Author: Noeum

It was 8:45 in the morning. I had just finished cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom. The floor was sparkling clean. Every counter was wiped down. I felt great about what I had accomplished. Then my 2-year-old son woke up. He walked into the kitchen, rubbed his sleepy eyes, and saw me holding a cleaning rag. Something clicked in his little mind. He didn’t ask for breakfast. He didn’t want to watch his favorite cartoons. He wanted one thing: to help me clean. The Kung Fu Broom Master My son marched straight over to where I kept the broom.…

Every evening at 7:00 PM, my family sits down for dinner. After a quick break, my daughter and I start what we jokingly call “Home Academy” at 7:45 PM. It’s our learning time, and I take it pretty seriously. But last week, something funny happened. My 2-year-old son wasn’t having it. He didn’t want to be left out. He marched into the room wearing his favorite orange shark shirt, grabbed his sister’s old notebook, and plopped down next to us. He was ready to learn. What Is Pretend Reading in Early Literacy? Here’s where it got interesting. My daughter started…

Last Sunday morning at 9 a.m., I woke up to an unusual sound. Children were chanting and reading out loud. I thought maybe the TV was on. But when I walked to the front of my house, I found something amazing. The neighborhood kids had turned my driveway into a school. They weren’t watching cartoons or playing video games. They were playing school—and they were loving it. Learning Through Play: What I Saw My neighbor’s daughter decided to be the teacher. My 8-year-old daughter became her star student. Even my 2-year-old son joined in as the “intern.” The setup was…

This morning, my two-year-old son grabbed a pencil and his notebook. As you can see in the photo above, he sprawled out on his stomach on his favorite peach blanket—which goes everywhere with us—and got to work. To anyone else, it looked like random scribbles. But looking at that proud face? It was magic. If you’re a parent watching your toddler make those first marks on paper, you might wonder: Is this actually helping them learn? The short answer is yes. Those messy scribbles are the foundation of toddler drawing and writing development. Let me share what I’ve learned from…

I teach 5S at work. You know, that Japanese organizing method? Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain. A clean desk, a clear mind, and better productivity. Then I get home. My two-year-old looks at my organized drawers and thinks: “Challenge accepted.” The Day My Toddler “Helped” With Laundry Last Tuesday, I was putting away clean clothes. I have these plastic drawers—blue, pink, green. Each one has a job. Shirts go in the green one. I opened the drawer. My son spotted it from across the room. What I saw: An open drawer waiting for folded clothes. What he saw:…

I’ll never forget the day my three-year-old daughter taught me one of the most important parenting lessons I’ve ever learned. We were visiting Ek Phnom Temple in Battambang, Cambodia. It was a hot Sunday afternoon, and my wife and I were walking around the ancient ruins with our little girl. She was wearing her favorite colorful leggings, and everything seemed peaceful until she spotted something that changed everything. A rock. To me, it looked like a dirty, dusty stone sitting under a tree. Nothing special. But to my daughter, it might as well have been Mount Everest. And she decided,…

For the longest time, our evenings ended the same way: tears, tantrums, and a plate of untouched food. My son would sit there, staring at his rice like I’d just served him rocks. My daughter would take one bite and declare she was “full” – only to ask for cookies ten minutes later. I tried everything. Different recipes. Fun plates. Even those silly airplane spoon games. Nothing worked. Then last week, I had a wild idea. And honestly? It changed everything. Why Our Evenings Were Ending in Tears Before I share our solution, I must admit the frustrating reality: my…

It was supposed to be a relaxing afternoon. My son and I went to a beautiful garden to get some fresh air, look at the colorful flowers, and take a nice photo for his grandma. Simple, right? Wrong. What started as a peaceful outing quickly turned into an unexpected battle over wardrobe choices. And the reason? A plastic statue wearing a flower dress. The Day Everything Went Sideways My little “Chief Negotiator” (as I like to call him) was happy at first, running around the garden paths and pointing at butterflies. But then we found the perfect photo spot: a…

Last weekend, I took my two-year-old son to the stunning Angkor Wonder Garden in Siem Reap. You know the type—rainbow stairs, giant colorful statues, and flowers everywhere. I had my camera ready, thinking we’d get some amazing family photos. Well, things didn’t go exactly as planned. But I learned something important about traveling with a toddler. Why We Love Picture-Perfect Places (And Why Toddlers Don’t Care) As parents, we’re always looking for those special spots. The ones that look amazing on Instagram. We imagine our kids smiling in front of beautiful backgrounds, creating memories we’ll treasure forever. But here’s the…

Last Saturday, I woke up exhausted. My wife looked at me and said, “Should we just stay home?” We’d been talking about taking the kids somewhere special. Maybe the beach. Maybe a theme park. But honestly? The thought of packing everything, driving for hours, and spending hundreds of dollars made me want to crawl back into bed. Then I had a different idea. What if we went somewhere close? Somewhere free? Somewhere the kids could just… be kids? What We Did Instead of an Expensive Trip Here’s what we packed: That’s it. We drove exactly five minutes to a grassy…