A routine with a doable and realistic schedule set the tone of our day. The successful productivity rate depends largely on our clarity and focus of our tasks.

Setting an intention for our day is when we make a pact or agreement with our minds that “I am holding myself accountable for today’s achievement.”

I used to be a runner, I ran everyday, I love the challenge of breaking my own record. Running kept me on track in every sense of the word. But something changed six months after I gave birth to my third child at the age of 42, I stopped training, I stopped running.

It was mid March when Vietnam imposed the first national lockdown, determined to contain the spread of the unknown and life threatening virus namely, COVID-19. It was the first time for both my 13 years old son and I heard of the word, ‘lockdown’. I knew the word ‘curfew’ well because I am the mother of my two now adult children. But I am still too young or too fortunate in my grandparents’ eyes to experience any form of curfews. 

It is a reasonable but of the unsubstantiated claim that people, and most especially children, are somehow the beneficiaries of multiple positives associated with being bilingual. We all nod sagely at the premise, on the basis that it must be self-evident that there is nothing but upside associated with the skill of effortlessly switching between two languages.

The doorbell rang at 9:30 this morning. A young man in his mid-twenty carrying two brown boxes. “Here’s your order, Madam,” he kept his distance. I said thank you before he rushed down the hallway. I knew from the look of his sweating face behind the mask that it is going be another long day ahead of him….

With the school closed in the past few months, our children have been spending most of their days at home attending online classes, meeting deadlines and preparing for assessments. It certainly keeps our children's minds active and provides some form of normality amid our current abnormal circumstance.

My heart goes out to all the grandchildren who have lost their grandparents due to the pandemic. For parents who are trying to come to terms with not only the pain of losing their own parents but also struggling to talk to their children about the death of their grandparents, I hope you will find comforts in Dr. Giorgio’s words below…

I read a quote recently: "Without you...I am nothing; with you....I am something; together..we are everything" It takes more than a good education, making the right decisions and minding our own business, to be a person of good character. To be successful takes more...

Autism was not a disorder that was well researched or studied until the 80s. No one really knows what autism was, let alone the cause. My brother was born in 1966 and he looked no difference from the rest of us. He was cute just like any other child; he had a well...

Growing up in my mother’s absence   Unlike so many children these days, I didn’t get to fly home three or four times a year when I was in boarding school in England. Nor did I have my parents visiting me at exit weekends, parents’ weekends and etc. Indeed, I was...

Last night, we took our 12 year old son to the Geelong Grammar School’s information session. I believe most of the parents were attracted to the school because of the Year 9 Timbertop program whereby all students are required to live a rustic camplike life, requiring...

The woman I grew to respect The woman I craved to become The woman whose power and confidence I fell in love with .. Is the same woman whom I called ‘Principal’, Is the same woman whom I looked for approval all my life Is the same woman whom I called ‘Mother’....

My recollections of my mother is all based on the time before I left home for boarding school and moreover, my perspective of who she is, is also based on my own observations and limited encounters with her over the subsequent years. In my eyes, my mother is in...

To our sons: Everytime you ask why…. Everytime you wonder who….. Everytime you question how….. The answer will always be the same…...Thank God for creating women. To our daughters: No matter what it takes, stay on course No matter who said what about whom,...

Who am I? We all think to some degree that we know who we are. Why am I the way that I am? We also think to some degree that people around us partly made up who we are. Relationship is one of the 5 elements in the theory of happiness according to Dr Seligman, founder...

The world has changed ... well, that is an understatement. This generation of children are not the same as before, equally true. Change however is both inevitable as well as good. We grow because we embrace change, we change because we know it brings us into new...

There is no doubt that the birth of a child is one of the most traumatic experiences for women, both physically and emotionally. However, for most women, we could barely recount the whole ordeal in the operating room or the delivery room as soon as the midwife had...

「溫故而知新，可以為師矣。」 孔子曾經說過：「三思而後行」我一直都對那句話有深深的疑問，直到那次，我終於明白到它的意思。我因心急和衝動，一時失去理智，沒有把事情想清楚再作決定，結果就是我自作自受…… 記得那次，我和班中一羣男生，為了一些無聊的小事，我們討論了整個小息，不但得不到結論，反而令大家心裏存着芥蒂。我們都帶着這種不安的心情回家去。雖然我知道，只要我們大家讓一讓，忍一忍，這件事就不會變成一件大事，但我卻做不到。...