Raising Our Successful Children, Singapore Mom Blog: About Me

Introduction:

Hello there!
I am Qian Wen - a mother of 2 girls and a boy. My eldest daughter-Natalie is age 8, my son-Emmanuel is age 6 and my youngest daughter - Faith is age 3.

I am currently a stay at home mum. I believe that each child is unique, so I try to help them develop a strong character and realize their potential.

I am blogging as I want to share about what can be done to help develop our children in the aspect of academic studies and more importantly help them build a strong character , the right moral values and also to become concerned and active citizens.

As a former teacher , I have seen children who are very successful (all rounded, good at everything, very confident person and happy) and children who lack even the basic instinct to even try to succeed or to be good at anything. So what is it that is different from the 2 groups of children? In trying to explore and find the recipe for success, it started me thinking about how to raise children so that they will belong to the first group. Of course, even if the parents/educators try to help the children, there is no guarantee there will turn out the way we want them to. But it is our responsibility as parents and educators to try. As parents and educators, we should not dictate what our children will become but we try to equip and develop them with the skills they will need to succeed in what they choose to do.

Find out more about my qualification and experience as an educator.

Having a philosophy of raising children is very important because it gives you an ultimate goal to work towards and gives you direction on how to work towards that goal. So, it is important to get it clear from the start what you want your child to be like and how to achieve it. This is how we can raise successful children.

My Simple Philosophy: I want to prepare my children to be ready for the real world and be a successful person.

What skills do they need in the real world?

Skill	What it means	Why it is important
A strong sense of Identity	A sense of self identity. Strengths of the child. Weaknesses of the child. A sense of belonging to the: Family School Community Nation World	The child needs to learn to use his strengths to his advantage and try to stretch in the areas. At the same time, the child needs to learn his weaknesses, so that he can either improve on it, or find another way to get around it. I always tell my students and children: “Not everyone is good at everything. You just need to find what you are good and do it well enough for people to recognise and value that”. After all, you don’t need your doctors to know how cook or build a building right? Having a strong sense of belonging will give the child the confidence to contribute and shape the future.
Interpersonal skill	It is the social skills of mixing well with others, ability to communicate well and being sympathetic.	This is the main reason why I send my children to school. In the real world, the children need to learn to negotiate or charm their way through. They need to learn to work in a social environment where they earn their acceptance, learn to be a leader and learn to communicate effectively with others. Well, you will definitely agree with this “whether your boss like you, is more important than the work you do”. It helps if you are a likable character with more friends to help you.
Intrapersonal skill	The ability to plan ahead, set goals and reflect on past experience.	This is one of the important ingredients of a success person. Being goal orientated, having the ability of forward planning and learning from past experience would give the person the drive/motivation/the direction to achieve what he wants.
Self Esteem	Self Worth Confidence Sense of purpose	“For people to respect you, you first have to respect yourself.” People with low esteem face a lot of emotional issues and behavioural issues.
Values	A sense of Responsibility Courage Honesty Self Control Respect	Character building is important because without the right values, the child will not be able to succeed eventually because our society still despises people who lack values.
Attitude	Resilience Perseverance Determination Persistent Humble Positive Self reliance	Attitude in life is something that develops from young and is very difficult to change once it is set. So start it right.
Discipline	Behaviour Routines	Discipline in behaviour can be learnt slowly but surely. In fact, parents’ attitude towards discipline will shape the child’s attitude. For example: “A boy bites another child and his mother simply does not discipline him, then the child will learn that it’s no big deal to misbehave because there are no consequences”. Therefore, we discipline the child because we want the child to learn that “every action has its consequences”. “There are no bad or good decisions. Only decisions with different consequences.” Routines are important because “practice makes perfect”. If you want your child to be good at mathematics, of course, he will need to be discipline enough to practice everyday. Once you set up this habit of self discipline of doing things, it will be easier for the child to learn anything in the future.
Other skills	Problem solving Critical thinking Creativity Curiosity Listening skills Memory Physical activities Public speaking	These are skills that society still values.
Academic	Reading Writing Mathematical Vocabulary scientific	You don’t need me to tell you why these are important.

How can I help a child to achieve all these skills?

Through a different range of activities to encourage and develop the different skills to help the children succeed.

I hope you can find meaningful activities in my blog to do with your child or your students and in the process, help your child develop his/her identity and in character building.

In raising children, my top priority is character building. With the right moral values and positive attitude, I strongly believe that these tools will help the child to succeed in what he/she choose to do.

About the Logo:

The 3 happy children and the sun:

Children must develop the love of learning. They must be happy to learn and with this positive attitude towards learning, they will be successful and will shine brightly in whatever they choose to do.

The hydrangeas:

The flowers in the logo are hydrangeas. The hydrangeas are reminders to parents and educators about the important role that they play in raising and shaping a child. One fascinating fact about hydrangea is that it changes colour according to the acidity of the soil. Thus, we can easily change the colour of the hydrangeas flower by adding elements such as aluminium or iron to the soil. Therefore, each child is like a hydrangeas that will grow and develop according to their external influences and more importantly,how we raise them and guide them.

Contact Me: hoqianwen@gmail.com
* No part of the blog should be reproduced without permission for profit.*

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