Parenting on Purpose

A review of Ready Steady Go Kids Singapore. Are you ready to learn five sports in one term? That's what Australia-based children's programme Ready Steady Go Kids has promised to all who take part in its classes. The company website highlights the following key areas of its programme: Our high quality, physio-designed programme teaches children the fundamentals of  10 different sports  in a fun, non-competitive, team-based environment. This programme is now available to you in Singapore! Our classes run for 45 minutes and there are 5 sports covered each term. Classes also focus on a specific gross motor, hand-eye/foot-eye and/or balance activity to complement the sport component. Our programme has a structure that is repeated each week so that participants become familiar and comfortable with the routine.  Ready Steady Go Kids seeks to develop a lifelong passion for physical activity and sport, decrease childhood obesity, increase confidence and prepare ch...

Adoption is a topic close to our heart. In many of the picture books on adoption we've read, most seem to focus on the adoptive parents' journey in finding their child and on how families can come in diverse shapes and sizes. Most have been written from a Western cultural viewpoint.  Very few (or perhaps none at all) address the issue from the adoptive child's standpoint, of feeling "alien" in a family full of humans, and, an even more "taboo" topic, that of an adoptive child's search for his birthparents. And few have Asian references - adoption is still pretty much a scarcely mentioned topic in our society. Enter an endearingly odd little blue alien named Squirky. Kids somehow just relate to this very obviously different character with a spiky hairdo and a frazzled grin, and everyone can relate to somehow feeling different from everyone else at one point in our lives.  Squirky lives in a happy family with his sister Emma who...

Our 2/1/2-year old son E has always been an active child. When he was an infant, E would crawl around and get into all sorts of mischief, until one day when he discovered that he could climb on  his poor Daddy, in an inspired moment of pretend play - Daddy was his mountain and he was Sir Edmund Hilary - the first person to scale Mt Everest! It was therefore with great excitement that we we heard that Parenting on Purpose had been invited by My Gym Singapore  to participate in a series of four classes. We agreed at once; knowing that our little boy would thoroughly enjoy gym class - this was also a chance for our exuberant toddler to work off his energy and hopefully fall fast asleep after getting home. Our little son having a swing of a time at gym class.  My Gym  has an interesting educational philosophy that emphasises building self esteem in children. This is an excerpt from the company's website: The philosophy that guides My Gym’s programming and bre...

We remember with fondness our first trip to Penang with our older son Z. He was 4 months old. We went with his Ye Ye and Nai Nai, and it was a carefully chosen destination - a not too long plane ride, and accessible tourist spots. Even then, I was still a little anxious about how it would turn out - whether he would experience pressure on the flight, and if he would sleep well in a new environment. I remember how he decided to soil his diaper immediately upon take off, and me wrestling with a dirty nappy and a squirming infant on the tray table in front of me instead of my dinner. Z's first trip overseas at the age of 4-months - Penang, Malaysia. Looking back, I think the trip opened Mark's and my eyes to how enjoyable it was to travel with our children. I remember walking through the local spice gardens and seeing how he reached wide-eyed for every plant and explored the texture of dried leaves on a bench, and the look of total trust as he appealed to Daddy for help ...

A Morning at the Market The next day we were up bright and early, all ready to go for the nearby Sunday market in the town of Vasse, where we hoped to stock up on some homemade food products and other interesting knick knacks. The Sunday Market at Vasse, just half an hour away from Busselton. My mum-in-law was happy to buy some lovely homemade cakes, which the boys happily devoured. Of Ice Cream & Other Delights Although there were a few good buys at Vasse, those didn't seem to satisfy us; the boys at least were up for an ice cream - especially on such a hot day. So we headed off to the famous Simmo's Ice Creamery, which was said to be a "must go" place for the kids. We were, however, a tad disappointed as the quality of the ice cream was not nearly as good as the ones we ate at both the Swan Valley and at Harvey Cheese. The service was also wanting, and we were rather put off by the policy that customers are not allowed to sample flavours before ...