The Perils of Wearing Eyeglasses

My two sons have been wearing eyeglasses already for the past 3 years. I don't think their vision are improving and to top that, with what happened yesterday morning, how I really hope that they could get rid of their eyeglasses. This is I guess what happened. I guess because I did not see it happen.

Yuan, my second son, fell asleep with his eyeglasses on. I failed to check on him and remove it because I was so sleepy already that I doze off ahead of him. While sleeping, he fell off the couch (because that's where he fell asleep) and the right tip of his eyeglass frame chipped off exposing the sharp wire (alambre) inside. It made a deep 1-cm cut above his eyebrow.  This happened at about 3 or 4 am, but he was so sleepy that he continued to sleep while the blood messed up his face.

When I woke up, I thought that he had another nose bleed but later discovered that it was a deep cut. His father accompanied him to the hospital where he got 4 or 5 stitches. I really praise and thank God that it did not hit his eyes or else it might cost him his eyesight.

Lessons learned to avoid the perils of wearing eyeglasses

• Never let your child sleep with their eyeglasses on. We always tell them to remove them before going to sleep but many times, they doze off without taking them off. So, parents better check on them also.
• It would be helpful to choose eyeglass frames that are child user-friendly. There are those which are made of plastic and flexible which might be safer to use especially for small kids.  Since it is plastic, it is lighter and does not leave a mark on their nose bridge and since it is flexible even if they stretch it when putting it on or taking it off, it won't break. Sometimes, these are less fashionable but we have to consider safety first when choosing eyeglasses for them until they are older and responsible enough to have more stylish ones.
• As early as from day one of the child's birth, we have to take care of their eyesight so that they would not need to wear eyeglasses early. I have made a post long time ago telling about my regret in doing this and some ways how we can take care of our children's eyes.
• Lastly, be ready when accidents happen. First of all we have to be calm. Actually, I still have to learn to speak calmly because when I told my husband on the phone about the accident, I was using this scary tone. Also, we need to know some first aid treatment. I think this topic will be for another post.  Having the necessary vaccines is also a must for kids. You just don't really know when accidents may happen. In having cuts and wounds especially from steel or rusty objects, there's the possibility of having tetanus infection. So better follow the recommended vaccines for children.

Keep Your Love Tank Full

Today is a special day. It is my husband's birthday.  Happy Birthday, Habibi! Actually, he doesn't want to grow old so instead of celebrating his birthday, we are celebrating our wedding anniversary. Yes, we got married on his birthday.  And I want to thank the Lord for 11 blessed years together.

What's the secret to keeping our marriage together? It's not because that we don't have quarrels or misunderstandings. We do. But the Lord helps us to keep our family together; to keep our love for each other burning in our hearts.

I've read the book The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman after we got married about 11 years ago. It really helped my husband and I understand how we could keep our marriage together.  The author said that the honeymoon stage or the intense feeling of love for new couples lasts about 2 years. After that, something changes.  Couples seem to fall out of love gradually unless the couples learn to keep their love tank full.  Keeping the love tank full means the husband always feels loved by the wife and the wife always feels loved by the husband.

The book discussed about five different emotional love languages. Each person speaks a different love language and it is up to the husband or wife to discover which one is the primary love language of his or her partner. If he or she can speak the particular love language to his or her spouse, then it would help a lot keep each one's love tank full.

I will not explain what the love languages mean but I would like to mention what they are.

• Words of affirmation
• Quality time
• Gifts
• Acts of service
• Physical touch

Which do you think is your love language?  These five love languages actually apply not only to couples but even to understanding and loving our children.  I highly recommend this book to couples who want to discover the secret to love and marriage that lasts.

Again, I'm truly grateful, Lord, for blessing our marriage. Help us to keep on building a family that grows stronger as the years go by.

Dealing With Chicken Pox in Children

The other week my eldest son, Emmuel, contacted chicken pox from his classmate despite the fact that he had already received the chicken pox vaccine when he was 1 year old. It was actually during their 4th quarter exams that he had this, so he had to take special exams.

Chicken pox is a highly contagious viral disease caused by the varicella zoster virus. It can be spread via air, by direct contact or through food, water or insects. A person with chickenpox is infectious from 1-5 days before the rash appears and continues to be contagious for 4 to 5 days more after the appearance of the rash, or until all lesions have crusted over. It is usually characterized by red, itchy spots that become fluid-filled blisters and then scabs.  Sometimes, it is accompanied by headache and slight fever. It is rarely fatal and resolves by itself but pregnant women should not have it as its effects on the fetus can range in severity from underdeveloped toes and fingers to severe anal and bladder malformation.

Fluid-filled Chicken pox spots. Image by Jonny McCullagh. Wikimedia Commons.

There is a difference, however, between the chicken pox of those who had the vaccine and those who had not. Emmuel's chicken pox had spots that were not fluid-filled and were not as much. It simply looked like an ordinary pimple. But the itchiness is still there. He didn't have any headache or fever. The spots were already drying up as early as 4 days.

When dealing with chicken pox, the greatest concern I think is the itchiness. It is really frustrating to have itchiness all over the body and my son had trouble sleeping through the night and concentrating on reviewing for his exams also.

Treatment of chicken pox in children include

• Apply anti-itching lotion like calamine lotion to the rash. Some use a lotion made of baking soda with water and sponge it onto the skin of the child to ease the itching. 
• Keep the child at home and isolated if possible so that he could not infect others; and 
• Discourage him from scratching. If you ask me, it is quite impossible to prevent the child from scratching so be sure to cut his nails short and keep him clean.
• Older children than one year may be given antihistamine tablets or liquid medicines to help the child when he is not able to sleep because of the itching. I did give Emmuel a few doses to help lessen the itch a bit. I just don't know how much it really helped.
• Some children who are at risk of having chicken pox complications should see their doctor who might give them an antiviral medication.

I would encourage moms and dads to give their children the chicken pox vaccine. In some countries, it is not part of the routine childhood vaccination schedule. I was anticipating that my 4 other children will contact the disease since they have not had it before. A friend pediatrician told me that it was 90% contagious. I was so glad that none of them had it, thanks to the protection that the chicken pox vaccination gave them. But according to what I read the protection is not lifelong and a follow-up vaccination is necessary 5 years after the initial immunization. That is probably the reason why Emmuel had it. He did not have a follow-up immunization and he is now 10 years old.

It Rained Ice Pellets

Last night, I was already cooking dinner when suddenly I heard loud tapping on the roof. It was like bullet shooting on the roof. It turned out that it was raining. But it rained so hard that my family ran outside to see.

To everyone's surprise and excitement, it was raining ice pellets.  The ice pellets look like small, translucent balls of ice. It was about 1-2 cm in diameter. 

Ice pellets.

It was the first time that my kids had seen ice pellets. Actually, it's also a first for me though it happened already a few years back but I did not went out to see.  It rained about 10 minutes and they collected a bucket of ice pellets and enjoyed touching it and playing with it.

The kids playing with the ice pellets.

It's a good thing that they were just small unlike hailstones. Otherwise, our car outside might have had broken glasses. Raining ice pellets is very unusual here and later on I found out that it was only in our area or neighborhood that it rained ice pellets.

What does this mean? It means that summer is really kicking in. I can actually feel now that all the cold air of the winter season is gone and I'm starting to feel hot again. Our aircon has had its rest and now it's time to work hard again.

Art Designs Using Tux Paint for Kids

Yesterday, Janel wanted to use the computer. She asked me to open the Tux Paint program I downloaded a long time ago. It's a free computer art software designed for kids. After a while, I saw her doing this "lots of heart" design. 

"Lots of Heart" by Janel

The art designed by Janel was really cute. Yuan, his older brother, also became interested and painted his own design - "Barn and Flowers."

"Barn and Flowers" by Yuan

I was impressed. So, I looked up the saved files and found some that Emmuel and Kristel did on Tux Paint. They used the Kaleidoscope tool of the software and made these abstract designs.  The "Colorful Kaleidoscope" ones are by Emmuel and the next "More Pink Kaleidoscope" designs are by Kristel.

"Colorful Kaleidoscope" by Emmuel

"More Pink Kaleidoscope" by Kristel

I got inspired by their art works that I tried to make a design, too, even if I'm not that artistic. Tux Paint was really designed for kids, but I also had fun using it. You don't have to know much technical things to learn and enjoy using it. It has many cool art "magic" tools like blur, drip, ripple, waves, flip, bubbles, flowers, etc. that helped making art designs easy.

How about that!

"Landscape" by Chin chin

Nursery Lessons: Ride Song

This nursery song, which I just called Ride song, was taught to Janel's class when they were studying about the different types of transportation. The lesson included what vehicles are used as air , water or land  transportation. The horse, car, train, merry-go-round, airplane and rocket were mentioned in the song.  I thought this song was really cute and it is one of Janel's favorite.

Ride the horse, ride in the car

Ride the train but not go too far

Ride the merry-go-round at the fair

Ride the airplane up in the air

Ride the rocket to the moon

But be sure you are back by noon.

Nursery Lessons - The ABC Song

One of the first things that children learn is the singing of the ABC song.  There are different ABC songs, I know at least 3 versions. The video below shows Janel singing the ABC song her teacher taught in Nursery. This version particularly teaches the phonetic sounds of the alphabet. And, I think while they sing it (everyday) in school, the teacher was pointing to pictures of the letters of the alphabet. That is why Janel learned how to read words quickly.

When we learn the sound, you'll see, ready to read and we will be

A- a- apple

B- b- ball

C- c- cat and 

D- d- doll

E- e- egg and

F- f- fan

G- g- goat and

H- h- hand

I- i- inchworm

J- j- jam

K- k- kite and

L- l- lamb

M- m- monkey

N- n- noodles

O- o- octopus and

 P- p- poodle

Qu- qu- quilt

R- r- rail 

S- s- sun and

T- t- tail

U- u- umbrella

V-v- vase, I am choosing a happy face

W- w- wagon

X- x- box

Y- y-yarn and you'll see fox

Singing in the Z- z- zoo

It was fun and now we're through

If we sing this, we're ready, then we'll start over for us to read.

Nursery Lessons: "This is My School" Poem

In a series of blog posts starting today, I will be sharing some photos and videos related to what my daughter Janel  has learned in Nursery during the past year.  My hope is that it will help other moms in teaching their preschool children at home, especially the homeschooling moms.

The first one below is Janel reciting the poem "This is My School."

This is my school

A wonderful place to be

Where I met new friends

That surely makes me happy.

This is my school

A place to learn for everyone

Where I read, write and play.

And where I have lots of fun.