Welcome! The place to be for reviews on Movies AND MORE!: May 2006

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Unconditional love

Care from my parents which know no bounds

Every now and then, my mind would drift to recall on how my parents have raised me and my siblings right from our childhood to adulthood. Often, when I stumble upon the hardships of life, I would be reminded on how hard life was for my parents and that what I was going through is nothing as compared to what they experienced back then.

When my parents just got married, they do not have a property to call as their own home let alone having enough money to survive. As far as I recall, they started things off with merely renting a small room before they moved on to rent a flat unit, attained under the staff benefits provided by my mum’s employer. As she was encouraging me to get through the obstacles I faced at one moment in time, she relates to how she was nearly deprived of having the opportunity to rent the flat unit after much struggles and efforts made. As if things weren’t bad enough; when we finally get to stay in the flat, there were a lot of complications on the administration site governing the rental of the flat units. That nearly left us homeless.

It was definitely a new parenting experience for them with me being the firstborn child in the family. My parents sought the help of my late aunt to take care of me (Lord, bless her soul for I still remember how much she cares for me in spite of her much troubled life she faces at that time). After my aunt passed away, my late maternal grandma chipped in to help as a daytime nanny. It must have been hard for grandma to travel from her home to the flat, having going through 14 kilometres of journey by public bus everyday. She made all the efforts just so to reach me around 6.45 a.m. Both my parents have to work since there was no way they could support the household with only my dad bringing in income.

What I didn’t know as a child, was the obstacles my parents faced at work. Back home everyday, they would put on happy faces upon seeing me and my siblings…I couldn’t tell, though they had in fact gone through a lot of rough days.

I could sensed much anxiety and worries coming from my mum as she used to call back home every 2 hours or so, just to see if we kids are doing fine in spite knowing that we were under the care of our paternal grandma (who took over as nanny when she moved in with us).

During our primary school years; while me and my siblings were often still deep in sleep, my mum would have gotten up at 5 a.m. ahead of everyone else in the family everyday, in order just to prepare breakfast for us (not forgetting the medications for our nutritional needs too!). Whilst in my childhood, I had seen my mum rushing to my school for the times upon hearing news of either me or my siblings gotten hurt from a fall; this very much goes the same for other incidents as well. She did so, just to make sure that we were fine. I couldn’t help but imagine how hard it was for her to request for ‘time-off’ or emergency leave from her superiors, time and time again.

Both my parents continued just that…parenting in that fashion and style, from then to now - though they had been able to shed much burdens off their shoulders over the years, progressively attaining the luxury of not having to worry as much for us children.

Mum, I regard you as the true and real ‘superwoman’, a sight which never fails in me and my siblings’ perspective. Not forgetting you too, dad, thank you for all those years which you’ve spent to cater for us children. I have been thinking for a long time and up to now, I have not the slightest idea on how I could ever repay both of you, mum and dad.

From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of Gary and Gideon, I thank you both so very much for all the tender loving care poured unto us. For those times where we have been insensitive to you folks, we ask for forgiveness and a chance for redemption. We love you both, always.

Sam Yoong

Setting up slumberland for the lil’ royalty

After hard repetitious works of wailing, and getting fulfilments; before you knew it, the little one roars again “break, time to hit the sack!” Joining you folks out there as yours truly, Sam Yoong arms you with head knowledge in pursuit for answer and to get prepared for desperate measures!

The era of fast-evolving fashions and décors
Times have changed for many have been ‘kiasu’ when it comes to fashion and decors – men and women alike. This includes teens, pregnant mums and even babies! Well, before the babies innocently take the blame, probably one could re-steer the pointing fingers to their parents (while me cackling away with delight). Just kidding there; okay, down to serious business here…

What do babies really need?

Truthfully, all babies really need is merely a nice place to finally call it a day. Cot or cradle, with mattress coupled with soothing bed sheets, and blankets would do the trick.

What do babies really want?

There are parents who would go all out in fulfilling their child’s needs. Amongst the things secured by these adventurous ones are like chairs and ottomans – sized just for the little ones! Optionally, the list includes changing table (for changing diapers in case you’re wondering), bassinet, chest of drawers, cabinets, bedside chest, glider rocker, musical mobile, and many more. The musical mobile as mentioned, stimulates babies’ visual and hearing.

A rule of thumbUltimately safety and comfort come first in fulfilling your baby’s needs.

Safety for the babe in his nurseryAmongst the aspects on watch-list are:

Ensure that the posts of your child’s crib do not exceed certain distances apart – to avoid baby slipping through it
Keep an eye for items that could trap a child’s head or limbs
To make sure that paints on furniture aren’t lead-based as babies tend to chew anything that seems tempting to them
Securing the pads (that is the base to place the baby) on the changing table with straps to keep baby from falling off
To avoid curtains that reach to the floor, as they run risk for the baby when he has learned to crawl. The baby might pull the curtains on top of him and suffocate in the process.
To avoid blinds which have long pull cords, for the cords might get entangled around the child’s neck.
Employ curtains that end at windowsill (should you decide to have curtains anyhow).
To have the walls of the nursery painted ahead in time (for those who wish to have the nursery’s walls repainted), in allocating time for the fumes to fade away.
To get rid of things which have small items or parts attached. The baby could choke himself on such materials.

Comfort for the babe in his nursery

After complete installation, you could look into the lighting of your child’s room. In specific, to survey the room at different times of the day; in the morning, afternoon, evening, and at night.

Notice on whether the sunshine is reaching right into the nursery? You would not want that as it may disrupt your child’s sleep.

Same goes when the night comes; observe whether the nursery is brightly lit by neighbouring or street lights?

In taking extreme measure, you might even want to reconsider a different room altogether for your child’s nursery should there be too much noise from surrounding areas.

Attempt to perceive the nursery from a child’s point of view. That way, comfort is at least in hand for your brand new arrival when the time comes.

Comfort for you and your spouseYou might want to relax in the nursery in events where you and your spouse have to stay put with your baby for the entire night. Amongst items that you could eye on are like a soothing recliner, rocker glider, sofa and so forth.

Thematic roomsThere are various decors that are centred on themes. From wallpapers, to the carpets, and whatnots; everything’s there for you to match to your heart’s content.

The colours of the interior are to a certain extent, dictated by the gender of your child. To keep it on the safe side; you might want to have neutral colours instead.

It used to be that pink colours were for girls and blue colours for boys. Contemporary designs these days though, have broken the barriers and employ a mixture of colours across gender. Researches have come to show that colours aid and facilitate the development of children.

Ultimately anyhow anyway… As a parent, you have the final say when it comes to making the final decision on your child’s nursery, alongside your spouse.

You would want to look long term during planning. For some of you who might be cost-conscious, it would be good to get items that could remain usable, as your baby grows into a young child with differing interests and tastes by then. Scout around; there are many items out there which could fit in this case.

Not forgetting too; always prioritise the usefulness of the items as opposed to their external outlooks prior to purchasing. Accessories could be included after the necessities are ready in place.

Should you encounter used furniture, you might want to save the furniture for later use by your child and wait until’ he’s older as some furniture might not be safe for him for the time being.

Adios and bon voyage!We have reached the part for a wrap up. Hopefully you folks out there have gathered as much from this writing of mine. In the meantime, relax while stay focus on your planning for your child’s nursery!

References

Maths for lil’ ones!

“One, two, three o'clock, four o'clock rock
Five, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock rock!”
I’m sure parents would love for their little ones to belt out a tune like that in a snap. The reality is, the truth bites harder. Allow me, Sam Yoong as I help you unravel while getting you to the world of education on maths for these ultra-young ones.

The beginning of time for babies
Babies’ mental development begins even from the time that they’re inside their mother’s womb. Upon being born into this world, babies’ minds continue to stimulate, and develop. The first few years of a child’s life, serves as an important period for parents to educate their little ones. For it is during childhood that the little ones’ brains develop rapidly.

Babies are doing maths. Believe it.
One of the areas where education could play a part in children is mathematics. From a recent research, it was discovered that babies were able to do maths prior to them having the ability to speak verbally. The discovery was made by Kerry Jordan and Dr. Elizabeth Brannon, both psychologists from Duke University. It was also Brannon’s hope that methods of educating maths to children could be developed someday. The findings were documented in the February 2006 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Babies said “we’ve got proof for those who don’t believe!”
In the research to gauge the infants’ level of skills in maths; twenty of the little ones ranging from age six to eight months old were chosen for participation. In the test conducted, two video monitors were placed side by side, with the audio source hidden somewhere. Two audio tracks were played, one at a time; one with 2 women saying ‘look’ simultaneously and the other with 3 women doing the exact thing. Whilst on the video; one is showing an image of 2 women; and the other 3 women saying the word. It was being observed that infants in the test spent more time, looking at the video monitor that corresponded with the audio track they hear.

The brain functions involved when doing maths
2 of our brain functions come into play when it comes to maths; one gained through cultivation of what we learn through our teachers in school. The other one is a more intuitive, and abstract feel to figures (which is the sole attribute that babies possess).

Babies with their mentioned inbuilt ability are able to; for instance, discern that three is less than four. As they grow from infancy, they would learn to tie the more intuitive feel (when dealing with figures) to the skills we adults picked up on maths in school.

Shaping the little Einsteins in Maths
Parents play major role in getting their children exposed to maths in a fun manner. Instances where this can happen are as follows:

(The following bulleted points as extracted from http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/ofhc/news/Other/4880.asp)

Playing board games, where a roll of the dice in snakes-and-ladders or a key move at the checkerboard is all about geometry, logic, and numbers.
Cooking, in which quantities are important
Shopping; this features concrete numbers like size and abstract numbers such as cost.
Driving; this has all kinds of quantities like time, speed, and distance.
Organising, an activity in which we use similarity to sort things, and size estimates to figure out where we can fit them.

The other ways of subtle yet effective ways of introducing maths to your child progressively:

For instance, you say “one” whilst having a Lego brick in hand, and by placing another brick in hand, you say “plus another one” – which you then would promptly conclude with “equals two!” (The concept of addition)
By having him observing you during cooking / slicing of fruits. For instance, amidst slicing an orange into two, you casually say “see, an orange, sliced in two, becomes two!” (The concept of division)

The concept of minus, and multiplication then, is reverse mechanisms to above mentioned concepts of addition and division respectively. When things evident in our surroundings are converged with maths, children get to visualise better on concepts before progressing to the maths in written form.

Babies’ mathematics boot campIntroducing maths to babies ought to be done naturally and progressively through time. By progressive introduction to maths, things fall in line to enable children to grasp on maths, starting off with simple arithmetic.

Children used to be repetitively ‘drilled’ on a certain topic before they get to learn a new lesson. Nowadays, children who learn by concepts would enjoy themselves much more as opposed to children who had learned by rote who would feel hassles; when it comes to working with maths.

Parents’ manual
By bearing these in mind; young ones should be allowed liberty to learn at their own pace in order to effect a successful learning. Never let anything negative to get in the way though; elements that would discourage your child in the process of learning.

Lastly, should you child feel weary or discouraged, taking a break would be a wise option.

References:

http://www.bloggingbaby.com/

What's on July 2006 - coverage on different events

1 - The late The Lady Diana’s birthday
4- First bus was built.
6- First picture postcard was made.
12- Bill Cosby was born in 1937.
15- Birthday of Forgetful Jones (the Sesame Street character).
15- First flight of Boeing 707 in 1954.
23- Ice cream cone was introduced.
26- Birthday of Bert (the Sesame Street character).
27- Bugs Bunny’s debut in cartoons back in 1940.
28- First fingerprint taken.

What's on July 2006

1 - Canada’s Independence Day
1 - Tour de France begins today.
1- In 1881, the first international telephone call was made between Canada and the United States of America.
2- Steve Fossett became the first person to fly alone across the world in a balloon non-stop in 2002
4 - United States of America’s Independence Day
5- ‘Seinfeld’ premiered in 1989.
7- Ringo Starr, the drummer of legendary band The Beatles was born in 1940.
9 - Argentina’s Independence Day
12- Bill Cosby was born in 1937.
14- France’s national day, Bastille Day.
17- Disneyland opened in 1955.
20- Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon.
23- Jackson Beck (voice over for Bluto of Popeye cartoons and for the famous quote “It’s a bird, it’s a plane” played in Superman cartoons) was born; 1912 in New York.
29- Prince Charles and the late The Lady Diana were married in 1981.

Budgeting for the family (Part 2)

We resume from where we left off previously. Discover what’s more to supplement when it comes to you creating and sustaining wealth. Going back and forth again with yours truly, Sam Yoong.

Other ingredients for successful budgeting

Working together with your spouse
Couples ought to sit down together, have a good talk and discuss to determine the direction that both parties want to attain in terms of financial goals, both on the short and long run.

By mutually agreeing to each other, both of you could work together effortlessly towards budgeting and investment. Indirectly, this strengthens your relationship with your spouse as much of the conflicts in marriages happen due to financial matters! The truth is out there…
Spending less
As you spend your money, be more conscious as to whether it’s intuitive buying and whether you really need the items.

By doing so, you could save some significant amount of money by the end of every month.

Results of hard work on budgeting

You have extra cash by the end of every month, having spent according to the limits you set for yourself and your household. The extra cash could be used for savings and for further investment. Not only existing debts could be reduced, but you and your household could also avoid from getting into any debts as well.
You could save yourself from worrying as much every month, on whether there would be enough financial provisions for life sustaining purposes.
You control money instead of the other way around. Work would seem more like a source of income for accumulating wealth instead of a solution to write off your debts every month.
Relationships with your spouse and children get better as financial securities are in place with planning on money handling done in advance.
No more wondering where all your money goes by the end of every month!
No more anxieties waiting for your salary to be banked in every month simply because you have no more money to survive on!
Being able to afford the things that you really desire as opposed to buying all the unnecessary items which you don’t really need in the first place!
You have extra cash lying around for usage in case of emergencies.

Tools for budgetingWhile you could do away with a pencil and papers, having a software would help make your job easier while budgeting. There are various products available out there that are able to generate reports, graphs and so forth.

Attitude is important before you start budgeting

Think of budgets as guidelines you use when spending instead of something that limits your spending and makes your life miserable.

If you’ve failed prior to this, don’t give up and try again! Most importantly, be positive!
Take control of your spending
Think positive about yourself as many people tend to associate the amount of money they’ve got with how much their self-image is worth.
There are people around who spend money just for the sake of generating good feelings. Re-evaluate on your beliefs when it comes to money, and you would find money-handling an easier task.
Some may find that they easily overspend with credit card as opposed to using cash everytime when they make their purchases. It is a known fact that credit cards hide away the guilty feelings simply because there is no forking out of tangible cash from your pocket everytime when making purchases. Therefore, use credit card if you so desire, but wisely.

Securing the financial provisions once and for all times!
Creating an emergency fund
Pull aside some of the extra cash you have to allocate for emergency fund, i.e. to set up a financial resource that you could use in any event of emergencies occurring. Ideally, the fund by itself should be able to support you and your household from 6 months up to 1 year.

Disability insurance
Having this protects your income generating ability, in the event should you become disabled and unable to work. This coverage would pay in replacement for your loss income for a period of time.

Life insurance
This aims to provide financial assistance to your children and to those who depend on you for financial means in the event of you having gone through premature death.

Fin…And this very much concludes our topic…see you again next time!

References:

Monday, May 22, 2006

Budgeting for the family (Part 1)

Here, we dive into the art of handling money and maintaining financial provisions for all times. Putting elements into perspectives with you is Sam Yoong.

What is budgeting?
It is simply a way of handling money. “Why bother about budgeting?” you may ask. Well, let’s go into this deeper.

Budgeting acts as a plan to track and set limit to your spending. The plan aims to help you and your family to save money, cut down expenses, make investments, gain protection from insurances coverage and to achieve short-term plus long-term goals.

The pre-budgeting stage
Before getting started, it helps to do some research and find out more about investments, insurances, and other related areas. The various information sources on these areas are like magazines, newspapers, web sites on the Internet, even courses and workshops.

Preparing your household budgetAs highlighted below, are the step by step approach:

Identifying goals to be achieved
The goals here, could be long-term, short term and anything in between. They could be financial goals, education goals, etc. – be it planning for a holiday, to provide education plans for your children, or saving up to buy a new house and car.

You would want to break down the long-term goals to a series of short term goals. While this helps you in making re-adjustments to the original budgeting plan (should there’s changes that need to be made), it does facilitate when you review the progress from time to time as well.
Setting up your budget’s layout
In terms of income, it could be your permanent job’s monthly salary, freelance works’ pay, dividends, bonus and so forth.

Things that fall into the expenses category would be like money spent on meals, travelling, doing regular activities be it smoking, drinking, golfing, clubbing or hanging out leisurely somewhere.

Everyone have their own respective sources of income and types of expenses incurred; hence resulting in different budget layouts across families.

For effective budgeting, design a layout that accurately represents you and your family’s lifestyle.
To arrive at the amount of budgets to allocate for your spending
In order to make things easier, start off with any receipts, bills, and other similar items that you have in hand. Take a look at them and start jotting down the expenses incurred for the past few months. By doing this, you would roughly have an idea on how much and, on what items that you and your household spent on.

Based on the amount of money spent, you would be able to set realistic and achievable budgets for your expenses.

Knowing on what items you spent on helps you evaluate whether certain items are worth spending for, whether you have overspend on certain things, and to think of areas where you could cut down on your expenses.
Keeping track of future spending and to calculate your nett income
While following your budgeting plans, take record of your expenses on a monthly basis; doing the same over the few months to come. This will measure up to see if your expenses stay within the budgets as planned.

At the end of each month, sum up all the incomes that you have, and do the same for expenses incurred. To arrive at the nett income, subtract the total expenses from the total income.

Should you have a positive amount for your nett income, let me just say “good job, keep it up!” and to suggest saving and investing the money.

If you’re targeting to save money on a long-term basis, try to avoid saving in accounts where you could easily redraw money everytime when you so desire, like savings account as opposed to a fixed deposit account.

For those who arrived at a negative amount for nett income, look for areas where you could cut down on spending. Spot for the big spending but at the same time, not to neglect the small spending as most of the small spending are intuitive purchases and add up pretty quickly towards the end of every month.
Evaluate your progress consistently
By keeping record of your total nett income on a monthly basis; you should be able to tell through time, on whether you are doing well according to the budgeting plans. Make adjustments to areas where you feel that you could do better, in terms of spending, saving, doing investments, and so forth.

References:

** Time to part but do remember to look out for more insights on money management, up next!

Choosing the proper breast pump for mothers

With the advancement in technology, breast pump has evolved from being manually operated to being powered by battery and electricity. We peek into this device, which serves so much good for both the mother and child with Sam Yoong leading you along the way.

What is breast pump?A breast pump is a device used to draw out milk from mothers who are breastfeeding. It used to be in mechanical form before the electrical ones came along. Breast pumps may be used is when mothers are often away from home but still wishes to give her child breast milk. The breast milk expressed could be stored, and fed later on to the child by others, like the father.

Benefits of using breast pump

Breast pump stimulates lactation and in the process, helps mothers to recover from their pregnancy. It could help counter engorgement, an unpleasant state where the breasts are overfull. In events where the baby could not latch onto the mother’s breasts, breast pump does help a lot by first expressing milk, and later feeding the contained milk to the child.
Types of breast pump availableThere are 2 types of breast pump, one which is the manually operated and one that runs on battery/electricity.

Manual pump
These are more affordable when compared to electric pumps. They allow the mother to control how fast the pumping go, and how much pressure involved with each pumping. Mothers might feel that it closely resembles their baby’s sucking. It remains as a more affordable choice, besides being lighter, simplistic and convenient to carry around.
On the other hand, mothers might feel tired after repetitive and slow pumping. Some could not get any milk extracted, while some could not get their breast completely emptied (in accordance to the fact that emptied breasts would stimulate lactation).

Electric or battery powered pump
The electric or battery powered ones provide faster pumping although they tend to be more bulky and noisy.

The more expensive ones are of very high quality, and pumps fast. Suction level could be adjusted, and double pumping is enabled.The average-priced ones are more affordable and lighter. They have the same features as the more expensive ones, except for cycling rates (the rate at which the device pumps) which is slightly lower.

On the low end are the affordable ones, which are able to pump only a breast at a time. Pumping works at a very slow rate. Suction provided may be too strong or weak.

The electric breast pump

How to choose? Suction strength
Mothers would very much prefer if they could adjust on the suction that comes with each pumping. As too much suction might be painful, and too little suction might be not be as effective in drawing out milk from the breasts

Breastshield sizes available
Some pumps come equipped with one standard size of breastshield. Women with larger or smaller breasts might find this standardised breastshield not comfortable and as effective for them when drawing out milk. Not to worry though, for there are bigger and smaller breastshields to cater. For those who desire to do double pumping, have double breastshields in hand.

Durability
There are pumps which are designed for long and frequent use while the others are not meant to last as long. Choose one that will serve your purpose for as long as you would want it to be.

Quietness
Certain pumps would be operating at louder while some at softer volumes. Settle for one which you would be able to tolerate.

Power options
For pumps which run on electricity, being able to run on battery and be operated manually would be a plus point in events where there is electricity breakdown.

Portability
Mothers who travel a lot with their pump would want their device easy to carry around along with a case.

Time that a mother has available to do pumping
For mothers who are rushing most of the time, investing in a double pump would be good. Simultaneously milking both breasts at the same time would work twice as fast than pumping a breast at a time.

Having said that, a pump which has too low of a cycling rate (i.e. the rate at which pumping is done) is not good as the mother’s breast and nipple is being suctioned for too long a time.

Single, alternate or double pumping action
Single pumping action is where only a breast is being stimulated at a time. Alternate stimulate both breasts, but only one after another in series of loops. The highest grade of performance falls on double pumping action where, both of the breasts are being milked at the same time, boosting milk production and maintaining milk supply over a longer period.

Ease of assembly
After pumping, one would need to take apart the components of the breast pump for cleaning; after the components made contact with the mother’s skin and milk. The breast pump ought to be easy to assemble and taken apart when needed.

Pumping for a premature baby or when much pumping is needed
High-end breast pumps serve as solution, for the moment.

Facts at a glance

Regular and frequent expressing of milk increases milk production and maintain supply over a longer period.
Electric breast pumps are more efficient at emptying both breasts completely than manual pumps.
When pumping a breast, the mother could nurse her child on her other breast.
Milk expressed could be stored, to be fed later to the baby. In more details, do feel free to surf to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_pump

If you have any doubts
Feel free to refer to any lactation consultant who would guide you from head to toe; from selection of breast pump which is suitable for you, and solving problems that you may encounter when pumping, etc.

Related articles

http://familydoctor.org/828.xml

References

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Monday, May 22, 2006

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