Language » Hip to be Mom

17 Again

Posted by clairity Comments Off

Jul 222009

Trust Steev to get us girls hooked up with another great movie this afternoon. Being 17 Again is what happened to Mike O’Donnell (Matthew Perry) when he woke up one morning to see himself in the mirror as a teen again (Zac Efron)!

Of course, as a mom, I simply love the great advice he dished out to his teenaged kids about self-respect and the many pitfalls and temptations of being a teen. I mean it’s stuff I tell my teens and it sure is nice to hear the words of my motherly pep talk in the movie !

Indeed it’d be great to be 17 again. I can see myself in a very different place. And it’d be kinda neat to be starting college all over again! I love school, what can I say? Unfortunately the opportunity to rewrite our lives only happens in movies. But hey, you can’t have everything!

At least it was a laid-back afternoon well spent. Pity those other kids who are constantly being told to hurry up and finish their lunch so they can hurry up and finish their homework before they get shuttled from one tutor to the next, only to come home late in the evening and be told to hurry up and finish dinner so they can hurry up and get their piano practice done before they hurry up and finish up the rest of their homework so they can hurry off to bed before the clock strikes 12 and they turn into pumpkins !

Oops, have I digressed? Let me get back on track here. Ah, to be 17 and savoring an English movie without the need for pesky subtitles! Nice thought!

books Up until dinner last night, we were still talking about Michael Jackson’s passing. Such talent, such catchy music, such slick dance routines, such a crying shame he’s gone too soon.

Somewhere in the conversation, we were discussing how prescription medication might’ve been detrimental to his health.

Skye: What’s detrimental, Mom?

Me: Bad.

Raine: Hazardous.

There’s our walking dictionary. Looks like I’d better brush up my English . I’m bad, I’m bad…. who’s bad?

Raine and I had a really great brainstorming session last night. Like me, both my girls love to write. I’m glad some of their teachers notice this. Yesterday Raine was asked to submit an article to the school magazine. All afternoon while in the car, she and I were tossing ideas at each other.

Should I write about Twilight, Mom? Everyone’s so crazy about it at school but I think it’s way overrated . Or should I do a book review? How about fashion trends? I sure have a lot to say about, oh, never mind, forget I said that *giggle*.

feather pen

Come dinner time, she’d finally decided she was going to write about Twilight and we discussed the angle. She showed me the piece later and asked me to proofread it.

Going through a piece together is always a great time for us to bond and discuss the finer points of writing.

I see great potential in my children’s writing. They write very well and I love cheering them on. I was never a cheerleader at school but I swear I’m getting pretty good at it now . Raine was so excited about her piece last night I could almost sense the feverish tingling from across the room. Rah!

my fun-filled afternoons

Posted by clairity Comments Off

Mar 022009

The girls are in the middle of their school exams and still we can find the time to laugh. There are several subjects this year that are new to them. Like Geography which Skye’s teachers and friends pronounce as “jio-grah-fee”.

Skye knows it should be “ji-ORH-gre-fee” but when she uses the correct pronunciation, no one understands her. So she’s forced to deliberately MISpronounce certain words to be understood. When she told us about this, we had a good laugh.

Raine is doing “chem-is-tree” this year, not “KEM-is-tree”, and let’s hope we’ve got new “ah-pah-rah-toos”, not “EP-a-rat-us” in the science lab. Wait till you hear the pronunciations of other mathematical and scientific terms. Some are completely unrecognizable and some have me rolling on the floor clutching my tummy!

In our attempt to murder the English language, we have completely ignored the stress and intonation. Every syllable is flat and we simply pronounce the word by its spelling (or misspelling) based on some other language which incidentally is not the way English works.

By the way, to those who think I’m very free because I don’t work outside home, please know that many of my fun-filled afternoons are spent correcting the misguided English my kids bring home from school. This is what I do for entertainment!

Let’s just say I’m having a case of in-law overdose this week. A cousin on DH’s side is getting married which means all my in-laws from far and near are gathered here in town, for better or for worse.

On the one hand, I’m happy for my kids to meet their hordes of cousins, aunts, uncles, grand-aunts and grand-uncles they hardly ever see. I’m lucky in that DH isn’t very close to his family so I’ve been spared the horror stories that are often told about in-laws.

On that count, I’m ever the outlaw in the eyes of my in-laws since we hardly visit and I don’t speak their lingo. I don’t know for sure but I’ve got a feeling they blame me for keeping my kids out of circulation with the rest of the clan and for them not learning their dialect. Rebel that I am, I feel no guilt whatsoever .

When we were at the wedding eve party last night, everyone was a-gush at seeing how my 3 kids have grown. We spent the entire evening answering exciting questions about their age and school and hearing endless comparisons with so-and-so’s kids who are around their ages.

Of course, language is always the problem whenever the in-laws are in town. Where words fail us, sign language and perfunctory nods always work for me. By the time we got home last night, I swear I had a permanent, pasted smile on my face that I had to wipe off together with my makeup.

This morning, we made an obligatory appearance at the church wedding purely out of courtesy. The kids and I sat patiently through it all, albeit with MP3 players and pocket PCs to while away the time waiting for the ceremony to end. I hope DH knows we were doing this just for him .

We didn’t stay for the buffet lunch. Since everyone was too busy to notice us, I exchanged a few courtesies with FIL and a few others, bid them a hurried goodbye and we scooted off to Carls’ Jr for a peaceful burger and salad. Whew!

Two down, one more to go and that’s the grand wedding dinner tonight!! Can’t wait .

creating hungry bookworms

Posted by clairity Comments Off

Nov 132008

We always feel a bit uncomfortable when our friends ask Steev “so what books are you reading now?” and Steev would just shrug the question off with an inaudible mumble under his breath, an answer I always hope our friends won’t hear .

Truth is we’ve been trying to get him to read without much success, or so we thought. Steev and Raine were both early readers. Before age 3, they were able to read simple Peter & Jane books and were progressing nicely up the number series and onto Enid Blyton books.

Skye started late because I was so busy with the two older ones and she always being the ‘baby’, I didn’t realize she was already 3 and still couldn’t read a word!

Today, Raine and Skye are my two bookworms always reading, always hungry for more books. Steev, on the other hand, has probably read all of two books in his entire school life.

I only realized recently that we’ve probably wrongly accused him of not reading when all this while, he’s been soaking up technical and technology articles on the internet. Okay lah, bad mommy thought he was only playing games!

Today I read in The Star that many of our schoolkids read only two books a year! It’s a shame, too many distractions competing for their attention these days. The trick is to start them young and consistently build on their interest from there (how to get kids to start reading?).

I did it the hard way but it really doesn’t have to be that hard. Funetics actually has a phonics-based Early Reading Program that’s not only a great place to start but also lots of fun for both parent and child.

It also makes a valued Christmas gift, or anytime gift, for friends with kids. It contains 81 lessons from early letter recognition to preschool concepts to reading and writing.

Like I always say, each child is different and this kit contains lots of interesting games and activities to suit your child’s learning style and allows you to pace the lessons according to your schedule and his/hers.

The printed version comes with a free audio CD of the program. You can try out 3 lessons for free. Shipping is available worldwide and it’s free for those living in the US.

Many working parents don’t have time to figure out how to get their kids interested in books and a guided program like Funetics is just the thing to get started.