Weekends with no Papa vs. with Papa

Last Saturday was Deepavali. But Sito had a meeting in office. So the four of us were left to our own device! It's easier to bring them out than stay at home so out we went!

Yu just before he dozed off on the North South Line

Btw, he's holding his EZ-Link card in Kai's old cardholder. His own cardholder was even older and the silicon was kind of sticky on the side. So that week, as Kai broke his lanyard for the second time and decided to just put his card in his wallet (big boy!!), I put Yu's card into this instead.

When we reached AMK, I had to carry Yu off the train. He tapped in but didn't tap out coz he was sleeping on me - luckily he travels for free :p But he wasn't in deep sleep. I managed to set him down when we got to AMK Hub. Thank goodness, he's already 15 kg...

I had wanted to go to the basement but these three boys plus COVID-19 safe management measures weren't making things easy so I just bought some cookies and cake, and got on the bus.

Kai was excited about the new terrapins that Mother regretted buying, hoho! Think she was too bored.. Last we kept terrapins, I was maybe 11? And the thing died. I was sad.

"Why do they look dead?"

So he clapped to disturb them as he couldn't touch them, and was very excited to see them move a little!

Then he made some weird sounds. And the terrapins moved a lot! He was so excited that he went to grab Yang to see the creatures.

"I spoke 'turtle'!" Hoho! Learnt from Nemo...

But Yang and Yu weren't too interested. After a short while, Kai also left the animals to themselves... Lesson here - don't get pets for them. Or at least, don't get terrapins which often look dead!!

Yang asked WaiPo for the toys - I told him to use Chinese and he did: 玩具在哪里？

Dinner took a while and they had difficulty finishing their rice coz they had too many nuggets! But Yang and Yu proved that kids have a second stomach for desserts.

Yu wanted his cake while playing so he couldn't sit properly to eat...

Btw, the cake was from Pine Garden. I bought a slice of lychee martini to reminisce our wedding :)

Scene of the coffeeshop from the playground - 40 years on, it's finally bustling; there's even a queue of youngsters!

Sito came home after we did - with yummy snacks :p Proof of third stomach?

Finally confirmed my suspicion about this expression - he calls it 西瓜

More 西瓜 with a clearer view of the original on his shirt..

Yang also wanted 西瓜

One more time another day - so cute!

Last Sunday, I finally decided to treat them to kiddy rides - it's moving!

Kai wasn't too pleased that the game wasn't like the advert though...

Tare pandas!

I've been meaning to take this picture for some time. It wasn't until yesterday that Sito was free and I remembered :p The kids often do this to me during bedtime. Papa's turn! Hoho!

It was raining yesterday but Kai wanted to check out some books at Popular so we supported him! He also ate a lot at Ichiban Sushi - had to order more kappa maki for him.

One umbrella each

I don't know why but they really like to use umbrellas...

In a short while, we're leaving for Mum's place. We're going on a staycation together! Update later...

Yang's graduation

This is a very different year. For weeks, we couldn't go out much. For months now, we have to wear masks outside.

For graduating students, graduation is also different.

The school continued to organise a graduation ceremony plus concert. But instead of going to the church like past years, everything took place in school, with no audience. Filming took place in October and they sent us the links to the video last Friday :)

Yang brought back a flower for parents on 20 Oct after they filmed the graduation ceremony - I remember they had Kai bring flowers to parents during his ceremony too :)

On 1 Nov, I wrote my first letter to Yang - and he read it out loud :)

On Friday 6 Nov, the school also threw a graduation party for them. I think it was a bit early also coz that was Teacher Em's last day - she's taking a long break to attend to family matters back home. The kids were all dressed up and they had plenty of food and candies the whole day!

See my handsome boy! 

Kai had no school that day so I had time to dress Yang up. He told me he had to be a prince :) He was very happy with the shirt. But we took some time for the pants... The first pair was too short - off to Yu's cabinet. The second was too uncomfortable - Kai found it uncomfortable too so it went straight to the giveaway bag. The third was just nice!

Wheeled some presents to school for his teachers - forgot to take photos earlier!

I was thinking flowers and chocolates but they can't be kept. And Teacher Em was flying off. So I found plushies - so soft to hug :) I also prepared cards for his teachers. Yang told me what to write and I wrote on the inside of the cards. He was supposed to draw on them too but for Teacher Em's card, he brought it to school without me knowing! Thank goodness he drew on it already - or so he said... For Z Laoshi, I saw him draw on the card and managed to take a picture of it.

Card for Z Laoshi

And his sweet teachers made the kids a book of memories!

It takes so much heart to be a teacher! And these two teachers have been with Yang since we joined this school. So amazing to have this kind of stability! I hope after the many changes in Yu's teachers this year, he would have good teachers too to see him through kindy...

That Friday was also P1 orientation via zoom. Only the last segment of a virtual tour of the campus would be of interest to Yang. So I let him go for his graduation party instead and took videos of the virtual tour to show him - zoom anyway right? :p

We watched the graduation and concert at Mum's place on Sunday, amid many complaints from Kai... It was so nice! Too bad the video and sound quality isn't very good. Just managed to do some screenshots from the videos - happy! :)

My graduand!

Chinese - CHINESE! - emcee introducing Yu's item :)

Yu in finale - third from left

Yang in finale - bottom left; he's also in another group doing the same thing coz his class was short of kids so we got to see more of him! :p

Enjoy the last few weeks as a preschooler, my dear Yang!

Happy shopping day!

I have been randomly taking PM leave here and there to clear leave from last year coz I could only bring over up to 50% of remaining leave. Yes, I have that much unused leave! Even though now they would commute up to a certain number to cash, I decided my time is worth more.

So yesterday I headed to town. I had wanted to head to town last Wednesday but decided to walk around the nighbourhood instead. What a great choice - better to walk in very slight drizzle than in the blazing hot sun like yesterday! In town, I was indoor mostly :)

First stop was Macs. I didn't have breakfast so was hungry. Thought I would have a curry puff at OCK at Paragon but since I passed by Lucky Plaza, I thought of trying the salmon burger. Unfortunately they didn't have that there :( So I left after wasting some time queueing.

The curry puff was satisfying - I haven't had that for ages!

With food in my belly, I went on my first errand. I wanted to use my Mont Blanc pen the other day but found leaked ink and a broken pen tip. The salesperson was very nice and asked me to return in 30 min while he tried to clean it for me in-store; sending it in for service would cost money.

I thought of having a Starbucks so I spent some time queueing for that, and then strolled around the basement looking at food while sipping the thing. Yeah, relaxing!

The most fascinating stall was Chalk Farm - they have such a beautiful array of cakes! And I tried a few of their cakes before, so good! I noted that the prices are higher now than when I bought them. Now that I think about it, I bought them when I was there for obgyn checks with Yu?!! 

Ok, I'll skip the sweet coffee and grab some cakes when I go back to collect my pen!

So anyway, the nice guy had both good news and bad news - he managed to clean up the pen but found that the twist mechanism wasn't working! I could hear the excitement in his voice in the former and the disappointment in the latter. He also explained the cost of fixing the pen. It's not cheap. But it's a present from Sito and I like it. So I went ahead.

Next stop was Brooks Brothers. Two weeks ago when I was in town with Na for breakfast and catch-up, we went to the outlet in Taka. But the selection was small. And at that time, I only knew Sito wanted one with a pocket; I didn't know Sito was fine with button-downs. I didn't realise his shirts were getting tattered until I finished sewing on two buttons and saw the fraying collars *.*

Na and I in front of the shop where we bought shoes 20 years ago!

Yesterday, I thought I would shop for a present if not a shirt. Then I remembered there's an outlet at Paragon, yeah! And it was a big one, double yeah! Met yet another nice salesperson and I ended up with not one but three shirts! And also learnt about the difference between two cuts that Sito wears.

And finally, Daiso!!! I thought of going to Ion but realised it's quite small. So I bus-ed down to Plaza Sing. Gosh, I spent more happy time shopping :) Even though I didn't manage to find a suitable box to keep our passports and foreign currencies - I recently found the old bags covered in dust *.* Anyway, I found a zipbag today and transferred everything over.

But I wasn't done yet. I was going to pick Kai up from CCA. But a look at the bus arrival time told me I might be late so I traced my steps back across the road to take the train instead. To avoid the sun, I dropped off at Stevens to take the bus instead of Newton :p And I was early, woohoo!

Met A at the bus stop - asked her to go too as I wanted to show her the way home via Little India, which is a dry route on rainy days. Next time when the boys can go home on their own, it's also a safer route. Kai was surprised to see both of us :)

The traffic was pretty heavy at that time so we took 10 min longer to get to Little India, compared to the time I took on rainy mornings. But ok, safety trumps everything else.

We reached home past 5 pm, and I rushed to cook pasta sauce for baked pasta. Since A couldn't be home to cook our regular 三菜一汤 I asked her to cook the pasta before leaving and I would finish up the sauce in the evening. Popped the pot into the oven and left to fetch the younger ones. And dinner was a success! Except that it was pretty flat as A didn't add salt to the pasta water and my sauce is a salt-less one *.*

A memory of yesterday - I only wished I didn't give my Daiso bag to A so early!

Let Sito discover the bag when he returned last night :) Early birthday surprise! :) He tried them all and all's good - two to wear now and one for LNY, yeah!

Jalan jalan in the neighbourhood

I took the PM off on Wednesday coz I had to give up a PM leave last month. As Kai had CCA until 4.15 pm, I had three clear hours before fetching him. So I decided to use a Swensen's voucher from AIA before walking it off by checking out the flats around us.

Alas, the first activity didn't happen. The queue was too long coz everyone had the same voucher which happened to expire yesterday. And I was hungry. So I hopped into the foodcourt instead.

My walk started shortly before 1 pm and end just before 3 pm. I clocked over 12,000 steps!!

Anyway, years back when we bought our current place, we didn't think about how our kids would get to school... We were lucky to end up here coz there's a straight bus from downstairs, via expressway. Even though HV is much closer, the journey to school takes the same time as from BP! 

So now that we're considering moving, we figure that we'll stay put in BP coz of its accessibility to primary and both prospective secondary schools. 

Now, where did I go?

1) Jelapang Road

This is the furthest but I saw a number of large flats with nice floorplan in this area online. So I noted down the blocks and off I went! The first block was kind of far from the main road. I had difficulty making my way around to find the 972M bus stop. 

I walked down the road to check out more flats, taking photos of the unit layout and even taking the lift up to take pictures of corridors :p

Then I was unfortunate enough to walk into dismissal time at Greenridge Primary School. Unlike Kai's school or even my old school with a large space for waiting parents, this school had only the usual pedestrian walkway outside the school. It has been rainy so no one stepped onto the grass which is anyway too near the road.

So crowded...

Somehow, I wandered back away from the main road again to check out other blocks. Then I hit a drain. Guess it was time to end this part.

Google Maps told me to follow the drain so I did.

So pretty!

2) Fajar road

But I didn't quite know where I was despite the map :p So I was kind of surprised when suddenly, I saw Pang Sua Pond! Waited for R to come down from her place to return my cable. She heard what I was doing and sent me her real estate agent. Good contact to keep until we're ready!

Didn't check out this spot much though. Don't recall any floorplans from this area.

3) Senja Road

I was debating whether to check out Bukit Panjang Ring Road but figured I wanted to go nearer to home as I was quite tired by then. So Senja Road it was.

The flats here are near a 960 bus stop and another MRT entrance, which is great! But the floorplans aren't fantastic. I went up for a look and decided maybe not. But there seem to be different layouts further in. Think I'll check online first.

Went to get some barley etc at BPP before sitting down at the prata place downstairs, resting my body and having a nice cup of iced kopi C kosong :)

I was supposed to bring A to fetch Kai, to teach her how to go by the Little India way home. Useful for rainy days and also safer for Kai - intend to let him come home on his own next time... But we were on the bus when I got this major stomachache. I sent A on her way and alighted just before we hit the expressway. 

The nearest toilet should be at the coffeeshop but I almost fainted after crossing the road! A kind passerby supported my arm and pointed me to the toilet. Apparently, I caught the eye of some customers coz a guy at the toilet asked me if I was ok when I came out *.*

At times like this, I'm super thankful that we have toilets everywhere and this one in particular was clean enough!! My impression of coffeeshop toilets isn't too great...

Walked a little bit more to the bus stop to grab a bus home. I thought of walking but my tummy was still uncomfortable. As the bus approached home, I thought I could check out a few more areas next time. There's still two more areas I shortlisted this round - BP Ring Road and Gangsa Road. Can add Petir Road to the list. Going to check out HL's place across our place in 30 min - excited!

Update in two hours

HL's block is super accessible. But I saw floorplans with a bomb shelter and wasn't sure if I wanted to shortlist it. I reached out to HL on Wednesday and she invited me over today. The bomb shelter turns out to be in a good location in the kitchen. And the space, gosh. There's also much corridor much to be utilised. Can shortlist :)

Bo-gay!

After a lapse of over one year, Kai lost teeth again!

It was PSLE marking week. I brought him out for lunch on Wednesday, 21 Oct, and even convinced him to try something new at the prata place right downstairs - nasi lemak. He barely started eating and my mee rubus just arrived when he gave a sneeze and - yup! - the tooth came out!

He tried rinsing out in the toilet but was still bloody so I sent him upstairs to bite on a handkerchief while I finished up my lunch. Gave A a call to alert her to prepare the handkerchief. Then I packed his nasi lemak which was luckily placed on waxed paper, and his milo, and went up. In the end, he decided it was too yucky to eat in his state *.*

One gone!

Five days later, I don't know what he doing but he fell face down on Yang's bed - yup, another tooth dropped into his mouth!

Bo-gay now!

These two had been loose for some time now. Very gross to see him push them with his tongue *.* But when they came out, Kai thought it was too ugly! :p Well, his new teeth are showing through his gums already so hopefully he'll have his two front upper incisors again!

Funny Sito baboons, I mean, boys

This morning on the way home after sending Kai to school, I got a call from home. I thought it was Yang but it was Yu - Yang helped him call me.

Yu: Mama, just now I cried...

mf: Oh, why?

Yu: Coz I want you...

Melt!

Both were sleeping when Kai and I left the house. Sometimes, Yu would cry a little. But this was the first time he called to tell me.

Other times, he may not be so sweet... He was a bit rude with Kakak the other day.

Yu: You ah... (to Kakak re something about the shower..)

mf: Hey hey, you ah, you ah...

Yu: Are you a parrot?

Tsk!

Kai was another one. He was doing his composition for tuition when he suddenly went on a totally unrelated train of thought.

Kai: I don't have a phone. When you're dead, can I use yours?

mf: ... ok, you may have it when I'm dead...

Kai: How about the password? Will you remove the password?

mf: .... you may put my dead finger on the phone!!

We had a good laugh over a painful composition - more pain for me than for him...

Yang came home with a printout of his head - bigger than the real deal!

大头娃娃！

Yu also wanted to join in the photos

Taken by Yang :)

We headed to Jcube two Saturdays ago. The idea was to let them take an overground train. Sito and Yang also found a nice little playground when they were last there. And we thought we could have dinner next to the ice rink but Aston was quite full even before 5.30 pm so we didn't get a nice seat.

The playground was quite fun but gosh, black hands and bums!

Yu's first burger was bigger than his face!

He finished over half of that. Good for him! His leftover was my dinner... But I topped it up with a bit of you tiao later when we passed by a stall on the way to find a toilet for Yu.

These kids can eat quite well outside. We did have some meltdowns in the past month. It seemed like Yu was too tired coz he decided not to nap, so he was whining and crying before we sat down for dinner. Thankfully, that passed soon enough.

But at home, they turn into freaking baboons every dinner time. Kai and Yang - but especially Kai - would look at each other and laugh! Over what, I don't know! They laugh until they couldn't eat. And Yu keeps moving around, trying to lie down on my leg or stand up on the chair etc. So they often don't meet the 30-minute deadline. Apparently, this is normal behaviour - I cross-checked with JY; her two older boys are older than Kai and Yang respectively. Or maybe all our boys are abnormal!

Today, I even got a bonus after none of them finished their dinner - they somehow started chasing one another, half naked! And Yu fell and hurt his nose. Had to wipe blood off both nostrils, with one side worse than the other. Thankfully, he didn't feel any pain when I checked again after shower.

Yu looked like this when he fell... They call this one-eyed minion!

Last Saturday, I managed to stay awake and played some Mario Kart with them. Kai was often first and Yang around 5th or 6th while I was placing 12th, i.e. the last, all the time :( When Sito took a break from work, I told the boys Papa would do better than Mama!

Yu gave his all in supporting Papa!

And yes, Papa did do better than Mama :) In other news, I think this sofa won't last very long...

Yu seems to enjoy cheering people on. We were at the kiddy rides a couple of weeks back. A little girl older than Yu but younger than Yang started playing air hockey. Her mum let Yu play with the girl. When Yang was playing, Yu was cheering him on! So cute! In the end, Yu lost twice and Yang won twice. All three kids were happy :)

My koala is a sweet one

Koala can write too!

Yesterday morning, we also had an assignment - Yang was to record a talent show with two family members! Yang had wanted to do some break dance spinning thing but his brothers weren't keen. So I suggested, um, their bedtime magic show... I'll try to upload when I could but it involved a blanket and some pseudo magic :p Took us eight tries to finally confirm it and send to his teachers! It's part of his graduation party apparently. Shall go more into that separately...

Kai hosted his first play date

We have had some friends over before, but they were first and foremost friends of Sito and me - CW, CY, LC and Siok, KLK. Kai has been to his friends' parties - H and A from the old preschool, and T earlier this year. A friend's mum arranged for Kai to go over to their place last year but the Woodlands incident happened so we put it off. Recently, he went to the east for a play date which I think was his first proper play date. And he was very keen to invite friends to our house after that.

After asking me a few times, I finally acted on it a couple of weeks ago. He finalised his invitation list, and we agreed on the date - yesterday, first day of PSLE marking. All five accepted the invitation and suddenly I had eight boys at home yesterday!!

A couple brought swimwear but I was not about to monitor eight boys when there are more than one pool downstairs! So they mainly played Nintendo and hide-and-seek. Hide where? No idea, haha! But I think they had fun at the room balcony which straddles two rooms. I had to hide the gym ball under my desk lest someone played with it and rolled over...

The brothers were home coz child care was closed. And they had looked forward to the play date as well, especially Yang. It was not just because of the pizza lunch! They played with the bigger boys too, who were very nice and played with them too :)

I was mighty pleased to catch this shot :)

It just so happened that all but one boy were in a black shirt! And the one boy who was not, was wearing a bright blue shirt the colour of my boys' pants! Very coordinated. So I have very nice photos of them at play and at lunch - it was like a uniform!

Making a note here that Pizza Hut's large pizzas are not the super large ones from downstairs. The super large ones seem way more value-for-money... But ok la, they didn't even finish the two large pizzas. The nuggets were all gone though! One boy ate like nine and told me he was very full, hoho!

We were left with two friends for the last hour or so. With fewer kids, I joined them in front of the TV. They were taking turns to watch someone play Nintendo *.* until I asked them to switch to another game where they could all play together. 

I played with my younger boys - this one anyhow played

This one was even worse!

It was nice to meet Kai's friends. B and T were very sensible and quiet boys. Bubbly boy C kept making cute sounds. E and OJ were very comfortable with adults. All of them made themselves at home, as boys would do, I guess. But I think my boys were the noisiest of the lot, which probably explains why the noise level was very similar to our regular weekend despite having more than twice the number of boys!

Cleaning up was massive though. The lunch table was thankfully easy. It was the rest of the house. There were a few ice cream wrappers on the floor. The floors were sticky. The balcony doors were sticky. What's with boys and sticky hands??!

It was quite a hot day to head out too early so I fed them TV while we cleaned up a bit. Then we went downstairs in somewhat kinder weather to scoot around before heading to the foodcourt. And I was ready to crash. And crash I did - I think I slept at about 9 pm. Yang and Yu woke very late today, almost 8 am - they probably crashed too!! :p

Random thoughts about monetary gifts for birthing a child

We benefitted from the Baby Bonus three times. Yeah, free money! But every time it came up in the news, I couldn't help feeling upset when I read people's comments. 

The Baby Bonus is a support for child-raising among those who want children, not an encouragement for having children if you don't want (more) children. People should not have a child for such monetary gifts. If they do, I seriously doubt their credibility to be good parents.

The latest is this new Baby Support Grant to encourage couples who want a child to not delay trying for one. But can $3,000 really help if the couple already has difficulties during this pandemic? 

The amount of money needed to raise a child is way higher than any Baby Bonus. The amount of effort and time too. Not to mention foregone income, holidays, freedom and even glamour. 

Before kids, I dressed up anytime I liked. With kids, I dressed up for work on weekdays and went into auntie mode on weekends - no makeup, no hairdo, no jewellery, not even my wedding ring - until recently. Due to WFH, I don't dress up for work anymore. To make me happier, I dress up every fortnight - to go to the grands, haha! Helps that the kids are bigger now and can leave my hips.. Daddies aren't spared too; Sito has been carrying the baby bag for years, including a girly Kate Spade :p

Mummy duties don't care that I'm dressed up...

While the Baby Bonus didn't play a role in our decision to have three kids, it definitely helped defray costs in the first couple of years. It's like the surprise hongbao from a distant relative - good to have, just don't expect it and don't expect it to make much of a dent in the course of raising a child.

The money is long gone now. What has really helped all these years is the more intangible stuff.

At lunch with ex-boss on Thursday, she mentioned how she didn't enjoy her maternity leave in the early 2000s and went back to work after six weeks. I recalled my own maternity leave with much joy though. At home, I entertained myself with drama or books after entertaining the baby. And I was always up for going outside with baby in my arms or on my chest. 

It helped that the malls were very mum/baby-friendly by then. While Kai was super easy to nurse even while walking, Yang and Yu did better in a nursing room, and nursing rooms were plenty and mostly clean. Diaper changing areas are essential and easily found. And it's not just the malls - I have fond memories of nursing in GBTB amid the flowers, hoho!

These seem trivial but they really did make life with an infant so much more enjoyable and easier. The boys also liked being outside - so much more to see. I can't imagine being holed up at home with a crying baby!

Before COVID-19 came into our life, we were often at playgrounds outside. We are really lucky in Singapore - every housing estate has a playground or more, and many malls also have free playgrounds. There are - or were? - also plenty of chargeable playgrounds for parents to indulge or babysit their kids.

Moving to BP, we also get to enjoy walking around a big pond nearby though we haven't done that as much as I would like to. There are many nature trails as well, and I'm keen to explore them now that the kids are old enough. 

I can think of only one complaint now - many family packages are meant for two adults and two children, which are not very helpful for us!! A couple of weeks ago, we were trying to book a staycation for December but we couldn't find one with a decent price coz with five, only the biggest rooms in the fancy hotels can accommodate us :( Else, they offered two rooms which totally defy the reason for the staycation in the first place.

To think that I would have loved to have four - I had hoped for two boys and two girls way back! But we started late and chasing after tots gets harder with age, Sito not keen for so many, and we would dread a fourth boy, hoho! Ok la, at least we can still fit into a taxi.. Yesterday, I learnt that Kai's current (:p) best pal has five siblings *.* Gosh... This one can take only public transport or need two taxis/cars!

Enrichment...

Tonight, I'm talking about enrichment - first, art lessons; then, tuition; now, others.

After over two years, Kai and Yang had their last swimming lesson on 27 Sep.

I've been wondering for a while about the goal of these lessons. I mean, two years! They can swim somewhat but are we to continue with lessons with no end in mind?

Then the coach asked about raising fees. It was a 30% increase. Affordability aside, we really wondered where we're going with this. Not to mention, he was often not on time so things were a bit rushed every other Sunday when we went to the grands for lunch and nap.

So we decided to stop. Maybe next year, when Yang is all settled in P1, I'll find someone who can teach weekday afternoons. And Yu can come home earlier to join in :)

Very happy with his "new" top and a cap!

After sitting with Kai for his online Chinese tuition, I had a brain wave - I could make slides to teach things to the kids!

I was trying to do some national education over National Day but it was so hard to find good videos and then get them to focus as I scrolled for the YouTube videos. Slides would make it so much more structured! I can still use videos to complement the lessons!

Since the idea rooted itself in my head, I have finished a deck on rice, and am now on emotions. I have a list of topics in my phone and I fill them up with bits of info during my daily commute between home and school before sitting down to pull the info together. It's quite a bit of work, but hey, I can use each three times :p

I'm very excited about it! I have a work lunch tomorrow but hope I could start my first lesson with Kai too :)

Finally, tuition...

I tried.

I tried not to give him tuition.

I tried to coach him myself.

But in the end, I had to start Kai on Chinese tuition :(

During the circuit breaker, I realised that Kai couldn't understand his Chinese HBL even though his teacher recorded all the instructions as it would be difficult for the kids to read instructions. How did I find out when I couldn't supervise his HBL which started in the morning when I was working? 

First, the teacher called. She called everyone to check in la. She told me Kai's online work was ok except for this instance where he submitted a 9-sec recording when his classmates submitted 1 or 2 min worth of recording. He didn't follow the instructions and anyhow did it!

Then, there was a checklist. Towards the end of HBL, I realised that he didn't do a lot of his offline work! We spent the last week catching up like mad.

We discussed. Kai and I. We agreed that he would try to brush up on his Chinese with my support. We would read more Chinese, go through all of his XinPengYou magazines, and speak more Mandarin at home. The deadline was end July.

There was a slight improvement. He asked for an extension so we tried for a bit more.

Then he had HBL on 2 Oct... The next day, I signed up for a trial for online tuition.

At the trial on 5 Oct

He wasn't terribly pleased with having tuition. But he did it anyway. While he was restless, he sat through the hour of revision and told me he liked it at the end. But doing the homework with him was a nightmare again, grrr!

This week, he asked the teacher whether there was homework again. She said there would be homework every week. His jaw dropped, haha! And the homework this week was double that last week! He was mighty displeased about it. So far, we're maybe 30% done.

He decided he didn't like tuition after all. But hello, I've paid for 12 lessons. So he wanted to stop after 12. I haven't told him I got two free lessons too - one with the 12 and one due to referral from JY :p I told him it would all depend on whether and how he would improve.

It's somewhat upsetting for me too, to have him go for Chinese tuition. My Chinese was very good *.* But I'm getting anxious. He will be in P3 soon - exams! Hope he can gain something out of this. I remember learning something in my English tuition in P4-P6 coz my school didn't seem to teach those stuff. My grades weren't bad but somehow I was sent for EMS tuition... I think I topped English in P6 - have a book prize for it :p

I know Kai never learnt much Chinese until K2 coz he was the only Chinese-speaking kid in his class in his previous school But I still can't help wondering if he could have fared better if I had the time and presence of mind to help him in Chinese when he was in P1. Was still working full-time then. Yang can already speak more Mandarin than Kai now. But when Yang goes to P1 next year, I'll be sure to help him more in Chinese!!

What can I say but sorry, first child!! :(

Let's paint!

We've been talking about art lessons for a while. I finally signed Yang up for a trial class on 20 Sep. It was a Sunday afternoon, and the piece was Chinese painting. I was able to stay for 15 min and saw the intro to the piece they were doing that day before they started painting.

I thought he did very well!

When I went back to the school later, I learnt that I couldn't have him take that class on alternate Sundays so I signed him for another trial class on a weekday. This class seems more technical. And since there was a trial for Yu's age group on the same day, I also signed him up - he was also interested but the earlier trial class was for Yang's age group.

What are you doing?

I stayed a little longer for Yu and saw him trace nicely :)

Yang's Japanese pagoda

Yu's spider with rainbow background

After the trial, both wanted to continue. I asked them multiple times whether they would still continue without the candies at the end of the trial class *.* In the end, I signed them up. So every Tuesday for two months, I'll take them out of school earlier for art lessons. They are always happy to leave school way ahead of their friends!

This is Yang's, done over two lessons

Yu's Christmas piece - why at this time, I have no idea!

Yu's again, coz he completes one every lesson

For this scarecrow piece, I saw him outline the clouds and trees with black paint. He could do it really well! 

The teachers will go through each kid's work at the end of the lesson, and let me know what the kid did and well/not so well. Where Yu couldn't do, his teacher would step in to help so it's quite a guided lesson. The class is also very small at two or three each. Hence the fees I suppose, haha! But it's quite fuss free for me - don't have to invest in any materials...

Need space to keep their transfer case and portfolio though!! So big - lucky I bought only one to share

Next week, I must remember to bring their tees lest they dirty their school uniforms!