The Bub in the Belly

Here's Ryan, having his milk. He was playing with the set of alphabet blocks and told me, "I am clever". I said, "Are you VERY clever?" He replied enthusiastically, "Yes!" Then I asked him, "Can you spell 'I am very clever'?" He said yes. I said, "Oh, but you may have to use something else, because there's only one "E" in this set of blocks." His response was, "There are three Es here, mama. The M and the W can be Es too. Look!", as he held the M and the W up to show me.


He isn't saying he's better than anyone and he isn't being a peacock. He says it because he's happy to know that this is true, that it's a fact. And it's a fact because he hears it so often. We always tell him things like that - "You did a great job - you're a good boy - you're wonderful - you're awesome". If he tries something and can't do it, he might say dejectedly, "I can't do it." Instead of rushing in to help him and doing it for him, I tell him, "You can, baby. You can do it. You can do anything." And he will give it another go, and he usually gets it. And that grin when he does - priceless.

We surround him with positivity and in return, he glows.

This is not to say that we tell him he's great when he's not been great. Of course not. Praise isn't praise if it's not genuine. If he didn't do a good job with his violin practise, I tell him straight up - that's not a good job, let's try again. If he's rude or rough with his sister, I tell him that's not acceptable, be nice.

It is also a fundamental tenet of Montessori, Shichida and Suzuki philosophies (and a few others) that parents should build up their child's confidence. You do that by assuring him that he is loved always, no matter what. You do that by showering him with positivity and encouragement. You are, to borrow a cliche, the wind beneath his wings. This is one of the reasons why I identify strongly with these philosophies, because they affirm what Richard and I already believe - to use love, respect and positivity in parenting.

Ok, on to other things. Here's something from Ryan's preschool. I mentioned a while back that we are not doing much art at home now because Ryan gets quite a lot of that in school. So I thought I'd share some of his school art here. Last term, each of the Nursery 2 and Kindergarten (K1 and K2) classes did an art piece, which was then auctioned off for charity. Here are some (not all) of the pieces.


The pieces are mixed media. The one in the photo above, on the left, is made up of coloured yarn stretching across the canvas secured by nails at the perimeter, like a geo board. The one in the middle is made up of different pieces of paper stuck onto the canvas and the one on the right is made up of string and paint.

More pieces. The one on the right is made up of torn pieces of painted paper.


This is the one done by Ryan's class. It's called "Spotty Dotty Rainbow Circles". It ties in to what the class was studying that term - lines, circles, spirals, light, colours, rainbow. Fun piece!

Last Friday and Saturday were packed with activities and events. Friday was the day after we returned from our trip to Jakarta and, as is usual, the day after every trip is spent picking up the dog from the boarding kennel, catching up on laundry and other housework and, of course, attending to office matters.

In addition to all that, Ryan had two auditions on Friday. We picked him up early from school to get to the first one, and after that, we went for lunch, during which I told him that we were going for another audition. He told me, "Not too many." Hahaha! I told him, yes, three is too many, two is still ok. He paused and considered that for a moment, and then nodded his head. Phew!

Friday afternoon was spent back at Ryan's school, where there was a picnic and carnival, with proceeds going to charity. Good fun - there was a huge bouncy castle, face painting, balloon sculpting, and arts and crafts.

Saturday was an interesting day. Richard had a meeting in the morning so I had to take Ryan for violin class (with Rachel in tow) and Rachel had to skip Heguru. Then, in the afternoon, Ryan attended a catwalk modelling class! It was a trial class. He enjoyed it so much and had such a great time. It was utterly adorable to see the children walking out onto the catwalk strutting and posing! Such a fun way to boost their confidence and build up their social skills! After the class we asked him if he wanted to come back for more and he enthusiastically said yes, so we signed him up for the six-week course. Another attraction for him was that he had struck up a friendship with one of the other children and was very keen to cone back to see him. I don't know if that boy will be signing up though.

We had lunch at Masons at one of the blocks in Gillman Barracks, after which we went to see an exhibition at a neighbouring block.

The exhibition was at Mizuma Gallery. It was titled "Mythopoeia" and it was by the multitalented Yoshitaka Amano. This man is the creative mind behind the characters in Final Fantasy and Gatchaman as well as several book cover illustrations such as Vampire Hunter D. He has won several awards and is considered to be of legendary status.

For this exhibition, he made 25 aluminum-based works, using automotive paints and acrylics. The level of detail on these were stunning, the precision of application was almost unbelievable, and the works were simply breathtaking. I leave you with some photos from the gallery. Enjoy!

And from the left.


From the right - it's Night.


And, from the left, it's Day.


There weren't many pieces so we were done in about twenty minutes. Good stuff. I thought it was very inventive and innovative, and a little cheeky. A different perspective of how art can represent movement.

The pieces were at adult height so Richard had to carry Ryan for viewing, while I carried Rachel. Rachel looked quietly and intently at the pieces, especially the more 'holographic' ones towards the back of the gallery.

If you are a believer of beautiful things for even the littlest ones, check out this list of 11 of the Best Designed Board Books over at Design Mom. Visual yumminess in every page.

Where's babydoll? Here she is!