Waffling

This should be my final post for the year.

2014 has been another extraordinary year.  It was an emotional year, but not the bad kind like 2011.  It started with my 40th birthday, which marks the end of the mid life crisis, bottom of the valley feeling.  Slowly, I picked myself up, and steadily moved forward.  In the 2nd half of the year, I changed job again; took up new responsibilities, made new friends, and made adjustments to my daily routine.  In October, I came to realise the start of the real primary school academic life of Lynn. At the end of it (Oct), we celebrated any joyous year of having Lynn.  And, yesterday morning, I told WK what had been on my mind for the past 2 months.  Not sharing here yet though.

Wishing all my friends a great 2015!

[Christmas eve, Wee San calls it "waffling", meaning eat waffle with me.]

Dec'14 update: Birthday vs Christmas

This year's family christmas gathering is held at May's house, as we did for the past few years.  The one very special aspect of this celebration was that Mavis, the birthday girl, specially requested for birthday gift to be separate from Christmas gift.  The poor gal, whose birthday is 21st Dec, seldom get 2 gifts in a year, like the rest of her cousins.  We joked about it, claiming that her gift is always twice the value of the rest of cousins'.  But eventually, all of us hear her, most probably empathised with her, and got her 2 gifts.

This year I also contributed to making (instead of buying) one food item, which is potato salad.  I had a relatively fun time researching and making enquiry about the ingredients and recipe.  Shopping for the right kind of potato and sour cream was challenging for me.  It turn out well enough!

Here are the pictures:
Lynn wanted to wear her purple dress for the party.  The deer hones were from Diaso

Me and birthday gal, our dear eldest niece/child, who turned 14, which has some significance for the teochews (Wk's mum and Mavis' dad):

I realised that both Chloe and Brayden will automatically pose for the camera with their best smile (well trained :), so here a beautiful picture of Brayden:

The focal point:

May's family, getting ready for the birthday celebration:

Candid pic of Mavis:

".... ,happy birthday to you...."

A picture of my potato salad:

Right now, it is 27th Dec, 745am.   Merry Christmas and happy new year to all..

Dec'14 update: Loom band making and sale

This school holiday, Lynn did a lot of loom band bracelet and pencil topper.  She's not interested in making the bands for leisure, but instead she did them for sale through me and Wk' mum.  I'm not sure if I am telling the right values.  Anyway, the holiday's almost over, and we had already sold close to 30 items.  Here are some pictures:

Started off with 2 kinds of regular bracelet.
(i) Twisted bracelet:

(ii) Straightaway bracelet

Then I bought round beads.  After experimenting mixing the bead into the design myself, Lynn actually picked up the technic and improvised:

(i) twisted bracelet with round beads

(ii) Still twisted bracelet, with heart shape beads

(ii) Fish tail bracelet, with alphabet beads:

Here's the blue, white, black bracelet with blue star bead she did for WK:

She did many pencil toppers, mostly sold to Fengxian, who gave out as Christmas presents to her friends.

There are a few more "name bracelets" which are still work in progress.  I will post the pictures here once ready.

Dec'14 update: Adventure Cove Waterpark

WK was out of town for approximately 10 days which span over 2 weekends.  On the first one, I took Lynn to the inline skating trial class.  On the 2nd weekend, I took Lynn to Adventure Cove Waterpark at Sentosa.  If he was around, he's "in charged" of these kind of sporty events.

Unfortunately, it was "inconvenient" for me just 2 days before that weekend.  So I end up not playing with them (May's whole family went with us), and I took some pictures for them.

It is a fun place, I hope to go back there again next time.  Here are the pictures:

On our way there, outside the Maritime Museum:

, 

There were some very pretty looking boats under construction outside the Maritime Museum

The cousins were asked to take a group picture together, but Mabel sulked...

We reached early, slightly before 10am, but were allowed in.  It took us quite sometime to navigate the changing and locker area.  Finally we realised that it is impossible for those who wants to play to carry any belonging (such as mobile phone/camera, water bottle, nor even slippers).

Here's the first ride that the 6 of them got into, which is the river ride.  It was very enjoyable in the morning when it was less crowded.

While they were queuing for slides, I saw this beautiful butterfly resting on the floor:

Here pictures of them snorkelling in the Rainbow reef.  This is Mavis:

There were about 15 different rides and attractions.  I took some precaution and tried a few.  I not the sporty and adventurous kind, but I have always like water park, and it's milder attractions, like the wave pool, and the big bucket treehouse.  We played almost the whole day (10 to 4pm).  Lynn enjoyed it thoroughly.  I hope we can be there real soon.

Dec'14 Update: Activity in the park

Lynn requested to go to a snowing country for our next family holiday.  WK used skiing as a reason to get Lynn to learn inline skating (we wanted Lynn to take up sports).

On 6th Dec, I took Lynn to Bishan Park for the trial class.  Last Sat, we got her a brand new set of skates, helmet and protective gears.  She will take lessons starting from Jan, but now she can already skate quite a fair bit.  On Christmas day, the 3 of us went Bishan Park for a short workout.

Here are 2 pictures taking during the trial class:

While she was having lesson, I tried out my new I phone 6+

Dec'14 update: Log cake baking class

This Dec, I arranged for many activities for Lynn.  One of my favourite was the mini log cake baking class, because I attended with her and Mabel, and I enjoyed it.  It was actually my first baking experience.  A lot of steps were simplified for us, so it was fast and fun.  Here are the pictures:

We arrived quite early, and choose our seats.

100 grams of flour and a 100 grams of sugar (!), 4 eggs, vanilla extract and some raising agent..  Looks so beautiful..

Baking made simple due to electric mixer

At first, I didn't plan to post this "so auntie" pic.  But it is the only pic that shows the batter beautifully spread out on the baking tray, before sending it to the oven.

When it came out of the oven, we were to wait for it to cool, so the girls blew at it :)

Deco time! The girls just kept adding more and more stuff, and I got to "yell" at them to stop (cos we are sharing the stuff with everyone at the desk)

Mabel's on the left, and Lynn's on the right:

Mine!

We got the organiser to take a picture for us.  It was great fun!

Slowly

I was on leave today, which is Boxing day 2014.  My last holiday of the year, before a busy 2015.  Indulged in my favourite drink this morning..  Slowly, slowly..

Sharing good articles and sites - O.E.

An ex-colleague from Chartered, who may still be reading my blog sometimes, share an article on FB.  I read the article.  I'm very impressed with the writer, and his articles. 
http://oliveremberton.com/

P2 learning journey review

Lynn has completed another fun learning year at KCS, and mummy-me again has experience and thoughts that I'm eager to share..

Last year when Lynn was in P1, we had an easy year.  She adapted to the system well, made lots of friends, and did not face any problem with studies.  There wasn't any major exam.  Based on tests and assessments throughout the year, we were pleasantly surprised when she emerged the top 3 in class.

Going into P2, I was quite complacent.  The school issued school term and exam time table at the beginning of the year, which I read through.  Then the school organised 2 workshops regarding the syllabus, and a PMT session, which I attended and took note of her weak areas.  To sum up, while I'm being kept up to date in general, I didn't think that I need to pay attention to the detail.

The "wake up call" occurred in early Sep.  Lynn missed school for 3 days in the last week of Term 3.  We usually self medicate if it's common flu, and we try to not be too hang up about missing class.  Then the Math teacher Ms Ang called me.  If she hasn't, I wouldn't even realise that Lynn actually missed a Term 3 Maths test, with marks that count towards the final results.  She asked for MC, but we didn't have one.  Lynn told me after I put down the phone, that she already informed me previously of that requirement. 

A few weeks later, I attended the class excursion and met Mdm Ong, the form teacher.  She reminded me that the exam period is coming up, and there is streaming for P2.

Mdm Ong didn't go into much detail, so I was left to figure things out on my own.  So instead of working towards a precise end result, I did 3 things mainly.  Firstly, I get myself, WK and Lynn to be familiar with the exam time table, which spans over 3 weeks with 7 different dates (2 Orals, and 5 different written papers)!  Secondly, I keep watch over Lynn's health.   When she contracted flu again in mid Oct, I had to enforce adequate water intake.  Lastly, I did some revision with her, but only on her weaker areas like CL Oral and compositions. 

Throughout Oct, Lynn wasn't stressed at all, nor was she pressurized to perform.  She also learn skill sets that she can apply in the future to take charge of her own studies and results .  For example, taking note of the exam dates is the starting point for revision planning.  Another example is that I explain to her that staying away from crowded places will minimize exposure to virus, which is something that I do when I had major performances or exams in the past.  The point is, while there are many things that we cannot control, there are many more others which are within our influence ; this is a life lesson that I learn from my dad.

In the end, for the good effort that she put in throughout this year, her results were well enough to earn us another attendance at the year end award ceremony.  This time round, she got 2 prizes, one for "academic achievement" (top 3) and one for "Best in Maths". 

It was only at the ceremony that I had a lengthy chat with Mdm Ong, then I realised how much I have "missed out".  I didn't know that the streaming picks up the top 80 pupils (from the total P2 cohort of 240) to be placed in 2 top P3 classes (the rest of classes are random).  Mdm Ong told me that due to this streaming, a lot of P2 parents spend time helping the kids with their revision during the exam period. 

She told me how challenging it is for her class to learn the same Maths syllabus as their peers in other classes due to the "age difference".  There are 4 best-in-Maths in P2 this year (they all scored 100 marks).  I reminded Mdm Ong that the other 3 kids actually got full marks for all 4 papers (Terms 1 - 4), whereas Lynn got full marks for 3 papers (Term 1,2, and 4) only.  It really set me wondering.  It had turned out to be "unfair advantage" - if Lynn had taken that paper and had not scored full marks, she would not have this "Best in Maths" award.  It may well turn out to be "unfair disadvantage - had the school decided to penalized Lynn and not awarded her this prize because she missed one paper. If that happens, it will be due to our complacency that she is not recognized for her talent/interest in Maths, and for the one full year of good work.

WK casually told Mdm Ong that it is my efforts that Lynn got her good grades.  In a way, it is a form of acknowledgement.  In another light, he is still not convince that what I do is necessary (he didn't hear the part about the other P2 parents' involvement).   He is the "cool" parent, while I get the "labels". ~ Recently I got upset from hearing some insensitive remarks, from a kid who told me that he got 52/100 marks for Maths.  When I asked him if there's any plans for tuition, he told me that his mum will tutor him.  Then he said that while some kids need tuition, he don't understand why kids who are already smart like Lynn goes for tuition.  I'm sure it was what he hear from the adults gossiping.  I can only console myself that every parent has their own style, and will bear responsibility for the outcome.  If it doesn't bother them that he gets 52 marks for P2 Maths, it shouldn't bother me their untruth comments about Lynn going for tuition. ~ As for WK, I'm not going to be too calculative, because I know he is truly not too bothered even if Lynn doesn't do as well as she does now.  When I have the opportunity, I will reminded him that he (we) is blessed with a conscientious girl, who got "best in Maths" without any coaching from mummy-me!

Most importantly, I knew that I have done my best in maintaining a fine balance, in order for Lynn to only bloom and excel from my guidance/push,  and not suffer any undue stress or pressure.  I believe it is solely for her own benefit, and not mine. 

So lessons learnt from the P2 exam experience and the above recent episodes are as follow.

One, honeymoon period is only for one year, for neighbourhood school. Recently, I met up with an ex-colleague who became a SAHM 3 years ago.  Her elder boy is in P1 this year, in a branded school.  She talks about the politics in the PSG that she is in.  And there is already CCA for her P1 boy. 

Two, learn the school system and process, keep in contact with the teacher. 

Three, do not comment/gossip about others' parenting style, especially in front of kids. 

Finally, I told Mdm Ong that next year, there is no more pressure on me anymore, as she may not be the top of the class :).  Perhaps the more correct way of putting it is that, the focus for me next year will be to build responsibility and accountability in her.  受之于鱼不如授之于渔

Lastly, I hope that once again she will have a happy learning journey in KCS in 2015!!

New principal, Mdm. Sarah Leong, next year onwards

The trophies are for the kids, the certs are for the parents:

Lastly, this is the teacher who is the main contributor to Lynn's fun and fulfilling first 2 years of primary school life. Thank you, Mdm. Ong!