The Beauty of Expressing Yourself

Communication skills are very fundamental to one’s character development, but sadly, the local school system is one that quells the freedom of expression and the confidence to articulate your opinions in class. Which is why I am always advocating for open communications with the Bees, even if their opinions differ drastically from us. I am also thankful that the Bees are enjoying communicative, expressive types of activities in school and outside of school.

Debate

Big Bee is a prolific debater. She used to be quite an introverted girl in primary school, with teachers telling me how quiet she could be in class. So, I am thankful that she decided to break out of her comfort zone in secondary 1 when she tried out for debate as a CCA. She has since represented her school multiple times in national debate competitions, and her team had even emerged as champions in an important national debate competition. 

Getting kids to get out of their comfort zones is so fundamental in nurturing them. Because our world is a crazy world – a world where constant changes beckon. A world that is so volatile and unpredictable. And if our children are used to adaptability and operating out of their comfort zones, I think they will be able to cope better in this madness whirling all around them.

And debate allows Big Bee to understand so much more of this insane world. Through debate, she had to work on so much independent research on world issues. These days, her knowledge of current affairs has surpassed that of me and my hubby. From the intricacies of the electoral college system in the USA elections, to the plight of the Rohingya refugees, to the debt crisis in Greece, to more general discussions on political systems, global warming, public healthcare etc.

So, I am thankful that her knowledge of the world has expanded, her courage to speak in front of an audience has multiplied, and more importantly, she is able to weigh multiple perspectives on different issues.

Drama

Of course, not everyone is suited for debate. Little Bee will not enjoy researching relentlessly on current affairs and world issues. But she has an expressive soul, and she loves to perform in front of large audiences. She is the type of extrovert who will blossom in front of huge audiences, who will shine the brightest if surrounded by people whom she must interact at length with. Recently, she discovered her love for drama, theatre and performing, and she had never been happier.

She is now part of a very active show performing group for children, and had enjoyed herself tremendously these past 4 months. She would skip and hop to the plethora of practices required before a major concert. And is perfectly happy with the numerous hours needed to perfect that few moments on stage. 

And that is what performing arts is all about, isn't it? The manifold hours of sweat and effort, of repeating one’s lines a thousand times, of performing those same steps a million times, of even more work of memorizing scripts and lyrics at home. For this is what true showmanship is all about – grit, effort and guts. And I am so grateful that freedom-loving Little Bee has embraced all the muck and mirth that comes with it.

Recently, she took part in an audition for a talent showcase in USA, and was selected out of thousands who had auditioned. Those were nerve-wrecking days for the introverts in the family (all of us, except her!) but she breezed through her auditions with such an immense sense of enjoyment and joy! More on this in another blog post!

Why I Avoid Parent-Teacher Talks

Since the Bees entered primary school, I had only attended 2 parent-teacher talks (at the start of each of their primary 1 journey). I then deemed these talks highly invaluable, and stopped attending. I do not need to learn of my children’s personalities from teachers because I know them well. I do not need to listen to how inattentive or engaged they are in class because I believe all teachers should make their lessons interesting in order to capture the attention of their students. I do not need to know if they had or had not completed their homework, because truly, it is the onus of my children to do their own homework, and I believe that teachers should reinforce this message in school. I do not need to know how my child fared vis a vis her classmates, so long as I am personally happy with her performance. Finally, I do not believe in parent teacher talks probably because I grew up in an era when my own parents were too busy trying to earn a living for us and we also learned to take charge of our own destinies independently. And that is how I want my children to grow up.

Alas, I was “summoned” by Little Bee’s teacher for the parent-teacher meeting this year. Other than braving the long wait, I also have to jostle with irresponsible parents who were late or who took up extra time in their consultations irresponsibly. I also saw parents with teary eyes, red noses and anxious, depressed faces. And I lamented about the sad state of our primary education here in Singapore. My children are already in a holistic school where school co-curricular activities and huge fun events are regarded as important as academics. And even then, I saw such anxious faces amongst parents. It’s sad indeed.

To put everything into context, Little Bee is a year-end baby who is still very idealistic, naïve and filled with wide-eyed wonder and effervescence at everything around her. I love this personality trait about her – her bubbly optimism, her indefatigable enthusiasm and her zest in enjoying life to the fullest. Sure, I have to grapple with academic carelessness and untidiness (because she just wants to hurry and complete her work so she can play with her little ponies or read the next Harry Potter book). However, I had seen her grown this year – she is much more responsible in completing her own homework without me needing to ask her, and I think she had made an immense effort in making her writing and presentation of written work tidier. And I am a happy mum in this aspect.

Which was why I was so disappointed and baffled when Little Bee’s teacher started criticising how active and chatty she is in class (I know about her gregarious trait since she started to walk and talk!), how untidy she is in her work (I told the teacher that this year I already saw a marked improvement in her written work) and finally, to my shock, how childish she still is. Goodness, this little girl just turned 8 four months ago! So, in all politeness, I asked for examples of childishness, and she could not provide any, beyond the simple and thoughtless statement of “Hmmm, just very childish in her thinking, compared to many other classmates who were much more mature.” I was somewhat enraged because this is a little girl’s childhood that you are talking about. Why do you want children to grow up so quickly in this harsh world?

Truth be told, Little Bee was unwittingly streamed into what was known as a high-ability class in school, and from the beginning of this year, she already tried her best to keep up with her very capable and driven classmates. I really miss the good old years in primary 1 and 2, with totally loving and nurturing teachers and classmates who embrace holistic enjoyment in life. 

I bet I sound like a totally defensive parent, and my teacher friends would be telling me that education is a tripartite collaboration – with the school, parent and child. But what happens when our concept of education is just so different from what the teacher or the school system perceives? What happens when I am proud of what Little Bee had achieved already, that I know she had already put in effort this year, and it is precisely this effort that I chose to applaud. Not to compare her end results with some high achiever in her class?

It was a sad day indeed, and I pray very hard not to be summoned for another parent-teacher chat! 

I Refuse To

This evening, Little Bee cried and told me she would be scolded by her teacher for not buying the Chinese Moral Studies activity book. Tomorrow would be Week 5 of the academic school year after all, and she is the only student in class not to have that book. Feeling guilty, I reassured her that I would go to school and check if the book is available in the bookstore. We scoured a couple of large Popular bookstores today, but it was sold out in these outlets, and she was not thrilled about it. But she could not chastise me for long because she only told me she needed that book last week. And I usually do not keep track of what books are missing after I bought all her textbooks in school. 

Within a split second, she cheered up considerably (this is the ever-optimistic Little Bee for you!). I was secretly thankful that I was on the receiving end of her nags...and not the other way round.

And this is how I try to govern school work with my 2 Bees since 7 years ago, when Big Bee first entered the highly stressful environment of the Singapore education system. 

When other parents asked me what homework was given today, I told them I do not know because I had not looked into their notebooks or homework files. 

I refuse to. Because this is the responsibility of my child, and not me. And if they found out they had forgotten to do their homework, they are the ones who will get reprimanded by the teacher. And I can save a session of nagging in exchange for more quality time together. 

When I heard about how parents had to intervene and correct their children's mistakes in their school work, I told them I have no idea what crazy answers my children gave ... because I had never looked through my child's completed homework. 

I refuse to. Because this is their homework, and they should do it themselves. So that their teachers can understand the full extent of the level of their standards as students. And I can just ask my children pleasantly, "So, have you finished your homework? Great! Now let's do some reading!" No flipping through their worksheets furtively, only to feel angst if there were some wrong answers. 

(Okay, sometimes I cheated and looked through their work just to find out where their level of understanding was. But I do not tell them if I spotted wrong answers!)

Of course, there are exceptions when they asked me for help with their homework. But since young, I had always been telling them that their school work is for them to handle alone, and they should not ask me for help. That should be the responsibility of their teachers. And I am thankful to my Bees' school and teachers who had always been insisting in the same message as me - "Parents, do NOT help with homework. We will do that!" So, the girls hardly asked me for help, unless it is some terribly challenging homework (which they seldom get from school anyway!). 

When I hear other parents complaining about English and Chinese spelling, I can totally understand their agony. Because it can be very frustrating to expect the kids to know every word on their spelling lists. Sometimes, I do not even know how to write certain Chinese words on their lists! 

So I refuse to be angry if the Bees - especially playful and forgetful Little Bee! - kept asking me to show them the words so they can refer to them. Or if they make repeated mistakes day after day. Or if they write or spell a word wrongly that they got correct the night before. I will just keep showing them the list until they get it correct. And they might come back with lower marks than usual. But hey, that is fine, I told them. Get better marks the next time. 

Our unforgiving education system is already so stressful, and sometimes I feel really angry with this system for ruining the beautiful childhood that my children could have enjoyed. But well, we live in this country, so we just have to abide by it! The best thing we could do is give our children some slack and not drill them so much. And give ourselves a piece of peace (pun intended!) by letting go and asking our children to handle their homework themselves. In addition to less nagging and lowered blood pressure, this also helps them to be more independent and hopefully, more persevering. Don't know a Math problem? Think harder! Don't remember a word for spelling? Take a look and try again! Don't know how to do your comprehension? Read again and write what you think is correct!

What resulted is this marvellous peace at home where school work is concerned. Unfortunately, I am still a stickler for punctuality and completing your work at the right time. So, sadly, I am still a drill sergeant asking them to "go do your work NOW" or "I am going to count to 3 so hurry up and come brush your teeth!" or "You need to sleep in 5 minutes' time!" 

I am still trying very hard to change this aspect of mine that is chasing the clock incessantly, abiding by it tirelessly and timing our activities right down to the second. Not a lot of success in letting go of this area, of flippantly dismissing the importance of time yet! 

Her First Book (Part 1)

Last December was really eventful for Big Bee. She was immersed in lots of experiences and achieved a number of milestones. These milestones had nothing to do with PSLE preparation though! I know lots of parents start preparing their Primary 5 kids for the PSLE even in the December holidays. But I decided to make this holidays totally chillax and enjoyable, so that she is totally rejuvenated for the PSLE revisions this year. 

One of the fundamental things that she achieved was to complete a book with 12 chapters - the idea and plot behind the book was entirely her own idea. She was really proud of it, and truly enjoyed the whole creation process. Most of all, she was really fascinated by the fact that she could create whole new worlds and brand new personalities just through the power of the written language. 

I thought of starting a series with a couple of chapters per post, so for now, here are the first 2 chapters! By the way, it is not edited at all, so you might spot some syntax errors here and there. 

Another World; Another Time

Written by: Big Bee

Chapter 1: Alison Taylor

I added the finishing touches to my time machine - a project that I had been working on for ages - and finally, I believed that my dream of making the world’s first time machine was coming true. I had been dreaming of making a time machine ever since I was a young girl. I connected a few more wires and completed the task of making the machine. The only thing was, I was not sure whether it could really work. Nevertheless, my time machine still looked gorgeous, and I stood back to admire this project that I had been working on for years and years. I was filled with three different emotions: happiness, pride and a little bit of uncertainty.

It had not really been a difficult task for a scientist like me. Well, I was one of the world’s most famous and successful inventors, and I had to admit that I could invent almost anything. Everyone in the whole wide world knew who Alison Taylor, the famous 16-year-old inventor, was. Despite my fame and everything, I was actually an orphan and no one ever cared much for me. I grew up alone in an orphanage without any friends. Now, I even lived alone with my Yorkshire Terrier, Aidan, in this huge mansion which doubled as a science laboratory on Daffodil Street.

Aidan was my pet puppy. He was a typical Yorkshire Terrier - brown and black fur, fluffy and small, with skinny legs. Most importantly, he was the only one so far who truly understood me. He was once a stray dog and he always loitered outside my house in the backyard. He always peered into the windows, staring at me working diligently at my inventions. I could not help but smile at the cute little face staring at me every night. Thus, before long, I took him into my house and he became my pet.

My house had four storeys and an enormous backyard. The first and second floor was used as my science laboratory, and it was filled with whirring machines and tools found from almost everywhere. The third level was where my bedroom, living room and kitchen were. Lastly, the fourth floor was where I had planted a telescope, to look out into space every night. When I was a toddler, I was already inventing little things, so it was no wonder that I would turn out to be the inventor I was now.

When I was four years old, the milk bottle had not been invented yet. With a cup and some rubber found in the orphanage, I just played with those materials all day long and came up with the idea of a milk bottle. I had used it to drink my milk and the owner of the orphanage saw what I had created. Therefore, he stole my idea and introduced it to the world. As I was still a helpless, young child, I could do nothing to stop him.

After all these years, I realised that I was already a child prodigy back then, because not every young child could create such things that the whole world would use.

Chapter 2: My Time Machine

My time machine was metallic but on the inside, it was very comfortable as it had air-conditioning and fluffy, red seats. It was almost like a car, except for the fact that it could hover a few feet above the ground and could travel way faster than any sports car ever created.

“Do you like it, Aidan?” I asked him, tilting my head to one side, admiring my time machine. He stared back at me, unblinking, with those huge warm eyes of his. I knew that he just loved my invention.

The only way to find out if my invention really does work or not, is to try it out, I thought to myself. Another thought flashed through my mind. What if my entire time machine exploded whilst I was on it? What if my entire house explodes too, because of the time machine exploding? I was only 16 this year and making a time machine was an impossible task for many other inventors, so would my machine really function? 

I had to believe in myself. I left Aidan in the house with an automatic food and water dispenser so he could survive by himself whilst I was time travelling. After that, I took my time machine out to my backyard, where I usually conducted my experiments.

My time machine was only controlled by a remote control - by pressing six buttons, my time machine could travel up, down, right, left, forward and backward, so it was no difficulty for me to shift it out to the backyard. I could just sit in the machine as I controlled it using the remote and made my way to the backyard. I had to decide where I wanted to go. To the past? To the future? Of course I should go to the future! And maybe I could even try to remake some of the inventions in the future! I started setting the date in the future which I wanted to go to. I thought to myself, I should travel to the future, 200 years later…in year 2213! Passers-by were starting to crowd around my backyard to stare at my mammoth project, gawking and whispering among themselves in hushed tones. 

To be continued...

Is Our Math Curriculum Relevant for the Real World?

Last week, I attended a Primary 5 & Primary 6 Parents' Maths workshop. This was the first time I had attended a workshop of such nature, and Maths had never been a favourite subject, so I wasn't really looking forward to it. However, with so much changes in the primary school Maths curriculum, plus the challenging Maths questions that Big Bee occasionally asked me at home, I thought it is good to understand what Big Bee is going through in school. The real Maths whiz in our family, Hubby, came along too, much to my relief, and I was really thankful for his interest and support in his girls' education.

What ensued was a 2.5 hour of mind-boggling and muddle-headed session where parents were taught the various strategies used in the PSLE Maths curriculum, and parents were made to do 16 problem sums (gulp!).

The audience was filled with parents from all walks of life - from doctors to lawyers to journalists to parents with postgraduate qualifications. But the looks of bewilderment on most parents were truly priceless. We had to throw all our years of algebra aside, and for Hubby especially, to toss his advanced Engineering maths aside, so that we can become primary school students, learning a new curriculum from scratch again.

We grappled with new strategies like repeated identity, branching, advanced model drawing, etc. Eventually, the final problem sum that we had to solve baffled most of us, and it was so ironical that a Primary 6 girl had to come up to the main board and explained the solution to the entire audience.

After the workshop, I was really perturbed. Today's Maths curriculum does not help in fostering creativity and problem-solving skills in our children at all. Today's Maths - with its allocated strategies for respective problems - reinforces the perennial problems that most Singaporean students are facing, which is the inability to think out of the box and the lack of opportunities to think beyond what they are learning in the classroom. Having fixed strategies for individual problem sums just prove to students that there are ready-made solutions for every problem they face, when the world's problems are really made up of so many ambiguous issues with no black-and-white solutions. Thereby, this will sadly reduce our children's inspiration to think beyond the traditional boundaries of knowledge to create more unique and applicable solutions, which is what a fledging and small country like Singapore really needs.

Frankly, I emerged from the workshop disillusioned and disappointed. Despite the Ministry of Education's call for more creative teaching and a more holistic curriculum, the teaching of this core subject, Mathematics, shows that we, as a nation, are somewhat unprepared to veer away from the staid curriculum of rote-memory and examinations-based learning. Worst of all, I fear that such a curriculum will not foster a life-long love for and interest in learning, and is not practical nor intellectual.

When will we be ready to steer away from rote memory examinations, from ready-made solutions for a more liberating and intellectually stimulating curriculum that will nurture the true abilities of our children?

Some of the questions that we had to solve are below. Want to try your hand at solving? ;)

1) On Monday, Alynna has $48 more than Eunice. On Tuesday, Alynna spent 1/4 of her money and Eunice received 20% of the amount of money she had on Monday from her father. Eunice found that she had $72 more than Alynna on Tuesday. How much money did Eunice have on Monday?

2) Anne, Belle, Cecil and David each have some stickers. The number of stickers Anne ha is 2/3 of the total number of stickers Belle, Cecil and David have. The number of stickers Cecil has is 20% of the total number of stickers that Anne, Belle and David have. If Cecil has 35 stickers, find the total number of stickers that Belle and David have altogether.

Thank You, Ms Blyton

Enid Blyton had been my inspiration, my addiction and my obsession when young. I attributed a lot of my fantasies and my imagination, as well as my love for writing, to her. Hubby was equally fascinated by her delightful stories of enchanted forests and magical trees when young. Needless to say, Big Bee's captivation by her was all-consuming, devouring one or two of her books a day. However, she is gradually moving away to other more "mature" genres like CS Lewis, Shakespeare (the easy-reading, abridged ones, of course!) and other classic books - as well as a whole load of so-called "cool" tween reading like Diary of the Wimpy Kid, which features very high on my list of disapproved books, which probably made her even more drawn to the series!

And I am happy that Little Bee had finally followed our footsteps when she rummaged through our bookshelf last week, and dug out one old Enid Blyton book of her sister's, claiming she wanted to read it.

Thereafter, she took the book and started reading in her room silently. Unlike her sister, she wasn't that enchanted as yet, but I think her interest in reading had been activated by the many Blyton books she sees around her, as well as the many story books she brought back from school on a daily basis.

Let's hope we are cultivating yet another bookworm, for the power of our imagination and creativity can only be unleashed in our minds through reading, and definitely not through those modern electronic playthings like the iPhone, iPad or even good old TV.

Heuristics For Math

With final exams looming next week, I try to be calm and composed when encouraging Big Bee to revise her work. I am a firm believer in constant revision, and not last-minute cramming, so as not to stress the child (although I was the direct opposite when I was a student as I operate much better under adrenaline rushes, haha!). I also believe in regular revision so my child will not be put off by this entire concept and philosophy of examinations. 

Besides, with longer days at work due to a new but exciting portfolio, Big Bee and I typically have less than an hour of revision each night, as I also set aside time for fun bonding, which is a lot more important than aggressive mugging for examinations. I want my kids to associate me with loving fun and not as a kiasu mum worried about exams results!

Hence, I am thankful that Big Bee is rather self-motivated (can be improved further, though!). I give her homework to do before I leave home for work, and she usually completes them when I am back in the evenings. I am also highly grateful that my Mum is around in the day to keep an eye on Big Bee, although the latter usually takes advantage of her nice granny whenever I am not around, thus resulting in a frustrated granny! She is a lot more disciplined and well-behaved with me around though! 

I am also heartened that Hubby is entertaining Little Bee to the max as I focus on revising with Big Bee these couple of weeks. Teamwork is indeed a fundamental key in a successful marriage. 

I am digressing actually. I meant to write about a couple of interesting Math sums in an exercise that I am currently marking after Big Bee had completed it. These Math sums are quintessential demonstrations of the heuristics and modelling methodology that most parents complained about (many very much prefer algebra that we had been used to). 

On the contrary, I had begun to truly appreciate the beauty of heuristics when explaining such sums to Big Bee - as they are a lot more logical and visual, hence, much easier to understand, compared to the remote concept of algebra (although they will be acquainted with good old algebra very soon!).

Kids take to heuristics and modelling very well. It is also not rocket science for parents, and I learned the methods myself, just by browsing through her textbooks. However, this evening, as I was working through a problem sum with Big Bee, she came up with the solution much faster than me, much to my amusement! I used to be embarrassed if I could not solve a problem in front of my child, but these days, I will graciously tell the Bees that I am learning from them too. Parenting is all about learning from our children as well, and our children will definitely love it if they know they can help us. 

Anyway, here are the problems: 

1. Carena and Megan save some money every day. Each day, Carena saves the same amount of money, and each day Megan saves $1 more than Carena. After several days, Carena saved $18 and Megan has saved $27. How much does Megan save in 1 day? 

2. Alice, Susan and Jane have 270 buttons. Alice has twice as many buttons as Susan. Jane has 3 times as many buttons as Alice. How many more buttons does Jane have than Susan? 

(I know it is just sooo tempting to use algebra on this - I did use it at first! - but bear in mind the kids don't know algebra!)

3. Ali has 3 times as many marbles as Bala. After Ali lost 4 marbles and gave Bala some marbles, the two boys now have the same number of marbles. Bala has 22 marbles now. How many marbles does Bala have at first?

Housing Of The World

Big Bee completed a project recently for school, titled "Housing Of The World", which I found really interesting. She researched for the various housing of different cultures - with a little help from me to focus her search to a few salient cultures - and did her own independent internet research for the write-up of each culture. 

More importantly, she learned about how different people in the world live, which opened up her eyes that the world is truly a multifarious, diverse place. Little Bee also derived much pleasure and knowledge while flipping through jie-jie's project book. 

Big Bee is the most intrigued by Mongolian yurts (and also because she discovered that Mongolians live amongst many horses, some of them gorgeously wild and free!). So, she is now persuading me to go to Mongolia for a holiday, so she could also live in a yurt, amongst horses! Sounds like a very compelling idea indeed... 

This pictorial reporting format - combined with internet and library research - is truly a wonderful way to teach our older kids about the many facets of our varied world :) 

Some other pages from her project book: 

From A Distance

The feeling of missing the family whenever I am on an overseas work trip is truly inexplicable. When overseas, I used to derive news about the Bees when they were little toddlers from my mum or Hubby over the phone. Then, gradually, I got to converse with the kids a little over the phone. And since late last year, we had been using free internet video, and the Bees had been highly participative chatters! 

However, the crucial milestone would definitely be during my long 2-week trip to the UK in June last year. I started an email account for Big Bee, and we sent a couple of brief emails to each other! That was exhilarating and liberating, as in I could speak directly to her through my emails. 

And during my recent 9-day trip to China a couple of weeks ago, I just casually mentioned to her to email me. And I had the loveliest surprise when I received an email initiated by her on my second day abroad (in the past, it was usually me who would initiate the correspondence first). 

Furthermore, this time, her emails were a lot more informative, longer and were redolent with the hues of her personality. And the biggest bonus was that we were corresponding so regularly, once every 2 days (in the past, she only sent 1 to 2 emails at most)! What touched me the most was that after her very first email to me, I received a wonderful e-greeting card from her, with a little sad bear looking up at the moon, proclaiming "I miss you so much!".

I was almost tearing in the privacy of my hotel room - my eyes brimming with tears of happiness. 

The felicity of corresponding directly with a child is truly gratifying. It is so meaningful to hear our child's voice through the words she writes. 

Little Bee is a little young to correspond by email, but I was pleasantly surprised today again, when I flipped through her diary to find one more new entry that was not initiated by me! Once again, it showed fantastic motivation by Big Bee and excellent teamwork between the 2 sisters for Little Bee to write about her outing to my parents' house when I was away. Apparently, Big Bee was on a date with Papa, so she persuaded Little Bee to write about her grandparents' trip for her. 

Hence, these days, whenever I travel, it is indeed delightful to read about what the Bees are up to - from a distance, from their perspectives :)

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Little Bee's pages from her diary (with one page of illustration) could be found below.

Some excerpts of Big Bee's email can be found below mei mei's diary entry (she mentioned in one email that her emails are private, not to be shared with anyone else, so I need to be extra cautious to take away certain sentences with more personal information!). Max in her email referred to my cousin Irene's cute little Chihuahua that the family was helping to dogsit, much to Big Bee's thrill :) 

Little Bee's latest diary entry

Big Bee's 1st email excerpt:

Hello Mummy!!

Max is already here. He loves our house so much! He's so cute!!!   Max keeps staying on our carpet. Hope he doesn't pee or poop. BTW, Annette is extremely scared of Max. She says that all dogs bite people. Can you believe it, she doesn't even dare to touch him so she just ignored him!!!   Annette woke up SUPER late today. At 10.45 a.m. I can never wake up that late!!!! Nothing much happened today, so that's all.

Love: Nicole 

Thrashed!

On a lazy Saturday afternoon, I took out our trusty boardgame companion, Blokus, and challenged the Bees to one game. I was feeling rather smart and smug, thinking I could beat the 2 little girls flat in no time. Hence, I was a little complacent and a wee bit distracted.

The game started fairly smooth, with our 3 parties neck to neck along the race to victory. As the game progressed deeper, I was struggling and trying my best to regain any semblance of victory and confidence. Before long, I was deep in the mire of imminent defeat. And eventually, I was the first one to bow my way out of the game. 

The final results: both the Bees had a tie! Amazing!

They first used teamwork to corner my moves, which led to my final setback and surrender. I also witnessed how Big Bee eventually helped Little Bee to think and rationalise harder without providing straightforward answers for her little sister, and this constant encouragement was truly comforting to my soul. 

This is a perfect game for teamwork (in their case to defeat Mummy!) and strategic thinking. In fact, these days, I had been using boardgames to encourage teamplay and to allay the constant and inevitable sibling squabbles. Such games work wonders to bring smiles and cooperation to the Bees. Beat the reclusive iPad, iPhone and computer games anytime!

Homemade Teacher's Day Cards

I always encourage the Bees to create homemade cards for friends and family during special occasions. And for Teacher's Day Celebrations yesterday, they were excitedly creating their own handmade cards for all their teachers in school. 

I usually left them to design their own cards by themselves, and refrained from inculcating any artistic licence on their creations. I had been pleasantly surprised over the years at the sometimes innovative and cute designs by the Bees. 

By getting them to constantly create cards for friends, family and teachers, I could also see how earnestly they worked on the cards, which is so heartwarming and endearing!

Here were what they created for their teachers this year. Zero input from me, with free creative licence from themselves! 

Big Bee's cards for 3 of her teachers

Little Bee's cards for 3 of her teachers

Her English Reading Progress

Little Bee has shown a tremendous interest in reading this year, especially since she is now a budding reader and appreciates interesting stories. Being such a girly little child, she particularly enjoys stories of fantasy, princesses, love and family. She is also starting to write little short phrases on her own here and there, and I had started her on journal writing since March (albeit rather infrequently!), which she is increasingly enjoying now. 

She was struggling with phonics in the beginning of the year, when she just turned 4, so I stopped teaching her phonics, and used the whole-word approach with her instead. Being such a visual learner, the whole-word approach appealed a lot to her, which is why she is also fairly proficient in recognising Chinese characters. 

Surprisingly, she loves the Peter and Jane stories, and is now into book 5b of the series, which she can read independently with very minimal help from me. 

These days, we only read Peter and Jane once a week, which is why the recent progress had been slower, because I want to expose her to other stories and also Chinese books. But it is heartening to see her opening up the Peter and Jane books eagerly, despite their 70s retro illustrations! I guess it helps that she "grew up" with Peter and Jane, right from series 1, so sometimes it is rather amusing to hear her discussing about them to me, as if they are her old friends! 

Her school teaches phonics in interesting and fun ways, and uses the Oxford Reading Tree (ORT) series, which is superb in building reading skills in little kids through progressive accumulation of vocabulary and same characters (like Peter and Jane) who grow up with the little readers. I guess for reading, it helps if we have some continuity of characterisation and plots for the children. She is now in Stage 3 of ORT, which is mainly for kids from 5 to 6 years old.

I hope she will be an avid reader just like hubby, Big Bee and me!

Love For Writing = Love For Reading

Big Bee writes every school composition with relish and gusto, focusing a lot on using apt, descriptive vocabulary to bring forth her points. I am thankful that she has a strong foundation in her English grammar as well, therefore, every once in a while, her compositions would be selected by the teacher to be displayed on the class' notice board. I thought this is a good practice to instill pride and accountability in the children with regards to their school work.

I guess her love for writing stems from her voracious appetite for reading. I could hardly buy or borrow enough books for her. After chomping through entire fantasy and boarding school collections of Enid Blyton (from Faraway Tree and the Wishing Chair to Malory Towers and St Clare), this bookworm is now bulldozing her way through the Famous Five series, which consists of more than 20 books and, at $11+ a book which she can read in less than half a day, I thought they are rather expensive to buy! So, she ended up reading each of her books umpteenth times in between our book-buying sprees. 

She had also read Roald Dahl (not a big fan), CS Lewis (she loved "The Lion, The Witch..." book, but claimed that "Prince Caspian" was boring, so she stopped reading him!) and the abridged, made-for-children Shakespeare stories (which, strangely, intrigued her a lot!)...and many more. 

Last night, she came back and informed me that she was one of 3 kids whose compositions were selected to be displayed again. I thought of sharing this composition, written entirely in class, which garnered these comments from her teacher: "Good attempt! Interesting story with lots of details. Good job!"

Hope you will enjoy this as much as I do...

My challenge now is to ensure she has similar writing skills for Chinese, and a love for reading Chinese books. But sadly, that is still an uphill challenge for me!

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A Shopping Trip

“Could you help me buy some sugar and butter from the grocery store?” Mother asked me.

I took a brisk walk to the grocery store which was a stone’s throw away. While I was walking past the beautiful dress shop, I tripped over a small stone but did not fall. I did not realise that my precious ten-dollar note had dropped out of my purse.

I trudged to the grocery store to buy the sugar and butter for Mother. When I went to the cashier to pay, to my horror, I could not find my ten-dollar note anywhere in my purse! I stood rooted to the ground, shocked and not knowing what to do.

A kind shopkeeper asked me what I was looking for. I told her that my ten-dollar note was nowhere to be found. I stood there, wracking my brains to think how I could have dropped it. I was extremely worried. The kind-hearted shopkeeper helped me by telling me to retrace my steps.

I immediately did what I was told and when I walked to the dress shop, I found my ten-dollar note, swaying in the gentle breeze. I heaved a sigh of relief and picked it up. As quick as light, I ran back to the grocery store.

I paid for the sugar and butter and thanked the shopkeeper whole-heartedly. I was immensely grateful to the shopkeeper for her help. 

My Sister, My Teacher

These days, the Bees are very fond of perpetual sibling quibbles on a daily basis, but I guess that is very normal sibling behaviour at this age. However, there are pockets of halcyon affection between them, especially on busy days when they could not see each other for much of the day, and I know they had grown to depend on each other greatly.

These spells of sisterly tenderness never fail to infuse me with tingly warmth and gratified contentment - that amidst the stormy, turbulent world, the Bees would always have themselves and us as islands of unclouded assurance and unceasing love where they could find a harmonious shelter away from the turmoils of this harsh world. 

This evening was one wonderful example that uplifted my spirits. After work, I was asking Little Bee if she would like to record a brief entry in her journal about her field trip to Sentosa's Butterfly Park yesterday. 

She looked at me cheekily and quipped, "I had already done it, Mummy! Go look at my dairy!" 

I gazed at her with incredulity, my mind hovering between the thin, indistinguishable line of disbelief and trust. "Are you sure?" I ventured to ask. Little Bee responded with an excited "YES!" and vigorous nodding of her head. "Go check my diary NOW!"

Little Bee's diary

True enough, there was a new entry about her field trip with sketches of the butterflies in the park. I turned and praised her effusively, gushing, "You did this on your own?" Little Bee was hopping around in sheer ebullience and pride, proclaiming loudly, "Jie Jie asked me to write, and she helped me!"

I quickly praised Big Bee, who nodded in shy satisfaction and mumbled that she was just trying to help Little Bee jot down her field trip experience. It may be a brief entry, but it was their espirit de corps devotion that touched me. 

Little Bee's short journal entry

I am exultant to hear that Big Bee had been such a responsible big sister, encouraging Little Bee to write a journal entry and guiding her all the way. And I am also very pleased that Little Bee willingly listened to her big sister in obedience. 

I may seem to be over-reacting, but to me, in a phase of incessant sibling bickerings, this little episode of teamwork and sisterly affinity brought glorious sunshine to my heart tonight!

I do hope they will be pillars of stalwart support for each other in their long odyssey across the stormy oceans of life :)

六月假期功课：看图作文

自从Big Bee的学校在上学期开始了华文作文培训班后，我发现她的华文写作技巧渐渐进步了。可惜作文培训班已停止了。我现在将要更尽力地想办法鼓励她用华文写作，多读华文故事书，多看第八频道，等等。 培养我们下一代拥抱着一个双语与双文化的社会将是我们现代新加坡人的一个巨大挑战。我对于这个挑战还没取得什么胜利呢，真的还要全力以赴。

以下是Big Bee在六月假期所自己写的华文看图作文，我觉得还写得不错，想跟大家分享。希望她对华文的兴趣会与日俱增！

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Big Bee的华文作文

星期一下午，太阳像火球一般，高挂在天空，强烈的阳光照射着大地。哥哥和姐姐背着沉重的书包，高高兴兴地从学校走回家。他们一回到家，妈妈还在厨房里准备午餐。弟弟正在摇篮里大声哭，没有人照顾他。

懂事的哥哥连忙抱起弟弟陪弟弟玩，但是，姐姐却顾着看精彩的电视节目。

哥哥终于哄弟弟开心地露出了笑脸。妈妈从厨房走出来，看到哥哥这么懂事，非常开心。

她马上称赞哥哥是一个乖巧懂事的孩子，会照顾弟弟。哥哥听了妈妈的话，十分高兴，手舞足蹈，心里乐开了花。姐姐看到了，觉得不好意思，脸红了起来。她惭愧地向妈妈道歉。

从此，姐姐每次会照顾弟弟了。

Chronicles Of Our Lives

I had been writing journals faithfully since 11. I have boxes of diaries stashed in hidden corners of my home. Once in a blue moon, I might take out a few to read, resulting in whimsical laughter and bittersweet nostalgia whenever I re-discover my thoughts and feelings at different stages of my life - from a naive child to a rebellious teenager to an inquisitive undergraduate and finally to accounts of my travels around the world with Hubby. 

I stopped writing shortly after I became a mother to Big Bee, probably overwhelmed by the busy life of motherhood! But I restarted my journals shortly after Little Bee was born. 

As such, I was able to remember the little exquisite details of my life, and I thought these diaries would be a nice keepsake for my Bees when they are all grown up and I had passed on from this world. 

Hence, journal writing is something that I encourage fervently in my girls, so that they maintain a beautiful record of their lives to re-live exhilarating or sad moments. I thought it gives a good balance to our perspectives throughout life if we can sometimes look back and reflect. 

Therefore, Big Bee started her first diary at the age of 5 - right on her 5th birthday! And she had been steadily writing since then. 

Little Bee just started her very first kiddy journal in March, when she was 4.25 years old :) 

Here are some of their entries from their first diaries (and I added in mine too!). All unedited, so pardon the bad English (especially mine!). 

Our first diaries

Big Bee

28 April 2007 (5 years old)

I went to Siloso Beach Resort at Sentosa. When I reached the hotel, I keep jumping on the bed.

4 November 2007 (5.5 years old)

Today I went to Gallop Stable and my horse's name is Charlie. I love horse riding. I went to Gallop Stable to learn how to ride horses. I was very happy because the horse was trotting. 

Little Bee

13 April 2011 (4.3 years old)

I went to Changi Airport for my field trip. I took the sky train.

29 April 2011 (4.3 years old)

I went to school for our Book Parade. I wore a princess dress. 

Me

3 January 1984 

Today is the first day of school. I'm in the afternoon session this year. Mr Lim is our form teacher. At my class, I sat with Serena. Today at school, Mr Lim gave us a Science quiz. Our group won. The second group has a naughty boy who talked aloud. Once, today, he even wrote a love letter to Jenny Lim. Recess, I ate Mee Soto and an ice-cream. After school, I went home alone. My watch has spoilt. I was in a hurry home for I had to learn drawing at 7pm. It's already half past six when I came home. I ate my dinner quickly and then changed my uniform and went to draw with my brother. Mum brought us there. Our class has quite a lot of new boys and girls. The old members drew not the same as them. And I've got 79 for my drawing. 

Beauty In Glass

Hubby bought this breathtaking glass chess set on Saturday, much to the Bees' delight. I guess we should be seeing a lot more sparring chess sessions between the girls and us from now on (perhaps not Little Bee yet!). 

On another note, the Bees (even Hubby and myself!) had been highly intrigued and captivated by this game that I bought last month. It comes in a handy case that we could bring around with us, especially on holidays, and is a wonderful game for family bonding. The game apparently enhances strong logical and analytical thinking in children, hones mathematical and geometrical concepts as well as strengthens perseverance and concentration. It is an excellent nanny for the girls, being able to engage and occupy them for a long time. The Bees love it, and so do we! 

Lost

Big Bee wrote an English composition in class, and her essay was chosen as one of 6 to be displayed on the notice board in her class. Big Bee was highly encouraged by this, although she tried not to show it. 

We were elated of course, and this brought back memories from days of yore when my secondary school's English teacher would read out my essays to the class, making me squirm in embarrassment. However, that was highly significant in inspiring me to develop a deep love for writing in life. I hope Big Bee would find much joy in literary pursuits as well, and I applaud her class teacher for reinforcing such encouraging measures to nurture writing skills amongst her students. 

In new age times like these, where short condensed messages in the form of Twitter and Facebook are the norm, I hope my Bees could sidetrack this vile and slow murder of the language arts, and instead, enjoy the sheer pleasure of appreciating the rapturous texture and intensity of the language arts - in any languages. 

Here's her simple little essay, titled "Lost". Enjoy! 

Chinese New Year was coming soon! Tom and his father went to Chinatown to buy some festive goodies. There were big, red lanterns and stalls selling pineapple tarts, “bak kwa” and Chinese New Year decorations. It was very crowded. Little Tom held onto his father’s hand tightly. He did not want to be lost.

There were Chinese New Year songs playing loudly in the background. After a while, Tom and his father decided to buy “bak kwa”. There was a very long queue. Tom was getting impatient. Boom! Tom heard some beating of drums. Tom went to see what had happened. There was a lion dance! Tom watched the lion dance happily for fifteen minutes. When the lion dance had ended, Tom skipped back to the cashier to look for his father. To his horror, his father was not there!

Tom walked all about Chinatown alone. Tears were welling up in his eyes. He cried loudly. Some passers-by asked him what had happened. Between sobs, frightened Tom told the passers-by that he was lost.

The passers-by said they were sorry for him and would help him find his father. Soon, Tom heard a familiar voice. He turned around and to his relief, saw his father. Tom grinned from ear to ear and hugged his father. Tom learnt his lesson never to walk off alone again.  

The Great Leap Forward

Now that Big Bee is well adjusted to her primary 3 life, we parents are the ones who are constantly amazed (and frazzled) by how quickly children adjust to changes. I am also truly impressed by children's capabilities to absorb information and tackle new challenges at whichever stage they are. It indicates that every child has an infinite pool of ability to assimilate new knowledge and we should always be encouraging this boundless retention. 

The leap from primary 2 to primary 3 is indeed startling, albeit not overwhelming - yet. There is more homework, but Big Bee kind of got used to it after 2 years in primary school. However, the work had elevated a fair bit in terms of difficulty, especially for Math, Chinese and the new inclusion of Science. 

Critical thinking is essential, and should be a fundamental skill by primary 3. This is very apparent in P3 comprehensions, when teachers would expect our little 9-year-old to analyse logically and think independently when tackling tricky questions. Very much like GP last time! No longer can they be expected to derive answers directly from the passages like in the first 2 years, but they are required to deduce answers from critical reading. 

Hence, I think it is important that we build up critical reading and analysis skills even in the kindergarten years. 

Big Bee had been delving a lot in Math homework this week, leaving her no time to dabble with the other subjects. Using models to derive answers for Math may seem irksome to many parents but I find it a wonderful tool to help children visualise the problem sum logically - and the beauty is, models can even be used for sums involving multiplication and division! It is fundamental for parents to learn modelling as well, so we can guide our kids along. It is not rocket science, and is actually very rational! 

A few samples of problem sums from her work tonight that needed modelling to solve. In these cases, using models revealed the answers in a logically simple manner!

1. Vivian had three times as many orchids as roses. She had 84 more carnations than orchids. If she had 120 roses and carnations altogether, how many flowers did Vivian have altogether?   

2. Each kilogram of prawns cost three times as much as each kilogram of fish. Mrs Pang bought 4 kilograms of prawns and 3 kilograms of fish. The prawns cost $36 more than the fish. How much did each kilogram of prawn cost? 

Other types of P3 Math will revolve around heuristics, a concept that would be practised starting from P1. An example below: 

It takes much longer to complete a Math exercise now, but I guess we have to teach our children to just bite the bullet and soldier ahead, rather than lamenting about how easy their previous work used to be. And of course, reward them fully with lots of sunshine and play whenever the weekend approaches! :) 

深奥的小三华文

These days, I focus on different subjects every weekday evening to revise with the Bees, so things are more structured each night I rush back from work. I usually plan on Sunday what "subject nights" each day would comprise, and I find this weekend planning gratifying once the hectic weekdays start.

This evening was Chinese revision with Big Bee - after an English session with Little Bee - and I was a bit perturbed by the primary 3 Chinese standard. 

I was going through the supplementary "newspaper" 知识画报 that Big Bee's school subscribed for them, and was rather amazed by the P3 Chinese standard! These days, having strong Chinese vocabulary is not sufficient - what is fundamental is that the kids need to have mastery of strong Chinese sentence structure（句式) written in a formal and elaborate manner, plus engaging content! I am trying my best to coach Big Bee on these, but it is an uphill task as she is not very interested in reading Chinese story books. 

Here was a part of what we covered tonight:

The topic of the article we were reading was 与动物共进早餐

位于我国万礼路的动物园是世界上最美丽的动物园之一。园里拥有超过3600种的鸟兽。园林设计具有浓厚的热带雨林色彩，不过它最特出的地方还是以“开放式概念”经营，让游客们有机会亲身体验大自然的奇妙，因而被誉为全球最有特色的动物园之一。

There are 3 more paragraphs in the article. Perhaps this is easy peasy for P3 kids from SAP schools, but Big Bee's school is not one of those SAP schools. Furthermore, we do not speak much Mandarin at home. I guess I should just nudge her to read more Chinese story books and write more Chinese compositions - which is also another battle!