Yu turns nine!

Yu turned nine on Thursday :)

We have been waiting for this day for some time... 

First of all, he's supposed to start cutting his own nails in P3 just like Kai but he is still getting me to cut his nails! So the deal is ok, after nine. I just cut his nails yesterday coz I forgot but I'll shift the nail cutter to his room and let his teacher remind him to cut, hahahaha!

More importantly, he has agreed to make school trips on his own, without Papa accompanying him, on days when Yang couldn't be with him. This would really mark the end of the parents' school trips! Yay and nay at the same time coz it's really quite nice to have some one-one time...

And finally... He's nine! Each of our kids are growing up so fast! Too fast.. Sometimes very slow but ya, it always seems so fast at birthdays...

Yu wasn't feeling very well when he came home on Wednesday. His nose was a bit runny and as a result of the allergy, one eye was a bit red from rubbing.

On Thursday morning, his nose was better but his eye felt a bit swollen. He wondered if he should go to school. I left the decision to him, making sure he knew that he couldn't play phone games if he had a sick day. He took a looong time thinking and decided to stay home. But when he went to pee, he said, "Should I change my mind?" And he changed his mind *.*

All was fine in school. Yu came home looking totally fine. The three of them dropped their bags, changed their shoes and off we went to Clementi! At that hour, we could get student meals which are essentially the usual main course at a discount, plus a soup or a drink. But the choices are limited and only Kai chose from that menu. It's ok. The parents swopped with Yang and Yu :p

Ice cream all round!

We went to buy some snacks and a cake before going home. Bumped into Yu's classmate-neighbour on our way home who was on his way to his grands' with his father. They were on the same bus that morning apparently, and Yu told him where we were going so that they didn't have their usual playdate at the playground.

In any case, Yu wasn't looking forward to any play date when he had one hour of phone time on his birthday!

All in PJs for the cake-cutting

It was a late lunch and no one was really hungry at dinner time. So I didn't cook :p But Yu had two slices of cake! Think he was very full after that... Yang had only one but both boys reserved the remaining two slices for the next day so for the first time, Sito and I didn't have any of Yu's birthday cake!

Second cele with the grands on Sunday

Yu was looking worried in the photo as there were too many candles on the tiny cake and the cake looked like it was on fire!! I wasn't in the picture as I couldn't figure out the timer on my phone - first time trying to use timer on this new phone :)

Third cele, joint with WaiPo, yesterday

Yu put down his ✌️ when WaiPo mentioned it so she kena sabo-ed into giving a ✌️ hoho! 

I must say Ajisen may not be the best place to celebrate with a cake. The staff brought us the cake in the original plastic bag without a lighter, and delivered only four plates and four forks. We had to ask for five more sets and this time, bowls came, haha! But the staff took a nice photo for us :)

One surprise - Kai ate the cake! He said just to try 👍 On the other hand, Yu didn't have the cake - he said in Mandarin so WaiPo could understand, that he eats chocolate and he eats cake, but he doesn't eat chocolate cake. Also, he eats strawberry, he eats cream, and he eats lollipop, but he doesn't eat strawberry cream lollipop!

We went out separate ways after lunch. But something funny happened - Sito asked the kids to give WaiPo a hug and WaiPo gave Yu a peck! Wth?! I don't even think she kissed me before!?! Sito and I had a good laugh. Last night, I told Yu he must give me a kiss coz I didn't get one, haha!!

Anyway, Mother they all went to buy an iron while we went to the library. We just nua-ed at the library for over an hour until Kai got bored. Then we parked them at Popular while we went to shop for toiletries and herbs. 

Then we went to the pasar malam between J8 and the interchange to get our hands on our fave snacks, woohoo! This time, I got goreng pisang and shark's fin soup. I didn't expect Yang and Yu's reactions when they saw me buying the latter - you can't buy that, you'll cause more sharks to be hunted! Oh my... Apparently, they read that somewhere... I had to tell them that this shark's fin soup did not contain any shark's fin....

We were all quite full from lunch, especially Kai with his extra noodles and eight pieces of karaage! So dinner was easily settled with the food from pasar malam. The kids also had some ice cream while watching the Saturday night movie on TV. It's seldom that Kai watches a whole movie with us but it was Percy Jackson and the Sea Monster and he's now halfway through the first Percy Jackson book.

Anyway, so all the celebrations are over. Yu is properly nine now. Still a baby. Forever our baby :)

If I were an educator...

Sito met some friends for dinner recently some weeks ago. One topic came up - education. Two of us had a brief discussion over breakfast. I want to put down some thoughts here.

Two ideas:

1) Dedicated form teachers

Why:

Two reasons - (a) reducing admin of teaching staff for the staff's benefit, and (b) having a main teacher who truly knows the form kids for the kids' benefit:

a) This started off from the topic of flexi-adjunct teachers. The work scope is to be agreed upon between the school and the teacher. So the teacher could effectively just teach, no CCA etc. And they're apparently free to teach tuition unlike MOE teachers. 

That sounds a lot more attractive than to be a regular MOE teacher with all the admin, CCA and committee work (e.g. organise children's day cele) on top of teaching responsibilities.

Over the years, we've heard of teaching staff being burdened by admin. The recent findings from the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey showed that full-time teachers in Singapore spent four hours a week on admin work, above the OECD average of three hours. 

I don't know what this admin work entails but I think there is bound to be some amount of admin no matter what. I thought things should be much better these days with the PG app. Perhaps the admin pertains more to the lower primary kids and even Sec 1 kids coz new to school, new to a lot of things?

Actually, as I write, I think this dedicated form teachers idea is more for the kids' benefit, haha! Ok, I move on...

b) During my school years, the form teachers taught the whole class at least one subject, spent a lot of time with us be it teaching in the classroom or taking attendance at the assembly area. Think we also had this thing called contact time or something.

Now? 

Let me consider this in the primary school context, as I'm more familiar with this level. 

Kai had three form teachers in P5-6, and only one of them taught him. The other two taught the GEP kids in his form class - his was a mixed form class comprising mainstream and GEP kids who are in different classes for English, Maths and Science. So none of three form teachers knew all kids equally well. After they changed the format from parents-teachers meeting to parent-child-teachers-conference involving only the form teachers, we couldn't really get much out of the session. 

Oh, and now with subject-based banding in secondary schools, Kai's form class has G1-3 kids so the form teachers do not teach all the kids unless they teach DnT, FCE, music, art or PE.

Back to primary school. Yang is in a mainstream class (i.e. no GEP kids) and Yu is still in lower primary, but it's a 50-50 chance that their form teachers teach them in any subject at all coz students are split into groups for the four academic subjects. Based on what the kids told me and parent chat groups, there are usually two groups - one regular and one for those who need more help. For Chinese, I have seen four different spelling lists so could be four groups - foundation (from P5 onwards), 核心班，深广班 and higher Chinese. 

I don't know if they split the 核心班 into regular and those who need more help... But I know that for any subject, those who need a lot more help would be offered remedial after school - I asked for English remedial for Yang and was told it was to help those scoring below 40% 😱

The kids then take all the non-examinable subjects together as a class, with the exception of Character and Citizenship Education (CCE) which is taught in mother tongue languages. 

So if the form teacher teaches non-examinable subjects, lucky for the kids coz the main teacher actually teaches them and has more time to know them. Otherwise, it's as good as having no form teachers.

Idea:

Since form teachers already may not teach their form kids, why not have a dedicated form teacher for each class, supported by a subject-form teacher? This would be similar to P1 and P2, where the form teachers teach all the kids and know them very well.

There are already designated slots for Form Teacher Guidance Period (FTGP) and Programme for Active Learning (PAL) in the timetable, currently taken by the form teachers. A dedicated form teacher can also take on some subjects common to all students, e.g. Social Studies and even PE - see my next point far below. Music and art may be challenging... But well, see below too..

Further, academic teachers need to complete the curriculum. The form teachers can devote more time to psychological and social wellbeing, and be the kids' cheerleaders in school. They work at a manageable ratio of 1:30-40, compared to the one or two school counsellors who cannot possibly be everywhere. Students are probably more familiar with their form teachers too. Of course, serious cases will still need to be referred to counsellors.

Ultimately, the aim is to have someone who is the main point of contact for the kids, who know everything about them be it academic or otherwise, who will find out more about them from other subject teachers, who will liaise with parents and the community when necessary. The dedicated form can follow their classes as they progress through the school, like how the kids don't change classes from P1 to P2 and from P5 to P6. As such, they become sort of a surrogate parent in school, which could be very beneficial for the kids. 

While this would require significant additional manpower resources, such resources may be quite different from the usual teaching requirements which require a degree in maths to teach it, for instance. I would argue that this may not require a degree but someone with the heart to guide young people.

2) Review teaching for non-academic subjects

Apparently, it is difficult to hire teachers for certain subjects like music, art and PE. Even the languages - not just mother tongue but also English. 

Ok, put the languages aside - maybe I'll talk about them another day coz I sometimes imagine myself a Chinese teacher, haha!

I took a look at Kai's timetable, which is in a document with the timetables for all classes. There are as many PE teachers as there are classes per level but only about three each for music and art. I think it's coz there are more periods of PE per week vs. the other two subjects. It's similar for the primary school kids based on the teacher list online.

Now, music, art and PE require some technical knowledge. Not everyone can teach them properly - and safely too when it comes to PE. So they are not easily replaced. But truth be told, apart from the handful of MEP/AEP kids and those taking lessons outside school*, how well can we expect kids to do in the aesthetics? 

* Somehow, many kids learn piano in Singapore... How many truly enjoy it? Yang tried a few months and stopped coz not interested anymore.

Look at me - love to sing, yes, but can't read notes or play any instrument. Yup, not even the recorder that we were made to play in school. And don't talk about my art.

Kai had a music WA last term which required him to write notes and play a tune on a digital keyboard. He has probably forgot all about it right after that. 

For the aesthetics, I think it is more important to expose the kids and teach appreciation. There are many music and art enrichment schools out there. Why not outsource the aesthetics? I can't find the info but I believe swimming lessons for primary school kids are already outsourced, with the PE teacher present during the lesson. My kids have their swimming lesson in school but I once saw a lesson at Delta Swimming Complex where parent volunteers were present to help the teachers with the kids.

If swimming can be outsourced, so can entire PE lessons. And PE lessons can take a different form - besides the usual physical training to prepare for NAPFA tests, students can be brought to different sports facilities for exposure to different games. Schools cannot all be equipped with squash courts or gym, for instance, and the many well equipped Active SG sports complex will be even better utilised throughout the day.

MOE can still retain curriculum control. The dedicated form teachers can be the school reps present in outsourced classes to be responsible for the kids and external coaches. 

Granted, outsourcing would be extra work for school admin - tender or framework agreement under MOE! But if hiring is a perennial challenge, this is a possible solution. More importantly, back to the first idea, it gives the dedicated form teachers more time with their charges, and be more involved in their school life.

That's all, folks!

花好月圆

When we first moved back to HV, the first CC event we attended was Mid Autumn Festival celebrations. We skipped it last year as it was too close to PSLE and we wanted to avoid crowded places. This year, we're back!

Just saw that the 2023 event cost $2 per person. This time, it was free and at the CC hall, i.e. with aircon. There were fewer games and kiddy food. In fact, it seemed more targeted at the elderly as the singalong was full of old songs! But we had fun anyway :)

We were early and were among the first at the Chinese calligraphy booth. I thought we could write but no, they had professionals writing names and blessings. Ah well. Each kid had their own name in gold on red paper.

Sat down for performances while waiting for the gold ink to dry. The sand art was very good! I was eating a hotdog bun so wasn't fast enough to take a picture of a nice Chang E scene.

We were seated quite in front. Emcee called out Yang for a handsome boy and Kai for a tall boy but neither kid would stand - so shy! But they were not shy at the quiz segment - all wanted prizes! Yang didn't get picked to answer though..

Kai won a 大白兔奶糖 metal mug

Yu won a reusable bag - I took it :p

Good to expose them to CC events and to facing a big group to answer questions. Don't be too shy :)

There was a singalong session and the emcee went around the audience with a microphone. I sang a bit of "Fly Me to the Moon" and Yang said it was soooo embarrassing! Hahahaha! 

When they were playing 城里的月光，I was reminded of that time in JC (1 or 2?) when we performed this song at a Mid Autumn Festival celebrations. Probably a CLDDS thing. I sang a bit into my phone and sent to Na who was in the performing group, but she didn't remember, haha!

Stilt walkers!

This one was giving out candies. Another one was giving out plushies! I refused to get plushies but Yang and Yu decided to ask for one themselves! Sighs, more dustmite pillows...

Ok, the rabbit mascot looks a bit freaky... Too thin!

Mascot was giving out 大白兔奶糖 so the kids finally saw the rice paper that could be eaten. But Yang didn't have his.

We went for a hotstamping activity just before leaving and oh my, it took a long time! Quite interesting though to see how the kids took part. Kai was more hands off and let the volunteers help. Yang did almost everything himself. Yu was interested to do but looked a bit blur :p Sito and I were like Kai coz we were holding all the random things.

Finally ready to go!

Actually Kai was very tired by then. He went to bed right after showering.

But he was ok to take a little trip to the playground for a photo in the dark

So that was last Saturday. The actual festival fell on Monday, when I realised I forgot to bring out sparklers - bought them years back but didn't finish using...

Anyway, I made mooncakes again! I was rather undecided as the few tries last year yielded skin that turned hard quickly. But I was persuaded by Redman to get yam paste so I had to use it...

It turned out wonderful!!!

The trick is to steam the dough rather than microwave it. Yes, I did a shortcut last year coz the stovetop steamer was a bother. But this year, I have a cute little electric steamer that I use fairly regularly!

Gosh, it was so soft and remained soft in the fridge. We even put a bit to freeze and thaw it to try - soft! That's it. 

And the yam paste made it easy to wrap as it didn't melt like ganache. Sito and I discussed a few ways to make different mooncakes. Maybe can try :) Just hope my mould lives longer - the spring mechanism is all rusty after just one year in storage...

Snowskin mooncake - flower print coz 花好月圆 - with glutinous rice tea

That was my fourth yesterday, oops... And it was quite soon after a hotpot dinner coz I was inspired by the big round moon when I sat down in the living room after a shower...

It's a new ritual for us - hotpot on this day. 因为月圆人团圆 :) Hope the kids will find it fun to attend such celebrations and enjoy the hotpot, and eventually grow to appreciate the festival as (another) one to celebrate with family :)