I work long hours but make it a point to talk to my children everyday, 1 to 1, eye to eye, for at least 5 min, unless they are asleep by the time I reach home. My children know that mummy is interested to know what they learnt in school and the daily tidbits of their classroom activities.
It is usually easier to dish out juicy stuffs from mei. You see, she's the class monitress calibre- helpful otherwise busybody. She will tell me who has been naughty and talkative, how many times can her friend bounce the ball and who fell down/ vomitted/ made teacher angry etc. After the daily reporting, I'll prompt her to tell me a new word she learnt (Chinese or English) or new song she sang. If she forgot the lyrics or melody, she will pay more attention in class the next day and complete the song the same evening.
For gorgor, he will reply that nothing unusual happened. Instead he will tell me how much he spend at each stall during tea break and lunch, how much chilli he added in his laksa and about catching and monkey bar he played in school. Recently, he has been selected to join the school art CCA. But he's still reluctant to share more even though he was excited to go for the CCA after class. I have to nudge him and persuade him by telling him mummy didn't have a chance to join school art CCA (then called ECA) during my school days (which is true). Slowly, he opened up and told me about the Popsicle group project they have done for the 1st session.
The idea behind this activity is simple. Mummy no longer have time (& energy) to prepare materials for crafts everyday. By replacing with a simple conversation, I kill 2 birds with 1 stone by getting 1st hand information of what they did in school and they get a chance to practice their reporting skills by verbalizing their thoughts.
That's our daily bonding activity, what's yours?
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