Our current Top 3 Favourite YouTube video-makers

I have never been a fan of YouTube, until my child became one. Yes. You heard me right.

During Anya's early days of YouTube conquest, she was watching mostly VeggieTales, Pororo and the occasional Elmo and Barney (strangely, she likes Barney on the Big TV screen and much prefers it to remain that way). In those days, other than a couple of catchy VeggieTales silly songs; I was hardly into YouTube.

These days, I (and the Husband) am (are) singing a different tune altogether. And it is because we have discovered some other publishers / channels / makers and their videos are becoming a hit in our little household, for both young and old!

I thought I will share with my dear mommy (& daddy, if there is?) friends here. After all, as what we have been teaching Anya lately, good things are meant to be shared.

1. Barefoot books
Barefoot books videos were introduced to us by
Anya's music and movement teacher. She showed "Driving my Tractor" one morning. The illustrations were beautiful, the song had a nice groove and the singer sounded like Jason Mraz. Naturally, We enjoyed it immensely. After we got home, I did a quick search on YouTube and found that they had a dozen (or so) more songs. Most of them, I have bookmarked them. But our top favorites remained to be "Driving my Tractor" and another one called, "Up, up, up".

2. KidsTV123
This one, I discovered by chance while surfing around for new videos for Anya. Now, I like KidsTV123's because they are made with a purpose to educate children on something - be it ABCs, phonics, shapes and colors etc.. The illustrations are simple but the songs are mostly catchy with, again, very crucial for me, singers who sound like pop singers more than cheesy and overly animated children-songs singers. The latter are a big turn-off for me. Yes, imagination movers, I'm talking about you.

Some of the videos that are currently doing wonders to our little girl's mind? "Brush your teeth" and "The shape song". After watching the former a couple of times, she now brushes her teeth with new enthusiasm, putting in great effort to use the correct techniques. She is also rather intrigued by "Phonics song 2", repeatedly playing it, although I think she has not quite figured out the message behind the song. (But at post time, we realized she has memorized a large chunk of the song!)

3. Gigglebellies
We have not venture out much on this one. Only two videos so far and we were contented to stick with them. This is because, while we allow the kid to watch YouTube, we limit the time usage. Typically, 30 minutes is all we allow for her to tinker on our iPad. That, plus a one song-video per child policy before bedtime prayer. So by the time Anya goes through the above list of videos (with repetitions of a few of her favorites), 30 minutes is up.

Anyway, the two videos are namely "Twinkle twinkle little star" and "The wheel on the bus". I really like their variation for "Twinkle" where they meshed in their own version of "Star light, star bright". Very soothing, superbly apt for a lullaby. In fact, it was a life-saver for us during Arielle's last bout of sickness. She was crying through the night (again), tired and cranky yet too uncomfortable to sleep. Eventually, we caught her attention by playing a couple of barefoot songs (those that we know will catcher action because she had been nearby whenever Anya watches them and was beginning to show interest in them). Once we got her attention, we switched to gigglebellies's "Twinkle" and it proved to have a calming effect. With that, she finally doze off the sleep after the video was replayed for more than 30 minutes. Thank God though, her usual lullaby player works again these days to ease her down for sleep.

As for "Wheels on the bus", it is because simply transportation are one of Anya's thing, so she goes for it.


So yes, the above three children video-makers are our top Favourite search on YouTube currently. As mentioned earlier on, while we allow our children to watch YouTube, it does come with a set of rules. For any kind of child's play, there will always be two schools of thought. We are cool about allowing TV and tinkering with some gadgets,but as I said, with limitations, supervision, and parental censorship. And we are firm believers that too much of something is usually never good. And yes, it is tried and tested when it comes to allowing too much YouTube and TV for Anya. She kind of goes into a trance and refuses to budge from the sofa, had lesser self-control, was less guarded about keeping a good behavior and then it all went into a downward spiral and with a big meltdown (and showdown) at the end of that day.

Therefore, if you are just beginning to introduce the world of YouTube to your kiddo, I sincerely hope that it does mostly good for your child(ren) and lots of fun for you all. And if you are a parent who is already letting your child(ren) to watch videos, do you have any other videos to share here? Feel free, as I will love hear from you. :)

Thankfulness

I have stopped my thankful posts for months now. Not that I am not thankful anymore, just that I needed to reprioritize my time and concentrate on spending time with the children, the Husband, God and my close and loved ones instead of penning down my thoughts. Those and another major change that is gonna happen in my little household. Will reveal in due time.

Anyway... I am, however, compelled to pen down this particular thought of thankfulness. You see, I am hoping to pass some positive vibes around.

So, what am I so so thankful about? The answer is: our government. Usually, I prefer to keep my (whatever limited) political views to myself and a few other close ones. But then, right now, there is this huge fuzzy-wuzzy bubble inside me that is channelled towards our government and I fear that I might explode with the bubble if I do not externalise it somehow.

If you ask me for my view of our government, I'd say that our government is sound, dynamic and yet, humble, and adapts well with changing times.

Since the last general election, it is apparent (at least to me) that the government realizes the importance and urgency to come down to our level in order to reach out and to get feedback.

To listen, to be approachable, ministers open up Facebook pages. I, for one, 'liked' Prime Minister LHL's Facebook page among other pages. And I genuinely believe that most of the updates are done personally by him because it really sounds like him talking and well, he has a iPhone.

I thought it was really cool that they are gonna shake up (without specifying a mandatory curriculum because it will be suicidal to creativity) the preschool educational system, given that there has always been strong emphasis on academic excellence in our prevailing Primary, secondary, JC and tertiary educational system. It only shows that they are hearing. For all we know, this may just be the first move to change the minds of those who are unwilling to procreate because they feel that Singapore is too stifling for little ones to grow up in.

Anyway, my point for writing this is because I realize that there are fellow countrymen out there who are unhappy with the government. I am not here to set off an argument about how good or bad our government is, so I shall not cite any more positive examples. I am not saying that they are perfect either because they are not. Nobody is. Instead, what I like to do is to take a step back and observe with a open mind. Be quick to applaud and be slow to criticize. That way, I find that there are actually plenty of things that has been done / they are doing that I am thankful for. When we keep looking out for the good things instead of the bad, counting our blessings; life becomes filled with hope and joy as we move forward.

What about the bad things that are really affecting our lives? You may ask. How about writing a feedback to them? If we have faith that they are approachable and sound, when they hear enough of the same problem, surely they will do something about it. Let's just be patient and bear with them for now. Oh, and remain basking in the good things. That will make the wait much more bearable.

In conclusion, i will just say that I, for one, is thankful to be a Singaporean and will never want to seek greener pastures (except for getaways and holidays, and perhaps temporary residency if ever work / children's studies call for it). Yes, Singapore is green enough for me and I daresay my head of the household agrees with me on that. Thank you, Singapore. Thank you for your contributions, our dear 'gahmen' (government unique to only Singaporeans).

My Beautiful Tod

Anya: "Anya is pretty."

Me: "Of course you are, sweetheart! You are beautifully and fearfully made by God."

Anya: "Yay! Anya loves Jesus very much!"

Okay, I think she is too young to grasp the concept of unconditional love.

Note to self: "unconditional love". A topic to touch on when she is older.

An outdated post of more BKK pictures

Hi there! The girls are currently down with fever (again!). This time round, they are quite badly hit as the fever has stayed with them for four days now.

If you have read about their previous episodes of sicknesses, you will know that Arielle, being the spirited child that she is, gets really affected when she is sick. So the first two nights were really tough as we alternate carrying her and patting her every half hour that she coughed, cried and then could not go back to sleep. After that, the Husband decided to take over as her main caregiver at night as he didn't think it was practical for me to be carrying her constantly while I could not bear not to do so. As for Anya, her fever spiked at 40 degrees Celsius in the middle of the night for the past two days, which got us worried. Thank God she has been vey co-operative, letting us sponge her, change her, eats her medicine etc, despite feeling so groggy and sleepy.

So anyway, I have quite a lot to say here actually, on what I have been doing with them (Anya especially) and some interesting books that we have been reading together, but right now, my primary duty of caring for them overtake everything else. So... I shall leave you with some Bangkok trip pictures that I took off the Husband's phone (mainly of Anya soaking up the sun and pool).

Hopefully, I get to update soon. Till then, have a wonderful start to a new week! :)

While we were doing the packing...

Every time our suitcases come out of the storeroom, the Furkid goes into a certain degree of depression. It was evident when we were packing for our Bangkok trip, much to the Helper's amusement who got to witness it for the first time.

Her (furkid, not helper) soulful eyes were downcast as she mopped around the house. When she was not locked in the kitchen, she would find a comfortable spot near or in the suitcase and lay down there for hours.

And then, there is baby girl who needed to be near us all the time. Whenever I was packing, I would sit her beside the suitcase near me. I really do not mind her company, except that she kept taking out the stuff I put into the suitcase and unfold them. I'm pretty certain I folded one of Anya's tee at least eight times.

Lastly, we also have the Tod who was so excited about the trip that she prattled about it non-stop. "Anya's going to take airplane... Anya going Bangkok to the swimming pool. With Daddy, Mommy, Arielle, Aunty and Por-Por..". In all honesty, it was really cute, but only when she said it for the first say.. fifty times? I knew I was bugged when I started to hear her talking even in my sleep. And I swear it was not her talking in her sleep beside me. Plus, we had to tell her "no" for umpteen times after she spotted her swimming floats and kept asking us to inflate them.

Sigh.. Yep, our kids (dog included) can drive us mad sometimes.

But then again, even when they are not at their best, we are already madly in love with them.