2013 will be a great year for the family

2013 will be the year for nurturing the kids

I can tell 2013 will be a great year. It’s not from some crack prediction I read somewhere, nor do I subscribe to the notion of fortune telling. I can just feel it in my bones.

January is soon coming to an end; another month flew by yet again in the wink of an eye. Usually, the panic sets in in the third quarter of the year, that time is flying by so fast and nothing has been done. So now, I am still fine. I still have 11 months to work on.

This year is made up of little plans – to teach my kids Mandarin, even if I am Mandarin illiterate myself; to be more creative; to harvest at least one mango from my mango tree; to grow my own tomatoes and cucumbers. Notice how I say plans, not goals.

I think a plan sounds more fun. It’s like an adventure waiting to happen. Also, plans can change, making way for better ones.

My kids have plans too. My elder, Angelica, plans to learn the ukelele and to swim; my younger, Lauren, plans to be friendlier to her classmates. They don’t really know yet, but yeah, these are their plans.

I’m reorganising their schedules, so they have more time. Last year, a lot got crammed into their weeks, a little accidentally, which left them (and me) very little time.

I’ve realised when I sign them up for a class, I’m signing myself up, too. It’s not just the half-an-hour they spend with their music teacher, it’s the extra three hours that I have to spend nagging and forcing them to practise.

I don’t foresee the nagging and forcing to stop any time soon, so all that has been factored into their schedules. I’ve put a stop to everything except music classes, which means they will have more time with me. I don’t know yet if that’s good or bad.

We’ll see.

I can already hear the reprimands. You want to teach your own kids? Let other people teach your kids. Are you crazy?

I probably am. I’ve seen myself turn into an evil something before, from teaching Angelica multiplication. To rub salt into the wound, she came back from school the next day and told

me her teacher taught them the times table and it was fun!

I tried to teach Lauren phonics, which ended in tears, mine. Then one day, she came home from school and started reciting a poem with the “t” sound. Her teacher had taught her not just one sound, but 10! When she skipped around and said phonics was the best lesson of the day, I conceded defeat.

So, I’ve decided to let their teachers teach them the book stuff, and I’ll teach them the life stuff.

As I try to figure out our family’s dreams, they’ll figure out their own. After a whole day of exercising their brains in school, I’ll spend their evenings enriching their hearts and souls. I’ll balance the rigours of academia with the gentleness of play. I’ll strictly enforce their practice time on the piano, and thereafter make music with them.

In mapping out these plans for the kids, I’m also teaching myself to find much-needed balance. They say motherhood makes one a better person and it truly does. Without seeing the world through my kids’ eyes, I am blind to all that it has to offer.

I make better decisions now than I did 10 years ago. I have learnt to look at the huge picture of our family’s future, instead of fretting every two minutes about every minuscule detail of