The final lap

Yang's PSLE oral exams reminded us that we had moved back to HV for three years already. I remember coz the boys had no school on the two days after moving day and were just walking around the boxes and busy parents.

We worked very hard with Yang on both English and Chinese oral, with Chinese starting much earlier using Kai's Wang Laoshi materials - there was oral practice every week! I also attended a Mindstretcher zoom lesson on Chinese oral and collated loads of material. In the end, I summarised all the techniques in a 4x6" card for him to bring with him. 

During our practices, we reminded him of various experiences in both languages - how he thought of AhMa and brought her a cake（关爱老人）, the teen who took up three seats on the train （好公民，为人着想）, riding a bicycle （克服困难，一家人）, sharing at dinner time（家庭和谐）, local ND and mid autumn festival celebrations （社区活动）, and even an imaginary neighbour's parcel（邻里守望相助）!

Nearer the oral exams, the kids somehow found Crime Watch on YouTube. They've always been interested in it and would want to watch it if they happen to catch it on TV. So they watched old episodes whenever they could. The evening before the oral exams, Yang was at tuition when Yu watched an episode on burglary.

Now, there were English and Chinese oral exams on both days, and Yang happened to be assigned to English on day one. If he were to take Chinese on day one, I would be so upset he missed that burglary episode coz the Chinese video was a burglary! 

As usual, we didn't ask questions when he came home. Best to just focus on the next one. So it was Mandarin all the way that day. Even got them to watch Crime Watch in Mandarin, and a Tuesday Report on voluntary work since Talking Point doesn't come in Mandarin...

Prelims started the week after PSLE orals. Learning from our experience with Kai, we decided to just revise rather than do a last paper on the day before each paper. Too tiring for the kid. 

I didn't manage to go through our entire Chinese word bank. Only covered P6-P3, no time for P1-P2. The MCQ will more likely test P5-P6 words but he needs the rest for compo and comprehension... Ah well, we finished up after the prelims, and I'll probably do another round starting from P1 for the PSLE.

After his last paper, we brought him to Macs for lunch. A little treat to celebrate his efforts so far and also to motivate him for the next four weeks 💪💪💪

Relaxing after his Maths paper last Friday

Aside - yes, the sofa is new. Arrived 18 August, i.e. our old sofas lasted almost exactly three years. In fact, Kai's and Yu's individual sofas were long gone. Yang's was dented beyond words coz jumping. The parents' two-seater was kind of flat... Hope these old-school sofa - which came in through the windows! - can last...