First Day Back in School

I was excited and I think I was more excited than the kids. Haha.

We took turns to wake up and to use the toilet - a routine that was long forgotten. For the remaining morning, Lil Shauna was barking at Zaky to hurry up. Oh, that sounded so familiar too; she has this thing about being late or what potentially looked like going to be or remotely maybe will be late. Haha.

Finally, we were out of the house and on the way to school.

We all put in weight during the CB and Zaky put on about 1 kg. Though it may not sound like a lot, it is too much for his short body frame. He looked so lumpy in his school uniform that I had to ask him to hide behind Lil Shauna. We drove the kids to school and it was such a long time ago that we were all in the same car.

The Student Care is opened and I waste no chance in sending the kids to the SC. The day working from home was suddenly so quiet and I better enjoyed while it lasted; Zaky is doing HBL next week and I am not looking forward.

In celebration of surviving the 1st day of school, we had MacD for dinner.

Oreo survived too.

Oreo is the only surviving fish from our QianHu longkang fishing expenditure in March 2020. Now that the kids are in school, it had become my responsibility to feed it. And I forgot, so I gave it a little more, until we realised that everybody thought the same way and gave it a little more. Hoho. We better not kill Oreo by overfeeding.

Mummy Lim

Rescue Mission... Never Again

There had been many occasions where we turned up at the school to pick up sick kids. There had been even more occasions where I picked up calls made by the kids from the school's coin phone, pleading that we help them deliver forgotten stuff. We had never once accede to their requests, simply bcos we were already on the way to work.

While it may be scary in the kids' perspectives to face the teacher having forgotten their book or whatever, it is tested and proven that teachers do not kill. More importantly, it helps the kids to be more responsible for their stuff or they can go face the music.

We had gotten fine so far. Lil Shauna had been diligently packing her bag every weekday evening and double checking the next morning before school bcos she wakes up way too early. Zaky on the other hand couldnt care less and it was usually the same books anyway for P1; no much packing required.

However, this year didn't start off too well. The kids are now busy with their gadgets on most weekdays evening before bed. They didn't have much free time after school, student care and dinner. I had been nice (maybe too nice) and didn't want to cramp them since the year just started. Bcos they are so "busy", Lil Shauna stopped packing her bag. Then, she sleeps in later bcos the weather is just too darn nice and didn't have time to check her bag in the morning.

Yday, I had kids yelling about forgotten art stuff right after we stepped out of the house.  They should be grateful that I was willing to backtrack to grab the needful. Ended up, Daddy Lim and I were slightly earlier than usual.

After bfast and I saw the familiar number... it was Lil Shauna. Apparently the school time table has changed and she had forgotten to check and was in the wrong attire. She was pleading for us to rescue her.

I didn't know what got into my head (probablu bcos we were early) and I actually agreed but regretted the moment we hung up. We made our way home and then to school. It didn't help that it was drizzling and the road started crowding. I was swearing.

When I finally reached the General Office, no staff was in sight but a large sign reminded parents not to "rescue" their kids so that they would learn RESPONSIBILITY. I was so tempted to turn back  it eventually left the bag with a note.

Back in the car, I immediatelt watsapp Lil Shauna, who would not see the message until evening, to sternly remind her that it is the final time that we do this for her. I had myself to blame too and I must not relent in the future....

Mummy Lim

更上一层楼

When Lil Shauna started P2, I attempted to start her reading chinese story books. I know that it would help with the language but it was a real pain. She could easily polished off English story books without me having to bug her but Chinese is literally like a foreign language. I gave up soon after.

I attempted again when Lil Shauna was in P3 and Zaky in P1. Instead of getting easier, it became double the pain. The efforts were also abandoned soon after it was attempted. It was way too painful. 

This year, I didn't thought about starting the Chinese story books despite us heading to the library every week, until the school started pushing for it. It is now compulsory for all kids to bring and read chinese story books during Thu and Fri's assembly. I give it 2 thumbs up for the effort. The kids now have no excuses of not reading chinese story books. Hehehe. At least I was merciful and always make it a point to find books with hanyu pinying for them.

The P4 chinese seems to be a huge jump in difficulty as compared to the P3. Lil Shauna has dropped to the 2nd chinese class, which I think works better for her. In the 1st week of school, she came home from enrichment and school totally deflated, exclaiming that she would absolutely fail chinese this year bcos it is so difficult. She said that she can't even half understand what the teacher was talking about.

In addition to the usual 听写 and 默写, she is now given 成语 and sentences to memorize. Some examples are 自信满满, 苦口婆心, 热锅上的蚂蚁, 见此情形, etc. These are suppose to help with her 作文 but she can't remember most of them and doesn't know what they meant at all. I had to translate and help to explain in English. I hope that at least she can 1st memorize them and we shall slowly see how we can introduce these to her compo. I hope we will get there. Haha.

Mummy Lim

School's Out

Woohoo! School's out! The kids are super excited. To prevent them from staring at the gadgets the whole day, I have asked them to draw up a time table and promised to reward them if they are disciplined enough to follow through.

Only Lil Shauna did hers; Zaky excused himself and said that he wanted to do it with me. Actually, he spent all his time watching the iPad. Zzzzz. Then he insisted that he could just follow jiejie's.

I am just as excited bcos I can finally throw away all their activity books and worksheets! They were cluttering the shelf so much when the teachers started to return them for revision. This is only one of the piles and the smaller ones. I had to walk a couple of trips to the recycled bin to dispose all the papers and books. Finally! Our shelf is clean and clear.

On a side note, the stack of papers reminded me of the books that I have finished and stacked up in the office.

I have just completed my 6th book for the year. Yeah, I can check off that resolution. Hehehe.

Mummy Lim

SA2 Nightmare Over

It is finally over!

Overall, the kids did well. Lil Shauna did extremely well for her Science; the past year papers must have paid off. She also happily told me that she was awarded an additional mark for English and achieved the target. Apparently, it meant a lot to her. Her Chinese improved as well. The only disappointing subject was Maths and I cant bear to see how many careless mistakes she had made. Well, what’s over is over. She has worked really hard mugging over those past years’ papers. I am still secretly happy that we would not have a hamster but they get to choose a reward for the hard work.

Zaky did very well for his papers too though his are a lot easier. Before each paper, I had to remind him to write properly, read properly and spell properly. To begin with, the class average was high probably bcos the papers were easy. Still, no hamster. Hahahaha.

Ever since SA2 was over, I have not asked the kids to do homework or revision. They are now playing to their hearts’ content with the rest of the neighbor kids at every opportunity that they have. Yday, they even had their own mini snack party at the poolside and didn't come home until 7pm. Shiok!

Lil Shauna told me that she suddenly loves school and she said that she must be weird. Then I realized that school is so fun now. They don't really study, had plenty of free time and are watching movies during lesson time. No wonder she is suddenly loving school; I would love this kind of school too. Lol.

Well, they have worked hard and deserved to be carefree kids for the next 1.5 month.

Mummy Lim

1st Day of Student Care

Zaky went to the student care for the 1st time yday. It was a long break for Lil Shauna too bcos she asked to totally not attend student care during the holidays. Lol. The arrangement would still be 3 days a week and they would take the school bus home for classes on the other 2 days.

Zaky was anxious about student care. I was too, worrying that he would end up in the school bus instead. Popo said that she was on standby. I watsapp the student care to remind them early in the morning and again to check in the afternoon to make sure that things went fine. It did. Phew.

I had wanted to pick them earlier at 6pm but there was a traffic jam. The next pickup time is supposed to be at 6.30pm but the kids were already waiting at the gate when I arrived at 6.15pm and they were released. Daddy Lim had to work late and we took the bus home with much complaints from the kids.

Did the kids enjoy student care? Apparently not. Lol. Lil Shauna is seasoned already and though she didn't love it, she didn't complain too much about it except how Zaky drove her crazy. Zaky said that student care wasn't fun and they were made to do homework. That's the whole point little boy. 

Lil Shauna also said that there were so many P1 in the student care this year and the center was overcrowding. As a result, the P2 and P3 were housed in the classroom instead. It is fine actually except that the classrooms aren't air-conditioned and everybody loves air con. 

Zaky was exhausted. When I picked them, he said that he was so tired and asked if jiejie was tired from student care. Jiejie has always been hardier and survived way better than him. 

Dinner was waiting when we reached home. Nice. By the time we had dinner and showered, it was already 7.30pm. With homework done in the student care, it was TV and iPad time before the kids go to bed at 8.30pm. Yes, bedtime had been shifted earlier bcos Zaky had could barely last until 9pm and had trouble waking up in the morning.

Zaky didn't even lasted until 8.30pm. He asked to go to bed at 8.15pm and was soon asleep. Lil Shauna was still happily on the ipad until I rushed her to bed at 8.40pm. She too was in lala land by 9pm, leaving me just enough time to take a call at 9pm. 

The kids are heading to student care again today. I could hear Zaky moan. Lol. This morning, he was lugging his sleeping bag and slippers to the school and then student care. The P1 kids get a short nap in the pm. I hope it would help Zaky to survive the day better. At least Daddy Lim is picking up the kids today and they get to take the car home. Oh, Zaky has Chinese enrichment in the evening. I really hope he survives.

Mummy Lim