Transformation

We spent a homely, peaceful and quiet New Year's Eve by ourselves - bonding as a family of four, giggling, chatting and quibbling at times :) The weather was treacherous, with rains sleeting down incessantly. The last day of 2012 did look a little gloomy, a little melancholic, as if the high heavens were crying their hearts out for the end of this year.

Because of the rain, we stayed home the whole day, attaining some quiet time to get to know ourselves and each other, laughing over old photos, playing board games and just lazing around in general, which was such a luxurious thing to do in this society of rapid pace these days.

In the evening, I decided it was time for Little Bee to bid farewell to her long, luscious locks - in readiness for primary school this week!

We headed towards a nearby hair salon, with Little Bee almost bursting with her signature zeal and thrill. She sat through the whole session with big smiles on her face, and after all her hair was chopped off, she fluffed her stylish bob in a haute couture mien, and claimed she loves this new hairstyle!

This was probably the final item on our to-do list for Little Bee in preparation for primary school. As we chomped on a simple dinner at an adjacent restaurant, Little Bee could not resist touching the short ends of her new hairdo, grinning brilliantly and exclaiming loudly, "It feels so soft and fluffy!"

Little Bee pointing to her bunch of cut hair in the salon!

As I gazed at her dazzling optimism, I know that this beautiful image of her at this stage of her life will be etched in my mind indelibly. I hope that she will forever be so full of spirit, gusto and grand enthusiasm for life, even in primary school!

{Thankful For}...Warm Connections

Inspired by Mum in the Making and my good friend Jeanne, I am trying to start a series of weekly "Thankful Posts", in a bid to reflect on the little blessings and beauties in our lives. And more importantly, to leave a legacy of love, hope and optimism for the Bees when they read through the blog, especially as the world gets more complex.

I will not post photos for these "Thankful Posts" (so I can upload these posts even faster!), and will try to update this series on a weekly basis (every Sunday, if possible!). Thanks, Jus and Jeanne, for the inspiration!

This week, I am thankful for plenty of bonding time with family and friends! The week felt so long, simply because we could spend so many luxurious hours with loved ones, soaking in the love and happiness.

1) 24 Dec (Mon): A thoroughly enjoyable Christmas Eve gathering with the cousins and our nieces with sumptuous food and delightful gifts, where 2 generations of cousins can bond and catch up for the holidays.

2) 25 Dec (Tue): A beautiful walk through densely crowded Orchard Road as a family, chatting and yakking, whilst observing the festivities around us.

3) 26 Dec (Wed): A thrilling day spent in Universal Studios, bonding once again as a little family of 4, taking myriad rides and enjoying each other's presence throughout the day.

4) 27 Dec (Thu): The opportunity for the Bees to spend precious time with their friends, just before the hectic school term starts next week. Big Bee spent a wonderful afternoon with 5 of her friends whom she knew from kindergarten days, and Little Bee had a marvellous afternoon with 6 of her kindergarten friends in Amazonia.

5) 28 Dec (Fri): A delightful afternoon for Little Bee, spent role-playing in different occupations at The City in Liang Court with her buddies, WW, WD and Olivia. Followed by a relaxing dinner in a restaurant with a breathtaking view atop Orchard Road with close friends.

6) 29 Dec (Sat): After the hectic week of non-stop play, we celebrated simplicity and close-knit family time with a restful breakfast at a Parisian-style cafe in Universal Studios, followed by a long-awaited trip to our favourite library where we borrowed lots of books, and then a comforting steamboat dinner at home.

7) 30 Dec (Sat): A warm and cheery lunch with both sets of parents, where the Bees were literally smothered in love and affection by 4 grandparents.

What are you thankful for?

Final Farewell To A Grand Era

I looked forward to Little Bee's graduation concert on 26 October with large dollops of excitement intermingled with equal helpings of bittersweet reluctance. With Little Bee's graduation, the days of preschool and kindergarten are officially over for me.

I would miss those carefree days of incessant beaming smiles, minimal homework, games and laughter in school. I would long for teachers with lesson plans that are fundamentally focused on nurturing thinking skills in children, rather than cramming them with exam techniques. Most of all, I would miss the teachers in Little Bee's school - teachers whom the students call by their first names, teachers who care so much for the little kids, teachers who hug and kiss these children daily. Teachers whom the children really love and look forward to seeing everyday.

The theme for Little Bee's graduation concert was "A Night To Remember", and they termed it as a graduation celebration. For it is a true celebration indeed - a celebration of the achievements and nurturing over the past 3 to 4 years, a celebration of the children's gradual but apparent maturity, a celebration of the kids' amazing talents on stage.

Unlike many other kindergarten celebrations, Little Bee's school does not involve stage performances where little kids were decked up in thick, unnatural make-up or elaborate, gaudy costumes. And that is exactly what I like about them. Instead, every one of them donned a simple school T-shirt and black slacks - and that's it. The stage was to showcase the raw talents of speech and drama for the kids. Their essence, their showmanship, their expressions. All these were showcased without any frills on stage, so that the children's pure presence could be magnified.

And magnified they all were. The students acted in plays, recited poems and lines from scripts so intricate that we adults would surely suffer from memory loss, danced passionately, narrated fluently. The 300+ parents' hearts swelled with pride and wonder as we observed our children transform from bright-eyed and excited kids before the concert to professional, adroit actors on stage. That transformation was awe-inspiring, and I hope this would be cultivation that would last them through their lives.

Little Bee's class performed 3 acts in the concert - a post-modernistic play about space exploration, a rousing Chinese drama about Singapore, and a spirited and energetic Bollywood dance number. Little Bee was one of 4 key presenters for the Chinese play, where her friends and her introduced the meaning behind the drama. She spoke confidently, with a loud, robust voice that was ringing clear.

She displayed zero stage fright, and relished her time on stage, getting under the skin of different roles and acts - and performing so passionately, as if she was in her own little world. As one parent told me after the concert, "Little Bee was so focused and immersed in her performances, so much passion, as if she lived for the stage - such a pleasure to watch!"

And that is my Little Bee - someone who truly enjoys being in the limelight, being on stage and performing. And I am eternally grateful to her school who nurtured this aspect of hers so positively, so encouragingly. I am definitely closing this chapter in her life (and in mine!) very hesitantly, very slowly - and I am going to miss it for a long, long time!

Budding Journalist?

Big Bee's class (and their P5 seniors) created the school's first student-produced e-newsletter, which was distributed to the whole school in October. The kids learned all about news gathering, writing, journalistic photography, photo editing and even video production (the e-newsletter was speckled with short video clips, which was really cool!).

The 20-page newsletter was filled with a plethora of news items - ranging from a report on the historical background of their school, to journalistic articles on major school events, to interview features with alumni. There were comic strips drawn by the students, poems penned lovingly by them, as well as heartfelt multimedia slideshows about the school's founders and teachers.

One of my favourite segments were the creative articles about the significance of different parts of the school - from the courtyard to the canteen. Big Bee's article about the piano in the canteen took up a page in the e-newsletter, and I am heartened that she found it fulfilling to read her own article in a beautifully and professionally laid out newsletter.

Here is the article by Big Bee featured in the e-newsletter (the name of the school is omitted and is represented by XX):

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Music To Our Ears
Creative Piece by Big Bee

It is a hot and humid Monday morning and classes are over in school. I am sitting in the noisy canteen, staring absent-mindedly at the old piano. Long, snaking queues are forming in front of various stalls while the students are chattering nineteen to the dozen excitedly.

Gazing at that very old and badly tuned piano with keys that are out of position, memories from the past flooded into my mind...

My friend and I once played a lively, merry duet on the piano while giggling away. Playing the piano was one of our favourite activities during recess and we always looked forward to our turns at the instrument. These are fond memories we shared in XX, memories that we would relish even as adults.

On another occasion, one of my classmates played such a melodious and enchanting piece on the piano that a large group of students began to gather around her. We started clapping and singing to her tune spontaneously, filling the entire canteen instantly with zest and vibrancy.

My mind also drifts back to a gloomy day when my best friend cried uncontrollably because she had failed her Maths exam. I tried my best to comfort her but to no avail. I decided to play a calming and soothing tune on the piano and eventually, her sobs subsided and she broke into a smile.

The piano in the canteen has brought much joy and happiness to the students and I cannot help but smile as I reminisce about those days when we were young. Suddenly, I am jolted from my daydreams when a petite Primary 1 girl dashes across the canteen shouting,"Mummy! Mummy! Let's go home now!" I smile at her contentedly and we head to the carpark, hand in hand. I am glad my daughter can relive the days I had in XX.

Overflowing Plates

The last 4 months had been nothing short of intense for me. Work had been inexplicably hectic, and working 12 to 16 hours a day - plus some hours thrown in over the weekends - was the norm for months. Family life had been tremendously eventful as well. Little Bee wrapped up her K2 year with a wonderfully poignant and spectacular graduation concert. There were also plenty of year-end birthday and farewell parties for the little social butterfly. To top it all off, she celebrated her 6th birthday with a fun-filled hip-hop dancing party last weekend!

Big Bee completed her final semester in school with panache - she was really pleased with her examinations' results, and had a marvellous time at her school's final semester fun fair, which I was too busy to help much with. Her voracious appetite for reading remains consistent - she is very much into the fantasy genre now, and had been devouring entire series of Percy Jackson, Harry Potter and the Belgariad swiftly. She is eyeing The Lord of the Rings series next. She is fast becoming a mature young lady, and is becoming more of my pal and companion!

These few months, I couldn't help but think that life is truly all-consuming. Exhausting, yes. But also filled with so much love and blessings from this beautiful family I am blessed with. The light is shimmering brighter from the end of a dark tunnel...and I am definitely looking forward to a restful and rejuvenating holiday season soon!

Expect lots of back-dated entries from now on!

Rock Star!

*Very backdated post!*

It is no surprise that Little Bee is a party queen. She would start planning different-themed birthday parties for herself way before her birthdays, and would never fail to impose her fussy opinions on my choices of goodie bags, cakes, party decor, etc.

Goodies for the party! 

For her 6th birthday party, she wanted a hip hop dance party with her kindy friends and cousins. We booked a studio and a hip hop dance instructor who was really good with kids, and just let Little Bee and her friends boogie the whole afternoon away!

A hip hop party was great to shake off the excess energy from highly excitable kindy kids, so that they were well-behaved and suitably subdued by cake-cutting time!

Little Bee had a wonderful time playing and bonding with her friends and cousins. As we watched them bid farewell to one another, I had a bittersweet feeling that these kindy friends whom she had been seeing daily for 3 years may not be meeting up that regularly once the hectic routines of primary school start. I pray fervently that she would retain her innocence, naivete and zest for life even in the next chapter of her life.

Happy 6th birthday, my little baby girl!

The Amazing Race

*Very backdated post*

I really enjoyed my time at the Bees' kindergarten. It is a school that encourages creative thinking, curiosity and love for learning, as well as articulate expressions of ideas. The Bees flourished in their pre-school, and I was somewhat sad to see them regressing in the learning and expressive curve as they stepped into primary school, which still reinforces too much rote memory and the relentless push for good examination scores above the fundamental need for expression and creative thinking.

Last November, a month before graduation from K2, Little Bee's kindergarten organised an exhilarating Amazing Race in Sentosa. This was a family-friendly activity which involved a parent teaming up a child, and we were given clues to dash around various pit stops around the island a la Amazing Race style!

The children had a whale of a time looking for clues and learning so many new things about Sentosa! As for me, I relished the opportunity to participate in this fun bonding day, and shared plenty of laughter with Little Bee, as well as her classmates and their parents. And I love that we got to see Sentosa in a different perspective thereafter! I also cherish the bonding sessions with her classmates, teachers and other parents, knowing that the end of her journey in kindergarten is nigh, and that we would be meeting new friends and new parents in the next chapter of her life.

I think the easiest way to document the Amazing Race is through photos! Enjoy!

Challenges for the day!

One completed station, whew!

We dashed all around Sentosa (lumbering at some points when we parents were fatigued!), and one of the challenges involved taking the trams, fun!

Some of the classmates managed to congregate at this point, much to Little Bee's delight

Busy writing down what she had discovered...

Notice Little Bee's tense expression as she handed a completed sheet to one of the teachers at a pit stop? Heh.

The best way to take a Sentosa tram - face outside and enjoy the view! 

Everyone was a winner! MacDonald's vouchers were prizes for the day.

Fun With Current Affairs

1) The Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands Conflict From The Bees' Perspectives

With the Bees growing older, I am beginning to inculcate some current affairs and general knowledge of the world to them - through good old newspapers. Both the Bees already have exposure to reading the newspapers weekly (not daily yet!) and discussing/writing articles analytically in school.

This year, Little Bee's usual show-and-tell in school was replaced by a "news sharing" session, which encouraged each student to bring a news article to school every Tuesday, present it to their friends, and then have an open discussion about the news article. I love this activity because it encouraged the little kids to enhance their knowledge of current affairs, motivate them to read the newspapers regularly, and to nurture critical thinking skills when asking probing questions about the articles.

On the other hand, Big Bee's school also required her to write 5 key points about a fortnightly news article she selected, as well as a small paragraph about why she was interested in the article.

One night back in September, Little Bee wanted to bring to school an article on the intricate turmoil of the Diaoyu and Senkaku Islands between Japan and China. Because of the complicated nature of the whole conflict, I had to use diagrams, maps and very simple language to explain to the Bees what these all mean. After a lengthy explanation, I asked them on their thoughts and viewpoints, and also got them to draw out the whole conflict in simple sketching. Here were their respective theories in their own words when I asked them what would they do if they are leaders in China or Japan:

a) Big Bee's theory: Split the islands in half, and get the leaders of Japan and China to shake hands and be friends! OR both countries should agree to bomb the islands and both will have nothing, so there will be no conflicts!

b) Little Bee's theory: Japan and China will stop fighting soon, and then both will forget about the islands!! Then, suddenly the China President will go to the islands and realise that the Japanese are still there. Then, he will get very angry, and China will have a war with Japan to fight for the islands again!

What does each theory tell you of the Bees' personalities? :)

2) Newspaper Treasure Hunt

2 nights ago, we played treasure hunt - not around the house nor in a park - but with good ol' Straits Times. I thought this would be a fun way to encourage them to flip through the newspapers and encourage them to read the latest news through directed questions from me. I had to ask different levels of questions to Big Bee and Little Bee because of their age differences, but nonetheless, they had fun flipping through the papers frantically and smudging their fingers with the newsprint. Here were some of the questions I asked each of them:

a) To Big Bee
- Which country did Obama go today? (It was a tricky question because the front page of Straits Times had a picture of Obama talking to the Thai Prime Minister, and Big Bee almost said he was in Thailand, but changed her answer as she read deeper into the article. He was actually in Myanmar on Monday.).

b) To Little Bee
- How many runners participated in the Run For Hope marathon? Why do you think they are running for hope?

They did not let me off the hook easily as well. They insisted I must be part of the game too - and Big Bee ended up asking me to summarise the whole Israel-Palestine conflict to them (which I had immense difficulty explaining the reasons why they were fighting using kiddie language, so I ended up talking about air raids instead!).

Eyes Brimming With Tears...

These 2 months had been filled with so many activities for Little Bee, who is moving on from her beloved kindergarten to the big kid primary school. I couldn't help but feel constant twinges of aches in my heart as my little baby is finally leaving that carefree land of boisterous play and wondrous innocence.

We had our last parent-teacher talk with Little Bee's teachers, and it was a somewhat emotional session - especially for the teachers. Both of them teared when they told me how they will miss having Little Bee in class, and what a joy it was for them to teach her. I had to give reassuring pats on their shoulders and backs to prevent them from breaking down! It make me truly cherish her kindergarten and all her highly committed and very dedicated teachers who really love their students.

Both teachers were full of praises for Little Bee - about her leadership potential in class, how she was able to rally up the classmates as always, but yet, willing to listen and be an occasional follower this year. Which is a nice indication of growth for her as she expands her emotional intelligence and awareness of a diversity of opinions and ideas. She had matured in the right direction. Earlier this year, one of the concerns raised by her teacher was that she could face a crossroads with her assertive and strong personality - she could be a great leader whom people respect and love, or she could be an impossible dictator that people abhor. This time, Her teacher told me she is kind, and is always helping her fellow students. She is also full of initiative in class - apparently, another classmate and her initiated a class activity to enhance the teacher's lessons, and had much ownership and accountability over this activity, which the teacher was very thankful for. Given her outgoing and gregarious personality, she is also always speaking out in class, asking inquiring questions of depth.

I am still in emotional tangles about Little Bee leaving her kindergarten for good. She had spent 3 beautiful years here, and the teachers had done an amazing job of nurturing her. Most of all, I will miss these loving teachers, teachers who truly care for the development of every student, who do not allow any student to fall behind, and who show so much love for the students with constant hugs and praises. Teachers whose eyes can brim with hidden tears, and whose noses became ruddy shades of emotions when talking about how much they love and miss her...

I hope she will continue to meet wonderful teachers like these even in primary school.

Autumn In Singapore

2 weekends ago, we visited the Gardens By The Bay for the first time as a family. The Bees were fascinated by the misty, mysterious Cloud Forest, and we were all captivated by the brilliant autumn colours of the blooms in the Flower Dome. I could not quite decide which dome I prefer, but I thought the Flower Dome - with its dazzling flowers from different regions and its autumn theme - was a lot more engaging than the Cloud Forest.

The Cloud Forest's key attraction was its colossal indoor waterfall and the cool, temperate climate that was such a welcomed reprieve from the sweltering weather. We also enjoyed the +5 Degrees show a lot, and the Bees were able to appreciate the extent and impact of global warming, witnessing from the large projection screen what the Earth may look like in the near scorching future, if we continue our irresponsible treatment of Mother Nature.

In the Flower Dome, we love immersing in the gardens of different regions, pretending we were far away in another land.
However, the Bees were enchanted by the resplendent displays of autumn delights like pumpkins, scarecrows, harvested wheats and an alluring display of beautiful flowers in red, orange and crimson. We were bewitched by the vivid colours and the magnificent display of stunning blooms.

 

 I was surprised that we were so mesmerized that we spent almost half a day in the 2 domes, plus a bit of time off for an alfresco lunch in the broiling heat of noon. We will definitely be back to explore the outdoor gardens and the skyway walk!

The Latest...

Life had kind of gotten back to normal after a hectic, almost surreal 3 months. Big Bee had just completed her final examinations with results that I am happy with. She is also actively pursuing her passions of music and dance, with lots of performances. Little Bee is fast trundling towards the end of her kindergarten chapter, which is really poignant for me, for I always view her as my little baby. Hubby and I had gone halfway across the world and back, with our numerous work trips to the States, to China, to South Korea, and more. And today is our 12th wedding anniversary!

I had also watched several really good Korean dramas and endured many late nights, thanks to fabulous recommendations from my Korean drama kakis!

So, life is now at a comfortable pace where I can start smelling the roses and enjoy the wonderful things that life, family and friends can offer. We had so many fun outings and exciting activities these past few months, with many more to come, so expect lots of backdated entries as well!

Akan datang....

Floating In A Sea Of Love

WOW. Remember my post on my tendency for obsessive compulsive behaviours? This time, it is seriously distracting. My mummy friends had been recommending highly addictive Korean dramas that seemed to have struck a deep chord with legions of people. In the beginning, I viewed this obsession amongst friends with a mixture of amusement, curiosity and bewilderment. Not just my mummy friends. But also my close friends, my yoga instructor, my collegues, my aunts, my cousins...Even my mum was not spared the obsession when I witnessed the usually nonchalant her chasing a Korean drama series at 11.30pm every night, sacrificing her sleep and her reading.

So, after much temptation from my mummy friends, I decided to take a plunge just to test if I could be immuned to such compulsion.

OH. BOY. I had so little sleep, trying to finish huge chunks of the drama series that I was literally walking around zombified in the day, yet with mystical powers to help me stay awake at night to watch every episode with bated breath, my fingers irresistibly clicking "next episode" uncontrollably, despite an average of 3 hours of sleep per night.

This. Is. Vile. Yet hauntingly alluring. I just could not stop. And ended up rewatching the same series. Now I finally understand why my mother, aunts and friends kept harping on the exquisite romances, rich plot, fast-paced storylines, captivating soundtracks etc.

For now, I am indulging in the sea of love. And I wonder when I will be out of this raptness. At the same time, I am trying very hard to ensure that my life regain normality as soon as possible, especially with work that is piling up (productivity in the office is way low when I am obsessed with things other than work!), Big Bee's exams, hundreds of back-dated blog entries to write about...

This. Has. To. Stop.

Visions Of Her Future School

Big Bee's school celebrated their 1XXth anniversary this year, and published a large beautiful book with specially-commissioned exquisite photos of the students, teachers and staff in all sorts of activities around the school, as well as a charming collection of creative essays by the students. The photos reinforce the strong bonds and culture that permeate their school, and the essays highlight the students' dreams, aims and perspectives about different aspects of school life.

I was elated to find out that one essay that Big Bee wrote earlier this year was selected to be featured in this memorable keepsake. Her essay took up a whole double-page spread with 2 handsome photographs, and I delight in revelling in that spread every once in a while.

Here is Big Bee's featured essay - I hope she will grow to love writing as much as she loves reading now.

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FUTURE SCHOOL

It is 27 March 2062 in the morning at 7.30. The school badges worn by all the students are vibrating and flashing with lights.

Going to the different levels of the school in 2062 is not tiring at all as there are escalators to transport the students up to their classrooms. At the square where the students assemble every morning is an automatic, moveable shelter that can be opened or closed according to the weather. If it rains, the students need not run for shelter during assembly. A prefect can just go to the general office and press a big, red button located there, and the shelter will cover the square.

After assembly, our badges vibrate again. Time for lessons! The lessons are held in special, high-tech classrooms that are air-conditioned. We also have comfortable sofas and white marble tables for doing our work instead of chairs and desks. The whiteboards are now really special! Fifty years ago, the teachers had to use marker pens to write on the whiteboard. Now the teachers only need to type whatever they want on the computer in their desks, and the words that they have typed will be projected on the whiteboard. All the students now have our very own iPads that are used for learning.

The music rooms are in a guitar-shaped building. One of the many rooms inside is for learning piano, another for learning violin, and yet another room is used for singing lessons. The art and craft rooms are in a big building shaped like paint brushes. That is where we learn to paint, and there is currently an art exhibition to showcase the art pieces that the students have created through the decades.

The toilets are all very clean and do not smell as there are toilet robots that keep them very clean. We do not need to worry about people not flushing the toilets or dirtying the floors.

The canteen is the best place in school! There are now no stalls or hawkers selling food, but there are vending machines. All we need to do is to press a button indicating what food we want, pay the money to a canteen robot, and the food will be served to us by a conveyer belt so that there are no queues at all.

"Buzz....!" The badges of the students start vibrating again. How time flies! It is now time for school dismissal! Some students take their school buses home, and others stroll home with their parents. There are also some who stay back for after-school activities. This is yet another busy but fun day in my school in 2062.

All About Singapore

Our homelearning had revolved around the theme of Singapore on this month of our nation's birthday - and the Bees are loving the little snippets of Singapore that we had been reading nightly. I have no time to do painting or craftwork yet, but we had been doing lots of reading that hopefully will translate into a nice lapbook at the end of the month.

This theme coincides with what Little Bee is learning in school as well, so once again, it helps to integrate and reinforce what she has learned in school. By watching the National Day parade on TV, the Bees were also able to understand a little about the history of Singapore, and I intend to bring them out on more trips around Singapore this quarter.

Last week, Little Bee was asked to write 6 sentences about Singapore for her weekly homework in school, and with some help from me, she wrote these down, which I thought is some lovely reflections from her about how she feels about Singapore.


Sorry for the dark photo quality as this was taken with my iPhone! Here are her 6 points about Singapore, and she came up with most of them herself.

1. Singapore is one of the smallest countries in the world.
2. Singapore's National Day is on 9 August. (she said she prefers to use the term "birthday" instead of National Day though!)
3. Singapore has no natural disasters, like tornadoes and earthquakes.
4. Singapore has many races like Malays, Chinese, Indians, Eurasians and others.
5. It is always warm in Singapore because we are near the equator.
6. My favourite place in Singapore is Sentosa!

20 Years

...20 years. This is how long Hubby and I had known each other as of last month. 2 full decades. 240 months. 7,300 days.

We did not mark the special day with fanciful celebrations. Instead, we quietly acknowledged the fact that we had known each other for more than half my life, and rejoiced in the notion that we are still as much in love with each other as 20 years ago.

We met as sparkly-eyed freshmen in his university. Destiny must have been working its adroit hand as it lured me all the way to his campus. Within weeks, we were dating regularly - deliriously in love, meeting each other almost daily, writing lots of love notes and poems to each other. Oh, those were the wonderful years.

6 years later, we went on a trekking trip to Nepal with some friends. On our first day of camp, we set up camp on a grassy knoll high up in the Himalayas, with resplendent snow-capped mountains all around us. At night, when our friends had retired back into their tents to hide away from the cold, he asked me to look up at the skies, and I was blown away by a dense blanket of dazzling, brilliant stars all above us. It was magical.

As I looked back at him, I saw him holding a little jewel case with a pair of diamond earrings, smilingly saying, "These are the stars from above" (or something like that!) and "Will you marry me?" I was overwhelmed and speechless, before uttering some unintelligible affirmation out of sheer happiness.

14 years later, with 2 additions to the family, we acknowledged that marriage is a whole lot of hard work, compromises and effort - but most importantly, love and companionship. There were good days and there were equally bad days. We had gone through much trials and tribulations as well as endless happiness. We still think about the same things at times. It is uncanny when he utters something and I would look at him, stunned, because I was just thinking about the same thing. It is remarkable that I sometimes still finish his sentences for him - and vice versa - because we know just what each other is thinking about. But most of all, we cherish each other's differences - how he could not even do a single forward bend despite his wife being a yoga practitioner for the past 10 years, and how I could not even understand a single music squiggle (yes, musical notes are squiggles to me!) when his favourite hobby is composing music.

I recently chanced upon this little note of scrap paper which contains an unforgettable poem that Hubby wrote on a lovely morning in London 3 years ago as I slept. We both read it again and were transported to that memorable trip. For me, I was touched that he could still write this poem even after 9 years of marriage then, and his scribbles and cancellations on that scrap paper made the poem even more precious.

Here's the poem he wrote:

My beautiful wife
In the early morning light
Lips pristine and locked
Face a perfect scenery
Eyes like the morning sun,
Waiting to rise
From the slumber sleep
Time never moves
As she whispers
Each breath
Lips part slightly
Air moves in
I place my kiss -
Morning rises

~ 12 July 2009, Sunday, London

Learning At Home: My Amazing Body

We had not been doing much structured thematic homelearning lately, due to the busy and hectic schedules for all of us, including the Bees. However, for the latest theme - My Amazing Body - we managed to read up and explore a lot of literature for children on the human body. It helped tremendously that both Bees were studying about the human body in school as well - so what we did at home was really a reinforcement of what had been taught in school. Unfortunately, Big Bee was drenched in all her schoolwork, assessments, examinations, co-curricular activities, school performances and camps, etc, so other than reading the books together, she could not really participate in other activities.

Basing loosely on the multiple intelligences model, I had listed down very briefly what we did. Unfortunately, this time round, I had no time to take many pictures!

1) Visual/spatial intelligence
I sketched out 2 big A3-sized outlines of their bodies, and customised these to each of the Bees. Each Bee had 2 body outlines to experiment with. For Little Bee, we took one and created a body board game, which was quite cool. However, as we drew in more game boxes, we kind of lost the winning outcome of the game! Although, on hindsight, I think it was a nice way to inculcate in Little Bee that not all game boards are about winning. The journey itself is more fundamental. The board game was good to reinforce addition and subtraction, with little boxes on "Move 10 steps forward" or "Go back 6 steps", etc. I pretty much let Little Bee design the game board - but we had yet to play it!

For the other body outline, Little Bee drew the major systems of the human body and identified where these were - veins/arteries, heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, stomach, big/small intestines etc. This was another augmentation to what she had already done in school.

We also learned about bones and skeletons, so Little Bee completed a very simple craft using earbuds to re-create a skeleton, which was really fun for her.

2) Linguistic intelligence
We read many books about how the human body functions. Children's books on these were amazing - the vocabulary was fun, the concepts was refreshingly simple and the experiments were fabulous to reinforce these concepts.
Little Bee created a mini book on "My Amazing Body", which was really a nice fusion of what she had learned in terms of the vocabulary of different parts of the body and the application of the concept of numbers to these parts of the body. The illustrations were done entirely by Little Bee, and I thought these reflected her quirky sense of humour. The cover of the book was drawn using chalk, and she had great fun with that!

I had yet to do Chinese learning, but will attempt to do so soon - it will be more complete if I can reinforce the English vocabulary of different parts of the body in Chinese.

3) Logical-mathematical intelligence
We learned about the connection between numbers and parts of our body from the previous exercise on the mini-book. We also played around with some recommended child-friendly experiments from some of the books which really helped to enhance the application of concepts to real-body understanding. Unfortunately, I could not really remember many experiments now, except for a few - the common experiment of blowing in and out into a balloon to illustrate how our lungs work, asking the children to clench and unclench their fists non-stop for a minute to demonstrate the effort of our pumping heart which will pump in this manner for decades, and getting the children to open their eyes wide without blinking to drive the importance of blinking - and many more!

4) Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence + musical intelligence
There was a week when we were learning about bones, so we watched a hilarious video about the song Dem Bones, while singing and dancing to the tune, imitating the many skeletons on the music video - laughing, prancing and singing. Fun!
We also had fun moving different parts of the body to illustrate the workings of the major muscle groups and how they are helping to move these parts of the body.

5) Intrapersonal intelligence + existential intelligence
I could not find activities relating to this theme to reinforce interpersonal intelligence, but hopefully this is something that I always endeavour to inculcate in them irregardless of any thematic learning! I also could not find time to focus more on naturalistic intelligence.
However, we reflected a lot about the importance of the different functions of the human body to keep us alive. We discussed about what would happen when our heart stops beating, when certain parts of our body (eg kidney) stop functioning - and I hope this fosters self-reflection in them.

In all, a very enriching theme indeed!

A New Abode

Things had been particularly hectic mainly due to the fact that we had moved to a new home. The packing and subsequent unpacking of our domestic stuff had been overwhelming - on top of our regular daily schedules of children, schoolwork, work, business travel, everything!

Moving to a new home is a strange phenomenon. On one hand, Hubby and I felt bittersweet about leaving our old home filled with poignant memories of our children growing up. As we packed the very last item, and got ready to step out of our old home for the very last time, we stood in the middle of the empty living room, gazing around us, with memories of spirited laughter and girlish giggles flooding our minds.

However, on the other hand, a house is but a physical infrastructure, and a home is truly where the family is - where our love, our commitment and dedication to each other flourishes. So, it doesn't matter which house we are in, so long as we are all together in one loving home.

So, it is with elation and excitement that we look forward to spending even more quality time with each other in our new home. We are still in the throes of crazy unpacking, and we are at a stage where we see more big brown boxes at home rather than floors or walls!

Days Of Very Full Plates

It is true that my blog had been inactive. It is true that this might possibly be the longest hiatus that my blog had taken, that it felt a wee bit strange and somewhat unfamiliar as I logged onto Blogger earlier on. It is a fallacy though that I had lost interest in blogging, for writing still remains a primary love of mine.

I must confess that part of my tardiness stems from my obsessive compulsive behaviour again, this time revisiting the life of one of my favourite writers, Jane Austen, in Becoming Jane, and the restrained yet fiery passion and romance between Austen and Tom LeFroy.

Another fundamental part of my blog's inactivity is due to my completely hectic schedule at home. School had reopened and hence the normal busy pace of life had restarted, and there are also other exciting developments on the homefront. I had certainly been sleeping at 2-3am every night and waking at 6.30am to fetch Big Bee to school, and I wish there is a pill that we can just swallow to ensure that we have all the goodness of sleep in our system, yet without having to waste time sleeping!

Little Bee had gotten her confirmation letter into the primary school that her sister is in, all thanks to the great Phase 1A system, and I sometimes still take out the pink confirmation slip, gazing in wondrous disbelief that my little baby will be going to primary school soon. On the other hand, Big Bee has been exceptionally busy with school CCAs and lots of dance performances, on top of her homework, and these performances had kept us parents busy, entertained yet proudly pleased at the same time.

Here is a peek at what had been keeping the Bees busy on the academic front. Little Bee's kindergarten is stepping up on more "serious" work to prepare them for primary one in half a year's time, and I try to include in funner, less academic elements like painting, games and journal writing at home during their free time to ease off the sobriety of academic work.

Surprisingly, both of them are coping well and handling these work in their strides, still finding lots of time daily to play, to walk the dog and to engage in endless giggles with each other. I do think these elements of enjoying life are most important!

Little Bee's Chinese writing exercises from school

Getting to understand the intricacies of Chinese comprehension in school for Little Bee

Little Bee's weekly homework which sometimes include a short writing exercise about anything under the sun...

...or some drilling in Math

Little Bee's weekly Spelling exercises

Little Bee's weekly 听写

Big Bee's weekly 听写 and 默写 above and beyond all her other school homework

Fictitious Characters

Drama is an element that definitely brightens up a child's world, instills endless imagination and inspires creativity.

Which was why I was really glad when I received a notice from Little Bee's school that one of the school days would be designated for a parade of imaginary book characters, where the children are supposed to dress up in a character found in a book, bring (and read) the book with the character and parade in front of the entire school.

I am secretly delighted that the school, unlike some other schools, are willing to sacrifice a day of boring and monotonous academic learning for really fun imaginative play like this. I thought this helps to encourage confidence, creativity and a love for reading in a child.

Needless to say, Little Bee will dress up as one of her favourite princesses. In previous years, she would dress up as Belle in Beauty and the Beast, but this year, she could finally fit into jie-jie's Cinderella's costume, so she was determined to be Cinderella. And of course, she knows the story of Cinderella so very well :)

She was delighted to be decked in Cinderella's sparkling blue dress, complete with white gloves and a little handbag.

And it was a sight fit for elation when I saw all the classmates gathering together, examining each other's costumes and guessing the characters that their friends were acting as. Little Bee's classmates were mostly like her - strong, colourful personalities, with assertive and extroverted traits, and more importantly, a significant sense of loyalty and friendship which is evident in all their hugs and highly familiar gestures with each other.

This being the final year in which she would spend with them in kindergarten, I hope they would strike up a lasting friendship that would remain strong even in the primary school years, like what Big Bee had experienced.

Meanwhile, can you guess what some of these characters are!?

Bewitched By Bali

I do apologise for the long radio silence. Our little family of four had been enchanted by the allure of Bali from 6 to 13 June. 7 luxurious days of gorgeous beaches with spectacular waves, of breathtaking cliffs and emerald rice fields, of nestling deep in the rainforests and hills of Ubud, and being woken up by roosters and birds, of boisterous days with friends and quiet moments with ourselves. We are back, but our spirits are enlivened by the spirituality of magical Bali :)

This is my 3rd time in Bali, and the family's first time - and I am delighted that Hubby was totally captivated by the sheer beauty and serenity of Bali, especially Ubud. The girls enjoyed the company more - we were joined by PF and her family in the first leg of our trip, with 4 nights together in Intercontinental Jimbaran Bay. The Bees had the most gleeful moments playing ceaselessly with their childhood friends, Eugene and Claire. Thereafter, they enjoyed the deep tranquillity by ourselves in Ubud, bonding tremendously as a family, where we stayed for 3 nights in a stunning villa deep in the virgin forests of Ubud's remote villages.

Unfortunately, I am experiencing some difficulties transferring my digital images from my camera (hence my silence as well), so I am going to use some photos from the Internet to illustrate where we stayed.

The sunset cafe of Intercontinental, by the beach and the crashing waves of Jimbaran Bay, where our 2 families spent much time chilling by the beach.

The splendid villa in Ubud that we stayed in, complete with a private pool where monkeys drank water from!

...with astounding views high up in the hills of Ubud, a plunging valley and a gushing river through the valley

We have our own private bale (gazebo), complete with deck chairs, an outdoor living and dining area, and a marvelous four poster bed in the bedroom

I will be writing more about this trip soon...