Report book - part 1

In my current job, I quite stern to my accountant, and the planning executive (who handles customer PO) in charge of the accounts that we I am handling.  Both of them are young and rather under - experienced, so there were cases when they would make an error when I didn't watch closely.  Thus I am usually quite stern to them and I know they are quite scared of me.  But of course we are still friends, and do chit-chat.

On Thursday night (30/May), I said bye-bye to my accountant when I'm going home.  I stopped to chat with her for awhile, telling her that I'm quite excited because it is the first time that Lynn is getting her report card form Primary school.  I told her how Lynn's my only one, so all "first experience" is also the "last experience", so I treasure them a lot.  When I was moving off, she said to me "Don't scold her ok??".  Hah! So in her heart I am that fierce!  

When I reached home, Lynn excitedly showed me her report book.  I'm not sure about P3 onwards, but for P1, there are no marks, only grade  (Lynn got As for all the subjects), and there is no class position.  It felt weird, but I hope MOE knows what they are doing..  

BFF

When I came home from my Shenzhen trip, Lynn told me that she was "mummy-sick".  It's heart warming. Not sure where she learn this term, maybe from school.  Then she ask me if she is my "BFF", hah! I asked her who her BFF are (me - yes; Ramos - no; Mabel-yes).  The following day, I asked her again, and I am no longer her BFF, hah!

Mdm Ong and Daddy

I went Shenzhen for work for a week.  This is the first work trip this year, after a long half year break from travelling.

On that Monday morning, I got a call from WK at 730am in the morning, saying that Lynn's throwing tantrum (says that she's feeling unwell) and didn't want to go to school.  I told WK that she doesn't have a track record of throwing tantrum, that is usually the start of a fever but doesn't know how to express the discomfort whenever she complain of "unwell".  And that weekend before, she had more than once told me that she felt like vomiting and giddy.  Still I ask WK to handle as deem fit, because both of us hold very strong view that she cannot miss school for no good reason.  We ensure that she understand this concept.

Eventually Lynn went to school.  Then WK forwarded the series of email between him and the form teacher Mdm Ong.  He is impressed (with her and the school system), and I am very impressed by the 2 of them.

Here's the email:

Lynn is in good hand.

Regards,

Yap

Begin forwarded message:

From:  Ong>
Date: 20 May, 2013 11:04:26 AM GMT+08:00
To: >
Subject: Re: Lynnette 1.8

Noted your comments.

Lynnette just misses her mum for this time round.

Sometimes we have to be sensitive to her feelings too.

A mother's presence means alot to the child.

You need not beat her.

Ok. I know how to talk to her later when I have the time.

Thanks for the information.

regards

Mdm Ong   

On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 9:55 AM, Yap > wrote:

Thanks Madam Ong.

Lynnette is a bit sensitive, being the only kid in the family. I tried all means including scolding and beating - just to show her not going to school is really not an option without a good reason.

Thanks for your support. 

Regards, Yap

On 20 May, 2013, at 9:47 AM, Ong wrote:

Dear Mr Yap

It is alright for Lynnette to be late. We are still taking our temperature and lessons have not begun.

Lynnette is my capable monitor in class. She is always keeping herself very busy in class doing her own work which really helps

to stretch her learning after she has completed all my class work.

She was crying when she enters the class. I comforted her saying that I will not punish her at all and told her not to be

worried. She settled down quickly and started chatting with her partner.

No worries, Mr Yap. I will see to it that Lynnette is not unduly stressed due to no reason at all.

regards

Mdm Ong

On Mon, May 20, 2013 at 7:56 AM, Yap> wrote:

Dear Mdm Ong,

I apologize for Lynn's lateness today.

She claimed to be unwell and it took me a while to convince her to go to school;  there were no symptoms but she did say the same things on weekend.

Her mum is not in town this week so she may find it unusual in her daily routine. Sorry and thanks for your support as always.

Regards,
Yap Wee-Kwong

 I sent him an sms after reading the emails, telling him it was great handling, and thanked him!  I just want him to know that I appreciate it greatly since I have to travel occasionally, and it gives me great confidence that my darling is in good hands.


Some sharing from dear friends on this episode.

My poor hamsters - RIP

One year ago they started off being Lynn's hamsters.  And I have said before, that I grew to love them like my own pets.

The 2 girls (from the 2nd batch of birth by the original mummy hamster) died.  They died a horrible death..

I guess I'm sad partly because it is my fault that died.  They had been living in this same cage for almost a year since their birth.  The cage has a hole, on the top.  For such a long time, we had been careful not be place the hamster toys near the hole so that they climb onto the top and out of the hole.  After one year of no incident, I was just pure careless, and placed the toy near the hole.

On a Monday morning, we found "Angelina" gone for the cage.  Angelina was Lynn's favourite.  I liked it a lot too.  It is the prettiest of all, and the most gentle.  I am extremely surprise that it was her and not "Jewel" who escaped.

I had hopes (false hope really) that she will appear by herself.  The other 3 hamsters (daddy, mummy and Gor Gor) ever escape from their cages, and appear by themselves, some a few days later.  Other than hungry and thirsty, they were unharm.  Gor Gor hamster even got himself stuck on my sticky lizard trap, but was rescued and unhurt.

It was pure carelessness that I did not remove the toy from near the hole of Monday itself, and to my horror on Tuesday, Jewel was gone too.  I hoped and I hoped, but they didn't surface for 3 days.

Friday night after work, I went to my friend's house for mahjong.  Juin whatsapp me to say that the hamsters were "found", and sent me a pic.  The pic took 1 hr to download successfully.  I must be living on false hope and delusional, and for that hour I really thought that they were found alive.  When I received the pic, I was stunned, but I was still delusional, and I messaged him back asking "are they alive???"  I called him in the next minute when he didn't reply.

He explained to me that they really got stuck in the water pipe that WK's mum had suspected that they went into.  They were rotting and was emitting horrible smell and how he dug them out of the pipe.  At that point I'm lost..  I kind of register that it must have been a horrible experience for him (and I should be very grateful to him for clearing the corpses out the pipe), but all that's in my mind were Angelina and Jewel, in the pic he sent me.

He said that Lynn's affected too, so I quickly called Lynn.  I suspect that she is not that affected, but I really can't tell.  [I always have this suspicion and "fear" that she is not sensitive and emotional enough, like me and her dad.  My friends tell me that she is still young, and may not know how to express their feelings.]  She said that she has 3 more of them (me faintzz..).

Back to the hamsters, I hope this kind of stuff will never happen again.  RIP, Angelina and Jewel, 4Jul2012 - 17May2013 (the day that they were discovered).

Her Journal

(A long o/s post - this happen beginning May)

I check Lynn's school bag everyday, not only for papers that I need to sign, or to read notices from school, but also review the work's that done.  I saw this booklet for the first time.

This is a journal, so that main focus here is to get/guide the kids to write about their feelings.  As I started flipping, there's a page on how they felt about a game that they played in school, and there was a page on "I felt happy because....".  Then I flipped to another page, which says "I felt sad because......."  GUESS what Lynn wrote?

Ha!  Yes, I tore her book (piano book) once.  It happened at least half a year ago.  

I had always been in a dilemma about letting her learn the piano.  And I struggle to decide how hard I should drive her to learn the piano.  As I know how to play a little myself, I revise or even teach her how to play correctly the pieces that she's suppose to practice at home.  I finally understand why I gave up myself (when I was young), because it is difficult to master, unlike school subjects.  So Winny is right that it should start with the kid showing an interest/talent.

Anyway, there was this day that she was throwing tantrum while practising.  I wanted her to understand that she cannot give up easily, because achievement comes from hard work and resilience.  There are many ways to teach her this concept.  For example, if after practising hard she plays a song well, I will praise her and explain to her how her hard work paid off.  That night, she was beyond reasoning, so I wanted to use other methods to create an impact.  It is like some mothers will pretend (or really) throw after toys if the children repeatedly don't keep their toys after playing.  Or letting them go hungry/withhold the dessert when they consistently don't finish their proper meal.  

I wanted her to know that she's fortunate to have the opportunity to learn and that comes with a price, like lesson fees, cost of the piano and buying the books.  To demonstrate my point, I probably said something like ".. if you don't want to learn then why do I have spent money to buy books.." and then I ripped the middle 2 pages (from the staples) out of the book.  

Later on, I found her taping the pages back to the book.. At that point, I not sure how she felt.  When I saw her journal, I was surprised that she quoted this incident.  Truthfully speaking, I feel smug that it created a strong impact on her.   I hope I don't one day regret this, but I really doubt I ever will!

On leave !!!!!!!!!

I'm on leave today.  I decided to blog this morning.  It had been a long time since I felt so excited to blog, that I can't wait to write and publish my postings.  They are mainly about Lynn, stuff that she did/ happened this month that quite interesting (and emo).  

Anyway, here's 2 pics about "my breakfast this morning" to start off with.  The craze is back!!

What do u do when u have unknown number of minutes to kill? FB? Surf? iBook? ...zzz