Renzo gets an earful from Daddy Chan

Standing by our main door, staring down at a timid Renzo, I was still catching my breathe after giving Renzo an earful for not holding onto his promise... He was holding back tears of fear, I was holding back tears of disappointment...

The day before was day one of the long weekend, the Jubilee celebration of Singapore's 50th year of independence. He would usually clear his schoolwork after breakfast, but this day, he didn't. Mummy Chan and I didn't persist. Then came this morning, after breakfast, he didn't fulfill his promise to Mummy of finishing them and instead came to me to play with him. Obligingly, I did, but only after we sat down together and planned out his activities for the day.

Renzo's Racing Car Drawing

Whipping out a piece of paper and a pencil, we began to scribble down the things he wanted to do for the day. Then I decided to take it one step further, and told him to decide how long will he dedicate his time to each activity and then to order them chronologically:
- (2 hours) Build Honda NSX 2005 (a model racing car kit)
- (1 hour) Do homework
- (11 minutes) Practice piano
- (13 minutes) Draw..... 13 minutes?... really?
- (1 hour) Play with LEGO
- (1 hour) Play at the playground (he even had a contingency plan that if it rained and the slides were wet, he'll opt for the swimming pool instead)
Looking at this, we can all pretty much tell the proportional "love" he has for piano :P

Model Kit Shopping with Renzo

So with that, I accompanied him into his room and began snipping and gluing pieces of his model kit together with him. And after 2 solid hours, when it was time for him to do his homework, he sulked and refused to do his work. I picked up his books, closed them, and walked towards main door where his bag is usually found, telling him that I gave him the opportunity to do his homework, and if he didn't want it, then fine, I won't give him the chance to do it. And when he came running after me to get his books back, I started to tell him how upset and disappointed I was.

Unfortunately I had to go out to meet up with Mummy (who was outside throughout this whole ordeal), and I simply left the books on the table, hoping that after a little self-reflection, he would complete them himself without having us to beg him to.

As I was narrating the incident to Mummy in the car, I was doing self-reflection myself. And I came to realize how similar Renzo's behaviour, responses, likes and dislikes mirrors mine. From the rapid blinking and stammered speech when in fear, to the fascination with plastic model kits, to the preference of basketball over soccer.

Kids learn best from examples and their best learning tool about life are parents. And with Renzo, I believe at this point, his shortcomings are perseverance and focus, perhaps two of my greatest shortfalls too. I always tell people around me that the best wives are the ones with the best husbands, and I believe the same holds true for kids in that the best kids are the ones with the best parents.

So to educate Renzo about these issues, I would most definitely have to overcome them myself first. And with that, I'll have to inspire myself with quotes from one of the greatest men of all time, Albert Einstein,
Of perseverance, "It's not that I'm so smart; It's just that I stay with problems longer."
Of focus, "Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves."

I guess the best place to start is to focus on Renzo and persevere until he grows responsible and discipline enough to take care of himself.

Renzo the little origami fan..

Origami, the art of paper folding has proven to be so much more than just a beautiful craft idea. One of the amazing things about origami is that you can take a flat piece of paper, and turn it into a three dimensional object. This type of manipulation helps children understand spatial reasoning. Daddy Chan has always been great with origami. He teaches Renzo how to fold heart shape for making birthday cards, he folds Santa Claus when Renzo prepares Christmas present for gift exchange, he also surprises Renzo with origami lantern using red packets. Renzo is not too good at art & craft, which isn't a bad thing to me, at least I do not need to worry about where to store a giant school bus made with cupboard though I know that's an absolutely brilliant creation by some kids. He only likes - Origami areoplanes!

Renzo was rather obsessed recently and tried out many different paper planes by following an origami book we bought from Daiso long ago. Sometimes he needs help from Daddy but most of the time, he's having hours of fun with it on his own. He brings the folding experience to a whole new level when he decorates his planes by drawing patterns, coloring them or even giving them different names.

So Daddy was rather amused at how much Renzo enjoys origami and decided to get him another book with more patterns. Unfortunately, Daiso is not carrying any such books and we ended up at Popular. Renzo picked this "Robot Gami" book and I heard from Daddy it's pretty expensive, but we didn't hesitate, after all, as long as Renzo enjoys it. Little did we know at that time that this is a tad too difficult to follow, not just for Renzo, but for us too.

We ended up spending hours figuring out how to fold these little robots. Daddy even gave up after a few rounds, and the most difficult piece took me 1 hour 20 minutes on my 3rd try. Yes the first 2 times I gave up at step 17 out of those 49  soul-destroying steps. Did Renzo make any attempts? Nope not really, he said this is really too difficult for him to handle. But he definitely did a great job in memorizing the robot names.

Then I started getting requests from him "to fold robot 344" at 6am in the morning. And a few times I ended up joining daddy to send the boys so I could continue folding during our 10 minutes car ride to school. Of course Renzo being Renzo, who is not too good at taking care of his "toys", handed out 2 robots on the first day to his good friend, a few more on the next day to his buddies. Let's just say, he simply has no compassion for my... poor fingers. But, you cannot deny that these little "creatures" bring him closer to his friends to certain extend. And guess what, I've decided to let him bring "robot gamis" on his first day of school next year, when he enters Primary 1, as ice breakers for him to make more friends easily in a brand new environment! Now, it's time to fold a few more to make sure I keep my skills sharp till then!

Happy Father's Day ~ 2015

I realized this is the 3rd time I writing a "Happy Father's Day" post.

I did it once in 2013, and another time in 2014. So, this time I am going to keep it short, really short..

Here's a father's day present from Renzo Chan, he's asked to draw "something that keeps Daddy happy" by his childcare teacher. And knowing his dad extremely well, Renzo drew a picture of himself watching Daddy playing basketball at the court/playground. Daddy has been bringing Renzo along for his basketball games recently and no doubt, basketball always keeps Daddy happy!!

His form teacher always has super creative ideas when comes to artwork. So here's his "super dad" present for daddy and Renzo said it took him many days to prepare it. 

He also spent an hour during his art lesson at globalart to make this present. Lucky daddy!!

Last but not least, here's a little tribute from Mummy Chan, on behalf of the boys, to thank Daddy for his tremendous help in the past 6 years! I believe the very reason why the kids are growing up healthily and happily day by day, is because Daddy Chan always allows me to shower our boys with all my love and care, or even "spoil" them the way I like, but he sets the rules and boundaries and enforces those the best he could. And on top of that, the best gift Daddy Chan gave to our boys, is all his love and care for their mummy, yeah.... I know I am blessed!!

So, to the best daddy for my boys, the only thing better than having you as my husband, is our kids  having you as their daddy!! Happy Father's Day!!