Bed Times Around The World

I had a good idea for today's post but when I sat down to look for information, they were hard to come by. Having lived in Asia and Australia, I've noticed that there is a significant difference in the time that children go to sleep. Over here in Australia, I think babies are usually down for the night by 6 or 7pm. I also hear that some of Aaron's classmates are in bed by 7pm but most go to sleep between 7.30 and 8pm. In our house, on a normal day, Adrian goes to bed at 7pm and Aaron at 8pm. 

In Malaysia, I often see babies out and about in shopping centers right up until closing time at 10pm. Even if they are at home, I think many go to sleep for the night when their parents go. These are based on my observations of people in my family and my neighbors. School aged children also have bedtimes that are quite late because they often have extra tuition classes in the evenings that don't finish until 9pm.

My intention tonight was to find some data on bed times around the world. Unfortunately, the best I can do is the information I share below. I got it from the Sleep Education blog and I think their information originated from a study presented at Sleep 2008 by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Children in New Zealand went to bed the earliest with an average bedtime of 7:16 p.m. Children in Hong Kong went to bed the latest with an average bedtime of 10:10 p.m. U.S. children had an average bedtime of 8:52 p.m.

Japanese children had the lowest total sleep time (i.e., nightly sleep plus daytime naps) of 11.6 hours of sleep per day. Children in New Zealand had the highest total sleep time of 13.3 hours of sleep. U.S. children averaged 12.9 hours of total sleep time per day.

I don't think its healthy for children to go to bed so late and personally, I wouldn't be able to handle the meltdowns that would occur if Aaron or Adrian were to stay up to 10pm but its out of necessity that this happens in many Asian countries. It deserves a whole post of its own but those evening tuition classes that I mentioned are a necessity to pass all the school exams. Oh and don't forget the amount of homework that children in Asia get - homework from school AND the tuition classes.

Once again, I am counting my blessings that we get to live here where there is no homework and children go to bed early. Hopefully, this won't backfire on them in the long run.

Licorice Root To Fight Tooth Decay

Remember my post about the six holes in Aaron's teeth? As an update, we've completed four fillings and will get the remaining two this coming Saturday. He's been very good at all of them and refused a needle each time. 


Here is some 'exciting' news. I've been doing some reading and there is more that can be done apart from just brushing and flossing. Supposedly, Licorice Root is effective in helping fight tooth decay. The most recent article I've come across is this one from Science Daily.


Licorice has been used in traditional Chinese medicine and researchers have now identified two substances in it that kill three of major the bacteria responsible for gum disease and tooth decay. We're talking about the original root of the licorice plant here and not what you get from the candy stores. The candy is actually flavored with anise oil which has a similar taste.  


There are many other articles about the anti-bacterial properties of licorice and I think it does work because I have been giving Aaron a mixture of licorice root and herb robert for his tongue ulcers and it has been very effective. Starting tonight, I've also got both Aaron and Adrian chewing on a little bit of licorice root after dinner.  I'll be doing it soon too. 


Here are some of the other uses for licorice root.


1. Relaxing expectorant (soothes coughs)

2. Demulcent (soothing effect on contact)

3. Anti-inflammatory (via the body's own corticosteroid mechanisms)

4. Anti-ulcer against gastrointestinal ulcers

5. Laxative

6. Adaptogenic tonic (increases resistance to the effects of physical, mental and emotional stress)

7. Hepato-protective (protects the liver)

8. Antiviral, antifungal, antibacterial

9. Antioxidant and anti tumor

10.Hormonal regulation


Looks like it might be helpful to chew a little of it each day for all sorts of reasons. 

Good Times

Aaron and Adrian are typical brothers. One minute they are professing how much they love each other and how they are each other's BFFs and the next, they are screaming and biting. As such, I'm always being toggled between feeling how great it is to have two boys and asking God "Why me? Why two boys?"

At the end of each day, I always go to sleep with the happy feelings. I know that Aaron genuinely cares for Adrian and is a fantastic big brother. In fact, I think he's doing a better job at being the eldest than I was when my brother and I were little. He protects him, tries to teach him things, engages him in play that is appropriate for a 2 year old and even takes him to the loo (!!). For now, I know that Adrian looks forward to Aaron coming home from school so they can play but I can't clearly see that he cares for Aaron yet. 

I thought I'd share a few photos of a particularly fun time they had. This was taken on Sunday when we were waiting outside for Richard to finish his clogging class. I'm usually outside with the two of them and they are free to run around everywhere, up and down ramps. This particular hall is at the Caboolture showgrounds and on a Sunday afternoon, there are no cars around so I sometimes also take their bicycles along.  

Its night time now and there is nobody screaming. So, I'm thinking "I don't want them to grow up!"

Mama's Day Off

Ah, Saturday. It has neither been a day of excitement nor a day of relaxation but its been a good day for me.

All four of us went along for Aaron's trial gymnastics class. Hold on, its conducted at a place where they teach gymnastics but the class he attended was actually called 'Ministunts'. It was our first time there and it appears that only the little girls do 'proper' gymnastics. The boys are all in this stunt class where they have structured muck around time. Among other energy spending activities, they had crawling races, practice falling on the side of their face, time on the trampoline and somersaults. Needless to say, Aaron loved every minute of it and it looks like I'll be signing him up officially.

I enjoyed the one hour watching Aaron play around because I didn't need to keep Adrian out of mischief. This is the reason why I've had such a good day. I've was relieved of most of my mothering duties and Richard took over for the day. To make it even better, I've been able to stop myself from telling Richard how to do things for the children and leaving it completely up to him. It doesn't really matter how he gets it done as long as they don't get seriously injured, they get food and drink, and they both get a bath. If the house ends up in a mess, thats not a problem either because Richard is in charge of cleaning it up. Am I lucky or am I lucky? Oh and don't forget that he also got dinner ready. It was one I prepared earlier but he did all the re-heating and cleanup.

So, are there people out there who think this is not fair? Perhaps some people think that he's been hard at work all week and deserves some time off too? I don't want to know. The break I needed wasn't so much from the physical aspects of my job but from that 24 hour neediness that I am surrounded with. Needs from little people that are relentless.

I just did a quick search for 'relentless definition' to see how specific it is and it is exactly the word I needed to use.

re-lent-less
Adjective:

Oppressively constant; incessant. Harsh or inflexible.

Synonyms:

merciless - ruthless - pitiless - unrelenting

So after a day of some relief from my 'merciless, ruthless and pitiless' little bosses, I find that I miss interacting with them and am ready to get back to the job.

Latest update from 5 minutes after I clicked 'publish' the first time:

This is how Richard kept them entertained while I blogged.

How Old Is Too Old?

I've been taking Aaron for swimming lessons here and we always go to the ladies change rooms. Its mostly mothers who take children to these lessons so we're all in there with the little boys and girls. This week, I noticed that they had put up a blank noticeboard to partition off a portion of the room and a few mothers were telling their children to go behind there to change. Privacy? Probably, but it got me wondering because as far as I can see, all the kids that were six and under didn't have any problems stripping down and getting changed right there in the open.

I didn't send Aaron to get dressed there because I prefer to sit on the bench when helping him to towel dry and whatever else he needs assistance with. I don't think its an issue but I've become more conscious about making him face the wall to change in case the other mothers don't like him flashing them (or their daughters). Kid or not!

This leads me to another minor issue that I might soon have. I've been deferring thinking about when I have to stop taking him into the ladies' restrooms with me. There have been several times that I have sent him into the men's restrooms but those were urgent situations where there were long lines at the ladies side and no disabled toilets available. He's barely strong enough to push open some of those doors and I have no idea who is on the inside. And, I can't go in to check on him if he takes a little longer than usual to come out. So, I wonder how much longer he can keep going to the ladies side with me before other women start looking at him funny? How old is too old?

Learning About Money

One of my favourite times during the day is after dinner and before Aaron's bed time. This is the only time of the day that I can give Aaron my full attention and I always try to make it as productive as possible. He's usually tired after a long day but if I put enough effort in to make a game out of everything, he's still incredibly receptive. 

I don't think I would like to be a classroom teacher but I love teaching Aaron. There are always new ideas that I want to try out or topics that I want to explore with him. I think I still have some hidden desire to completely homeschool him but thats unrealistic. 

This week, we started learning about money. He got his first taste of the value of money when he took the two dollars he earned from painting a door knob hanger to a book shop. He was very disappointed when he found out that a sharpener was about the only thing he could afford. So, we've been discussing the value of money for some time but I haven't had a chance to break down the mechanics of money with him yet. 

We've starting at the very beginning (almost) and learning to count money and how the coins can be used in different combinations to make up totals. Maybe I can even teach him to go pay for things and work out the change he needs to wait for. 

My intention is to also show him how money is made and circulated. And maybe I'll draw up something to show him how the price of a good or service is derived - hence explaining how Richard's daily trip to work results in money for our needs. I don't think I'll go any further than that for a five year old. He doesn't need to know about the current financial woes in the global economy. 


I always end up feeling like I have achieved something when I see Aaron feel excited and eager to learn more about something. 

Are Teachers Being Too Nice?

This week, Aaron started visiting his new class. He is transitioning from his current kindergarten class to a Grade 1 class. This is what the school usually does at the end of the school year for the children that are moving up a class. He was a 'late entry' to Grade 1 so he missed the transition period at the end of last year when other classmates went through this whole visiting routine.

Now, after two weeks of catching up with his friends after the holidays, he has started to spend time in the new Grade 1 class. We have been talking about this for awhile and I know that inside, he's excited about it. But of course, when the time came, he was anxious and probably feeling very alone because he had no friends yet. This morning, I happened to be around when two children from Grade 1 came to walk him over and he had tears in his eyes. He hasn't cried on any other 'first days'!

I think maybe the school/teachers have been a little too nice here. They are giving him the choice to come back whenever he wants and making sure that he is comfortable with everything. Yes, it is very considerate of them but I wonder if it would work better if they just made a clean break. Then he wouldn't have to go away and feel anxious and then come back to his old class and feel the comfort from him. Or maybe, a better strategy would be to outline for him that each subsequent day visiting Grade 1 will be for a longer period than the first until finally, say three days later, he can just go directly there.

At home, I've been trying to convince him that the way to go is to get into the new class as soon as possible so that he can teach his friends about everything when it is their turn to transition. Supposedly, there are several other children that will transition before the middle of the year.

Having said all that, I can see how their approach is aligned with the Montessori way of 'following the child'. I just can't help thinking that life was so much simpler when I went to school. Teachers were just more grown ups to tell you what to do. No talking to teachers or telling them how you feel or what you want.