Most of us probably will not believe the news that the our music star, the king of pop, Michael Jackson was gone…. I couldn’d believe it either. When I opened up my email yesterday, I saw a news on my yahoo about this, but still I thought to my self, probably this was a joke. But when I turned on my TV, I realized that this is not a joke! The cute little boy ( because I was a fan when he was still a little kid), who became a pop star was gone…

Then I saw an live interview with Mr. Geller, a friend of Michael from London. There was an interesting thing from the news that I want to share with you.

Mr. Geller answering a question about his first impression of Michael. He said, he was introduced to little Michael when Michael was still a little boy by one of the rich in London. One time, Mr. Geller saw that little Michael was looking out the window and he was looking at children playing there. So, he asked Michael, “Michael, are you lonely…?”

“Mr. Geller, I’m reaaaally lonely”.

As a parent, I was about to cry when I heard this statement…. At that time, suddenly I can feel his loneliness, I can feel his burden, I can feel his heart.

Well as a little boy, he still has a longing to play with his friend, but on the other side, he has to do the rehearshal, he has to practice the song, memorize the lyrics, practice the dance, etc, and this was really consuming his time. I think he doesn’t have any time to play anymore, because all of the stuff about singing, keep on demanding his responsibility and time.

This little star began to feel the emptyness so that eventhough he can achieve so many things in his life, this emptyness was still there. I think, it is like a syndrome for a star.

I got several advises for parents who has a star at their home:

1. Give time for your child to play with his/ her friend so that they will not loose their childhood time.
2. Manage the time so that you still can have time to be with your child and your child can have time to be with you.
3. Increase his/her spiritual ability so that in every step he take, he can have strenght in his believe, that’s important, because as parents we cannot be 24/7 with him/her all the time.
4. Have a good communication with them so that when they have a problem, they can share it with you. If they keep the problem inside, keep the problem for themselves, it will create a bigger problem in the future. Communication is really important.
5. Be their friend. As a star, probably there are many out there who want to be your child’s friend because your child is a star. Probably they couldn’t have a close friend. Parents, it is your time to be your child’s best friend… to share the time, to share the problem, to share the happiness,… to share everything,… give a shoulder to cry on. They’re going to need it.

Well…I think I speak enough now…I hope Michael can have a peace… Good bye Michael…

Going somewhere for a summer vacation is a very exciting thing to do as a family. But first of all, before you make any plan, save your money each month for this vacation so that you will not have to worry during the rest of the vacation time. If you keep on thinking about the money, you will not enjoy the vacation.  

Having children with you, going to a recreation place will be an interesting thing to do, how about going to Disneyland? I went to Disneyland and Disney Sea in Tokyo Japan several years ago and even though at that time we didn’t have any children yet, but still I really enjoyed the moment there with my husband.

To have a good travel guide in Disneyland, you can read this one
Click Here!

When I went to Disneyland, I was not in a good condition. At that time, I was 1 month pregnant, but I didn’t realize it, so I feel so tired after 12 hours playing there. So, parents, please make sure that you are in a good condition when you want to plan your vacation, otherwise the vacation will turn out into a big disasster like my vacation. I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy it, but my body couldn’t handle it anymore while my brain pushed me to keep on going. Haha… what a great fight there, you know…

So, in my opinion, to have a great vacation:
1. Save your money each month. Do not use your credit card too much during the vacation.

2. Find a cheap and reliable place to visit.

3. Make sure you’re in a good condition, including your children.

4. Don’t forget to take picture. That will be a great momorable thing for your family!

Have a great vacation!

Nowadays, parents are too busy with their own stuff, working, chores, parenting, thus they don’t even have time to read a bed time story for their children. Some of them also said that they don’t like to read, so they don’t want to read for their children. But the truth is bed time story can give children a basic idea about reading a story with parents and to make children love books and of course love reading it!

It is true, that to exchange time and energy to read, you can buy an expensive reading machine for your children so that children can learn to read with that machine. Quite good, but still it is not the same if children’re doing it with you instead of machine.

If we don’t read for our children, we can not blame them if they don’t like to read, because the reading habit is not on their list when they’re growing up and they will miss many information they can get from reading.

As far as I know, bed time story has a huge advantage for you and your children:

1. It will build a reading habit for our children
2. It will increase the number of vocabulary
3. It will increase the creativity and imagination as the book will show pictures and children can visualize them in their brain
4. It will increase the bondage between you and your children

Check out children’s face when we’re doing the the bed time story. They will be so excited about the story! Their brain is hoping to absorb some more and more information. So, I really hope that you have a better perspective about reading a story to your children.

Claire swimming

During my pregnancy, I used to go to a book store to find a perfect book for my reading time. At that time, my husband found a great VCD about human body and he said I should buy it.

Thinking about the price, I thought it was not that expensive anyway so I decided to buy the VCD and watched it as soon as I got back home and I was so surprise to find out that baby can swim inside the water! She can automatically move her arm and legs and there is something inside her nose that can prevent water from coming into the nose.

It was so amazing….. I was thinking about to try it with my own baby as soon as she is born.

So, after I gave birth to my baby, I decided to wait until she is 3 months old and we went to the swimming pool around our apartment. At the first time, I just put her little foot inside the water, to make sure that she’s OK with the water temperature. But unfortunately, she cried. Probably because it was the first experience for her.

But later on, I decided to swim together instead of holding her on the side of the pool. I think that way could give her a secure feeling, and see…. she’s really fine with me in the water now…

The question is, why we should take our baby to swim? Is that really important? 

Here, I will give some explanations about this:

1. It is healthy. If she’s healthy, you can teach her anything and she will absorb it right away.
2. When baby is swimming, she will move her entire body and the oxigent will flow into the blood circulation and the oxigent in the blood will flow into the brain. In this case, the brain will get more oxigent which is very good for the brain development
3. Baby will move her left leg with right right arm, right leg with left and it will balance her brain. Baby who has a balance brain will be cleverer than a baby who is stronger in her left brain or right brain only.
4. Swimming will increace the bondage between you and your baby
5. Baby will learn to trust you wholeheartedly and become a full confident baby.

Looking at those advantage, don’t wait anylonger…. let’s go swimming…