With a father that loves golf, and a granddad that enjoys tennis, it seems rather natural that an active and energetic child like Kyle will have a natural inclination towards sports.

I have toyed with the idea of sending him to speech and drama, since he is quite a drama king. And even art classes, as he has been asking for it. However, we have a limited enrichment budget and since I don't plan to over-schedule activities in a week for him, hb and I have decided on swimming and golf lessons. It seems quite common to send a child for formalised lessons as young as 2, but I have delayed lessons till this year, as I think that it is important that he shows interest, has the attention span and is able to follow instructions.

He enjoys swimming tremendously, and he is doing well in lessons with group instruction. He just had his first test from the swimming school, and despite the crowd of children having the tests the same day, he was game to go through it.

As for golf, we have justed started lessons last week and he is having loads of fun. He was able to tell me that his teacher taught him 'putting' and 'chipping' and even loudly exclaimed during his lessons to his coach, "Why I am only learning half swing?", when the rest of his other two classmates who joined earlier were doing full swings. No rush, my dear boy…one step at a time!

I have read this article that claims that it is too soon to think of sports for a 4 year old. I will agree with some of the points that the article mentioned, but I think physical and mental skills development required to learn a sport varies from child to child. Also since most sports require learning or playing in a group, the child needs to be ready to 'perform' in front of people. Looking at how outgoing and 'showy' Kyle can be at times, facing that pressure to 'perform' in a group/crowd does not seem to be a problem, in fact I always find that he needs to be reminded often to tone down his boisterousness.

Learning sports have been advantageous for us so far, as it has been effective to wear out his energy. Often he is like this 'energiser bunny' with the energy that never seems to tire out. On top of that, his appetite seems to have improved, and mealtimes are less of a chore

These days, he tells me that he wants to be a sportsman when he grows up, "To be a sportsman, I don't need to go to school and study right?"

Nice try, my little sporty guy.

Getting into the spirit of YOG, K wanted to change into his swimming gear and participate in his own segments;

Weight-lifting with my bolster

See the grit and determination in his expression…

His attempt at backstroke swimming on my bed.

The springs on my bed has taken a beating from his constant 'diving'…

K has always seem to prefer playing with water to sand, and I tend to keep those 2 elements quite separate (for play at home) for the convenience of cleaning up thereafter. However, I did not know what came over me about a week ago when I gave him both sand and water to play with at home.

It was only then I realised that sand and water is a good idea at the beach or in Jacob Ballas Children's Garden, but it is never a good idea to be explored at home. I reminded him to restrict his area of play to the balcony and not to venture to my sofa or the living room, however forgot to mention the walls in the balcony. He is at the age where it is safe to leave him by himself while he plays, or so I thought. When I left him alone at his sand and water table for 10 minutes, he discovered the thrill of making mud balls and threw it all over the walls and the floor of the balcony. He made such a huge mess that my helper and I ended up scraping the sand off the walls and floor for the next half an hour. Being the budget conscious mom, I made sure that we collected the sand in trays put them out in the sun to dry, so that K could play with it again.

So for this week, I made sure that sand and water play is restricted to the outdoors at Jacob Ballas. He hasn't reach the age of building sandcastles and had more fun filling the buckets, mixing water with the sand, pouring it all out and then filling again.

We have been to Jacob Ballas countless number of times, however we have never ventured beyond the water and sand area. It never fails to rain every single time after K is done with water play, it is quite strange really, how we tend to go there when the weather seems perfectly fine in the morning but will be pouring in the early afternoon.

Will probably be finding more excuses (especially when dh is away and I have the car) to skip school in the mornings and visit Jacob Ballas a little more often in the next few months.

Seth is the first friend that K has. The boys first met about one and a half years ago, in the void deck below my home. Seth was with Lay Keng, his mom, taking a walk about around the estate, while K and I were doing the exact same thing.

That was also the first time that the moms met one another and realised that our boys are of the same age, barely a month difference. And we found many more things in common with one another; we are staying in the same block, are stay-at-home-moms and Christians. Naturally, we clicked and the boys also warmed up to each other really quickly, considering they had a common affinity for observing ants at that point.

Ensuing our chance encounter with one another at the void deck, we met up frequently, sometimes twice a week for the boys to play together, while the moms would enjoy the fellowship with one another. 

Seth's personality is a compliment to K's. He is this sweet natured, unassuming little boy, while K is that sociable and chatty friend that will always be asking Seth questions. They shared lots of discoveries in their nature walks together, laughter and enjoyed plenty of squeals while they amuse one another in their play. Don't need to guess who will always be the one who will be clowning around amusing the other, and the one who will always insist that they exchange their toy cars when they meet. For sure there will be times when either one will end up crying over their little squabbles, but both will be quick to forget and will be back playing happily with one another once more.

As K moves on to a new environment with school, I am certain that he will be able to make many friends along the way. However I do hope that he doesn't forget about his dear friend Seth. And I will be sure that the boys will still get to meet during the school holidays.

"A friend loveth at all times." – Proverbs 17:17

"A friend is one who strengthens you with prayers,

blesses you with love and encourages you with hope."