Parenting on Purpose

This article was written for Little Day Out, a Singapore-based family portal. Little Day Out goes one-on-one with the Director of I Theatre’s Spot the Difference , Isabella Chiam, to ascertain if there are any differences between an actor’s off-stage personality and his theatrical role. “It is hard to find the right people for the parts, and it’s all about finding the right dynamic for the piece.” Spot the Difference Director Isabella Chiam shared the secret that directing a play is all about finding the right actors. She shared that once the actors are chosen, half the work is done, with the rest of the process being just exploration and fun.  And do the three actors involved in the play fit their roles? Yes, says Isabella. For instance Joshua Jonathan Lim plays the part of Vik, whose world must consist of everything straight - lines, stripes, and sharp angles, without a curve or a bend in sight. Isabella describes Joshua as “very proper and strong”. As for Fervyn Ta...

Transitions in life provide the best opportunities for us to take stock and re-calibrate our goals and visions. I've recently had a few weeks to stop and re-assess the priorities in my life, and these moments have been priceless.  One evening last week, I was seated in the library, waiting for my wife to get her hair done at the nearby salon. Our kids were at my in-laws' and it was one of the few rare occasions when I felt completely free. In my hands were a couple of good books and of course my trusty Macbook. After spending time reading and simply soaking in the atmosphere, my thoughts wandered to the importance of setting time aside just to think and to reflect. I begin thinking so much that I was inspired to post the  following Facebook status update: Teachers need more time to think rather than to rush around for endless meetings and other such pursuits. A thinking teacher makes all the difference for his or her students. Time to get mental rest; time to re-assess ...

Quote of the Day: As parents we love our children tremendously. From the first time we set our eyes on them we already love them. Then there are the numerous things that we do each day just because we love them - like sacrificing the last morsel of our favourite food for them, or spending the last bit of our energy cleaning up their messes...  I know I sometimes do these things only because I've been told to do so, or because I feel it's only right for me to do so; instead, w hat's important is for us to truly love our children from our heart each time we do something for them.

Quote of the Day: Education is more than teaching a child about the mechanics of a task. It's about painting broad strokes to create the big picture in the  imagination of the student and allowing him or her to pencil in the fine details.  We are not looking for carpenters and shipbuilders; rather ship captains and masters of the sea...

The benefit of homeschooling is that you can suddenly decide in the middle of the year to change curriculum when the students/ teacher gets bored (in this case, the latter... This Mummy gets bored rather easily).  Well, actually, I felt a need for more variation in our activities than what we have been doing in our Little Hands to Heaven syllabus, which is great as an early foundation and very easy to follow, but can get quite repetitive on a weekly basis. Not to mention that along with our erratic homeschooling schedule with my work and other commitments thrown in, and my exhaustion in running the household with two active boys, I have been very dissatisfied on the school front this year. In the beginning... The good thing is Z has been reading a lot more keenly this year!  That is a milestone in itself. I have been missing the literature-based Before Five in a Row, which we did last year. We are not ready for the   Five in a Row literature yet (perhaps ...

Commemorative days have always been stressful for me. Birthdays, anniversaries, other special days to celebrate the role of various individuals; and this of course includes Mothers' Day. In the week or two just before Mothers' Day, an unsaid pressure builds up in the mind of the father. This is mostly due to the unmentioned expectation that fathers are supposed to orchestrate how their children celebrate their mother on this special day. Mothers always seem to be the most prepared on Fathers' Day with cards, presents and other surprises,  and a similar expectation is placed on the father.  Another reason why Mothers' Day is so stressful for me is that giving is not one of my preferred love languages. Gary Chapman's book The   Five Love Languages list gifts, words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service and physical touch as the primary ways in which people show love. I am more comfortable with affirming others and spending quality time with them. So when...

This article was written for Little Day Out, a Singapore-based family portal.  Little Day Out chats with Puss in Boots’ songwriter Bang Wenfu, and gets into the groove of how music makes a musical sing… “Every piece of music I write must have heart and soul. In theatre, writing without heart and soul is a crime. The songs must touch the audience as much as the story and performance.” I Theatre’s resident songwriter Bang Wenfu is a veteran in the music scene. He is local artiste Kit Chan’s close collaborator, and has written numerous hit songs for luminaries such as Jacky Cheung, S.H.E. and Stefanie Sun among others. Wenfu is also a seasoned music director and producer, having led the musical charge for the inaugural Singapore Day in New York in 2007 as well as the 2009 Total Defence mini-musical at Suntec City. Given his extensive composing experience in the commercial world, what then is the difference when writing for the drama stage? “In musical theatre, cohere...