I bought my son a pictorial book on the Three Little Pigs recently. And boy was I surprised to find that this version had the first two pigs eaten by the big bad wolf!

I have grown up listening to the ‘less sinister" version where the first pig ran to the second pig’s house, and subsequently ran together to the third and more illustrious pig’s house, where they then boiled the big bad wolf in hot water for a happy ending.

But I am told the "eaten up" version is the original. And that in some versions, the third pig actually cooks and eats the wolf up in some sort of revenge!

Not sure about you, but I sure prefer the HAPPY ENDING version of the THREE LITTLE PIGS!

Before I start off, I want to bring this quote from a book which I am now reading to you. It goes like this :

"..But the goal of parenthood is not to produce clones who replicate the lives of their parents, rather to produce mature adult who make their own choices." - Philip Yancey in Reaching for the Invisible God

Speaking of choices, I am sure my son would have chosen not to return to school today after a one-month break. He had already started crying "I don’t want to go to school!" from the moment we reminded him about the re-starting of the school term a few days ago.

Granted he is only 3 years old come this October (some parents are already slamming me for sending him to school so early. I shall explain in another post if I remember), but I must say he is growing smarter. You see, even as he was putting on his school shoes, he was using delaying tactics like saying that his shoes were too big.

Why I think that was smart is because he actually made use of a concern my wife and I had when we bought him the shoes a few days ago. He had answered "OK" when we asked if he felt they were too big. So remembering that was our concern, he actually raised the issue of the shoes being too big at a time when it mattered, thus buying him a few precious moments before heading to school.

I am not sure if I have conveyed this feeling of amazement well. But I am truly pleasantly surprised at how well he is growing mentally.

All children are timid in certain ways. Mine, like most, is afraid of thunder.

We were reading this book "David and Goliath" this morning and it came naturally to us that this was a story about overcoming fear, and to some extent impossibility.

In this biblical story, David had scant disregard for the gigantic enemy Goliath, and eventually defeated him while the rest fearfully watched. The basis for that fearlessness was that "GOD was with him".

I regurgitated the moral of the story to my son and he was quick to catch it. He said "Jesus is with us" when I asked what do we do when we are afraid.

Now, I have absolutely no disillusion that when the next thunder comes, my son will stand up bravely and says "GOD is with me, I am not afraid!". (Shows my lack of faith!) On the contrary, I think he will as usual run for the nearest cover or hug.

But I think the root has been planted. When he has come of age to understand, I strongly believe that knowing "GOD IS WITH US" will serve him well in all his endeavours.

(To understand what I am going to say below, you first have to watch the Crazy Talk animation I created yesterday)

When my son came back from Joshua’s house yesterday, I took the very first opportunity to show him that very first Crazy Talk animation.

To say he was stunned was an understatement. He simply stood there speechless and watched while spotting a cheeky grin. When the clip finished, I showed it to him again.

This time, he replied to the animation as if it was talking to him! When it finished, I played it again and he replied to Crazy Luigi again!! And again next morning!!! Only thing is he replied differently.

Needless to say, I already think Crazy Talk 5 is money well-spent. The US$50 is a very good investment as he has already started asking for more of his favorite toys to "talk".

Only problem is, this time-strapped father needs to squeeze out even more time to produce more Crazy Luigis!

Well, there you have it!

I would say the Crazy Talk 5 animation software is not that difficult to use. I have no digital animation background and I guess if not for the fact that I wanted to choose my own image (instead of using the templates provided), the project would have been completed in less than 30mins.

What I did to produce this short clip were this:

1) Choose the image I want
(in this case, I used the image from the toy box of a toy I bought for my son recently)

2) Scan the image into my PC

3) Open the Crazy Talk 5 application

4) Import the image

5) Follow the simple instructions that follows from the Crazy Talk 5 software

6) Record my own speech & song (erm yes…..that was my tweaked voice and I sang that song..hehe)

7) Export to the medium of my choice (yes there is a "export to Youtube" resolution option)

And wala!

(Of course I am not going to confuse you with the little steps used in adding some titles and transitions. But feel free to drop me a comment if you really want to know how it was done)

I can’t wait for my son to come back from Joshua’s house to show him this crazy talk animation!

It’s time to get cr8tive!

Stumbled upon this animation software which I thought looks very easy to use. My immediate thoughts are about bringing some of my son’s toy characters to life.

Afterall, he has always urged my wife or I to make his toys “talk”.

Let me check the software out and see if I can create any meaningful fun!

The twist to the earlier account goes like this :

The very same evening, the three of us went strolling to nearby mall after dinner. When we reached there, we saw quite a few of the coin-slot toy machines or what-ever-you-call-it. You know, those where you slot in a coin (in this case $1) ,turn the knob, and WALA …a ball (with a little toy inside) is released to the new owner.

These machines sell the toys by themes..i.e. one machine may be selling all characters from Transformers, another Ninja turtles…and so on.

We spotted one from the CARS Movie theme …. and the rest you can imagine.

WRONG! My son did not cry to get one. In fact it was my wife & I who were excited! You see we have gotten him one before, and we thought he love it so much we wanted to get more for him when we see another of these machines..hehe.

So we ended up buying 4 for him..WILLINGLY! and for that $4, we (or rather the toys) brought him so much joy.

I am as much a sucker for toys as most children. Especially for Playmobil and Lego, my knees basically go weak at the sight of them.

Not so much my son though. For him, anything with four wheels is his "weakness". He absolutely ADORES cars. And needless to say, he LURRRRRRVES the DISNEY PIXAR MOVIE : CARS.

For his recent REWARD trip, I have actually set aside about $60~$80 for a toy of his choice..thinking that he would pick up a Playmobil Campervan which I have egging him on for days to like it.

When we got to the shop, before I could even interest him on the whole array of Playmobil on the shelf, he was already transfixed by a simple 6 inches long Fire Engine (for which its doors can’t even be opened!) placed along the path towards my beloved Playmobils.

No cajoling was possible to "lure" him away that Fire Truck. He doesn’t want to move on to the other shelfs and just simply wanted that !@#$% FIRE TRUCK!

I was caught off guard by his preference. My wife reminded me quietly that we wanted to get him a toy of his choice. So we eventually bought him that !@#$% FIRE TRUCK. Damn $10 Fire Truck.

He was overjoyed. I was devastated.

LESSON LEARNT
Isn’t this such a poignant lesson on the simple innocence of childhood…and for the matter, LIFE as well? The cost of a toy does not matter a single bit. What matters is does it bring JOY to the child. A cheap toy is no less worthy than an expensive one…. The SECRET lies in whether the child likes it.

PS: There is a little twist to this story. Will continue in another post

My wife & I brought our son out today.

Nothing special you might say. Well, true except it was a trip to buy him a toy for completing the first row of "stars" in our inaugural REWARD SYSTEM .

Bet you would already know, for every good behavior/action he does, he gets a star. And my wife has drawn up a chart filled with a few columns of boxes. Each box can fill a sticker star. When he completes one row, he gets to buy a toy of his desire (within reasonable financial means of course)

How are you doing it? -Do you have a system to reward your child? -How do you determine "good behaviors"? -Is there a list of "good behavior" previously agreed with the child? -How do you reward the child? - Or do you even believe in a reward system?

I just read an interesting suggestion from a mother who uses the "Treasure Chest " method for reward.

She basically uses the "sight" of the treasure chest as a motivation for the child, since the every time the child is rewarded, he gets to pick an item within the Treasure Chest.

Interesting….

It used to be a threatening affair with temperature raised and a cane in the hand.

But not now.

Frankly, I think we as parents are responsible for how the whole exercise of keeping toys turns out. It can be fun or it can be extremely frustrating.

And we have a choice in determining the outcome. I found a great article on "How To Let Your Children Keep Their Toys Willingly " where the author suggested creative ways to make keeping toys a win-win situation.

I could totally identify with one of the methods she recommended because my son and I sang the same Barney song (I have not read her article at that time) and had a good time keeping his toys.

Let’s be creative and think of ways to make tidying up a game rather than a chore. And keep us posted if you have come up with any brilliant ideas.