Teaching & Learning Moments From Cast Away

~ Posted on Thursday, October 15, 2015 at 5:55 AM ~

Whenever I think our kiddos are ready, I will let them watch certain movies. The last time I shared on my FB page that our kiddos watch Jurassic Park movies (1, 2 and 3!) there were people bashing me for letting our kiddos watch shows like this. I was like 'Wha-at?! So many learning opportunities in that movie!' Anyway, my kids, my way, my reasoning.

So a few weeks back, I decided to let our kiddos watch 'Cast Away'. Apart from the scenes where Tom Hanks found the dead airplane staff which I told and made sure our kiddos closed their eyes and not watch until I said so, they watched the rest of the movie.

At first, I explained to our 6.5 year old boy that although it does seem grim and scary watching the plane crash part, I told him to also hang on and see what will happen next. I asked him to imagine what he would do if he was stranded on an island. Whether he knows what to do and why Tom Hanks did what he had to do in the movie.

Despite all the tragedies and circumstances, Tom Hanks persevered on and survived with whatever he can salvage from the crash. As he discovered new things on the island, I would ask our kiddos what do they think he can do with the items he found? (skating shoes, tutu skirt, etc)

I did get a few surprises from their responses. At one point where Tom Hanks was just starting to make fire, I asked our kiddos what do they think he was doing and our 4 year old girl answered 'Make fire!'  I was very impressed as there were no indication whatsoever that he was making fire at that point of the scene and she knew what he was going to do. Coolness!

Cast Away Tom Hanks Making Fire

There were some other surprises where our kiddos said words that I never knew they would know at this age. When asked what was Tom Hanks trying to build with all the logs and the plastic siding of the door he found on the beach, our 6.5 year old boy casually said 'Raft'. Whoa.. I didn't realised he would know and understand what this word means.

I also used the opportunity to teach our kiddos that we should never give up so easily and that we should try and do our best. I told our kiddos to make use of everything they can find and think of just like what Tom Hanks did in the movie.

I was very glad that we could watch this movie together and learn at the same time!  


** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

Sharing - Funny Parenting Jokes

~ Posted on Tuesday, October 13, 2015 at 12:28 AM ~

Teaching & Learning Moment - Map

~ Posted on Monday, October 12, 2015 at 7:06 AM ~

My notebook is constantly on though I may not be sitting in front of it all the time. Few weeks back, I was in the midst to process some month-end claims and was chatting with a friend over FB chat when our 6.5 year old boy came over and sat next to me on my chair. He looked at my laptop screen and suddenly asked 'Why is it showing no Australia?'

I was like 'Huh? What?!'

Then I looked at his face, realized he was looking at my laptop screen and I checked out what he was looking... This tiny little advert on Facebook that randomly pops out on my FB page suggesting me to like the page. At first I had no idea why he said 'no Australia' until I realised he meant the picture in the advert.

Wow, coolmess! He recognized the map of Australia! There's no words showing him that it is Australia, unless you see the URL shown which was border.gov.au, but only if you knew .au meant Australia, and I know our kiddos don't know .au meant Australia yet.

Teaching & Learning Moment


Now ladies and gentlemen, do not underestimate the memory power of your kiddos!

You see, when our 1st kiddo was around 4 years old plus, we bought this big world map amd I started with showing our kiddos where is Malaysia (our country) followed by the few countries where our close relatives are located at (Australia, Japan, Sweden, Canada)

Teaching & Learning Moment

I don't do it often though as the map was in the playroom and we're not often in playroom LOL but when we were, I will remind and teach our kiddos on these few countries.

Looks like my teaching is paying off! Very happy and proud that our boy can recognise Australia just by the shape of the country! (Honestly, I can't LOL)


** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.