November 2016

When I first had kids, I was convinced that I’d be relaxed about academics. I would foster the love for learning by MAKING IT FUN! We would enjoy learning! It would be easy!!

Then they started Primary School and everything changed because suddenly, there were all these tests and assessments and they came home with grades that induced a mild panic attack.

3/10 for spelling, check. 1/8 for 听写, check. 5/30 for Chinese mid year paper, welcome-to-reality check. Apparently this was the 2nd worst grade in the entire school, and while I was going through the paper with Truett, I tried to be all encouraging, like “Let’s start with the ones you got right…um, not bad, you got these 5 correct” and he sheepishly admitted, “Actually I just anyhowly guess the answers, so lucky right, got 5 correct marks for free.”

After some extensive deep breathing, I discovered a tiger mom side of me I never knew existed. The Make-Learning-Fun philosophy was immediately replaced by Go-Write-5-Pages-Of-Chinese-Words.

I realised that it’s hard to be relaxed when my kids come home with terrible grades because I belong to a generation that’s conditioned to equate good grades with success in life. Back in my time, there was no Joseph Schooling to blaze a path for aspiring sportsmen, or a Priscilla Shunmugam (founder and designer of womenswear label Ong Shunmugam), or a Royston Tan (acclaimed Singapore filmmaker), or even a Tan Min-Liang (founder of gaming company, Razer Inc). It was all about “study hard and do well in school = a successful life”.

I’m trying to strike a balance with this because these days, we know better. IQ and book smarts are not the only indicators of a child’s ability and being awful at certain subjects is not the end of the world. It just means that they’re good at other areas, so as parents, our job is to help them identify their strengths and develop the areas that they’re talented at.

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So you want to nurture your child’s talents? Where do you even start with this?

Step 1 is figuring out exactly what these talents are.

Apart from observing their interests and inclinations, there are several aptitude assessment tools available, such as MIDAS™ (Multiple Intelligences Developmental Scales). Based on Harvard professor, Dr. Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, MIDAS™ is an assessment to help identify a child’s smarts from as early as 3 years old. Comprising 27 simple questions, this questionnaire will give you an indication of the areas they’re good at. You may answer it based on your observations of your child or if your child is old enough (e.g. 7 years old and above), he/she may answer it on their own.

The 8 different types of smarts include Word Smart, Body Smart, Logic Smart, Music Smart, Nature Smart, People Smart, Picture Smart, and Self Smart.

I got Truett, Kirsten and Finn to try the MIDAS™ test and it’s fascinating to see how different they are.

Truett

I’m not at all surprised that Tru ranks high on Logic Smart. He loves figuring out how things work, taking stuff apart and fixing them up again, playing games like Minecraft, working on experiments, that sort of thing. He’s that kid who will try to figure out how a magic trick works during a magic show.

Right now, his dream job is to be a freestyle Lego builder or a professional gamer. He’s all “But I don’t need to know Chinese to do these things” and I’m like “Well, there might be a new Chinese computer game in the future and then you’ll thank me.”

Kirsten

Kirsten is pretty much an all rounder who’s decently good in most areas. She enjoys reading, art, music, dance, gaming, and even sports. I suppose this means that she probably won’t have any difficulty finding something that she loves and is good at eventually.

I was a little surprised about the Nature Smart bit, but now that I think about it, she does love flowers and she’s always trying to like grow stuff like tao geh (beansprouts) at home. This is good to know – we’ll spend some time learning about nature and watching Nat Geo during the holidays.

Finn

Finn is a classic Picture Smart kid. Since he was little, he’s loved puzzles and pictures. He’s got a great eye for photography, colours and visual aesthetics, often telling me what looks nice and what doesn’t (and he’s spot on too!). I can just imagine him as a dreamy hipster type photographer/filmmaker/artist with skinny jeans and backcombed floppy hair.

That or he’ll join Kirsten in her plant growing business.

While it looks like none of my kids are going to be a rock star or an olympic medalist, this is an excellent start in helping them to figure out what they might enjoy doing when they grow up. Maybe one of them will invent something really cool, or write a New York Times bestseller, or y’know, grow plants.

Finding out their inclinations early gives them a valuable head start in pursuing these areas while they’re still young because it takes hours and hours of practice in order to get really good at something.

Which is not to say that academics aren’t important because they still need to learn important lessons like cultivating a good work ethic, applying themselves by working hard, and developing tenacity. So there will still be quite a lot of Chinese writing and assessment books in their immediate future, but at the same time, we’ll also be working hard on their other smarts.

And if it turns out that despite their best efforts, they’re terrible at certain subjects, that’s ok because there are other stuff that they’re really good at. They’re going to be ok. :)

Interested to discover the type of intelligence that your child has? Of course you are. Head on over to UOB KidSmart to try the MIDAS™ profile. 

Girls are so awesome to have but as it turns out, both my girls have very delicate bottoms. I’ve had to deal with severe diaper rash twice (once for Kirsten and once for Hayley) and neither of those times were any fun at all.

She’s all smiley now but Princess Golden Bottoms here just recovered from a massive nappy rash episode a month ago and it was brutal. Her entire nappy area got all red and inflamed and covered with angry bumps, which made her super screamy all day. :(

The doctor prescribed her some steroid cream and we had to air her bum so for several days, I was walking around with a bare-bottomed baby, getting peed and pooped on multiple times a day. That’s ok though, I’ll take being pooped on if it helps my baby feel better, no question about it. But you know what’s a better solution? Not having to deal with nappy rash at all. Prevention being better than cure and all that.

Since then, I’ve been paranoid about keeping her bottom clean and dry, so I guess you can say that I know a thing or two about getting the right diapers.

Let’s talk about all the things you need to look out for in a tape diaper.

1. Breathable. 

You want your baby’s skin to be able to breathe because fresh air is good for delicate baby bottoms. What you don’t want is a stuffy, moist diaper that traps all the bacteria and yeast because that is the perfect recipe for a massive onset of diaper rash.

The new Merries tape diapers have a new triple layer air-through system which increases breathability for longer lasting dryness.

• 1^st layer: Light airy mesh material that is gentle on the skin. The mesh reduces the skin contact area by half, expelling moisture and stuffiness through the gaps between the diaper and skin.
• 2^nd layer: Breathable air-through absorbent layer. Moisture passes through this absorbent layer in the process of absorbing pee.
• 3^rd layer: All round breathable sheet. The entire sheet is breathable, drawing away the moisture from pee and sweat.

Compared to the previous version, the new improvement increases breathability by 40%, providing long-lasting dryness for the baby. This means that I don’t have to worry about missing a diaper change when we’re out and about or when she’s sleeping through the night. In fact, 97% of mothers in Japan find the triple-layer air-through design means a drier bottom for their babies. (Kao survey, September 2015)

Truett helped me with a small experiment to find out exactly how breathable the new Merries diapers are.

First, we poured a cup of hot water onto the diaper.

Then we flipped it over and put a clear glass over the back. Just look at the condensation inside the glass.

All the heat and moisture was drawn out instantly instead of getting trapped inside the diaper.

2. Absorbent

A good diaper instantly draws in the pee and poo, locking it away instead of letting it all accumulate on the surface of the diaper. The key is maintaining as little pee/poo to skin contact as possible at all times.

With Merries tape diapers, the wavy and recessed surface of the soft sheet traps and holds poo, preventing it from dispersing, while the super absorbent sheet instantly draws in and locks away pee and soft poo, leaving the diaper surface drier, thereby preventing diaper rash.

3. Soft

When it comes to anything that’s in contact with my baby’s skin 24 hours a day, softer = better.

These new diapers are incredibly soft, plus its inner wavy surface reduces the skin contact area so that it does not stick to baby’s skin, making it gentle to her delicate skin.

Princess Golden Bottoms approves of the soft, soft diaper on her bum.

4. Convenience

With the colour-changing wetness indicators, you will know it’s time to change the diaper once the strips change color from yellow to dark blue.

See these yellow strips? No need for a diaper change just yet.

Okay, time to change that diaper!

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Hayley has been on the new Merries Tape diapers for the past week and it’s true – they are incredibly soft and dry and breathable. After a whole night without a diaper change, her bum still feels dry and clean. This is the face of a baby who just woke up to a comfy bottom. Bliss.

Merries is like the gold standard of diapers, and I’m not surprised that it’s the No 1 baby diaper brand in Japan for 9 years running.

The new Merries tape diapers also come in a brand new super cute packaging that looks like this.

If you’d like to try out these awesome new diapers, you can request a free sample here.

Also go check out the website and Facebook page for more diapering tips and information.