Homeschooling 2009

In all honesty, I TRULY love the fact that I can homeschool.

There's so many pulls in and out of our lives, plans change, circumstance alter BUT I still stand firm that homeschooling is the best thing that ever happened for our family.

I only have Mathena with me now but even with saying that, as Letitia only attends primary school in the afternoon, she actually goes through the motion of homeschool at home with us too. The BIGGEST difference is that we now have shorter table time as we need to get Letitia off to school by lunch time. After Mathena's nap (yes, my 5yo is happily napping in the afternoons), we continue with more 'fun'..

Here's what Mathena and I get into at home:Picking Letitia up from school is one of our many highlights!

Serious WORK at table time!

We learn how to peel onions without the tears!

We stretch to burn off the jiggle-bugs!

..and we often get quite messy (Note: Mathena's pet is next to her)

Blessings for this CHINESE New Year!

Today, we went to buy the traditional 'BAK KWA' and I notice a little man in his 40s who wanted 4-5 slices of the sweet bbq meat. When the shopkeeper weighed it to be S$12, he quickly ask for only half that amount. He then, asked for ONE slice of the 'better quality' meat on top of the other lot. I felt challenged to realise that WE ARE SO BLESSED, we can order food according to how much we eat, and not think too hard on the price. How I wished I was brave enough to buy him some more meat, just to bless him!...

BAK KWA is a 'treat' in most traditional chinese families. We now eat it as a 'snack' in this affluent society but this was a reminder to me of olden chinese families who would not have had the pleasure of pork or meat whole year, and when CNY arrives, this sweeten bbq meat is the 'highlight' of the season.

Dear Lord, forgive us for being so spoilt...

Outrigger Island: Special POST for the Van Zyls

This year TRBC was adventurous to have 270plus kids. 2 separate programmes were run and as usual (6 years running) the ENTIRE church was mobilised!
Surfing and beach look with lots of Hawaiian themes..
HUGE life size, bigger than man size posters were painted for amazing impact!



This is JUST the early primarys...





We were blessed to have REAL doulos missionaries to come and share their lives and testimonies! What an awesome timing..
These 2 girls wishes Allene and Rule were there to enjoy the programmes too!

2 Agape 2009: What Letitia's been up to!

Letitia's Class teacher is very good at documenting the kid's activities etc. This is Letitia with her hand made puppet with the two boys sitting next to her (to her dismay!). She's all girlie and is not enjoying having boy active/sound-making germs around her.


The kids at school are given 'Buddies' to pair up with the first week of school. Being P2 which is the older one in the afternoon session, Letitia got to look after young Vanessa. What a privelege, what fun!




Recess time with the match of classes, P1 Agape vs P2 Agape.

Cinderella 2009

On Jan 3rd, Saturday the girls had the biggest (most expensive) treat of their lives. We went to watch the Musical "Cinderella" and had a 'ball'! Great memories and the girls are still humming the tunes. This time we did not buy any CDs so they cannot re-inforce the songs in their heads, but all the same, it was an enjoyable and 'safe' musical for kids to watch!

Letitia, Our Primary-2-Girl!

I had just realised that I have not properly blogged Letitia's school days in Kuo Chuan Primary. Unlike all the primary ONE parents, we went to school with a bit of new-ness excitement but at the same time, we know enough of the 'system' to be calm...
These are the corridors where patient parents await their little babies carrying oversized school bags as they march or run homewards. I wait for Letitia here as well...often with Mathena in tow who's literally swinging from the poles!
School buses that line up the school grounds awaiting 2 shifts of kids to shuttle to and fro school. Smaller vans are about 10 seaters are available as well.
KUO CHUAN is actually a government school with a Mission twist. This means that this school upon yearly approval, has the freedom to disseminate the gospel as well as teach into the children some biblical virtues. It's priority is for the neighbourhood children who stems from all walks of life, happy to accept these teachings knowing the 'higher' good. We chose it for obvious reasons... it's the closest to a CHRISTIAN school we can get to near our home!
This library looks great, it was revamp a couple of years back to make it child-likable and I soon found out that our church friends (CHIUs from Pencibox ID) designed it. Well done!
Assembly before school starts. Everyday, there's 15mins of quiet reading plus 'devotion' where teachers take in turns teaching 10-15mins of meaningful out of textbooks stories and lessons to the kids. Am thrilled about this..
Letitia is front of her NEW Primary 2 classroom. 2 AGAPE 2009. The teacher even set up a blog for the families to keep in touch in: 2AGAPE09
Okay, highlight of SINGAPOREAN canteens...it's like a FULL-ON foodcourt in a major shopping centre. There's HALAL food, chicken rice, snacks (fish balls, cakes), chicken wings, noodles of all types and flavors, drinks, sandwiches and much much more. Our dilemma is that they all serve PROPER meal food while when Letitia has her recess, it's afternoon tea time. So end up packing our own food for health (fruits) and logical reasons.
We require a 'trolley' school bag nowadays as they book contents are ALL heavier than the school girls herself. At the rate it's being dragged (day 2) I sense that it may only last the most ONE year. Sigh!

An insight to a Singaporean school....ta-daah! Pray for us!