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….: )

新开始

This is the 1st week of school reopens and I am back to my normal morning rush hours. After a one month break, I was worried that Anthea may had a hard time getting back to the routine but again my worries were uncalled for..hehe. Matter of fact, she even said that she was looking forward to seeing her classmates again.

Our routine is pretty much the same as last year so I would consider us a “老鸟“。There are a few blogging mommies that I know had Primary 1 children and I can really feel their excitement in the air via their blog & facebook. To all these mommies – I said “加油！一切都会顺利的！！”

Also not forgetting my little niece, Faith, who is starting her nursery class, this week – May she enjoys her lesson and makes more new friends. : )

This week also marked the start of Anthea’s Chinese lesson at Tien Hsia. She had requested for a holiday break during December, so I let her, after all shel need her holiday. She is following the same teacher and I am really happy as 白老师 is really a remarkable teacher. As for Anders, he is still on waiting list for the K2 classes.

On Thursday, we had dinner at ION Orchard with my long time sister from the USA – Shirley. Yes, Shirley is in town this week and we had arranged to meet up. She was staying at Hyatt and we had the chance to view the hotel room & facilities and I know this may just be our next Staycation hotel…hehe.

We had a wonderful dinner at Republic Opera and I was quite surprised that we can find seats easily, compared to the last time we were there, but that was a weekend.

We chatted for almost 2 hours and finally called it a night and bid Shirley good night & good bye…till we meet again.

This first week has been a very smooth and relaxing week as the pressure is not here yet but I know as we go along, with more tests & examination in line, it will come surely but slowly.

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！

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.

Anthea's PTC & School's OUT!

This morning I went for Anthea’s school Parent-teacher-conference. My meet up time with her form teacher was scheduled at 8.45am.

We fetched Anders to his childcare around 8.30am before proceeding to Anthea’s school for the appointment.

We reached her class around 8.45 am and waited a while before our turn. Mrs. Koh, her form teacher, went through her topical tests with me and said that she was happy with Anthea’s result and her overall performance in class. She did gave me a few pointers on her weaker area and I know this coming 1 week school holiday will be a good chance to “brush up” on the weaker area.. : P

After the Parent’s teacher conference, we went to the school canteen for a quick “recess” and Anthea ordered toasted bread with a cup of tea.

Then after the break, I brought her to my parent’s place before heading to work.

My current contract will be ending on 14 September and my Manager is now working from USA office, so I am not sure if my contract will be extended since he’s not around. Anyway, I am doing my “homework” by looking at jobs ads and see if there is any Part Time opportunities, just in case.

In the evening, we had dinner around the Hub as I needed to restring one of the badminton rackets. Then we went to Popular book shop, my intention was to buy Angie’s book but I guess I was a bit ahead of the “Full month” celebration. The book was not on sale yet at Popular.

So I took the chance to buy assessment book for Anthea in preparation for her year end SA2. Also I had been recommended to this book titled “Geronimo Stilton” by my ex-colleague. She said that it was a very interesting book for primary children. I decided to buy one for Anthea to let her try reading the book. I hope she will like it.

Today is the last day of school day and next week, Anthea will be having her one week term break. Looking forward to another good break.

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!

种族和谐日

On Tuesday, Anthea School celebrated the Racial Harmony day. Seem like schools these days had much more occasion to call for celebrations. During my days, we only had Children day and Teacher’s day…haha.

Last week, Anthea told me about the day and her Form Teacher has informed them that they can go to school in their Traditional Clothing. If the child does not own a set of such clothing, she/he will go to school in their school uniforms.

I was having headache as to what should I let her wear as she said she wanted to Dress for the occasion. I took a look at her closet and saw the few Chinese New Year dresses that she had and a few of them are in “Cheong Sam” style. So I thought it would fit the dress code.

So I told her to try the few set of clothing….衣服本来是刚刚好，么现在穿不上？？ Due to her recent "growth spur", most of the dresses “shrunk” and she can’t fit into any one of them... : P

There is another new set of CNY clothing and it was a top with a pant, which she could wear. But our little Miss Vanity insisted that she wants to wear a DRESS, because all her girls classmates will be in DRESS…aiyo…so young, already start comparing…伤脑筋！！

In order to fulfill her vanity quest, we went for advance CNY shopping spree on last Friday. We had dinner at Hog Breath in Toa Payoh. Then we went to Kiddy Palace to shop for a Cheong Sam Dress. To our disappointment, KP didn’t have any cheongsam dress because it’s not Chinese New Year Yet.

So we had no choice but to go around the shop area and see what can we find that’s suitable.

Finally, I saw a TOP which is similar to a cheongsam design. As it was an adult top, so it was long enough to be a dress for her. The sale girl recommended a short dress to match with the top and it fitted perfectly. Yes, she is wearing Adult TOP…haha. I was telling Adrian after she wore for the occasion; I can use it for CNY..So this top “kills 2 birds in a stone.” No a bad idea.

Anthea was very happy with the red top and black mini skirt and tried them in the shop. She looks good and would be better without the 小肚腩。。。嘻嘻 !!

Anyway, that was the best match that we can find with such limited time. Since she was happy, we are happy.

On Tuesday morning, she was very excited and changed into the new clothing immediately after her wash up.

I even put a flower pin on the top to make it look even nicer. She loves the flower pin.

The morning when we reached the school gate, I saw many children dressed in their ethnic costume and the sight was very colorful. There were Chinese, India, Malays, Korean, Philippines and others.

This is indeed what we called a Racial Harmony Day!

钱不够用!!

I gave Anthea $5 for her weekly allowance. This means that each day for recess, she has a $1 to use. so far she has been a thrifty spender and by the end of the week, I can see balance coins in her wallet.

This week on Monday morning, I did the same and put $5 into her wallet. Yesterday, I did a random check with her wallet and I saw there was a balance of 30¢. I was shocked and questioned her about her spending this week. After some prompting, she told me that she bought a pencil and an eraser for $1 on Wednesday. So that was why she was only left with 30¢ on Thursday.

I was very angry and told her that I had been telling her that she SHOULD not buy stationery without my permission. At home, we had so many pencils & erasers from all her previous gift, so there is no reason for her to buy more. I told her she was wasting her own monies and also this would mean that she has no pocket monies on Friday.
If I had not checked her wallet, she would have to go without food at recess.

She asked me to packed ham & cheese bread for her this morning. I did it for her and asked her : “did you count how much monies you have before buying the pencil & eraser?” she said : “No.”

I told her that next time before she buys anything, she must learn to count how much she has balance in her wallet and to plan her spending wisely.

I know the temptation to buy from the school bookshop is great but I want to make sure she does not make it a habit and find the easy way out when she misuse her dollar & cents.

I want her to learn the value of money from young and this is a good chance and I hope she will keep this lesson in life for a long, long time.

Serving LOA

Last Tuesday Adrian made a remark to me: “So far, Indonesia has no report of the H1N1 cases.” “Yeah.” I replied. It was with this in mind, my in-laws decided to go Bintan for a short break and also Anthea joined them.

On Wednesday, I received a call from Anthea’s form teacher checking on our travel history as we declared that we were travelling to Sydney, 8 – 12 June 2009. She asked about Anthea’s well-being and said she was ok to return to school on Monday.

On the same day, the ministries decided to issue LOA (Leave of Absence) to school going children who returned from holiday from the list of affected countries. Adrian told me that Indonesia was added to the list, together with Hong Kong.

I had a real shock and on Thursday, I called Anthea’s school to check if BINTAN is considered as affected countries. The administrator confirmed my worst fear – she said Bintan is in Indonesia and it’s considered affected country. I declared Anthea’s travel to Indonesia and the administrator said she would mail the LOA to our home.

With this LOA, Anthea would need to stay away from school for 7 days and by the calculation, she can only step into the school on Friday, 3 July. This meant she had another 4 days of extended “off days”.

On Thursday, after fetching my in-laws and Anthea from the ferry, I shared with them the “BAD News” and my in-laws was equally surprised about the new addition of Indonesia and Hong Kong to the list. Also Bintan is so near to Singapore and they didn’t even go on a flight…haha.

So we had to make new logistic arrangement for the extended leave for Anthea’s home care. To make it more challenging, my parents had left for their one month China holiday on Sunday, 28 June. So this means I cannot care her off to my mom.

After discussion with my in-laws, my FIL volunteered to take care of her for the morning half from Monday to Thursday. Also my 2nd SIL had kindly offered to prepare her lunches for Monday & Tuesday.

In the meantime, I had been in contact with Anthea’s form teacher to check with her the home-based learning material as I could not find them on the school portal. She called me on Tuesday and mentioned that she would mail them to me as well. I told her I could pick them up from the school, which is just a street away.

During the day while Anthea is with my FIL, he would guide her to do her home based studies and also other learning things. My FIL was a teacher before he retired.

Situations like these make me feel very Thankful to have supporting family’s members and all these extra hands really make it possible for me to cont’d working.

Today is the last day of her LOA and she will be back to school tomorrow. I am really glad that we will be going back to our old routine.

Let's hope this H1N1 virus will blow over soon and life can be back to normal again !!!

Anthea 1st Report Book

Today is THE DAY that Anthea brought home her 1st report book. This report book will follow her for her next 6 years in her Primary School.

Her results for her 1st Semestral Assessment are as follows and the marks make up of 30% of the final grade.

Subject 1st Sem Assess’t (30%) Mark (30%) Achiev’t Band Grade

English Language 94.0 94.0 1

Chinese 97.0 97.0 1

Mathematics 93.0 93.0 1

Social Study - A

Art - A

Civics & moral Education - A

Health Education - A

Music - A

Physical Education - B

Total: 284.0 / 300

Percentage: 94.7

Remark: Anthea is a effective leader who displays competence in leadership roles. She is also a good team player who is able to work with most of her classmates. Keep up the good job and continue to strive hard for better results.

Overall, Anthea did well for her 1st attempt in the SA and both Adrian and myself are very satisfied with her performance. She had met our 90% target when we prepared her for the SA and in return she will be rewarded.

Knowing that she had tried her best for the SA, I also gave her the deserving praises but I always tell her – there are always rooms for improvement. : )

I had done some comparison of her school test papers with some other schools (branded) and I know her school test papers are comparatively easier…hee : P But still her effort is recognized.

For the final year SA, we will aim to get better grades than this as what her form teacher has encourage her (and ME) to do so !!!

“My Mommy doesn't teach me”

Recently at Lydia's birthday party, I met one of Anthea's classmate mommy. She is a Full Time working mother. She had 3 children and Anthea's classmate (S) is the youngest of her 3 children.
We were chatting about our children result in school and she lamented that S was not doing very well in her studies. I had also heard from Anthea that S had not learnt this and not learnt that in class.

S's mother was very stressed and tensed. Previously for her 2 older children, she had left them in an after school care centre and so far, they are pretty independent in their studies and she had no worries.

As of this year, she engaged a maid and kept all the 3 children at home after school. The reason is cost efficiency. For the after school care service, she needs to pay $300 per child, so if she was to put 3 of them there, it would be a hefty sum of $900 per month. She said it's almost ¾ of her salary. So she decided to engage a maid which can look after the children and help her parents in housework too.

To her dismayed, S is not as independent as her siblings in her studies. So she is lagging behind in class. She told me that the form teacher has feedback to her when the teacher asked S why she does not know her work. S would say: “my MOMMY didn't teach me.”

I was so shocked to hear S feedback too. I had never thought that a child of this age would put the “BLAME” on her parents. S's mommy was asking me about Anthea's after school care arrangement and I told her I take care of Anthea personally. Then she commented: “seem like all those children with mommy at home have no problems in their studies. Children with working mommy seem to be facing issues.”

I thought about her comments and I was thinking to myself. Yes, I made the decision to become a PTSAHM because I know the initial transition part to Primary school is difficult and the child will need a lot of attention. I believe S is not a slow learner but I think she just wants her mother attention.

I had the chance to chat with another working mommy and she felt the same, as a FT working mother, she does not have enough time to guide her daughter in her studies and she is now seriously considering to go Part Time next year. Also she mentioned that her daughter's school teacher recommended Parents to sign their children up for tuition or enrichment classes if they have problem teaching their own child. (she said this was recommend during a Chinese workshop in school)

Nowadays, Primary ONE children are not just learning A-B-C, they are really learning much more at a faster speed than we used to. Imagine spelling each week, topical tests every after every 2 chapters taught and Oral test with listening comprehension. There are just so much information for the parents to digest, less talk about the children…sigh.

Till today, I am glad that I had the opportunity to be with Anthea and to see that the transition from Kindergarten to Primary school goes smoothly and she is adapting well.

It is not an easy decision but I believe it's the Best I can give to my children.

I hope that as Anthea grows up she will remember that Mommy is always there for her, as and when she needs me.

“丰收日“

Learning Journey @Ecogarden

On Tuesday, Anthea School organized the 2nd Learning journey to Ecogarden@Science centre. This learning journey is in line with the English lesson on “My River” and Mathematics “Numbers to 20”.

The school letter mentioned that “it is compulsory for the child to go for this learning journey as experiential learning is a key focus of the Primary 1 SEED programme.”

Also on the letter, parents were advice to pack some Snack for the child to bring along for the outing.

On Monday afternoon, Anthea told me that Aunty Brenda will be going as PSG. So I thought that I should prepare the snack box for Max and Brenda too. So I smsed to Brenda and told her that I will prepare Baked rice for them for the outing. (She was very kind to pay for Anthea’s Macdonald lunch on last Friday, so I thought I should do something in return.)

On Monday afternoon, I went to NTUC Extra and bought the ingredients to prepare the ham & egg baked rice. This is a recipe shared by aunty SK. Both Anthea and Adrian love this bake rice.

I prepared the ingredients and set them ready in a casserole so I can bake it the next morning.

On Tuesday morning, I woke up at 5.30am and started baking the rice. After 30 minutes, the baked rice was ready and I packed them into 3 snack boxes. I told Anthea to pass the 2 snack boxes to Aunty Brenda when she sees her in school.

At the end of the day, I asked Anthea how was Ecogarden, she said it was fun but very hot..haha.

She told me she enjoyed the baked rice and finished all the stuff I packed in her box. : P

She had another round of baked rice for her lunch. Anthea simple adore cheese, gave her any dishes with PLENTY of cheese and it will sure to win her vote. What a ‘Cheesy girl’…hee.

ROI (Return of Interest)

Both Anthea and Anders had POSB kids account and I will always bank in their Ang Pow monies or sometime Birthdays ang pows. In 2003, when I went to the bank to deposit money for Anthea, the bank tell prompted me a Trust Fund account and mentioned about the potential interest that I can earned from this fund instead of keeping in the Kids saving account.

After careful discussion with Adrian, I deposited a sum of monies into the fund. I was prepared to put the monies there for 10 year tenure or if the Bank hit the target %, then it will redeem the fund.

Yesterday I received a letter from the bank to advise the fund had been redeemed. My capital investment + interest had been banked to my account. After some calculation, I was surprised that the fund did pretty well against the economy crisis. The interest earned was about 4% PA over the 6 years. If I had kept the monies in the Kids account, I don't think I will get ½ of the amount...hee. No bad...even though the amount is small but still adds up.

Now I am going bank shopping for the next available fun(d)!!

Sports – Membership - BBQ

On Friday, as arranged with Brenda, she came in the morning around 7.15 am to fetch Anthea to the sport complex for the Sport Day event.

The day before I baked some muffins for them to bring along as snack, just in case the food Q may be too long for Brenda to handle with 2 children in tow.

After work, I meet up with Brenda and the children at Junction 8. She brought them to Macdonald for lunch. When I asked Anthea how was the event, she said it's was boring...haha. Yeah, I reckoned that she may feel this way because she is not in any race and sitting at the stand and doing nothing can be quite bored. Hopefully next year she may get a chance to race in one of the event.

Then both Anthea and Max wanted to go to Popular bookshop, so we went along. At the bookshop, Brenda told me that the children had received their Primary School Student pass, so I thought I should apply for the Popular Members card since she has the pass now. For the Popular Student Membership card, I only need to pay $5 per annual. This card was highly recommended by Mommy Nel, as she said I can buy assessment books at a good discount. : )

After buying some books from Popular, we left for home. Both Anthea and Max had enjoyed each other companionship for the day. I also had a chance to know Brenda better and I was really grateful for her help.

In the evening, Adrian's company had a BBQ session at the SAF Chalet at Changi. Family members were invited for the dinner.

When I arrived at the chalet, I had a real surprised at how the place looks now. The place had a major renovation and now it looks so resort like and much cleaner and modern.

We had a lot of delicious BBQ food. His colleague also brought along PS3 game to the chalet and the children had a good time playing the games.

There were other children who came along, Anthea and Anders had fun playing with them too.
We left for home almost near to 11pm..: P

This weekend will be a rest and relax weekends. Anthea will be having her Oral test next Thursday/Friday and I will need to give her more practices.

Also her Semestral Assessment 1 will be taking place in the 1st week of May; we will need to do more revisions with her. Hopefully, she will do well in the SA.

On Thursday, Anthea received her 1st Trophy on Stage and she was so proud of it. She came home and told me i must set aside more space, she is looking forward to winning more trophies..haha.

跑吧，孩子

Anthea's Primary school 7th Annual Athletics Meet 2009 will take place this Friday, 17 April, from 8 am to 12 noon.

According to the Principal letter – “All Primary 1 to Primary 3 pupils (non-competitors) are strongly encouraged to attend the Athletics meet.

As I am working the morning hours, so I told Anthea that I may not be able to bring her for the event and she may go over to my mom's place while I am at work.

However, Anthea expressed her keen interest to go to the stadium to give her classmates her support. She is not shortlisted for any race but a few classmates of hers are participating in some races..

Honestly, I would love to bring her for the event but I know this week my work loads are quite packed as there are a few upcoming projects and my GM will be travelling soon.

Since I can't bring her there personally, I would not want her to feel disappointed and miss out the fun. So again, I approached Brenda and asked if she can help. She was very helpful and immediately arranged with me the time that she would pick Anthea and also the time I would pick her after the event. I really owe her a BIG one...and I am really glad to have known her through the PSG.

I told Anthea of the Friday plan and she was very happy and excited. She said that she likes Max's mommy (that's Brenda's son, he is in the same class as Anthea).

Today in school, they also have some kind of House race and Anthea was shortlisted to run for her house – Pluto.

Yesterday in the evening, she went with me to the jogging track and we did a quick race to practice her run. She was all geared up and looking forward to the run this morning.

After school when I fetched her, she told me “mommy, Pluto won the race and we will be getting our trophy tomorrow.”

I am really happy that she enjoys sports so much. She even told me she wants to sign up for basketball. I will find out more from her form teacher... : )

Now she is looking forward to the Friday event and I hope that she will have a great, fun time at her 1st sport day.

报告班长 / 我胖了！！

Last week when Anthea came home from school, she told me…”mommy, I am the monitress of the class now. From now onward, I must help Mrs. Koh.” She said with a very big, bright smile on her face.

During the PTC before the 1 week school holiday, her form teacher already mentioned to me her intention to “promote” Anthea as the class 班长for the 2nd term. I am really happy for Anthea as I know this will help to build up her leadership quality and also she must set a good example for her classmates.

Now, after school, I will ask her about what duties did she do during the school hours and she will share them with me.

I told her she should always listen to Mrs. Koh instruction carefully and follow it dutifully. As all her classmates will be looking upon her, she must always put on her best behavior.

I hope she will continue to do well in this term and be a role model in her new position. : )

Recently, family members had been commenting to me that: 她好像胖了！！Nope, they were not talking about me…thank Goodness…HEE ! They were referring to Anthea. My eldest brother who had not seen her for a few weeks said that she has grown so much these few weeks.

I had observed and noticed the same but I was not worried. As a matter of fact, I am happy. During her days in childcare, she was on the skinnier side. After starting Primary school, she is slowly but surely growing.

I believe this is mainly due to her improved appetite and well rested nap. Each day after lunch, she will do her school or tuition homework. After that, she will watch a little of TV program. Then she will drink her Milk, yes, she is still drinking milk. My MIL (a nurse by profession) has always taught me – don’t stop her, let her drink as long as she wants. Milk is supposed to be nutritious for the children. Recently Adrian also mentioned that the children milk contained all the vitamins as well.

Then after her milk, she will take her routine 1 ½ to 2 hours afternoon nap. A mommy has shared this with me before “会睡觉的孩子会长肉。”. I believe what she said is quite true to a certain extent.

Looking at Anthea progressing well in school and growing up healthy at home give me great satisfaction and comfort. I know my decision as a PTSAHM has been rewarded.

Parent Teacher Conference

This is Anthea 1st PTC for her primary education and I was looking forward to the session. The PTC was held on Friday, 13 March and we were given the timeslot of 12 noon to 1pm. The timing suits my working schedule…hee : )

After work, I met up with Adrian, Anthea and Anders at her primary school. Adrian was on his guard off and Anders just recovered from a gastric flu, so we decided to keep him at home.

When I reached the school around 12.50pm, her form teacher – Mrs. Anna Koh was engaged with another parent. Anders was getting a bit listless from the wait and asked to go home 1st. So Adrian brought him home while I waited with Anthea.

Finally it was our turn. The very 1st comment that Mrs. Anna Koh said was – “you need not worry about Anthea, she is a very independent girl and she is doing well in her studies.”

Then Mrs. Koh went through with me her academic:
1. English – confidence and did very well in her topical tests. She scored full marks for the recent test. Mrs. Koh encouraged me to start her on her writing skills as the school will be doing more of this in the next term.

2. Math – equally good – only thing: a little careless. During the recent 1 hour Math topical test, she completed in 10 minutes!!! Mrs. Koh asked her to check her work which she did but had a careless mistake.

3. Mother-tongue: she is well versed in her Hanyu pin yin and her words. Only setback is her conversational part. So we need to brush up on this area.

Her overall assessment by the form teacher was very good and she even commented that she plans to make Anthea the class monitress for the next term… : P

Mrs. Koh mentioned that Anthea happened to be seat in a row of 3 and these 3 pupils are the better of the class. So among the 3 of them (Anthea, Sean and Xin Yi), there seem to be “internal competition” as to who is the top scorer. So far, Mrs. Koh said she sees this as a positive peer competition and they will motivate each other to do well…: )

I am really happy to hear of all the positive feedback from Mrs. Koh and for the part that she is weaker on, we will definitely try to improve on it. Mrs. Koh did mention that the school does stream the better children at the end of Primary 1. If Anthea maintains her results as it is, she will have no problem to get to the better class.

So far, Anthea has been pretty diligent in her school work and tuition classes. Of course, we would definitely want her to be in the better class but we know as long as put in her BEST, we will be very happy with whatever her results are.

Dilemma

Anthea has completed her 1st school term in Tien Hsia and I had signed her up for the 2nd term as she requested to continue the lessons. She truly enjoys her Chinese lessons.

On Monday, her tuition centre teacher gave me the revision time table for next term. I got a SHOCK as there will be 6 revision classes conducted between March to April. The revision classes are conducted on the same day/time as her Tien Hsia Class.

Last term, we missed a few revision lessons but I still pay for the test papers and Anthea brought home the test papers to do. The teacher marked her papers. This term, thinking that there would be only 3 revision classes, so I thought I will do the made up classes for Tien Hsia.

Now with 6 revision classes, I don’t think it’s possible to do the make-up lessons. I looked at the time table for Tien Hsian Primary 1 enrichment classes, it seem like we are left with a Tuesday afternoon class.

I spoke to Anthea of the change and she felt disappointed about it as she really likes her current teacher and classmates. I told her the change is just for this term, we can change back to the same class again next term. Hopefully her next term revision classes are lesser.

After a few rounds of discussion, last evening at the school, we decided to temporary “HOLD” her Tien Hsia classes and resume it in term 3. I find that it’s a pity because the classes were really helpful and she had maintained a perfect score in all her chinese spellings and readings. However, this is her decision and I will respect it. Like what Adrian said, don’t force her otherwise she may turn her interest against the subject, this is the last thing I want her to feel, especially for CHINESE.

Sigh…the 2nd term is a critical term as her school test marks will make up 30% of her final result. Term 4 will make up 70% of the results for CA & SA.As the tuition classes are more helpful in her school curriculum, we think it would be better to focus it this term, as for her Chinese lessons, I will put in more revisions at home with her. .. : )

Like what the chinese say : 鱼与熊掌， 难以兼得.

Character First Programme

Anthea School has introduced the Character First programme to the Primary 1 & 2 children. I signed her up for the programme and also signed myself up as a PV for the same program.

The program takes place on every Friday after school for an hour. There will be a total of 12 lessons. (February – August). So far I had attended 2 sessions. The 1st session was more of an orientation session for the parent’s volunteer group.

The 2nd session, we were with the children while the Teachers volunteer did the lesson.

The program is conducted by a group of volunteers from a church organization near the school. The parents were assured that the content taught are non-religion related… : P

I had seen the material and I found it to be quite impressive. I believe this material may be used by some home-schooled mommies. The child will be taught the following values:

- Attentiveness
- Obedience

- Truthfulness
- Gratefulness

These are very basic values in life that I hope both Anthea and Anders will be able to develop. At home, we try our best to teach and guide them with the right values. However, at times, we are so busy with the life routine, we overlook on certain values. This program acts as a good reminder to myself too. . : )

Ever since I left school, I hardly do craft works and I don’t really like to do art & crafts. However, as a parent volunteer, we were given homework as well. We need to bring home some craft work to draw and cut. These will be used during the lessons for the children to do the crafts according to the story that was told.

So these days, my afternoon are busied with all kind of homeworks… : P After cleaning the house, washing the children clothes and a simple lunch. I will be glued to the chair with all the handicraft thing. I am amazed at the rate that I can complete the tasks…haha.

Her 1st Learning Journey - Harbourfront

Anthea is currently learning about different types of Transport vehicles in her lesson.

In order to make learning more real and interesting, the school organized a Learning Journey (we used to call them excursions) to the Harbour Front on Thursday, 19 Feb 2009.

The children are learning about – Ferry, Cable Car, Lorry, Motorcycle, Fire-engine and Taxi, just to name a few. So at Harbour Front, the children would have a chance to see all these different types of transport vehicles.

I believe MOE curriculum is trying to allow the children to learn more and seeing the real thing would give the children a better impression of what they learnt in the classroom.

For the day outing, parents were advised to pack a small bag with the following items:

- color pencils
- pencil case
- A cap
- raincoat or umbrella
- Water bottle
- Snack box ( I prepared a home baked pizza/ cheese cocktail sausages/ apple with a packet of chocolate milk for her)
- Tissue/wet tissue
- One small plastic bag

The evening before the excursion, Anthea was so excited and kept doing her checklist with me to make sure I had all the items in her bag.

I had signed up as PVG but as I didn’t hear from the group, I thought that they had enough of PVs to go along with children. However, in the evening, I heard from a mommy that they actually needed more volunteers. Next time I will write to the class teacher to check with her directly. .. : )

Anthea came back and told me that she had a fun day at the outing and she get to see all the different type of vehicles. She even told me that she had taken the cable car with me and my MIL before. I know for sure I had never taken the cable car in Singapore, so the ride could be in Hong Kong. . : P

It has been a good learning journey for her and I am glad that she had the chance to experience out of class room learning.