The week that flew by

It's the last few days before we end this month of May and I cannot, cannot believe it.
Sure, it's been hectic; yes, we've had several exciting things happen in our lives, but still!
Last week, was one of those where time just whizzed by.

Wed: random outing with this girl.
Accomplishments: picked up her passport, attended the parent-teacher-session,
and spent time together, in general.

In between the day, I brought her to the office where she demonstrated some creativity at play.

(L): original fish on the wall. (R): she copied the fish and created more fish on her own.
FYI, the theme was "under the sea" so it looked very nice with more fish!

On the way to lunch.

Thursday, I went for a dinner date with this bunch of girls whom I knew in my previous work life, 10 years ago. It came about quite innocently when we were discussing our past.. and it struck us that it was indeed the 10th year anniversary where we were once-upon-a-time going through a most grueling time of our lives balancing work and this Masterclass. What resulted was this amazing friendship. The moment was topped off by us going back to the original place where it all began.

35 Robinson Road. Masterclass Team O, 2007.

Friday marked the last day of school and while I was at work, the doting grandpa brought the children to the trampoline party. Hooray!

Happy birthday Jaz!

Everyone loves bouncing around.

Look at how tall K is amidst the girls 2 years younger than her!

Saturday was a regular day.. we had class for the kids, errands in the afternoon, and the evening winded down nicely with some lamb that the husband made for us, as supper.

Mmmmmmm.

Truth is, we thought of bringing the kids out to play but the evening did not turn out the way we thought because of bad behavior. We ended up staying in to do some work (damn mathematics!) but after the work was cleared, we ended up doing home karaoke with the children singing songs that they picked.

Sing-along

Sunday was a regular affair of hanging out with the grandparents, I cleared more work-child-errands, then while the sister had suggested a healthy walk, it did not happen. Instead...

Everyone had to do some work. Arghhh.

The good thing is that we all did what we needed to do, but truly, I'd have much preferred to do some exercise.


And that, wrapped up last week. In between all that there was regular work, some drinks with friends, more work... and with that. We welcome the mid-year school holidays!

Bye bye, Hi-5

I was browsing on IG the other day and hi5world popped up. It struck me that I no longer have a need to follow them because my kids have grown out of hi5.

Unfollow.

Wow. When did it happen?


I think it did so slowly, but surely. I brought them to the shows (live) - both paid and unpaid, and it was so adorable while it lasted. I loved watching the kids sing-along, dance (though it was more like mini hops when they were toddlers) and even I got to know the hi5 team and their songs. I truly think that it was one of those shows that the kids grew up watching. I loved how creative the hi5 costumes are, and it was performance-based (by real people) versus cartoon; which was also another 'win' in my opinion.


Oh, hi5 took centrestage in our home for many years, when the girl (and I) first knew of it - she was probably, 2? - till last year when I felt that both the girl and boy have outgrown it. They have stopped watching hi5 on TV, I did not see the need to purchase tickets to live shows. These days, them 2 prefer watching live cartoon and even tween-type shows (dramas by teen actors).


Thank you hi5 for the years of entertainment and education to the children. I had fun too. Oh, what a ride it had been.

Letters to & from my firstborn

We started this book, where we'll write to each other. It's special because right now, the firstborn can pretty much write sentences and express herself, compared to the boy who's still at the cusp of learning to read.


I love this book of us, and wish we'd have more heart to do more; but some is better than none, I say!


In the latest entry from last week, this little girl was feeling particularly challenged due to a bad hair day. Oh, the woes a 7+yo goes through due to hair pains. -super rolls eye- but hey. Worries one feels is still a worry and I should not judge (but it's so harrrrd esp when we are late for school/something and the whining is incessant about hair?!)

Temper management

So, in this entry, she expresses her pains of her hair and her frustrations, as well as how she better managed it because she went to take a shower. There is also a tiny part about how annoying her little brother is. Ha!


Learning journey on temper management is so important and little wins are so super, duper important!


I am so proud of her!

A boy and his toys

The children have a lot of toys. The helper and I devised a system where the toys get switched around from storeroom to play room on a random basis. The children forget what they had and always show super enthusiasm at being reunited with  the stored toys - "oh I was looooooking for thiiiissss" (yeah right)


The boy's current obsession of the last 2 weeks, was his LEGO blocks. I'm very proud to be in a very fortunate position to be able to provide plenty of LEGO toys for the children and even prouder that they engage with the building blocks. I truly think it's a great toy to teach them patience (building), and allow them endless creative possibilities (tickling the young mind)... but I digress. The point is, I'm happy that they love the toy.

Mommy, these are two fighter jets

Play

Masterpiece - this was a joint effort by K and J; it's an airport & aeroplane

Last evening, he spent 15minutes talking me through another of his creations, and explained to me the breakdown of colours, the characters, the way the builds can connect/disconnect because besides his house, there is a detachable boat, and there was a runway because that's where the airplane is parked!


Love the stories he creates!

Tic Tac Toe

I found the boy team in the room, heads together in deep conversation one evening last week. To my amusement, they were deep in discussion about strategy.
Where should you place your mark?
Where will your opponent place his?
How can you place your marks correctly after he places his so that you'll win?

Team strategy

Whoever knew that tic tac toe, the simple game that we learnt to play as children, can become so competitive and complex? The boy learnt it and has been eager to play it - as is the enthusiasm with novelty.


I was half amused, half horrified that a simple game has taken on such a serious spin. Of course, I was also the token 'opponent', to test if J has learnt the 'right' steps/skills to always win.


Ah, little perks of being able to turn everything into an education!

Achievement unlocked - the girl can cycle too!

After learning that her brother can cycle, this little girl had been grumpy, citing "it's not fair" that he got to try/master the skill and not her. The husband pulled his weight, squeezing in time to make this happen before he left for an overseas work stint and I am so proud of the girl.

Look at that beaming pride!

Whee!

So, while I wasn't there to witness her lesson, the husband gave me feedback that she did even better than the boy. Now, the boy picked up the skill within minutes, so to know that she did better truly blew my mind. Wow!


So thankful that the husband made time for this, and am so proud of my girl to have picked up this skill. Since then, she's been cycling and seems to be doing really well. The boy doesn't do so well on this taller bike, so we gotta find something more suitable for him to practise.


So proud of my little beings! -insert muscular emoji-

Achivement unlocked - J rides a 2-wheeler

It happened totally unplanned. The most thought that went into it was the husband's intent of wanting to teach the children to cycle on their bikes, minus the set of training wheels. It never happened because (1) their bike wheels went a bit kaput and the husband had to get a pump to mend the wheels (2) he was also looking for some tool to remove the training wheels.


On this Sunday morning, when the husband and I were planning to hit the gym when the kids were out, we spent it discovering this eureka moment instead!


It started because this naughty boy lost control of himself and ended up kicking his sister in the face - first thing in the morning! So, his treat of going out with the grandparents was removed, & he was stuck with us at home. We switched plans from the gym, to having bfast with him along.


Post-breakfast, we went to this playground nearby and there happened to be a boy with a bicycle there. The husband decided there and then to let him try - why not?



Lesson-in-progress

The kind boy who loaned us his bike

Going strong (10 minutes in)

Love his don't-give-up-I'm-trying-attitude

It happened really quickly. Within 15minutes, he seemed to be doing ok... and on this particular trial, the husband put him on the bike, held on, told J to "pedal!" and... stood beside me as the boy launched. I was a bunch of nerves! I couldn't believe the husband just let him go, I tried to hold the phone as steadily as I could (for some reason, I was trembling from excitement/anxiety?!) with one hand, while the other was covering my mouth. I know, it sounds so dramatic but I couldn't explain my thrill and I had to stop myself from squealing out - that'd freak him out and backfire the progress! It was so exciting.

His first time riding 2-wheels on his own!

Look at him!

It was amazing, his progress in such a short period of time, the husband's steady approach in training him, and ah-hem, I'll like to think I contributed by documenting this milestone. Ha!


He was on such a high after, exclaiming "I did it!" and I was so proud of him I told him so, and he parroted it back to me "Mommy, you feel proud of me right?"


Haha, so adorbs. Now, to get the girl on this too!

Jiggle like a jelly and our night routine

Part of the school routine kick-off is homework, spelling and Chinese spelling. I feel a need to highlight Chinese spelling as a separate item because it does take a ton of effort to accomplish that.


So anyway, last evening, the girl and I revised her spelling and one of the phrases was 'jiggle like a jelly'. It's pretty known that the sister does a mean jellyfish dance/jiggle and we were talking conversationally amidst the spelling and look what the girl wrote:

Number 7.

That cracked us up for a bit... and as much as I hate to be the naggy (boring) Mom who does work with them always, I think it's just a necessary phase of life.

Ting xie

Seeing the sister on her nightly routine of work in the evenings has set the boy off too. I roped him in to do some work with the primary intent of having him do sit down as he is always running or bouncing off the walls (playing). Turns out, I have discovered the innate drive in this boy who wants to do well. He asks for spelling (basic words from his reading classes) and I am very proud of his abilities!

Life.

Just for the record, here is a snapshot of our usual evenings:


Between 6-7pm: I will reach home
7pm: Dinner (the husband will join in if he finishes work early enough)
7.45pm: Shower


8pm: Work - there is always something to do.
Papers to sign, homework the girl couldn't do on her own (still training her to have the initiative to do what she can in the afternoon), spelling or ting xie to revise. The boy will join in on some days to do some writing (he practises ABCs and in the last 2 weeks I began giving him spelling to reinforce what he learns in class). Some days, we revise Chinese words on flashcards from Chinese enrichment class.


9pm: Head to the room
We have a mix of activities - read some books, play UNO, play minion game, chit-chat or play. It depends on what the children prefer and the amount of time we actually are in the room (there is some variance - some days we go in earlier, some days later)


10pm: Bedtime
I do prefer if this was 9.30pm, because there is still some time before they actually knock out. It's a trying process to get them to sleep and I have been trying to bring their bedtime earlier - since day 1! I shall not give up, and I firmly believe that the earlier they go to bed, the more rested they are. Afterall, the wake-up time is fixed and the only time we can manipulate is this bedtime.


It's nearly the end of January and our routine is pretty accomplished. It will be a bit messed up with Lunar New Year (holidays!) coming up, but that will be a break we all welcome.

Performing Arts Day - the end of Primary 1

As part of a holistic education, K's school encourages arts and performances beyond academics. The school is pretty good at gymnastics and ballet, and in the past few months, K has come home telling us about her 'ballet classes' during PE... which is part of the lead-up to performing for the school's 'Arts Day'.

Primary 1 Arts Day 2016

It's pretty cool, and I appreciate the efforts that the teachers put in for rehearsals and training the children. It's performed by levels (I know that P2 has their own, not sure if this is the case all the way up to P6), and each class performs 3 segments.


Through this performance, I learn (unsurprisingly) that K loves to perform. She likes to dance and be on stage (while acting coy that she's terrified - and while I do think she gets nervous, I think she loves the limelight/attention and performance adrenaline!). She comes back with tales of how her rehearsals went, how she is annoyed by friends who 'XX went the wrong way and it will ruin everything!', and how much she enjoys practising and is yet worried 'Mommy, I cannot do this u'noe' - then proceeds to launch into the segment, self-practising.

I pulled in 2 supporters to join me at the performance

First performance, English speech & drama - The Candy Man
(terrible pic I know, K is in brown in the middle row, 2nd from the left)

2nd performance, Chinese speech & drama - here, she is a firefly.
(Pic taken by another parent who obviously grabbed a better spot than me)

Paying attention

3rd and last performance - ballet.
This is the finale and that's K right in the middle!

As a parent, I just felt thrilled to see my girl on stage, but more importantly, know that she enjoyed herself. I also felt proud that she revelled in performing, it's a great experience to be on stage and many lessons she can take out - from the hard work that needs to be put in at rehearsals, the discipline to learn and master the acts... and the lovely pay-out and sense of fulfilment. I'm glad that she's being exposed to it all.


And with this performance, she ends the school year on a high. We received her report book and she did pretty well. I am proud of her grades, and while there are definitely areas of improvement (namely, instances like this), I think we all fared pretty fine for the year. It's been a year of learning for all of us, in terms of juggling new challenges, routines and ready or not, here comes Primary 2!

Scatter brain K

This is the last week of school for my Primary School daughter. Yesterday evening, we got into a little squabble about her filing.


So, I have been really quite bochap relaxed about how she packs her stuff. In this year, I remember we did a mid-year spring-cleaning where we attempted to pack her things after we bought a shelf just for her. I've then relied on verbally asking if she's packing her bag/materials... and I do notice that things seem to be messy in her drawer but I did not actively check on it.


Last Saturday, it was a day with no activity and I requested that K packed her whole set of drawers. I told her to pack everything properly and neatly because it's nearly the end of the school year and we need to be clear to know where everything is, so we can make way for new materials coming in for Primary 2. She spent the morning stacking papers about her room and I did not check, I just let her run this activity because, well, it's her things, right?

Yesterday night, I happened to look into her bag (I tend to do that occasionally to pick out sweet wrappers, crushed worksheets, loose stationery, check through her books, take out the damp umbrella...) and what do I find? Loose worksheets crushed (not filed into file, just stuffed into bag), and some junk which really riled me up!


It made me so mad that she had not attended to the task properly when time had been set aside to do it. I was mad that she does not care enough to bother. I was mad that it is already the last week of the school year and she is still this haphazard?!



Situation last night

I dished out punishment (no e-time for the whole week!) and set her to work right there and then to clear her worksheets - properly this time.


Sigh. What do I do with this child of mine?! Patience... is key. On this note, I am pretty ready to say 'Goodbye Primary 1!'

A momentous occasion: the husband graduates!

4 years. That's the amount of time it took for the husband to complete his undergraduate studies; and after accompanying him through the journey of his classes, tutorials and late night assignments, he is finally done with school. Everyone say, HOORAY!


Truth is, the husband has always been so busy with work and/or school that I had nearly forgotten what it was like when he was home just playing the role of husband/father. Random things I remember include revising with him for his exams in the initial years; attending a lesson with him once before (yes, I went into the lecture hall with him), swinging by school for him to pick up his school books, asking for his school schedule so that I'd know when he'd be late in coming home, him taking block leave from work to study for his exams, his coffee-drinking-day-and-night-become-the-same-periods as he studied late into the night and slept in the day, his hibernation periods at the library....


A key take-out I have from him being such a busy person, is that I have grown increasingly independent. Not to say that I enjoy doing things alone, it's definitely better to have a partnership and I welcome the husband back into our daily lives. Not that him being busy has changed... but hey. Small steps in achievements, big results with being flexible and maintaining some sense of sanity in our lives...


To celebrate his graduation, I initiated a dinner for us two. Nothing too fancy, a date night, with a legitimate reason to fill our tummies and enjoy a new experience at a restaurant we had never been to together before.




Celebratory dinner - it was not bad, the food was fine, the ambience was a bit dark, but it was a nice time for us two nonetheless. We planned it for the eve of the convocation.

Celebratory graudation dinner + date night

The convocation was held at the school compounds and it was quite a regular affair. With two tickets only, the husband invited his mom and I to the event with him.

Proud Mom

With me

The convocation itself is just a ceremony, and I felt very proud of the husband for his achievements. Truly, it's not easy balancing everything and for him to accomplish it is definitely commendable. Having said that, I am glad that he's done with this and I am so happy to say, Congratulations baby! Woot!

Learning mandarin

Little J goes for Chinese lessons. I'm trying to remember when exactly, but it was one fateful evening where I discovered he had knowledge and vocabulary of mandarin at a standard of like, I don't know, sub-zero. Why? Because we do not speak much of it at home and he only knows (broken) English. Sigh.


So, learning from K who is our first-child-experiment, we enrolled him in class. I forgot when we started exactly, but it was probably about a year+ ago; as I discovered our routine from this post of our Saturday routine last year.


The lessons have paid off, and it is so amazing and I feel so proud to observe this boy display his knowledge of mandarin in conversation (still sometimes broken) and more superbly, his ability to identify Chinese words. Love it! We try to revise with him at least once a week, and he has truly accumulated a lot of words.

Revision time

He is pretty good and knows the words like, 90% and now we try to have him form sentences to reinforce his understanding of words.


Just for fun, here's sharing some funny sentences J has formed:

• 他去桌子 - he's probably thinking 'he went to the table' but we had to tell him it's a fragmented sentence that doesn't work on its own.
• 我看桌子 - 'I see the table' - again, a fragmented sentence!
• 我去运动公园 - 'I went to exercise at the park' - literally. Had to switch his sentence structure; though honestly this is such a common problem that we face even in adults (uh, me)
• 我看到五颜六色 - J thinks that 五颜六色 is 'a rainbow' - get it? He's forming 'I saw a rainbow' in this sentence! Had to educate him that the phrase means as colourful as a rainbow, but how he's used it is not right.
  
  

His sentences are pretty funny sometimes, but he will get better and it's all in the fun of learning and improving!


Little K is also on an uphill journey to improve her mandarin. Her advantage with the language is that she was exposed to it younger, though with no formal lessons. Her conversational mandarin is great but the theory of the language is a challenge.


Her struggle this year also includes hanyu pinyin which has been quite a feat. She has improved though which is great, but there is still a fair way to go. Her ability to recognise Chinese words is also a constant challenge; and truly, I don't blame her. It is not easy especially given that we do not practise enough.


So, on this learning journey we keep going!

K teaches me a lesson, and our new morning routine

From January to May 2016, our family endured very early hours with K (truly, everyone at home is involved in one way or other) as she caught the school bus to school. She woke up at 5.15am and after 5 months, we did get into a decent routine.
However, several factors made me decide to switch things because while the routine worked, it wasn't truly the best. Sleep (& in turn a less cranky child) still seemed a priority, so I made the decision to take matters into my own time (literally) and for the past few weeks since school started this 3rd term, I have been sending K to school on my own, via public transport.


So now, here's our routine:
By 6am: K wakes up and starts her morning by changing into her uniform/ breakfast
By 6.15am: I am awake and start stumbling about the house. I'll wash up and change and pack my things and start nagging her to keep chewing her breakfast and remind her of the time
6.35-6.45am: we leave home.
We take a short and brisk stroll from our home to the train station.
10-12 minutes later: we reach the MRT station
Approx 20 minutes later: we reach Stevens MRT station & trot a short road across the road (2 small road crossings with a gazillion cars)
By 7.15am: we reach school - say our goodbyes and off she goes


This new routine has added two bouts of goodness, both of the same quantity:
1) additional 45 minutes of sleep compared to previous routine (from 5.15am to 6am)
2) additional 45 minutes of time together with my princess (our commute from home to school)


While there are mornings where I need to nag more (K is a talented slowpoke), we have whines about loose teeth that hinders chewing, a girl who doesn't pack her bag properly & the list goes on... I think this new routine is working out pretty well. Weather is a big factor and it's typically pretty good weather, but it was pissing rain yesterday morning but thankfully the husband sent her; and today it was drizzling but we made it fine with an umbrella.


So that's our regular routine, and there are some implications which is my morning work-out time (which I am still experimenting now); and time with J (which I try to increase at night time) but truly, all is pretty good. Let's keep going and see how this continues!
So this morning was one of those slower than regular slowpoke kinda days (some days are better, some are worse) - and I was quite irritated. I'll nag her, urge her, even nudge her lightly to get her mooooooving. It did not help that it was drizzling and the train was slightly delayed, heightening my stress that we may be late for school!
We did make it on time, albeit a little later than 7.15am. On the short stroll to school, she had to take an umbrella - I watched this girl, unfrazzled by my incessant nagging, disregarding all care in the world as she twirled her umbrella, did light steps into puddles and hum a tune I couldn't make out.


In that moment, I smiled. My heart did a little blip as I watched her, and marvelled at her innocence. Yes, my girl can be whiney, she can be sluggish, but she is also the sweetest, good-natured, easy-going child.
This morning, she taught me a lesson of being yourself, and being happy because life is more than schedules. I love that I had this insight to her, and of how I ought to learn a lesson from her to take a chill pill.

Random pics I have snapped of her - she's always this smiley! :)

Thank you baby K for teaching me to just live a little. I love you baby!

Grandma visits K @ recess

K's classmate + her mom, K + her Grandma

 

 

Last week, the school invited parents of primary 1 children to visit the school during the children's recess time. This time will allow parents to interact with their children, and observe how they are during their break-time. Unfortunately, the husband and I were unable to attend, but thankfully, my Mom could and the beloved Grandma attended this recess session.

 

While I do not imagine the session to bring much surprises (K did not bring her waterbottle to recess so she bought a drink. Typical.), my intent of asking the Mother for help was because I wanted K to feel the love from us. As a child, I remember parent-attendances of certain things quite clearly and it is this love that I wish to pass on to K, for her to know that we are interested and wish to be part of her life.

 

For the record, K had chee cheong fun that day and received bonus money from Grandma as she wanted to buy some gummies. She was also very interested to be with her friends (uh, this famous friends-are-best-phenomena has begun!).

 

I'm thankful too that the Mother took time off to be as part of our lives as she can.

 

Thankful for a lovely school, a lovely child and a lovely Mom who is always willing to lend a helping hand.

Realities of school-life and #proudmommymoment

I do not consider myself a Tiger Mom. I am more of what I call, a "reactive" parent. I pretty much allow my children to lead their lives how they are, with no push to engage them in multiple enrichment classes, etc. Two years ago, I signed K up for our (I say our because when a child is engaged in classes, it's not just him/her. It is a collective effort of the parents too) first enrichment class. I did so, because I found her lacking in her knowledge of the alphabets/reading. And that began our "enrichment" journey (oh, the irony of how these classes are meant to be enriching at the expense of real life).

 

Approximately a year ago, I signed the boy up for Mandarin classes. This was from the horrifying discovery that he had zero mandarin vocabulary, and it'd be of true value for him to learn mandarin.

 

In the past 6 months, since K started primary school, I have discovered that these so-called "enrichment" classes that so many parents sign their children up for, are no longer seemingly enriching. They seem to become a basic norm and necessity, as it prepares the child better for the gruelling school life. It's not easy, I say, not at all.

 

Since Jan, K has been put on 2 extra classes - a mandarin class, and I also hired a home tutor to help her with her work. It's extra coaching, but it's also necessary to help me alleviate the need to supervise K as she starts to learn discipline and initiate completing her homework unguided, or with a tutor (for days when both the husband and I are busy at work), or with this tutor.

 

In this discovery and process, I started to buy more workbooks for K to attempt, in a bid to expose her more practise in hope that it'd help her along acadamically. While I was at the bookstore about a month ago, I decided (on a whim) to get some books for J too. Not so much that he needed any homework, but to inculcate the discipline to sit down to clear something in concentration.

 

An observation I made, is that the children - at moments - do begin to work on their stuff. When they do, I feel so happy and relieved that they have initiative. That is a skill that I cannot enforce (there is a limit, at least to how much I can really do). J, in particular, is spurred to practise his ABCs himself on occasions when I sit K down to do school work.

 

Yesterday evening, we chanced upon a moment where I asked J to write the letters he'd been practising. To my absolute delight, the work he's put in has paid off. I am one proud mother! 

 

A to V

While I am going through this stage, I am mindful that I wish to (a) accomplish the minimum so that my daughter can pull through and learn, expand her mind so that she is educated and knowledgeable; (b) learns discipline and understands routine, responsibilities and fulfillment of her tasks (c) that we do not have too much negative energy around the bad word "homework"... and a reminder had been circulating around social media lately about how children today are constantly under pressure to over-perform.. and truthfully, I do not need K to be that over-achiever. I wish for her to be a fun-loving, kind, sensible child who does what she needs to and becomes the person she will become.

As for J, he's fortunate in the sense that we are learning from the 'slackness' of K, and he's exposed to more 'work' earlier. How this will benefit us in the long-run is that he is more up-to-speed with what's expected of him in the curriculum (case-in-point his amazing A-to-V!) and will less struggle, should be more comfortable to absorb and perform.

Whichever the case, it's a learning journey for us as parents, for me as a Mom, and for them as children. We will calibrate and make the best we can with one another along the way... we will be fine!

Earning $13.90

Two weeks ago, the kids and I were at the supermarket. I used to join these Sunday breakfast-cum-supermarket-runs more often, then I felt that the time was better spent if I didn't go. It's a win-win (to me anyway) because (1) the children get full attention of their grandparents and (2) I get anything I want done in this precious window period of up to 2 hours. Anyway, I digress. So on this particular Sunday, I went because I needed to run some errands.

 

The children were being themselves, making themselves a semi-permanent fixture in the toys section and the very familiar whines "I want to buy xxxxx" was soon heard - no surprise there. I do not typically buy toys for the children. They have enough as is, and I do prefer to reserve toys and shopping for special occasions, making the occasions, well, special. So when they pleaded to buy a toy, I naturally rejected their plea. I knew the grandmother may cave, so after thinking it through, I decided to let them buy it - on my terms.

 

I decided that they could pay for it in forms of (1) errands, (2) savings that K has from the daily pocket money. I startted by drawing up a chart outlining tasks that the kids could easily accomplish. Each task would earn them 20cents. The guitar that they truly wanted was a guitar (well, more a plastic ukelele) that cost $13.90.

 

 Daily, I will ask the helper and the MIL what the children accomplished. I'd tabulate the points earned and note down how much they earned in monetary sense.

 

Accounting for $13.90

As Kate did not spend too much money this particular week, she had a lot of savings she could contribute to the purchase of the guitar. Within 2 weeks, the sale was complete.

 

The guitar, the savings, the tabulation sheet

 

I was pleased with this exercise. I'm not sure how much J understood of it - probably not entirely, because he still asked me on 2 random occasions where his money was and I tried to tell him that the money was given to me and he was earning the money through accomplishing tasks. K was more aware of what was going on, and she actively told me she had "a lot of savings" as she didn't spend any.

 

This exercise motivated them to achieve their daily tasks, and they would practically declare their achivements - this demonstrates that motivation truly works. I rather enjoyed implementing it - I think in some way, it must teach them some form of patience, earning their stripes and hopefully, treasure. Or at the very least, know that not everything comes to them just because they want it.

 

What a good lesson learnt (for both the children and I), and some thoughts on this exercise:

1) I need to follow through if I want to start the task - some days, I forgot to tabulate the errands but I think I did more good than not. But a worthwhile reminder to self nonetheless.

 

2) Need to explain the concept of earning through errands more - I think K gets it, but I think there's definitely room for better understanding with the younger boy

 

3) Team work - I have said it to them but I'm not sure how much they got, that they both earned the guitar together as a team. Both of them contributed - whether it was in terms of money (from K) or errands (both).

 

4) There is potential to teach the children more of this. I shall find ways that I can educate them the same value of earning/things don't come easy through other forms.

First trip out of Singapore - Korea

On the 5th day of January 2016, I flew out of Singapore. It was a very busy morning, that started dark and early at 5.15am. I rolled out of bed grudgingly, to see my daughter already dressed in her adorable school uniform and eating her breakfast quietly. Over the next half hour, she got ready and we headed down to the pick-up point at 5.40am to wait for her school bus; turned out to be the bus waiting for us! On the dot at 5.45am, she was off to school. I felt really heavy-headed and waded my way back home. I sat the alarm for 20minutes later, and laid down to rest. This is the morning life of my daughter going to Primary 1.

 

At 6.20am, I got up with a throbbing headache and went to get a glass of water. The husband's alarm went off too and together, we woke up a cranky son and got him ready for school. We made a decision to change him to the morning session class and this means that he has to get on the bus at 7am; and this is sthe morning life of my son going to N2.

 

Heaps of change this first week in 2016... and one of that is me going off on my first trip out of the country.

I'm right now in South Korea, Seoul on a work trip. It's been a fruitful trip on the work front, and the weather is terribly, terribly cold. It ranges from 10 degrees to -5 and it has been quite an experience gettting all bundled up in layers of warm clothing. It's also nice to be on the trip with 2 other colleagues, so I don't feel all lost and lonely.

 

In between work and meetings at the office, we have managed to do some bits of shopping and eating Korean food. Besides the extremely dry weather that is causing my skin to feel stretched and my nose to nearly bleed, it's been pretty cool (hur hur, bad pun). So here are some pics for me to remember this coupla days.

 

 

Day 1 - my travel companions

 

Day 2 - Myeongdong

 

Day 3 - Team Korea

 

It is very cold in Korea!

I head home tomorrow, and am totally looking forward to hugging my lovelies!
What a start to 2016!

First day of school 2016

It didn't seem too long ago that we were at the Primary One orientation; yet here we are waking up in the dead of the night (ok, I exaggerate. It's 630am on this first day of school as school started at 8am. Only the first day!) After breakfast and all the usual to-dos, the husband and I drove her to school together. Traffic was smooth and we managed to make it to school on time (phew).  

My little kimgek and I in the school courtyard

We led her to class together, and sat her down in a random seat.

Paying attention already - great sign!

 

We had to leave the classroom so that the teacher can get on with what she needed to do (she politely invited us to leave if we had no questions to ask) and like the obedient co-operative parents that we are, we did.

Not before we took a family pic together!

While I sat through a session with information on parent volunteers, the husband headed to work. I was thankful that I had girlfriends to sit with and chat. Before long, it was recess time at 9.40am. The school had cordoned off an area at the perimeter of the canteen so that parents may see their child, without interrupting with the child's routine at school. It felt rather barbaric that we had to peer from the sides and it was a madhouse! It took me more than 20minutes to locate K and when I finally did, it was pure happiness!

Spotted!

It was very endearing that she was craning her neck to look at me too and I felt very loved, and I hoped she felt too. Being the independent girl that she is, I'm sure that she would be fine. Yet seeing her like a little-big girl does pull at my heartstrings and I feel as if she is, afterall, little. I also knew she was anxious because she had expressed her anxiety while on the way to school and we assured her that it's normal to feel excited and nervous all at once, because this was a new adventure. I felt very proud of her though, and while she was looking out for me, she still seemed fine and I remind myself that she is in a great environment which will train her to be a fine young lady.

Yay I got to see her upclose!

 

After recess at 10.15am, I made my way out from primary school and headed towards kindergarten to see my little boy. When I arrived, it was assembly and I stood by the sidelines watching this little boy who was standing so confidently, singing along. It took him a while to notice me and when he did, his smile was amazing.

My little big boy

I stayed only for a while, as there was little for me to check on - I managed to kiss him and say goodbye before the husband came to brighten his day too by checking in on him - and sent me home.

 

Being on leave, I was able to pick both children up.

 

Love this pic of us!

Mommy will always be behind you both, supporting and guiding you
whereever you go, my babies.

 

I felt a bunch of emotions as I spent this first day of school with these babies. I know that they are growing up and I know that I need to adjust my own expectations of them and myself too. It is amazing how quickly they become independent and I know that they will be fine.

 

I asked K, especially how school was, because the change is so much greater for her with changes in everything from school bus, to school, to environtment and routine; being the champion she is, she responded with a smile and thumbs up! As for J, he's always been a confident little chap and as expected, he rose to the occasion like the strong little soldier he is.

 

So proud of them for being so brave in embracing their new school life in 2016!