Post-Exams Bustle

School's out for June! Before this long reprieve from school, the Bees' school organised plenty of social and enrichment activities for the students to wind down after their stressful mid-year exams. This is the fundamental reason why I love the Bees' school - it is holistic and cares about the students' well-rounded development, which is so important to help shape the kids' character development.

This is the first year that Little Bee would be involved in all these activities, and fun-loving her was beside herself with pure excitement every day! I had been actively helping out in Big Bee's activities for the past 4 years, so I gently informed Big Bee that this year is the time when I would start helping out in Little Bee's class, while keeping an eye on what Big Bee is doing in school. Being a fiercely independent tween, our Big Bee bravely breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that mummy is no longer going to tag after her. However, I could tell from the questions she asked and her mirthful reactions when she saw me in school that deep inside, she was still thankful that I am still present in school and could wave to her from afar.

Post-exams May was a hectic one in school! Little Bee had two drama concerts (an English and a Chinese one), and it was truly gratifying to watch her indulge in her favourite activity on stage - acting! Our drama queen always loves the stage and would always recite her stage lines incessantly at home the whole day long.

I managed to take some time off work to help out in a couple of events. The first was for an in-line skating lesson. It was amazing to hear and feel the initial fears of the students (especially those who had never skated before, like Little Bee) - only to see these fears dissipating away with the wind the moment they started skating away! As always, I could see Little Bee making all kinds of cheeky faces and asking all kinds of crazy questions....like the drama queen that she is!

A tired-looking Little Bee after an hour of skating! 

The following week, I helped out in the annual Zany Brainy Games Day - as per usual for the past 4 years! This year was like cycling back in time because once again, I became a parent chaperone of a primary one class, instead of a station master for older students. I forgot how enervated and exhausted a parent chaperone could be, especially after conducting a scavenger hunt, dashing through different locations within the school, under the hot noon sun!

I really like the parents in Little Bee's class. They are very united and everyone got along really well. There are plenty of communications and coordination between the parents before such events, so our children could all enjoy better-organised group activities even more! For example, instead of the usual recess, the parent chaperones decided to bring some food for the kids to have a picnic under a balmy pavilion. A simple idea but a grand way for the kids to chill and bond with their friends without the frazzled need to buy food in an over-crowded school canteen!

Some of the food that the parents chaperones brought for their recess picnic

Zany Brainy Games this year comprised of a poster competition, in which each parent chaperone was in charge of a group of 5 girls to create a poster about kindness.

My team's poster, decorated by the prolific students!

This was followed by a spelling competition and then a movie session, before the scorching scavenger hunt! However, I thought this year's programme provided the parents with some respite from the heat and never-ending activities, compared to previous years!

The groups of students had to dash around school, performing activities and  looked for clues
so that they could collect pieces of this tangram puzzle and solve it. 

In all, it is just so important to be present and supportive in school, no matter how busy our lives are. It allows us to get to know our children's friends a lot more, so that we could have common conversation topics about their friends at home. I noticed it is valuable as Big Bee enters tweenhood when I got to know her friends and chat with them like friends. There is a certain sense of acceptance and contentment from Big Bee as she sees me interacting with her friends or when we chat about them at home.

Furthermore, when the kids see us in school, participating in their activities, they will understand that we too want to be a big part of their lives, and this is a start of a lifetime of friendship with our children....