3 Days 2 Night Adventure Camp

Primary 5 is a year of busy school life schedule for Anthea. Since the beginning of the year, there were many letters from the school informing the parents of all the upcoming events for them.

One of them was a 3D2N Adventure Camp at a local campsite. Initially I was very hesitant for her to partake in the camp as she has never been exposed to such environment.

After a few emails exchanges with the teacher-in-charge, I had all my worries packed in a bag and she was off for the 3D2N camp.
 

The camp took place from 15 to 17 April 2013.

15 April:  Assembled in school at usual hour and the buses took them to the Jalan Bahtera Camp located off Jalan Bahtera.  The first activity that took place was High Elements Exercises. Looking at some of the photos that were taken during the various stations, I was full of admirations of the kid’s courage to go so high.

Doing the Rock wall climbing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The High Element

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the evening, we decided to drop by to the camp to pay Anthea a surprise visit. We had quite an “adventurous ride” to get to the campsite. As it was located nearby to a Military Camp, we actually “gatecrashed” and went into a Military training ground. Luckily after some time of searching, we finally found the children campsite.

Anthea was very surprised to see us and they were having great fun playing a game of “Kidnapped”. We didn’t stay long and bade her goodbye after visiting the sleeping huts. (There were no air-conditions and fans!!) 

16 April: A full day of activities for the children and in the evening the P5 parents were invited to the camp fire. The school even organized buses to ferry us to the campsite at a nominal cost of $3 for 2 ways transfers. I had a fun time at the camp fire and seeing Anthea enjoying herself. At 9.30pm, the camp fire came to a closure and we said Good Bye and see your tomorrow.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

17 April: Home Sweet Home.

Overall experienced was great and she came back feeling lethargic and happy.  I am happy that she had the chance to experience a campout session with all her school friends.

Happy 11th Birthday to Anthea!

It’s her 11^th years old birthday and she had plans for her celebration. In the afternoon hours, she wanted to go shopping with her good friend and then joined us for dinner.

 

Yes, 11 years had gone by in a swift and each time we reached a birthday milestone, it felt like I just delivered her yesterday.
 

Her growing years had been a memorable one for me as she has always been MINE girl. Always showing me her LOVE and appreciation openly and never failed to disappoint me in her academic achievement too. She has high aspiration and I could only give her my best support and encouragement.

 

On Saturday, 6 April 2013, we had a simple family dinner with my in-laws. She had wanted to have western and thus we booked ourselves a table at Sun Ray’s Café. It’s a small café situated outskirt of Serangoon Garden. The food was surprisingly very palatable. We had mushroom soup, pasta and some meat dishes.

Mushroom soup

Lamb Rack

At the end of the meal, we had a simple Birthday Cake celebration for the birthday girl. All her younger nieces were singing different version of the birthday songs for her, we even had a Korean version…thanks to K-Drama…haha.

 On this special day, I would like to wish my LOVELY girl: Happy 11^th Birthday and a good year ahead.



Happy Birthday Anthea

Happy 9th Birthday to Anthea !

Last year she had a Macdonald’s Party with her classmates. This year, she wanted a buffet lunch at Fullerton Hotel. After some discussion with Anthea, we finally decided on a birthday lunch at Ellenborough Café in Swissotel Merchant Court hotel. Much thanks to the Raffles Feed card from my in-laws.

On Saturday, we arrived at the hotel around 11.45am as lunch was booked at 12 noon. When we arrived at the hotel, both Anthea and Anders said: “oh…is this hotel, we came here for wedding before.” When we asked further, both said: “it’s Uncle Terence wedding.” We were quite amazed as they could still remember it was my youngest BIL got wedded in May 2008.

We were seated around 12noon and started our buffet lunch. Both anthea and Anders had a great time with the food selection. We had an enjoyable family lunch. At the end of the lunch, we decided to just have some photo taking with the birthday cake and keep the ceremony till dinner with the extended families. Anthea had chosen the Oreo Cheesecake off the cake counter from the café.

Seated beside us was actually a group of people attending a wedding lunch. This brought back very good memories for Adrian and me. We shared with the children that we had our ROM Lunch at the very same venue and area, back in Dec 1999. Now Anthea is already 9th years old.

We went home for a short rest and Anders had his swimming lesson in the late afternoon. Dinner was organized at the east coast seafood centre. We had it at Little Red House as Jumbo was full and the crowd was massive due to a heavy downpour in the evening. It was an enjoyable dinner and we had the cake cutting ceremony after dinner. Anthea shared her birthday cake with the families.

As it was still early, we decided to adjourn for another round of dessert. Original intention was Gelatore at Siglap Centre but the place was gone. So finally we ended up at Xin Wang café which had all the selection of cold/hot desserts. We ate desserts and chatted away happily, sharing our updates of the week. Around 11pm, we called it a day and Anthea was very happy that her special day had turned out to be SPECIALLY HAPPY.

Wishing my dearest Anthea – a Happy 9th birthday and May your wish comes true.

A Perfect (PreFect) Dream..

I still remembered when Anthea was in Primary 1 – she had an aspiration: “mommy, I want to be a school prefect.”

During a Parent-Teacher-meet, I told her then form teacher of Anthea’s dream. She told me: “it’s possible, she had the required qualifications.”

When school started this year, Anthea told me her name was on the Prefectorial board and she was asked to go for a meeting last Friday. After the meeting, she came home with her official title – the Prefect Tie and her duty roaster.

It was a very proud moment for her and as a mother; I shared her pride and joy. I just hope that she would be able to carry out her duties as assigned.

Anders, upon seeing Anthea being promoted to a Prefect, came and told me: “mommy, I want to be a prefect too.” I explained to Anders that I am not the one who gave her the rights to become prefect. She was chosen by her teachers. Also importantly, I told Anders – a prefect must display certain qualities in term of behavior and characteristic, in order for the teacher to choose them. He would need to ensure that he can build up all these to qualify for the role.

Hopefully, this would train Anders to become more responsible and take good care of his belongings…: P

Anthea has been sharing her next aspiration with me and it’s a HUGE one for sure. I would continue to support her and gave her my blessing and may she achieve her next DREAM.....: )

KKH ENT & Happy Teacher’s Day

On 31 August we had an appointment made for Anthea with KKH ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) Specialist clinic.

Anthea has been having this “Ahem” problem with her throat. We had tried western and traditional Chinese medication but till today, the problem is still there. As we are worried that it may become chronic, so we decided to ask for the specialist opinion.

Our appointment was scheduled at 3.50pm and Adrian took a day leave to accompany us for the appointment. We registered her name and waited for about 45 minutes before the specialist see us.

The diagnosis was – mucus back drip. This means that her mucus is the one causing the problem and because of the drip back to the nose, it also block the airways to the throat, then created the “ahem” problem. The specialist prescribed 2 kind of nasal spray and we have to monitor the situation for 3 months till our next visit end November.

Hopefully, this will solve the problem.

On the same day, the children celebrated Teacher’s Day in their respective schools in the morning. As usual, we managed to buy small gifts for Anthea’s form teacher and Anders’s English and Chinese teachers.

A friend of mine recently started an online business and sell small items that are very sweet. This friend of mine enjoyed Stitching and she uses her hobby to build up a small business. I am always in full admiration of her capability – she is a SAHM and she homeschooled her own children, take care of the chores of her own and plus this new business.

I ordered the gift via her online store - Jean Stitch and when we received them in the mailer, Adrian also commented that they were lovely. I hope the Teachers will like their Teacher’s day gift as these gifts are sewn out of Love and Tender care.

DisCoveries Saturday

On Saturday, Anthea’s school had an open house event and this year event was themed as Discovery Talent on 17 July, 11am to 3 pm.

This year Anthea’s class is involved in the Speech and drama performance. Her class was putting up a short skit – The shoemakers and the elves.

Around 12 noon, I brought her to school after sending Anders for his tuition class. We reached her school around 12.15pm and she met up with her form teacher. They were doing a round of rehearsal before the real show at 1pm.

At 1.15pm, the parents were all seated in the classroom and waiting anxiously for the children to start the show.

Anthea and few other classmates had the role of the narrators for the skit and she did the introduction for the show. I was impressed with the play and thought that the teacher and children had put in great effort for the show.

After the show, Anthea went around the school compound to collect Stamps for the puzzle game. She was having loads of fun with her classmates.

Adrian brought Anders to join us after his lesson and we met one of his childcare friends, Pamela, at the school. The parents are deciding if they wanted to register Pamela into the school for her Primary Education.

Anders went around the school with Pamela and he had fun playing the games with her. Finally around 3pm, we ended our tour and went home for our afternoon fiesta.

In the evening, we went over to my girlfriend home; she had invited us over to her place to view the NDP Fireworks. Both Althea and Anders had requested to have a quick swim at the pool before dinner and firework.

We reached Cindy’s home around 6.30pm and they went by the poolside to have some water play. Angus also joined them when he reached home from his enrichment lesson.

Then we had dinner around 7.15pm, Dave had kindly went to packed dinner from a Zi-Char near their home.

While having dinner, we chatted and enjoyed the companionship. Interestingly Cindy and Dave are planning a yearend holiday to my DREAM destination. Now we are talking of a possibility of going for a holiday together, if I can convince myself over the LONG HOURS of flights….hehe : P

Around 8.15pm, we saw the fireworks coming out from the Padang area. The view was very nice and the children had fun viewing it. We even joked that we should go over to their home on National Day itself.

Anthea and Anders had fun playing with Angus games/toys and also they had the chance to play WII. Anders truly enjoyed it and asked if we could get a set too.

Both the adults and children had so much fun that we finally left their home around 10.30pm.

It was a great Discovery Saturday for us and simply gathering like this bring our friendship to another level of understanding, yes, Adrian just discovered that both Cindy & Dave are CSI Fans too….: )

Anthea 1st pair of Badminton Shoes

Beginning this year, Anthea started CCA with the Recreation Badminton group in school. As the name denotes, it was more for leisure playing than competitive playing. Before school holiday, she told me: “mommy, I have decided to quit badminton.” I asked her for her reason as I do not want her to quit for the wrong reason.

After hearing her out – citing as time waster as the teacher spent more time lecturing the children than on coaching them played. I approved of her decision. When school reopened, she went to her form teacher to tell her the decision to quit badminton. The form teacher mentioned that she will inform the teacher-in-charge.

Last Thursday, it was her scheduled PE lesson and they played badminton during the hours. The school badminton team teacher – Miss Ching was also doing PE lesson with her class and she saw Anthea played the game. Immediately she asked her aside for a chat. Ms Ching asked Anthea if she would like to join the school badminton team. After some persuasion from Ms Ching, Anthea decided to go for the trial training on that afternoon.

She was all smiles when I fetched her from school and she proudly told me: “mommy, Ms Ching asked me to join the badminton school team and I will be going for training this afternoon. You must sign the consent form, ok?”

How would I say “No” to sports, especially badminton…hehe. Yes, we come from a family of badminton players and athletics. Sport is naturally in our blood and we breathe the game too. : )

So since last Thursday, Anthea has officially joined the school team and her training is every Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Now that she is into proper coach training, I told Adrian we need to get her a good pair of badminton shoes. On Monday, it was Youth School holiday, so we took the opportunity to shop around AMK for a pair of shoes for her; we were unable to find a suitable pair.

In the evening, we went to Queensway shopping centre to look for the shoes. After some searching around the many sports shops, we finally decided on a pair of Victor badminton shoes for her. It was just the right size for her and she was very happy to own a pair of badminton shoes.

She is now very enthusiastic about badminton and I am really happy that she has this opportunity to be groom for this sport.


Hope she will LOVE it, just like Adrian and I did during our school days. : )

Happy 8th Birthday to Anthea

Anthea will be celebrating her 8th birthday on 9 April 2010. As the actual day falls on a Friday, I had planned for her to celebrate her birthday earlier. When the calendar said that 2nd April is a Good Friday Holiday, I thought it would be the best day to celebrate such a happy occasion.

With this in mind, when I booked for Ander’s birthday party, I booked the same for Anthea. Instead of celebrating it in school, she would be hosting her party at the Macdonald outlet.

Yesterday, 2 April – her party time was booked from 1.00 pm to 2.30pm. At around 12 noon, I went by to the hub to pick up her birthday cake and we made our way to the Macdonald outlet at AMK Ave 10.

When we arrived, the party organizers – Suja and Sebastian were preparing the stuff for the party. There was a private section specially catered for birthday party. Suja told me that usually they don't host Birthday Party on Public Holiday. Her restaurant Manager had taken my booking by mistake and they were kind enough to accomodate to the party. I was so thankful to hear her said this. : )


Anthea’s friends started arriving as time passed. Most of the parents just left the children at the party and went on with their own agenda. A few parents stayed on for the party.

At 1.00pm, the party began. The children had their happy meals which they ordered with Sebastian. Anthea was eating happily and mingling around with her friends.

After a good meal, the party began. The organizer started the game session. The 1st game was called Caterpillar and the children had so much fun passing the balloons in their respective team. Amid the excitement, they were also screaming away – the energy level in the room was SUPER HIGH..haha. I had a good laugh watching them so excited over the challenge.

The 2nd game was a bit lower key but they were equally excited. The 2 team was given a list of items to collect. The children went round the room and pick up all the different items. Even parents were chipped in to help….haha.

After the 2nd game ended, the organizer told the children to cool down while they prepared for the cake cutting ceremony.

Anthea was all smiled when her friends sang the birthday song for her and she made a birthday wish (es) before cutting her cake.

She started giving out the cakes to all her friends and the parents. After eating the cake, it was time for her to give out the party pack to all her friends. Everyone was very happy to get a party pack & a balloon. Kids will be kids at heart, no matter how old they are. : )

The party came to an end and some of her friends bade her goodbye while some stayed on to play on with the balloons. They just ain’t had enough of games…haha.

Finally we left the place around 3.30pm after all the fun time. 8 years seem to pass so quickly, sometimes, I wish it will slow down a little. Anthea has been a great joy & companion in my life.

On this special day – my wish for my girl is to grow up Happy & Live each day to the fullest!

A Special INVITATION & My New Camera

2 weeks ago, Anthea showed me a letter from her school regarding the following week schedules and also the dates of collecting and returning of the report books. The school also mentioned that there will be a Prize giving ceremony cum concert on Friday, 20 November 2009. Only parents of prize winners, all P6 students and performances need to attend the event due to space constraint.

I saw Anthea’s SA 2 results and told myself that likely we need not go to school on the Friday, so we just need to prepare ourselves in the morning for our Sentosa check in on the same day.

However, on Monday, she showed me a form after school. Yes, it was the INVITATION for the ceremony on this Friday. I was very surprised and happy to see that she is one of the prize winners as she is 2nd in her class. : )

I was totally over the moon with the news although I had not seen her report books yet, I knew she did well enough to gain 2nd placing in class.

Today is the report book day and she has made me a very proud mother with her wonderful results.
English – 94.0%

Chinese – 99.0 %

Mathematics – 88.0%

She scores Band 1 for all the subjects and A’s for all the others subjects – Art/Social study/Health education/ Music & Physical Education.

Only her Math was below 90% and after seeing her papers, we know where her weakness was and hopefully she will learn from it.

So this Friday, I will be attending her prize winning ceremony and thereafter we will proceed to Sentosa for our grand celebration.

For this special occasion and our Sentosa weekends stay, I decided to invest in a good camera to capture more photographs…haha.

I had been considering getting a DSLR camera and was seriously considering Panasonic Lumix DMC GF1 after hearing some very good feedback from the Club Snap forum. I had visited MS Color shop in AMK 2 – 3 times to check on this camera but so far, the shop does not has stock of the camera and advised me to wait till next month.

Today, I went to Chinatown to run some errands and there were few shops selling different models of cameras and I told myself to try my luck to see if the shop has my preferred camera. Yes, it has the G1 model that I was looking for…: P

Immediately I made my queries with the sale person and he showed me the camera.
The salesman explained to me the basic function of the G1 DSLR and also the pros & cons. In order to get a good zoom, I would need to buy extra lens and he said that would cost about another $600 (almost a price of a new camera…: P )

Then after knowing my needs, he recommend me another Panasonic Lumix – model FZ35.

This camera has what I wanted and he also mentioned that for a beginner to photography, this camera will suite me better than a DSLR. He said once I get used to playing the FZ35, he said I can go back and look for him for a DSLR camera. There was one sentence he said and impressed me – he said the FZ35 will make the photo “看起来有生命力”. Wow what a way to put it and the price was few hundred cheaper than G1. So it’s a win-save situation for me.

Finally I bought the FZ35 and the package include a 8GB SD Card, camera case, a tripod and he even gave me a free card reader and lens cleaning stuff.

I truly admired his professional knowledge and he was so openly sharing his knowledge with me and talking to him really make me learnt so much about the camera. I am really grateful to have met him in my pursue of a new hobby.

Okie, now I am reading the operating manual for my new camera and hopefully on this Friday, I can capture 有生命的照片。。哈哈！

New Toy / New Haircuts

We had another busy weekend. Ever since Anthea & Anders tried Angus’s Yo-yo, they have been bugging me to buy one for them.

So as usual, how can I say No to them, right..: ) . On Saturday afternoon, I brought both of them to Toy R Us @ United Square to search for the recommended Yo-Yo. Before hand, I had a quick checked with Cindy and she recommended the Super Yoyo Stealth Raider model for beginner. However, the outlet does not have stock of this model and the children were disappointed and they would not go off empty handed. Finally, we bought another model Yoyo but instead of 2, I told them we would only buy one and try another outlet for the recommended Yoyo. They were both agreeable to the decision.

So now at home, both of them are practicing the new tricks on their new toy – Yoyo.

After buying the Yoyo, we had our lunch at Macdonald. I am still short of a few properties to get one of the monopoly prizes…hee.

Then we walked to Novena for our favorite dessert – Yummy Yogurt. After our dessert, I brought Anders for his haircut at EC House and while waiting for Anders. I try to persuade Anthea to cut her hair too. She has been keeping her long hair for a while but I had some problems with her maintaining it. She is too lazy to comb her own hair after each wash and I had to keep nagging at her. Also she does sports and swim, so keeping long hair is quite a chore.

I told her of all the good points of keeping short hair and finally after some consideration- she said YES. Immediately I bought the coupon at EC House and told the lady hair dresser that I would like her to cut Anthea’s hair.

After 10 minutes, she came out with a new look and the hairstyle suit her well. Anthea said she was happy with her new hairdo…phew.

We all went home feeling very happy with our achievements..haha.

In the evening, we went for a House warming gathering of one of Adrian long time buddy. He also upgraded his home from a 5 room HDB to a Condominium. They hold a dinner buffet at the clubhouse. We had a good time catching up with his buddies and wives. His buddy brought us to his unit and shows us the beautiful home. Very happy for them to have find their new home sweet home.

On Sunday morning, I went for my Boot camp training and this time round we had a new trainer and he was more on cardio training. After the session, my whole body felt the effect(aching) and I told Adrian it was a very good workout…“ 花钱买罪受。。哈哈”

In the afternoon, I baked some milo cookies for the family and my working colleagues.

In the evening, we brought Anthea to one of her classmate home as she requested to go over to play with her.

They had a good time at the condominium playground and we brought along our badminton gears for them to play. We finished the playtime around 6.30pm and headed over to Charco for our dinner. It was our 1st time trying the food and it was not too bad.

We went home, feeling happy & satisfied and ready for a new week ahead. Now I am looking forward to our Rasa Sentosa Weekends stay.

Stress or Motivation

Anthea SA2 will be happening in about 2 week’s time. I am preparing her revision papers for next week when school is out for a week due to PSLE markings.

A few weeks back during a family dinner, there was a discussion about Anthea SA2. Well, Adrian had promised Anthea that she gets to chose her holiday destination if she scores 90% & above for her 3 subjects. If any of the 3 subjects fall below 90%, mommy will chose the destination. (Hmm…regardless, she will still get a holiday. Not a bad deal for her…hehe.)

My youngest BIL posed a question to Adrian: “by giving her this 90% targets, are you stressing her or motivating her?”

So this opens the family discussion:

My FIL (an ex-school teacher) asked Adrian: “what were her scores for her SA1?” Adrian told him they were all above 90%. Then my FIL said that the targets are realistic. He cited that if she had been scoring 75% above and we set a 90% target, then it will be STRESSFUL for her to achieve. As it is now, it’s to motivate her to maintain her good results.

My 2^nd BIL – he’s also agreeable to the targets as he mentioned that children need to work hard towards certain achievement and when they achieved it, they will feel proud of themselves too.

Phew…so it was a clean bill of approvals…haha. (I was not presence at the discussions and heard these from Adrian.)

Well, to be honest, we or rather I had never stress Anthea too much on her studies. My requirement is the same as any parents – as long as she put in her best effort towards her studies, I am satisfied. Of course, which parents do not want the child to excel?? I know her area of weakness and I will constantly help her to improve. This is the reason why I chose to become a Part Time SAHM… : )

Besides studying, Anthea still enjoy badminton sessions and DS games with all her friends. So it’s very much balance between study – play for her. Periodically, I will also do a check with her if she’s coping fine with her school & tuition lessons and so far, her feedbacks are positive.

I remembered reading on the Straits Times Forum that said HDB dwellers parents do not give enough stress to their children in their studies. That's why they do not become Doctors and Lawyers as compared to those who stayed in private properties.

Let's hope our generation of HDB's children can make a "revolution change"...haha.

口试

Last Saturday after her 天下lesson, Anthea told me “mommy, you need to buy oral books for me to revise my Chinese oral. Don’t buy those which need to do exercises, buy those just for oral, okay?”

“Okay, I will go and look for the oral book/s.” I told her.

So on Monday, I went to Popular bookstore to search for the book. Anthea seldom make such request and when she does, I treat it with TOP Priority…hehe.

I went through all the P1 assessment books and saw that they are all the comprehension exercise books with a few other subjects. I don’t think I want to stress her with more such exercises. So I look and look around all the P1 books. Finally at one particular shelf, I saw all the ORAL Preparation books. I was so happy and this was exactly what she wanted. I read through a few and shortlisted one that I thought was nearest to her current school teaching.

I bought a copy of the Chinese oral book. For English oral, her class teacher had all the notes and preparation information in the file, so I will just use that to revise with her.

Her English / Chinese oral tests were scheduled on this week Thursday & Friday. On Tuesday & Wednesday afternoon, I went through a few of the Chinese oral tests with her.

朗读短文- she can read the passage quite well and with little assistance.

看图说话- she can descript most of the things in the picture. But she was also a bit 罗嗦, so I reminded her to keep her sentences “short & sweet.”

听力测验- she score quite well for this section too. (Ahem ^^ credit goes a little to mommy who can read like her teacher..hehe.)

听力选图- this section was also fairly easy for her.

Overall based on our own tests - her Chinese oral was average. On Thursday, she came home and told me that she had her Chinese oral test on that day. I thought it was supposed to be on Friday : P

Then I asked her how the test was – she said it was ok and her tester said to her: “艾妤，很好。“I was happy to hear her teacher’s feedback but I hope she passed well with good marks.

Today she had her English oral and once again she said the tester commented she did very well too for the oral.

I told Adrian that I hoped what she said is for real and not just some “晚报“news which were at times – laughable.

Now that this week of oral is over, we will now put our focus to her SA2 preparation.

One of my GF was commenting on my FB comment and told me to RELAX …guess I can only really relax in about another 2 weeks time when her SA2 is over on 3 November “ )

Montage 2009 & an Officer Sneak Preview

Last Wednesday, Anthea came home with some presents from her teachers in celebration of the children day.

Then she showed me a book titled “Montage 2009” and turned to a particular page that showed her name and an article she wrote.

I was very surprised and happy to see that her written work has been accepted by her teacher and printed on a book and given to every child in the school.

Prior to this, she only mentioned to me her artwork was chosen by her form teacher for some display purposes, little did I expect that her written composition cum artwork was printed into the book.

I am really proud of her little achievement and told her that she should continue her good effort in writing her composition.

Yes, her form teacher had mentioned to me during the PTC that Anthea is creative in her composition. The area that I should monitor her is her grammar…hee. I am not good in English grammar too, so I shall make an effort to try to learn with her and improve with her in this area. : )

Adrian’s officer course graduation will be in December and he already had his suit tailored for the formal dinner. The other day at the course, his officer wanted all the men & women to bring in their suit for inspection. So he did a try on and I quickly took a sneak shoot of him wearing the suit.

怎么样？ 帅吗？嘻嘻 ：Ｐ

Now I must get myself something decent and formal for the dinner, heard from his buddy’s wife that it’s going to be a very “boring dinner”. Think I should bring along one of the children DS to kill the boredom…haha.

Back In ACTIONS!

Badminton

During the fasting month, the open podium downstair became a very quiet space. No children chasing after the football and no children cycling around. We still played a few games of badmintons but as the Malay boys who played with us do not come & play. Our sessions became fewer and also because of the 7th month festival, I decided for Anthea not to play too often..hee : P

Now that the fasting month is over, the children are all back in action. Last evening, Anthea had good fun playing the game. She came home and told me she really enjoy her games with the boys.

Comes next year, she will have the chance to take a CCA and I believe she will like to join the Badminton team. This game is a family game and I hope our children will carry on this great tradition.

Temp Job

I am currently doing a temporary reception job with a MNC. The pay is considered very low and I got reprimanded by my eldest brother for accepting the job & spoiling the job market …hee.

Anyway, I told him it’s just a temporary job and once I get a better offer, I will surely make the change.

I am a very active person and enjoy working. I cannot sit at home and do nothing, it just make me feel like I am wasting my life away. Now the workplace is in Raffles Place, i can really feel the energy level in the morning..hee : )

Though the monies earned are little compared to my previous Part Time but at least, I am still earning my worth and Chinese say: “积少成多”…: )

Also it’s still a ½ day morning job which really meets my current needs. So I will just pray hard for a better opportunity!

Learning Journey to Hay’s Dairies & Frog Farm@ Jurong

I woke up at 5.30am to prepare our snack boxes for today school Learning Journey to Hay’s Dairies and Frog farm.

Yes, I signed up as a parent support for the event and Anthea’s form teacher had shortlisted me for the outing..hee. This was my 1st official outing as a PSG with the school. The previous activity was held in her school.

At 7.30am, after sending Ander’s to his childcare, I reached Anthea’s school and waited in the canteen for the children assembly.

After assembly, I saw the classes started lining up and went to the coach pick up area. When I saw Anthea class came out, I followed her class. There was another mommy who joined in as PSG for the outing. I knew her before and so we had each other as companion.

The children started boarding the coach once it arrived and we set off about 7.45am.

It was about an hour journey from the school to Hay Dairies because of the morning traffic. Luckily the children were all considered well behaved during the journey.

We reached Hay Dairies about 8.50am and the person in charge told us it was not open yet…haha. So we waited a while at the gate while they farm prepared themselves.

Exactly at 9am, the gate opened and the children were very excited. As we were the 1st batch to arrive, we had a good opportunity to be the 1st group to view the Goat Milking. The person in charge did a briefing to the children and explained to them about the process and the goodness of the Goat Milk. It was an eye opening experienced for the children and I believed they enjoyed it very much.

Then we proceeded to view the goat in their pens. Due to the H1N1 influenza, AVA had ordered the dairies to stop all goat feeding activities and we can’t even go near them. The children were disappointed but the form teacher told them at least they had seen the goat milking process.

After going one round to see the goat, the form teacher announced it was their recess time. The children washed their hand and we started having a mini picnic session at the farm. Children brought out all the snack boxes and tidbits and shared with one another.

I also took the chance to have a quick break and munched on my home made beacon & egg sandwiches. I also brought along some tidbits for Anthea and she shared with her classmates.

Recess was over in about 30 minutes. We collected our carton of Goat Milk and say good bye to the goats.

The next stop of the journey was Jurong Frog Farm. It was located about 2 lanes away from the goat farm.

When we arrived at the frog farm, the person in charged gave us a brief introduction to the America Bull Frog that they reared in their farm. The children were all very excited. Some were very keen and wanted to touch the frog. Some were so scared and kept a distance away from the frog…haha.

After the briefing, they were brought to the feeding section and everyone was happily feeding the thousand and thousand of frogs. I was really amazed to see so many frogs in this place. Now I know where does our “田鸡粥“get their supply from. : P

We also saw Eels in this farm and they were so many of them too.

The tour ended after a short video presentation about the farm. Then we organized ourselves for a class photos.

Then it was “school-sweet-school” and we finally reached the school about 12 noon.

It was overall a very educational trip for me and I believe the children had learnt as much as I and this memory will go with them for a long long time.

I am glad to have this experienced as a PSG for the outing and looking after class of 30 active children is not an easy task. To the teacher who look after them every day, I must really say – it’s tough work and Thank YOU!