Climbing trees

I grew up in a neighborhood without any playground but with plenty of trees for children to climb.  There were many reasons for me and my playmates to climb trees, among them were to pluck ripe fruits  and shake the branches to dislodge June beetles, but most of the time we climbed them just for

A Gripping Activity

When I first saw the fish-shaped container filled with soy sauce in my bento box, I thought of two possibilities: (a) the soy sauce can be bought already packed in the tiny tubes or (b) the empty containers are available in the supermarket and those selling the bento boxes had to put soy sauce in each of them.  Even though I lived in Japan for three years, I never got to ask any of my Japanese friends for the right answer, but I found out that the empty soy-sauce containers are indeed being sold in 100-yen stores.  I am so glad that they are also available in Japanese products stores here in Thailand.

I bought some of these containers for use in activities that aim to strengthen my son's pincer grip.  He hated the other pincer grip activities I had him perform in the past, and although he was following the instructions, he was also whining the whole time:  A-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Woe-hoe-hoe-hoe-hoe-hoe.  Woe-hope!  Peep-peeeeeeeeeep. Woe-hope!  Oh-nen-nen, how-wha-way.

To fill the containers, he needed to first squeezing them to force the air out. He had to dip the container in the colored water, and then release the pressure so the liquid can get in.

He had to try several times before succeeding in making the liquid enter the container, but he persevered.  I also observed that he had lots of difficulty manipulating the tiny lids, but he managed to open and close the containers.  He tends to get frustrated easily, so I am amazed that he finished this activity without the need for the usual prompting and encouragement from me.

Crazy language

Sometimes my son prefers to watch a DVD in the MacBook.  There are times when the player stops and displays a message that it is skipping some damaged area of the DVD.  This used to cause him to whine, which often progressed to a full blown tantrum.  He hated the interruption and he needed to express his frustration, but I suspected that his unacceptable behavior might also be his way of asking for help.  Although I learned

Counting and self restraint

In December last year I discovered that although my son could already recognize and write numbers, he did not know that they have meaning. He had no problem counting the frogs in an ipad app, for example, but he would touch the numbers randomly when asked to choose the correct answer. I had him accomplish worksheets where he had to count the items and circle the number that tells how many. Counting the objects was a breeze, but he would circle any

Lost in the Spectrum

A dot of light for me to see/ is like a million rays of light/ for all my life I'm in the dark.


These are the opening lines of a poem I wrote for my high school paper.  I already forgot the title, the rest of the poem, and what made me wrote those lines more than a decade ago.  Lately, I found myself reciting these lines in my mind because they aptly

Talking in sentences

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When I learned that my son could already read common words from memory, I decided to train him to read sentences, hoping he would acquire language at a much faster rate.  I focused on the "I want . . ." sentences, to complement the single-word manding behavior that he had just acquired.  


Since last week, he has been consistently saying

Kissing the pain away

The blinking LED signs of the mall’s cinema just across the supermarket where we left my wife attracted my son.  He walked towards the foyer and stopped to watch the lights move from left to right to spell some acronym over and over again.  I stood behind him, constantly reminding him to stay quiet and to keep his hands close to himself.  It was time to teach him good manners while