Reading time

Reading time again, while I read the kids listen, not sure how much they have absorbed. But I remembered what Clement told me, he taught his 2 year old girl numbers by flashing number cards to her & he was surprised that his girl shouted "9" & "10" when they passed by a Petrol Kiosk, that showed "9 & 10% discount". So it showed that she was listening all this while though she doesn't appear to be paying attention.

NS40 Exhibition

Before going to Tampines Mall to wait for sis & mum, we passed by the NS40 Exhibition & Allyson took a picture with the army tank.

Hearty lunch at Sakae Sushi

Went to Sakae Sushi with sis, brother-in-law & mum to celebrate mum's birthday (sure gain weight, keep on eating).

The kids are so happy as they have not eaten at a Japanese restaurant before but they are more interested in the cold drinks than sushi.

Mrs Jenny complained about Randson

Randson's English teacher at Morris Allen was on medical leave again & Mrs Jenny took over the class today. When the class ended at 11am, I saw Mrs Jenny running after Randson & kept asking him where is his mother.

Then she started, "This is the first time I am teaching here but I have years of teaching experience. I have not encountered a kid like him, he burped in the class non-stop. I have asked him to stop but he continued to burp & he behaved like a clown. He is affecting the whole class... baa...baa...black sheep, have you any wool, yes sir yes sir, 3 bags full... ... ..." Sorry I lost track of what she has told me cos she went on & on non-stop. Though I admitted to her that Randson has not been himself lately & she told me that I should find out the root cause. Yes, I am doing it, I'm still in the process of looking out, finding out... ...

"Randson, what happened to you? Why are you behaving in this way?" - No reply.
"Randson, anyone bullied you in school?" - Nope.
"Randson, you not feeling well?" - Nope

??????

Exploring my home

Hi everyone,

I have not been playing with the digital camera for a long long time cos my mummy kept it in the cabinet. She forgot to keep the camera & I decided to show you my home.

This is my house's dustbin, can you see my little foot? Mummy didn't know I took this photo until she saw my foot & my favourite kinder bueno's wrapper is in the bin too. This is my house's toilet which I hardly use cos I have my own potty.

Then this is my favourite Barney shirt, drawing, fingers (??) and my third Kor Kor.



You like my photos?

Best regards,

Smiling face

Managed to rush back to fetch the kids from school as there are no more orders to be loaded for the day.

Nickson greeted me with a smiling face & a goodie bag in his hand, "Teacher gave me my birthday present but the class didn't sing for me. Anyway my birthday is over." Wow, he really mind that his teacher has forgotten his birthday & the present does not compromise the "unsung" birthday song.

Little boy, there is always gain & loss in life & not everyone is given the same treatment.

时代不同了!

今天早上，在电梯遇见Poh Gek, 两个妈妈自然而然地谈起孩子来。就这样谈起托儿所的事情，总觉得，孩子们都在同一间托儿所，可是大家学的似乎不大一样。老大进小学时，我根本不必担心。老二只是不大懂汉语拼音，可是到了老三似乎什么都不会。真担心到了老四会怎么样呢？

Poh Gek说时代不同了，你不可以拿去年的事和今年比，更何况他们都隔了两年。现在不是父母怕输，我们必须跟得上时代，一定要送孩子去小一预备班，不然怕他小一跟不上别人，因为大多数的孩子都有上这些课程。听了以后，我真的吓了一跳! 我真的跟不上时代吗？

他打了个比方，班上大多数的学生都会了，老师当然继续教下去，难道会为了一两个同学而停下脚步吗？听了也似乎有道理。。。难道这个时代的孩子不再有童年了吗？他们的童年不再是绿油油的草地，蓝蓝的天空了，而是四面墙的课室，数不尽的英文字母，数目字。哇!想着想着，星星也在我的头上跳舞了!!!

难怪，健良的妈妈在他一年级的时候已经想好要把他送进哪一间中学了! 这正是所谓的long term planning吧。

Early celebration of mum's birthday

Being kiasu again, Mum's birthday is next Monday but we celebrated her birthday today cos I have to work late again!!!

I bought a chocolate cake for her & the kids sang aloud for Mum & helping her to cut the cake. It is great to see the great smile on her face.

"Happy Birthday, Ma!"

Why no birthday present for me?

Went to fetch the kids from school today & Nickson told me : "teacher didn't wish me happy birthday & the class didn't sing birthday song for me, other people's birthday have but my birthday don't have". Didn't know this would meant so much to him & I told him not to get angry over this as the teacher might have forgotten as there are so many students in the class & we have celebrated his birthday yesterday & he got his birthday present too. But I believed these are not as good as his teacher remembering his birthday & his classmates sang him a birthday song.

Nickson's birthday celebration

We celebrated Nickson's birthday today cos I was afraid that I would have to work late for the next few days & didn't want to disappoint him.

I intended to buy his favourite mango cake but there was none at Prima Deli, so I got a peach flan instead. It looked yummy & the kids are so eager to have a piece. They couldn't wait for Daddy to come home from work & started the celebration without him.

Nickson was smiling all this while till Randson helped him blew off some candles & Nickson was so angry over this & refused to eat his cake (hiaz, get angry over little things like this). So I have no choice but to feed him, while Johnson & Randson had a second helping to the cake & kept a small slice for Daddy in the fridge.

ipod for Nickson

Have been asking around where to find a reasonable priced & good MP3 player for Nickson as he has requested one as his birthday present & I knew nuts about these gadgets.

Most of my colleagues suggested to get a China brand MP3 player as it will be of reasonable price and suitable for small kids like him. I tried my luck at Bedok interchange & found that 1 MP3 would cost me $58 - $68 & they are only giving 2 weeks warranty.

Was told by sis that Apple is selling their refurbished ipod for $68 (1GB) so I decided to get this for him. I placed my order about 2pm & it was delivered to us at 8pm, wow such fast service.

He is so happy to see the ipod & kept on listening to it (now another fear started to grow in me, hopefully he doesn't listen to it for too long as I don't think earpieces are good for the ears).

Odd behaviour

Noticed that Randson is quite different these days, he has changed (more & more mischievous, asking mum to feed him instead of eating on his own, prefers the days he is in childcare than in P1).

Spoke to his LSP teacher today as we didn't send him to the reading class yesterday assuming that there is no CCA & remedial this week. She told me that Randson is odd these days, he would roll up his jotter book into a megaphone & shouted in the class instead of paying attention. The teacher also said that he is not the worst student in the class & he is able to read most of the words by using phonics.

This reminded me of the day he told me that he is lousy & stupid, most probably the 2 elder brothers have scolded him that. They always feel that we pampered/favoured Randson more than them. Hiaz, aren't we treating them equally? Why are they feeling there is a different in treatment?

New books

Wow MA bought quite a few new books & Randson borrowed 2 of them on Hamtaro. I loved to watch the cartoon on TV when it 1st started but stopped watching after finding out that Kids Central kept repeating the series. Read the 3 books to the kids today.

Off day

Today is my off day for working late last month, didn't know what to do & have nothing in mind. So I told mum I will go for a hair cut at Storm since they are having promotion.

Intended to trim, colour & do treatment for my hair but ended up with digital perm, colour, highlight & treatment... ... heartache. Didn't enjoy my trip to the salon today as most of the known faces are no longer there & they hardly spoke to me (other than recommending products). Furthermore, not much new magazines to read too - boring 5 hours at the salon.

Turtle & Crocodie Soup

Mum has been telling me that there is a restaurant at Sembawang that sell crocodile soup (through TV advertisement) & I should bring my kids there.

Finally we were there to try their crocodile & turtle soup. It was very heaty as I can feel the heat in me throughout the night & kept on drinking water, while Nickson has rashes surrounding his lips after a few sip. Initially I thought he is allergy to it but then after drinking more & more water, it sudsided (luckily).

Reading time

Read these 3 books to the kids which Randson has borrowed from Morris Allen. Didn't know why Randson started to slack in his studies, he refused to go for Morris Allen class this morning & when asked to learn his spelling, he told me : "I am lousy, I am stupid..." & he refused to tell me whom had said this to him.

Sad ... ... ...

Curry chicken for dinner

It has been a long time, we have not eaten curry so I bought this from Shop n Save to try out.

Wow, it is very tasty & easy to cook, just dumped everything in & you have a pot of chicken curry.

Meeting Pamy & Sherri

Was surprised to receive Pamy's sms this morning that she will be meeting me at Eastpoint. Told Allyson & Nickson that we will be meeting Sherri & Allyson kept telling me, "Sherri is my friend" cos she has a classmate whose name is also Sherri.

Wow, the 3 kids clicked very well with each other & I believed they have an enjoyable time together. They talked alot in Burger King & busy playing with the gift which Sherri has given to them. I believed we are the most noisy table in BK. After that, they have a good "jog" in Popular.

Upon reaching home, Nickson told Allyson that Sherri is cuter than her, lol & they looking forward to see Sherri again.

Losing my job soon to Globalisation?

A few big shots came to Singapore from our headoffice in US & they are here to tell us about "Globalisation" - such a common word but ... ... it might take away my job.

With globalisation would mean a single office in any part of the world is able to process transactions for the whole wide world, perhaps I would call it a Centralised Processing Centre ... ... jobs will be taken from the regional or countries to this Centre. What would happened to the people here? Either you learn new skills for jobs that are still available in your country or you will be out of job, what should I do? Learn new skill set, I am just a contract staff, am I able to compete with the regulars? Find a new job, I am going 40 soon, will other companies accept me? Will there be a paycut just like before? I'm lost ... a mindful of question marks.

Fruit/food good for rheumatism

Mum's friends were telling her that this fruit is good for rheumatism & they have tried having it. They are able to walk better now, some said that their backache were cured too. They gave her 2 small fruits & said that these can be found in Hougang & Malaysia will have lots of these.

Anyone know where can I find this? What is the name of this fruit?

"Morris Allen really that good?"

Khim asked the above question & I started to think about it but I think the answer is not important, as long Randson is improving, I believed all kinds of enrichment classes are good(except no good to my pocket, lol).

Maybe Randson is slower than other kids (cos he started talking when he is about 4 years old), so he would take a longer time to absorb what was being taught to him & partly is my fault for not teaching or reading to him (is "no time" a good excuse?). Therefore with the kind of support from LSP, abacus & Morris Allen classes, he is able to "exercise" his brain more frequently & this lead to the obvious improvement in him.

玉不琢，不成器。人不学，不知义。

(其实我觉得老师就好象是武林小说里的师傅，只要师傅用他毕生的功力把孩子的五脏六俯和穴道都打通，哪孩子就灵光了嘛! 有时候也得靠一点想象力!)

Story telling (reading) time

Feel so good after Randson's abacus class, hence I decided to read aloud "Little Train" to my kids.

珠心算老师称赞Randson

刚才珠心算老师说：“他学得满快的，只是有点懒。常常用手指来算。”

我听了，整个人都呆了! 老师称赞Randson 学得快，哇!好久没有听到有老师称赞他了，真感谢老师的赞赏，虽然他也提到Randson的缺点，可是小小的赞赏胜过一切!这正是对我的一大鼓励，肯定了我对他们的付出是有效的。

谢谢老师!

HFMD in childcare

Was informed by the childcare that there are 5 cases of HFMD last week & so happened that Allyson is having running nose, I decided to let her stay at home & only sending her back to childcare on Wednesday.

Received a call from her teacher this morning & was told that there are additional 4 cases yesterday & the 3 cases were found in the afternoon when these kids are in the childcare centre. Upon hearing this, I decided to let her stay at home till end of this week & to my surprise, I received an email from the childcare stating that there are 11 cases since 26 Mar 2007 & they will be arranging a cold fogging and fumigation on this coming Saturday. OMG, this really shocked me.

Immediately I responded to the teacher, Principal & the Operation Manager that I will only send Allyson back to the childcare the following Monday after the cleanup & was curious why the fogging and fumigation was not carried out immediately and exposing our kids to the viruses though I understand that not all parents are able to make the necessary arrangement.

Information gathered from their replies are :

1. After the fogging & fumigation, it does not mean that the virus will be eliminated 100% or break the chain of transmission. - This makes me reconsider my decision to send Allyson back to the childcare on coming Monday.

2. If there are new cases of transmission, there will be a high chance of closing the centre. - I would raise both hands to support even if the childcare is to close now then exposing my child to the viruses.

3. They do not wish to cause inconvenience to parents by giving short notice & some parents would be unable to take leave.

4. For the fogging and fumigation to be at the most effective, we should allow sufficient time for the aerial disinfectant to take effect and eradicate the viruses under an undisturbed, controlled, and enclosed environment and for more than 24 hours. Thus, leaving our centre unoccupied for 2 consecutive days (Saturday and Sunday) would be most effective. Hence, if we were to
commence the fogging and fumigation over a weekday and insolating the premises for only about 24 hours or so, the effectiveness of the aerial disinfectant via fogging and fumigation may be compromised. - I would say this is the most acceptable reason but I believed no parents would like their child to be exposed to the virus & not acting on it. Got to believe our children are in good hands!!!

Linda deliver her princess

Linda delivered her Princess Shervelle today & her African violets bloomed so well to welcome her!

Stay at home to watch drama & movies

Borrowed Silence "深情密码" from Xindy & watched it during lunchtime but due to the long weekend, I decided to complete it as soon as possible. It is not of a happy ending as the lead actor died but he passed away peacefully in the arms of his loved one. I think this should be considered as a happy ending.

We watched "Night at the Museum" with the kids in the evening. It is a funny show & we kept laughing out loud when the Museum went alive in the night. I like the statue whom says "Hi Dumb Dumb, you have gum gum?", he is so cute & he really blow bubble when Larry (lead actor) gave him bubble gums.

Heehee...didn't get to read story books to the kids as Allyson is running a fever & I had a hard time feeding her medicine - really got to destress by watching movies while she is asleep.

Randson's work at Morris Allen

The work that Randson's class did last week was pasted on the wall at Morris Allen.

Randson wrote :

He don't (doesn't) like the lion.
He when (went) to the lion and talk.
He talk to the lion.
He is happy to see the lion.
He don't like the lion.
He don't like to talk to the lion.

(Comment by the teacher : Very interesting!)

Wow, he started writing & he did a cloze passage last week & got it all correct. He told me he did it on his own. What a wonderful world~ ~ ~!!!

He drew this panda after his visit to the Zoo on Thursday.














And this is Allyson enjoying her Barney ride at Simei while waiting for Randson.

Randson can READ!!!

Randson read "The Clock" to me today!!! He can READ!!! He can read the whole book to me (except 1 or 2 words he doesn't know) & I am overjoyed!!! I hugged & gave him a kiss on his forehead immediately after he finished reading!!! Hippy, Randson can READ, how I wish I can announced to the whole WORLD!!!

Got to take this opportunity to thanks Morris Allen & his LSP teacher!!!


LSP means Learning Support Program which is an early intervention programme conducted by the Primary School.
- It aims to provide learning support to pupils with weak language, reading and spelling skills.
- Pupils enters P1 -> Sits for screening test -> weak language & literacy skills -> LSP
- Pupils are grouped with peers of similar ability (8-10 pupils).
- Daily, 30 mins session - conducive learning environment, many activities, much support & encouragement.

The best part is I didn't know Randson was selected for LSP & I even called the school to ensure that he is in it. I am glad that the school is providing this to Randson & he has shown much improvement after all these enrichment courses!!! What can be more happy than to see Randson improving each day!!!

Put thoughts to actions

Finally I plucked up my courage to ask my Teamlead about the job rotation. She told me most of the things are finalised but she will keep my manager informed of my interest.

Wow, what a relief!!! It feels good to voice out one's thought.

Changes

After 1 day of rest & I was back to office. Just 1 day & there were so much changes in the office as our manager decided to play the musical chairs (job rotation). We used to have job rotation & I liked this idea as we will get to learn new things & expose ourselves to different situation/processes in different area of the operations.

Not sure whether I was one of them cos this morning my teamlead asked whether I was interested to move & I told her "no" cos I felt that there are more things for me to learn in my area.

However I started to think about the job rotation in the evening/night, wouldn't it be a challenge if I were to move to the other team? I will be doing new things, learning new processes, etc. Furthermore, Johnson will be in Primary 6 next year, so wouldn't good if I move now so that I can have more than 6 months to learn & stablised myself in the new role. But I have told her I didn't want to this morning. What should I do???

My heart is "seven up eight down", didn't know what to do & didn't sleep well.

Beyond control

Newspapers & books all over the floor, sofa covers are no longer covering the sofa, everywhere is in a mess - physical mess.

Nose start to "rain", thoat start to "sore", temperature start to "rise", head start to get "heavier" - body system also in a mess.

It is really beyond my control, let the house be messy... ... anyway... ... this is not the first time, it is always messy after every cleanup, it has never been cleaned except Chinese New Year.

Doctor say, "you need to rest" & was given 1 day medical leave to rest at home. Sleep. sleep, sleep is the only thing I would like to do today.

Nice nice flowers

Wow, Linda's flowers bloomed this morning.

Reading can be quite tiring

Randson borrowed another 3 story books from Morris Allen on Saturday & I knew he wouldn't read them till I nag at him. So I made an effort to read to them after dinner. Luckily 2 of them are quite short except The Cat in the Hat...wow it is a long long book but it is quite funny.

The kids laughed out loud again this round, when they heard "Cuckoo, Cuckoo" the sound of the bird from "The Clock".

"Kim and the missing paint pot" relates to several fairy tales like Cinderalla, Three little pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, etc.

While "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back" talks about how the Cat in the Hat helps the kids to clear the dirt that he left in the bathtub with the help of A, B, C, D, E ... ... X, Y & Z cats in the hats. It is quite exciting but it is really tiring reading the whole book.

Daddy drive new lorry

Daddy came back home early yesterday but I didn't know he is sick cos I was working in the office. Then I found a bag of medicines on the table when I reached home about 11pm & he was already fast asleep. While Johnson & Nickson were watching TV & complaining they are hungry, so I made 3 roti-pratas for them & they finished all.

My poor hubby is sick & my kids are hungry...but I am not at their side to take care of them. I'm sorry, I have to work ... which is beyond my control too.

This morning we went for our breakfast/lunch & found that Daddy is driving a brand new lorry...yippy!!! Finally his boss bought a new lorry, cos after he sold off the one which Daddy used to drive, he got an older lorry & it jerked whenever Daddy drove slightly faster than 60 km/h. This new lorry has radio cum CD player & air con!!! I believed the kids are excited over the new lorry & I knew Daddy is the most happy guy as he can listen to the radio/CD while he drives.