How to encourage people to have kids?

I look at One HV downstairs - probably the only mall with more dogs than kids??!

Those who want kids will have kids; those who don't want them won't have them. But there's probably a huge group in the middle who are either undecided or need to fulfil some conditions before they would have (more) kids.

What are these conditions? Maybe these:

The economics

Very real considerations here. Like I always thought my parents shouldn't have three kids - or any at all! - coz they could ill afford it. But there was pressure for a boy *.* Mother decided to tie her tubes when she miscarried after YQ. That was her fifth pregnancy and second loss. 

So yes, if a couple hardly have any savings every month despite a simple lifestyle and there is no prospects of earning more, I'll be very practical and say don't consider children; just plan for your own retirement. Don't make other people - kids, grands, extended family, taxpayers - suffer.

There are a few things here: 

• Stable employment - I believe this is possible for everyone regardless of educational qualifications. I consider zero entry barrier jobs like delivery personnel and fast food crew stable employment, though the latter probably offers a more...
• Stable income - True, those jobs mentioned above don't offer very high income and there's little wage progression. The prospect of raising a child could be quite daunting. But then it really depends on how much the individual is willing and wants to progress to a better job, plus...
• Ability to save regularly - If the couple can hardly save regardless of income, they would have no spare money for the necessities of having a child in the first place. 

Which begs the questions: how much do you need to raise a child? Well, that really depends on your income and lifestyle.

Sito just read an article where the journalist claimed it costs $30k per child per year, including holidays. I don't know how much an adult is expected to spend but let's say $20k coz no enrichment programmes? Our family of five certainly did not spend 30x3 + 20x2 = $130k for the whole of last year including holidays!

Estimates based on our spreadsheet - I have been keeping records since uni time (!):

• Dining out = $12k
• Groceries = $8k
• Utilities = $4k
• Kids specific = $8k (largely tuition and chess tournaments)
• Transport = $2k
• Medical and dental = $2k
• Insurance = $12k
• Money to our parents = $10k
• Holiday = $12k
• Other discretionary = $2k

Total = $72k per year or $6k per month

I think we are probably average in terms of spending, especially for tuition (only one subject each for two kids), insurance (almost done with commitments) and even holidays (nothing extravagant needed). If we have kids in preschool, it would be more expensive. Infant care is especially so, more ex than university, adding maybe $18k a year per kid! Gosh, so glad no more infant care for us!

Thinking back to when we had three kids in child care, that was about $21k a year in total fees. So younger families could face more stress in this area. We didn't qualify for additional subsidies then but the current income ceiling for subsidies at $12k, just under the $14k income ceiling for HDB BTO/grants, means many families can get such subsidies. 

If we work in town and take lunch outside, that would add another $5k - we are cai fan people, no need to spend $25 on ramen + service + GST. And maybe add another $1k on transport coz we have only kah (Hokkien for legs), no car.

I don't know how much a car would add coz we had never owned a car. I just used to drive Mum's car to her place when she parked it at our place every two weeks. Most places we go to are accessible by public transport anyway, even when the kids were small and liked to run the length of the Circle Line trains when it wasn't crowded *.*

Piano lessons? Art class? Taekwondo lessons? Discretionary.

What else is there to spend on? We don't collect shoes or bags or labubu toys or any funny thing. Kids do not need new toys all the time. The single most expensive item we bought for Kai is his iPhone 13 (not the latest model then), and we expect him to use it for a few years.

Oh, we don't have a mortgage. But you want a house with or without kids right? Kids only determine the size you need. We birthed three kids in our old 3-room flat - they shared a room. If we had no helper, there was a small room for a study. But the crunch was the single WC for five persons coz it was the old type; Mother's old 3-room flat is a little bit newer and has two WCs.

Anyway, taking a $1m 4/5-room HDB as an example, a $800k loan for 30y would mean a monthly repayment of $3k at 2% interest (higher than now) or $4.2k at 5% (not in the past 10y at least). Add $1k for 20y loan. So that could add some $36-$60k a year. 

Eh... Buy within your means ok... I checked out BTOs - some are priced like resale (my beef with pricing is another issue for another day) but there are also way more affordable ones. 

There's also some economy of scale with more kids. Not to say the more the cheaper but having a second child will not cost double. Clothes can be handed down, as can books and toys. Small things but still worth a mention. Even holidays - adding a second child will not add a second hotel room. But adding a third would, as I have found out. Then again, the fourth wouldn't add on, haha!

The practical

Sito sent me an article calling for men to be dads, not duds, so that women need not be the one to make the most sacrifice when it comes to having children. Made me wonder how come I let Sito sleep in while I cleaned the house on Sunday mornings when we first got married?! Now he regrets sending me the article, haha!

Jokes aside, it's true how the wife/mother is usually the one handling the bulk of home affairs. Around me, I only know one father who would take the night shift after his day job to care for his infant so that his wife would have enough rest to take care of the kids in the day!

The village that used to raise children is now just the parents, and increasingly older grandparents, if the former are lucky. All parts of the village have to come in to support. Some families may engage a helper. But I know a few rejected that totally.

The suggestion of keeping some child care centres in housing estates open until later so that parents working in town could fetch kids in time sparked debates ranging from children's needs for sleep and parental care, to child care teachers' personal and family needs, and to costs.

 
I don't understand - these parents who need to rush to fetch kids from child care probably work regular hours. Their bosses also have kids right? Why can't the parents all leave work earlier and work at home later when the kids are sleeping?

I have greater pity for parents who are both in shift work. Child care centre hours don't work for them at all. But who is speaking for them?? Anyway, I think they have either family support or a helper, else cannot.

But regardless of the type of child care, it is important for both parents to put in efforts. Maybe with one kid, it's possible to have just one parent running the show, as I did for Kai's first year, with a part-time cleaner coming in once a week. But when Yang came into the picture, it got exponentially crazy managing basics such as sleep (they don't sleep well), play and work. I must add that it didn't get much crazier when Yu came along; I guess systems were in place by then.

*** *** ***

Sito added that people must feel that their children will have a better life than them in order to have children. I guess the wars, economy, ever-increasing flat prices and inflation just don't inspire much confidence.

Maybe they're responsible. Or practical. Or cautious. Or pessimistic. No matter which way, no amount of money and practical support can change the mind of this group who are concerned with things beyond their control.

How about us? I've always wanted to have kids. Four. No kidding. It just got tempered down over the years. Sito never really thought about it, haha! 

To be honest, if I were not sure that our income could support three kids, I wouldn't have gone ahead. Before having Yu, I was doing well at work. I projected myself to cruise plateau at two grades above and be economically comfortable though time poor. Sito changed jobs a few times by then but he can do anything coz my laogong very smart :p

Actually that was it. Growing up, money was always the issue. Before having Kai, I certainly did not think about whether my husband would be hands on (answer: not when they were young!), whether we would need a helper (answer: no at first, eventually yes), or whether we would be able to manage children and work (answer: ok for many years).

Yes, in the end, I left my job. But I also have friends - in both public and private sector - who manage full-time demanding work with children. 

So back to the title question - how to encourage people to have kids?

A work place that is supportive of personal time

And this is not just about parents. Employees who are not parents deserve support too if they have other caregiving duties especially in our ageing society.

I always read comments on social media. It seems like people are working too much and too hard to imagine adding kids and their myriad needs to their life. 

Work is a such a necessary evil but can society as a whole work towards making it less evil? When will people - from those at the lowest rung to the big boss as well as customers - recognise that everyone deserves personal time if they work hard during working hours? 

Yes, I must stress the last bit of working hard during working hours. Good work ethics build trust, trust that everyone knows everyone puts in their best at work so that they can be at their best at home too. But this needs everyone to put in the effort.

Yet, I see so many social media posts and comments timestamped during working hours. Truth be told, some of my earlier blog posts were written during office hours - think I was bored when some things didn't move but single childless me didn't mind OT for some flexibility in the day so nothing to complain about. That is, if you do leisure things during working hours, be prepared to use personal time to do work.

But now social media can be very addictive. If you read one post, you'd likely go on to the next. If you read one comment, you'd likely read more. No wonder works eat way into personal time?! No wonder boss wants you to work more?!

I used to have this handwritten sign on my office desk after returning to work as a mother - focus at work and go home. Or something like that. So no social media. Not even WhatsApp - I would respond to only work messages and easy/urgent messages like from helper. Everything else - random chit chat, shared instagram posts - could wait.

And the whole WFH thing? Many people like it after experiencing it from COVID days. It certainly gives a lot of flexibility but who knows whether this flexibility results in same or higher/lower productivity? It saves travelling time for sure but I certainly didn't find myself very productive when I kept getting interrupted by the kids during the circuit breaker in 2020!

So, maybe everyone need to work hard first. Toilet breaks - without the phone! - are good enough breaks. 

This one, to be honest, is very hard. Some people are luckier than others. I was lucky to have good bosses and colleagues who understood that I had to leave by 5.30 pm; they were also lucky coz they knew I would be back at work at 9 pm after settling the kids *.*

A change in priorities

Last night I read a NUSWhispers post (I don't know why it appeared in my Facebook feed!) of a woman in her 20s worrying about paying for BTO, car and kids with a household income above $12k. Yes, $12k. If $12k cannot cover BTO and kids, it's covering discretionary items already. I roll my eyes.

Something's gotta give. 天上是不会掉馅饼的！

Lifestyle creep and spending beyond means are the usual culprits here. These are within each person's control. But I guess it's difficult to make people change their lifestyle for a couple of crying brats who pee and poop and puke on you?

A more relaxed education scene

Eh, I don't know how to put it. Some people say they don't want to give birth to kids only for them to join in the rat race starting with good preschools, good primary school, then going on to exams, especially PSLE, coupled with enrichment and tuition for every subject and topic etc etc etc. Very stressful etc etc etc.

I don't get it. If you don't learn how to manage stress growing up, how to manage stress as an adult? Or perhaps they - parents-to-be - find it stressful for themselves to raise kids?

In the olden days, girls who want to marry well also need to know how to play piano very well, play chess very well, write very well and paint very well（琴棋书画）, and after marrying, they still must stress over the husband's concubines! Ok, watch too many period dramas... 

Again, something we can control. Some parents let their children settle themselves to varying degrees and results. Here, we choose to be very involved - to push them, to motivate them, to teach them eventual independence. 

Stress is inevitable. Stress is not bad on its own. Stress is also something to learn from. We cannot shelter children from stress forever. Sometimes we end up stressing ourselves. Is it worth it? Yes, if we see them grow well.

*** *** ***

Anyway, after my work stint in encouraging marriage and parenthood and my personal experience, and considering external factors not within individuals' control and the nature of people (re priorities), I think we, born and bred Singaporeans as a species, can prepare to go extinct eventually. I probably won't be here to see it. For now, I don't mind all the Sichuan food thanks to immigration though :p

Outdoorsy term break

We started this term break with Yang's shot put. Then it was Kai's NSI chess on Monday and Tuesday - this time, he went on his own so no photos. He got 6/9, same as last year. Placing was similar too but at a higher percentile given a larger turnout this year.

So it was on Wednesday that we managed to do something together, five of us - we headed to the pool!

Fave activity - Papa boat

This was at Clementi. I woke up that morning remembering that pools are closed once a week for cleaning. Indeed, Delta pool is closed every Wednesday! Lucky!

But no sheltered pool at Clementi so it was hot hot hot! At least the water was warm for a good swim? Got the kids to do laps before they could play with water. Kai and Yu stopped at six laps while Yang finished 10 laps, woohoo! Later coz Kai was too free, we got him to do another two laps.

When they looked too free again, aka disturbing each other too much, I got them to race each other. And guess what? They all swam continuously instead of stopping a bit here and there so they CAN do it!

Yang was in the lead but I think Kai saw that and swam harder! In the end, Kai won, then Yang followed by Yu then Papa. Of course Papa started later and slowed down along the way :p

That was the shallower pool. Later, they also went to the deep pool for a while. No playing allowed there so we left after a while.

Then it looked like it was going to rain so we left earlier than planned. In the end, it rained while we were having our late lunch/early dinner at Swensen's Unlimited at Geneo. Last we went there, it also rained...

What a lovely sundae!

Banana split!

Sito helped him cut the banana. He was very pleased until he realised he couldn't finish it. He had saved the strawberry for the last as it was his fave - and he didn't eat it :(

Papa's sundae, with Yu photo-bombing

Kai didn't make a sundae; he just ate and ate. My sundae wasn't pretty but my pulut hitam with ondeh ondeh ice cream was very yummy :)

Yu found claw machines in a corner of the restaurant. They convinced Papa to let them buy tokens to play as they brought their wallet with them. Kai didn't want to play so he helped them analysed the chances of getting a toy for each machine. 

Yu caught one!

We had wanted to go jogging on Thursday but the haze was quite bad that morning. So we went on Friday. It was very hot!

Found a throwing circle!

It must have been part of a school years back and very old. The track was tarmac and cracked, not the rubbery red thing. Sito brought Yang and Yu here a few weeks ago; Kai was at a chess tournament or not well - can't remember. So this was the first time for Kai and me.

Yang ran one round as warm-up and started practising shot put with Papa - Papa is both chess papa and shot put papa! Kai did six rounds with a few water breaks whenever he ran past me. Yu did two rounds. They all have NAPFA this year! 

Yu also tried shot put but the 3kg ball was too heavy for him. I also found it heavy, goodness. My Yang Yang is so strong!

Our next stop was Tanglin Halt hawker centre. After just a slice of toast before we went out, the kids had beehoon for brunch. Sito had mee and I had porridge from the same yummy stall. Unfortunately, the youtiao stall was closed for a week...

We then took a walk in Sheng Siong and bought some snacks and groceries. By the time we got home, half the day was gone! The kids didn't want lunch but they had their usual afternoon snack.

I took a nap due to a headache, probably induced by the tight hairband in the morning. But now I'm not too sure as I have a slight headache and a few blobs of green mucous this morning. Let it not be sinusitis...

Anyway, we went out for an early dinner at Le Shrimp and bought some baking stuff at Redman. Then it was movie night! But Sito started sniffling quite a bit at Redman and went to lie down early. I was thirsty from Le Shrimp and had a beer while the kids were snacking. I offered them beer and Kai said they were all underaged, hahaha!

And now it's our regular weekend. This term break is extended as it's Hari Raya Puasa today and the schools are making it up on Monday. But no plans to head out on Monday. Just let them do revision and play Nintendo as usual.

Throwing with all your might!

Yang participated in his first track and field meet on Saturday, first day of term break.

He was quite nervous. He had all of one shot put training session on Monday, with zero prior experience, so he likened it to going for prelims without doing papers, hahahaha! Ah well, he seemed to have thrown decently well based on the video the coach sent Sito.

Sito has been in contact with the coach but he hurt his foot during a jog on Tuesday. So I brought Yang to the meet. It was at Home of Athletics. Due to Circle Line works, we took three trains via Botanic Gardens and Promenade to get to Stadium station. Yang did his maths - time spent on trains was shorter than if we had taken the Circle Line all the way to Stadium. Even after factoring in transfers and waiting time, it was still a shorter commute.

Anyway, our first time there. Took me a while to find the place. We were early. Stood in the shade outside the changing room while waiting for instructions via WhatsApp. The place was nice and clean, a far cry from the grimy sports days I remember from my school days.

Eventually we found Yang's trainer, a Sec 4 boy wearing an Oldham Athletics tee, who took him for warm-up at the sheltered bus stop. A coach - not his shot put coach - came by later and gave him his bib.

It was very hot!

He reported to the call room - a tent, really - while I waited at the spectator area nearest the tent since it was out of bounds to non-athletes. Then the group was led to the shot put area, rather far from me. I saw three or four parents going in but I refused to show my kid such 臭款 behaviour!

I didn't have time to take a photo of Yang before he had to report for his event. So when he came out for a pee break, I tried to get him but he said he gotta go.

So I got this sweet 回眸一笑

The shot put area is on the right edge of the photo. Really far. There were two other boys in yellow tee but they were smaller in built :p Yang was one of the largest boys there. 

They had a few practice throws before the actual throws. I sat near the call room until it was time for shot put and went to the front just behind the barrier. It was quite crowded by then as heats for 80m dash were ongoing but those were very quick so parents kept moving.

I totally missed his first throw as I was fumbling with the video zoom while managing my umbrella! So pissed at myself that I closed the brolly totally and waited under the blazing sun for his next two throws! Yes, kena minor sunburn on my neck but thankfully only there as the sun was behind me.

I managed to take videos of his next two shots! But his second throw was a foul as he stepped over the line. So he was cautious in his third throw and did an anyhow throw instead of his usual stance.

And he throws!

At first, Yang thought he came in last. But turned out that he heard his distance wrongly! His first throw was the best at 5.04m vs. third at 4.10m. He came in 18 of of 21. Not last, woohoo!

Sito said his throw was at about the 60th percentile of 2025 NSG. And he did this with one training session and his natural advantage in built. So with some training, he can surely improve! We bought a 3kg shot put ball which arrived last night. It is small but feels really heavy. My baby is very strong!

Finally a shot before he changed!

We left after he changed his pants - he feels like he's not wearing anything in his PE pants, haha! - and bade goodbye to his trainer. I gave him a homemade sausage bun on our way back to the train station. It was already four hours since lunch!

We chatted while walking. Earlier, when I told him that many kids would be competing for the first time, I meant it in general. Now he told me many of the shot put boys had practised for months on end. Big oops... 

Anyway, we took the train to Clementi via Promenade and Bugis to meet the rest of the family. He got very tired and leaned on me for much of the way... But he was alert again at the library! Even told us about the story of Eighteen Chefs and we eventually went there for dinner.

After the meet, he still thought it was stressful to compete, with so many people looking at him. But I think after this first experience, he realised only his fellow competitors would see him up close. Spectators were far away and parents all looked at their own child. In fact, I wanted to cheer for him (but he told me not to) but couldn't as he was so far away...

Finally, last night before he went to bed, he told me that now that he thought about it, he felt quite good about the competition. So happy to hear him say that! :)

Update 17 Mar 2026

Just saw from PG that he has been selected to represent the school at NSG in term 2! So happy for him that he has something apart from PSLE to mark his final year in primary school :)

A stupid thing, and hopefully a lesson learnt

On Friday, 13 February, Kai's Chinese HOD called me to inform me about a case of leakage of WA questions/answers from the Wednesday batch to the Thursday batch.

Someone in the Thursday batch said Kai was involved. So she approached Kai on Friday morning to ask for a written statement on the matter. Kai wrote a note admitting that he gave the questions and answers to his friend S who was in the Thursday batch. She told me she was surprised at his honesty. But I said honesty had nothing to do with leaking the answers *.*

Anyway, she said many students were involved and the school would conduct its investigation before updating me on the consequences.

We asked Kai about it when he reached home. He told only S who didn't give him away. But Kai heard that another boy mentioned his name somehow. Ah well, he did it so let's just wait for sentencing...

Yesterday, the teacher in charge of exams matter called me to follow up on this. Kai would get (a) zero for that Chinese WA, and (b) a "fair" conduct grade possibly for the year rather than the semester. There were other cases outside of the Kai-S loop and those students would also get zero. Kai also learnt about this yesterday, and had to write a reflection letter.

When he came home, he told us he got 24/30 for his Chinese WA, top in class tied with this boy whom he thought was a good kid. But it would be reflected as zero. He also said some boys got off with a warning. We think teachers probably didn't have evidence that they were involved. Unlike my kid and his friend who had traceable evidence on the school laptop and Google account - he told us yesterday that he and S wrote the answers in a Google doc...!!!! Really 🤦‍♀️ 

Actually, we were not harsh on him when we first knew about it last month. Only told him to not do such things anymore. Why? This kind of thing has been happening since forever. I remember people sharing "tips" in secondary school. I found it unfair that my classmates who often didn't do as well as me, got tips to score better; whether they really did score better with the tips was not important. But in the first place, why do such tests take place on different days?? There would naturally be big mouths or pressure to share when a friend asked.

I asked Kel. He said something to the effect of not disrupting timetable by taking a week out for WA, leaving it to the integrity of students and taking the chance to correct kids if anyone should cheat. I feel like it's setting the kids up.. Or, some kids. Like mine. Who "helped" a friend. Who in the end still did badly though he passed; he failed Chinese last year.

Fine, I think Kai really needs to learn. No better time to learn than when he's still a kid.

But when we heard about the Google doc, Sito really scolded him - for being stupid on top of doing something wrong that did not benefit him or his intended beneficiary.

We accepted the consequence meted out by the school without contest since Kai really did something wrong. Rather he learn this lesson now than later. This is only Sec 2 and for internal exams, and the penalties are, in the grand scheme of things, inconsequential. 

But for a kid in school, these penalties are painful. And the zero was even more painful coz he scored so well. Also, with that conduct grade, he would not be able to get an Edusave award even if he continues to do well like last year. He likes his money :p

So yes, very painful. We really hope he would remember this pain and the lesson, and know what to do and what not to do in future.

Anyway, we made it clear that he should not give - or receive - answers. He has already proven to himself that he can do well all on his own merit. If this happens again, we would not be so kind. And of course, no stupid business, please!

We also shared this with the brothers with his knowledge. We can learn from each other's mistakes. This is called 前车之鉴。

Joining in the TFR talk

Recent news of TFR hitting a new low made me reach for the spreadsheets again!

The overall direction of the TFR trend (downwards) is indisputable but I already talked about how the actual TFR number needs to be taken with a pinch of salt - here. Quick recap, TFR is affected by numerators on number of babies and denominators on number of women; some years with an increase of resident babies do not have a corresponding increase in resident TFR.

Today, I want to look at births vs. immigration coz we have taken to importing people when we don't produce enough.

Overall, the number of Singapore citizen (SC) births had been declining for the past six years after a slight uptake between 2018 and 2019 (+1.3%). The latest decline between 2024 and 2025 was the worst at -10.4% since 2001 (-12.5% from 2000).

So 20-30y later, we won't have enough local workers. At this rate, native SC population will start to shrink at some point.

But fear not, we can import new SCs! Ready made workers! SC pop won't shrink (as much?)!

The SC population as at end June 2025 was of an older profile compared to the new SCs granted in 2024. In particular, the two largest groups of new SCs are at the prime working ages of 31-40yo and up to 20yo, probably children of the former. This should be the case since immigration is meant to augment the young and the working population. 

Note: The age group categories are different for the SC pop data and for the new SC data, but no choice, those were the only data I could find. But close enough to compare.

But what is the impact of immigration on TFR? Does it really help?

Firstly, I was curious about the TFR among the new SCs. If I assume the new SC children were all born in 2024 and that 50% of those aged 21y and above were women of childbearing age, their "TFR" would be a ghastly 0.85 in 2024, lower than local TFR of 0.97 in the same year. But the first assumption is not sound and the second also dubious. So maybe look at the number of added births rather than TFR. But before that, I want to look at correlation between TFR and SC population.

I plotted TFR against SC pop, new SCs granted and a derived variable assuming no new SCs from 2007, created by subtracting new SCs granted from 2007 onwards (that's the first available number) from the SC pop each year. 

Now, I'm departing from facts to inference. 

Visually, there seems to be some correlation between the increase in all SC numbers and the decrease in TFR. It's probably maths as highlighted in my previous post. 

But - visually again - TFR seems to decrease more in recent years, when the delta between SC pop and SEC pop less new SCs becomes greater. Dare I propose that besides maths, this also suggests that new SCs have a lower propensity for children? But then again, many may come here already parents so they don't add to the TFR. If they conform to local norms, they are unlikely to have more children than the average SC. So I guess that brings me back to number of added births.

By added births, I'm referring to how the new SC kids add to local birth cohorts of previous years. 

Since it takes time for a foreigner to become a PR and then an SC, I assume the new SC children are at least 5yo and they are evenly spread across the ages. So the annual average of 6,600 kids since 2012 (when age data were available) covers 15 years of births or 440 per year. Let's call these births "newfound births".

As we get new SCs every year, each cohort of new SCs bring 440 newfound births in each of the first 15 of the past 20y. This means:

• In 2021-2025, there are no newfound births from the new SCs granted in 2025.
• In 2020, there were only newfound births from the 2025 cohort of new SCs, i.e. 440.
• In 2019, there were only newfound births from the 2024-2025 cohorts of new SCs, i.e. 440 x2. 
• Thus, in 2006, there were 440 x 15 = 6,600 newfound births from the 2011-2025 cohorts of new SCs combined.

6,600 represents a 20.7% increase in the number of SC births in 2006! I thought that was significant. 

So to answer my earlier question, I think immigration can bolster our low TFR but only if we're selective about it. 

A similar calculation can show that new SCs of working age can be considered newfound births decades ago and are useful to augment our current working pop. But as we have a greater dearth of births recently, it is more worthwhile getting new SCs who already have children to augment our current younger pop and future working pop. Bonus: These children will grow up like native SCs. 

Conversely, it's not worthwhile getting new SCs who do not have children at the point of being granted new SCs because they will likely conform to local norms, i.e. not likely to have many children, if at all.

Of course, don't add to our ageing pop!

The other part of the TFR discussion is on increasing local births. I feel like this is another discussion altogether. Maybe next time..

References:

• New SCs before 2012: Population in Brief, NPTD 
• All other data generated in early March 2026: DOS search by theme

Lunar eclipse on 元宵节

Some weeks back, Yu read about an observatory in an English passage. So Sito told him about the one in our Science Centre and found that there would be a lunar eclipse on 元宵节！

After checking with the boys, we booked the tickets for four of us; Kai opted out and decided to go to Bishan for chess instead. The event was super popular. We booked the day after booking opened and all the shows were sold out! Nvm, we got the free tickets instead. But later, Sito found that they released a new show timing so we quickly booked that, yeah!

First, we had dinner at Ikea. There was a Ramadan special - rendang chicken, so good and so worth it compared to Yu's meatball pasta haha! The kids didn't eat as much as expected coz they had too much snacks after lunch! Sito and I had a lot of chicken...

Then we walked out to find that it was raining! Luckily we had two brollies, enough for four of us. Rain, a lack of brollies and that Science Centre junction are not a good combination in our experience...

The Science Centre was very crowded! We made our way to the omni theatre for the lunar eclipse show. It was only 20 min but it was also only $4 each. And it was a very good live show! Learnt a lot, got to see moon and planetary orbits, sun and a simulated eclipse. But gosh, wanted to puke so much 🤮

All ready to learn about lunar eclipses!

Sito said I was the most excited coz I was leaning forward the whole time. Well, I was excited but I leaned forward to avoid the tip of a foot from the seat behind!

It was a mess when we came out. No more rain but there were people and queues everywhere. Not sure where to queue for the telescope, we asked a few staff and got some snacks in between :p In the queue, we finished the snacks - mostly glutinous rice-based. Yang had three of the four mini egg tarts!

But Yu had a problem - he pulled the event registration ribbon wrist band to tight. We had a hard time finding a pair of scissors. At one point, Sito almost lifted Yu out of the barricades! Almost coz Yu is really quite heavy... My poor heart was pounding hard for both Yu and Sito's back as I was further in the queue with Yang...

Eventually, Sito got a guy to get a pair of scissors. Yang also had his cut. I wonder why they used such a contraption instead of the usual paper sticker wrist band that won't tighten.

Anyway, we were in the queue for maybe 30min. It really looked impossible as it was hardly moving and time was running. In the end, Sito pulled out the live stream on his phone. Then we left.

Full eclipse had passed by then...

At first we thought we were in the first half of the queue. But by the time we saw the queue extending to outside the Science Centre, gosh, we were probably in the first third of the queue.. I asked a staff on our way out and he said this was exceptional! Today, news reported that more than 6,000 people signed up! 

Since it's 元宵节 haha!

Kids were holding parents' ribbons. Made them throw them away when we got to the malls. Bought some curry roux and karaage at Donki before going home. The boys were getting tired but after showering, they didn't seem as tired... Anyway, off to bed!

Oh, we saw a partial eclipse after crossing the zebra crossing downstairs. Tail end already. Later, we saw it from our corridor too. Made me wonder - could we have seen the full eclipse at home?! Then again, the live show narrator said it would be low on the horizon so it could be blocked... Anyway, the trip was good fun! We seldom or have never been out late on a school night?! 

Kai came home later - he won the tournament like he did last week but this time, he gave his book prize to a friend who was there. He didn't eat much of the karaage so Sito and I finished it - we really had a lot of chicken that day!

One last (?) ride

After the grand celebrations for Founders' Day on Thursday, Friday was a rest day for everyone, i.e. no school! With our Legoland annual pass expiring on the Tuesday of the March term break when Kai would have his second day of chess NSI, Friday was our last non-weekend chance for us to use our pass.

The bus from Bukit Panjang was less crowded than our previous trips, even the one school day trip Sito and I took. The whole journey was very smooth. Left the house just past 8am and got past JB checkpoint by 9.40am - our earliest ever. Coming back was equally smooth - we left JB checkpoint just past 7pm and reach HV MRT by 8.45pm via Kranji. In fact, the bus at JB checkpoint was waiting for passengers!

We wonder why - was it due to Ramadan??

No surge pricing for our Grab ride to Legoland. Less crowd, good weather. And since the weather was good and we were hungry, we had a little brunch at Jubilee's Nanyang Coffee at Medini Mall. We were careful not to overeat - don't puke on the rollercoasters!

We ordered four sets of kaya butter toast (oooh the thick slab of butter!), two sets of half-boiled eggs, one spaghetti, one mee siam, two milo dino, one coke, one kopi and one barley. Guess who had what :p

Standard uniform for the boys :p

Took the above using my new selfie stick tripod. Didn't use the tripod function as the floor was wet from a night-morning rain. But it's still worth a mention coz I used the bluetooth remote control. I was very pleased with this new toy :)

While Sito went to the rollercoasters with Kai and Yang, I accompanied Yu on his Ninjago conquests. No queue at all just about everywhere. Only a few PRC/Korean families besides us. It was just like our early trips when Kai was still in preschool and we could go on regular days.

Top, second and fourth - all Yu!

He's so big now :)

Spent an hour racing!

It was a good break from the midday sun. And the races were fun with these fancy tracks and proper cars made from bricks of various shapes and sizes, vs. the old race room with only rectangular bricks.

Stepped out of one aircon place into the next - observation tower. Checked out the solar panels and "bushes" and the big Legoland sign. Which kid said it was like Hollywood?

And came down just nice for "Officer in Pursuit!"

Why this Yu so cool??

Went back to the Ninjago/Egyptian area to play more but we didn't let them go into the ball pit playground - that one sucks a lot of time!

Two teams this time!

Of course, Kai and Yang won. The staff directed us to the live show. Not our first or even second time but it was nice to watch. While accompanying Yang to the toilet to wash his bottle cap that he dropped, I found the popcorn kiosk open. The staff said we could bring popcorn to the show so I bought one - still warm!

Happy in front row with popcorn

Yu doesn't know why he showed his palm. Kai's gesture means ✌️ but instead of putting it behind a brother's head, he used his thumb to direct it to them instead!! Don't know what logic...

We didn't take the big train in the end as it was getting late... But must take another family shot using our tripod!

Never sick of this pose in front of the Singapore Flyer

Sito still has the 2019 version as his phone wallpaper! How they have grown...

Took a boat ride. While there was no queue, there were also very few boats. The kids got on three. There were only two others - one was just coming in to fetch another small kid for the ride while the other one was overtaken by our three boys... So Sito and I gave up waiting for a boat 🤷‍♀️ 

Candy floss bigger than their heads!

Can bury face inside, hahaha!

And so we left Legoland on a sweet note... Will we ever return? We shall see...

Bought some buns and candy at BIG before hitting the malls. Standard - foot massage + phone games, dinner at Zanmai Sushi, Ming Ang. Also checked out a mini pasar near the bridge and I ended up with a cup of cheese lekor for supper :p Also bought a new Tupperware water bottle for Yang - 750ml so that he has more water on CCA days.

That ended our excursion. No more such excursions for the boys this year as we prepare for Yang's PSLE!

Yu won awards!

We were so pleasantly surprised to receive PG notifications on 5 February about Yu getting two awards at Founders' Day - Young ACSian and academic - for his work last year. Later, Yu told us the latter was for the top three in class. As he knows his classmates' grades, we know he was third.

He went for a rehearsal during school hours and told me he would receive both medals at the same time. I thought it would be better to have the kids go up separately for different awards but oh well.

So we had a logistics issue - Yu had to be in school by 8.15am, Yang in school by 11.45am to catch the bus to the stadium for Founders' Day 140 celebration and Kai to the stadium directly by 12.45 pm. 

Gave them all a simple breakfast - we left with Yu just before 7.30 am when Kai just woke and Yang was still asleep. When we came home, all the plates were on the kitchen counter instead of in the sink as instructed, grrr... But at least they locked the door properly and turned off lights etc when they left...

Yu saw a friend the moment we walked into the school. After a trip to the toilet, he walked with a friend away from us - 不告而别！We caught up with him to say bye bye before he went to report to the concert hall.

Sito and I ate breakfast in the school canteen. Only two food stalls and one drink stall were open. Good enough since there was chicken rice. We were prepared to run out to buy macs! :p

Bumped into AT whose younger boy is in P5; JY/JD just bumped into him two days ago at the hawker centre so we call him a celeb - take picture show each other, hoho!

Didn't manage to get seats in the centre block so our own photos aren't too great. But they had professionals take photos and print out for the kids, yeah!

Congrats, my 圆圆！

It had been a long time since we sang the National Anthem and said the Pledge in school, accompanied by sekolah sedia! And I also heard the school song for the first time, as in properly sung with accompaniment.

The awards ceremony ended way earlier than the 11 am expected. But Kai and Yang also left the house very early. We spent some time looking for Yang in the canteen but the boy went to 7-11 with a friend on the same bus! Yu got changed in the meantime and then I remembered that I should have taken a photo of him and his medals first *.*

But it was very messy. Butterfly has friends, must go to classroom (for what?) and walk around. Sito and I were looking for Yang. Then they must queue up for lunch. 

Yang admiring Yu's medals

Yang said he wished he had medals. Hey, must study way harder leh... 

Watching the video that Papa took of Yu receiving his awards

Anyway... We left them to roam the school just past 11 am, and came back to our hawker centre for our lunch. 

They're all at the stadium now. Will be home rather late - ACSP alone has over 40 buses ferrying the kids, teachers and volunteers between school and stadium! Just leaving the stadium or just getting into the transport centre would take an hour each?! So Kai should be home first.. 

Horseh year!

The horse doesn't lend itself to many funny phrases unlike the snake year. I see mostly horseh - 好势 - so indeed, hope this will be a horseh year! To get us going, I pasted a horse sticker saying 马到功成 on Yang's room door in January - for his PSLE :p

Anyway, we had a rocky start this year - viruses!

Last year, Kai missed out on LNY celebrations in school as he was nursing a cough. This time, Yu woke up with a tummy ache on Monday. He couldn't even finish his milo. In the end, he stayed home and missed out on celebrations too. Yang wondered if it would be his turn next year...!

Yu's tummy ache came and went a few times. Else he was mostly fine and had no other symptoms. He couldn't eat much though, as late as Wednesday dinner, which was telling as it was Macs...

Sito didn't feel well since the week before. Sore throat and phlegm and coughing. By the time he felt better, it was my turn - I started with my usual drippy nose a few hours before going to Mother's place for dinner on Sunday, via YQ's place as we had never been there since he moved over two years ago!

Ill but still can eat!

Anyway, I think we're finally on the mend now...

Sito and I were guessing what Mother would cook - we both guessed fried prawns and we were right, haha! And that's not all, there were also fried wontons, woohoo! Kai had a few of the wontons while Yu preferred the prawns to the wontons. Yang - oops, forgot, probably coz he didn't want to try. But no fear, there was also salmon and braised eggs so I was sure Yang got his proteins. Adults also lapped up the curry chicken and braised vege. Everyone missed out on the meat in the soup though, expected since the soup pot was on a side counter.

There was a scary episode just after we started dinner - I stepped away to grab Kai's water bottle and came back in time to see a lizard darting away under my chair! So daring of it to come out of hiding when there were so many people! It went to the wall and ran to behind the curtain separating the kitchen from the living room. I tried not to think about it...

After dinner, Mother opened up the sewing machine to show the boys. Finally a working one after seeing so many during our Chinatown trip!

Yang and Yu took turns to step on the peddle

Kai was more interested in its $ value :p

YQ brought some mandarin oranges again so we shared a few. Yang really enjoyed them! He has expensive taste (up to $8 each?!) coz he isn't so enthusiastic about the usual oranges haha! 

We left pretty late - forgot about school the next day! But anyway it was just celebrations. 

Sito and I decided to whip up a good reunion dinner at home on Monday so we were busy in the morning even though Yu was home. But when Yu decided to stay home, I told him that we would be busy so he just read and played on his own :)

I prepared ingredients for four dishes before handing over the kitchen to Sito to prepare his second dish - roast pork. He had already dumped his char siew in marinade on Sunday. But I didn't manage to wash the toilets before Kai and Yang came home so my work extended beyond lunch time. Barely rested and had to start preparing dinner!

We started from about 2.30 pm. So much work... But it was all yummy!

六六大顺！

So we had roast pork and char siew, thanks to Sito. It was originally 五福临门 then Sito added char siew :p But the char siew was very good! Better - and easier - than the roast pork! The pot was 盆菜，with wonbok, carrots, taukwa and glass noodles buried under scallops, prawn paste, fish and mushrooms. The soup was good but the taste didn't extend to the toppings.

The lion's head meatballs were amazing though I now have a big pot of leftover filtered oil waiting to be used up. The steamed chicken/sausage is my usual steamed claypot rice recipe, minus the rice, just to add some 腊肉 to the LNY mix. The pork dumplings were the only dish we finished, as they were less easy to keep. So ya, 年年有余！

All of us thought the food was good, except Kai. Sighs, so difficult to please his palate..

This time last year, Kai was still shorter than me. And Yang was thin. So we couldn't all fit into our bed anymore, sighs.. We started out in the living to snack and watch TV together. This year, for the first time in years, we did not snack much - Sito was still coughing and I started to develop a sore throat :( Kai snacked the most as he finished 15 Rocher chocolates! We have six big boxes and three small boxes this year, very scary....

After the movie on Channel 5 ended, Sito and I retreated to our room to watch our TV, leaving the kids to their Sonic the Hedgehog marathon until almost midnight! The kids wanted to stay up more but nope, parents wanted to sleep haha! But since it was almost midnight, Sito and I stayed up a little bit more to watch the countdown on TV.

Tuesday morning came suddenly. Yang and I were the first to wake - I saw him pop his head into our room. So I went to his room to hug him for a while. But I really had to get the day going. Yu was the last to wake at almost nine and only coz I went to his room. Kai went, "Aren't we supposed to leave at 9am?" Hoho!

We left after 10 am! Coz after breakfast, we needed to take photos and give the kids their first hongbao of the year :)

All decked out :)

Yu was just asking me a few days ago for more recent photos on our photo wall. Indeed, the most recent photo there was from 2023 so we're already short of three LNY shots! Should get down to it one day...

Oh, Yang broke our selfie stick tripod stand while I was trying to stand the thing on his sofa seat *.* 岁岁平安！Quite sad though coz I just spent ¥20 in Beijing to keep it in a locker outside Universal Studios :(

Forgot to go through the greetings with them but ok la, they remembered a few simple ones that they kept repeating through the day.

It was raining so we left with four umbrellas and even took bus from AMK interchange to Mother's place instead of walking. The snacks were out - and Kai attacked the Rocher again! 

We got to AhYee's place quite late but lunch started late this year too so just nice! AhYee made 盆菜 too and hers was better than mine haha! But this meant there wasn't much protein for the kids, especially Kai. Yu had the most - a large piece of roast pork, a fuzhou fishball, bah kwa and vege on rice. Yang had the same but no roast pork. Kai had only bah kwa and vege on rice. Nvm, would compensate at dinner!

Lohei!

Some had left by then but oh well, not enough space! Good to see JieJie over LNY as she's usually on holiday. Also caught up with other relatives here and there. I even got to carry our baby niece who's now almost 1.5yo! So soft, so cute :)

Got home quite late this year. Only managed to dish out dinner at 6 pm. Just added some glass noodles to the pot, and heated up the other leftovers. Finally broke out the pineapple tarts while watching Frozen II on TV!

On Wednesday, day two, things became normal, i.e. like a weekend, with the kids having work time. I spent the morning baking hotdog buns, burger buns and muffins for the coming school days. 

Happy with their loot!

All the hongbaos from day one. Also passed them hongbaos from AhMa who brought them over on Saturday before leaving for their cruise on Sunday.

Dinner was Macs!

Yes, we succumbed to the lohei treasure box of nuggets, wings and twisty fries! Yu had been mentioning this every time we passed by a poster. And Sito saw that there was a discount so ok, quite worth it. 

But we didn't eat properly at the dining table as the kids wanted to watch Wonder on TV - it's the film adaptation of Kai's sec 1 literature book of the same title. That carried on to Turning Red, quite a funny show that we enjoyed even though the kids frowned at first at the girl protagonist.

With that, it was the end of the LNY holidays. School started on Thursday and things went back to normal routine, albeit with a bit of a shit show in Yang's 听写 which we totally forgot! But 拜年 didn't stop there. On Sunday, we went to AhMa's place with mandarin oranges.

And lohei again!

Nowadays, we have to say lohei instead of 捞鱼生 coz no 鱼生 inside at all! At AhYee's place, it was all fruits; here, fruits were buried under the standard seasoning and topped with abalone.

And I must say that JieJie is very 厉害 - in order to prevent Mum from massive cooking, she first booked them on a cruise over LNY, and then booked dinner outside when we visited 👍 

We went to Man Ting Fang - second time and the kids ate a lot again! Yu kept getting sweet and sour pork and tomato omelette sans tomato for himself. Yang had his big bowl of rice plus YeePo's half bowl *.*  Kai was the only one who had the duck. 

And I suppose that ended our visiting and feasting this year... Coming up will be 元宵节 when we usually had hotpot but this year, we had something interesting to do - akan datang - so hotpot will be separate...

On a side note, one unrelated person kept getting mentioned last week...

This year, we watched a lot of TV, as in free-to-air channels, over the holiday season. On Monday, it was The Tiger's Apprentice, very apt with zodiac animals and stuff. Kai commented on the accent of the villain, which wasn't very angmoh. So we found that it was Michelle Yeoh.

Later in Frozen II, when he heard the matronly voice of Yelena whose accent was harder to place, he asked if it was Michelle Yeoh 🤷🏻‍♀️ Next in Turning Red, he heard yet another matronly voice in the Grandma and asked if it was Michelle Yeoh again! No, both weren't! 

But best, on Thursday, when somehow the kiddy movies continued, Kai and Yu were watching Paws of Fury - Legend of Hank, and Kai heard a third matronly voice, "Wait a minute... Is that Michelle Yeoh?!" Now this really was Michelle Yeoh! 

We found it really funny somehow! Tried to convince Kai to choose a Michelle Yeoh movie on our movie night on Friday so that they could hear AND see her :p But nope, he wasn't keen..

Every boy a wonder :)

We're so pleased to learn that Yang made the school team for track and field :)

Yang, however, was less pleased. He said he had seen the school team train and it was challenging! He regretted doing well in the selection test last year... So we agreed that he should go for the training first and see how from there instead of rejecting it from the outset.

Since 13 January when we told him after seeing the notice on PG, he would say on and off that he didn't want to be on the school team. We got him running shoes anyway before our Chinatown trip. Then CCA started on Monday, 9 February. He came back from Evans Stadium very tired...

Then after his second training session on Wednesday that same week, he came back with a slip of paper informing parents of an upcoming track and field meet in March, before the National School Games later in term 2/3. He kept whining about not wanting to go for it. He doesn't want to go for any competitions. But he could not tell me what exactly he was afraid of.

Actually, I find that Yang is just like me at this age so I could completely understand. I was very self conscious and I didn't want to be seen by anyone coz I thought I was ugly 🤷🏻‍♀️ So I told Yang that there would be many things happening at the same time so attention wouldn't be on him alone. In fact, only people who love him would look at him and cheer him on. But of course he didn't buy it. 

Last time, we supported him when he wanted to learn piano. We also didn't force him to continue when he lost interest. But this time, we wanted to push him more since it's part of his CCA anyway

Then Sito talked to him at length about it. He went to fetch him from Evans on that first day of CCA to familiarise him with the route to the bus stop so he could come home directly instead of going back to school with the rest. And he saw that Yang was the biggest boy there in terms of height and build. His size is already a natural advantage. Even the coach said Yang was suitable for throwing events. 

In the end, it looked like Sito managed to convince Yang. When I tucked him in, he said Papa's "inspirational speech" made him feel better about going for the competition. Phew! So Sito signed him up for shot put.

On the other hand, Yu was envious and couldn't understand Yang; he wanted to be in the school team for robotics! In week 1 of school, he even coded a game for Kai who was lazy to do it! (In the end, Kai also did it himself.) But we didn't get any notification for Yu. 

After the first day of CCA, he confirmed he isn't in the school team. He said he didn't do well in the test last year - he scored full marks for the coding but didn't build the thing in time, or something like that. We told him to ask the coach what he should do to get into the school team but he went, nah, he would do better for the next test..

Even though chess is not a CCA in his school, Kai is effectively in the school team for chess since he represents the school when he plays at national schools games. 

So both Yang and Kai would be taking part in competitions in their respective fields in March. Jia you! 💪💪💪

Horses everywhere

For our annual pilgrimage to Chinatown for festive snacks in the past few years, we always picked a weekday afternoon - whisked the kids off after they came back from school and dropped their bags. But this year, there isn't a day when all three come home at the same time. I don't wish to stagger meal and shower times etc so in the end, we went on a Saturday this year.

With more time to work with, we worked in two on-the-way excursions.

Had our lunch early and set off about noon for Decathlon at Centrepoint to get running shoes for Yang - more on that next time.. I thought we would just randomly picked a size for him to try but wait! There's a foot scanner!

His feet are a couple of mm shorter than mine but he was recommended size 41 while I was recommended 39, probably coz his feet are much meatier. I didn't try shoes but 41 didn't work for him. In the end, he found 43 just nice. Kai didn't try shoes but I think he's would be 46 or so, bigger than the recommended 43 since his feet are meaty too. Sito also bought running shoes - size 43, he'll be dwarfed by all his sons soon!

Then we ran for the bus to Chinatown with a bag of shoes dangling from Sito's arm! We were at a bus stop waiting for a bus but that bus would take 15min to arrive while another bus to Chinatown was arriving at the next stop just a short walk away so we ran! And with this little exercise, we also made the 45-min connection and saved some money, yay!

The boys were getting hungry so we made a stop at good old Old Chang Kee before the second excursion - Chinatown Heritage Centre.

Annual shot outside Chinatown Point

This cartoon horse looks like a pig at first glance... There are many like-real horses along the road outside but oops, forgot to take photos.

Anyway... I remember going to the CHC many years back and found it interesting. But it was closed for some time. When I saw that it was open when I passed by it with Na during our - also annual - trip in late January, I thought it would be fun to bring the kids there.

Best part? Can use cultural pass so no money out of pocket! I used up my cultural pass for my date with Kai but Sito hadn't used his yet. As we weren't sure what time we would reach there, we didn't buy the timed tickets online. It was quite fast to buy on the spot anyway.

The CHC is not a big museum. But it has a lot to see. I figure we spent just over an hour exploring it and a good 20min playing with AI at the end.. Could have taken more time to explore if we scanned every single QR code for more info but you know, the kids aren't the type to stay still for long...

Papa explaining how a mechanical sewing machine works

The first floor is a tailor shop out front with a working area and a yard/kitchen behind. Yang really liked the sewing machines! Told him to ask WaiPo to demo when we next go there since she has a working one.

Playing with what I think is a tracing wheel

This shop brought back memories coz Mother sews quite a bit. When we were kids, she made dresses and quilted blankets for us. Now, I don't know what she sews apart from five stones! But the machine is still there.

She also has at least one of those wooden rulers and tracing wheel - I just called her to confirm! I remember the tracing wheel is quite fun - put tracing paper on cloth and roll over. Oh there's also this flat blue chalk for marking. Anyway, this Sunday, we'll go over to explore and hopefully not destroy things...

Old phones are always fun - we saw this at the National Museum before

Yang fiddling with an old iron

Goodness, a sarong cradle! Yu is pointing to a bamboo baby chair

Lots of altars in the shophouse

This is probably not a room for one or two...

I think my paternal grandmother had a big bed with drapes like the above. It was when she was living in a clan association house as a housekeeper. It must be before primary school coz it's hazy but I remember the whole family sleeping there and a big cockroach on the floor *.*

Anyway, the above was a big room in the shophouse. The rooms on the second floor were smaller and housed as many as 10 pax each! Appalling conditions, as I reminded Yang and Yu that night when they were in the comfort of their bed in a bedroom for one that is bigger than a room for a family of 10..

Heh heh!

Sito drew their attention to the pail to collect excretion in the toilet. I think the old clan association house also had such toilets. I really didn't like to go to the toilets there...

He found a palm leaf fan!

The boys flipped every single light switch in the shophouse!

Sito tried too *.* One boy - forgot which - asked if they were old light switches. Yes, light switches used to be like that. My house used to have them, I think. Or maybe it was at the grands'. I can't remember.

Btw, these switches are all decor. Very safe. I think they spent a lot of time on the details, even what people would like to touch and try!

Rat. Also a detail and common back in the day

Yu's face is so funny! He very gamely posed for his trigger happy Mama so there're many photos of him while the rest ran about.

The third floor of the shophouse is more like a museum, telling the stories of people moving to Singapore, their lives and contributions, and old names in Chinatown.

Cher, are you teaching Chemistry - in Chinese?!

Two scales - one real, one fake

There's at least one of such a set of scales (the real one) in Grams' old provision shop, next to the dried goods and biscuits, easy to weigh in front of customers.

What a date would be like in the old days - watch opera together!

While the kids had fun at a cinema on wheels!

There's a girl in front of Kai. I blocked most of her from this angle but her shoulder is still visible. Writing this down so this doesn't feel scary years down the road :p

Told him to pretend to flip bah kwa but he preferred to flip the mesh

The boys found two AI machines at the end which captures our options using finger gestures, and we had such fun seeing ourselves transported 50y back. 

Kai the trishaw rider - so handsome!

Yang - is this a naughty or creepy smile? Haha!

Also Yang the street hawker - the forehead proportion a bit off...

Looks like some evil concubine plotting against fellow concubines :p

Yu - looks like an innocent concubine happy with her life, haha!

Yu again - somehow the system cannot capture his finger gestures well

This is, um, no system error!

My laogong very funny :p I'm less funny..

Just want to be 花旦！

Yep, so we had a lot of fun in CHC! But it didn't seem to be a popular spot; we saw only one other family who came in right after us. Such a pity. Maybe the cost turns people off? After all, it's free to visit the National Museum for Singaporeans. 

And I think it's very educational for the kids. Secondary school history covers some historical figures related to the Chinese community but nothing beats seeing for your own eyes how people used to live. Such a replica is as close as we get, I suppose. 

But of course our kids didn't look at everything in detail and were fooling around a lot. At first I thought they might not remember much but all managed to say something when Sito asked them to tell the grands the next day 👍

Got the kids some snacks - mantou biscuits and binoculars chocolate - at the ticketing area before we left. It was drizzling so we decided to have dessert at Mei Heong Yuen on the parallel street. By the time we needed to get out of the shelter, the drizzle was gone, yeah!

This year, we had the kids share one ice dessert as they couldn't finish two last year. Sito was hungry and had chee cheong fun while I had orh nee - my second in a week! First was at Curry Times on Tuesday. Similar except that this one also had sweet potato cubes.

Finally, it was time for shopping! We reached the jelly store first. This year, it's $2 per 100g. We saw $1.80 per 100g in Clementi but didn't get then =( It sounds cheap but I still remember spending over $30 the first time I bought them over 10y ago! Got the boys to choose three flavours each. By the time we were done with choosing and weighing (1kg) and paying, Yang had seven jellies from the sampling counter!

Next was the main event - traditional LNY snacks! Bought $45 worth of pineapple tarts and friends, less than last year coz (1) we already bought one can from Sheng Siong and a kuah lapis from Ikea, (2) it's iffy if the kids will eat much (Yu insisted on love letters again so we got a small bottle this year as the big one went soft after he stopped eating), and (3) I'm getting fat, must control. Lucky coz the next day, AhYee gave us a can of love letters too.

With that, it was time for dinner. Saizeriya made the kids happy with the free flow drinks bar. But I reserved my belly for Chinese pancakes :) Went to a different store this time to try different things. I ate some when we got home and heated the rest up to eat after showering. So good.

Unfortunately, Sito fell ill along the way. Late nights, haze, kiddy virus or all of the above. The kids were also tired since we were out for way longer than usual. So that night, everyone slept early.

It's now one week to LNY, woohoo!