What!? Seriously........?

Any parent would know of this website - kiasuparent -  which speaks so accurately of us. There are a variety of topics discussed, of course the most active ones would be academic support. There's a Discussion for 2014 PSLE students too! And in this forum, everyone discusses and share tips on how to conquer their first mountain. 
During this period, students and parents put answers and compare with the others. Not like anything can be done if our answers differs from the rests but perhaps it's just an assurance if our answers are the same as the rest. 

But I'm wondering how these kids can even remember the question numbers; questions and answers so well. My blur sotong girl can even forget what she was tested earlier on or.... even forgot what she wanted to ask me. 

Needless to say, I did ask her what was her answer and it took her some time to recall what was the question. She can't remember what question number is a certain question. I asked her how is it she can't remember all these when she can rubbish or whatever things she read months ago. She then replied me "mummy, do you want me to spend my time memorising the questions and answers OR do you want me to spend my time checking my answers?" Well, she made a very good point. 

Hangover

I feel so much better today..... it's the first day of FREEDOM. I can't explain that relief off me. It really feels that I was the ONE SITTING FOR THE EXAMS. 

Imagine, days before I was running through revisions and since I had been hands-on since Day One, I know where her weakness and strengths are, I know where she tends to be careless. Like a fortune teller with a crystal, i forwarned her how doomed she would be if she neglected areas or misread certain Science questions etc...

And suddenly everything just disappeared with the typhoon. GONE! RELIEVED!

And guess what? I must have been that overly exhausted that I overslept!!!! Reason for exhaustion is mentally and physically having to handle home, education and girls affairs solo. On PSLE days I was worried of oversleeping and woke up almost every hour. Hubby, who returned just few hours ago, roused me from sleep "ay! It's 7+ already." Shucks! Just a sleep and I totally forgot I had another daughter (lil one). She panicked.... and first thing she told me "I need to go to school today I have spelling." Haiyah! Spelling only not exam not PSLE." 

I am an irresponsible mom. I could have brought her to school but she would reach at 8+ close to 9 since it was close to 8 when I was awoken. But in the end, the laziness sank in. I need a well-deserved break moreover she's only in Primary 2..... She can catch up. Anyway she had been revising on her own. I need a break before I get myself busy with her exam preparation.

Che-che had requested to go Orchard Rd days before, she even asked daddy when they Facetime-ed. So after lazing in bed for another 2 hours (not enough for me but I wasn't going to deprive myself on a trip down to Orchard) we set off. In BBW -Taka bumped into a schoolgirl. Haha! When you see any kids not in school at that time, they must be the P6s. Had a nice time lazing doing nothing, for me I know it's short-lived happiness. 

It's OVER!!

Oh YES! Oh YES! Oh YES YES YES!!! It's finally OVER! 

Can't believe the long journey we took, 6 years! And the journey got rougher with big tidal waves in the last year. Plus the puking from me from the nauseating rides up and down the waves. There were days (oh well majority) when I want to be a pirate and swing the sword at her or me

Our final lap, we made a cool and calm swim. Hopefully we did it right. It wasn't a good chance for making experiments because this exam is serious and important, we had to get it right for her. But for the second round, I learn from mistakes and hope to do it better for mei-mei (if I still have the energy)

I can finally let my hair down, let her hair down. Phew!

Rest for 2-3 more years then chiong again. Sigh...... Meanwhile I need to read up on the new syllabus. DUH! 

Meanwhile shots of my girl. Precious moments....

This was taken on 29th Sep - day of her second last paper - her most hated subject Chinese. I thought to myself that the next day I had to do this mamarazzi again coz' like how many times is she going to take her PSLE?? 

30th Sep - everyday I hear the footsteps and whispers as the girls finish their paper for the day. Today, it was much quieter as most girls made light footsteps down. They were elated that all papers are finally over. I can never describe the heave of relief that took over my heart, immediately I felt myself lightened.
Smiles from the girls. And I can't spot my girl coz' it's a sea of blues there. 

I see my girl smiling everyday. I should be happy when she tells me the papers are easy. She sounds very confident over the papers, she didn't have the anxiety as she experienced 2 years back. The anxiety that led her to see the school counsellor, that made me worried every school tests and exams. (she always do well for papers at home but ....) I pray hard that she gets the results that she truly deserves.

I'm short of pushing a mic into her face and interviewing her, otherwise I make an awesome full- fledge journalist not mamarazzi

When I stood at the vicinity, I can't help but think back of her first day in the school. Her second day of school. And how she (embarassingly) hugged my legs infront of the Principal. She laughed when I recalled the incidents to her. I hope I'm not embarassing her by blogging down all her 丑事 for the world to read. However these are memories that will help me recall when I'm old and senile.  And this my girl is going to end her 6 years in this school soon. I'm crying....

Teacher's Day gifts

For the past 2 years I commissioned a very crafty friend to help me make something for Teacher's Day. Initially this year I wanted to follow the trend but decided that I could plan and prepare way way way in advance, I should be able to come out with gifts for the Teachers myself.

I bought a lot of bottlecaps, for hairbow making purposes, and thought I could do something with it. Knowing me, I prefer to get practical (or maybe in my opinion is) gifts for teachers since they'd be loaded with cups, frames, flowers or some other generic mass-produced and easily available in stationery shops. Honestly, I'm running out of ideas over the years. I think soon I'll be really purchasing gifts from shops.

These are personalised bottlecaps    

Bottles of M&Ms filled up

Candles for non-school teachers, who would have no use for the pass holders

.

Feeling shitty

没有想到还不会吗她。

一讲到就一把火。

Why? I think I have depression. Everything also must scold her.

Three more weeks and ......... I feel the anxiety, she doesn't! I feel that she hasn't revised enough, she thinks it's sufficient!

To sum it all, this whole process is draining me dry

Why? Why can't I have a motivated child?

To band or not to band?

When kids reach P3, I always hear parents complaining. "Why band? Isn't this sterotyping the children? The 'faster ones' in one class and the 'slower ones' in another class?" It isn't happening only in my girls' school but in most schools in Singapore.  And most of the time, the parents who complains have kids in the lower tier class (just like those parents who complain about the primary school registration process are the disadvantaged ones who can't register their kids in the sought-after schools) they slam the system and ask the Principal to abolish the whole thing.

Some parents in mei-mei's class haven't had the slightest idea yet. So I shall wait for the next In-Conversation with Principal.

So, is it necessary to band the children into classes? I have two girls with different strengths, so if I say YES I'm disadvantaging the lil' one. Che-che's forte is Math, she's able to process fast and see things in a wider perspective. As for the lil' one, she's too naive - believe every word you say. Even if I tell her I picked her up from the rubbish dump, she would believe me. 

Teaching lil' one -  I finish my sentence, she still looks at me blurly. I use other examples or methods, she don't understand. Needless to say, I usually lose my patience and flare up. 

Math + she + me = worst combination

As it is, I'm only handling one kid at a time and I can't take it. Can you imagine the poor teacher being thrown into a class of mixed ability? 

Needless to say too, the faster ones are pushed to the maximum,the slower ones are given just the minimum. Materials given in girls' school are different. Assigning of homeworks had always been thrown to us since P3. 

All I hope is the lil' one, by miracle, will be put into the same tier as her sister.  

 

Mini celebration .... Surprise!

Mei-mei was disappointed that she had to go for her ballet and Berries on her birthday. She declared "A free day doing nothing" but with her ballet exam coming up in Nov and I get laden-ed with extra homeworks when she miss a Berries class, I told her I can bring her out for lunch & dinner on her birthday. (Ha! She was convinced)    

I thought it would be boring for che-che and me to sing her a birthday song on her birthday so thought I'd surprise her with a small celebration in her ballet class. I sms-ed Miss Kathleen two days before or was it a day before?? (Omg! my memory's failing me!! I post-date my blog entry) Once approved, I quickly packed goodie bags for 7 kids. And prepared small insert to put in each cupcakes.  

Goodie pack : Mentos, Kit kat, bookmark 

Went over to 12 Cupcakes and bought Rainbow Vanilla. Bought a cake board from SKP to present the cupcakes.

Reached ballet studio earlier and began the job of taking out the small cards on each cupcakes and put mine. Stuck each cupcake container to the cake board just in case it topples 

Mei-mei didn't suspect a thing and was surprised when we walked into the studio. Smiling gleefully for the camera. 

And then distributed the goodie pack.... guess what my girl miscalculated the number of kids, I'm short of 2 (and short of 2 cupcakes coz' I had bought extras for Miss Kathleen, Sally and Jeremy) 

Here's wishing her a : Happy Birthday my little terror!!

Aricia's 8th Birthday

Celebrated 2 days earlier in school, as MOE has declared her birthday an OFF DAY for her and .... the rests of the school. Hahaha! My lil naive girl really believed so when I told her.

This year I'm a little smarter, I stayed around the vicinity after dropping the girls off in school. I went into the school earlier too to decorate the table, after last year's rushed preparation I learnt my lesson. Recess is at 9.40am, I thought my 8.57am was early since I told baker to come around 9 to 9.15am, but when I walked to the canteen she was already there - infact half an hour early. She was so nice to help me arrange the place. Lovely cupcakes right?  

When I was doing the setup, the P5s were getting ready to leave for their LJ. And it's so funny that all these years I get kids asking me if I was selling them. I wonder if they ask every parents who celebrate their girl's birthday in school.....or maybe my setup is too exaggerated. 

There were two other celebrations and they all simply brought cake and display and that's it. No wonder they can come 5 mins before recess. Actually I shouldn't make life difficult for myself right? Next time I don't have to be so bothered.... oh but I think next year we can celebrate in our new place coz' we finally have a Clubhouse!!  

   

The set-up 

The girls

Birthday gal

Rushed home to put the extras in fridge

Aricia's birthday preparation

After the movie Frozen took Singapore by icy storm (pun intended) last November. it's no surprise that the lil' one wants it for her birthday theme her next birthday.

We would hear children in the malls singing "Do you want to build a snowman?" "Let It Go". It's really popular, I found myself humming to the tune and ..... I even play (and sing out) it on the way to pick the girls up from school. But I was worried if ten months down the road, the fad would die down. On the brighter side of things, it might be easier to find favors in Singapore.

Hmmm.... not really. Yes, there are Frozen items sold in Singapore. Water bottles, lunch boxes, cutlery sets. However it would cost a lot of $$ if I multiply by 30+ kids. I went online, China, to be exact to get everything from them direct instead of getting from middlemen. Smart move! I save a lot. The bags I ordered, I saved more $$ when I opted for the slowest mail. To play safe, since there was a 35 days lead time for delivery. I ordered the bags two months in advance. Can sail through the ocean and sea, rain or shine.. I wasn't in any hurry. Better still, I didn't have to run around Singapore trying to source for ideas. I'm getting old and weary of all these birthday preps that I want to take a seat back, the fingers can do the clicking.

These are the 4 designs the bags come in.

      

To keep things simple and didn't want to burn my brain cells thinking of what to pack, I decided to pack lesser stuffs in their goody bags this year. It would also ease the weight on che-che, who would be tasked to help her sister bring up to classroom on her birthday celebration day.

Each goody bag contains :

1) drawstring bag

2) personalized kit kat bar

3) personalized mini mentos

4) bookmark

5) marshmallow

The bags arrived end July and I started packing stuffs up within a week. Even before I could pack the Teacher's Day stuffs. Well, at least I can strike this off my TO-DO list