KIDs need to Learn

Being a perfectionist mom, and also a mom with limited patience at times, I tend forgot that kids need to learn.

The other day, my 3 year old wanted to fill in her cup with water and took it to the sofa. On the way, as I never expect, spilled the water on the floor as she moved too quickly in my opinion. I made a fuss over that and subsequently feel terrible for not letting her to LEARN. I realize that I have been unreasonably expect her to get things done right the first time.

Being too busy with life, work and chores has made me forgetting this very important thing, that kids need time to learn, and they learn from mistakes. I am writing this post to remind us parents that this time shall pass, and we will definitely miss those moments when our kids did mistakes, those time we guided them on the right way of doing things while we cleaned the mess. All these are temporary. Looking forward, when we reach the day our kids leave our home for studies or to pursue their very own lives, leaving us with a quiet & clean home to take care of, you know that you miss those moment, the moment you are living in now, the moment you child is still clinging to you, talking to you, holding your hands, begging you to read another bed time story.

We do not want kids to just listen to instruction, we want to raise them to be independent, and in order to do so, mistakes are inevitable. Mistakes are so inevitable and important as it forms a part of the learning process. We as adults do learn new things in our lives, and we do expect ourselves to make mistakes before we can master the new skills. So we should not expect our child to master a skill the first time doing it, just because we think that it is easy.

In short, we have to remind ourselves the followings:

EXPECT : Mistakes, a lot of them.
EMBRACE : Our kids is still attached to us right now
EXTRA : Praises when they learn from mistakes

How to handle frustrated toddler in public

Yes, it happen again and again despite telling them in a calming voice that they are not suppose to climb the racks, to play with the pasta sauce jar and take whatever they think is theirs. They ignore, continue with their exploration happily. Then you say 'No' in a firm voice. Next second, they decided to grab the public attention by lying on the floor and whine. They try to test your limit.

I did a lot of reading on this, admit and know that it is perfectly normal for a toddler to behave like this, that I have to stay calm, to use a firm voice etc etc. None work for me personally. I feel that she is over-powering me time after time. So I decided to use my very own way.

1) REASON : I will of course try to reason with her, tell her in a firm voice, that racks are for groceries, that we do not need pasta sauce right now, and that the barbie does not belong to her.

2) TELL CONSEQUENCE: She ignores me, continue with where she is. I will tell her firmly 'No, if you continue your act, I presume that you do not like grocery shopping, and we will go home together.

3) WALK YOUR TALK: Then she enters into the whining stage. I will hug her and carry her (while she is crying) to the car, put her down while she is struggling, and remind her that we will go home together and will go grocery shopping the next time. This is the most difficult step. Just remember you need not feel embarrassed being watched by public because you are one of the parents who just reaches the junction of public parenting where all other parents will reach or has reached at the different point of time and at different place. Keep reminding yourself that you did this for the sake of raising your child.


I did this for 2 times before she understand I mean what I say and that she will not get what she wants if she acts poorly. Not long after that it happens again, I use the same method and by the 4th time, she learns that she is not going anywhere if she does not listen. Now, she loves grocery shopping as much as I do and the stress is gone. At times, I will still have to remind her not to touch some items, but not a struggle anymore.

I strongly believe that we parents know our child best, and that no one method works for all children. I decided to share this so that my girl knows how naughty is she when she was young, alright just joking. I am trying to share one of the thousand methods which may work with your child. If you think this may work, then by all means try it. But if you feel this will not work, just move on and find another way.

Steamed Milk Cake

Prep Time : 5 minutes

Cook Time : 15 minutes

Yield : 3 small cupcakes

Freezer Friendly : No

  

Steamed cakes becomes my new favorite when it comes to preparing fresh cake for my pre-schooler as it consumes less time compared to conventional baked cake and it produces cake that is airy and fluffy enough for my pre-schooler to handle. 

I ran out of Milo powder today, so decided to replace with Mamil's formula milk (sample pack which my pre-schooler reject). See my earlier post on Milo cupcake here.

Ingredients:

3 eggs

3 tbsp Mamil formula milk powder

3 tbsp all purpose flour

1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp pomace olive oil

1 tsp baking powder

Steps:

1) Mix everything except eggs in a bowl. Remove lumps by mashing action with fork.

2) Beat eggs and add to 1). Mix well using by mashing action with a fork.

3) Pour into stainless steel bowl (the lazy version) or cupcake liner (the cute version) and steam under high heat for 15 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel to avoid steam water dropping on the cake when the lid is open. Just ensure the bowl is high enough that your mixture only reach half of the bowl after pouring to allow enough room to rise.

Tips for successful steamed cakes:

1) Ensure eggs are thoroughly beaten to trap enough air for fluffy texture. I found that using chopsticks is the best, yes, it yields better than a whisk. (Update: I prefer to use fork now as the same fork can be used to remove lumps in Step 1,which works well too)

2)  After adding the beaten egg into Step1, just mix well, there is no need to "beat".

3) Ensure the batter is steamed right after mixing. Waiting will make the baking powder lost its power, the cake will not rise as much.

Lunch Platter

Menu:

Fluffy raw wheat germ yogurt pancake (Note : just add 2tbsp greek yogurt to this recipe)

Carrot sticks

Potato wedges

School Lunch (Mar'16 Week1)

MONDAY

Steam cream cheese cake

Dried blueberry

TUESDAY 

Plain bread with wild blueberry jam

Dried blueberry

Banana

WEDNESDAY

Easy potato macaroni

(just replace brocolli with diced potato)

THURSDAY

Pumpkin porridge with ABC soup base

(Replace carrots with diced pumpkin, vegetable stock with ABC soup base)

FRIDAY
Steamed milk cake
Dried blueberry

Stock Congee with Carrots

Prep Time : 5 min
Cook Time : 1 hour 30 min (Inactive)
Yield : 1 toddler serving
Freezer-friendly : No

Well, as it was the first week after the Chinese New Year holiday, as expected, late wake-ups, rushy mornings etc etc.

I have found a quick way to cook fresh congee for my pre-schooler everyday, the trick is to use frozen stock/soups. It makes the congee/porridge taste amazing without much preparation work. You can actually wake up, throw in everything into the smart cooker, and go back to sleep.

I have not taken a photo out of the rushy morning but hope I am able to do so in the coming weeks if this congee is back on demand.

Here is my quick & easy recipe:

Ingredients :
350ml of frozen vegetable stock (stored in breastmilk bag)

1/4 cup of rice
2 tbsp of diced carrots
Water

Steps:
1) Run the breastmilk bag under tap water until you can 'move' the frozen stock by squeezing it.
2) Squeeze out the frozen stock into a small pot under low fire to melt it.
3) Wash rice and diced carrots. Put into rice/smart cooker.
4) Once the frozen stock is half melted, pour into the rice cooker, add water until the level of cooking 1 cup of rice as marked in the cooker.
5) Select 'Congee' mode and go back to sleep!

School Lunch (Feb'16 Week3)

MONDAY

White bread with wild blueberry jam
Hard-boiled egg

Dried blueberry

How to make hard-boiled egg soft enough for toddler:

Put egg in a pot of water, bring to boil, wait 1 minute, turn off fire, close lid, wait 20 minutes. Peel & serve


TUESDAY

Stock congee with carrot



WEDNESDAY
Stock congee with carrot (well, my toddler asked for it again)


THURSDAY
Stock congee with carrot (still not yet bored)


FRIDAY
Stock congee with carrot (Is this a chef recommendation?)