totalchild

from the editor

Our school has been undergoing GREEN MISSIONS with the little kids during “Environment Care Starts with Me” campaign.

You can see them get busy with planting wheat grass, recycling paper, doing garbage enzyme, using junks to create new stuff.

No doubt little kids are easily satisfied with what they can create with their two hands and they feel proud of their ‘master piece’. In fact it’s their nature to get busy.

That’s kids.

We wouldn’t have time for those handicraft or DIY, would we? Afterall, everything is readily available in the market. All you need to do is pay for what you want. We don’t need to paint, we can buy paintings; we don’t need to cook, we can call for delivery; we don’t need to do housework, we can hire a domestic helper; we don’t need to go out for exercise, we can buy the machines.

There is so much convenience in life that we often use our spare time in unproductive activities like window shopping, watching tv or DVD, chit chating in the kopitiam and computer games.

We forget that we are human beings who used to be active before. We forget that we used to be so close to nature. We forget that we don’t need a lot of things in life. We never think that we are abusing the convenience in life.

If we realised, we would not have abused our environment to such extend.

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle ~ a habit we need to cultivate.     

But is it too difficult to go back to simplicity?

from the editor

One of my hobbies that is related to my profession and yet relaxing is shopping for children’s literature and toys. In fact I am fussy when it comes to selecting children’s books and toys.

Classic fairy tales and plastic toys with buttons and sound do not make an impression at all.

There was once I shopped at a fashion and accessory store, I found beautiful mini purses. All kinds of little purses that were mouth watering: some with a zip, some with a button, some with snap closer, some were crocheted…

I spent half an hour selecting among them. I bought some cute hair clips and hair bands too.

My friend asked,”What are these things for?”

“They are for children’s play.”

“You teach children play girl stuff? What about boys? Do you get some boy stuff?”

“Boys will like them too because they can open and close the purse. Both boys and girls can play gently together.”

“My dear if I have a son I won’t send him to your preschool. Who knows he will become girly or even gay, one day,” she teased.

“You are right about this stereotype thingy just like many parents. They only buy barbie dolls for girls and ultraman figurines for boys.”

“Don’t you think it’s the norm? Boys should be masculine.”

“That’s why many men nowadays don’t understand women and women don’t understand men. They are not encouraged to explore each other’s world since young. Would you prefer a macho man but he doesn’t know how to interact with girls or a man who is caring and considerate?”

“Of course the second one.”

“Well you may consider stop having rigid ideas about what girls and boys can play. They should be given opportunities to play as they like. And you must send your future son to TotalChild Preschool because he’s allowed to play masak-masak and doll dressing up.”

“Yes mem. I guess I gotta ask my husband what he played in his childhood. He seems pretty shy to express his true feelings,” she laughed.