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.
*************************************************
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.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
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!
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!
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
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
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
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