Homelearning For Working Mums

I don't profess to be a wonderful mum. To me, fantastic mothers are those without domestic helpers and yet ensuring that the house is spick and span, who homeschool their children and who are loving wives and devoted daughters, with warm delicious meals on the table as their husbands reach home from work and who gives a nice allowance to their parents from their husband's paycheck - and yet looking gorgeous without a hair out of place! Not me for sure!

For me, I hate housework, I cannot live without my helper who does all my yucky housework, and I need my mum to help care for the kids when I am at work.

However, I try my best to be a good mother in whatever little ways I can. Hence, I spend as much time with my children (and hubby, of course) and I prefer to teach my children myself (for now) without needing to bring them for enrichment or tuition classes, except for skills-based classes that I can't teach, like ballet, piano and tennis, etc.

Yet, I know in this harsh academic environment where meritocracy is paramount, it is rather hard for our children to enjoy learning in school. Hence, I started a homelearning programme early last year when Big Bee went to primary one - to plug in the gaps that the formal school system cannot fill.

As a working mother, I must profess that it is challenging to do structured activities in the evenings after work because 1) the kids are tired after a long day in school or even at home, and 2) I am tired after a long day at work. But as mothers - working or stay home mums - we know we are focused on one objective, that of ensuring a rich learning environment for our children. And we know we are resilient from all those nights of caring for our crying babies, breastfeeding them, changing them. So, focus and perseverence are my 2 mottos when coming to homelearning, especially for working mums, where we only have that pathetic 2 to 3 hours of time with our children after work.

I am no expert, but this is my personal survival kit for homelearning with my Bees as a working mum. I typically have only a sad 2.5 hours with the Bees every weekday evening, and I only use 1 hour or lesser every night on learning activities. The rest of time is spent on casual games and fun, which is just as important for bonding.

1) It is absolutely fundamental to have a lesson plan for the theme that I work on, so that I can refer to it and select the activity of the day almost immediately, as I do not have time to research on the homelearning activities on a daily basis. It also helps me to put into perspective a big picture of what the learning outcomes are.

I usually spend about a week structuring a lesson plan for the theme of the month, and I arrange activities according to the multiple intelligences format, ensuring that there are enough activities for each intelligence.

2) I will select the daily homelearning activity from work, or during dinner time. This may change depending on a) the Bees' and my energy levels b) our moods (whether we feel like crafting or writing, Chinese or math etc) and c) level of pre-preparation for that particular activity.

3) I try to include easy activities for weekday nights, meaning crafts or activities that need minimal pre-preparation work. In fact, most of our homelearning activities involve a lot of creation by the Bees, which makes things a lot easier for me and which help foster their innovative skills too.

4) I spend very little time on each activity, given the short attention of Little Bee and given the long day in primary 2 for Big Bee. Hence, it is usually 20 to 30 minutes for Little Bee, and another 20 to 30 minutes for Big Bee. On days where exams are nigh, I will go through Big Bee's academic schoolwork with her as she doesn't attend tuition yet, and she will grouch about how her mei mei can work on fun crafts whereas she has to do corrections, poor baby.

If it is a group activity, we will usually spend 30 to 40 minutes on it, and that's it!

There - seems very easy, isn't it? It is really effortless to do structured homelearning at home for working mums, so long we have a good lesson plan. On days when I am on leave, I can have the luxury of researching for activities on my whim and fancy, but on working days, I have absolutely no time to do such researching, so a lesson plan is truly helpful.

For activities that need some pre-preparations, like dioramas, I will work on these materials after the kids are asleep.

It just takes 20 to 30 minutes a day for homelearning. If done on a daily basis, this cumulative effort can be seen very evidently, compared to when we just chill the entire evening in front of a TV with our kids. On nights when I am really tired, I will just read more to them, or I let them doodle and paint. As mothers, I guess we know better than to give ourselves undue pressure, because if we feel stressed doing such activities with our children, it will never be fun nor effective for us nor the kids!

That being said, I still admire these stay-home mothers who do not have helpers at home, and yet had bravely started their own businesses fueled by their passion in early childhood development! These are Amazonian mothers indeed - Pauline and Rachel from My Playschool.net and Domestic Goddess. It is amazing how they are courageously living their dreams!

Homemade Cards

'Tis a season for parties in August, and the Bees had been really busy being socialites and decorating homemade cards. We had never needed to buy birthday cards, all thanks to my Bees' avid interests in creating their own cards for birthday friends and relatives. 

In this fortnight, we attended 3 fantastic parties: Little Bee's best friend Alecia's 4th birthday party as well as the Bees' cousins Chloe's and Val's 3rd birthday parties. It was immense fun, and they were wishing for more parties! Pictures of the parties will be posted in another entry. 

Meanwhile, the Bees had also been really busy preparing cards for their friends and cousins. Big Bee had been making cards for years, and I guess this bug caught on with Little Bee, who had started making cards with great interest for all kinds of occasions at home. Hence, she was elated when she could make her debut entries for these 3 parties officially! Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of Chloe's card that Big Bee created, but I am sure I will be asking my cousin Irene for a photo soon! 

Little Bee's card for Alecia, her best friend. She enjoys decorating her name with curly swirls to make it prettier, something she learned from her beloved jie jie. I wrote the words "Happy Birthday" and she decorated the entire card on her own. She drew Alecia in a long straw dress in a garden with a big flower and butterfly. 

This is a card for Little Bee's friend Hsin Yann, whose party she missed due to her flu a month ago. The letters "IUVL" actually meant "I LUV U". She knows the letters that made up this phrase but would always mix them up, hence "IUVL"!

Little Bee's card for Val - this time, she wanted to write Happy Birthday herself, so she copy wrote the phrase from me. Again, the curly letters for her name prevailed! 

Big Bee's card for Val - she is now very adept at creating cards with pop-up effects or flaps, enhancing the interactivity of the card for the little ones. 

Love, Forever

Last Saturday, we went to a lovely alfresco cafe at Vivocity for breakfast. The Bees loved the cafe with plush spacious swings and a stunning view of Sentosa's Universal Studios, the integrated resort and busy bay with incessantly moving boats.

I loved the large cup of latte and Hubby liked the bright, airy ambience. Their blueberry muffins were a tad too sweet though! 

August 2010

The girls were so happy fooling around that I could not resist snapping some jubilant photos of them, and then comparing these shots with a similar picture that I took of them at the beginning of 2009. 

January 2009

Oh, how they had grown since then, but one fact is constant - their profound love for each other will remain forever, despite all the little sibling squabbles. 

New Lesson Plan - Multiple Intelligences

I had researched a fair bit on Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory, and recently developed a lesson plan for the Bees around each of these intelligences, and integrating the activities as best as I could, since I am not a professional educator. 

I firmly believe in a holistic, broad-based education for children from a young age, an education that empowers them, that enables them to think independently and creatively. Most importantly, I believe in an education that imbues our children with broad knowledge of the world, its people and nature, rather than using it as a tool for success. 

I want my Bees to have passionate empathy for issues and events in the world, versus cold apathy - an understanding of all religions, gender discrimination, global warming, extinction of nature, racial biases, poverty...the list goes on. It is not easy though, in cosy Singapore, where our children are so accustomed to a comfortable life. 

Despite the fact that top universities around the world are now focusing their brightest minds on interdisciplinary (versus multidisciplinary) learning, fusing together learning outcomes from different disciplines in a holistic, liberal-arts style, I am not convinced that we should wait for higher education institutions to impart such valuable life skills to our children. This is especially crucial in our local education system where the curriculum is a lot more fragmented, focusing on excellence in rigid vertical subject areas rather than integrating the core curriculum together. 

Alas, it is much easier said than done in the constant race for excellence and meritocracy starting from primary schools. I am guilty as charged - always coaching Big Bee on her subject areas during intensive term time, and only focusing on some feeble semblance of integrating the language arts, general knowledge, arithmetic and science during weekends or holidays. 

Of course, a thematic learning approach helps a lot, but I found that this thematic approach - combined with integrating Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences with a strong understanding of our child's learning style - is more effective for Little Bee who is still detached from the harsh primary school education system. 

Still, I try my best to foster general knowledge about the world, incorporating science and math concepts, to Big Bee. But I am finding it a challenge to balance my expectations of her academic performance (which parent would not have expectations?) and my desire for her to have a holistic, enjoyable education. 

Anyway, enough of my rambling! I just want to share the skeleton of our most recent homelearning theme on Forest Animals which was structured around a lesson plan incorporating Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences theory, and we try to work on activities that complement, rather than isolate, each other.

Brief peek at the lesson plan

Theme: Forest Animals

Visual/spatial intelligence (the potential to recognize and use the patterns of wide space and more confined areas) - crafts, visual arts, paintings, sketchings, dioramas

Linguistic intelligence (the ability to learn languages, and the capacity to use language to accomplish certain goals) - writing of journals and stories (for Big Bee), reading, oral articulation of stories, understanding of new vocabulary, word recognition

Logical-mathematical intelligence (the capacity to analyze problems logically, carry out mathematical operations, and investigate issues scientifically) - math concepts, general knowledge, concentration/memory games, observation of patterns

Bodily-kinesthetic intelligence (the ability to use mental abilities to coordinate bodily movements) - walks, dancing, sports, speech and drama, games

Musical intelligence (capacity to recognize and compose musical pitches, tones, and rhythms) - music, songs (I am not that good at teaching this aspect!)

Interpersonal intelligence (the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people. It allows people to work effectively with others) - Activities that nurtures empathy, cooperation, trust and conflict resolution, eg working on dioramas as a pair of siblings, stories that foster empathy, etc

Intrapersonal intelligence (the capacity to understand oneself, to appreciate one's feelings, fears and motivations) - activities that encourage self-reflection, eg drawings of individual perspectives, encouraging the Bees to talk about their feelings after stories, etc

Naturalistic intelligence (awareness of nature and the environment, and how one fits into the whole global ecosystem) - field trips, walks in parks, picnics, etc

There is one last intelligence that he developed more recently on existential intelligence (sensitivity and capacity to tackle deep questions about human existence, such as the meaning of life, why do we die, and how did we get here) and I try to incorporate questions and discussions on this aspect into our activities, more for Big Bee. 

I find that building a lesson plan based on these intelligences helps me to ensure that their homelearning will be as holistic as possible. There are also many activities that overlap between intelligences, hence stressing on the interdisciplinary aspect of this theory. I will share more on our specific activities, which are the usual homelearning ones, in another post!

Breakfast With Swans

Papa and his darling girls staring blissfully at the swan and pigeons

Last Sunday morning, we packed some simple sandwiches, aromatic coffee in a flask and 2 mats, and traipsed to Botanic Gardens for a breakfast picnic. We settled down in an enchanting spot right beside the serene placid lake, with the intimate company of 3 coy ducks perched at the perimeter of the lake, 1 hungry swan and countless ravenous and fluttering fat pigeons!

These ducks were so poised and well behaved! Quack!

The Bees had the time of their lives feeding these birds from their (limited) breakfast sandwiches, and these birds were so tame! They literally sauntered right to the edge of our picnic mats, with the swan nearly waddling right up to my nose, much to my alarm and Hubby's and the Bees' delight.

The birds turned quite wild with exuberance when we peppered the jade green grass with snow-white pieces of bread, and then settled down with their plump bodies, slowly munching on their breakfast. We even observed a few pigeons and one of the ducks spreading out their wings lazily and lying motionless on the ground, basking in the sun!

Big Bee was so impressed by our alfresco breakfast that she wrote a diary entry on this. In fact, we enjoyed our morning so much that we will be back frequently with our feathered friends.

Enjoy reading this unedited entry!

********************************

A Page From Big Bee's Diary

Yesterday, we had a picnic at Botanic Gardens. The first bird that we saw was the Mandarin Duck. There were three of them. They looked as if they were doing their morning exercise! When I looked up at the sky, it was as blue as cornflowers! After Papa laid out the mat, we ate our bread. We fed the Mandarin Ducks the food that were left over. Soon, there was not only the three Mandarin Ducks, there was an elegant black swan, pigeons of all colours and a strange bird.

Papa called the strange bird "Walker Bird". He called it that because it liked to take some food or bread and run back to its nest, and run back again to take more food. Among the pigeons there were a few Mynah birds...(Mummy's note: she then went on to account for the rest of the Sunday)... It was a wonderful day!

Math With Fishes!

As we are currently in between themes, I thought of digging up some old learning aids for my evening sessions with Little Bee. So one evening after work, we used our old paper fishes - still in fairly good condition! - from a previous Fish theme, and indulged in 2 Math games. 

1) Numbers 11-20

I spread out the fishes numbered 11 to 20, and got her to identify the numbers whenever she caught a fish with her fishing rod. She managed fine, except for 13 and 20. 

2) Sorting 

Sorting games generally reinforce mathematical concepts and develop logical thinking skills. Little Bee was busy sorting out all the fishes into small, medium and big fish groups by herself. We also learned about small, medium and big concepts in Mandarin - 小，中，大. It was a good 10-minute reprieve which allowed me to oversee Big Bee's homework for a while! 

In all, we spent just 30 minutes on these activities, and Little Bee was fully energized and intrigued after these games. Short spurts of learning activities really complement Little Bee's learning style, given her shorter attention span. She was even telling me how fun these paper "toys" were!

Who says we need to buy toys when we can create homemade ones? :) 

Thematic Learning

I am a firm believer in a thematic learning approach for children, which is a way of integrating different areas of the curriculum within a common theme. Hence, I purposely selected a preschool for the Bees which utilises a thematic approach, and I also structure my homelearning activities within a theme. 

A thematic learning approach allows learning to be more holistic and intuitive, versus a fragmented subject area approach. I also find that it allows different concepts and thinking skills to be linked and thereby developed progressively, as the activities are reinforced within a singular theme. This interdisciplinary approach is highly critical in enabling our children to develop creative problem solving skills utilising multifarious approaches.

And if we allow our children to decide on the theme, it allows participative learning, thereby leading to more fun and engagement when learning. More importantly, it imbues empowerment in our children, motivating them to be proactive individuals. It is also very entertaining to see what fantastic ideas they dream of, and oftentimes, you will notice that most of their suggested themes are always closely linked to the previous theme, which indicates a strong correlated learning outcome. 

We are in between learning themes now, after indulging in our Forest Animals activities for 2 long months (and still pending a half-finished forest diorama!). This afternoon, the Bees and I just brainstormed for our next theme - they were suggesting all sorts of things that were related to our previous Forest Animals theme as well as older themes, and I am very pleased with that, as it indicates how indelible each theme was ingrained in their minds. 

Little Bee suggested "trees", "flying animals like birds", "safari animals".

Big Bee suggested "farm animals" which Little Bee immediately liked as she had been bugging me to do a certain pig craft for a long time.

Hence, with unanimous agreement all round (including mine, the ultimate lesson planner!), we arrived at our next theme: Farm Animals! 

Happiness Is...

1) Coming back home after a long, tiring day of work to hear the alluring and exquisite tunes of Big Bee playing on her piano. And then for me to curl up in the sofa beside her, watching her pleased expression and listening to her practice. And for her to intertwine her fingers eagerly alongside mine when trying to teach me to play a simple tune that I knew nought about (I am a musical idiot!). Ah, bliss!

2) Opening the door after another long, exhausting day of work to see Little Bee rushing to me excitedly with something in her hand and a zestful chattering of how she had toiled over this bookmark which she created as a gift for me. And then inserting this bookmark into the current book that I am reading right now. And in seeing Little Bee's delighted expression of widened eyes and a sunny grin, uttering "Mummy, this is my bookmark! This is my present to you!", when she opened my book and saw her precious handmade bookmark lying ensconced in my book. Ah, exuberance!

3) When Hubby encouraged me to go for a dreamy massage session in a nearby spa, just because I was fatigued from looking after an ill Little Bee for many nights. And assuring me that he would look after both the Bees, ensuring me that they would be in capable hands. And giving me a short but splendid shoulder rub just to imbue into me that I should be going for a real treat. Ah, paradise!

Despite the fear and trepidation I experienced when Hubby first proposed to me, when my first pregnancy indicator showed up positive with Big Bee in my tummy, when I had so much problems while pregnant with Little Bee....nothing prepares me for this happiness. 

Resilience - A Synonym For Parenthood

Just when I had barely recovered from a bad bout of nasty cough and mild asthma (I was a childhood asthma victim), my entire family - with the exception of Hubby who was away for work last week - came down with coughs of varying severity. From my Mum to the Bees to the helper! I could only attribute the blame to myself, despite all the days I dragged myself to work just to put some distance between my cough viruses and the family.

Unfortunately, Little Bee, with a lower immunity due to a bad flu virus early this month, came down with a high fever this afternoon again. The incessant sponging, temperature checks and midnight watches that were just over early this month will become an ordeal starting from tonight. 

Despite having had prior experience with Big Bee before, nothing can prepare a mother for the shockingly frequent bouts of illnesses that Little Bee came down with since she entered preschool. Unfortunately, I am working full time, otherwise, I will seriously consider homeschooling her completely until the kindergarten years! 

That being said, this childhood routine is the bane of all parents - which is why I strongly believe that parenthood is a powerful journey in strengthening all our resilience. By looking cheerfully at our darlings when experiencing a mental double take when the thermometer showed 39 degrees Celsius. By speaking to them in light chirpy and positive tones although our hearts are heavy with worry. By trying all optimistic means to make our children feel comfortable despite feeling dark despair at times. 

And parenthood is also about choices, especially for parents who are working professionals. In the event of a looming work deadline tomorrow, I had made the conspicuous choice to abandon work timelines for a trip to the pediatrician tomorrow. The roles we play as mothers are multifarious: to be wonderful, nurturing mothers; filial, caring daughters; charming, loving wives; gregarious and concerned friends; and for working mothers - to be dedicated, committed professionals; intelligent employees; enriching mentors; capable team-players. 

And for me: there is clearly a choice for me tonight - to spend time working through the night to head towards that looming deadline, or to take my book and nestle beside Little Bee, bracing myself for a fever night watch. For me, I am taking the latter tonight - and every night, whenever my family needs me. As I told Hubby, when we pass on from this earthly world, no one will care how dedicated a professional I am. But my closest family in the world will take heart that I had always been there for them, with all-embracing love, as best as I could. 

A Thousand Splendid Fruits

We did a whole lot of paintings and drawings in the Forest Animals theme. One evening, as we learned about squirrels, I motivated the 2 Bees to paint a colourful fruit tree using fingerpainting. They loved the activity, and it gave me a good 30 minutes of peace and tranquillity as they focused on their jobs! 

I traced both their forearms and hands on a piece of drawing paper, and got them to paint it brown for the tree trunk. Then I encouraged them to use as much colours as possible to create a resplendent fruit tree. Big Bee, being the typical perfectionist, was very conscientious in ensuring that all her fruit dots were of similar sizes. Little Bee, more impatient and bohemian, simply hurried along when dotting the different colours. 2 very different personalities. 

After the dazzling tree came into fruition, I got them to paint bright green grass and finally, they used their little fingers to fingerpaint a squirrel on each painting (can you spot the squirrels?). Little Bee still needed a lot of guidance from me when painting the squirrel, of course. I then explained that most squirrels have bushy tails, hence the Bees' squirrels have beautifully smudged bushy tails!

Big Bee's fruit tree with the squirrel getting ready to scamper up the tree

Little Bee's fruit tree with the squirrel already up in the tree, munching on the fruits!

Depending on your child's learning style, painting a particular subject theme is a wonderful way for younger children like Little Bee, who is clearly a kinesthetic and visual learner, to absorb information and knowledge in a thematic learning activity. 

Portrait Of A Forest

We are enjoying the homelearning theme of Forest Animals so much that we devoted 2 whole months to this theme! Partly because I had been down and out by a nasty flu virus that is still wreaking havoc with my lungs now. Hence, I have not much energy left to start planning for a new theme! And also partly because Big Bee had just completed her CA2 tests, where I had to spend a fair amount of time coaching her academically. 

But advantages abound from a 2-month homelearning theme - impressions are deeper in their little minds. Little Bee can tell me that she is learning about forest animals and would exclaim with delight ("Mummy! Forest animal!") whenever she saw a forest animal on TV, in books or in our frequent saunters around nearby parks. Big Bee would also be on the look out for forest-related activities to do. So, I firmly believe in a child-centric learning environment at home where they recommend and brainstorm together on learning activities, rather than a top-down approach that is prevalent in their schools anyway. 

One afternoon, in one of my flu-infested stupors, the Bees decided that it was an apt time for some sketching and drawing. Since I lacked the energy to even take out their painting tools, I suggested for them to draw their impressions of a forest on pieces of recycled paper. This activity occupied them for about 30 minutes in which I could quietly rest, and got both of them very engaged as they were the ones who initiated this activity. 

These are their respective perspectives of a forest: 

Big Bee's forest with her dream kampong house and a little farm plot. This clearly demonstrates her rustic preference.

Little Bee's forest on a sunny day with birds in the sky and squirrel holes in the trees.

Little Bee's fenced up country house 

Little Bee trying to write "forest" with a tiny "t" due to lack of space on the paper!

Celebrations

Birthday wishes from the Bees. They were very excited throughout the whole weekend, and watched the entire 2.5 hours of the National Day Parade with rapt fascination!

We love National Day. Every year when the nation's birthday approaches, I will mentally appreciate and remember how our little country had grown so remarkably in these short 45 years. 

At this juncture, I would like to highly recommend this book that I had been reading early this year - which captivated me to no end. It is a whopping 663 pages, and took me a while to complete. I do wish for a concise or abridged version just for children, so that I can open up my Bees' eyes to a time when affluence and modernity were unheard of in Singapore. Two sentences that haunted me at the end of the book: "The (Singapore) people shared our feelings and were prepared to do whatever was needed to make an independent Singapore work. I did not know I was to spend the rest of my life getting Singapore not just to work but to prosper and flourish." 

True, the modern Singapore (the quest for our true identity) and him do have myriad naysayers. But for Hubby and me, who had been to so many parts of the world for work and not for leisure travel (we do have the ironical privileges of seeing many ugly sides of people from all nationalities through work!), we fall deeper in love with our country, our ethos and our special culture the more we travel. And we do hope to inspire our own Bees with this somewhat soppy patriotism too! And to imbue in them the fundamental drive for our fragile nation's continued survival.

Which is why it had always been a National Day family tradition not to travel out of the country, and we always make it a point to watch the National Day Parade together - as a family. So that we can remind ourselves that it is no easy feat for us to be sitting comfortably and safely at home, with nothing but our everyday life to worry about. There are many countries who would love to be in our position, but sadly, I know many cynics may not agree. That is just another aspect of our "unique" culture, isn't it? The culture of complaining :)

To commemorate this day in school, Big Bee was tasked to create a mural of her vision of National Day - and this was what she created all by herself :) I thought it is a colourful piece of work! 

Big Bee created a mural of herself watching fireworks at night, with helicoptors holding our flag up high. 

Throughout this long weekend, we stayed home and spent plenty of time with our loved ones. Dinners with grandparents on 2 separate occasions. Gatherings with close friends. And merely ambling around town to appreciate all of what we have. 

I hope your National Day had been blissful too.

Home Of The Black Swans

The long weekend was such a luxury - we spent long, languid days lingering in each other's presence at home, or out at uncrowded places to immerse in the pure indulgence of doing absolutely nothing.

We met PF and family for a relaxing Saturday evening at the Botanic Gardens, at our favourite haunt in the same old comfortable spot - on a little grassy slope, facing the soothing, placid waters of the lake, fraternizing with the 2 resident black swans and in the company of emerald hardwood giants.

We loved to just lie on our mats, engaging in relaxed, laid-back chatter and watching our kids creating amusing games of their own - no doubt disturbing the quiet, serene peace and disrupting the romancing couples around us!

Top left: The kids looking on as PF and A dished out their frisbee with a makeshift long branch from the bottom of the lake! Top right: The kids playing all sorts of innovative games that they improvised on the spot.

Lying on our backs provided us with new perspectives - of teal skies smudged with fluffy periwinkle clouds. These are moments when we feel life is truly beautiful and enrapturing - where time slows down, and we are eons away from the dire stress of work and everyday life in this material world.

We packed up as the day drew to a lavender close, sauntering to our cars, before adjourning to our place for dinner and more chatter.

The kids were wild with excitement, perspiration pouring out of their heads as they dashed about. Big Bee is fast friends with Eugene and Claire, having played with them since they were babies. However, Little Bee was rather intimidated by the rough play of these big kids, and I could see much hesitation from her who would prefer to stick by me. In time to come, she would soon join them, I am sure, abandoning the safe shelter of Mummy's arms for fun and adventure, just like Big Bee now.

Pentago

Other than her favourite word games of Scrabble, Hangman and Boggle, Big Bee also loves to play board games like Blokus, which is an amazingly fun game for the entire family, and most recently, Pentago.

Pentago is a brilliant mind-boggling game that nurtures the logical and creative problem-solving skills in children by encouraging them to open their minds to different possibilities and to strategise through forward planning.



I am still grasping with the intricacies of the game, as it involves a lot of twisting and bending of our mental concepts as well as comfort zones. Last night, Big Bee and I spent a quiet evening before bedtime playing this game. I am not sure if it is the late hour (it was 11pm, a treat for Big Bee as today is a school holiday), or if Mummy's poor old rigid mind is just too inflexible - but Big Bee beat me hands down 3 out of 4 games *utterly ashamed*. Big Bee was elated though, and went to bed with a sunny smile on her face.

A Homely Weekend

Last weekend was supposed to be a party weekend for the Bees. However, with Little Bee down with a high fever and cough that rendered me with a mere few hours of sleep each day, she had to miss all her parties! Needless to say, the party princess wasn't too pleased to miss her little Aunt Brianna's birthday party as well as her good friend from school, HY's birthday bash in a wonderful party venue. 

In the end, Big Bee and Hubby went alone to Brianna's 9th birthday party, and I heard from Hubby that Big Bee had a fantastic time. She barbequed satays for everyone, diligently fanning the satays over a broiling barbeque pit with a paper plate. 

She bonded with Brianna with games like water bombs, sparklers and catching, and she helped Brianna decorate her divine princess cake with candles. Eventually, Hubby and Big Bee came back really late - almost 11pm! The delight of a fun night radiated from Big Bee's greasy but glowing face after a sweltering night outside, and my heart warmed at how she is getting closer to all her relatives from both sides of our families. Family ties are meant to last a lifetime. 

On the other hand, Little Bee and I also had a ball of a time spending true blue quality time with each other - reading story books, squishing playdoh, taking short walks around our estate and generally chilling out so that she had plenty of time to recuperate and recover! 

Although it was a homely weekend for me, with sleepless nights as Little Bee's fever inched close to 40 degrees, I never felt more rejuvenated because those 2 full days at home certainly made my weekend seemed so long! I am sure Hubby and Big Bee also had a very memorable time going out as a couple :) 

Storytelling

When Big Bee was 4, she used to tell me all kinds of stories, and then Hubby and I would write down some of these stories in a little book. She used to be so tickled when she saw these stories written down. That exercise had since helped hone an avid reader now, through harnessing her passion in the beauty of the written language. We never needed to teach her to read. We just ignited her imagination and let her creativity pave the way. Sadly, many of these stories were now lost as I could not seem to find that wee little book! 

Little Bee is now approaching her big 4 in 4 months' time, and she has the luxury of being exposed to a wider range of literature during our read-aloud sessions because we try to read a more versatile variety of stories to appeal to both Big Bee and her. 

The night before, we were just fooling around before bedtime when I suddenly jested with her to tell Mummy a bedtime story instead. Drama-mama her was more than happy to do so, and without much encouragement, she quickly launched into this story, in her still struggling and limited vocabulary, no doubt! I am writing the remnants down from what I can remember - which was not much! And oh, please ignore all grammar mistakes - what does a 3.5 year old know about grammar!?

"One day, we are walking in a forest. There are many trees in the forest. The trees are very tall. It is very dark in the forest. Then suddenly, there are 4 bad people who appear. *at this part, jie jie was very excited and started prompting her, asking "Who are these bad people!? What are they doing in the forest!?", which probably explained this particular part of the story. She thought she could impress her jie jie because she took a cheeky look at her and continued with...* Then, the 4 bad people saw jie jie in the forest and catch her! Then they kill her!"

At this juncture, Big Bee was so infuriated at Little Bee's story plot that I must halt the entire storytelling immediately - to manage yet another sibling cat fight, sigh. 

I am always amazed by Little Bee's wide spectrum of affection for Big Bee - it can range from dazzling adoration to covert tale-telling about Big Bee which angered jie jie to no end. But what made me warm and fuzzy is how she would always think of her big jie jie everytime she gets a sweet from her school bus aunty or from the doctor's. She would always request for another sweet for her jie jie - "Can I have another sweet for my jie jie, please?" 

She also loves to create impromptu handmade presents for jie jie, like this little packet of gift that she gave jie jie this evening, with a little picture note inside and a pencil, much to jie jie's delight. I love how Little Bee would gaze at jie jie, with her signature sunshine grin, as jie jie opened her "present", revelling in jie jie's happiness. 

I hope both their love for each other will shine brighter every year, like a beacon of light in a dark, vast ocean. 

Handmade present from Little Bee to Big Bee. I helped to make the envelope while she wrote down both their names. She can now spell and write her own name unassisted since a few months back, and can spell "NICLE" for jie jie, always missing out the "o"!

Cerulean Skies

Big Bee striking a lone pose, with nothing between her and the brownish-green - albeit still pretty - sea, the bronze sands and the sapphire sky filled with happy cirrus clouds.


Last Sunday, the weather was close to perfect - spotless, azure skies with the absence of ominous low clouds, despite the weatherman's (inaccurate) forecast of a rainy weekend. Being a family who loves the outdoors, we immediately packed our beach toys and set forth to the East Coast for some sun worshipping.


We perched ourselves under the solicitous canopy of a large, shady tree right on the sandy shores. It was heavenly - the breeze was gently self-effacing, the sun was beaming cheerily and the sea was sighing sweet whispers of contentment.


We munched on our takeaway KFC breakfast with rapturous relish. The Bees were devouring my waffles and scrambled eggs at such a swift rate that I hardly ate them! This was our first time tasting the KFC breakfast, and I give it a thumbs-up, together with the very agreeable latte. I am not sure if the ambrosial delight was falsely enhanced by the picturesque surroundings though!




Delectable KFC breakfast - cheap and good!




Happy Bees munching on crispy hash browns


The Bees set to work playing with the sand and toys, busying themselves with the creations of sandcastles. As the sun crept up its linear journey in the sky, we decided to pack up at noon, much to the chagrin of the Bees.


Later on, I could not resist the enchantingly soft golden rays of the early evening sun, and decided to bring the Bees to the pool, much to their delight. With Hubby away for his weekly soccer game, the trio of the Bees and me spent a great deal of time hugging each other in the pool, and generally fooling around, rather than getting any serious swimming exercises!




Bobbing around the ultramarine pool with winsome mirth


That day, I did not conduct a single homelearning activity with Little Bee nor coached Big Bee in her studies. But I don't care. Because I think the greatest lesson in life is to appreciate what nature has to give us, and learn to live in the present moment, blending in with the breathtaking natural beauty that is omnipresent all around us!

A Love Affair With Yoga

I had been constantly practising yoga since year 2000. The only significant break I had from yoga was during my difficult pregnancy with Little Bee, when I was bleeding till my 7th month. 

Ever since my first session of yoga (I remember it was with my good friend, YM!), I had never looked back. I remember feeling brilliantly exhilarated yet miraculously calm on the mat, physically challenged yet relaxed, and spiritually invigorated yet serene. It is a practice of juxtaposition. It is a salubrious tradition of holistic well-being for both our mind and body. 

Since then, I had brought my yoga mat to myriad cities for overseas work trips, and had always depended on this reliable companion to immerse myself into a cocoon of tranquillity and peace on my lonely and sometimes stressful journeys abroad without my beloved family. I had escaped to yoga in times of stress, despair and anxiety - and never failed to emerge stronger, happier and calmer. 

Since the Bees came into my life, I had lesser opportunities for the standard 90-minute practice, but 2 years ago, I started a daily practice of just 20 minutes a day, in between that precious, halcyon respite after I fetch Big Bee to school in the morning, and before Little Bee wakes up. Well, almost daily - there are times when I do feel a wee bit lazy!  

The intensifying light of the rising sun and the sweet, light morning air, coupled with a short yet gratifying practice, provide that fundamental fulcrum of insight and context that usually pulls me through a weary workday without the Bees. It gives me that sanity, that perception and most importantly, that realisation that life is ever so beautiful, manageable and liveable. And if I encountered a particularly debilitating workday, I would engage in a gentle practice after the Bees slept to ease my mind into a state of repose, putting everything into benevolent perspective again. 

I tried imparting the practice - although not on a regular basis yet - on my feisty and fiery girls, especially on days with vile, incessant spats of sibling rivalry. A 30-minute practice will never fail to cheer up their grouchy little souls and lighten their minds. 

Vivacious and unfettered Bees towards the end of a yoga practice

It is definitely a lifelong journey for me, and I am currently trying to renew my personal challenge of involving Hubby in a regular practice too! 

Time Alone

Every 3 weeks, it would be my turn to bring Big Bee for her protracted ballet and piano classes, which will last from early morning till after lunch! Although I do enjoy the majority of the weekends when I am at home with Little Bee, I will never fail to relish those rare weekends with Big Bee too. This is a perfect way for Hubby and I to spend some time alone with each of the Bees, making them feel special and precious. 

On weekends with Big Bee, she and I would saunter about in the bookstore, burying our noses in our common love - books! And we would then have lunch together, gleefully giggling and mirthfully chatting about anything under the sun, just like best pals.

On weekends with Little Bee, I would spend a beautiful morning engaging in homelearning activities without any distraction, conversing sweet nothings with her and strolling around the leafy estate with her soft little hand in mine.

Hubby shares the same joyous experience, and we certainly agree that it is so important to give some time alone for each child for that very special bonding experience.

In addition, I do love my solo time when Big Bee is in her classes - perfect me time for myself! I could read books at length, indulge in a long, leisurely breakfast with a newspaper as a companion or just ambling around, indulging in retail therapy! Last weekend, I even managed to steal in an indulgent yet relaxing hair wash session with a head massage - blissful indeed!  

Merrymaking

Last Saturday, we attended J's 2nd daughter Desiree's 1st birthday party. The kids had lots of fun together again. It was mind-boggling to see how fast children grow and transform - all of them used to be little babies, and now, most of them are tall and lanky, almost like little adults! Soon, they will surpass us in their heights, making us old foggies look like shrivelled old souls!

The Bees were utterly entertained by bouncy castles and a clown who created the most exquisite animal balloons. Little Bee was elated by her charming cat balloon, whilst Big Bee had an utmostly zany time frolicking on the bouncy castles with Joanne and the rest of the bigger kids. The poor little kids all fearfully steered clear of the bouncy castles that were bent and deflected to almost unrecognisable shapes by the rowdy big kids!

They had a great time thereafter munching on numerous dainty cupcakes, whilst we adults indulged in delicious moist chocolate cake! This is the start of many impending parties this month - what socialites the Bees are!

Math With Squirrels!

As part of our learning activities under the Forest Animals theme, I created learning aids from pictures of squirrels and acorn nuts to demonstrate to Little Bee how fun Math is, and how it is so applicable to everyday life.


Our cute little squirrels with their big fat acorns!

Little Bee is enthralled by this, and we take these out as "toys" to play with on a regular basis. With this learning aid, I could inculcate in her the concept of counting and addition/subtraction.

We also enact stories from these cute squirrels and acorns. One of her favourite games is about how she would pretend to run a restaurant selling acorns for the squirrels, who would then form a long queue with numbers on their tummies to indicate how many acorns they would like to eat. She loves this game and would be busy "dishing" out the right number of acorns to serve these greedy and impatient squirrels.


Learning the concept of numbers and quantity

This number game can be used for any combination of numbers, and hence, could be played over a long period of time for teaching numbers right up to 100 (and even groups of numbers, like counting in 2s, 5s, 10s, although I had not done that yet!). This was why I laminated these squirrels and acorns so they can withstand the rough handling of Little Bee! I also stuck velcro pieces on all the numbers and squirrels so Little Bee can have fun attaching and reattaching new numbers.

Plump squirrel with a velcro piece on its tummy

Simple addition the fun way!

Brand New Home

The grannies with their brood of grandchildren. What bliss! 

Last Saturday, Irene and I - together with the grannies! - gathered for an evening of relaxation and bonding at Fio's brand new home. I am suitably impressed with the all-embracing balcony hugging the entire perimeter of the house! Her home is lovely with sleek and clean-cut decor. The kids loved the balmy balcony and all of them chose to have their dinners there. They definitely know how to enjoy life at such young ages! 

We then adjourned to a scrumptious zi-char stall and ate our hearts out. The cousins (both my generation and the Bees' generation!) and grandparents were contented with so much delicious food in our stomachs. The grannies were luxuriating in the delectable local delights while catching up with each other, and we cousins were gorging incessantly while minding our active kids. And our kids were cheekily making faces while eating alongside each other too. What enjoyment indeed! 

Downtown Fun

Shopping queens in the making...

We had a relaxing weekend by ourselves, gorging on scrumptious food, meandering through the dense crowds of Orchard and rummaging through cheap buys along downtown weekend bazaars.

The Bees had developed Hubby's and my loyal affinity to local food, and we could see them relishing yummy favourites like roti prata, chwee kueh and fried carrot cake!


Their love affair with prata...


You wouldn't want to be caught in between them and a piping hot plate of chwee kueh!


Reminiscing our Japan vacation with Japanese food in Orchard Central: We were treated to some really mouthwatering Japanese food over lunch. I love the kid's bento set!

Formidable Fractions?

I didn't recall learning fractions at a tender age of 8, in primary 2. I remembered all we learned then was some basic addition and subtraction. This evening, when I was in the midst of some reading activities with Little Bee, Big Bee - with furrowed brows - remarked that she was utterly confused by "this difficult Math thing called fraction", in her own words. 

That provoked my radar screen immediately. "Fractions? Oh, you are learning that today?" And she told me her class just launched into their first fraction concept today. I quickly wrapped up my learning activity with Little Bee and whipped out a pencil and paper to teach her the concept of fractions, using everyday elements at home, like wedges of cakes and trays of ice cubes. 

Unfortunately, poor Little Bee was constantly interrupting us as she was displeased with the fairly abrupt way in which I concluded her learning activities. So, it was truly a game of juggling the concept of 4/8 = 2/4 = 1/2 with Big Bee versus getting Little Bee to identify words like "bear" and "duck" in our forest animal theme - all at the same time! 

Big Bee understood the concept and was beaming at the end of the evening. Little Bee could also read "bear" and "duck" independently. 

It could be frazzling with 2 kids demanding for your attention simultaneously. But instead of feeling frustrated or distracted having to turn my head left and right every 5 seconds, and reprimanding the children, I chose to take a deep breath and imbue myself with patience. True enough, that led to cheerful, contented Bees who learned constructively and a more peaceful Mummy. 

Patience is truly a virtue that we should stock up our Mummy larder with :) 

The Path Less Trodden

The weekend before, Hubby dragged the entire brood to a secret road just behind our estate. A road that was still in the midst of dishevelled construction, where a dense profusion of dark grey shale and gravel lay innocently, ignorant of the fact that they would soon be compressed into hard, cold and unfeeling asphalt soon. A road that penetrated right through the beautiful green meadow that we used to run through with carefree, abandoned spirit, and where many little beasts of the wild used to call home. A road that infiltrated right through the core of nature.

One may not have heard the moans of the large raintrees as they were felled by the ubiquitous foreign workers. Nor the wails of the cut shrubs from the thick foliage that used to be part of a virgin rainforest. But my heart bleeds for the devastated woodland that was annihilated to pave way for vainglorious urbanisation that supposedly made the lives of humans more convenient.

We strolled for almost 2 hours in this long stretch of supposed civilisation, ambling beside the formerly impenetrable frondescent rainforest. We were a captive audience to the myriad bird calls from an orchestra of different birds. We witnessed an explosion of flourishing impermeable antiquated trees - trees that were so sturdy that one is led into the delusion that they are invincible. But we know they are far from indestructible. Under Man's noxious, malignant machines, they are but frail, feeble beings.

We were silenced and awed by the omnipresent dewy existence of living, breathing trees, flowers, grass and shrubs. Elements of nature that were silently, sullenly and oppressively observing our every movement, wary of our next moves. This silence, this tranquil quiescence is precious and sadly temporary. For it would be destroyed like a brittle matchstick the day the road is open, when cars would whiz past, bringing with them sound and air pollution.

But for now, we revelled in the beautiful juxtaposition of laconism and eloquence of nature. So close to us. Savouring the last bit of the unexplored frontier before it is rudely interrupted by noisy urbanisation. Such little pockets of bliss are so rare, yet we are witnessing the destruction of these tenuous spaces gradually but surely in this city we call home.

Resilient mushrooms spouting up against all odds.