I'm a full-time mummy

I have been sharing some of my favorite angpow pieces on an angpow collectors group in Facebook and some members have been telling me to continue sharing my memorable stories and so I thought, why not write it down, that way, our kiddos can read about it when they grow up next time, eh?

For those of you who are not familiar or never heard of the words 'Angpow' (also known as 'ang pau', 'ang pao', 'angpau'), here is a quick definition:

Angpow = Red Packet (filled with cash inside) given during festivals

So for today's angpow story, it comes from this piece of lovely angpow:

Take a look at the picture of the man playing the big drum on the bottom left part of the angpow. I remembered one of my earliest encounter with lion dance troop at very close up (like 2-3 feet away) was during my school holiday time at my late mum's hometown.

During CNY, there will be a group of lion dance troop that will go from house to house to perform. They will do all the dance in front of each house's altar (my late popo was a Buddhist) and plucking and peeling the lettuce or orange and then taking away the angpow.

It was during the peeling process that was so thrilling as the lion dance was lying down still and quiet (with drums sound softly tapping behind mimicking your surprise heartbeat). I remembered few occassions where my cousins and I would be touching the lion dance costume and the head and was curious and excited at the same time.

One time, my cousins and I even tried to play the drum using tin can but was told by someone not to ever do that as there was a belief that whoever other than those in the lion dance troop who play the drums wrongly, is kinda like mocking the spirit of the lion or whatever (can't remember) and can even incur wrath and bring death to your ownself. I can't recall clearly what other details on this but needless to say, we stopped drumming for fear of dying and incurring the wrath of whatever/whoever...

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As a stay-at home mum of 3 kiddos under 7 years old, I try my best to incorporate learning lessons in our daily life. Sometimes when our oldest kiddo is on kindy holiday, I would still take an hour or so in the morning to teach him something, phonics or writing exercise or reading few chapters of children's bible stories to kiddos, drawing activities, some Maths exercises or just let kiddos play with puzzles or toys in our study room.

Last week, we went to this pet shop in a nearby mall after our dinner. While looking at one of the aquarium tanks, our 6 year old boy nudged and said to me 'Mummy, this fish looks like the Japan flag'. I looked at the fish he pointed at...

I thought to myself 'Uhmmm... these are just normal white and red gold fishes? What does he mean by Japan flag? What is he talking about?!' I paused, took a deep breath and tried to keep my mind clear and tried to understand just what does our 6 year old boy meant.

I looked at the those fishes swimming again and then the realization hit me.

Japan flag.

I looked at the fishes again and mentally switched back to the visual of the flag of Japan country on my mind. Wow! He is right! I'm excited and very impressed! Then I tried to think back where did he learned that from? And I remembered weeks and weeks ago during one of our playing plus learning time in our study room, I went through the world map on the wall in our study room and chose some easy to identify and remember country flags to teach him such as Japan, and our very own country Malaysia, and I even went to explain to him the flags of Australia, England and New Zealand and why they kinda look similar. Then I got him to play a fun and short game where I will say out the country name and he had to quickly point out the country's flag to me.

Just that one time incident of playing and subsconsciouly teaching and learning moment and he remembered it until now.

Wow! I'm still amazed!

I'm just happy to know that such a simple fun activity could leave such an impact to a child.

Nothing is impossible when it comes to learning through playing!

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I shared this picture on my Facebook page in Oct last year and received lots of responses on this and decided to re-share the picture again (since I have gained lots of new followers since then)

I'm constantly checking to make sure our kiddos are next to us but to respond to the advice from the above picture, I personally would teach our kiddos to look for uniformed staff (guards, police etc) or staff (salespeople, cashier, reception counter staff etc) who are working at the place we go to. At least these people are (hopefully!) regularly being seen at the venues, more permanent visibility compared to total random strangers.

I'm not saying we should not trust strangers who are mums with kiddos, but these days, it is really hard to tell and don't know who to trust. There are kidnappers using kiddos to lure other innocent children too.

From time to time during any of our family outing, I would also quietly do a quick drill with our 6 year old where I will asked him what he is going to do if he got separated from us and was lost in this place. Just to test whether he remembered what to do. So far, so good.

From the responses shared, I also learned a few new tips which are:

• "Teach them to make a lot of noise shouting Mummy....If lots of people are aware of their noisy presence it makes them less of a target for sick people." ~ Carole McAteer 

• "Predators target the quiet, unassuming child that no one will notice or remember. Please teach your children that if you are separated do not go looking for you. Stay where you are. Stay out in the open. And be loud. If a stranger asks you to leave that spot, teach your child to say: please stay with me until mommy finds me. A good adult will do that. A safe adult will respect that. If the adult makes you leave that spot: yell. Puke or pee if you can. Studies show that predators will usually flee if a child pees or pukes. And sometimes people we know aren't safe and there is no age to that: the predator could be a teen or pre-teen. Have safewords/secret passwords. Teach your children that if a person does not use your secret safeword then it's not safe to go with them. And please instill in your child(ren) they are always safe because they are smart and they know how to be safe." ~ Christine Rossini
  

Just a few days after that, I came across this article which I must definitely share with you guys as I feel we could all learn from this. For your convenience, I have copied some of the excerpts from the article here:

"Do your kids know what to do if they get separated from you in a mass of people? Have you sat down and talked about it (or, even better, role-played it) with them? If it’s starting to dawn on you that you may have been slacking a little in this area, don’t worry. We’ve got all the information you need to keep your kids safe and happy on your next big family outing.

Here are our top 5 things to teach your child before entering big crowds:

 1. How Far They Can Go — It’s important to talk with your children about how close you expect them to stay to you before you start your adventure. For young children, you might want to establish a rule of always holding a parent’s hand or always having one hand on the stroller, if you have younger children that you’re also pushing around. For older kids, you may be comfortable with a “I can always see you and you can always see me” rule. Use your judgment, but make sure that everyone understands the expectation before you get to the crowds.

 2. To Freeze and Yell Your Real Name — Teach your children that you will find them, so it’s best if they stay put in one place. Furthermore, teach them to call out your full name instead of “Mommy” or “Daddy” to help you more easily locate them.

3. How to Identify a “Safe Person” — Make sure your children know the best people to approach should they get separated from you. Employees working at the spot you’re visiting are generally always good, “safe people.” But what about places that may not have employees, like the beach? Teach your children to look for a mom with kids. Experts say that moms are often the most willing and best-equipped people to help kids (plus kids often feel more comfortable asking for help from moms). It’s also a great idea to practice finding a “safe person” when you’re out running daily errands with your children. Turn it into a game when you visit the grocery store, library, or the bank — and get your children in the habit of automatically identifying the safe people in their environment.

 4. What to Say — It can be hard for would-be-helpful adults to assist your child if they don’t know that your little one is lost. Remember that if your child does get separated from you, she will likely be panicking, so don’t assume that she will know how to tell a stranger that she is lost. Role-play getting lost and using simple sentences like, “I am lost” with your kids to help them know what to do if it actually happens.

 5. Their Personal Information — Make sure your children know as much basic personal information as possible, including their full names, their parents’ full names, your telephone number and their address. If your kids are too young to remember the basics like their full names and your telephone number, write it down! There are lots of popular techniques for this — including writing your name and number on a piece of paper that you can put inside a child’s pocket or shoe, or even writing directly on your child’s arm or belly under his clothes with a marker."

Do share your thoughts or personal tips on this!

 ** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.