4 Kids!

When we live far away from our immediate family; friends become family. One of them is The Satriyas. The grandma who look after the kids has to go back to Indonesia for a little while, so I am blessed with the privilege to look after their 3 wonderful kids when their mommy and daddy work.

Let me introduce you to my 4 exuberant kids:
My first one: the super smart, sweet, and kind heart Koko Che Hung. He is in 2nd grade but his reading and math level is as those of 5th grader (and that's because they only tested him that far).


And the next one is 4 years old Cici. She is one very creative and loving little girl. Cici Mei Ik loves to follow Koko and look after the youngsters. O.. and she loves hugs and kisses.

My third one as you already know: the super curious-almost-two-years-old Max-ie

And my youngest:

The sweet and lovely 9 months baby Toby

I learn more from the kids than they learn from me. For instance, this morning Mei Ik didn't allow Max to touch his doggie doll so once Cici Mei Ik isn't looking Max then play with it. Koko found that out and immediately say, "No..no... Max-ie." Mei Ik who was busy playing with Max-ie's pot and pan immediately came and grabbed doggie from Max's hands.

I came and asked her, "Mei Ik what if Max doesn't want to share his toy?" She think for a while then turned to Koko, "It's okay Ko. It's not fair if we don't share our toys because Max share his." :)

Another sweet moment was after Mei2 & Koko's fight. I learned to ask the "what did you do?" question instead of "why did you do it?" It's amazing how after 5 minutes time out they usually can clearly confess what they did wrong.

And Max learned so much by playing with Koko, Cici, while learning to share his toys, space, and mommy. It warm my heart to see how gentle he is with baby Toby. Koko and Mei Ik too have been such a great helper. I thought my home will look like a ship wrecked with four kids but turned out it stays clean and organize while I hardly do any cleaning because Koko and Cici always willing to help out when needed.

Having routine/ schedule, the blessing and "if then" chart (I got this from the Homeschooling conference) helps a lot. I let the kids to came up with the consequences on the "if then" chart, which mostly are: warning, time out, and my all time favorite: to put it on the report for their dad to figure out the consequence. Usually when Koko and Cici start arguing I only need to give them warning and say: "if you guys don't stop I'll put it on the report." Then they will stop immediately. On the other hand, they're rewarded with a lot of praise, hug, and kisses through out the day when they got a joyful attitude, being helpful, or did good jobs.

Children are a blessing indeed!