P1 results

Xavier received his results this week. He came in 4th in class and 12th in the standard. He also won the Character Value award for his class. I am very proud of his achievements. He was delighted with his trophy. It's encouraging to know that Xavier is doing well. I think he should be fine going ahead. He has a long way ahead of him but he is off to a good start. I had a lot of things to say over the last 2 weeks. But work travels have since dried up my thoughts......

Analysis of my blog

I just realized that I can see how many times each of my post is viewed. I have come to a conclusion that I have 2 regular readers. I think one is Gabriel who recently told me that reading my blog is the only way he knows what is happening in my life. I'm not sure about the other one. I guess it might be me?

The post about my domestic helper woes drew the most views. 27! I know that is not much by blogger world standard but that is the highest view count on mine.

The posts about the General Elections drew the next most views. 12. I think many views may be accidental browsing. Some might be the government scanning the internet. I'll never know.

I seriously need to put in some effort if I want to have a higher level of readership.

Toys are us.....

We did a partial clean-up of our store room this week. Partial because there was too much stuff in the store room. The store room contained an unbelievable amount of paper bags (in our attempt to recycle), bags (for travel and previously for golf) and toys. We kept some toys, some being an understatement, in the store room because we didn't want the clutter in the living room or bedroom.

After rummaging through the mess, I have come to a conclusion which is a lesson I've never learnt and hopefully will. Toys are definitely not a must have in a kid's life.

There were so many toys which the kids never played with and never missed.
My general rule for cleaning is "if you haven't touched it for more than a year, you probably do not need it unless it's an official document".

We have a Toyogo box full of Thomas and Friends trains and rails. Yes, I bought thousands of dollars’ worth of trains and rails. Last count was 27 trains and they were all bought pre-Keane, i.e. during Xavier's time. What was I thinking of, buying train sets for a 2 year old? I thought that the kids could play with them even when they are older because the rails are components of what may be a huge railway track. I found the sets on display in various stores fascinating and thought that Xavier could produce something like that when he was older. The reality was probably me entertaining my own fetish for building stuff.

I guess I was trying to fulfil my own lack of such sophisticated toys when I was a kid. My family wasn't well to do and I was happy was paper dolls and books. Remember the paper dolls? They came in sheets which contained one girl and some clothes. You tear the girl and the clothes out. Then you place the clothes on the girl and fold the tabs over her shoulders and hips. You could interchange the clothes and if you bought a few sheets, you'd have a fabulous wardrobe. This was before I knew about Barbie.

Barbie was too expensive and the only Barbie I owned was a gift when I was twelve. My mom bought some additional clothes for my Barbie but I created my own with some unwanted clothes and cloth. My Barbie lost her hair to a beautiful crop after I mistakenly believed someone who told me that Barbie's hair can grow. That person decided not to cut her Barbie's hair after seeing mine around with a crop for a long time. Back to my present mess......

We also inherited a few sets of toys from Xavier's cousin. They were in pretty good condition and I guess it was a result of Xavier's uncle being meticulous about his kid's toys. We never played with those. The kids had more than enough of their own toys. So I think I will not pass on toys to any other relative. It just moves the clutter to another home. My brother took some of our Fisher Price toys when he had a girl who is 6 months younger than Ryan. But I observe that my brother and his wife still buy toys for her. It's like us. We couldn't stop buying toys even when we had some toys given to us. It also never stopped when the kids had more than enough toys they could play with.

The excuses frequently used for buying toys:
1) It's educational - they can learn the alphabet.
2) They can improve their cognitive skills.
3) It allows them to explore their creativity.
4) It's an investment which can last years.

I buy most of the toys in the home. Not because my hubby is cheap. It's because he's smarter when it comes to spending money on toys. I always cave in to pleas or the pity me look. I bet that if we took stock, we would find that the amount of money I spent on toys could have bought us something substantial. And no, I'm not tempted to do this count.

We have not done a count of the number of cars we have at home but I am willing to take a bet that it's more than 50. These are the miniature cars from Hot Wheels, Tomica and Matchbox. Tomica ranks first in quality. Hot Wheels rank first in design. Matchbox is almost non-existent in our home. I found endless parts of Transformers in various Toyogo bins. There were also body parts from Ben 10's aliens (Lego). There were tires of cars which I cannot find. Yes, these are rubber tires that came off what were probably model cars. Did I mention Keane's obsession with speed and cars? He can tell a Lamborghini from a mile away.

I threw out an almost endless supply of freebies from McDonalds as well. I surprised myself when I was able to recognize some of the parts of toy sets which have been "disintegrated". I managed to regroup a few sets. I really think I bought some of these toys for my own entertainment but Xavier proved me wrong. He could also do the same thing. I guess this skill is hereditary. Yes, yes, who am I trying to fool here? It's rubbish.

My conclusion after this clean-up boils down to one thing. The only things worth investing for your kids are: books, music and Lego. Our books have been read and re-read by the 3 of them. Music is a skill they pick up for life if they are interested. Lego is something they will never tire of. If they do, the Lego sets will always have a backup player - the parents. Speaking of which, I need to start work on my AT-AT Walker.