To all my dear friends,
It has been some time since the last post. Hope this finds you well.
Happened to chance on this lovely music series the other day while I was at my dear friend's house with her cute little bundle of joy - Felicia.
Instead of books, what I am going to write about today is the great Lovely Baby music series by Raimond Lap, a very experienced composer in United States.
After being a composer since his youthful days, Raimond got married and has a baby girl shortly after. Being in the music line, Raimond wanted something that could develop his little princess in this area. However, quite a number of those conventional so called 'baby music' out there in the market at that time was unsuitable for babies. If the tempo isn't right, one may risk under, or more serious, over-stimulating the baby and that may lead to hyperactivity later on in life.
So, the composer in him decided to come up with the best music for his baby daughter himself. He achieved it, developed some marvellous music, and his neighbour and friends got wind of it and that was how the music series got so popular.
Hence, this is the history behind the Lovely Baby music series.
I got a chance to listen to the music the other day at my friend's house and really, the music was wonderful! Well-paced and soothing, it calms the baby down and at the same time engaging the baby. I could see little Felicia paying attention to the music and at times being amused!
It was like as if the music was talking to her and she was listening!
My friend said that she was able to have some peace after she had the CD and she intends to get more of them (there are quite a number in the series, from Lovely Baby CD Vol. 1-4, to Famous Composers series, to Lovely Baby Brain Power series. A HUGE variety!)
You can visit http://lovelybabysg.com/ to find out more.
For those who are interested, and are located in Singapore or Malaysia, it's free postage according to my friend. For other countries, it seems like shipping is available too.
You might want to try one for your baby today. Who knows he might become Mozart or Bach one day!
:)
Showing posts with label parents. Show all posts
Showing posts with label parents. Show all posts
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Monday, January 29, 2007
Book Review - Montessori From The Start
This informative and enlightening book, which I am going to share with you today, is entitled: "Montessori From The Start", written by Paula Polk Lillard and Lynn Lillard Jessen (Schocken Books, 2003)
Most of us, especially parents, have heard of Dr. Maria Montessori and her unique and amazing education method in educating young kids. But how about employing the benefits of Dr. Montessori's insights to benefit your child since birth? Is there any way where parents can apply the Montessori's method during their child's early childhood years to prepare them for a better start in life?
Recognizing the need, the founders of the Forest Bluff School in Lake Bluff Illinois, Paula Polk Lillard and her daughter, Lynn Lillard Jessen, both highly experienced educators, consolidated and condensed their years of experience in their teaching of the Montessori method into this book, entitled "Montessori From The Start".
This book, written based on the authors' insights and experience with working with young minds, provides practical and useful advice on how to use Montessori's theories to create a set of comprehensive approaches to raising infants. In addition, the authors have also provided valuable guidance for the creation of a beautiful and serviceable learning environment that will aid in the development of the infant's focus and concentration. Considering the kid's "sensitive periods", the authors have also introduced concepts and related activities for the development of such skills, such as dressing, food preparation and toilet training.
Infants, at the moment when they enter into this world, are already little sponges that are capable of soaking up information. How they are handled since birth has already an impact on how they will turn out in the future.
For example, drawing from one of the areas mentioned in the book, language development is essential as it wll influence the infant's understanding of what is happening around him and his ability to convey to others of his needs. Thus, the quality of the language to which the infant is exposed to permantly alters both his brain structure and its function. It is then essential, that the infant be given specific linguistic aid from birth, some of which includes good grammar, quantity of vocabulary and clear pronunciation by the care giver.
As the infant can only make sense of language when he relates directly with people, thus, one has to interact with the infant as one is speaking and face-to-face interaction is preferred (TV and VCDs are found to be less useful as they seem). Speech should be made simple and clear though and repetitions are required for reinforcement. Naming game is a good activity that parents can have with their infant.
This book is definitely a must read for parents who want to raise calm, capable and confident children.
Annie
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Bullies in Schools - The Bullied
The previous blog entry is on the traits of bullies in school.
As such, to prevent your child to fall prey to such school bullies, it is best that as a parent, you should look out for some signs, or rather changes in behaviour, that shows that your child is being a target of the bullies. Normally, if a child is being bullied in school, he/she would not want people, especially his/her parents and teachers, as he/she is normally threatened by the bully not to let anyone know about the incident.
Nevertheless, the signs may be as below:
1) Your child may become afraid of walking to and from school, especially if by himself/herself.
2) Your child may want to change the usual route to and back from school.
3) Your child may not want you to go on the school bus, as he/her may not want you to
know about the bullying, which may be taking place in the school bus.
4) Your child may beg or want you to drive them to school
5) Your child may be unwilling to go to school, such as pretending to feel ill in the mornings. What is even worse is that he/she may begin to play truant, to avoid school altogether and at the same time prevent arousing your suspicion.
6) Your child may also begin to perform poorly in tests and assignments.
7) Your child may return home rather often with damaged clothes or books, or that you begin to find that his/her possessions start to go missing.
8) Your child may come home, rather often, starving, as the bully has taken the money for lunch, or that his/her pocket money is often "lost".
9) Your child may become withdrawn, start stammering, lack confidence
10) Your child may become distressed and anxious, stop eating
11) Your child may attempt or threaten suicide
12) Your child may cry themselves to sleep or even have nightmares frequently
13) A rather obvious sign, is that your child has unexplained bruises, cuts, scratches
14) Your child becomes aggressive and unreasonable and even start to bully his/her siblings
If your child really does exhibit some of the signs as listed above, there is a high chance that your child is already a victim and it is really time that you have a good chat with him/her, find out the source of the behavioural change and put a stop to the tormentation of your child before it gets worse.
Generally speaking, if there is an abnormal change in behaviour exhibited by your child recently and you are unable to pinpoint the source of change, it might be due to bullying. Thus, as a concerned parent, it is high time that you spend some time and have a good chat with your child.
Annie
As such, to prevent your child to fall prey to such school bullies, it is best that as a parent, you should look out for some signs, or rather changes in behaviour, that shows that your child is being a target of the bullies. Normally, if a child is being bullied in school, he/she would not want people, especially his/her parents and teachers, as he/she is normally threatened by the bully not to let anyone know about the incident.
Nevertheless, the signs may be as below:
1) Your child may become afraid of walking to and from school, especially if by himself/herself.
2) Your child may want to change the usual route to and back from school.
3) Your child may not want you to go on the school bus, as he/her may not want you to
know about the bullying, which may be taking place in the school bus.
4) Your child may beg or want you to drive them to school
5) Your child may be unwilling to go to school, such as pretending to feel ill in the mornings. What is even worse is that he/she may begin to play truant, to avoid school altogether and at the same time prevent arousing your suspicion.
6) Your child may also begin to perform poorly in tests and assignments.
7) Your child may return home rather often with damaged clothes or books, or that you begin to find that his/her possessions start to go missing.
8) Your child may come home, rather often, starving, as the bully has taken the money for lunch, or that his/her pocket money is often "lost".
9) Your child may become withdrawn, start stammering, lack confidence
10) Your child may become distressed and anxious, stop eating
11) Your child may attempt or threaten suicide
12) Your child may cry themselves to sleep or even have nightmares frequently
13) A rather obvious sign, is that your child has unexplained bruises, cuts, scratches
14) Your child becomes aggressive and unreasonable and even start to bully his/her siblings
If your child really does exhibit some of the signs as listed above, there is a high chance that your child is already a victim and it is really time that you have a good chat with him/her, find out the source of the behavioural change and put a stop to the tormentation of your child before it gets worse.
Generally speaking, if there is an abnormal change in behaviour exhibited by your child recently and you are unable to pinpoint the source of change, it might be due to bullying. Thus, as a concerned parent, it is high time that you spend some time and have a good chat with your child.
Annie
Monday, January 22, 2007
Bullies in Schools
Perhaps to add on to the book review yesterday, as the seriousness of the problem is rather alarming to not be overlooked, since it was mentioned that about one in seven schoolchildren has been either a bully or the target of a bully (from US National Association of School Psychologists) (For parents out there, what are your thoughts this very moment after reading this? Are you wondering that perhaps your child is already a victim? A silent victim perhaps?)
According to Barbara Coloroso's definition in the book as mentioned in the earlier post- "bullying is a conscious, wilful, and deliberate hostile activity intended to harm, induce fear through the threat of further aggression, and create terror". From the definition, it is obvious that irregardless of the aggressor's or the victim's sake, bullying should really be stopped in schools.
In her book, Barbara, with her years of experience of working with kids, has listed the common traits of bullies from her observation, irregardless of their ways and means of bullying:
1) Like to dominate other people.
2) Like to use other people to get what they want.
3) Find it hard to see a situation from the other person's vantage point.
4) Are concerned only with their own wants and pleasures and not the needs, rights, and
feelings of others.
5) Tend to hurt other kids when parents or other adults are not around.
6) View weaker siblings or peers as prey (bullying is also known as "predatory aggression" - a
scary term, to be sure, but not as scary as the actual behaviour it defines.)
7) Use blame, criticism, and false allegations to project their own inadequacies onto their target.
8) Refuse to accept responsibility for their actions.
9) Lack foresight - that is, the ability to consider the short-term, long-term, and possible
unintended consequences of their current behaviour.
10) Crave attention.
Perhaps, to look on the flip side of the coin, parents, after reading this, perhaps the descriptions remind you of a person that you know? Your child perhaps? Could they be the aggressors in the school terrosizing the weak and young, instead of being the victim as what you might have thought?
Speak to them! Ask them! Perhaps you might be able to prevent your child from doing something that he may regret for the rest of his life!
Something to think about for tonight.
Annie
Sunday, January 21, 2007
The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander
This post is a review of a book that I have just finish reading today. The title is "The Bully, the Bullied and the Bystander - from preschool to high school - how parents and teachers can help break the cycle of violence", by Barbara Coloroso and is published by Piccadilly Press, London, 2003.
If you are not aware, thousands of children go to school each day filled with fear; sometimes they dread school to such an extent that they feign illness in order to avoid going to school. All these are results of the common occurance of bullying in schools. Bullying in schools has become so commonplace nowadays and is not restricted to a particular location or country - it occurs in US, UK, New Zealand, and even in the Asian countries, like Singapore!
As such, given the magnitude of the problem, author and educator Barbara Coloroso addressed this issue in the book.
The book is divided into two parts - Part One is dedicated to the discussion on the three main characters in the case of bullying. Part Two is an exploration on how the home, school and community have played a part in setting the stage for bullying to take place, and as such, how the three can come together to break the cycle and foster a safer and hamonious learning environment for all children to study in.
Be warned beforehand that one can be prepared to be chilled by the horrendous accounts of some of the cases of bullying narrated in the book. It is rather difficult to imagine that a child is capable of such acts of menace at such a young age to another person. What could have caused it to happen?
After reading the book, I find that it is indeed a grime situation that we are facing, and thus, to ensure that the children of today have a safer environment to grow up and study in, it is imperative for adults, especially those with the authority and responsibility, such as parents and teachers, to identify potential cases and solve them before they aggravate and avanlanche into problems with dire consequences which we would rather that they were stopped in the first place.
It is quite a good and informative (quite a number of statistics, tips and case studies are available) book for those who are interested in the topic, teachers in schools, and as well as those who have kids in school. You might not be aware that your kid has already become a victim of bullying, for most of the victims choose to remain silent about it. However, there are techniques in the book to help you to identify and solutions offered to rescue your child out of the situation before it is too late to do so.
Annie
If you are not aware, thousands of children go to school each day filled with fear; sometimes they dread school to such an extent that they feign illness in order to avoid going to school. All these are results of the common occurance of bullying in schools. Bullying in schools has become so commonplace nowadays and is not restricted to a particular location or country - it occurs in US, UK, New Zealand, and even in the Asian countries, like Singapore!
As such, given the magnitude of the problem, author and educator Barbara Coloroso addressed this issue in the book.
The book is divided into two parts - Part One is dedicated to the discussion on the three main characters in the case of bullying. Part Two is an exploration on how the home, school and community have played a part in setting the stage for bullying to take place, and as such, how the three can come together to break the cycle and foster a safer and hamonious learning environment for all children to study in.
Be warned beforehand that one can be prepared to be chilled by the horrendous accounts of some of the cases of bullying narrated in the book. It is rather difficult to imagine that a child is capable of such acts of menace at such a young age to another person. What could have caused it to happen?
After reading the book, I find that it is indeed a grime situation that we are facing, and thus, to ensure that the children of today have a safer environment to grow up and study in, it is imperative for adults, especially those with the authority and responsibility, such as parents and teachers, to identify potential cases and solve them before they aggravate and avanlanche into problems with dire consequences which we would rather that they were stopped in the first place.
It is quite a good and informative (quite a number of statistics, tips and case studies are available) book for those who are interested in the topic, teachers in schools, and as well as those who have kids in school. You might not be aware that your kid has already become a victim of bullying, for most of the victims choose to remain silent about it. However, there are techniques in the book to help you to identify and solutions offered to rescue your child out of the situation before it is too late to do so.
Annie
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
