I’m very skeptical when parents told me that their kids get smarter after listening to classical music or seeing some special flashcards.

Because there’s no proof that the stuff works. And I always feel that’s not the right way to teach our babies, toddlers or preschoolers.

To me, the best approach is to develop our children based on their talents, strengths and interests. How? By watching them play and do things and see what interests them.

What we can do as parents is to help them build from there. That’s why I’m against classroom style teaching which is too academic and generic. What the children need more is life skills that they can apply in real life not knowledge from the book.

There’s another reason why I write about this post. An article I just read prompted me to do so. And I can’t agree more with the authors. It’s so well written that I must share it with you.

When you read this article, word by word, you’ll realize that most of the things we learn about child development are so damn wrong (sorry for the language). Always misguided by unethical marketers of child development products.

Okay, let's talk about the article.

The main points of this article How Our Children Really Learn, written by Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff (authors of the book Einstein Never Used Flash Cards) can be summarized as:

1) There is no evidence, however, that particular educational programs, methods, or techniques are effective for brain development. For example, listening to Mozart is not bad for your child. That is, if you like Mozart, there is no harm in playing it and exposing your child to music. But you could just as well sing lullabies, play Simon and Garfunkel, the Indigo Girls, or any other band you like.

2) By taking the time to notice what your children are interested in, you can begin to see the environment in a whole new way, as a series of natural opportunities that are stimulating your children at all times. You can then build on these opportunities to make them even more enriching.

3) Move from memorizing to learning in context (I call this streetsmart). Memorizing does not do the trick and often is mistakenly thought to be true learning.

4) It's great to travel to exotic locations or expensive theme parks, but we don't have to go there to build brains. We can get a tremendous amount of stimulation in our own backyards.

If you’re serious about bringing the best out of your child, read this article in full. It’s simply too good to miss. I savored it to the last word as it's one of the best articles I've read in recent time. Before you invest in the latest brain development gizmos, think of what you can do with the pots in the kitchen and plants in your backyard.
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Last Friday, my daughter’s kindergarten teacher called and told me that she had fever (hovering between 37 and 38 degrees Celsius). I said not again? What can I do other than quickly rushed to the kindergarten.

But when I used my palm to feel my daughter’s forehead, it’s not as bad as the teacher described. And it was a relief to me.

The story did not end here.

The following day, even though my daughter’s fever had subsided, she started to have cough. And my son didn’t want to miss out. He had fever too.

Confused? Let me recap. On Saturday, my daughter had cough and my son had fever.

On Sunday, both of them, besides what they had, had running nose.

The result? At night, my wife and I had to wake up whenever one of them woke up. The reasons could be either blocked nose or cough continuously (this might lead to vomiting in the case of my daughter).

Imagine cleaning up the bed when what you need most is SLEEP!

For my son, he can recover quite fast from illness. His fever gone after one day but the running nose stayed.

Fearing of ear infection (somebody told me if your child scratches his ears often, it might due to ear infection. But later, my pediatrician said it’s untrue), I brought him to see a pediatrician just in case. Fortunately, he’s cleared of ear infection.

Now both of them are feeling better and they could sleep well last night, giving back their parents the opportunity to get the much-needed sleep which they were deprived of since weekend.

It’s no joke when you have two kids who are ill at home. Both of them strive for attention and care. However, this is more apparent in my daughter (Is it due to gender difference?). As for my son, life still goes on and he still keeps exploring the surrounding like he’s a healthy boy.

Let’s pray that both of them will recover fast enough before the night dawns so that their parents can have a good zzzZZZZ.

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We always argue that who is a better driver: men or women. Being a man, not that I’m biased, I always think that men are better drivers (that doesn’t mean ruthless drivers) — from my personal experience.

Okay, in all fairness, why not let the kids do the judgment? In a survey, 47% of the kids surveyed said they feel unsafe when their mom is behind the wheel. 39% said they feel unsafe when their dad is driving.

It’s quite interesting to see how the kids think. And it’s something for the parents to ponder…hmm
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