Why Not Signing with Your Baby?

If you don’t want to create your own signs; there are some free tools that you can use :
baby sign language cards / pictures at sign with me.

online sign dictionary : born 2 sign.
It contains more than 100 words that each word is displayed with the video to show you how to sign it. Born 2 sign will help you a lot!

Bagaimana cara mengajarkan bahasa isyarat kepada bayi Anda?

• Ini sangat penting: selalu ucapkan setiap kata yang Anda isyaratkan dengan tangan. Ajak anak Anda untuk menirunya.
• Sabar ya, jadikan suasana belajar jadi menyenangkan.
• Anda bisa berkreasi dengan membuat bahasa isyarat sendiri.
• Mulailah dengan kata-kata sederhana (susu, selesai, nambah).
• Puji setiap usaha anak.
• Ajarkan juga bahasa isyarat ini ke seluruh anggota keluarga dan pengasuhnya sehingga bayi Anda bisa berkomunikasi dengan seluruh penghuni rumah.
• Jika Anda tidak ingin membuat isyarat sendiri; ada beberapa alat bantu yang bisa digunakan: petunjuk gambar bahasa isyarat bayi di sign with me dan kamus bahasa isyarat online born 2 sign. Kamus ini berisi lebih dari 100 kata; setiap kata disertai dengan video petunjuk cara membuat isyarat tangannya.

Selamat mencoba…

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When Parents Make Mistakes

Hi, parents, when you make mistakes to your children, do you ask forgiveness from them? There are still some people have an opinion that asking forgiveness is a sign of weakness and only emphasizing the mistakes. Do you realize that asking forgiveness actually shows the greatness of your heart?

Why some parents don’t want to ask forgiveness? The answers may vary. Some adults think that they have never done wrong, even though they have made a wrong decision, spanked or snapped at their child. Some parents may feel guilty; but they don’t want to admit it and ask forgiveness because these parents want to keep their face safe in front of their child. For them, admitting the mistakes will only show their weakness.

Sometimes parents forget that the house rules aren’t only for the children, but also for the whole family members, include the parents. As parents, we always say to our child,” When you make mistakes, you should feel sorry and apologize”. So, when you make mistakes to your child, why don’t you apologize? By asking forgiveness to your own child, you’ve given them the right example.

As ordinary human, it’s a normal thing that parents make mistakes. The important thing is don’t let it ruining your relationship with your child. You must remember that the children have sensitive feelings and good memories; every bad thing that you’ve done to them will be carried until their adult times.

You may still worry; is apologizing can eliminate the parents’ authority? No, it won’t if you do it in the right way; that’s why you should know the appropriate ways to ask forgiveness from your child:

• Admit your mistakes. Forget the feeling embarrassed; you must keep your warm relationship with your child first. By admitting your mistakes, your child will feel treated fairly and it’s also an important thing in asking forgiveness.


• Be sincere. Your child will know whether you ask forgiveness sincerely or not. If you just pretending, you’ll loose their trust.


• Be calm. It’s not a wise thing if you asking forgiveness while you’re still in a bad emotion. Make yourself calm first. Tell your child that you need times to be alone and will continue the conversation later.


• Use the straight words. You should remember that you asking forgiveness for what you have just done such as yelling, saying harsh words, making wrong decision, etc.


• Don’t blame your child. Don’t you ever say like this,” If you’re not lazy, I wouldn’t angry with you”. It’s not apologizing; in fact, you make the condition more badly.


• Say “Would you forgive me?”. After admitting your mistake, ask straightly whether she or he will forgive you. This dialogue will ease you and your child will learn how to repair the relationship. Don’t forget to hug each other!


• Evaluate. Invite your child to discuss about how to solve the problem properly. Make a deal on what things that should do if the same problem happens again later.


• Don’t do the same mistake. After receiving the forgiveness, you should remember not doing it again. Asking forgiveness several times for the same mistake will make you untrustworthy.


• Don’t be exaggerating. It’s not a wise thing if you ask forgiveness too often, it will make you loose your authority. Do it if you truly make mistakes!

Your child need to know that you are not perfect; you can make mistakes like they do. They also need for you to show them how to make things right so they can do the same when they do wrong thing.

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Family-Safe Internet (4)

As I mentioned in my previous Family-Safe Internet posts, there are several methods that parents can applied to protect children from bad information in internet. One of the methods is installing Internet Content Filter Software to the computer at your home or to the server of computers at schools and libraries. These softwares will block and filter internet contents that contain bad information for children such as pornography, violence, harsh and dirty words, drugs, crime; dating, escort and chating services, etc.

Besides K9 Web Protection that I’ve referred before; in this post I’ll mention other helpful free internet content filter softwares for you.

AX2 The Internet Bad Content Blocker Alpha 1 (.zip)

Terima kasih untuk Sobat Anggy yang telah menginformasikan software ini. Internet Bad Content Blocker yang merupakan karya mahasiswa STIE Pengembangan Bisnis dan Manajemen ini dapat memproteksi dampak buruk dari penggunaan internet (pornografi, SARA, kekerasan dan dampak buruk lain).

Jika Anda ingin memasang software ini di komputer Anda, silakan download saja langsung ke sumbernya : STIE PBM (klik banner downloadnya di side bar sebelah kanan).

Norton Online Family

Symantec also tries to offer the transparent protection for children while using internet. This software can be downloaded from onlinefamily.norton.com - it’s FREE until January 1st, 2010! You should straightly download from the site because they require your personal data and also your child’s data.

As parents, what advantages you can get by using Norton Online Family?

• you can determine the forbidden sites for your child
• once you submit your child’s age, the software will determine the sites that appropriate with your child
• you can set the time limit of using the computer
• you will receive notification e-mail regularly
• if your child tries to access the forbidden site, the reminder notification will appear and the system will get your child out of it
• if your child continues to access the forbidden site, you will be informed by e-mail
• the software gives you the statistic of your child’s activities with computer. This data can be a discussion matter with your child.

Procon Latte (Mozilla add-ons)
ProCon is a content filter for the Firefox browser created by Corvineum, and based on BlockXXX (by Tom Christensen). ProCon filters any type of content on any web page. If left on default, ProCon limits itself to filter pages containing explicit content automatically, based on the text. ProCon can also be used as a profanity filter.

Procon comes with a list of blocked words and website. You can specify your own white list. This tool can filter any kind of material such as pornography, gambling, hacking, cracking and more. It can also block all traffic, making sure that only desired websites (set in white list) can be accessed. Procon also comes with password protection feature to keep others from changing the settings. Do you want to try it?

download the Procon Latte (Mozilla Add-ons)

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Let’s Hug!

In this post I just want to describe a little bit about the necessity of hugging habit in our family. Hugging is a healthy thing! We need touches and it is needed often. But sometimes we are afraid of being rejected; so we prefer to hug babies and pets…

Why is it necessary to build a hugging habit in your family?

• a medicinal expert said that we need more than just hugging our baby and pets; we need to hug each other
• Dr. Harold Falk, a psychiatrist from Menninger Foundation, said,” Hugging can get you up from depression and increase the body immune system. Hugs will blow wind of life to the exhausted bodies and it will make you feel younger and more enthusiastic”
• there’s a hug recipe from Dr. Bresler of UCLA Clinic: Get hug four times a day; in the morning, in the afternoon, at dinner time and before going to bed. It will make you much better!
• Helen Colton, the author of The Pleasure of Touches, explained that hemoglobin in our blood will increase significantly every time you are touched and hugged. Hemoglobin takes oxygen from brain, heart and whole body; so hugging is truly an important thing

Some families might have already had this hugging habit; but I think some families might haven’t yet applied this. There are some reasons why they don’t hug their families: not used to express their emotion, feeling awkward, feeling embarrassed, family background effect, etc.

You may ever hear someone said,”I don’t like to hug, it’s too shameful for me”. Ok, but it’s still probable for her or him to change into a person who can hug others. He doesn’t need to hug everyone he knows; he should hug his wife and children first, and someone can learn doing this.

How to hug your family?

• you can keep talking when hugging; it won’t ruin the moment
• where you place your hands is not important
• press gently; it isn’t necessary to have head-contact
• don’t hug too tightly
• don’t let go too early. If your spouse or child feels upset or down, they may need a long, loving hug
• smile when letting go

Don’t be shy to hug your family. A hug is a good way to express our affection to our beloved ones and it’s good for health too, mentally and physically. Let’s spread warmth and comfort at home…

rewrite source: Making Friends by Andrew Mathews

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