Posts

Showing posts with the label Children

It is Entertaining

Image
When we were watching Bedtime Stories with my daughter, she commented that the movie was stupid. However, rather than standing up and walking away, she continued to stay and watch the movie to the end. Many movies and television shows  that defy logic but are very successful. Take for example, SpongeBob SquarePants. The show completely defies logic, how could you have fire underwater or even water underwater. Yet, it is one of the most popular cartoon series at the moment. Entertainment is the key. Are you able to engage your viewers and make them laugh?  Messages do not have to be dull and blend. Some of the most effective communications are entertaining and memorable. Being able to do this effectively is an art form and can be learned. However, it will take lots of time and practice. Do you remember how babies attract attention even with complete strangers? Is it just because they are adorable or it is something else? Maybe it is because they are just curious and not sel

Writing Online

Image
Of late, I have been writing mostly movie reviews. I found that this is a rather save and easy way for me to write online. The few times I tried writing on other things, the editor of the site I wrote for found many mistakes in my grammar. Surprisingly there was minimal or no grammar mistakes for the movie review I wrote. I love watching movies so I am happy to be able to write movie reviews. After a few disappointing movies, I try to be more selective on the movies I watch. Some movies are for my own entertainment while others to allow me to spend time with my children. One movie such movie was Warm Bodies , even though it was a zombie movie it was not scary at all. There was a part we had fun with. It was the point when the main character a zombie named “R”, he had turned back into human and was shot by the human survivors. The girlfriend was trying to convince them that he is human and used the fact that he is bleeding as proof. Zombies do not bleed. I told my children,

Accident but Still a Blessing

Image
Recently we took our children for a day of fun and games in at Berjaya Theme Park. Everything seems perfect. The drive to the Berjaya Time Square was smooth with minimal traffic and we did not have any trouble finding the place (unlike the last time where we had to stop to ask for direction and drive around different blocks to find the entrance). This time we decided to park at a nearby open car park (which only charges a flat rate) instead of the covered parking inside Berjaya Time Square). We arrived at the entrance of the indoor Theme Park before it was open but already there were a few others in front of us. Both children were excited with the trip because they planned to go on the roller coaster with a 360 degree loop for the first time. Even though they have been to the theme park multiple times, they have never had the courage to go on the roller coaster. They went from one ride to another while I joined them in a few of the rides. We got into one of the rides known as the “DNA

How to Make up Bedtime Stories

Image
It is fun to make up your own bedtime stories and it provides a great opportunity to spend time with your children. I managed to tell stories I created for seven months before I ran out of ideas and my children lost interest. ©  Jan Teunis  (Belgium) Topic The first step in making a story come up with a topic. Ways of coming up with a topic include: Think of something your children are interested in. Ask your children for a topic. Think of something lesson you want to teach your children. Use Words that Your Children can Relate to To engage children, it is important to provide them with things that are familiar with or can associate with. It will make it easier for them to visualize the story. For example, in the Moths and Butterflies story, I started with fairies. Children know fairies can fly and to them butterflies and moths look like worms, hence the story. I used a similar approach in Dinosaurs . Dinosaurs look like scaly and mutated version of animals we know today.

A reminder to students

Image

A New Year

It's been a while since I posted here.  The reason is because I have been busy writing on Triond instead of here. There are very good writers and articles there and I am receiving more comments there too. Seems that more serious articles such as  Five Problems with Contact Lenses  are getting more hits.  However, I am doing more fictional children stories because this is the one my children demand every night.  I do, however, punish them by withholding stories when: They misbehave - fighting, crying and shouting. When they insist on staying late - way past their bedtime.

Learning how to type

The following is a website to help learn how to type: http://www.typeonline.co.uk/index.html

Asiasoft Gamefest 2009

Image
We went to 1 Utama on Jun 7, 2009 - the last day for Asiasoft Gamefest 2009. Could not imagine the crowd going to that place. The place was jammed packed with people. All the parking places were full except for the open air parking. Here are some pictures, taken of the event: Dancers: Look at the crowd lining up for freebies: Stage events: Staff in costumes: Look at the crowd: Registering for lucky draw: Given the mix of age groups, it looks like gaming is not for Children only.

Videos taken at DinoTrek 2

Learning Piano using Internet resources

I managed to get a keyboard (electric piano) from a shop at almost less than half price.   Problem is neither my wife and I knows how to play the piano.   So I did a search on internet and found many resources to help us to learn how to play the piano. (Just that it may not tell us if the timing is correct). The following are some good resources: Free Piano Lessons Get Piano Lessons As you learn and want more material, you can then download free music sheets from the following: MyPiano blog

Gong Xi Fatt Chai - Happy Chinese New Year

Image
Welcome the year of the Brown Earth Ox. The end of the Earth Rat brought a lot of chaos worldwide. With the strength of the Ox and its ability to work the earth, here is hoping to a more productive and prosperous 2009. The following are some photos of a lion dance and dragon dance I took with my hand phone. Unfortunately, the phone was not able to take the action sequence clearly. The dragon: The Lions: Anyway, my daughter enjoyed the whole thing even though it was very noisy. She has grown since her first encounter (she was terrified then).

Writing your ABC

Image
Recently I noticed that my daughter was having problems writing her ABCs. She knows them but the problem was writing it in the wrong direction. I devised the problem way to help her remember and hopefully it will help other children too. Facing left or right She was confused which way the alphabets faced so she would write j in the wrong way: So I told her that if the alphabet faces right, it was facing the sun and if it faces left, it faces the moon. For lower case, only a, d, g, j, q, y and z does that (in the case of g it faces left when you write but not when you type). For upper case, only J, Y and Z does that. Upper Case vs Lower Case Next was the uppercase and lower case. I told her that only lower case alphabets know how to swim, that is why they are allowed to go below the line and only for g, j, p, q and y. As for upper case, they are giants and all of them can reach the roof. Lower case alphabets need to carry sticks to touch the roof (the only ones that do that are d, f

The long walk

Image
My heart was racing faster than I can remember. I have never felt so frightened as I tried to follow my sister and dad. I could barely hear his voice saying, “ If you don’t follow us you will be left behind!! The jeep is waiting for us at the other side. ” My sister was also screaming, “ I am scared, papa! ” Then my father started rambling something but before he could continue, I shouted, “ Just shut up!! ” Then my sister screamed back, “ It’s your fault, you are the one who kept saying, Let’s go to the canopy walk. ” The truth of her words struck me hard but I retorted, “ You are going too fast. ” As I walked forward, the bridge swayed left and right and I shouted, “ Stop shaking the bridge!! ” I walked forward and felt cold sweat streaming down my forehead and my back. I cursed – “ Shit! Shit ”. It seems like infinity but finally we reached the first tree. My father then said, “ Ok, now lets rest until you catch your breath before we continue .” I looked around and saw how high we

Tongue Twisters

Most people know the following tongue twister: She sells seashells on the seaside. I was with my daughter and thought of the following. Now say this really fast: Give me the Screwdriver to screw the screw into the screw hole.

A Mind at a Time

I am currently reading the book A Mind at a Time (actually more listening since it is an audio book). I found this to be a very interesting book in helping understand myself and my children. A couple of things I took from the book are: Some people are visual thinkers - for these people, it is difficult for them to absorb if you provide too many words to them. We have three types of memory, short term (works only for 2 seconds), middle term and long term. For cases where the short term is faulty, it may sometimes cause the person not to be able to grasp input that is too fast. Sometimes, our memory is selective, so some people have very good recollection in certain subjects but not in others (I believe I fall into this category). Our long term memory is potentially unlimited but sometimes the way we store it may cause them to be unretrievable. Many times due to certain mental development dysfunction, people misunderstood. For example, a person may be very intelligent but because of prob

Excellent Children Learning Sites

Today I was introduced to an excellent site to help children learn. The URL is as follows: http://www.bbc.co.uk/children/ It looks like an excellent site to help learn English, Maths and Science.