HOLIDAYS, Yippee!

We'll be having holidays from 30th May -28th June (inclusive), yippee!

I declare myself a PROUD mom!

Okay, my 8 yo came home with a couple of fancy laminated awards and yes, they LOOKED good!
Not so much that it's a physical thing to hold and to hang up on our already colourful walls, but mainly it made my Letitia fell like she is worthy and clever. She has a spring in her step even after a long day at school, she was beaming a smile even while she announced the news.

Thank you Ms April (P2Agape)! It does a mom wonders to see her young child feeling so 'high' in her little world. It's not very often one gets 'awarded' or rewarded, but when one does, it's worth the blog/boast!

My prayer is that Letitia continues her love and zeal for school, the zeal to learn and be taught. I also ask GOD to continue to preserve her heart, her mind and her spirit. School is but a journey we take to equip ourselves for GOD's plan for us. At 8 years old, it's about girlie friends, hand clapping games, colouring with oil pastels, running at P E as well as getting over the butterflies of 'show and tell'. Thank you GOD for my kids.

SHE'S normal afterall!

For a long time now, I knew in my heart that I have a super diligent, book loving, self motivated No 1. She's often complained when ART lessons in schools get the boot and is swapped for tv instead. She gets even more annoyed when the "mommies" come in, talks about 'Van Gogh" but noone gets to do any REAL art. Then, there's one time when she announces, "yippee, we are starting school lessons again"! Okay, knowing how bored she is when the end of term looms, I understand that the simple fact of 'some event' is better than NO EVENT but when yesterday,..

She stepped into the car announcing that "Mom, we have REAL homework at last!", I got a bit worried. I then replied, "can you ask your friends if any of them have this same reaction?!" Upon further investigation, I learnt that classes and lessons has resumed with next terms curricula. Then it dawned on me, is she normal? Why is my kids so 'weird' when most parents tel me their children shun school work.

Today, this morning to be exact, she gave me the greatest sigh of relief. No 1 told me that, she is excited with homework because it allows her to hand them in, and it clocks up her chance to play "Home-work-apoly", a board game dreamed up by her amazing class teacher. Phew! She's still a kid afterall, motivated by fun and games. Kudos to Ms April, for making primary two less of the word, drilling for these 8 year olds.

I can now go back to confidently homeschooling No 2 now!

Non the WISER!

This year we kinda had a bigger birthday for me. Most times, I like nothing but to enjoy a quiet buffet dinner with the girls and their daddy to just celebrate simply. This year, I felt that since we've been here in Singapore for nearly 3 years, I'd like to celebrate with friends. We are now starting to know enough people and it's a good chance to get to know people while not having too cook (yippee!) We went to Sizzlers Toa Payoh with the Yap family who serves with us in church Sunday school. Our kids got along well and we had a nice time getting to know each other. We also brought cakes and pastries to share with our church family to bless all those who has blessed us!

Cuddles from the girls. Just last Sunday we learnt with the kids not to store up treasures on earth where moth and worms destroy. We are to store up treasures in heavens with our actions, words and deeds. We do all these by showing love, faith, patience, gentleness. I am reminded that often mommies are tempted to make their children 'treasures' where their entire existence are revolved around the 'happiness' of the children.

As parents who fear GOD, we have since learnt that being a good parents does not mean fulfilling every single deed/need as per requested by our kids. Most times, their wishes are fulfilled but we are to make the call as to who, what, when and why sometime we have to say 'no'! We end up being the bad guy for the day but a lesson in life is learnt, life is just NOT FAIR, and life is NOT all about YOU!

My biggest present I received this year is when I realised that my kids are now able to self motivate themselves on their school work. It is no longer my 'task' as such to get them to the table to finish their work. On the other hand it is quite the opposite for Letitia when she is the one who oftens reminds me of her piles of work needing attention. Even having an active church life as a family, Letitia will still wake early, finish her devotion and then settles to finish up her homework that does not need supervision. On the same note, Mathena's homeschoolin life has blossomed too. She's happy and excited to be reading chapter books (big girl books) and will also spend whatever veg out times to read. Her school work is showing heaps of improvement where she too is choosing the books and finishing them at her own pace, without being told.

Am older, but still learning..

This year, Alex took a day of on my birthday to take over my 'mommy' duties while I do whatever I want. He held fort of all the driving, all the cooking, all the tidying up and even homeschooling duties. I then went out with Letitia to spend some precious time with this ever growing little girl. Thanks for all the well wishes as well as all the pressies.

MOTHER'S DAY 2009 & NIGHT SAFARI

This year, we went into FULL SWING with being in the local school system. Though the country prides itself with the high standards of education and the many success stories of their "achievments" as a nation. We are still struggling with certain things. As I mingle more with the local moms and dads, I found out that WE are NOT the only ones.

ONE major thing I struggle with is: "SCHOOL IS NOT FUN!"
Hey, I can understand when you need to buckle up in the high school years to prepare oneself for real life university etc, but THIS is PRIMARY SCHOOL!! My minuscule effort of homeschooling to SO MUCH more fun than what they offer. WHY? You may so ask? Well for one thing, 10mins is taken out of their recess most days so that the kids can finish up their worksheets, then an extra 5 mins is taken to get them READY for class. A full day's worth of recess is only, wait, let me tell you, a whole whooping 30mins. So in reality, how much time do these kids get to eat lunch, play and go to toilet? A lovely FIFTEEN MINUTES ONLY!!!!

How do kids play? How do they exercise their pent up energies? How do they make friends? how do they even finish their food? We KNOW that Singapore is the HIGHEST PER CAPITA country in this region for kids with MYOPIA (my child included), you wonder why?

Anyway, this is enough whinging....will spread my complaining across a couple of blogs. In the MIDST of all the exams, revision and test. We thought seriously on giving the girls a BREAK. We went out to the NIGHT SAFARI.Things are SO DARK there that the only thing we could take are pictures of half clothed NOISY men! Sigh! So sorry for the obscenity.

One reason mainly to celebrate the girls for their work, before the exams, as well as to remind them that their worth is not valued upon 100 marks. And that life is NOT all about exams though we spend 80% of the time at home doing revision. We are especially reminding our conscientious Letitia that LIFE does not STOP when we get assessed. We can still have fun and we SHOULD have fun. We got home around 10pm and the girls were soooo tired that they were half asleep even in their showers. When they touched the pillows, we could not even get a response from them....zzzzz! We all had a wonderful time. It doubled up as mommy's birthday present to spend a 'memorable' time as a family! Here the pics.The NEON gift shop was the girls favourite part of the Zoo, go figure..!

This is where one can get S$17 chicken rice, S$18 Nasi Briyani!!! (Even WE find that an overkill!)

We've been sooo busy!

Bad excuse for not maintaining this site....but I have been trying to keep my head above waters.

We've had Easter passed. I successfully made 3 batches of cuppie cakes and shared it all around. Forgot to take pics. I discovered that my toaster over we use for bread makes a pretty mean oven for cuppy cakes. Yippee! With one cake recipe, I can make 39 mini cup cakes!

Then we had Letitia's Ballet Exams which she did well in. We were stunned at the amount of work they did. No longer fun and games for Grade 2 kids!

Now that we are at the end of Term 2 of the Singapore school system. I am finally 'breathing' (will blog re school exams soon). On the labour day long weekend, Alex was away for a Men's event in church for 4 days. We managed to fit in a bit of play amongst all the studying, revision and test. Letitia and classmate Grace at our place for a couple of fun hours!

Mathena had her share with friend from Ballet, AG (not shown here).