15

 

That is my daughter's portrait photo I took few year ago.

Today, is her 15th birthday.

Where time goes?

Looking at this photo, it reminded me of a lot of her happy memories as a young girl. I could see magic in her eyes. A sparkle that exist in a child who believes in the magic of possibility. 

She always still has that sparkle that I thought it would dull out as she grow up, but she proved me wrong. I still see this spark inside of her. 

This is one gift I want her to hold dear in her heart, to keep believing in magic of possibilities.

It also flashes me back to the time I gave birth to her and the first time I get to hold her hands.

So many flashbacks mostly happy ones and I want to keep remembering it and store it in my memory forever. 

Those hazel brown eyes of hers profoundly showing how she is truly loved by many. It entails of her clear vision and goals in life - I hope, it won't change eventually or that being messed up by circumstances.

The second half of my life began is when I gave birth to her. I didn't stop being myself. However adding being a mom, mother and mommy to the new chapter of my life is something I wouldn't change for anything in this world.  It is full of excitements and challenges that I fondly huddle without remorse. The new role became my greatest teacher as she needed me in this world as an example. There are times, I am wondering If I am doing it right. But there is no school who could teach me how to become the perfect mom or that would provide me guidelines to follow. It is not a trial and error as well, but being there at the present moment and doing it right the first time. If you made a mistake, you get to learn from it.

15 is such a wonderful age - to learn, to explore and try new adventure. At the same time, an age I am afraid for she is still vulnerable and fragile. If I only I could protect her with all my might. But she also need to discover pain and how to overcome it. 

15 years of being a mom is something I am so grateful of and hoping to keep this wonderful bond of mother-daughter together. 

I'm so grateful of this motherhood for it resonates me the true definition of patience and as my sort of compass as I navigate through life.

Motherhood is a gift. 

She is my gift.

Reaching and celebrating her 15th birthday is such a milestone for her and of my life as a mom and being a mother. I don't even know if I deserve to be called a wonderful one. But I know in my heart everyday, I'm always trying to be the perfect example of a woman she will become.

She and I will always be one intertwined soul. 

She will always have my heart.

15 and more years with her, will still be one great circus ride. Hell yah, it will be a great one for sure.

And we are ready for that ride! *wink!

15... bring it on!

xo,

Ai

Raising an artist

The weather is warm..the birds are chirping at this early morning. My first coffee of the day is brewing....

My daughter is preparing herself for school. Looking at her, I could see a little girl slowly becoming a lady. Where time goes? It seems it was only yesterday when I gave birth to her. She perfectly growing up fast. If only I could keep her as a baby forever. 
Last Saturday I sent her to a drawing class. The topic is self-portrait drawing. It was a wonderfull time for her despite that she is a bit sick after an overnight camping with friends. See she is camping without us now. *sigh!
Without further hesitation, when I told her she has to attend drawing class today, she got too excited at once! I exclaim that it can be a little too hard for her for they have been running the class for 3 past sessions. Nonetheless, she was adamant.

And so we went.
It was my former colleague at the school (where I formerly teach English)  who run this drawing class at MY SCHOOL OF ENGLISH in the heart of Bytom, Poland.  I would link their facebook page below.

So, they started with free style of drawing their face. This is what she did first....

free style drawing 

Later they were asked to describe themselves. Their unique characteristics would somehow explains how they draw their faces. They wrote all the characteristics describing their personality all over the face they just drew. This is how  they draw their own self without yet proper technical instructions, And the mirror would aid them to look at their faces.

Teacher Agata explaining the technical part of drawing a face

After the lecture / explanation on how to draw a portrait technically and all, she came up with this self-portrait drawing.

Before and after drawing

How to raise an artist?

Oh well, we are all born one. Would you believe it?

 All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. 

-Pablo Picasso

That is true. I totallly agree with Pablo.

Give a child a simple object, he can transform that into something. Early on, we have to nourish their brain with all the creative energy and secretes those creative juices by letting them think of an idea. Let their imagination run freely. I usually read them books before bedtime or that telling them stories that would engage their brain with stimulating talks. Of course, they would come up with a lot of questions of how's and why's, but that is great. That means, you are doing great for you are stimulatinng their sense of thinking and imagination.

Let a child be bored. That is the best moment that their brain would start to do something. They would look for something they can do and they would eventually came up with  something unique ideas and inventions. My son is into Lego. Give him a lego, he can build stay in one corner for some hours and buil it into whatever he pops up in his brain and rebuil it again until he gets tired.

When my children would tell me, ' mum, I am bored!' I would usually answer them with 'that's good. Do something that would not make you feel bored '. Or that I would ask them such question, What do you want to do today? You want to feel that feeling of boredome all day long or would you like to do something together with mummy?

Usually they feel bored with the usual toys they are playing so I switch it more often when they were still a little. It is like shopping a new toy from their own box of collected toys. 

More often now, I could see that children find gadgets like tablets and smartphones fascinating other than the toys lying on their bedroom floor because it is instant engagement and entertainment. Their brain don't need to think more because it is there. They just have to push the button and voila! Imagination is lost and much more that sense of focus. Though I am not against giving a child gadgets for they both have their own tablets, but with limitations and full control of us parents.

So, I usually came up with an idea to try to persuade them to make something out of what they already have. 

Go for a walk in the park or do some sports together. It is always stress relieving. Lately, I am teaching my children how to play badminton for I am really into this sports since then other than running. Running just came lately. Letting them go active is one way for their brain to exercise the process of stimulating and working. Do some activity together and help me out with some household chores that they can do at their age like baking and cooking with me. Preparing the table before the meal time. Do things together that they like and you all like doing together. My children likes cycling and we usually cycle together when the weather is warm.

What usually stops us from becoming an artist because of pressure of the world we live in. When our parents and society tells us that being an artist like that painting all the time could not provide a food on the table or that would finance us for life, that stops us. Because our society tells us that having a fabulous career where it keeps us well financial is the best life we could ever have. 

I usually encourage my children to practice whatever you feel you love doing. My daughter is fun of drawing, sketching while my boy loves to build and design things out of ordinary things. So I'm supportive of them for that. Of course, first and foremost, studying must comes first. Putting a lot of new learnings would take them to places, that's how I encourage them. 

I stumbled upon this writings...

"It would be an awful world if everyone was an artist or a writer, the world needs so many different things. But I've seen a lot of artists die or killed off in my life, that is a sad thing. It seems our world is preparing children to serve the corporate masters of the world, to learn the things they need to learn to worship in the new religion, to pay their bills and fit the changing needs of the business world." (beladfarm.com)

 

True to its word. 

What stops us from becoming an artist is pressure of society. If you feel like your child is into arts or into some kind of sports, go and support it. But don't go overboard. I guess you know what I mean of that.

 

With my daughter, It is me who introduced her to the world of arts and drawings. She observes me doing a lot of art at an early age. I paint. I sew, I diy-ed a lot of things at home. I create a lot of things out of something.  That is my way of fighting boredome especially if you are a foreigner to a country where language is also so foreign to me. Arts is always been my way of expressing and divertion.

Picasso is really right. We are born an artist and creative. We have to remain to the challenge of how to remain like one once we grow up.

Now, how to raise an artist. Be like one! Don't stop.............

I think I did right in raising an artist. I hope so.

Have a good day!

xo Ai

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. Pablo Picasso
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pablopicas169744.html

All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. Pablo Picasso
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/p/pablopicas169744.html

Penpals : I'm into this Oh-So Happy Mail Kids !

My children's penpals from the USA sent these Easter greeting cards. It's not too late to exposed kids nowadays to the old ways of sending messages. #penpal #happymailkids

A photo posted by @polished_ai on Apr 2, 2016 at 10:09am PDT

With the modern/instant world of connecting people easily because of the internet. From emailing, chatting just to connect at once with everyone, with anyone in the world, at anytime of  the day, that makes me decide to let my children experience how it is to write to someone not using the modern word of gadgets, the internet like the social media. By letting them experience writing a friend through sending it by post - snail mail. 

I grew up having a pen pal and writing  regularly and more often to people in the other side of the world especially when I am so involved in a group of Philatelist - who loves to collect stamps. I owned a lot of stamps and I still have them back home. There is something about stamps for me then that really exciting and interesting. Some cost a lot and some really has greater value when it comes to history.

 Anyways, my children don't know how penpal writing works. I explained to them how it works before and it will still do work now. They got super excited especially the thought of going to the post office and sending it by themselves. Good thing though, a very close friend of mine who is now living in the USA is also up to the idea of snail mailing or letting our children write each other. 

I am a fan of fat mum slim blog especially when she announced on one of her post that she's going to run a  Oh-So Happy mail not only for mums but for kids as well. It seems though that every time I signed up to look for a penpal for my kids I am not lucky enough to get to the cut-off. So me and my friend decided to just let our children exchange mails. 

The picture above is the first Easter cards my children received. They were so happy , and so excited to send their reply with lots...lots...lots... of drawings. They're so cute! I'm telling you, my children really works hard for their first letter to reach America.  I hope they will get the idea, the lessons we wanted them to impart in their mind. To have that patience and connecting people isn't  just about a click of a finger. That there is more authenticity and honesty when you send a letter or a card to the person with your own handwriting for that is giving and sharing the real part of who you are.

Until now, I still do write to close friends and family. I still prefer this kind of thing than the social applications we have on our mobile phones. Call me old school by heart, but I still really am in some ways especially teaching my children still good old values.

How about you, are you up to this idea of happy mail especially for the kids? 

Have a wonderful day folks!

xxAi

Challenging responsibilities: Motherhood

With my baby on my lap as I am trying to engrave something for today, i'm still trying to compose myself what to write next. Life is either too boring or too exciting to talk about. Today, is just one boring day with my too exciting challenging life.

No matter how we live life each day it is a challenge. Being a mom for example, is exactly the greatest challenge I am now experiencing. Before i thought I'm not capable of being one but they are all right motherly instinct will just kick in. There is no right school that can teach you how to be a great mom or a parent. Everything is up to you and of course it goes with knowing your responsibilities. Everyday is a challenging task actually when you're a mom especially a stay-at-home-mom like me. From putting baby to sleep, feeding, bathing, changing diapers & of course feeding her with good values by doing things as an example.

I admit, there were days that I wanted to scream from the top of my lungs and say 'waaahhhhh! I want to quit!' but that is not only one of the many issues a mother is facing. You get to see the real you when you are given a difficult and challenging task. Now, I came to like every challenges I have with my baby. Every moments too, is an opportunity for me not only to get to know her but myself better And to test my limits as to where i can hold on.

Just awhile ago, i saw two little girls from school with school bags on i think they are on the way home. I thought about when time comes my little girl will be in school and by that time knows she can do things on her own like walking her way home from school. I think it would another challenge and more challenging one. For sure that age, she will be independent and maybe some of her thinking & opinions contradicts with mine. Sorry to say, sometimes my mind just flips like crazy. Thinking so advance when it comes to raising my little one & how she would grow up someday. It's a natural dilemma of mother's and parents alike.

I truly know, i am not given this challenge that i don't know how to handle & for sure i can be responsible to surpass everything.

How about you? is there any challenging events in your life that you're afraid of handling or facing? whatever that challenges are, knows that you can do it..we can do it!