Category Archives: Parenting

How to raise our kids

Prepare for a Newborn

When I was 7 month prego, my boss walked into my office with his notepad in hand – “J, you ready? We need you in 8A to go over your deal.”  “Sure”, I grabbed my stuff and waddled out of my office, followed him into the big conference room.  “Surprise!!” As I walked in, I saw a room filled with people from the office.  My boss turned around, with a triumphant smile on his face – no wonder he was asking me (casually) the other day how I was prepared in terms of shopping for the baby!  I almost cried in joy.  There was a card and a few boxes on the big table, but TH walked over with a list – hint, she was a mother of four – and that is the list that I want to share with you mommies-to-be.  She hand picked all those items, with a picture next to each one of them, and estimated delievery date.  I could feel tears welled up my eyes…

– Ear Thermometer by Braun: I still have it now (my son is turning 7 this month).  Works greet.  The current model works the same but it a bit slow in getting a temperature compared to the old one.

– Baby Carrier by baby bjorn 

– Kolcraft Universal Infant Car Seat Carrier, you can fold it with one hand, the wheels are big, the bin is big.  Mine went through 4 babies (not all mine! it got passed back and forth between us and friends).

– Baby Monitor

– Bath tub by First Year’s Infant to Toddler Tub with Sling.

-Wipes warmer by Prince Loinheart.

– A basic set for nails (filers are more useful than nail clippers)

And I added a few to that list since here are the some stuff that I had bought before the surprise baby shower:

– Stroller:  I had the Quinny Buzz and Zapp, Buzz is the full size and Zapp is the compact one.  looking back though, I’d probably delay the stroller purchase, since the first 6 months the baby would be in the car seat most of the time anyways and it is so easy with the car seat carrier, and when they are older, they can use the compact stroller.  But for taking a long walk after they have grown out of the car seat, they are definitely more comfortable in the full size stroller than the compact one.  My second son used to nap in his Buzz a lot.   So I’m a bit torn on this.   For traveling, use car seat carrier/car seat combo when they are little and the small one as soon as they could fit.  I’ve seen too many ppl struggling with a gigantic “travel system” with an infant car seat at the airport or in and out of the car..

–  Receiving blankets (lots of them), you won’t be having too many blankets, and the small ones can be dubbed as burping cloth…

– Bottles, I used Avent.

– Pump, either Medala or Avent.  If you are not going to pump a lot, the Avent hand pump might just be enough. I wrote about this in an earlier article “What’s the right pump for me?”

– A changing pad that’s foldable and portable, sometimes it comes with the diaper bag

– A diaper bag, this one I don’t have any good recommendations.  I had the BabyBjorn one with a hard case – a “clamshell” design.  It definitely looked nice, and it was easy to organize things b/c it had a hard case with nice compartments.  But the hard case made it not really easy to carry.   It is good for car trips while it just sits there for you to find stuff.  Mine is currently sitting in a bag collection display at a friend house… I also had the Land’s End one, I found it too bulky.

– For Baby blothes, the kimono style works the best when they are little, extremly easy to put on.

And don’t need to waste your money on special detergent – Tide Ultra Free will do.

I put most of the items on our “Shop to Support” tab, http://blog.littlefir.com/?page_id=13.  Under Kids and Babies, Prepare for a Newborn.  I also added a few books that I liked.

Have fun shopping!

Because of Winn-Dixie — Reading with 6 year old

Dudu and I went to the Teacher’s College of Columbia University for a reading seminar in Oct. We met the author of Because of Winn-Dixie and read a few chapters guided by the staff:

We were asked to prepare for the seminar by reading the book together. Dudu is only a first grader and this is a rather difficult chapter book. So I borrowed the DVD from the library and we watched the movie together. Then I read to a chapter to her every night. From time to time, I do let her read a few paragraphs.
The senimar began with some introduction of some research results for reading. There are three levels of skills in reading:
Decoding
Comprehension
Critical Thinking/Abstract Reasoning

I realized that I focused too much on decoding, maybe some comprehension and ignored critical thinking previously for Dudu’s reading. I would be happy that she can sound difficult words out, making some sense of the content.
After we came back I continue to read this book with Dudu every night. We tried to apply the mechanics we learned from the senimar. I prepared Dudu a big notebook so she can write her thoughts about the book.
In the beginning of the book, Opal met Winn-Dixie, her dog in the grocery store.
Dudu:” How did Winn-Dixie came to the grocery store?”
Me:”Do you think Winn-Dixie had a home at that time?”
Dudu:”No. Because he is dirty. If he had a home, his owner would have washed him.”
Me:”Do you think he ever had a home?”
Dudu:”No.”
Me:”Can a puppy survive without a home?”
Dudu:”Oh. He had a home and a Mama when he was born.”
Me:”Can you guess how he get lost?”
Dudu:”He didn’t listen to his Mama. That is how he get lost.”
Me:”Winn-Dixie get lost again later in the book. How he got lost that time?”
Dudu:”Oh, he must have got lost in the thunderstorm. He is afraid of thunderstorm.”
Later on, she wrote this on her notebook(with spelling errors):
“He had a home that he was born and then thar was a thandstowm Winn-Dixie run awawy from home.”

And there is a book Dudu brought home to school, which is very simple but fully of details that you can discover something new everytime you read it:

Ma Li Ping Chinese text book

For the Chinese parents who want to teach Chinese to their children at home, Ma Li Ping is definitely the textbook to go-go. I have recommended the text book to several friends, and they all appreciate it a lot.
The set includes the textbook, a CD of interactive program, three homework books(two regular and one for summer) and character cards. The set is self-sufficient so the parents can follow the curriculum with ease.
I have been trying to find a weekend Chinese school that uses this text book but no luck. My 6 year old daughter now is learning Chinese at home by following Ma Li Ping textbook for second Grade. It is so much fun learning that when She sits in front of the computer doing Ma Li Ping homework, my 3 year old son fights with her so he can get the seat. As a matter of fact, my son can read “小蝌蚪找妈妈” “白菜的故事” etc very fluently. And I swear he does recognize the characters!
Here is the link to purchase the text book.
(We don’t earn referral fee for this link)

Monopoly Junior — Highly Recommended kid’s game

This game was recommended to me by my American colleague who has 5 children. It is perfect for kids 5- 8 years old.
I remember I played the computer version of it back in China when I was in college. It was fairly fancy. What is recommended here is the junior version that can finish in two 2 years and rules/language more suitable for children.
I bought it and the whole family can have fun! My 6 year daughter, 3 and half year old son played together with daddy and grandpa. My kids are getting better sense of numbers and money. I am glad they spend less time watching TV and playing computer games. Playing the game is a great family time.

What’s the right pump for me?

I’m a big fan of nursing,  and, a working mom, who happens to like gadgets and new technologies.  So when I had my first baby, I did my research, and based on the not so research based theory – “the more expensive model the better, the newer the model the better”, I bought the Medela Pump in Style Advanced. Does it serve my purpose – I went back to full time work when the baby was 12 weeks old, and nursed him until he was 10 months – absolutely. Do I like the pump? Not really. I actually packed an Avent Manual Breast Pump with the Medala, and surprisingly, the manual pump was as productive as the electronic one, and it went right into the Avent bottles that I used. When I traveled on business, I only packed the Avent pump, which was not only much lighter, more descrete, but also not constrained by the location of the power outlet.

读书看画

以前， Darby 读书，尽管读的是chapter book, 也要盯着插图看半天。总觉得她看书太babyish了。  这几天， 与Darby 一起读书，发现她对插图观察得还真细致， 能与内容联系起来看。 先是读中文书”仙女蜜儿” , 插图是一个长发女孩子在荡秋千。 没读那章的内容时，她问为什么画了个长发女孩，孟小乔是短发的。 我打发她的问题道：大概画错了。 后来读到：“孟小乔记得图片中的长发女孩在荡秋千的时侯， 头发是高高飘起的。”， 她恍然大悟：“噢，这是孟小乔的imagination.”

今天读一本英语书”The Secrets of Droon”, 封面上好多怪物。 当她读到“Khan, the purple, pillow-shaped king of the Lumpies”,  她高兴地翻到封面， 指给我看， 原来这是个“king of the Lumpies”。 后来又读到“Two fierce, red-faced warriors”, 她又figure out 出俩个怪物。