I'm a full-time mummy

We used to watch loads of TV. I mean, I used to let my 2 kiddos watch TV a lot. Everytime they have their meals and after 6pm until their bedtime. EVERYDAY. I think it amount to about 7 hours a day.

Until I decided that it is time to cut it down.

Yes, cut down TV time.

I started doing this a week before November 2012 ends and so far, I'm happy to report that I think we have cut down a LOT of TV time since then. There are days when we do not even turn on the TV at all (I know because there are dust collecting on the TV - no kidding)

Of course, I still had to on some rare occasions turn on the TV and let my kiddos watched some of their Disney shows (their latest favorite is Lilo & Stitch) so that I could rush off some paperwork for hubby's business (recent is closing of year end's account).

I do know too much TV time is not good. I do know we cannot use TV to babysit our children. I know that. Which is why I decided to cut it down. Note that I did not say I'm stopping the TV time completely, for now, I am starting it slow, and that is by cutting down the TV time.

To replace TV time, I get myself and my 2 kiddos to spend more time on activities like playing water in our balcony, learning activities (cutting exercises, gluing, coloring, reading, writing for my 46 months old boy and doodling for my 16 months old girl), dough, Lego, watching documentaries and reading books from my iPad, grocery shopping, baking, playing at porch, water plants, anything to get them off the TV.

My 2 kiddos watching National Geographic documentary on Human Body..

I was told that it takes 21 days to change a habit, I think our progress is good so far. I hope that this will continue on!

How about your kids? Are they on TV? A lot or not much? Do share!

This would be the 3rd time my 3.5 years old boy attend his Sunday school by himself. I have been attending his classes with him ever since he turned 18 months old and the first time I tried to leave him in the class (age group 3-4 years old), I pre-empt him the night before, telling him that there is no need for him to be afraid and the teachers are in the class to protect him. He even told me 'I'm not scared! God will protect me!'

Then the next day in class, the moment I stood up clutching my diaper bag, he went 'Stomach ache, headache, no energy, pain'. All sorts of excuses blurted out and he hang on to me. Attempt failed.

The following week, I told hubby he must be the one to bring Benjamin to class since our boy dared not pull any tricks on his daddy.  And I reminded hubby must bring Ben to the toilet first before go class. Hubby did that and left Ben in his class while I sneaked away with Alyson to her class upstairs (age group 18 months to 36 months but we bring her in since she loves to dance and doodle) First time success!

The week after that, we repeated it but this time, hubby forgot to bring Ben to the toilet first. They went into the class, and then hubby remembered and asked Ben whether he wants to pee and Ben nodded. After that, Ben refused to go back to the class alone. Hubby had to stay outside the class to accompany him.

We tried again the week after and I kept reminding hubby to bring Ben to the toilet and yes, 2nd time success.

Picture taken below is Ben's 3rd Sunday school by himself. I stood outside, zoom in the closest I can with my digital camera and snapped him having his snacks.

My boy is on his way to independence now? I do feel a tad sad seeing him on his own, no longer need mummy around but then I take comfort in knowing it is for his best... anyway, the rest of the day he is still with me.

So it's ok... for now... I guess...

So how do you feel when your child goes to school / kindy / nursery / etc?

Sharing some pictures taken about 2 weeks back when we did some crafts work to get into Christmas mood hahaha... I had previously blogged about my kiddos making the snowman craft.

Now what happened during this craft activity was pretty impromptu. I took a green colored A4 paper, folded it into half and cut it into 2. From each of the half, I folded into a triangle shape and cut it accordingly so that when I opened them, it looks like a tree. Initially  I thought of getting my kids to doodle and draw on their Christmas tree.

I gave my kids some color pencil and my 3.5 years old boy started drawing circles around his Christmas tree telling me they are balls (ornaments) while my 15 months old girl just doodled happily. And then she started biting her color pencil lead. That's when I stopped the color pencil session and changed it into sticker session. Gave my kids a bunch of stickers and let them stick all they want. I finished off their trees by taping an ice cream stick at the back of their trees.

And their artwork here... tadaaaaaa!! Alyson's artwork on the right while Benjamin's on the left. I like them both! I like that my boy drew circles on his tree to represents the ornaments. It's not easy telling my boy to draw circles actually - not that he doesn't know but more like he doesn't want to.

One surprising observation I noted with my girl is she likes to stack all her stickers. I found her sticking one after another round stickers on top of each other. You wouldn't see it on her craftwork as it is quite thick that I peeled them off :P

Anyway, the objective of this craft session is to get them to familiarise with decorating Christmas tree and to let them use their imagination on how they want their tree to look like.

That's all the updates I can share for now, feel free to ask and share if you have feedback!