Give them roots and wings

Welcome to our blog

Being parents have been a lovely and enriching experience for us, and we would like to share our stories with you.

To help you find the stories which are most relevant to you, I have listed most of them here, as another story.  This story describes our philosophy in parenting and living as a family.

(Last updated 29 Apr 2014)

We give our children roots – the family

We give them parents who love each other (Give my husband a new wife, M.A.D. time. I cannot do it without you, We stay by God’s grace), and who stay connected with them (I will enter into your world).

We give them a father who loves them as a strong man (Fathers – Protect, Provide, Present) and as a grown-up boy (Father and Child Camp).  We give them a mother who constantly wonders whether she has done enough, or done it right (Whyforth art thou a SAHM, A good mother,  Mother who could not snow-plough, Mummy guilt, Forgive me), and a mother who loves the way only a mother can (I knew your heart first, Nobody loves them like I do, Motherhood is its own reward).

We give them parents who have their own identities, destinies  (Goodbye my love) and journey of growth too (Broken so I can be made whole).

We give them each other (It’s so fun, Living together).

The children in turn give themselves to us, loving us the way that children do (I want you to say good night), allowing me to experience the joys of being a SAHM (One of those moments, The Sisterhood of Motherhood), and affirming us too (So my labours are not in vain, The best gift I have ever received).

We give them the family (Fun funny loving mine, Level 6 Happiness, Choosing the better path, I love my family, Tomorrow is another big day) and a past (The Family Narrative).

We celebrate their uniqueness.

For Elkan, he is bright and compliant (Living a dream).  With him we experienced Maths and Chess competitions (Formula for 11 times table, It’s ok, let’s play again!) and the NUS High DSA Selection Process (What I learnt from the NUS High DSA Selection Process). Because he is so bright, our academic expectations of him is the highest among all our children, and so with him, we also experienced the struggles of letting the child fail (Allowing my child to fail), and managing disappointments (Walking in the Garden of contentment).  He was the first in the family to do his PSLE, so we first felt all the PSLE angst through him (Just get me the marks, PSLE – Social leveller, Today is my test).

For Elias, he is a maverick who often surprised us (My own “Ah boy” to Man) and is extremely affectionate, and with him we experienced the exasperation of parenting a child who requires a huge amount of love and yet often does things that makes him difficult to love (Laugh and cry).  With him we experienced music (Thank you mummy for giving me music, Can you hear it, do you see it?, Making me a performer) and nature (Another way I show my love).

For Samuel, he is independent and loves his brothers and his friends.  Due to his struggles with learning (Test Dyslexic, Different Learning Differences, Dyslexia) we learnt a lot about the need to give a child time (Planting and waiting) and we struggled with helping him manage the world’s expectations (Love my child – make him strong, A different sort of P1) and deal with rejection (不可全抛一片心).  He also humbled us, and opened our eyes to people who have a tougher life (With the much you have been given). With him, we had the fun of experiencing the cute things he says and does (Samuel is still a genius, Samuel the Jolly postman) and we had to learn how to teach the 3 Rs (Thank you mum, The story, A day at the zoo, Thank you God for the leaves) and to train children in their behaviour (The 50 cents lessons).

From all our children, we learnt how much it takes to be a parent (Babies come with a price).  We learnt the need to accept the child as the way he is (This is my child, as is given to me).  We learnt to affirm them (Recognition and purpose, Celebrating the child for life), to meet their differing needs (Weekly walks), and to love them deeply and forever (The baby in the child).

We give our children wings – the strength of character to live a good life

We teach them life lessons every day (Living as children of light , Elias’ Pizza Financial Plan, A litter at a time, A child at a time, Loving and being loved). .

In the family, they learn how to manage themselves (Digital Timer), learn to wait (Why not wait?, Worth the wait) and how to relate to authority and to peers (How to deal with verbal bullying).  They also learn what loyalty means (Standing up for each other, My son my hero, I am my brother’s keeper).

We show them how to live life richly today and in the now (Do you enjoy your children), because death comes so suddenly (Live and leave, Making it count, Will we find each other in heaven, Don’t waste my pain). We celebrate each day they are alive and well (Life worth celebrating).

We help them navigate through the school system and find the best way to grow and learn.  (What price creativity, Teachers, Children are meant to be loved, I will teach you in ways you can understand, Thank you and Sorry, The Great Cop-out, Thank you for the primary school years, Parenting continues after the PSLE)

We strive to build the kind of community and world in which we want our children to live (Going the extra mile, Singapore Kindness Day,  Hopes and Dreams, Wisdom of the crowd, Neither too little nor too much, That which money cannot buy, Happiness, Prosperity and Progress for the Nation, Parenting as a child of God, ), demonstrating it through our own lives (Singaporean of the Day).

[We started a work of loving children through fostering. Please visit my page “Fostering in Singapore” for stories related to fostering and our own fostering experience.]

The various parties which we organise (Party – pre-school edition, Party –  4th edition), are not just for our children’s enjoyment, but because we believe that we have the responsibility of creating healthy communities (My little friends, We will walk the extra miles together).

We are learning to recognise when they are ready to go (When they are ready, Teenager no 1, Now I am a boomerang, They are growing, This is your path, So this is how it all begins), and we try to teach them the meaning of freedom (To be born again).

We do all the fun things a family gets to do!

(Joyalicious June Holiday)

We read (Sharing beauty, A step at a time, Boy and his cardboard box, Literature, Art Life).  We eat (Rise and Shine Breakfast, Breakfast again, Easy breakfast ideas). We have holidays (Indonesia, Malaysia, Universal Studios, It’s the school holidays, New Zealand, Campervan Travel).

We do projects (In memory of RSS SWECS, Teach a child to wash his hands, Paper Model).  We go outdoors (Exercising, The Ultimate Hawker Fest, Come Picnic with Us, I will enter into your world). We play (Happiness, Prosperity and Progress for the Nation). We celebrate (Howdy Cowboy,  We love Singapore).

The children go for enrichment… (My Baby Pirate at My Art Studio)

About Us

My husband, the children’s father – is an education professional.  I am a therapist teaching dyslexic children to read and write. I am a certified Parent Educator with the Touch Community Services (TCS), and my husband and I facilitate and conduct parenting courses (e.g. Growing Kids God’s way under Growing Families International) in our personal capacity.  We have three boys – Elkan (born 2000), Elias (born 2001) and Samuel (born 2006).

We started this blog because we love children – not just our own, but children in general.  Since we do not have the capacity to go out and love all children, we decided the next best way to love them is to befriend their parents, and the adults in their lives, and share with them our own experiences of how we loved our children.

Our site address is – Love Our Children Now:-

• Love – because it empasses all that is true and good.
• Our – because the children belong not just to the father, or mother, but the family unit as a whole, and humankind in general.
• Children – because children are meant to be children – simple, trusting – to be protected and nurtured.
• Now – because it is the best time – yesterday is over and tomorrow may be too late.

Have fun, leave a comment and let us get to know you too 🙂

Elisa