seabreeze, I don't think so leh.. i only take NEL on mondays, and that's after 8pm. Dont think u work that late? In that case why dont we go for postage? PM me the total amt w your acc.
anissa,
inspired by you, i started teaching zephan to climb in n out of the car too! he could do it, except that he likes to monkey ard in the car for a while before he is willing to get up the car seat, and of course his shoes will step on the car seat when getting up. but so far so good.
re: discipline (
www.raisinggodlytomatoes.com)
wld like to share this website with you. it's written by a christian who has raised 10 children. Her principle is that we should teach children to obey parents as the authority, and the skill is to have them perform the requested tasks willingly, not grudgingly.
have to forewarn that her method is v strict. I was quite appalled by her methodology initially. However, 1 incident with zephan at home early this week led me to apply her technique, and i'm quite amazed at how zephan changed.
One morning, zephan mixed my dog's water bowl with the kibble bowl, resulting in a mess. I got quite angry and told zephan to stand aside while I clean up. After a few seconds, he got fidgety and started touching the cabinets n stuff around him, n shifted his feet ard. I stopped his actions and repeatedly asked him to stand still. This happened a few times n after a while, he started to whine/cry. But I persisted in my position, all this while, using a calm, firm, lower than normal voice. Eventually, he stood still for a longer period. After i was done, went over and explained things to him, and resolved with a hug.
Later at the carpark, he let me hold his hands to get to our car willingly after i repeated my sentence 2-3 times. (Zephan used to hate holding hands in carparks, n would squirm n pull away, or demand to be carried).
At bedtime, he would now say goodnite to me on his own (when previously he would whine n insist that i sleep in his room).
Overall, he has become more cooperative over the week, and we have fewer confrontations over things i want him to do/he doesn't want to do. We're both happier.
I dont think i applied the writer's method totally. But her method of repeating instructions in a firm voice works for me. I also balance with letting zephan decide on certain things (e.g. clothes to wear, book to read) so that he doesn't always only obey instructions.
