Ban fast foods!

Rearing children is a daunting challenge, and I always hope that I'll succeed in it and raise happy, healthy children with good morals and good solid education. There are children who succeed in school academically or are wealthy or famous or have all, and to me that's so immaterial. If there's own thing that I would envy the most about children is this: eating healthily and are physically active. But this wish is hard for me to do when I honestly love junkfood, and hate exercising, so how do I show good examples to my children?

For a start, I thought I should ban them from fast food restaurants. You know what I'm talking about, like those that have the big golden arches, or the big buckets in the sky of KFC. Not sounding like a hypocrite, I admit that I LOVE these foods - the juicy fried chickens plus its gravy and the big fat chips. When I was younger, I used to collect all the toys that they promoted, and enjoyed playing in their indoor playgrounds. Now older and little wiser, I'm still quicker to run to these shops than to head to those 'healthy' salad/sandwich shops. But for my children's sake, I think I should put an end to my visits to these international fast foods that sell food rich in cholesterol and saturated fats.

You see, my reasoning is if you don't expose them now to these fast food restaurants I believe that they'll never look for them in the future or even prefer eating them over a healthier choice. My analogy to my new practice is this: I don't prefer to eat lamb because we were never exposed to eat it when I was younger; so I'm hoping that my children would feel the same from fast foods.

I don't think I'm terrible for doing this, and I'm not going extremes either. I've heard of moms who constantly say, "No, that's too sweet", "too salty" or "too oily" to foods offered to their children. But I can't be there all the time to patrol my childrens' foods. So the best I can do is to let them have a strong foundation on good food choices. Perhaps for a start, the best I can do is to stir them in another direction, like a decent cafe that sells healthier burgers. I am not banning them from eating the burgers and fries, but I'm discouraging them from restaurants that lure them with toys, merchandise and playgrounds to buy their greasy, less nutritious food.

Recently, my son was asked if he wanted to eat McDonalds, and he apparently said no. Both me and my husband were moved hearing he refused, for now we know that our little experiment worked! Hopefully, this would continue until he gets older. When he's older, I'm sure he would be able to understand what the tv/internet advertisers are trying to sell, but if we continue to show him there are better choices than junk foods then hopefully there's nothing to worry about.

Just before I close, a report on the news today says that alarming numbers of fast food advertiserments are found on tv and internet. They attract kids with toys, mascot appearances and computer games.

Thanks to my love for my children, I am finding that I'm eating less of these fast foods too. Hmm, next hurdle is the exercise part....now how do I do that?

Eggsemptional!

Year after year, I always see crafty ways to decorate eggs, like dyeing or glueing glittery objects on them, and I wished that I have the time to decorate at least two dozens or more of these eggs. Since you want a decent number of eggs for kids to find, I spent more time preparing them than the actual game of hunt. A few ways I could prepare the eggs were using the following:

Hard boiled eggs: They're ok, but if the children couldn't find the eggs, days later you would by tracing the scent of rotten eggs coming from your sofa or wherever they were hidden.

Emptied raw eggs: To empty the eggs, prick both ends of the ends with a pin and blow the contents out from one hole. Sounds easy? No. I tried this many times, and it hurt so much to blow the eggwhite and yolk if you have tiny pin-holes. My ears almost burst from blowing excessively! If you want the contents easily out, you have to make a hole as big as a button which is too big if you bought a small 50g egg or quail eggs.

Chocolate eggs: They're ok, but just be warned that it will be hard to stop your children from eating ALL of their finds, so you just wish and pray that they either find only 1 or none.

So, I was 'hoppy' to find a dozen plastic eggs for $3, which cost as much as real eggs, hanging in the supermarket, and I think they're the best eggs ever to use for the hunt!

Why?

Has the approved "tick" of the Australian Heart Foundation - it's cholesterol and sugar-free - you've just saved yourself future scary visits to the doctor and dentist.

They don't break and crack - my kids throw them high in the air, knock 2 eggs against each other, put them under their trucks and run over them.

They float - they fell in a pond and there was no need to get your scuba suit to dive for them.

They don't melt - very good when you want to hide outdoors and it's scorching 30C and above.

They are non-perishable - no need to fear that you're filling up rodents and other animals around.

Completely recyclable - you can use them next year and year after and year after...

HAPPY EASTER!

PS. can somebody hide the eggs for me to find?

School for 4 yrs old

The other night, my attendance to my very first Parents & Teachers meeting in m's school was a testament that my son actually goes to school. Dropping him at school and picking him up doesn't give that feeling, and I wonder why. Perhaps because I see that he's enjoying there and he 'belongs' there for that time being, so it doesn't hurt me much. But me attending the school's meeting, makes me feel that I am part of something now all thanks to him.

The discussion centred around the school's philosophies and activities. They believe that the children are the 'teachers' and the staff are there to enhance and build up the learning depending on the children's interests. They don't have a 'structure' or institution-like activities, for they don't want to impose things to children and they would rather let the children dictate what they want to do. They are there to encourage creativity, imagination, socialisation and independent learning. They don't teach ABC's, numbers, shapes and colours there, for they rather would foster self esteem, self awareness, social and communication skills that are deemed more important for the children's readiness to Kindergarten (for 5 year olds in NSW) next year.

Upon hearing what they have to say about how they run the school, I actually was moved by their dedication to the importance of learning for these children. So, I must say that I do support this kind of new form of education to the children at this age now that they're blossoming with enthusiam, full of energy and curiosity.

Another thing that I love about m's school is how they are strict about what goes in the lunchbox. Apart from anaphylactic foods (like peanuts, eggs, sesame, nuts) it's strictly NO chocolates, lollies and chips (crisps)! If caught they'll pull it out of the box! Cool! It's sometimes confusing to me to decide what will fill him up during a busy day, but at least there's their little guide on what I should put there in his box and forces me to think healthily.

Planting with kids

These are m's pride and joy. He planted the spinach seeds with his Lola sometime in Spring. Back this time in Summer, he helped water the little greenies. Thanks to m, we got to enjoy the spinach in a few fresh salads and also in a beef stew.

Happy Halloween!

Today the boys got dressed up for the annual Halloween celebration. We didn't go out on the streets to "trick or treat", seeing it's not a popular practice here in Australia, and I also didn't want to expose the littlies to lots of lollies yet. m got in a Buzz Lightyear costume ("To infinity and beyond!"), and Count j beamed his fangs (appropriate because he currently loves to bite our shoulders and faces *teething*). Like m's wall decors?

Dry skin - solved!

For a long time, since he was 3 mths old, j's been suffering from terrible eczema on his cheeks and chin. His skin really flares up - dry and peels. Medication (hydrocortisone cream) stops it when it gets too severe, and I constantly have to apply moisturiser (Ego QV cream)to prevent it.

I've tried lots of bath soaps on him, like Curash (soap-free) and Huggies (for sensitive skin), and everytime I bathed him that's when I suspected the redness starts. Good thing I remembered hearing my dear friend use Ego QV wash for her son, so I gave it a try and miraculously j's facial skin is now better! Love it!

Play Dough Recipe

Home made play dough recipe - and it's as good as the ones you buy in the tubs!

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup flour
2. 1/2 cup salt
3. 2 teaspoons cream of tartar
4. 1 teaspoon cooking oil
5. food coloring

In a heavy saucepan, combine flour, salt, and cream of tartar. Add oil, 1 cup water, and food coloring as desired. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes, stirring constantly, until mixture pulls away from sides of pan. Remove from heat, and let cool 1 minute. Transfer to a work surface, and knead until smooth. Store in an airtight container; it will keep for several weeks.