I'm a full-time mummy

I came across this article which I must definitely share with you guys as I'm very interested to know your thoughts on this. Do note that sharing this does not mean I agree or disagree with it. For your convenience, I have copied the excerpts from the article here:

Getting your kids to do their chores can be a chore in and of itself, as all too many parents know. Besides keeping the house in order, household responsibilities are important because they help give kids a sense of purpose, and they build confidence, said Julie Freedman Smith of Parenting Power. So how do you manage that challenging battle of wills? Here are four tips that might help.

1. Set clear expectations

Step one is to be crystal clear with your kids what you expect and when you expect it to be done, says Freedman Smith. To start with, take the time to do it with them so that they're comfortable and feeling confident about their ability to do what you've asked them to do. Freedman Smith then recommends taking a picture to set a standard.

"Here's what your room looks like when it's clean. Let's put these pictures on the back of your door. Now you check. Does that corner look like the picture of what that corner is supposed to look like?" she offered.

2. Hold your kids accountable

After you've agreed on a set standard, you need to establish some consequences, Freedman Smith said. "We need to hold them accountable to that, because if we just say it and don't hold them accountable, then they learn to not do it." If you find your kids in the habit of complaining or procrastinating, you might need to sit down and have a conversation about responsibilities and consequences.

3. Be realistic

Don't give your kids chores to do that you know they're never going to do, Freedman Smith said. "If you like those perfect hospital corners on beds, and your kids aren't going to do it, and then you're going to go in and do it afterwards? Totally defeating the purpose, because it's sending a message to the child that they can't do it," Freedman Smith said. She also cautions against dressing chores up so they seem like play. "Not everything has to be fun," Freedman Smith said.

"There are lots of things that we do in our lives that are not particularly fun and need to get done. If we start early, then we set up a pattern, and kids get into the habit of doing it. "Then we go on and do the fun stuff."

4. Mix it up

What's expected of a three-year-old is completely different than what's expected of an 18-year-old, and parents shouldn't be afraid to update their standards as children learn the tasks and how to do them better. "Start small. Pick a few. Get them working well. Then as they get better, you can add to it," Freedman Smith said.

To avoid falling into gender stereotypes when it comes to chores, she recommends alternating who does what. For example, January could be garbage duty for one child this month, and dish duty for the other, and in February the two switch. Most importantly, if it's not working, try something else. "Do it in a way that's going to work for your family so that you will stick to it."

What do you think?

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I had previously written about how we make use of technologies to parent, educate and learn together as a family, shared our family's guidelines on technology usage for our children and also recommended some favourite Windows apps and utilities.

As mentioned before, I'm very blessed to own a reliable Windows computer with the fast processing power of Intel processors that does magic in our everyday lives and so for today's post, I will share with you on some of our recommended Windows games that we use in our family. Here we go, the list in no particular order:

Minecraft

(** Click icon below to download the app for free) 

You would have to be living on another planet if you have not heard of Minecraft. Minecraft is a game about placing blocks to build anything you can imagine. You chopped off trees, gather the woods and materials, build your shelter, hunt for food and more. You can play in free mode or survival mode (it gets dark at night and zombies and monsters came out so you really need to build/find a shelter fast!) You can play on your own or join other networks/servers and play with your friends.

Some might think it is quite costly to purchase this game, I mean, hubby and I had the same thoughts too prior to our decision to purchase the app. In fact, we delayed for almost a year thinking it through and happy to say, no regrets so far with our decision to get this game. Our 6.5-year-old boy loves Lego, he loves building stuff so to see him blossoming more after playing on Minecraft, just magical.

Just look at what he built when he was 5-ish... I am not kidding you, all these were done by himself without any help from us except when he needed help to spell some words (he started kindergarten at 5 years old) so that he could type them onto the sign boards to place into his Minecraft worlds.

You can research more on this game for the pros and cons, don't need to take our words blindly. For us, this game really does wonder in our boy, he learned a lot from it, building and securing his shelter, sourcing for materials, mining for resources and minerals, combining materials to create new tools and stuff. On the rare occasions where I played together with our boy on our server, I was very impressed as I see him getting straight to source for materials to build his shelter while I was still fumbling around trying to get my direction LOL. Even from time to time as I read news articles to him or share something new that I learned, he will suddenly tell me 'Yeah, yeah I know. In Minecraft we have that!'

Agent P Strikes Back

(** Click icon below to download the app for free) 

In this game, you have to guide Perry aka "Agent P" and try to locate the other missing agents while battling robotic guards and double jumping your way through Doof's complex. When our 6.5-year-old boy first started playing this game, he was quite frustrated as he was not used to playing games like this. Having had to learn to manoeuvre left, right, up, down all of a sudden is quite a shock to him. I mean, for a child who has absolutely no problems playing Minecraft (twirling around 360 degrees you know!) and suddenly had to slow down to control the directions and to achieve some goals in each level is a challenge but after a few attempts, he got the hang of it and loves the game.

I am glad to see him being able to manipulate the controls on our Acer Switch 12 device and was amazed to see him whizzed through levels after levels.

Plumber 3

(** Click icon below to download the app for free) 

This is an interesting game that I like. In this game, you need to rotate the pipes to form a path from the valve to the end to let the water flow. Once you complete the path from begin to end, you will go to next level which will be more challenging than previous ones.

I used the opportunity from this game to let our 6.5-year-old boy tried out, to see whether he can have a bigger picture and solve puzzles like this. He managed to solve one level all by himself without any guidance from me!

Princess Memory

(** Click icon below to download the app for free)

In this Princess Memory game, you get train your mind matching with the Princess characters alone or you can challenge a friend. I like that our 2 girls can play this game together at the same time (awesome way to avoid the girls fighting to play with their favourite Disney princesses LOL). I also like that the game tested our girls' memories and enjoy seeing them trying to recall the pictures being flipped as they tapped each one and tried to find the matching ones.

Candy Crush Saga

(** Click icon below to download the app for free)

I am addicted to this game!! Argghhhhh... I can't stop playing this game! It is so addictive and fun to match the candies and solving each puzzles and journey through the game. So so so fun! I'm not even sure I should recommend this game but it is a favourite of mine so I had to share this LOL! This game is completely free to play but some in-game items such as extra moves or lives will require payment, so if you do not want to spend any money, just wait it out and keep annoying friends and players on the game asking them to give you live and chances like what I am doing so far hahahaha...

There are other games which we use for our family of course but the above are the regularly used ones that can be found on our Acer Switch device, computers and smartphone. I hope my recommendation is useful and helpful to you guys!  In the meantime, you can learn more at the Make Magic website. 

Make magic. Every day.

#makemagiceveryday

** 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.

It's been a long time since I shared any recipe that uses breadmaker. For this post, I am sharing another recipe I tried and tested, Italian Breadsticks.

Outcome:

Our kiddos love this! I actually think the breadsticks tasted like pizza dough, you know the crust part?

Awesome, I will try this again to make pizza base hehehe...

This recipe is definitely for keeps!

To view my other recipes, feel free to hop over to my Recipe Library page for more info!

 ** 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.