Term End Party at JG

Last Saturday was the term end party for En at JG.
It was our first party, (we missed the last sem for some forgotten reason).
So the instruction was to bring some snack - no beef, no pork, no nuts.

So we bought cheese cubes (En's fav) and pandan cake.
And there were tonnes of food.. and even a birthday cake from Chloe who turned 2 that day.

Well, the theme for this term was Farm and Fairy Tales, so kids were encouraged to dress up as per the theme.
Well, we could not find any appropriate clothes, so we just let En wore his zebra top (a farm animal mah) . But we should not have worried, as the teachers were well prepared with body crayons and we had a really fun session of transforming the kids' faces, arms and legs with the drawings.

Check out who En became - A mini Jack Sparrow with a Hearts and bones tattoo thanks to his Chinese Lao Shi and English teacher working on him the same time.. And I think he did not really comprehend what happened to him, but was happy to jump and dance around to the music.

There were lions, spiders , butterflies, adorable cats and many other pirates around.

Little Evans, one of En's classmate, had a spider drawn on his leg (Itsy Bitsy spider, climbed up his leg). However, it turned out that he was scared of the spider and teacher Eliza had to rub the spider off him..

It was a really fun session, En thoroughly enjoyed it. The kids could really feel the fun and festives in the air. En was jumping around so much that we had to remove his socks from his feet so he can run around without fear of him slipping.

This was our first kids party, and NJ and I really enjoyed it.
It was a mere 2 hours, but it was like a little getaway for us, we felt little like kids ourselves as we watch all the kids prancing around full of energy.

At the end of the session, certificates were given to the kids, so every kid went up to collect the cert as his/ her name was called. We were not expecting En to be able to go and collect his cert and come back to us, but he did it! It was a surprise as we thought he would be too shy or fearful.

After a full semester, we have seen some improvements. His command of language is stronger than when we first began, he is now engaging the teachers better - both the Chinese and the English teachers, to the point that he would give each of them a hug after class, and he is now more at ease with the other kids in his class.

So we will be really looking forward to Term 4!

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I want to blog about this issue, before I forget..
I saw a pamphlet advertising a workshop for parents "How to Talk to Your Kids So They will Listen". It is a 6 sessions workshop, and based on the acclaimed book of the same title. Now I dunno if it is the author herself conducing the workshop, but I found out about that at JG.

So it costs about $400 plus for 6 such sessions - every Saturday for 2 hours.
I was quite keen, but was a bit worried about travel and work interrupting the workshop.
Husband thought it was a little pricy.

There is no doubt that the workshop is pricy.
It all depends on one's affordability. Assuming affordability is not an issue, then we have to grapple with the willingness to spend issue.

I am thinking about it in terms of how we often seek to upgrade ourselves for a better job.
We read books, read papers, attend courses at work so as to up our skill set so that we become an asset to our employer, nail that promotion and move up the corporate ladder.

And I question why should being parents be ANY DIFFERENT?
If I draw on the same analogy, should we not be equally conscious of upping our skill set as parents, of upgrading ourselves to be better parents so that we become a greater asset for our kids?

Why do we bother attending boring courses etc for work, and not take more effort in improving ourselves to be parents. We studied for a good 15years plus etc to prepare ourselves for the workplace.

Have we really thought of what we have done to prepare ourselves to be better parents? Are we naturally good parents? Even if we are, just as we upgrade to stay relevant at the workplace, why should learning to be good parents be any different?

I feel that being a parent is a life long job - more so than whatever position we hold in the office now. And we need to be more conscious of being good parents for our kids as we are their parents for life, and teaching and nuturing them is our long term job. We are not born with the skills to be good parents, so it is actually quite essential that we learn through all ways to become better in our roles as parents - observing other parents, trial and error, reading about it, attending workshop/ talks with the experts etc.

I just feel that sometimes when we look at the cost of what we have invested in the kid - versus what we have invested in OURSELVES as parents - the ratio is disproportionate. We take pains to save money so as to offer them the best education etc etc, when we ourselves are their sole contact and closest kin that they have, we are our kids' first' mentor, and everything we do and say have an immense impact on them, and possibly for life.

So why should we not invest in ourselves to be better parents?
I keep thinking how we can so easily miss this - as we pursue that promotion, that next pay raise, that upgrade in our education, that savings for the kids future etc, that we forget that we need to invest in ourselves as parents, and seeking to upgrade ourselves to be better parents.

Hence, when hubby mentioned that the cost is pricy, I do agree, but when willingness to pay becomes an issue instead of affordability, i just cannot agree in lieu of all the reasons I have stated above.

I think sometimes, we just miss the bigger picture as we become so used to our role as parents.
We are not born parents, no one is.
And Parenting is a far more important job than whatever role we are now holding in office...