Chinese New Year is just around the corner. I thought it would be helpful to have some handy tips ready to entertain children who may come to your home to visit during the festive season

Food:

As children most probably have been stuffing their faces with candies, chocolates and all those fried stuff and cookies, I think parents will appreciate if you will serve some healthier alternatives like

1)      Raisins

2)      Fruits (like apples, watermelon etc-not too much mandarin oranges as they are deemed “heaty”)

3)      Fruit loops/ corn flakes

4)      Cheese slices (use a cookie cutter and cut out different shapes- pigs will be a favourite this year)

5)      Steam corn with a little melted butter (you may wish to buy the frozen corn and just pop it in the micro-oven)

6)      Cucumber/ carrot sticks with a salsa dip

Drinks:

Instead of soft drinks, you may like to serve these

1)      Fruit juices

2)      Blend fruits like strawberries, kiwi etc and freeze them. Add them in home made lime juice (the kids will be trilled to see “colored-ice cubes”)

3)      Home made barley

Hope you all have a wonderful Chinese New Year

I had just finished reading this wonderfil book on a child's journey of finding himself  through play therapy.

The book is an interesting read not just for anyone who has a keen interest in  children but for anyone who loves reading about the human spirit . As one reviewer wrote about the book, the story is unusually engaging in part because the child, Dibs himself is an extraordinary humain being, not only a mistreated innocent. Dibs when first introduced in the book, was a child who has locked himself out of the world around him, resisting any attempt by teachers or anyone who tried to engage him.

This book has also been seen as a play therapy classic and its no wonder. The author of the book Virgina Axline (who is Dibs play therapist) is the orginator of play therapy itself. Its amazing how Axline is able to write down rather detail description of what has taken place through the therapy sessions that she has with Dibs. It is through these sessions that the child who was once thought of as mentally retarded made a discovery of his true self, which was severly repressed at home.

I think what i learned from this book was that though Axline knew that the child has been emotionally neglected at home, yet she maintains an emotional distance with him, allowing him to find his own identity without have to seek for an adult's approval.

As much as this book is a potrait of a child finding himself, it also charts the journey of Dibs' parents finding themselves and being comfortable with their child. Though this book, i have also discovered the extend of damage parents can do to a child by neglecling his emotions. Dibs did not lack anything that money could buy yet was so deprived of something that money could not buy: his parents love , affection and acceptance.

This is a really a wonderful read. Once i started, i could hardly put down the book. This book can be found in the national library or if you would like a copy of your own, you can try any one of the major bookshops in Singapore.