Some parents raised their hands when they where asked, “Who said that drawing is not important for children?” Well, what is your answer? Did you plan to raise your hand as well?

Probably some of you will think the same and force our children to learn math and science instead of drawing or playing  music, but the truth is drawing and playing music is really important for children’s right brain stimulation.

To be clever, children MUST have a balance brain, not only left brain, but also right brain. Left brain fungtioned  to control the scientific, analitical, rational and logical thing such as reading, language, math, etc, while right brain fungtioned to control about everything related to art, flexibilty and creativity. If we stimulate left brain more than right brain, children will be less creative in problem solving thing, but if we stimulate right brain more than left brain, it will be difficult to put dicipline on them and they will be more flexible in everything. That’s why we have to stimulate both brain.

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In this unperfect world, we always want to have the best in everything, we want to be the best in everything, but I think that is impossible. Just like other parents, we also want to have the good looking boy, we want to have the cute charming girl, but when the reality is not the same, we put on label to our children based on their appearance to express our dissatisfaction. But one thing you need to remember that this is a bullying.

“Hey you, big nose!”

“Ow, you fatty cow”

We didn’t realize that by the time we put on label like that, it will be like a destructive weapon that can explode in the future. Our children will not have a good self-confidence, they will think that other people also have the same opinion just like you, their parents.

As they grow up, they will think to themselves, “I have to change my appearance, so that my parents and other people will not make fun of me anymore. ” Well that’s the positive way, but there is a possibility that our children can take the negative way, “I’m no body, I’m overweight, I don’t have a good looking face, I’ll just stay here, at home so that no one can make fun of me. ” The worst thing is they can kill themselves to end the sorrow.

If our children take the positive way, that’s good. But if they took the negative way, it will be very difficult for them to change their way of thinking about themselves. I found some children with this kind of behavior and it is very difficult to speak with them because they always refer to what their parents said when they were young.

Michael Jackson also had this kind of problem, I think. I read in several articles that his father called him with “Big nose”. This might be funny if we do that to our children, but as I said before, we can count this as a bullying. Michael succeed to change his nose even thought it cost him thousand  of dollars, but how about other children out there who face this kind of problem and decided to end their life?

Still remembering Michael, I really want to share about this article from wikipedia.

“Michael Jackson first spoke openly about his childhood abuse in a 1993 interview with Oprah Winfrey. He said that during his childhood he often cried from loneliness and would sometimes start to vomit upon seeing his father.^{[10][11][12][13]} In Jackson’s other high profile interview, Living with Michael Jackson (2003), the singer covered his face with his hand and began crying when talking about his childhood abuse.^[9] Jackson recalled that Joseph sat in a chair with a belt in his hand as he and his siblings rehearsed and that “if you didn’t do it the right way, he would tear you up, really get you”.

I think most of us, as parents, want to give the best for our children, we want to see our children has a bright future, we want them to be a successful person, we want them to have a better economic condition, we want them to have a high social status so that we put a really high expectation for them, we discipline for our children in a really high level. On the other side, as a young children, they will not understand the reason of our behavior, why they need to have that kind of discipline while other kid can play, sleep, do anything they want without any fear. Why they have to receive such a discipline?

There is a missing link here.

My mom, even though she never beat me with a belt, she has a really high expectation from me. Everytime she get mad at me, she will explain the reason, she will make me understand why she need to do that and now, even though I still can remember her voice, her slap on my butt, but I can understand fully why she did that to me, only because she loves me and because she wanted me to have a bright future.

That’s the missing link…

If you want to put a discipline to your children, I think you really have to consider Michael’s case as a reminder, never abuse a child if you want to put discipline on them. If you really want to discipline them, please give some explanation about that, so that they will understand the reason and they will not put this hard feeling in their heart. Another way is to give reward not a punishment.

Everybody loves to receive reward, including your children. Why don’t you give a reward instead of punishment if you want them to do something for their future. If you still want a punishment, you might think about a “brainy punishment”  instead of slapping their face or using a belt to spank their butt.

What do you think about this?

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…

Parents usually want to have a brilliant children but the question is how? To increase children’s intelligences, there are 3 things that are important to remember:

1. Genetics: we could not do anything with it… we can call it a blessing

2. Environment: including

• Nutrition: exclusive breast milk for 6 months and other nutritious food after 6 months of breast milk. The formation of organs and body will not wait for the food, so if the baby is not eating properly, the brain development also will slow down, so giving proper and nutritious food for your baby is a must.
• Stimulation: there are many parents said to me that it is useless to read, to play, to teach baby since they couldn’t understand. For your information, baby’s brain is like a sponge, it’s ready to absorb much information from us, parents. When we give them information, it looks like they don’t understand, but actually, they save the information in their brain and they will use it later when whey grown up.
• Psychological: baby’s brain can develop in a better way if they live in a loving family, where they can be loved, can be hugged, can be kissed without any conditions.

3. Balance brain, left and right brain can work in a balance way.

 With that in mind, I think we can increase our baby’s multiple intelligences.

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!

One man came to me after my seminar, asked me about his 2.5 years old boy who doesn’t like to eat fruit nor vegetable. He said he tried to make juice from the fruit but still the little boy unwilling to drink it. As soon as he tasted the juice, he spilled it out and refused to drink. So, what should he do to give balance nutrition?

This is really interesting and many parents didn’t really know about this. According to Joan Beck, a writer of the best seller book in US, all babies have a “sensitive period” in the first year of her life. After drinking breast milk exclusively for 6 months, baby is ready to learn to eat. So this is the perfect period to teach baby the taste of various foods. When baby tastes the food, she will memorize the taste and save it in her brain. Soon, when she grown up, she will recognize the taste of foods she tried in the sensitive period and will eat it happily. Thank God I knew this information before!

If parents never give fruits and vegetables during this period, baby will not have any memory about this. So, no wonder if she becomes a picky eater when she grown up.

So, that’s the first thing. And second, as parents, we should give a good example. If we want our children to eat fruit and vegetables, while we never eat one of them, don’t yell at your children if they follow your example. They will say to themselves, “Well, my mom and dad never eat that either, so why should I?” Learn to be a good example for your child is another thing to do.

If those two didn’t work, try to be creative with the food!
Try to make creation with the carrot. Make a flower, butterfly, bug, or anything you can make. You can find a cute cutter in the cooking store department.

1. Instead of using chicken, try use cauliflower or broccoli, dip it into egg, pour out bread crumb and try to make cauliflower nugget or broccoli nugget. They will surprise with the taste!
2. Make juice with fruits. Make a popsicle with it. They’ll love to eat popsicle with natural juice!
3. Cut watermelon or melon with a star shape cutter or flower shape cutter and put some ice on the top of it. Who knows they would like to try it.

I hope my idea could help you dealing with the food!

In order to learn something, we don’t have to use books all the time. Of course books can give us information, but there is another way to learn something by stimulating our senses.
 

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.