Parenting on Purpose

Social media can be very deceiving. We scroll through the news feeds of people we know (or of celebrity bloggers and content experts), and assume that they are living perfect lives. With every holiday photo they post, every food picture presented, or every insightful article they write, we slip into social media envy and  assume that our friends are enjoying the time of their lives. And many people assume that of me as well. They seem to think that I am living the dream life with a wonderful job and wonderful kids. And when I meet people at my various engagements, I seem to get the nod that I am the model citizen of social media society.  A recent holiday in Disneyland. After long queues under the hot sun, we were quite the "model" family! There is some truth to this. At this moment, I can say that there is no other job I would rather do; to be my own boss and to conduct training workshops for others, sometimes with my wife; what more could a man ask for? And my kids? T...

It's been a pretty crazy year, as far as I'm concerned. Since Mark and I set up the training consultancy and the online store over two years ago, what used to be a pretty constant daily schedule with the kids has been thrown to the wind. And to be honest, so has much of our formal homeschooling schedule. (Which also explains why things have been pretty quiet on the blogging front with me - Mark has been doing most of the writing.) I must admit it has not been easy for me to deal with the guilt and tiredness that can come with trying to juggle all our different commitments in work, family and ministry, but looking back on the year I believe we have all grown from this time of unpredictability and change. There's always a bigger picture we can choose to find perspective in, isn't there? We are not only making do, but learning to continue extending roots in whatever season we might be in. I have learnt how much I could actually be stretched while rely...

There was a burning question that was at the back of our mind; it had been there for awhile, since the beginning of the year, but it grew more and more pronounced as the dates grew nearer. Then about a few weeks ago, the question came to the forefront of our consciousness, as the dates of the Primary One Registration drew nearer: Should we enrol our older son Z into Primary One?  Yes we had made the decision to homeschool our kids even before either of them arrived; and yes we have been preparing ourselves mentally and emotionally to start the application process that could get Z exempted from compulsory education. But the question was especially difficult since I had come from a wonderful school with a rich history and a strong Christian tradition. What if my sons "lose out" from experiencing the education that I had gone through? After all, it could do no harm if we just showed up at my Alma Mater during the Phase 2A stage of the Primary One Registration Process, and s...

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the hearts of our children.  Our children are growing up faster than we realise! It started when our then 2-and-a-half year old had trouble sleeping at night. This was sometime after Easter, and also after we had attended the funeral procession of Singapore's First Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew the week before. The boys had been exposed to the concept of death, and had had some ideas about the finality it involved, although I am sure their understanding was still at an early stage. One night after a long week of bedtime struggles, I went into his room for what was probably the fourth time to pray for him. We asked God to send His angels to fill the room and to "tell any bad men to go away". In the darkness, I heard his little voice say, "Mummy, I am scared that the bad soldiers will come and put a crown of thorns on my head." I assured him that it would not be the case, that Jesus died once for us and we d...

We are starting with our very first homeschool co-op this week at the Jurong Bird Park. Unfortunately, I was down with the flu and couldn't attend the first session. The mothers are going to take turns leading the lessons - I thought I would finally get the blog on this unit out which we did last November so that I could rehash what we did for the unit! This has been one of my favourite MFW units so far :) The perfect start to our "Nest" study -  a nest which Ye Ye and Nai Nai found outside their balcony! (No nestlings were hurt in the removal of the nest - they had all hatched and flown away.) We learned about the parts of an egg. Eggs for breakfast!  The little one gets a feel. We get to crush the shells to make egg shell paint. Saved for an art project for another day. One of the books we read for the unit. We learned that different species made different sounds. Our art project for today - a bird's nest in a tree. Our 4 yo's i...