018">"Back to School 2018" e-Magazine</a> from KiasuParents, and a copy of the article is posted below.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">This article is contributed by Mrs Kam :-)</span></i></b><br />
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Do let me know if you like my article, or leave me a comment / question :-) :-) :-)<br />
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Download the e-Magazine: here <a href="http://emag.kiasuparents.com/back-to-school-2018">http://emag.kiasuparents.com/back-to-school-2018</a> for more useful tips for all parents!<br />
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<br />The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-42624328147840293622017-12-27T23:42:00.000+08:002017-12-27T23:42:22.409+08:00A girl who uses more words than picturesWe only have 2 children. Funnily enough, we have a son who is very good in his drawing, and a daughter who is very good with her words. Like totally opposite poles. The boy doesn't write much as his drawing is expressive enough to tell the story. The girl loves to write and draw, though her drawing is not enough to tell the story, or we could see it as that she is better in using her words, so her drawing skill doesn't grow at the same speed as her writing.<br />
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And the girl writes everyday (just like the boy has to draw everyday!)!! A short story, a poem, a play, a diary, a joke, an instruction page, a love letter, etc. There are so many A4 papers living in many corners and shelves of the house. And she owns many hard-copy notebooks too, for her to write down or draw whatever and whenever she wants. Don't ask me how I keep track, I couldn't.<br />
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She is eight years old now and this is an example of her random creation. I am not sure where she gets the idea from, probably from one of the books that she reads, and then changed/added in her own ideas. Quite impressive to me, for someone who haven't attended any writing class. She reads a lot and she learns her English at school only, with no tuition at all. She has not read any model examples of composition for exam either, so her idea / creation is still very "pure" and original, which we hope to keep it at that.<br />
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This is created purely by her. Love it! Pretty messy but nice story and cute illustration :-) I saw her crumbled this page and asked to have a look. She said she didn't like it, I said but I love it. So we "salvaged" this page and this story and she said she will try to continue with the story...... let's see!<br />
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<br />The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-48425094584522933632017-11-23T23:45:00.002+08:002017-11-23T23:45:59.340+08:00Myopia control - Ortho-K lenses<span style="color: blue;"><i>(Disclaimer: I am not a professional healthcare practitioner, but just sharing my experience as a myopic mum who has 2 myopic children) </i></span><br />
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While the kids were little, we mums have so many common topics to talk about - diaper, breastfeeding, formula milk, first food, first walk, books, toys, enrichment classes, toilet training, outdoor activities, holidays, and the list goes on. After a few blinks, we were already talking about primary school registration. The agony of selecting and choosing school, and those who had to go through balloting, some moved house to be near to the school, etc.<br />
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And then, now, our children are already in Primary 2 and 3. Me and my groups of supportive mummy friends still have many topics to talk about if you let us sit down and talk, we could talk days and nights (women power!!), but I reckon now we probably have different sets of challenges to face with, and each family may have focused on different aspects of life - on healthy eating / living, academics / tuition, real life or unique experience, sports / music, work life balance, etc. After they have started primary school, physical growth is probably a much less talk-about topic among mums since the kids are at the stable growth phase, as long as the kids are growing (in whichever directions).<br />
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Speaking of the physical growth, our two children grow up pretty well. They are in reasonably good height and weight (healthy BMI range, that is) and they are kept at the pink of health too. However there are still a few issues that we have to deal with - teeth, skin and eyes. Out of these three issues we have, skin is the minor one. Although they have sensitive skin (but thankfully no eczema outbreak since Hao Re outgrew it when he was 1-2 years old), as long as we continue using organic body wash, and keep their skin moisturized, we have not much issue. Teeth is a quite a worrying problem for me, as once they have changed to adult teeth, we have to make sure they keep the mouth hygiene and watch out for any "teething issue" (hah!). It's a long term maintenance kind of problem.<br />
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So that left with the eyes. Xi Yu was the first one who was <a href="http://www.thekamfamily.com/2014/10/myopia-genetic-or-environment.html">diagnosed with myopia at the age of 5</a>!! She was already at 250 and 275 degrees at first check at the HPB. And she is now at her 4th pair of glasses, changed due to increase of degrees or when she broke her glasses. She is very used to putting on the pair of glasses and seems to have accepted the pair of glasses. Hao Re was initially detected with astigmatism but the optometrist said he could get away without a pair of glasses. Until one year later, when he was also diagnosed with myopia, and so he started his long term relationship with a pair of spectacle too, when he was at Primary 1.<br />
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Just early this year, during Chinese New Year, when we were at our hometown, Xi Yu broke her glasses (again!) and we had to bring her to fix a new pair at the optical shop, the same shop where I got my glasses from 8 years old till I left home. What came to a big shock to us, was that the optician (not sure if he is an optician or an optometrist though) told us her degrees had increased by another 150 or so degrees!!!!!!!!!!!! She was already at 425 and 500, and eventually he prescribed her with a pair of glasses of 550 and 650, and she is only 8 years old, oh dear! I had to hold back my tear, and I couldn't really accept this, since her last eye check was not long ago.<br />
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When we were back to Singapore, we knew we have to do something to keep her myopia progression under control. We heard of friends telling us that it's possible, with the advanced of technology nowadays. I did some read up, and it seems that the two more common methods, for children, are the Atrophin eye drop (a prescriptive medicine) and the orthokeratoloty lenses. A few friends of mine shared with me about their child's experience on using the eye drop, and it was not too convincing nor conclusive despite years of using. With what I have read, I was concerned about the long term side effect (if any, to be confirmed), and the long term dependent on the eye drop, and I couldn't find a good answer for this. I called up a clinic to ask for more details, but the person answering the phone wasn't too encouraging either. She told me that we have to fork out quite a substantial amount of money to enroll our child in a clinical trial, and nothing could be promised. So I went on to read about the other option.<br />
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When I first read about orthokeratology lenses (ortho-k in short), it was quite unbelievable to me - you put on a pair of lenses before you sleep, and when you wake up the next morning, you will have perfect eyesight - how does this sound? I was pretty skeptical at first, to be very honest. When I read up more, I started to like the idea of how it shapes the cornea temporarily, which to me is important since the kids are still growing and they are still changing physically, and so the risk is lower and we could just decide to stop it anytime, since the change is temporarily and could be reversed anytime. After the shape of the cornea has been shaped, it is enough for the person the have clear vision for at least a good 10-12 hours or so, which is just perfect to last through the day. And I also like that no medicine is involved, but a pair of gas permeable hard lenses that is comfortable enough to wear it to sleep. But I still have reservations. I was concern on the possible eye infection and scarring (as it's hard lenses) and any other possible side effect.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">As simple as pictures illustrated on this recyclable bag - "Insert" - "Reshape" (while sleeping) - "Remove"- "Hello, clear vision!". </span></i></b><br />
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When I was still weighing the options, I met up with a friend for lunch one day, and she told me her daughter has started with ortho-k (such a right timing!) and the parents and the child are all very happy with the lenses! She assured me that it is not difficult to put on and her 8 years old daughter can do that on her own, and her daughter has not complained about any discomfort of any sorts after months of using. That kind of helped me to make the decision to give ortho-k a try.<br />
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I was introduced to Brian from <a href="http://web.aerov.com.sg/">AeroV Orthokeratology Clinic</a> by another friend. This friend of mine visited AeroV for the usual eye check consultation for the family, and she was sold by his friendliness, so I decided to go to AeroV for consultation. Sometime in June/July this year, I approached Bryan with my "problem child" and he has been very helpful and encouraging from the start. He suggested to let both Xi Yu and Hao Re try the ortho-k lenses, as he reckoned boys are usually very active (very true for Hao Re!) and they would love to be not wearing spectacles, while Xi Yu would definitely need it for the control of myopia progression, especially with her being a book worm who spends a lot of time for near-work activities (reading in particular).<br />
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So our journey on ortho-k started on our first visit to <a href="http://web.aerov.com.sg/">AeroV Orthokeratology Clinic</a>. I shall share our journey in the next post.<br />
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<i><span style="color: blue;">Disclaimer: This is the first post of a blog post series, sharing with you our experience of employing ortho-k lenses for myopia control, sponsored by AeroV Orthokeratology Clinic. </span></i>
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p/s: Remember I said I was so shocked when we were told, during CNY this year, that the progression of myopia for Xi Yu has gone uphill so much? The thing is after Brian had done a thorough examination of her eyes, he confidently told us that her glasses was over-prescribed! Her degree still remains more or less the same as her previous pair of glasses. Brian said Xi Yu won't feel dizzy or complain about the new pair of glasses despite the over-prescription as young children have very busy focus point, so they won't feel the differences in degrees as much as adults. Lesson learnt - always go to a accredited and trustworthy optometrist (for young children particularly), or we should have brought her to another optometrist or to HPB for a second confirmatory check, but somehow I missed that. But then, we should also thank the blur optician at our hometown for making the mistake - otherwise we would not have started the kids on ortho-k, what a blessing in disguise!The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-61560329551198984072017-10-17T23:20:00.000+08:002017-10-17T23:20:01.139+08:00当了九年的妈!一晃眼,九年,三千两百八十五多个日子,就那样的过去了。而再多几个月,就要十年了!<br />
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在职场,如果你在同一间公司,同一个老板,干着差不多一样的活儿,那应该是升级了吧。工资每年一点一点的加,九年过去,工资也该长得差不多了吧。那如果不喜欢那份工,还可以换公司,换老板,换工作环境。<br />
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在家,当妈妈,就不一样了。永远都没有得升职加薪,反之,没有越来越多做不完的功夫就算是很心安了。在家的“工作”也不能因为资历就独厚,因为每年每月每天都会有数之不尽的新挑战,解决不完的新难题,还有做不完的家务。也当然,没得辞职,也没得换工作,是一条只能一直往前走的路。所以,最好的方法就是做好准备,以最乐观积极的态度去面对,去享受每一个过程,每一个小脚步,每一个值得微笑的事情。往往,那些回报是远远超过我们所付出的。<br />
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孩子们就那样一天一天的长大。突然,有一天,到了孩子成长的某一个阶段,发现所得面对的挑战是越来越棘手,要去面对的问题也越来越多。回想孩子们还是婴儿的时候,就懂得吃喝睡玩,那时的育儿时光是真的很快乐。所以,每一段时光,每一个脚步,都得好好珍惜,真的,错过了,就不能回头。也总觉得时间越来越短,时钟不是跑得太快了,就是偷懒起来跑少了几个圈似的。 如果时间是可以用金钱来买得到,我想很多人都会花上一笔钱来买一些时间,一,两个小时也好,可以好好的喝杯好咖啡,让自己静一静。<br />
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所以,活在当下,是很重要的。在对的时间和空间,要有对的想法,做对的事,有实际的期待。不埋怨从前,也不过度担忧未来,而就活在这一个分这一秒!<br />
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我们在这九年来,最主要的目的是要孩子健康,要有健康的体魄,健康的态度,健康的想法。所以孩子的学术成绩就排在后头,因为我们不相信要赢在起跑点的这一个说法。有了健康, 就事倍功半;没有了健康,则可能会成了学习道路上的绊脚石。<br />
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在养育我们的两个孩子的这些年,想起来也还算蛮顺心的。当然也有我们要去面对的问题和挑战,但我们夫妇两同心同力,有共同的育儿理念,有商有量的,也没什么解决不了的问题。非常感恩我的好伴侣,好搭档。 谢谢有你同行,有你的付出,有你的信任,有你的了解,真的很棒!养育孩子们的道路上不能少了你,让我们继续的去面对,去享受孩子成长的过程,去珍惜每一步一起走过的脚步,直到孩子们长翅高飞的那一天,我们就放手让他们自由飞翔吧!The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-34483758947321610702017-10-10T23:00:00.000+08:002017-10-10T23:00:03.064+08:00青菜豆腐和一碗粥的幸福在我们结婚十四周年的晚上 (二零一七年九月二十八日),这是我post在面子书上的贴:<br />
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<i><b>青菜豆腐和一碗粥的幸福。</b></i><br />
<i><b>有那么一个人 不嫌弃我煮的 日复一日 年复一年 都没什么改变的 简单的菜式。</b></i><br />
<i><b>这人也总把家庭 放在第一位 与我这小女人一起朝共同的目标走去 一起去建立我们的将来。</b></i><br />
<i><b>对我来说,这就是幸福 平凡的幸福 最真的幸福。</b></i><br />
<i><b>Happy anniversary my dear, the 14th year 😘😍</b></i><br />
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说很实在的,这些些什么周年的日子,我们是根本都不记得, 更别说有安排去庆祝些什么。还好有面子书的 “On this day" 的提醒,才知道那天是我们的周年,然后还得去算算,才搞清楚是十四年了,真是少不了面子书呀!到后来也真的没去庆祝,而是在家里煮了这一顿青菜豆腐,一家人坐在一起吃晚餐,说说谈谈。<br />
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是爱情长跑?还是细水长流?两者皆是吧。<br />
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维持一段感情是真的不容易,对另一半要有的是了解和谅解,是信任和支持,是同理心,是分担与分享,是那一份最初最单纯的爱!那又我们认识了那么久,青梅竹马呢,在一起那么久了,你深厚的感情的确是为我们打下了一个很稳的基础。<br />
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组织了自己的小家庭,当了父母之后,除了柴米油盐,真的还有很多很多要得去兼顾和处理的事情。所以,对另一半的关爱更是不能少。大家得有共同的目标,共同的方向,多一点理解,多一点沟通,就是英语的 "compromise", 那就是会是一个充满爱,充满正能量的家!<br />
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我,当然谈不上是专家,我只是一个在过着平凡幸福日子的小女人。知足,能常乐。心宽,就有爱。<br />
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祝愿大家幸福快乐!The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-16565881513960713292017-10-07T22:37:00.001+08:002017-10-07T22:37:31.435+08:00Thinking of giving your car a new coat?We have changed to a white car a while ago, as opposed to our beloved black car that had with us for almost 10 years. After driving this white car for a while, we kinda like to be in the white than black. I know I am not comparing apple to apple so it's not a fair comparison, but I do really love white car more than black, for now.<br />
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Many people do not want to get a white car, because it's supposedly to be of higher maintenance, i.e., it gets dirty, or rather it looks like it's dirty, more easily because the dirt/dust built up is more visible, so a white car needs to be washed more frequently, as compared to, say, grey or silver. But if you are able to put in some time to give it a quick wash or a wipe down regularly, white car is very pretty / handsome that made us proud and very <i>shiok</i> to ride in :-) </div>
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So much so that we wanted to give it an extra coat, so to give it the extra protection layer and make it more pretty (shinny)! And so we are in touch with <a href="http://eadetailer.com/">EA Detailer</a> again. Sound familiar? Think cockroaches (yikes, I know!). Yes, it is the same company who had "saved" our beloved black car to become the home to a village of cockroaches (read <a href="http://www.thekamfamily.com/2015/08/how-to-get-rid-of-cockroaches-in-your.html">HERE</a> if you haven't already AND only if you dare!!).<br />
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We are interested in ceramic coating as it's the most preferred kind of car coating apparently. I am not going into those technicalities (am a woman, excuse me, and not someone who is too overly crazy about car) but I did do some reading up via googling, and found that ceramic coating gives a better protection and also more long lasting, when handled with proper care. At the <a href="http://eadetailer.com/">EA Detailer</a>, we were introduced to Sonax CC36 Ceramic Coating by their specialist. The whole range of Sonax product is exclusively to <a href="http://eadetailer.com/">EA Detailer</a> in Singapore. As you can see from the box, it's made in Germany, sounds good, as I have very good impression on German made products! Also at EA Detailer, they offer a <a href="http://eadetailer.com/warranty-ead-paint-protection-coating/">warranty</a> that covers that the coating product will not spoil the exterior paintwork of the care or even cause oxidization / corrosion to the car paintwork. So it's all good and we are ready to go for it!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Sonax product range that is exclusively available at EA Detailer</span></i></b><br />
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When I made the booking to send in the car for the coating, I was told that it will take about 6 hours! I was like, what?!! A grand six hours! They confirmed that yes, 6 hours is the estimated timing needed to beautify a car, while the actual timing would of course, depend on the age and condition of the car, and the size of the car, etc. When we arrived at the workshop and found out what are the things that they would be doing on our car, I immediately changed my mind, and have to say that 6 hours is, maybe, just about enough.<br />
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These are the processes of the Sonax CC36 ceramic coating of our handsome white car:<br />
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<li>Foam Wash <i><span style="color: blue;">(logically right, have to give the car a good wash before anything else)</span></i></li>
<li>Clay: Removal of Contaminants<i><span style="color: blue;"> (e.g., bird poo, tree sap, etc) </span></i></li>
<li>Coating Pre-preparation Stage<i><span style="color: blue;"> (e.g., persistent dirt resting on your exterior, especially for older cars)</span></i></li>
<li>Paint Correction Machine Polish <i><span style="color: blue;">(probably this step would be more important for older car that has gone through some forms of discolouring)</span></i></li>
<li>Exterior Coating Preparation Stage <i><span style="color: blue;">(this step is for the thorough cleaning up of the dirt / dust impurities on the exterior with Sonax Paint Prepare, for better bonding reaction between the car paintwork and the coating product)</span></i></li>
<li>2-Stage Coating Application Stage (3 Layers of Coat) <i><span style="color: blue;">(most important stage I would guess and they do 3 layers!) </span></i></li>
<li>Anti-Aging Process <i><span style="color: blue;">(won't all women love this, haha!) </span></i></li>
<li>Engine Bay Detailing <i><span style="color: blue;">(this step is a bonus! This is not just to maintain the cleanliness of the engine bay, but it would help the workshop mechanics to have an easier time diagnosing the car condition)</span></i></li>
<li>Fuel Cap Detailing <i><span style="color: blue;">(wow, to this level of details!)</span></i></li>
<li>Exhaust Polishing<span style="color: blue;"><i> (won't leave this out of course)</i></span></li>
<li>Headlights / Tail Lamp Detailing <i><span style="color: blue;">(oh yes, this is like the eyes of the car, so must make sure it's well taken care of)</span></i></li>
<li>Rims Polishing <i><span style="color: blue;">(I love to see shinning rims!)</span></i></li>
<li>Comprehensive Interior Vacuum <i><span style="color: blue;">(the inside is equally important)</span></i></li>
<li>Interior Basic Sanitization <i><span style="color: blue;">(even new care comes out from a warehouse or storage area would need this interior sanitization step. Yeah to a cleaner car interior cabin environment!)</span></i></li>
<li>Detailing Finish Clean up & Touch up <i><span style="color: blue;">(final touch up, absolutely needed for any kind of work)</span></i></li>
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We can choose to stay there for 6 hours to see how the car is being cleaned and coated and beautified. They have an air-conditioned office / lounge area where customers can sit down comfortably and wait. If we don't have to bring the two kids along, we could have stayed on to watch, as I find it pretty therapeutic (for an OCD like me) to watch the car going through the processes. But the kids were with us, so there is no way we can be there for 6 hours with the 2 active kids or the whole office would be messed up totally, and even the workshop. So we chose to uber to a nearby shopping center to have lunch and walk around and only went back to collect our car when the specialist called us. We totally trust that the car is in good hand, and nothing we should worry about. The specialist at EA Detailer know their jobs perfectly well.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Step by step, layer by layer, bit by bit, slowly but surely........... to make sure every single detail is well taken care of</span></i></b><br />
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You can't deny that this process that a car has gone through is pretty similar to what a facial session that a woman would gone through, i.e., at the very least, cleanse, exfoliate, steam, mask, tone, moisturize, and some would also throw in facial massage, and these would probably take a couple of hours, at least. After a facial session, usually one would start to book for the next session as facial needs to be done regularly for the best look at all time. This is pretty similar to taking care of the car. After the first ceramic coating, it is highly advisable to go back for regular maintenance every few months. The maintenance process is called coating conservation program (every 3-6 months), whereby during this maintenance sessions, they will help to remove impurities (dirt and dust particles), smoothen and touch up coating if necessary. In addition to this, they also offer 3-Stage Exterior Glow (every 8 to 12 months) on top of the coating conservation program. The 3-Stage Exterior Glow would be a 3 steps machine polish to treat on the bird poo stains, tree saps, scratches and watermark accumulated on the exterior paintwork, and coating layer will get topped up if necessarily.<br />
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With proper maintenance, the ceramic coating would last for up to 10 years, which is just nice for the average lifetime of a car in Singapore. The maintenance after the first ceramic coating is not mandatory but highly recommended. Well, I guess for men who treat their car like their wife or girl friend, they have no issue sending the car for regular maintenance. But the problem lies with how they convince the "real wife" to agree on the regular maintenance that is needed for the second wife, aka the car. Try to use facial to make them to agree, it might just work!<br />
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So after nearly 6.5 hours, we went back to collect our car, and we absolutely love it and will try our best to maintain its shine!<br />
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<i><span style="color: orange;"><b>The shine! So charming!</b></span></i><br />
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The ceramic coating was done almost a month ago, and the shine is still there. We follow the advise given by the specialist from the EA Detailer, i.e., to do regular car wash and to remove bird poo and tree saps fallen onto the car at the soonest possible. The specialist has taught us to cover the bird poo / tree sap with a few pieces of the tissue paper, then pour water on it and wait for it to soften for a few minutes, before wiping it off with a baby wipe (with least chemicals) or tissue. So far so good.<br />
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Feel so proud to be in this gorgeous shinny white!<br />
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It is highly recommended to protect your car exterior paintwork while it is still new and fresh. Most Standard Factory paint layer stage of a car is ONLY 5.5-7.5 mils of thickness! If you pause to think for a bit, you might have overlooked the fact that swirl marks, scratches, bird poo stains and even water marks will accumulate on your car exterior paintwork, and it might get deeper into the limited paint layer, and with our tropical environment, it will be much difficult to remove these swirl marks, scratches, bird poo stains etc.<br />
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So, if you are thinking of giving your car a new protective coating layer, <a href="http://eadetailer.com/thekamfamily-sonax-ceramic-coating/">make your booking</a> with EA Detailer now!<br />
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<b>They are running a <a href="http://eadetailer.com/thekamfamily-sonax-ceramic-coating/">PROMOTION</a> so don't miss the chance! In a nutshell, for Sonax CC36 Ceramic Coating:</b><br />
<b>Usual Price: $1,499 nett </b><br />
<b>Promotional Price: $899 nett </b><br />
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</b><br />
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For convenience to do a booking, you can visit the promotional page <a href="http://eadetailer.com/thekamfamily-sonax-ceramic-coating/">here</a>.
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Don't procrastinate! If you have just got your new ride or planning to get a new car, talk to the specialist at EA Detailer and they could advise you accordingly. If you have been driving your car for some time now, it's never too late! With that much of care given, your car would turn to become a pretty young lady again!The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-81145465930201519652017-08-17T23:18:00.001+08:002017-08-17T23:18:27.024+08:00Train to be a young artist?Many people are impressed with the drawing produced by Hao Re. They would tell me that he is talented in arts, and advise that we should focus more on this area, to help him to master his skill further. Also to build up his portfolio and who knows maybe one day, this would help him to get into the school that he wants, haha!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: blue;">Artist: Kam Hao Re</span></i></b><br />
<b><i><span style="color: blue;">How cute is this! Though some people said this is a cat and some said dog (answer is a dog!)</span></i></b><br />
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We had a chance to have a brief chat with his school art teacher one day. His teacher did tell us the same, that Hao Re is very good in his drawing and his creativity. He has a great pair of artsy / crafty hands and a creative mind. He produces many nice pieces in school, and his teacher half jokingly saying that we could consider sending him for admission exam to art school. I said he couldn't paint that well, and his teacher said good drawing/sketching is what he needs. We did take the opportunity to ask his teacher if there any class that he could recommend so that Hao Re can learn more. He didn't really make any recommendation though. And being an un-kiasu mum, of course I did not pursue further.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: blue;">Artist: Kam Hao Re</span></i></b><br />
<span style="color: blue;"><b><i>I think this was requested by the sister</i></b></span><br />
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Honest to heart, I do think that he posses the ability (talent?) to drawn and craft, and he does like it a lot, but whether or not he really has what it takes to be trained as a (young) artist, that I am not sure. Or rather, I am of the opinion that he is still so young, what if he loses interest in drawing / art and want to do something totally different, like say, accounting, then would it be tougher for him to have to switch his focus totally to something else. My friend argued that no he won't, because if he is really interested in something else, learning would not be the limiting factor, and I couldn't disagree with this argument. Or, wouldn't it be better if we don't limit him, but to encourage him to try everything that he could - arts, sports, music, literature, science, etc, and he would eventually choose the direction he wants to head towards when he is older, say 16?<br />
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For now, I think we would let him develop at this own pace, to keep arts as his interest or drawing as his hobby, where he does it at his leisure time, as and when he wants to, than to focus on building up portfolio for the future that we are not sure of.<br />
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Over the years, we have sent him to some art classes. But most of the classes focus on painting on different media rather than drawing. He doesn't really like painting (though he could do it pretty well), so after a while, he objected to attend anymore art classes. I think he did about 3 terms in total in 2 different art schools. And we didn't force him to (while Xi Yu continues since she really loves going to art classes).<br />
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But then, opportunity came knocking when the student care that they attend, linked us up to a sketching class! I did try to look for similar class and truth be told, not many such classes around, and most of these art schools are far from our house (dread to travel to send them to enrichment classes, not that they have any, except Xi Yu's art class, haha!). This sketching class that the student care introduced, is held in a centre that is only 5 minutes drive away from us.<br />
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And the best part is they encourage a parent to attend together with the child (it's an advanced class), for the parent-child bonding (and they give 50% discount for the parent, how wonderful!). Who do you think Hao Re inherited his artsy genes from? Definitely NOT me. It's definitely from the dad (secret: my dear hubby can actually sketch pretty well!). The supportive dad agrees to accompany his son to the class, and the son agrees to give the class a try. So, perfect, we just have to give this a try!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: blue;">Hao Re started his new learning journey on sketching!</span></i></b><br />
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They attended their first class last weekend and this is the outcome from the class. This 9 years old boy can sit there for almost 1.5 hours, worked hard to come out with this piece of art work. Amazingly calm and focus, this boy!<br />
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It's all good so far. Hope he continues to enjoy the rest of the classes!The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-77094920376241420752017-05-24T22:43:00.003+08:002017-05-24T22:43:46.863+08:00Mother's Day 2017It's my 10th year celebrating Mother's Day, as a mum myself.<br />
Me, being the main focus of the day.<br />
A day when my children say thanks to all the things I do for them.<br />
A day when I reflect upon my "job" as a mum.<br />
A day when the family spent great time appreciating what we have as a family. <br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Mother's Day lunch at the Jamie Oliver's Italian Restaurant. a venue my children chose for me because they know me well. </span></i></b><br />
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I love this photo. Taken by the hubby, outside of Jamie's, before our lunch. See how much have they grown! Both of them are >130cm already and in probably in another 1-2 year times, they will be taller than me, all thanks to having a very tall husband :-)<br />
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My motherhood journey started on 04th January 2008, when I gave birth to my first born. And soon, I was promoted to be a mum of two when I gave birth to my second born on 21st August 2009. They are only 18.5 months different in age, or 1 year gap in term of school year. Many people think they are twins since XY caught up with the height and overtook the weight of HR about 3-4 years back. They have very strong relationship, though they annoy each other sometimes and would say hurtful words to each other, but deep down, they love each other, and they are the best pair of siblings on earth! I love them so so so much!<br />
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Motherhood has never been easy. But it is definitely one of the most fulfilling "job" I have. It's a constant learning journey and there are challenges to tackle every day. With these two kids, I have to say that I am the lucky one because they have been very good and have not given me big headache so far, and in general they are great. It is definitely a big confident boaster to me that these two appreciate my effort and think I am the best mum in the world (and I am the best home chef, haha!). In return, they care so much about me, love me so much, and always say nice words to please me. So loved by these two :-)<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: blue;">If I were to sum up my motherhood experience thus far to share with fellow mums, or new mums, I would say, do and focus on one thing, at a particular time period, and don't think too much too far ahead unnecessarily. Everything will fall into the right place as we travel confidently along the journey. Be a confident mum and don't compare with others, because we are ALWAYS the best mum for our children! </span></i></b></div>
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When they are babies - give them full attention to care for their basic needs. Feed them well, make sure they sleep enough, and give them lots of hugs and cuddles, spend as much time together as family as possible. Everything thing else can wait, really.<br />
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When they are toddlers - let them start exploring what the world has to offer - start reading to them, bring them for outdoor fun, enjoy more (unprocessed, nature) food, let them sing, dance, play, the unstructured and freestyle way. And focus on building up their attention span (jigsaw puzzles and building blocks are great tools). And spend time building up their immunity (food, water, exercise, rest, balanced emotion). Instill good manner and right values in them.<br />
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When they are preschoolers - let them continue to do whatever they do in toddler-hood but in a deeper sense. Still focus on building up attention span and good health. Reading is a great habit to be cultivated. And go outdoor more. Unstructured learning, aka learn through play is still highly beneficial. <br />
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When they are at primary schools - let them be more independent, let them build up their confident in themselves, and take responsibility for themselves. Structured learning comes in and give them the support whenever they need it. Focus on the learning attitude, and good character building.<br />
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And, they will grow up just fine! And happy! And healthy, physically and mentally.<br />
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What we mums should do - provide the right environment for them to learn and grow, and give them the support and guidance that they need, and we should then step aside and watch!<br />
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And enjoy motherhood! The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-4039029853569317802017-05-14T00:12:00.003+08:002017-05-14T00:12:54.256+08:00Couple time at the Banjaran Hotspring Retreat<b><i><span style="color: blue;">(Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post) </span></i></b><br />
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Although Ipoh is my hometown (well, not exactly my hometown, but it's the nearest city to my kampung and almost no one in Singapore knows where Kuala Kangsar is, so we would say we are from Ipoh), we have not heard about the <a href="https://www.thebanjaran.com/">Banjaran Hotspring Retreat</a>. We have not even visited the Sunway Lagoon in Ipoh. <br />
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Opportunity came by, that we were given a free voucher for a 3 days 2 nights stay at one of the Garden Villa at the <a href="https://www.thebanjaran.com/">Banjaran Hotspring Retreat</a> (don't ask why, I can only say it has nothing to do with this blog). And so we spent my last birthday (year 2016) at the Banjaran! It's our first experience staying at such a luxury and high end hotel (and FOC, how nice!). It's also our first time going for a "holiday" / retreat without the kids! It's not that we didn't want to bring them along, but it's because the Banjaran only allows guests 12 years old and above, strictly no young children. We got the voucher pretty last minute, and we had already planned for a trip back home and <a href="http://www.thekamfamily.com/2016/07/a-much-much-treasured-break.html">let the kids spent the June holiday with my parents at Ipoh</a>, so we just grabbed the opportunity and went for it. It was a struggle to leave kids behind at first, but since they were also kinda on holiday at the kampung, and well taken care by my parents, we thought we should pamper ourselves after working hard (as parents) for 8.5 years. And I am really glad we did!<br />
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We packed our very light luggage and went for our retreat at the Banjaran (it's too near to home, so it's hard to feel like going for a holiday). As none of our friends have gone, so we didn't know what to expect. Read some reviews on the tripadvisor, and it's all very positive review.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">The unique way the Banjaran welcome each of their guest, by having the guest to bang on the gong. Lots and lots of greenery welcome us! </span></i></b><br />
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If you don't know much about Ipoh, it's called the Mountain City of Malaysia, meaning that it is surrounded by many, many mountains, gorgeous mountains, mainly limestone. The Banjaran is also surrounded by mountains, and also made use of the natural and original cave, and of course, hot spring. It's all very natural, but yet they manage to blend in the luxury hotel and the ultimate enjoyment!<br />
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We were sent to our private villa, Villa 8, by a buggy. As I said, we have not been to such luxurious villa, and it's really wowed us to see what's in front of us - a private swimming pool in front of the villa, with a open area completed with all necessities including sofa, dining table, TV, etc. Once we saw the pool, the first thing we thought of was the kids, LOL! They sure will be screaming and immediately jumping into the pool (and that's probably why young children are not allowed - no screaming /noise expected, haha!). <br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">The open area of our private Garden Villa. </span></i></b><br />
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The inside of the villa is decorated elegantly, with high quality wood furniture (Balinese inspired design?). It comes with both ceiling fan and air conditioner. The bedding is superbly comfortable. There is also a hot spring bath tub at the back of the villa, where the natural hot spring is pumped into the this tub (open air, yes) during a certain hours. This is in fact one of the most special features in Banjaran. Probably this is the only hotel in Malaysia that has this. We definitely went for a soak and yes, felt so pampared :-)<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">The inside of the villa, and the hot spring bath tub - heaven! </span></i></b><br />
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There are many facilities provided at the Banjaran, and most of these facilities are, again, very unique, because of the hot spring and the caves. They call this <a href="https://www.thebanjaran.com/explore/retreat-features/">retreat features</a>, which include the geothermal hot spring pools, thermal steam cave (a huge cave where the heat is from the natural hot spring), ice bath, meditation cave, crystal cave, garra rufa doctor fish pool (where the little fishes come to nibble off all the dead skin on your toes and legs), and jungle walk (connected to Sunway Lagoon within a 10-15 minutes walk). There are of course the more common facilities like swimming pool and fitness centre. And yes, we have tried them all, with some only stayed for a short while just for the experience. I like the fish pool, the steam cave and the ice bath a lot! I wish I had done some meditation, but I was too exciting to sit myself down. The crystal cave is also excellent with all the great energy. No photos taken while we were enjoying these activities, which was good, so that we could really enjoy ourselves. There are many famous hot spring in other countries like Japan and Taiwan, but the combination of hot spring and cave - it's very unique at the Banjaran!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Exploring the Banjaran, and soaking in all the fresh air and positive energy! </span></i></b><br />
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We tried to slow down and relax, to really appreciate what the nature provides us and to feel that we are part of the nature. It's really quite an experience. When we were not trying out the retreat features, we would just walk around, the admire the serenity (no young kids allowed, remember?). We have had a great time chatting, and enjoyed being with each other, just the two of us. We have known each other since primary school time, and have been long time friend. Since we have become a parent back in 2008, this is the first time we could put away everything, kids included, and to be with each other. Sincerely thank Sunway for giving us this opportunity to relax and refresh. <br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Mountain, greenery, hot spring. </span></i></b><br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Inside the meditation cave and the crystal cave. There is even a restaurant inside the cave! Too bad we didn't try out as it's fully booked. </span></i></b><br />
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Well, don't forget, this stay was also meant to celebrate my birthday! The lucky hub didn't have to prepare anything as the check-in staff was very alert and saw that it's my birthday when she checked my identity card. So after we finished our wonderful dinner (also FOC), they presented to me a small cake, while all the staff signing birthday song. Felt so special :-) And that's not all. When we went back to our villa, it's such a surprise to see that they have decorate the bed with flower petals to wish me a happy birthday. It probably not my best birthday, but certainly one of the most memorable ones! Thank you, Banjaran! Because it's my birthday, the hubby pampered me by signing me up for a full body spa! It's such an enjoyable one.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">My special day with the most important man in my life! </span></i></b><br />
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That's pretty much sums up our stay at the Banjaran. While we truly enjoyed our stay, we couldn't help but to think of (a few times) our kids, wish they could be here too. Maybe we could come back when they are 12 years old or older, and if they are still willing to travel with us by then.<br />
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This post is not a hotel review post, since it's not sponsored. But more of a blog to note down our experience and the memorable birthday. <br />
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(p/s: this post is almost one year late, and my next birthday is just in another 2 weeks time, haha! Still, better be late than never :-)) The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-80066113425166495122017-05-11T23:16:00.001+08:002017-05-12T21:58:34.872+08:00Filter for novita water purifierWe have been drinking the HydroPlus® alkaline antioxidant water from the n<a href="http://www.thekamfamily.com/2016/04/purified-water-with-novita.html">ovita countertop NP330 water purifier</a> for one year now. I have to say that we are satisfied with the novita NP330 as we have not encountered any problem with the unit or whatsoever despite the heavy usage. The unit has been working very hard for us, as our family has a huge thirst for water.<br />
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The unit brings us much convenient as it's just a very quick turn at the diverter switch and we can change from normal tap water to alkaline antioxidant water. It doesn't take up much space in the kitchen, so once we have installed it, we don't have to move it to make rooms for other things. And there is no maintenance needed in the one year time period, except (optional) wiping clean the external body every now and then.<br />
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There has been friends and readers asked if the purified water helped to improve our health. Honestly and scientifically speaking, I would not make this kind of claim. There are just too many factors contributing to one's good health, and drinking enough water is just one of them. By drinking clean and alkaline antioxidant may give some health benefit, and it would not be just the water itself. Some asked if we think it's better to have a water filter installed. My answer is yes mainly for the conveniences it provides.<br />
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We have decided to continue using the novita NP330. So it's time for changing the filter unit as advised by novita, that we should change the filter after one year of usage. The filter is good for 12 months or 3600 litres of water; after which, one should change the filters for optimum quality of water. The unit could be bought on the novita eStore or at the novita retail counters at Takashimaya, Robinsons, and TANGs. It's very light and handy.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">The filter units are very light and handy. It's packed nicely and comes with a very detailed instructions on how to change the filter. </span></i></b><br />
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When we reached home, it only took us a few minutes to get the old one out and put the new one in, and the unit continues to produce alkaline antioxidant water for our family. The instruction manual is very clear, but even without the instructions, it's self explanatory, as it's color matched (clever design ya!). It's just one simply twists (thanks to the EzTwist® filter) to take the old one out (anti-clockwise) and then put the new one in (twist it in clockwise), then let the water run for a few minutes (about 10L of water), and the novita NP330 water purifier is back in action again!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Nice 3 colors combi - blue, pink and yellow filter label. I would think even my kids would be able to make sense of this simple design.</span></i></b><br />
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It's such a very simple process, and we do not have to do anything about it until one year later. Till then!The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-55913570451749099882017-05-05T22:37:00.001+08:002017-05-05T22:37:09.722+08:00A parenting challenge - what would you do?I received a string of Whatapps messages from Hao Re's form teacher one day. The first message came in was a photo, as below, a drawing of Garfield cartoon strip, followed by a few other text messages.<br />
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I can immediately tell what's she going to tell me. It must be a complain from his teacher that he didn't pay attention in class but focus on his drawing instead. And yes, I can tell for sure that this is drawn by Hao Re <i>(and I the first thing that came to my mind, was, hey, it's a nice drawing!)</i>, since Garfield has been his favourite drawing for months, and he still likes Garfield a lot, including reading the comics, and drawing the cartoons by copying from the book. And he likes the artist / cartoonist too. He will be learning more about the cartoonist, Jim (James) Davis during the art classes next term, and so he has been waiting for Term 3 to come since the start of Primary 3!<br />
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Sure enough, when I read the text messages, it's about how Hao Re was busy drawing when the class was going through practice papers (in preparation of the upcoming, his first official examination in the following days). And she continued on to tell me that she has not been happy with Hao Re's behaviour and attitude during some classes and the quality of some of the homework he produced.<br />
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I read and re-read her messages, and then I decided to reply with a thank you and also to acknowledge her concern, and I shall have a serious talk with Hao Re. She told me she has confiscated his drawing, which is in a small booklet that he made.<br />
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I then forwarded the messages to the husband. My dear hubby is forever cool and calm, and his calmness does really help me to stay cool and be a better parent. He is not at all concern about it and just messaged back and said, let's talk about it tonight. When I saw him in the evening, he told me that he saw Hao Re drawing this cartoon strip over the weekend. So we knew that he didn't spend all the time during the class to draw this. It could be that he just brought it out and coincidentally teacher saw it. However we both agreed that it is not a right thing to do, i.e., to take out something to distract himself, and potentially his classmates, during a class lesson.<br />
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After dinner, I found a chance to talk to Hao Re about this in a very calm manner.<br />
Started the conversation by asking him why his teacher confiscated his Garfield booklet (so he knew that teacher told me about it).<br />
He told me because teacher saw him holding on to the booklet.<br />
I asked if he got a scolding from his teacher.<br />
He said no, teacher just asked him to focus and took away his booklet.<br />
I asked do you know why.<br />
He said yes, because I was not paying attention.<br />
I asked should you be paying attention.<br />
He said yes.<br />
I asked then why he did not pay attention.<br />
He said because he got bored.<br />
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Then I continued to do the most of the talking, telling him why such behaviour is unacceptable in class, in quite a long winded way, but calmly and gently. He said he understood and promised he will try his best. No scolding was involved and it's more like a special mum and son talk.<br />
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The next day, I texted his teacher, telling her that we have talked to Hao Re, and he understands and promises to be paying full attention in class. And also explained to her that the cartoon strip was drawn over the weekend and not during the class. And I thank her for her honest feedback. She thanked me for the cooperation. She also returned the booklet to Hao Re on the same day. So it's case close.<br />
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I am thankful that the teacher handled this professionally and gave us time to communicate with the child, which is really important. We truly appreciate that.<br />
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Two days later, the same cartoon strip has been transformed into this colourful ones! <br />
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You know we always say that as parents we ought to respect what the child likes, what he enjoys to do, let him grow his interest and to support him. But at this age, what we shouldn't and couldn't put aside is to build a strong foundation in languages, maths and science, which are all very critical for him to be able to communicate with people effectively, to share his thoughts and ideas, and in shaping his mind, and to be a person who he wants to be. </div>
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So there needs a balance between making sure he learns all his languages, maths and science, while still be able to enjoy what he likes and grows his interest. We couldn't have told him that since you like drawing and you seems to be good at it, then please draw as much as you want. Not at this age, for sure. One day, there would come a time, when he can take full responsibility of himself, and to really decide where and what he wants to spend his time on. Till then, it's the job of the parents to make sure that he strive a balance between the academic learning and growing interest.<br />
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If you know us personally, or if you have been reading our blog for quite some time, you would have known that we are not those who would stress on high level of academic achievement. We do not expect the kids to get full marks for all the subjects and be flawless, we don't. What we request from the kids is that they do what they should do as a student, i.e., to learn whatever taught in classes with a humble mind, and to always do their best and try their best. Hopefully a good learning attitude is being cultivated, and a positive learning attitude will lead them into the right direction beyond their schooling years! <br />
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What about his interest? His drawing skill? Many friends suggested to help him to sharpen his skills, and some even gave us information on how to prepare him to get into NAFA or to prepare for DSA via arts. He had attended some art classes at 3 various art centre/school, but he didn't really enjoy the classes (it could be that he has not met the teacher whom he would look up to, or we have not found the right environment for him). He enjoys the art classes at school the most, and he seems to like the teacher a lot too. So for now, he is not keen to attend any classes outside of school, and we respect his decision. He has plenty of time to draw as we don't enforce daily revision at home, and he doesn't have much homework to bring home to. He just draws whenever he likes and whatever he wants to draw. It is his way to express himself and to relax, I supposed, and we should just let him be!<br />
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Have you face similar situation before? What did you do?<br />
If you were to receive the same messages from the teacher, how would you response? </div>
The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-87615996078395185822017-04-19T22:53:00.001+08:002017-04-19T22:53:37.199+08:00The first show off of our Junior Home Chef When a child is ready for something, he will do it confidently.<div>
When a child is interested to do something that he is ready for, he will do it exceptional well!</div>
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And I am talking about our 9 years old son, who took over the kitchen for half a day to prepare a full lunch for us. He did everything from planning for the menu, getting the shopping list ready, shopping for ingredients, food preparation, to cooking and serving the lunch! He took the lead and I was beside him to help him when necessarily and to give advise. The daddy did the washing, while the sister did the eating.</div>
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Ingredients are all ready for a serious cook out, LOL!</span></i></b></div>
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It all started when we bought this new cook book <b><i><<frame-by-frame Italian>></i></b> on Easter Friday at the Popular book sales. He picked up the book and really like how the recipes is written especially with pretty and clear illustrations. So he suggested if he could pick a starter and a main course and cook for the family. The answer is of course a YES!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">The cook book where he picked the recipes from. He is really serious about it! </span></i></b><br />
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He flipped through the book and eventually he settled with the rocket and Parmesan salad with pine kernels as started and chicken and mushroom lasagna for main. The choice for salad is clear - because rocket salad is his Mama's favorite! Hao Re just started to learn to eat / accept salad but not rocket, while Xi Yu still has not started with salad. So the starter is just for the adults. He has been a vegetarian and he is able to keep away from meat like 90% of the time, but he chose the chicken and mushroom lasagna as main, I don't know why. We didn't ask and just followed his lead.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">These two lucky recipes to become part of Hao Re's life story :-) This step by step with visual guidance really good for the young ones or newbies</span></i></b><br />
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He planned the menu the night before. So the next morning when we woke up, we went to a shopping centre to have breakfast and did the ingredients shopping. It is nice to have a shopping list and went shopping with the kids. I took the opportunity to teach them some life lessons like how to select the items by read the label (oh yes, training starts from young!), what to look out for, what to avoid, etc.<br />
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He put on the apron as soon as we got home and ready to get started!<br />
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For a young cook like him, he definitely has to prepare, washing, cutting, weighing, all the ingredients beforehand. It helps him to have a better idea of what is the cooking steps and be confident. To be fair, this is not a simple recipe, so the preparation took him almost 1.5 hours. We have no rush for time, so he took his own sweet time to cut the mushroom and bacon, mince the chicken, measure / weigh out all the ingredients needed and just get everything ready. That including peeling and chopping an onion for the first time! See the bottom left photo in the collage below, he put on the swimming googles (it works!) when cutting the onion, so funny!<br />
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<i><b><span style="color: orange;">My handsome boy paying 100% attention preparing for his cook out</span></b></i><br />
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So the cooking started with preparing for the white sauce and then the red (tomato sauce). In between, Xi Yu came in to the kitchen to help to stir for a grand total of ONE minute, haha! One day when she is ready, she will be my another kitchen helper.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Cooking started!</span></i></b><br />
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After the sauce was ready, he started to assembly the lasagna, which is 3 layers of pasta-red sauce-white sauce, and topped with Parmesan cheese.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Ready to send the lasagne into the oven, to bake at 190 degC for 45 minutes</span></i></b><br />
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While waiting for the lasagna to be cooked, he started with the rocket salad. It's really relatively simple. Wash and dry the salad, prepare the olive oil and balsamic vinegar mixed, grate the Parmesan cheese, and then put everything together, that's it! We didn't mange to get the pine kernels as listed in the recipe book, so we used sunflower seeds instead. I helped him to roast the sunflower seeds over the stove, so this was not in his workflow. <br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Really very yummy rocket salad that our darling prepared for us! Who needs to order the expensive salad at the restaurant now?</span></i></b><br />
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And then, ta-da! Here you go, our chicken and mushroom lasagna for lunch! It doesn't look that pretty because the white sauce was a little overcook (too thick) so he won't be able to spread the thicken white sauce evenly. But trust me, it tasted great! We polished it up to the last bit!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Our junior chef serving the freshly baked lasagna to the family</span></i></b><br />
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It really warms my heart to see how much he enjoyed the cooking process and to see the confident on his face. He said he would certainly cook for the family again. Till then, junior home chef of The Kam Family! </div>
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While the little girl is not at all interested in cooking for now, she did tell us though, very surely, that one day she will learn how to cook, because one day she will become a mum, and when she becomes a mum, she will cook for her child(ren) every day, just like how her Mama, aka me, cooks all the healthy for them now! Wah I tell you, I am totally sold, and so I will continue to slog in the kitchen for the many more years to come!</div>
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Cheers to healthy home cook food :-) </div>
The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-77210349140611159552017-04-05T22:45:00.001+08:002017-04-05T22:45:28.198+08:00Where does your garlic come from?I love garlic. And I love to cook with Garlic.<br />
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Garlic is widely used in Chinese cooking (for stir fried) and Italian cooking (for pasta), and these are the two things, stir fried and pasta, that I cook the most often. I always tell people that I don't know how to start cooking a dish without garlic, which is true. My kitchen has never run out of garlic. I would always remember to top up the supply.<br />
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But one thing has been bothering me for quite some time - the source of garlic, as in the country of origin of the garlic that we buy from the supermarkets or wet markets.<br />
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If your have been reading our blog, you would know that we are trying to eat clean, but we don't go all out for organic. I make use of the <a href="https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/index.php">"Dirty Dozen and Clean Fifteenth"</a>, published by the <a href="http://www.ewg.org/">Environmental Working Group</a>, or EWG, who is a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment, when comes to shopping for fruits and vegetables. I would consider buying organic (weighing the balance between cost and benefit) for those listed on Dirty Dozen or when the price is reasonable (when compared to its non-organic counterpart). Organic produce has become a lot more affordable these days in Singapore, luckily, probably due to the higher demand and healthy competition. I make sure I read the labels at the supermarket, or ask the uncles/aunties at the wet market, where the vegetables come from. I would choose local ones, followed by from Malaysia, from Australia, from Thailand, and elsewhere. I try my very best to avoid vegetables and fruits from China, as the pollution there is way too bad and the practices of some of the farmers are often questionable. So I rather choose a non-organic Singapore vegetable than an organic vegetable from China.<br />
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Come back to garlic. Why am I worried about garlic? That's because almost 80% of the supply of garlic for the world comes from China*. Almost all garlic sold in supermarkets and wet markets in Singapore are from China. I have tried sourcing garlic that is not from China. There is a type of French garlic at Cold Storage, but a lot more expensive. There was a time I found some reasonable priced organic garlic from Zenxin at Cold Storage, but not sure of the source, and I didn't see it since, it's not always available. I also tried to order from OpenTaste, garlic from Australia, very nice looking but you guess it, it's very expensive. I also bought Indian garlic from NTUC but those garlic are very small and peeling off the skin is quite a pain, and these Indian garlic is often not available. Since I need a lot of garlic in my cooking, I still buy those from China most of the time, since it's widely available, everywhere.<br />
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[*According to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic_production_in_China">Wikipedia</a>, China is the leading producer and leading exporter in the world. After China, other garlic producers include South Korea (2nd), India (3rd), the United States (4th), Egypt (5th), and Spain (6th)].<br />
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Till I read this article on <a href="http://livingtraditionally.com/you-are-most-likely-consuming-bleached-and-chemical-laden-garlic-from-china-here-is-how-to-spot-it/">how garlic from China are usually bleached and chemically laden</a>. I was pretty terrified, though I kinda expected something like that because those garlic I got from supermarkets are looking exceptionally white and nice, but what they described about the process is really beyond my imagination. The China garlic is often bleached, fumigated with methyl bromide (toxic), and contaminated (from the polluted soil and fertilizer, etc). And then I read another similar article in Chinese,<a href="http://www.cocomy.net/post/367639"> here</a>. After reading these, I really wanted to stop buying garlic from China. But I couldn't find a replacement for it, that is, reasonably price, readily available, and not from China. So at one point, I have decided to get the more expensive one and use lesser garlic.<br />
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But then I changed my mind today. Today, I am a happy home cook! Because I found these Indian garlic that is looking very handsome and of similar price range as the China garlic! And that Indian grocery store is just 5 minutes from where I live, meaning I could just pop by and get as many as I want anytime!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Too excited today so I bought a little too many, haha! </span></i></b><br />
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My hubby said huh, just garlic only woh, why are you so happy and even need to write a blog post for garlic? Yes, I am so very happy, because from now on I can use as much garlic as I want in the cooking and don't have to worry about the bleached and chemical laden garlic or use a clove too many of those expensive one (I know, cheapskate me lah, want cheap and good!).<br />
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These Indian garlic really look very different from the China garlic, as what pointed out exactly <a href="http://www.cocomy.net/post/367639">on this article</a>, though in this article, the author is comparing the China vs Taiwan garlic, but I think it's a fair comparison. I copy the images from this article for my own reference in case the link no longer available one day.<br />
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<span style="color: blue;"><b>The bottom of the garlic should have some roots while China garlic usually trimmed to become "botak"</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XbI2QgeojUc/WOJjx2o-GfI/AAAAAAAAM9c/YEMSG9ZmkbsXJViBEgaduLgC4FF0-lqiwCPcB/s1600/Garlic%2B2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XbI2QgeojUc/WOJjx2o-GfI/AAAAAAAAM9c/YEMSG9ZmkbsXJViBEgaduLgC4FF0-lqiwCPcB/s400/Garlic%2B2.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.cocomy.net/post/367639">Source </a></div>
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<span style="color: blue;"><b>The garlic cloves should be compact especially in the middle, and not loose and falling off at the side</b></span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5meVnCz42DU/WOJjyTZ37vI/AAAAAAAAM9g/73Kz-CUtJ8443126ChZk6UnYO7GmHchGQCPcB/s1600/Garlic%2B1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5meVnCz42DU/WOJjyTZ37vI/AAAAAAAAM9g/73Kz-CUtJ8443126ChZk6UnYO7GmHchGQCPcB/s400/Garlic%2B1.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.cocomy.net/post/367639">Source </a></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;">Should not be round / fat shaped as shown</span></b><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MYDTr-ALeGo/WOJjxpPVtDI/AAAAAAAAM9Y/0iP-Y5kYDoUGnMeZAXv-MRZ0XupIA5X2ACPcB/s1600/Garlic%2B3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MYDTr-ALeGo/WOJjxpPVtDI/AAAAAAAAM9Y/0iP-Y5kYDoUGnMeZAXv-MRZ0XupIA5X2ACPcB/s400/Garlic%2B3.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.cocomy.net/post/367639">Source </a></div>
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<b><span style="color: blue;">The individual cloves should be longish and not rounded</span></b></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gh9c2ssUgdc/WOJjxVGzKPI/AAAAAAAAM9U/1J6idpQRviQEjYUhnA8EfzNMGZwNAQKJwCPcB/s1600/Garlic%2B4.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="298" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gh9c2ssUgdc/WOJjxVGzKPI/AAAAAAAAM9U/1J6idpQRviQEjYUhnA8EfzNMGZwNAQKJwCPcB/s400/Garlic%2B4.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.cocomy.net/post/367639">Source </a></div>
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This sounds really trivial but to a garlic lover, and one who tries to eat clean, this is of some importance :-) If you fall into the same category as me, hope this posts in helpful for you. </div>
The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-41050812650411529722017-03-29T22:48:00.001+08:002017-03-29T22:48:16.002+08:00First official parent volunteer duty! When Hao Re told me that they were going for a field trip to the Singapore Science Centre on the last day of Term 1 of Primary 3, I was so excited, a lot more excited than him, actually, as I have been wanted very much to go for a field trip with his class. He only showed me the letter a couple of weeks before the trip. So I told him to let his form teacher know a.s.a.p. that his mum volunteered to be one of the parent volunteers for the field trip.<br />
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I have signed up as a parent volunteer with the school since Hao Re was in Primary 1. But because I am a working mum, and most of the time, the school needs parent volunteers to help out during school hours, which is my working hours, it has been hard for me to make time to contribute to the school. I tried once last year, to help out for an hour or so during the recess time, for some fun activities arranged for the students, and it's fun. For that I needed to take half a day off from work, too bad I don't have that many days of leaves for volunteering work at school.<br />
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For this field trip, initially, I was not selected as the parent volunteer, as his form teacher only requested for two. I was very dissappointed, so, so dissappointed. I was so desperate that I even told Hao Re to "sell" to his teacher that his Mama is a scientist, so may add value to this field trip since they were heading to the Science Centre. But my marketing tactic failed, LOL!<br />
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And then just the day before the trip, I received a call from his form teacher, asking if I was still interested to join them, as one of the parents had to pull out due to some other commitment. I nearly shouted, YES, of course, I am always interested! She joked that how come my job is so flexible that I could just take leave half a day before. Well, you know, half a day of notice is pretty reasonable already, especially with such a valid reason - I am going to be a parent volunteer for their study trip, yeah!!!<br />
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First challenge, which is the biggest challenge, for me, is during the bus ride. O.M.G!!! The noise that the pupils made! There are only about 30 of them, but the noise they generated, it's closed to 300! I tried my best to calm them down, invited them for chats and reminded them to use normal voice to talk and not shout, but to no avail, still the same level of noise. My head really felt like bursting and I had never been so happy when I saw Science Centre. <br />
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<b><i><span style="color: blue;">Over-excited kids making tons and tons of noise in the bus :-p</span></i></b><br />
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While they were in the Science Centre, it's easy job. Just be around to watch them, nothing much to do. They first went to a classroom and have some classroom learning about the animals, including touching some specimens, and a real life chick, and did a small experiment on how worms responded to light. It's all interesting for the Primary 3 I would guess.<br />
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After that, they were led to one of the exhibition areas where the small animals are housed, including the infamous eggs / chicks incubator. They were given a worksheet so they went around the area to look for answers. As parent volunteers, we just stood around and made sure none of them walked too far away from where they should be. And no, we didn't try to ask them to lower their voice, no point, really. <br />
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<b><i><span style="color: blue;">Answering the questions on the worksheet given after the class conducted at the Science Centre</span></i></b><br />
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After that, they have a snack break. The teachers realised that they still have some time left before the bus came. So they suggested to bring the children to the outdoor, to the eco garden, so that the children can be let loose and release their energy. And yes, they certainly needed that! They ran and screamed, literally, to the heart content, although it's a short 15-20 min or so!<br />
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<b><span style="color: blue;"><i>Outdoor is always great for children, can't deny that! </i></span></b><br />
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And then it's time to go back to school. Which mean the dreading bus ride for another time. And, I survived!<br />
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Of course, I didn't only take these 3 photos, I took hundreds of them, with both my DSLR and my new-ish, awesome Huawei Mate 9 phone camera :-) I cannot just stand there and do nothing, right. So I managed to capture what's happening in that few hours, and I took photos of everyone, not just my own. His teacher asked for a set of photos which I gladly provided. Happy to be an amateur photographer, to capture some memories in his primary school years :-)<br />
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So that ended my first official parent volunteer duty. Of course now the girl is all jealous and she demands that I be the parent volunteer for her upcoming field trip too, which I immediately said yes, on the condition if her teacher selected me :-)The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-57344007463651095442017-01-19T22:24:00.001+08:002017-01-19T22:24:06.985+08:00Project EV3 - fund raising with home made CNY cookies!Hao Re has his eyes on the <a href="https://education.lego.com/en-us">Lego Mindstorms EV3 robotic set</a> about 2 years ago. I forgot when he saw that for the first time (just like how we puzzled about how they got to know so many games while they didn't to play at home and they don't go to friend's place). We are a family who doesn't give presents to the children on their birthday, or Christmas, or when they do well in school. Okay, to be fair, sometimes we do, but it will be a nice dinner or a small gift but nothing too elaborated. Trying to teach them not to be attached to the materialism. We have stopped buying toys for them for many years already, but we are generous on books and experience (travelling, outing, etc). So we have been telling him to save up for the EV3, if he seriously wants one.<br />
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And he has been saving up for it since. But because he doesn't get any pocket money (they bring food to school every day - they haven't spent a single cent in school last year, what a record, right?), so the saving grows very slow, because he can only "earn" when he has the mood to help up with housework, which is pretty rare these days.<br />
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Recently, he wants the EV3 quite badly as he is already very proficient in building other Lego sets, including the more complicated Technic sets. We thought if a child wants something for 2 years, and it is a good thing, we should help me. So we made him think of ways to speed up his savings. Then he said let's sell something so people pay us money. But he didn't know what he can sell. After some brainstorming, with some hints from us, he finally realised he could leverage on his mum, aka me lah. He suggested to make peanut cookies to sell because he still remember those we made last year, he and his sister really liked it. For the good pair of parents we are (ahem!) of course we support him. After all, it's a good lesson and good experience for the children to learn how to earn what he wants (and that we approve of) to have, than to just ask for it. Truth to be told, we were very near to getting him one set since it's a very good set of Lego to have, but good thing we managed to hold on to our principles, LOL!<br />
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So. One whole weekend the 4 of us were spending time together making about 18 tubs of peanuts cookies, with about 40-50 cookies per tub. All from scratch. From picking the raw peanut, roast, de-skin, grind (this step is the easiest, thanks to the food processor), make the dough, weigh, roll into balls, glazing with egg yolk, bake and finally pack into the tubs! It's a wonderful, wonderful family bonding time - we did the same activities to achieve the same target! We are so glad that we did this!<br />
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<span style="color: orange;"><b><i>S</i></b><i><b>o here we have - peanut cookies are ready after he (and we) worked hard for one of the weekend. </b></i></span><br />
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We didn't have time to share it on our FB fan page or on this blog because it's all sold out within a few hours of posting on my personal FB. It's good to have a big group of very supportive and like-minded friends. Thank you all!<br />
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Some friends asked, how about pineapple tarts, they want pineapple tarts also, ha! As soon as I approached the hub and the kids, they immediately agreed to spend the next weekend producing another 20 tubs of golden balls - the irresistible pineapple tarts! But the mum didn't have that much energy left, though I wanted to make the tarts to share with my friends and to help my son at the same time. So I cut myself some slack - we bought the commercial pineapple jam instead of cooking the jam on our own (it's a long tedious process, and make no economical sense!). After some googling, I found the <a href="http://ailinbakeryhouse.weebly.com/#sthash.l39apCOs.kuqQQsWv.dpbs">Ailin Bakery House</a> (or you can find them on FB). The jam is indeed pretty good (much better than the other more popular supplier), and they claimed that the jam made from Sarawak pineapple. I like that it's fibrous, and it's not too sweet. Though it would be better if it's a little more sour and slightly lesser sweet, hehe.<br />
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For the dough, we used 2 recipes. The first one is the very popular pineapple tart recipe from the "Nasi Lemak Lover" blog at http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.sg/2013/02/my-best-melt-in-mouth-pineapple-tarts.html. And the second is the recipe that I shared before in my blog here at http://www.thekamfamily.com/2015/02/pineapple-tart-to-welcome-year-of-goat.html, whereby the recipe was kindly tested and shared by a dear friend, which she adopted from don't know who. Both are nice, both have its own uniqueness, so depends on personal liking I guess.<br />
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We rolled the pineapple jam and the dough the night before, so when Saturday came, we just need to roll the jam into the dough, glaze and send the golden balls into the oven. It only took us a few hours to complete about 20 tubs (about 25 big balls or 35 small balls per tub). Thanks to the hub who helped me with the tarts so the workload literally cut down by half with an additional manpower. While for the kids, the kids lost interest so only helped out a bit.<br />
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<i><b><span style="color: orange;">Pineapple tarts 黄金球 are done!! </span></b></i><br />
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And again, all gone in a few hours after posting on my FB page. We sold whatever we can spare while saving some to share with friends and families :-) There are friends and colleagues who wanted to buy from me after trying, and asked me to do another batch this weekend. But no, no. Really no energy left. Sorry, next year maybe :-p<br />
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So the Project EV3 can be concluded as a very successful one! We have raised $440 in total from both peanut cookies and pineapple tarts (that's gross earning, but all would go to Hao Re's fund for the EV3, with the supportive parents sponsored the ingredients, utilities bills, and manpower, LOL!)<br />
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Thank you every one for your generous support and kind encouragement!The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-16218845607321479622017-01-10T22:39:00.002+08:002017-01-10T22:39:42.729+08:00Family fun stay at the Shangri-la Rasa Ria, Sabah<b><i><span style="color: blue;">{Disclaimer: This is NOT a sponsored post, we paid fully for our family stay. This is purely sharing of our experience}</span></i></b><br />
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Gosh, it's been more almost 3 months since my last blog post in mid October, making this the longest hiatus since I started blogging 8 years ago, record breaking! I do have the urge to blog from time to time, even started typing out the story-line silently, but I just couldn't find any spare time to, and when I have some pockets of time, I was either distracted by other stuff, or I simply couldn't gather enough energy to blog.<br />
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That's my excuse for disappearing in the blogsphere for so long.<br />
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Just want to quickly note down the 3 days 2 nights that we spent at the <b><i>Shangri-la Rasa Ria Resort and Spa Hotel</i></b> at the Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia. This has to be the best beach hotel we have stayed so far (but to be honest, I haven't been to that many beach hotel-lah), hence I got me moved my butt and write something about it.<br />
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We were at Sabah for a total of 11 days. The first half was for family time - my little brother gotten married at Keningau, Sabah, so we spent a few days with our closet family members, which was simply awesome as it has been a long while when all of us are together, no one left behind, and we did spend quite a substantial time together, on the road, moving from town to town, up and down and across the mountains, and of course, attended the wedding. Then the second half was for our own family travel, just the 4 of us, we spent 2 nights at the beach, and another 2 nights at a home stay at Kiulu Valley (I shall see if I have time to blog about this, which I very much would love to as it marked our first jungle hiking experience!).<br />
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When I planned for this holiday, knowing that Kota Kinabalu has some nice beaches to offer, I wanted very much to spend some time at a beach hotel, to purely enjoy and relax, without leaving the hotel, and not going to go to any tourist spots, just spend all the time lazying around at the hotel. Hence I chose Shangri-la Rasa Ria Hotel.<br />
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Main reason - for its location. It's about one hour drive from the Kota Kinabalu town, and so without a car, there is no where we can go but to hang around within the hotel compound. So I thought this is perfect for what I wanted. There is another hotel, Shangri-la Tanjung Aru, located at the Kota Kinabalu town, which is also by the beach with even better view according to my brother, and should be offering similar service, but I didn't book that, simply because I wanted to be away from town and be lazy.<br />
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Turned out Shangri-la Rasa Ria doesn't disappoint, not at all.<br />
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The hotel is HUGE! It has a big compound, a super large beach (very clean and nice view!). I so love the space, very generous space. Every corner we went, we didn't feel it's crowded, would not bump into people, despite that the hotel has near to full capacity the few days we were there (December is a busy tourism month for Sabah according to the taxi uncle we met earlier). And I also love that it has a jungle attached to it, which offers some very unique activities and experience. The jungle used to house quite a sizable orang utan population, but this group of orang utan has since been relocated to the orang utan conservation centre at Sipolok. Else imagine how special this hotel stay would be! <br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Best place for R & R!</span></i></b><br />
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Let me start with the room. Room is okay, nothing to shout about, you get what you expect from a 5 star hotel, nothing really wow-ed us. There is one thing worth mentioning, that is the sofa set provided in the room. It is convertible to become a small double bed. This is perfect for our family of 4, the room is big enough for us, and with the extra sofa bed (no additional charge to request for the housekeeping to turn it into a bed), we can all sleep soundly. There is balcony so that kinda nice, but this is pretty common for any beach hotel, I would think. Oh by the way, we booked ourselves into the Garden wing, which is closer to more facilities and activities, which is good for family with young children, which also means that it's noisier and more kids running around. For those travelling without kids, they usually prefer the more premium Ocean room, which is on the quieter end of the hotel, and with slightly bigger and more premium service.<br />
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<i>[One small incident to share: we were initially given a ground floor room. When we were led to the room, my hubby insisted that we have to request for a non-ground floor room, i.e., a room on any floor but not ground floor. He didn't want to tell me why but asked me to just follow his instruction. It really puzzled me as he is usually very easy-going, so it's all very strange to see him reacted that way. I asked for a change of room. After a couple of hours (it was full house), we got to change to 1st floor. Only then the hub told me because he saw sulfur powder sprinkled in front of our room! OMG! Do you know what's the purpose for sprinkling the sulfur powder? To prevent the s..... (the who-should-not-be-named) to go near to the rooms! I am absolutely terrified of this long leg-less slither. So glad that the hub saw that! He then told me he didn't want to tell me why in case we couldn't change to another room. See how my hero protects me :-)]</i><br />
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Shangri-la hotels make themselves known as family friendly hotel. Which means it has many different activities for the young, the not-so-young, the old and the not-so-old and for the whole family. In short, it offers something for everyone! Some activities are free of charge, while some are payable. It has a wide range, starting from morning till night, by the pool, by the beach, in the jungle, at the hotel ground, at the golf club (adjacent to the hotel), you just gonna study the schedule and pick some that the kids or the family would like, and proceed to make booking. <br />
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On top of that, they also have a Kids' Club, whereby any kids below 12 is welcomed to join, for free! If you wish, you can sign up your kids for full day activities at the Kids' Club, which mean drop them in the morning and only pick them up at 5pm! It's ideal for parents who really, really want to have a break from the kids (yes, parents should know what I mean by this). We were not that desperate (haha!), so we didn't let them go to the Kids' Club full day (don't think they would agree neither and we would surely want to spend time as a family), but to just a couple of activities for them to join in, which they have fun with. There were about 10 kids joining the full day kind of "free childcare service" :-p<br />
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<b><span style="color: orange;"><i>Joining one of the Kids' Club activities. HR certainly enjoyed socializing than the very shy girl :-p</i></span></b><br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Xi Yu loves their mascot! There are board games, table tennis, pool table, etc to entertain the young and old. </span></i></b><br />
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Looking at all the activities they provided, I felt that 3 days 2 nights is definitely too short! I would have stayed 3 or 4 nights if we were to return next time. There are simply too many activities to choose from! After some consideration, factoring in the meal times etc, we decided to join the canopy walk at the jungle. It's some kind of trekking, albeit a short one (about an hour) and a pretty relax and easy one to walk, led by a ranger who told us many things he knows about the all living things in the jungle. Though there is no more orang utan in this jungle, there are other wild animals living there. Our group didn't spot anything except some birds and some insects. The morning group spotted a wild porcupine, how cool was that! The ranger told us there are bird enthusiasts who would come to this jungle to spot some particular species of birds. It is well maintained, which I think it's very suitable for the kids to explore.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Jungle trekking, albeit leisurely, for the kids to get close to the nature. We reckon this is a good introduction of jungle trekking to the kids, and hope we will go for more! </span></i></b><br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Part of the Shangri-la beach looking from the highest point at the canopy walk</span></i></b><br />
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While for Hao Re, when he looked through the long list of the activities, one of the items attracted his attention very much is archery. So we just have to let him try. We encouraged Xi Yu to try also but she didn't want to as she said it's too difficult to pull the bow. Hao Re learned it real fast! The trainer taught him and explained to him how should the bow and arrow being positioned and how the game works. He just went for it, followed the instructions, kept on trying, and got pretty good results as a first timer, an 8 years old!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Shooting like a pro! Probably can consider asking him to take up this sports, LOL!</span></i></b><br />
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Oh and the pool. You know when we are on holiday, kids don't need much but a swimming pool, and that is pretty much sufficient to keep them occupied and keep them happy. What's more - there are one snaking long slide and a short slide attached to the pool. They can go on it for like a thousand times. Some of the activities ran by the Kids' Club is happening at this pool also. There is also another pool at the Ocean Wing side, and that pool doesn't have any extra activities, but just a pool, hence you won't hear kids screaming and parents screaming/shouting there. Perfect for those we like to be just relax by a quiet and peaceful pool :-)<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Good enough for them to enjoy many hours at </span></i></b><br />
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And if the pools are not enough, there is always the beach! After all, this is a beach hotel. And you know what, this beach is simply gorgeous! I don't know how to describe it well, but it's a very "deep" beach, where one has to walk across the long stretch of very fine sand to reach to the sea, like 10-15 minutes if you are taking a leisurely walk. Water is very clean, with waves that is just nice (kids love riding in the waves!), and with a gorgeous view, including sunset view! Love this beach. I know it's not one of the top beaches in the world, but I still give it a two thumbs up! There are lifeguards watching over all the hotel guests swimming in the water, and everyone will have to leave the sea/beach when it turns dark or weather turns bad, for safety reason obviously.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">See the photo at the left bottom corner, this photo was taken from the beach looking back to where the hotel is, to give you a fell of how far away the sea is from the hotel</span></i></b><br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Day 1 of beach play. They love it! And I enjoyed the sunset so much! Feel like life is so beautiful :-) </span></i></b><br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Day 2 of beach play - they didn't want to leave the beach, haha!</span></i></b><br />
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The first day when we were there, we had our lunch at the Italian restaurant at the Ocean Wing. Pretty nice food, but it's also pricey. We have no other choices as we had our lunch late. For dinner, we went to another restaurant, the Tepi Laut restaurant at the Garden Wing. It's a buffet style dinner, featuring local / Malaysia cuisine. We enjoyed our dinner very much. Food was nice, with a wide variety of choices and tasted from okay to great. There were also many "live stations" where the chefs were preparing food for you right in front of your eyes, e.g., fried noodle, fried Sabah vegetable, roti canai (aka roti prata in Singapore), grills, etc. Lots of choices even the kids have plenty to choose from. What topped it up is the cultural performance. It's a very good quality performance, which we thoroughly enjoyed. The performers are very professional and know exactly how to engage with the audiences. The cultural performance doesn't happen every day so we count ourselves lucky!<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Enjoying the food from the "live stations". Thumbs up!</span></i></b><br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">We loves these cultural performances, especially Hao Re! He got himself a seat right in front of the stage, and watched from beginning to the end. And the fire-eating show, it's utterly jaw-dropping! The one we watched at the Night Safari in Singapore becomes pale in comparison :-p</span></i></b><br />
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Buffet breakfast, on the hand, is just okay. Quite a lot of choices with okay-ish food. The special one is where the fresh fruit juice is made right there, cannot be any fresher than this. For lunch on the second day, we ordered a pizza as takeaway and ate our lunch on the lawn, as our activities are very packed so we don't have enough time to walk around that much (remember the hotel is huge), and to sit down for a relax lunch. We enjoyed the pizza, it's good.<br />
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What disappointed us is the buffet dinner on the second night. It was a seafood buffet dinner. It has quite a lot of choices. BUT for seafood, it has to be fresh, the raw material or the main material, i.e., the seafood, has to be fresh. Otherwise no matter how you cook the seafood, it's still not nice, can't make it. We were dissappointed at every dish. Almost all of the dishes we tried was not acceptable. To make things worse, not only the seafood is not fresh, the dishes somehow taste weird (it could be a local taste thing?). Big disappointment, especially to think of the Sabah or Kota Kinabalu is famous for seafood. Worst buffet we have had thus far. Oh, and for the kids who don't eat seafood, like mine, they can only fill their tummy with pasta coated with tomato sauce, or plain rice. Lucky thing is, at Shangri-la, kids under 12 eat free, ha! I wish I had listened to the kids and eat at the Japanese restaurant instead.<br />
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While I would say that the service provided is good, but I expect more or better service that what they were providing. I feel that most of the staff are not attentive enough, it could be due to their long working hours, or lack of passion, I don't know. If the service could be improved further, it would make the stay much more enjoyable (my husband said I have too high expectation, oh well, I should, this is Shangri-la!).<br />
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That's pretty much what I would say about the Shangri-la Rasa Ria.<br />
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We booked our stay directly via their official website. Because they were running a promotion - Family Fun Package. So we booked our stay with the package, which include the buffet breakfast and buffet dinner for two for the two nights (or cash credit of equivalent will be given if prefer to have a la carte), and free flow drink was included (soft drink, fresh juice, beer and house wine). The package also allow children below 12 to stay for free, with FOC extra bed. And it also gave us credit of RM100 per day for joining the activities of our choice.<br />
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Overall, we really enjoyed our stay! We would sure be back whenever we head to Sabah again :-)<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Before we checked out on the 3rd day, we have a walk by the beach before we say goodbye!</span></i></b><br />
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<br />The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-441996591818117643.post-88154966052686887732016-10-13T22:16:00.001+08:002016-10-13T22:16:32.540+08:00Nutritious five grains porridge 营养五谷花生黑豆粥<b><i><span style="color: blue;">(Disclaimer: This is NOT an advertorial or review)</span></i></b><br />
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My children love porridge, even we adults love porridge! I cook porridge for lunch / dinner once in a while, whenever we feel like having something gentler to the tummy or craving for some comfort and warm food.<br />
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This is one of the porridge that I have tried cooking, and everyone seems to love it, despite that it's all very simple - just the five grains and peanuts (black beans and other ingredients are optional, feel free to add whatever). This particular one in the photo below is a bit overcooked hence it looks too mushy and not grainy enough, but it's nutritious all the same.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Healthy and nutritious five grains porridge - good to be eaten on its own!</span></i></b><br />
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The one who loves porridge the most in the family is the little girl. She can eat porridge for breakfast, lunch and dinner, if I let her. And she loves porridge cooked with white rice the most. But sorry girl, no white rice in our house, so she can only eat white rice porridge at the hawker or food court, and she sure would order porridge if there is a stall selling it. Initially she didn't want to try five grains porridge that I cook, she said "this is NOT porridge!". I forced her to try (really have to force, as in I scooped up a spoonful and force it into her mouth!) and after the first mouth, she said nice, and asked for second bowl, yeah!<br />
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I chanced upon this particular brand at the NTUC. I like it because of its small package (only 350g), which is just nice for one meal for our family of 4, and the porridge made out of it is just nice, just the way I like it to be. You may use any brand, really. I am sharing this because I know there will be people asking which brand I am using, so I might as well. For cooking rice for our usual day consumption, we don't use this one (not this brand either), we are on 10 grains + brown rice (sometimes red and black rice) + quinoa, and yes, I cooked porridge with this 10 grains + combi before and it works too.<br />
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<span style="color: orange;"><b><i>One of the many five grain products in the market (there are 6 grains, 8 grains and 10 grains, of different brands and different combination of the grains). Choose whichever you like.</i></b></span><br />
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This five grains for this particular brand are 大米,黑米,糙米,大麦米仁,小麦米仁, which according to google translate, are short grain rice, black rice, brown rice, barley rice kernel, wheat rice kernel.<br />
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<b><i><span style="color: orange;">Looks how pretty the grains are! </span></i></b><br />
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I don't use my rice cooker to cook porridge. I don't know why, I have never tried actually, haha! I used to cook it in a pot, over stove. But now, I prefer to use a wok and fried the rice first before boiling them - it adds flavors, shorten the cooking time, and it gives better texture. This method was shared by a dear friend of mine, and I stick to this method ever since. Try cooking it this way if you have not tried.<br />
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This is how I cook it:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Rice grains - soak for at least 2 hours. Drain and set aside</li>
<li>Peanuts - in a separate pot boil it for 30 minutes or so or until turns soft </li>
<li>Black beans - for better flavor, heat up the black bean in wok (without oil) until the skin of the beans popped. Then add in to the peanuts pot and cook together.</li>
<li>Brown some ginger (optional - and a few cloves of garlic if prefer) </li>
<li>Add in the rice grains. Keep in stirring till fragrance and the grains dry up (take about 10-15 min under medium fire)</li>
<li>Add some sesame oil and salt / soy sauce to taste</li>
<li>Add in the cooked peanuts (and black beans)</li>
<li>Add in appropriate amount of water. For porridge, general rule for white rice porridge is 1 portion of rice grains to 8 portion of water, but for brown rice and other grains, may add a bit more water. If you are not sure, just at 8 portion first, and add more later if not enough.</li>
<li>Bring to boil and then turn fire down to small fire, put on the cover and let it simmer. </li>
<li>Stir the mixture every 10-15 min (if not, it might stick to the bottom of the wok). </li>
<li>Continue to cook for 1 hours or so, or until it turns to the consistency and softness that you prefer. Add more water along the way if needed. </li>
<li>Done! </li>
</ul>
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Optional:<br />
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<ul>
<li>if you are non-vegetarian, you may add some minced pork or sliced pork or pork rib into it to enhance the flavor (for minced pork and sliced pork, only add at the last 10 minutes or so; if using pork rib, add it in after the peanuts)</li>
<li>beat an egg in if you prefer </li>
<li>if you would like to eat with some vegetables, it's better to serve the vegetable separately, e.g., a plate of stir fried green leafy</li>
<li>add spring onion / fried shallot / corriander for garnishing</li>
<li>add soy sauce and pepper for taste, as you like</li>
</ul>
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Try to prepare this very nutritious porridge for your family (it probably is suitable for toddlers). Hope you would like this as much as we do!</div>
The Kam familyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09292402581692235214noreply@blogger.com0