Ethan's favourite authors

 

Ethan has cultivated the love of reading since young. It was lately that his thirst for books somehow exploded. He would ask not to do my assignments during weekdays and seek permission to read instead. Given that reading is a good hobby to build on, I would usually agree to his proposal.

 

He used to love Geronimo Stilton books at Primary 1 and we have already spent lots of $ buying them for our boys. He never gets tired of reading this series:

 

Then I encouraged him to touch on Roald Dahl books, which I loved when I was young. He started with the shorter stories like, The Twits, Esio Trot, George's marvellous medicine. Caden used to love Roald Dahl when he was in P2 as well. Ethan has covered most in this collection, except for 2-3.

I have also got them to read books by Judy Blume, which is very readable for his age and he enjoyed them as well.

 

 

 

At one point, he was so addicted to Captain Underpants series and finished reading the entire collection as well..

As I ran out of series for him to read, beyond Roald Dahl, Stilton and Blume books, I decided to start on books by Enid Blyton. I was a bit apprehensive at the beginning. I wasn't sure if he would enjoy books by Enid Blyton as much as I did when I was young (I read only Amelia Jane and Nancy Drew series). So I asked him to try this Famous Five book which happens to be brand new from the library.

Ah, he enjoyed it thoroughly! He even shared with me that it has an interesting plot and as they tried to uncover treasure in an island. After he finished with this book, he asked me to look for more Famous Five in the library for him :) I am happy with his new found love, as there will be a lot more books to complete before I run out of ideas!

SAHM - 2nd year and counting

Technically I have been a SAHM for almost 2 years. It all started in Dec 2013...

Dec 2013 - 3 months sabbatical leave
Mar- Oct 2014 - Part-time half day arrangement
Oct 2014 - End of part time half day employment
Jan 2015 to present - Start of part time lecturer role

 

I remembered I once blogged about how tough it was to be a SAHM (given the fact that I was still partially employed then .. ). My present role allows me to have more breaks given that I don't need to be in school during school term breaks (which works out to be only 26 weeks assignment for 1 year). After going through 1+ semesters, I am finally more settled with the present lifestyle, I think it helps me to be much healthier as I am hardly sick these days (touchwood!)

Out of the 26 weeks assignment, I have opted to teach 2 days a week, so my children have been getting so much of my attention this year! Being at home for the kids is definitely beneficial, whether we are working on something constructive or even nothing constructive for them! I feel that its the emotional support that can be extended to them at all times. Often, they share what they do in school, or funny stuff that happened to them during school hours. I can also intervene promptly when there are arguments, hoping that sensible talks can help to infuse into their brains eventually.

As for my personal 'mental being', I still miss 'scolding' people, which I often get to do during my banking days =p. It's something that kept me going then. I actually did not thrive on scolding people at work, but rather, the ability to identify issues and resolve them (as a result, you 'scold' people when they were still resistant to changes or were not able to see your point).  Now, I exercise more patience with my students, and be empathetic to their learning paces.

Often, we are caught in a situation where we think about 'the other side' after we have taken our path. I still believe that I will continue to do well in my role in the bank if I had not decided to resign. So this is Life! We have to make hard decisions sometimes at different points. On a flip side, being there for my children with significant reduction in spending power is not so bad after all!

Honestly, if any of my friends are struggling with the decision to take the path of a SAHM, my advice for them will be - Go ahead!