A Moment Of Sanity

Gosh... my last entry was two months ago. It is not because I have nothing to blog about, definitely. I just have not got the time or energy to playback the events of each day in my mind and come up with the words to retell them. Each day passes by quickly and leaves a fuzzy mark behind... I seem to have lost track of time or maybe time has lost its meaning. I just know I have to manage a colicky baby who chokes at my breasts and a jealous big sister who regresses for attention. Not to forget, a domestic helper with a rebellious nature.

Well, not everything is bad. I still have my sanity and sense of humour although there were times I thought they no longer existed. Alfee's colic is now more manageable and Sophie... well, she is still Sophie. Her teachers at Cherrybrook said she is "wilful" and "socially needy". I agree. Of course, they also say loads of good stuff about her. She has an eye for details, good memory, sense of order and cheery deposition. She is bold andinquistive. She is very helpful towards others as well. But I am more concerned about her weaknesses. She can be very difficult to manage if she chooses to. And she always needs someone around to interact with. She is not a clingy child, on the contrary, she can be quite independent if I allow her to be. She just cannot bear to be alone. I need to come up with some strategy to make those character traits become her assets.

That is my plan for her next year. To cultivate patience, perseverance and self discipline in her and nurture her social skills. By now, I have come to terms with her character traits or flaws although it is not always easy for me to manage our interaction. After all, I am not a patient person myself. I never really got to work on this particular character flaw. I guess this is the perfect chance for me to do so. In order to help Sophie, I need to work on my own issues. Besides all the social-emotional stuff, I am exposing her to more preschool sort of activities, like dot-to-dot, colouring, tracing, mazes and what not. I hope our home learning can resume, yet I am taking it slow. With Alfee around, I am not sure how to work out a schedule that works for us. So far, it has been chaos and all the activities I did with Sophie were spontaneous.

The most significant change for Sophie would be her school life. Next year se would be in the morning from 8 am to 1 pm. This means no naptime in the morning. Longer hours also means she must feed herself and go diaperless. I intend to let her attend the enrichment programmes in her school as well. Very exciting. She gets to do speech and drama in Mandarin and English, soccer, dance and partipate in activities conducted in Mandarin. Outside school, she would be doing I Can Read, Little Notes and Berries. I hope I can come up with some art curriculum for her, since I cannot find an art school suitable for her.