Wednesday 19 May 2021

HBL Day 1

When I heard this on Sunday, I was dazed.

NOT AGAIN!

Then I realised I'm on leave 19-21 May and 27 May, there's a Vesak Day on 26 May, no school on 28 May, which means only two days 24-25 May where I have both my paid work and HBL work. Yes, HBL is work for parents too.

THEN I realised Yu's child care centre is having its usual three-day closure on 19-21 May, which means (a) no more one-on-one time with Yu that I was looking forward to; and (b) all three kids will be home with two needing HBL help and one monkeying around!

THEN THEN I realised Yu's cough over the weekend meant he couldn't go to school on Monday. But I couldn't take leave when I would be on leave for so many days already so Monday lunch time was terrible - I was in a call and Yu was whining about missing a cartoon coz he was playing chess on the iPad...

Yu also stayed home on Tuesday coz he still had a slight cough. In his words, he was "normal coughing" on Monday, and "wind coughing" or "air coughing" on Tuesday - that's phlegmy vs. dry for adults! Luckily, he was way better on Tuesday. I heard him cough maybe five times a day these few days.

So busy all way since... last Saturday when all kids were home!

Yesterday, I also realised that I had made almost three weeks' worth of sausage rolls and meatloaf muffins for nothing coz they would be having lunch at home and hence no need to supplement protein at tea time. And they would want confectionary for tea time too, just like on weekends. Sighs.

So the day finally came! 

I set a 7.00 am alarm for the kids but of course they all woke before that. They got changed and started preparing for class - school uniform with bare feet, and I cleared the two desks for them. Kai took Sito's desk while Yang took mine.

Assembly via Zoom!


Kai started later due to hiccups at teachers' end


We had our share of IT woes too:
  • I couldn't change the name on Zoom from my name, complete with company name behind, to Yang's name. On the third try, I realised I could paste the link into the app directly and change name, instead of clicking on the link which brought me straight to the password page.
  • Kai's link was up quite late so I attended to him later. Then we realised that his laptop camera wasn't working so I had to put him on the iPad.
  • While they were having their assembly complete with devotions and greetings, I tried to fix Kai's camera to no avail. So Kai would have to use the iPad for Zoom and the laptop for SLS coz he prefers the mouse. Also connected my office mouse to the Mac for Yang.
  • They started SLS fine but shortly after, I think the system became overloaded so Yang kept taking TV breaks! Kai had quite a bit of offline work so he just did them. Very proud of Kai for finishing his HBL almost entirely on his own! :)
Also had to watch the two class chats for info and jostle with Yu to get to his brothers through it all! Can't put the two in the same room coz it's just too noisy. Eventually, I settled Yu down at the TV in my room to get some peace and my breakfast.

Pulled together a timetable for their live lessons so I don't miss them!


Spent most of the morning sitting next to Yang coz he needed help with instructions and IT. Expected coz Kai also needed that in P2 last year. But Yang wanted to go watch TV and not do his work! Coz "so boring"! And he wasn't pleased that I stopped him from using the auto correction/completion thing on the Mac touch bar. Haiyoh!

Kai finished his before noon and joined Yu. Good for him! Yang finished his close to 2 pm with lunch and a long toilet trip in between. But he managed the last bits quite well - he promised he wouldn't be distracted by Nintendo and he really focused on his work for the last lap! So I was able to make muffins for tea, yeah!

It must have been the HBL coz I was very sleepy at 3 pm when we settled down to read some books on the iPad. I think I dozed off holding the iPad while it read to us, oops... 

On the other hand, they still had energy to burn...


Wanted to sleep with them at 8 pm but they wouldn't let me have any peace so I came out after a while and here I am!

I'm glad to have these three days. Need to help Yang be familiar with HBL coz I have to work next Monday already! Good luck to us man....

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