I am amazed at the physical develop of Zouq. At 3 years, he is a strong little boy, with a muscular body - Mommy is definitely no comparison. His activities at the gym as well as regularly swimming has a marked positive effect on his physical development. He is confident in his movements and prefers to run than walk, an active child with boundless energy. Hence these two activities play a major role in helping him expend his energy in a positive way. Personally, I highly recommend incorporating these two activities as it helps in their motor skills development, confidence and physically. He is taller than the average child of his age as well as physical activity, an assessment by some professionals place it at the 5-6 year old range.
In the last month, he has definitely started talking more, using words that we can understand. He is trilingual - using English, Spanish and Bahasa Malaysia. Some people say that this will delay his speech development since he is trying to learn 3 languages but then again, I see some children who are just using one language also do not have clear speech development. This evaluation is only from the adult perspective. I see he has no problem in communicating with his peers. So I guess it all boils down to each child's development is different. The plus side is he will be trilingual and this will help with his language development in the future. After all, at this age, he is able to absorb more easily and I do not care that he uses all three languages at the same time. His mommy understands it all :)
The benefit of starting him young on vegetables and good food is that he continues to enjoy fruits and vegetables along with the other foods. It reduces my worry on him not getting the necessary nutrition he requires. He still drinks milk but it has reduced to 3 times a day: early morning, late afternoon and before he goes to sleep at night. I pretty much follow his rhythm where eating is concerned. He will only eat when he is hungry and will tell me :"Mommy, nak makan". He loves chocolates but he has definitely got good taste as he only likes good chocolates like Swiss and Belgian chocolates. He loves sherbet-like ice creams. I do not prohibit him from eating these, only control his consumption. Luckily, he doesn't like sweet candy. He also loves fish crackers so it is Mommy's job to make sure the ones he eats are good - more often it is one that I bought based on quality and fried at home so I know the oil that it is fried in.
Disciplining him is a tricky thing and I find that it does require a lot of patience. I bear in mind that he will follow or mimic what we adults do so I am very careful around him in my speech and behaviour. I do not belief in hitting or pinching a child as punishment. After all, they are innocent and it is up to us to correct the negative behaviour in a positive manner. Using these types of physical punishment only teaches him that it is ok to hit or pinch other people if he is displeased - not something that I want to teach him! This is where taking the time to explain to him or show him why it is not something he should do and this takes patience. It also takes the art of distraction when has has his crying fits because he cannot get what he wants and again lots of patience. Hitting him because he is crying is a big no-no because he doesn't understand. Although sometimes my ears are ringing from his fits, or I feel angry that he is misbehaving, I take a time-out and remind myself that he is too young to know better. I remind myself constantly that anger or frustration doesn't resolve anything. As such, I do not permit anyone to use any physical punishment on him.
I do not send him to daycare or nursery and do not plan to send him to a nursery or kindergarten until he can express to me if something that shouldn't be done to him has been done to him like being hit, slapped or abused in any way. I do teach him his alphabets, numbers, counting and words in other ways so in a way, he is being home-schooled at the moment. He can count to 10 and recognises some of the alphabets although saying all 26 of them is still a challenge. We read books, draw and color, as well as say what we are going to do and count whenever the opportunity arises. Some say that by me not sending him to nursery will adversely affect his social developments. I say, by exposing him to his gym class, other activities with other children and adults, he is social development is just fine. He says "Please" and "Thank you" and practices social etiquette - although sometimes he forgets - and this is just fine with me.
All in all, raising Allah's gift to me, Giovanni Marzouq, has not been plain sailing, but it has brought me a lot of joy and self-awareness. I love him and cherish him. Simple as that.
