Getting ready for the mission

This is going to be a long journey. Getting DS and more importantly, myself, to be prepared is important to the success of this project.

Keeping myself from falling sick
Nowadays I try to get minimum 7 hrs of sleep and drink plenty of water so that I will not fall sick easily. DS needs SUPER CLOSE monitoring. How close is close? If I went to the kitchen to take a drink or went away for toilet break, you'll see him wandering around, playing/talking to the sisters, etc, all except doing what he was supposed to do.

A test of patience
When I first started out explaining words to him, he couldn't remember most of them, even after 5-10 mins. I used to get very worked up and scolded him for "not paying attention, dreaming...". Slowly I began to exercise more patience. I convince myself he didn't deliberately forget them, he just haven't found his own correct way to remember them. While explaining the phrases to him, I kept reminding myself that my aim is to get him to keep his interest in studying. It's not going to help if both of us ended up bitter. Nothing will go in his head then. So keeping the session pleasant is important. Sometimes I deliberately tell him silly things to give him a good laugh (he's one who laughs easily even at the smallest thing), especially when he's falling asleep.

DS is pretty immature. He can cry at the smallest thing as well. I remember one Sat I was asking him to take out his Chinese textbook to read aloud to me while I cook lunch. He started weeping. In the old days, I would definitely have scolded him. Words like "ask you to study so difficult is it?" would probably be thrown at him. Nowadays I have to remind myself to deal with such situation differently. I asked him very patiently why he cried. After convincing himself that I wasn't going to scold him, he told me he didn't want to do Chinese every time. I went on to explain why I wanted him to read and assured him I won't be doing Chinese solely forever. I am trying to first build up his foundation for the past lessons. I even use an analogy of building houses to explain to him why foundation is important. He seemed to accept my explanation rather well and went to perform his task. A win-win situation.

So mothers, if you're facing the same kind of situation as me, keep reminding yourself to cool down. Remember, what we want to achieve is a win-win situation. Bitterness will only make things worse. It's not easy, but definitely can be done with practice. :)

Recognising DS is just a kid
No matter how tall your child may look, he is still a child. He needs time off his books to relax his mind and body. This is something I need to constantly remind myself. I've got loads of plans in my head. It's very tempting to load him with something whenever I see him "idling". I'm still trying to close both eyes at times.

Time management
Since DS needs close supervision, time factor becomes crucial to me. I try to free myself from other activity when he returns from home and devote my time to sit next to him. That would mean I have to settle the housework and meal preparations as much as possible in the morning when the kids are out in the schools. When the girls are back, I try to coach them a little before their brother comes home. At night they usually sleep later than DS, so that gives me some time to do reading with them.

Gone are the days when I can fully indulge in baking or gardening. I still bake occasionally, but mostly in the morning as well.


The next task on hand is to plan timetables for DS. I usually take a while for this since planning is never my strong area. I'll probably need one for the girls too, to put all the plans in my head into action.