Is it really an indulgence to throw a birthday party for a child?

Every child is special. The day a child is born is of significance, at least to me. I will never forget the feelings that came with the birth of each child. Indescribable. Joy beyond joy of holding something so precious God has given.

Celebrating birthdays are, naturally, important, to me. It's a celebration of milestones and of life, of hope and of thanksgiving. How can we overindulge a child with presents or a party on this special day? Isn't he or she deserving to be special because God has created him and given Him life to declare His goodness to the world?

Buying a child gifts every now and then is indulgent. Spending tons on play, theme parks, indoor playgrounds and even movies or plays every month is an indulgence. If a child only receives presents on special occasions such as birthday, Christmas or even Children's Day, is a birthday party specially for him deemed as indulgent?

As a child, I remember warm and cosy birthday parties celebrated at my grandmother's house, where my mum would invite our neighbours and relatives to come share in the joy of my birthday. When I was in P3, I remember giving out goodie bags to all my classmates. That was my birthday present! It was shared by a class of 40 kids! Have I, then, grown up to be a spoilt princess? I guess it takes more than all that. It's our parenting style and all we shape our kids with the tangibles and intangibles. The art of giving is first modelled by parents, who generously give of their time, effort and money to the children who will catch on that generosity from them.

I'm not for advocating elaborate birthday parties in hotels or at expensive venues. If it's budgeted within your means and celebrated among family and close friends, it can be truly meaningful and can make wonderful memories for keeps.

What's really an indulgence is probably me basking in the preparation of the party. From the choice of the venue right down to the décor, I'm the major decision maker. Of course, I work within a budget. If I spend too much on one thing, I cut down on something else. Logical, common sense planning.

Nathanael's 3rd birthday is just around the corner. I'm in the midst of doing up the décor. The bunting is almost done.

Wanted to buy pretty paper from scrapbooking shops. In the end, I got what I needed from Popular which helps to cut cost.

This time, I spent quite an amount of time on the goodie bags. The bags are handmade with love. :) Cost almost nothing. The bags were leftovers from Nathanael's 1st birthday bash. The coloured paper were from Daiso, bought some time ago for Zech to do his craft.

As my boys are older now, I get them to help out in the prep. These cut-outs are also from Popular. A pack like this cost $2.90.

The boys are helping me to pack the goodie bags next week. There's a sense of ownership and responsibility involved in the party planning process. Although I do most of the work, which I don't mind as I enjoy doing such stuff, my boys can now be involved and can help me out a little here and there. And, my friends, there's great satisfaction and joy derived from it all. The joy of sharing and of generous giving are what make a birthday party all worthwhile. Presents are, in actual fact, not the centre stage here.

Words, words and more words!

At the beginning of the year, we started with the workbook and it was mainly phonics every school day. Zech is not a fan of phonics. He has mastered his basic phonics and with the introduction of the silent e and other rules on vowels, phonics became very technical and boring to him. However, even with his dislike for this, Zech can read simple books and enjoys reading a lot. There are definitely other effective methods to teach reading other than phonics and besides, comprehension and not just decoding is important for reading success. This was my belief as a teacher and having experienced it as a parent, we should teach children to read using a variety of ways.

What Zech likes about the phonics lesson is, surprisingly, the writing component. Making booklets like these seem to be less of a chore to him. Usually while he does this, I'd be doing my chores. :)

 

 

He's contented constructing the booklet for animal tales too. 

 

I was about to look for alternatives to teaching English, besides doing the phonics drill almost every day. Then came the Bible reader and notebook, provided in the MFW package for 1st graders. How we adore this! It was refreshing for Zech and learning English became much more relaxing for us.



We love the Bible reader. Simple to read with big font size.

The Bible notebook is an extended activity after the Bible reader. It allows Zech to express himself creatively in drawing, colouring and writing after each story in the reader. I keep a Bible note book too and do alongside Zech.

Every week, I write new words on index cards. Zech learns about 5 new words based on the Proverbs and the Science topic for that week.

We review the words in the workbook too. Zech gets his regular practice of sounding out from there.



 One of the better days with the boys. Nathanael busy with his little hands while Zech went through the word cards on his own.

Sometimes, we do a show and tell (if I remember). Zech is very enthusiastic about it and often likes to choose a toy for show and tell. His favourite is his pet dino. We take turns to do the show and tell. Usually I start first then followed by Zech. Modeling is a great strategy.

Another very interesting activity Zech likes is this storytelling game. Bought it at a storytelling festival for a few dollars. This game was created by Roger Jenkins, a great storyteller himself.

 

To create a story, we need to choose the setting, character/s, problem and object/s. Using the pictures as stimulus, we tell the story. Zech has made up police and thief stories, accidents etc. Most of the time, his stories end tragically. :( He's still learning how to create happier stories.

Zech usually reads aloud to me a few times a week. Using readers from the library, hand-me-downs from friends, from my old stash of readers which were used when I was teaching P1 and the Clifford series. The library is really a treasure trove. Borrowed many readers from there without spending a single cent!

 

Some of the readers Zech is using these days... Do you notice books with a local flavour? Books by local authors are wonderful due to the familiar context.

 

 

Zech enjoys spelling too. For that I'm very relieved. After all, he will be in the mainstream next year and spelling is pretty much a regular task done weekly.

 

Through the struggles I have with Zech, most stemmed from phonics. I've learned to let go and accepted as I've finally experienced what it means by every child is different.  Just as there are alternative pathways to education, there are many methods to enjoying literacy. As a parent, we need to empower our kids to employ different ways to learn successfully, inspiring them to appreciate words and eventually the right way to live in God's world.