A Slice of Bucolic Singapore

The tranquil road to Changi...

Last Saturday, the cousins and I planned for a weekend stay at Changi Village Hotel in the rustic environs of Singapore's far east. The adult cousins yakked aplenty whereas the little cousins had wonderful fun playing incessantly! Short weekend stays are remarkable - they rejuvenate us tremendously and stretch the weekend endlessly and luxuriously.

We started the stay with lots of marvelous hawker food in the hotel room, all thanks to Irene and CC! Fragrant nasi lemak, succulent fried carrot cake and refreshing sugar cane juice. The Bees were devouring the nasi lemak, struggling with Hubby to fight over the rice and chicken wings! Little Bee could not get her little fingers away from a huge delectable chicken wing, massaging and digging into it like a surgeon!

The grannies (Irene's and my mum) also joined us for a couple of hours before they scooted off to indulge in their own social programmes. So, we had great fun in one hotel room, gorging on mouthwatering food with 3 generations!

After the divine teabreak, we ascended to the rooftop swimming pool with breathtaking panoramic vistas of the sea. The kids conquered the entire kids' pool, and had a blasting time splashing about with water toys! The view was stupendous - I love the expansive seascape just beyond the reaches of the pool and the giant planes zooming smoothly across the sky.

Big Bee was shooting water guns, shrieking excitedly, whereas the 3 little girls - Little Bee, Val and Chloe - were contentedly pouring water in and out of the myriad pool toys, courtesy of Irene and Fiona!

After swimming, the grannies adjourned to their next destination, whereas the 3 families spent some time on our own, bathing and chilling in the hotel rooms before dinner.

Dinner was at Thaipan restaurant, just a stone's throw from the hotel. The food was scrumptious, the company was enjoyable but the kids were mostly sleepy by then (with the exception of the hyper-active Bees)!

Everyone turned in early, and our family had a relaxing time lounging in the room before the lights were off!

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Big Bee and Hubby woke up bright and early the next morning at 7am for a romantic stroll at the beach, with sounds of awakening birds and the crisp fresh morning air - how divine! I had to stay in the room because Little Bee was snoozing soundly all the way till 8.30am.

Breakfast was really pleasant, served in a bright airy restaurant. We binged on the buffet breakfast, chatting and munching. The kids indulged in the plethora of food before crowding around Chloe to watch cartoons on iPhone, giggling away - how cute!

After breakfast, we proceeded to walk around the pastoral surroundings. We strolled past the idyllic ferry stop with the timeless Pulau Ubin bumboats.

We ambled around the Changi Beach and finally settled down on a grassy patch with mats and lots of bubbles, thanks to Irene! We women just reposed on the mat, while the kids frolicked with the bubbles and dug little holes on the sandy patch.

The men dispensed much of their energy in a short game of frisbee, with Big Bee and Val joining in shortly.

A gentle breeze caressed our hair softly. The rhythmic sounds of the crashing waves at high tide was soothing. An occasional formidable container ship sailed past majestically. The edge of the shore abounded with amateur fishermen eager for a lunchtime catch. The hypnotic halcyon quietness was interrupted by sporadic pompous airplanes thundering over our heads. Life is splendid indeed.

Closer to lunchtime, we packed our mats and sauntered back to the hotel. Our family ate lunch bought by Hubby at the adjacent food centre - minced pork and fishball noodles. The Bees slurped the noodles delightfully, savouring the local hawker fare.

Before we knew it, we were all packed and ready to check out by early afternoon. As we gathered in the lobby, we cousins agreed that more weekend stays are in store for us! What a glorious way to spend a weekend!

Farm Animals' Wheel

Last Saturday morning, as part of the farm animals theme, I made a small wheel for Little Bee to work on. I encouraged her to think of 8 farm animals to write in the wheel, and she was able to independently list down all but 2 farm animals (horse and goat). 

 

The wheel with 8 farm animals. Little Bee copy-wrote the names of the animals, except for "pig", "cat" and "dog" which she wrote herself without any assistance from me.

It was enlivening to see her furrowing her little brows and thinking hard about what farm animals to list down (although I did use helping terms like "perhaps the next animal is a lion? a bear?" just to reinforce the difference between farm and forest/safari animals). 

I was pleasantly surprised that she could spell out "pig", "dog" and "cat" by herself, probably due to the crafts she did which usually comprised of writing down the names of the animals she worked on.

She was thrilled when we completed the wheel and "sealed" it with a bronze fastener. We turned the wheel around and she read the words eagerly, treating this like a game, and reinforcing her whole-word recognition of these words. We took around 20 minutes to complete this wheel.

Little Bee loves her farm animals wheel. She wrote the words "Farm" and I wanted her to write "animals" but she told me the word was too long, and she was too tired! Ha!

She can now recognise quite a lot of sight words, all thanks to the Peter and Jane Key Word series that she loves. I stopped teaching her phonics these days, as I prefer the Bees to learn reading by understanding the meaning and appreciating the beauty of language (like us in the good old days!). I have full faith in the whole-word recognition as Big Bee and us learned to read ardently through that method.

All dressed up and acting coy, in preparation for a Children's Day party in school! 

Through thematic homelearning and daily reading of books borrowed from school, she is now expanding her reading vocabulary slowly, and could read simple books with short sentences by herself. I do hope she will turn out to be an avid reader like the rest of our family as well :)

After the wheel craft, she took the remaining pink paper, snipped around and created this beautiful flower all by herself, which she insisted I must use another of her favourite fastener to attach the stem. She told me she learned this from the TV series "Kailan" and was able to replicate it quite well.

Assiduous Cogitation

* The answer to the Math problem below is in the comments section*

This is the season again - right smack in the midst of intense revision and constant coaching for Big Bee's primary 2 final term exams. With no tuition or enrichment classes, I am her de facto creative writing mentor, English and Chinese tutor as well as Math teacher. Thank goodness my mum helps out with Chinese coaching sometimes!

Teaching and coaching is easy. Facing an occasionally irate child who is a perfectionist is a wee bit challenging. I believe in instilling discipline for children from a young age to be self-focused in their academic pursuits - which is not a relentless quest for perfection, but rather, ingraining a sense of responsibility and accountability. However, Big Bee carried this belief much further than I would like.

The evenings before her exams, she would get cold, sweaty palms and soles, although she still maintained a cheerful disposition. And she, very much like Hubby and me, prefers to work under stress and adrenaline, instead of dwelling in a complaisant environment with no pressure. As parents, we never ever gave her pressure to succeed and I tried not to talk about her exams as we revised her work, but she would give herself an invisible shroud of pressure.

Thankfully, we are now into her last paper tomorrow - Chinese. She slept easy tonight, ecstatic in the knowledge that she can celebrate and relax tomorrow afternoon. I had promised her that there would be no academic activities for a while, because I - like her - believe very much in the good old adage, "We work hard and play even harder".

Meanwhile, I am also looking forward to a breather from all these rigorous coaching, and to get back the momentum for more enjoyable homelearning activities with Little Bee, who had been feeling rather neglected this week.

To end off, here's a Math problem in her school workbook that was somewhat baffling for 8 year old kids, I thought. We managed to solve it for her (she was too mystified to solve it!), and I heard from Big Bee that no one in her class could solve it.

You have two empty pails. In one pail, you can put exactly 5 litres of water. In the other pail, you can put exactly 3 litres of water. You need exactly 4 litres of water. How would you measure exactly 4 litres of water using only the two pails?

On a lighter note, here's a composition from Big Bee that she wrote in May, which had gotten her 9/10 (4.5 marks each for language and content):

The Rescue

One windy afternoon, Danny decided to play with his new aeroplane that his father had bought for him for Christmas. Danny went to a park not far from his house. He went to a field near to a canal.

Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew Danny's precious aeroplane into the canal! Danny did not want his precious aeroplane to be swept away in the flowing water, so he tried to reach for the aeroplane. As he was too near the edge of the canal, he fell into the flowing water in the canal!

He was afraid that he might be swept away with the flowing water so he shouted for help. Luckily, a young man who was coming back from work heard Danny's screams. He rushed to the canal as the screams were coming from there. The young man jumped into the canal and carried him out of the canal. He had rescued Danny!

Danny's parents were getting worried as Danny did not come home, so they decided to go to the park to look for him. Danny's mother was shocked to see so many people crowding around her son who was wet. The young man told Danny's mother what had happened. Danny's mother thanked him. She also gave him some money as a reward. That was Danny's most unforgettable day in his life.

Breathtaking Bay

The weekend before, we descended to Marina Bay Sands for the first time. We were dazzled by the picturesque views of Singapore's CBD, Fullerton Hotel, the Merlion, Esplanade and Fairmount Hotel.

We enjoyed ourselves tremendously at the outdoor promenade by the bay, drinking in the views of the expansive waterfront and the majestic towers of the MBS hotel towering above us. The Bees were dashing about in exhilarated delirium, chasing after frolicking stray leaves revelling in the mirthful breeze.

Hubby and I simply loved the view, having spent a good part of the mid 90s staring at the same scene in the old Marina Bay park, long before all these stupendous transformation. I do miss the rustic charm of the park where we could drive our car around though.

Inside the mall, we enjoyed that first stirrings of vivacity and enthusiasm that one could only experience while exploring a brand new place. The Bees loved the sampan ride, but the wait was too long (45 minutes!), so we decided to skip it. They took a photo with a man decked out in gold paint - almost like a statue on a tricycle!

It was rather good fun, and almost felt like we were on holiday! Who needs a holiday when there are so many wonderful and new places in Singapore these days?

Learning At Home: Forest Animals

The months following June seemed to whiz past so fast with a new job, new adjustments, the Bees (and the whole family!) falling sick, myriad social activities and Big Bee's term 2 test and now final year exams. Hence, I did not have time to update what we had been doing for our homelearning activities, and I also found my creativity and energy levels a wee bit low!

We followed the multiple intelligences format for this theme, which is nothing new, just a re-categorisation of what we used to do with our usual thematic learning. Here were some of the activities we indulged in - most of them were done from late June to August.

1) Visual/spatial intelligence

(Painting, visual arts, arts and crafts)

We focused a lot on this, as this caters to Little Bee's learning style. She learns best when she is participating in an active craft or painting session.

Crafts

Ducks in a pond

We did a bit of collage art and created a little pond in the forest with wild ducks, since we had been seeing ducks and swans in Botanic Gardens so frequently! It was good to put into art what the Bees observed in nature. They both had a fantastic time working on this, finishing in one sitting! Took about 30 minutes to complete.

Big Bee's duck collage

Little Bee's duck collage where she wrote the word "duck"

Duck paper plate craft

I was trying to teach Little Bee the letter "d", and was focusing a lot on duck crafts! She made this paper plate duck with a little assistance from me, and wrote the words "duck" herself. For me, this was a good way to reinforce writing skills in Little Bee, as she is not one to work on those traditional writing worksheets, unlike Big Bee. I also wrote 鸭子 on the duck's body, so that she could identify the words with the duck. Hence, she can now read both 鸭子 and "duck". This duck is 3D, hence could stand on its own, so Little Bee played a fair bit with it thereafter.

Hands and feet deer

This was a superbly easy craft, which just took us about 20 minutes to complete, with minimal preparation work. It is also a perfect craft for much younger toddlers. I traced both my foot and Little Bee's foot on brown construction paper, just to illustrate the concept of different sizes. I also reinforced the letter "d" as she wrote the word "deer" and she drew the eyes and expressions on her 2 deers. Notice the different expressions? 

As she worked on the craft, I also spoke about what deers eat, where they live and what their antlers are for. From one single craft, it is amazing that we could impart the knowledge of language (the sound of "d", word recognition of "deer" and 鹿), Math (different sizes) and general knowledge.

Paper plate rabbit mask

We created a simple rabbit mask where Little Bee learned about wild rabbits in the forest (versus the usual caged-up tame rabbits she saw in pet shops). It was fun creating this and she wore the mask thereafter to hop about. She drew the face and ears herself.

Painting

Squirrel in a fruit tree fingerpaint

2) Verbal/linguistic intelligence (reading, writing)

Through the various activities, I introduced 6 forest-related words to Little Bee: duck, deer, bear, rabbit, fox, squirrel. Story books with these animals as well as flashcards were used to reinforce these words. 

We played a fun activity regularly where Little Bee was supposed to match the Chinese words to the English flashcards below, and she was able to do it independently after a few tries. She had difficulty in reading all the Chinese words, so I had to help her along, but she had no problems recognising the English words. 

Letter booklet

The Bees love creating minibooks, so we created this little booklet that we downloaded from the internet for Little Bee to identify letter "d" words. She had real fun pasting pictures and words with the beginning letter "d" into the book. She had been spelling and writing her name independently since June. 

3) Logical/mathematical intelligence (science and math concepts)

Math with squirrels

Numbers 11 to 20

We did a craft with an old CD and circles of different shapes and sizes where Little Bee arranged them into a bear's face. The craft is great to reinforce the concept of different shapes and sizes. Little Bee then counted the total number of circles on the bear and picked the number 17 from the number cards below. I also got her to identify the word "bear" from the 2 flashcards below. 

Chinese number recognition

Concentration game of forest animals

We played a memory game of different forest animals, which is great for sharpening Little Bee's concentration skills and also for me to explain more about what these forest animals are.

Pattern completion

While we were on the topic of bears, we read about the story of "Goldilocks and the 3 Bears", and played this pattern completion game with characters and icons from the story. 

She also played with icons of different sizes from the story and arranged them into small, medium and big formations. 

Teddy bear dice game

The Bees love this game where we throw dice and put our respective markers on the bears with the same number of dots as the number on the dice we threw. The first player with markers on all the bears wins. It was a really exciting game for the Bees, especially when the Bees were so frustrated if they could not get the number they wanted!

4) Bodily/kinesthetic intelligence (games, speech and drama, dancing) & 

5) Musical/rhythmic intelligence (music, songs)

I combined the 2 intelligences as I could not think of many activities in this arena (not my forte!). We sang the "Five Little Ducks" song, and Little Bee who loves to dance, merrily twirled to the tune of this song.  

We also used these card puppets to re-enact the characters in the song. We introduced the subtraction and addition concept as the five little ducks dwindled down to zero ducks and then back to five ducks again. Little Bee loves this game! 

6) Interpersonal intelligence (empathy, cooperation, trust, conflict resolution)

We read the Ugly Duckling story, which is wonderful for instilling strong empathy with the children. 

We also worked on this time-consuming forest diorama project that took up a lot of energy from me, but unfortunately, creative 3D modelling was not exactly my strength, so I think we can still improve on our diorama skills! 

Big Bee was a remarkable saving grace though - many of the ideas on constructing the diorama came from her, so this helped foster problem-solving skills in her. As the Bees worked on the dioramas together, cooperation, trust and teamwork were values that were augmented through this project. 

Painting tree trunks in the shoe boxes for the diorama setting

Big Bee's forest diorama

Little Bee's forest diorama

7) Intrapersonal intelligence (self-reflection and analysis)

With their interest in painting, I encouraged the Bees to use paintings to reflect what their ideal forest habitat would look like, and they produced a couple of works on this. 

From our numerous nature walks around our densely foliaged estate, Big Bee was also rattling on about imaginative scenes in the areas we ambled past, thus opening her imagination to us. I also motivated Little Bee to tell stories from her own perspectives, and she tended to always relate stories about the particular theme we were learning: Storytelling

Breakfast with the birds

Individual portraits of their ideal forests

Other forest paintings

Big Bee's forest - or rather, apple orchard!

Little Bee's, erm, forest! She always could not resist dotting all over her painting once she was done with it, hence distorting her original artwork! 

8) Naturalistic/environmental intelligence (awareness of nature, field trips)

With our family's love for nature, we spent an abundance of time immersing ourselves in nature walks and alfresco picnics, trying to identify all sorts of forest animals around us - squirrels, snakes (!!), monitor lizards, birds, wild ducks and swans, etc. This is always my favourite part of homelearning - outdoor field trips! 

The path less trodden

Home of the black swans

Breakfast with swans

...and many more!

Friday Humour

Last Sunday, as we were about to go out and Hubby was still on the sofa, Little Bee walked up to him:

Little Bee (thrusting her watch towards him): Papa, you know what time is it?
Hubby: What time?
Little Bee: It's waste time! (then proceeded to ask him to get up)

Hubby was absolutely flabbergasted!

Celebration of Effulgence

That magical time of the year is upon us again - where glowing beacons of enchantment were carried with pride by little children; where sweet delights of moist succulent mooncakes were nibbled by adults; where instruments of luminescence created a spellbinding ambience of festivity and felicity. 

Yes, it is the Mid-Autumn Festival again, when the moon dazzles with superlative brilliance and is at its largest and most spherical tonight. 

Our celebrations started last Friday evening with the annual Mid-Autumn bash held at my estate. The party usually comprised of games and prizes for the kids, an alfresco dinner and a walk around the entire estate in nocturnal darkness! The walk had always been a highlight every year - it was quite an astounding yet wondrous sight with more than 150 children and parents dangling cheery lanterns, walking in a never-ending, meandering single-filed formation!

This year, we invited hubby's good friends SB and SJ, together with their wives and children to the estate party, and we had a wonderful time chatting (for the adults) and playing (for the kids). There were 5 kids in all ages - 8, 6, 4, 3.8, 2 and another one in C's tummy! 

1. The Bees with Alexis ready to set forth on the half-hour lantern parade! 2. Big Bee, Alexis and Cherilyn challenging their balancing skills with an ice-cream toy at home. 3. Little Bee at the start of the festivities 4. Big Bee halfway through the lantern walk 5. The Bees with many other kids playing games with the party host.

It was really heartwarming to see the kids balancing their paper lanterns in deep concentration as part of the lantern-walk formation, and playing phosphorous strands of bangles whilst outdoors, and then interacting harmoniously with toys at home. With the kids entertaining each other, the mummies and daddies could all have a great chit-chat session, not to mention gorging on mooncakes! The kids enjoyed each other's company so much that the home party was only over at 10.15pm! 

And this evening, which was the actual night of Mid-Autumn Festival, we brought the Bees out for a cooling and refreshing drive, adjacent to the huge meadow behind our home, admiring the big luminous moon, listening to nothing but the crickets and toads creating an orchestra of beautiful sounds, and smelling the sweet crisp post-rain evening air by the forest with the wind caressing our faces. 

The Bees wondered what the fuss of this festival was all about, until we explained to them that the moon was supposed to be at its largest and brightest on this very day. It was priceless seeing those awe-struck expressions on their faces as they gazed at the moon in wonderment. 

Thereafter, we played with fizzling sparklers in the darkened courtyard with 2 of Big Bee's schoolmates living in the same estate. The girls had fun giggling at the sparkling mini fireworks, with Little Bee too timid to hold on to a sparkler by herself! 

Hubby also lit a candle for the girls to dip their sparklers in, so the night was bathed in mystical, candlelit glow, with sparklers contributing intermittent flashes of glimmers. The 4 girls enjoyed themselves so much that they played way past their bedtime, only retiring back home by 9.30pm! 

What marvelous celebrations to usher in the final (and most entrancing) quarter of the year!

Resplendent River

Last weekend was perfect. After spending many prior weekends in social settings with family and friends, we decided to spend some quiet quality time bonding as ourselves, with no one else but each other.

We descended to the Singapore River for an early dinner and a rejuvenating walk - imbuing ourselves with the gentle golden light of the setting sun, feeling the placid balmy breeze caressing our faces.

There is something very mesmerising and captivating about ambling beside the river - almost magical, somehow. The tranquillity, the stillness, the invisible presence of generations long before us, toiling on the same river. I stood beside it, indulging in a few moments of serenity and silence, marvelling at the surrounding peace and subtle contentment of others strolling alongside the river.

The Bees - hand in hand - sauntered vivaciously alongside the river, peering into its muddied depths and clambering up the colourful Alkaff Bridge in pure exhilaration.

The resplendent, shimmering light of the setting sun was breathtaking and bewitching, elevating our spirits to a higher plane. The ambience seemed more expansive, more enchanting with tangerine light that resonates through all our beings. Glorious.

Of Birds And Bees

With the growing proliferation of unwanted information on the mass media, combined with Big Bee's bombardment of questions every time she read certain things she could not comprehend in the newspapers, I decided to take out my trusty book on the origins of human life - Who Am I? Where Did I Come From?

I used to read this to Big Bee when she was only 4, but she had clean forgotten everything. The pages and words for a comprehensive sex education are excellent for little kids from 3 years old, complete with fun pop-up graphics (and some are very explicit indeed!) as well as flaps within the book.

Little Bee had a blast fiddling with these pop up pages, and Big Bee comprehended my simple explanation from the book. However, I must reinforce that it was pure treasure to glimpse that mixture of fascination and disgust when we came to the pages where the sperms met the egg (yes, this was illustrated in glorious pop up!). The distinct gulps of disbelief and undisguised looks of horror when the Bees realised how they were created and from where they were launched into harsh Earth was priceless indeed :) 

Birthdays Galore!

The past 2 months had been nothing short of spectacular - with our weekends packed with birthday parties and lots of other activities! We had nary a break till the next fortnight. But the Bees are enjoying themselves thoroughly, needless to say! 

Here are some highlights from the myriad parties we attended:

1) Chloe's 3rd birthday

My cousin Irene booked a wonderful bungalow at Tanah Merah to celebrate Chloe's birthday, and we had such great fun exploring and chilling in the house! There were lots of mesmerizing activities for the children - a kid's magician (where gutsy Little Bee volunteered herself to participate in some tricks!), balloon sculpting and face/body painting. The Bees participated in all the activities with glee and mirth! Chloe had 2 cakes, lucky her - a beautiful 3D number "3" cake with Pooh characters and a Buzz Lightyear agar agar "cake" which tasted divine! 

2) Val's 3rd birthday

The following week, it was Val's birthday! We celebrated her birthday in a stunning function room complete with a colourful bouncer, see-saw and a gorgeous Mickey Mouse pinata with lots of sweets! It was really lovely to sit down, gorged on scrumptious food and looked at our children playing contentedly together. The 2nd generation cousins really played harmoniously together. Val looked so happy, especially when Big Bee arrived. Her cake was a breathtaking two-tiered cake in strawberry and chocolate flavours. Yum! 

3) Alecia's 4th birthday

Little Bee's best friend from school invited her to Build-A-Bear Workshop for an amazing party. Party hosts played games with the kids and there was a gigantic bunny mascot that fascinated all the little kids. Best of all, each of the kids could take home a bear that they built from scratch in the shop! What a wonderful memento! Little Bee truly enjoyed catching up with her school pals and choosing a bunny for herself. 

4) Kai's 1st birthday

Hubby's good friend celebrated his son's 1st birthday with a bash in Singtel's recreation club. The party area was so spacious, filled with comfortable big lounge chairs that the adults enjoyed more than the kids! Meanwhile, Little Bee snoozed through the entire party, waking up only after the cake cutting. Big Bee busied herself with the rest of the other kids, playing with balloons and the foosball machine. 

Can you see Little Bee (in a blue dress) snoozing peacefully on a sofa behind Big Bee? 

5) Desiree's 1st birthday

6) Brianna's 9th birthday

What a busy but fun-filled time the Bees had! 

Rejuvenation By The Sea

We spent the Hari Raya Puasa long weekend by the sea in Bintan with PF and her family. Being beach zealots, we were dazzled by the breathtaking expanse of emerald ocean, soft taupe sands on the capacious beach and resplendent sunset. Staying 2 nights at the sprawling Bintan Lagoon Resort was truly vivifying, as there were plenty of family activities for rainy days and early evenings.

The Bees enjoyed this short getaway tremendously, being in close proximity and joyous company of friends whom they had grown up with. Big Bee was giggling and chatting with Eugene and Claire, like they were little adults! Little Bee tried to tag along but felt a little left out at times with the big primary school kids, poor girl. However, she would learn fast from them, I am sure! 

Some salient highlights of the getaway:

1) Taking the Emerald Class in the ferry to and fro Bintan. This is highly recommended for sheer comfort and the opportunity to skip the long, bothersome queues at the immigration counter when checking in and out of the ferry terminal. We could even relax in a lounge at Bintan's ferry terminal on our way home, complete with coffee/tea and drinks, while their lounge staff settled the immigration check-in for us! Besides, the seats on Emerald Class were so luxurious, and drinks were served to everyone while we sat comfortably - we felt so pampered!

2) Luxuriating in the spacious, newly renovated hotel room with a large relaxation platform area that the Bees loved! The balcony chairs were wonderful for me to sink my tired body at night, after the Bees slept, listening to nothing but the orchestral music of myriad crickets and insects, perfected by the never-ending whispering of the ubiquitous trees and relentless rhythm of the sighing waves. Witnessing a blast of splendid fireworks from a distance, probably by Hari Raya merrymakers in Bintan. Bliss indeed! 

3) Watching Big Bee and Hubby engaging in a fearsome battle of Laser Quest with Eugene, Claire and their daddy, with timid Little Bee clinging on to me in the dark cavernous war space! The 3 kids and 2 daddies emerged out of the dark, cloaked in large beads of perspiration and pounding hearts after an adrenaline-racing shooting game!

4) Playing table tennis with Little Bee after the gang had expended a good 30 minutes of energy on table tennis tournaments of all kinds - between the fathers, between the big kids and between fathers and kids! Little Bee was happily picking up the ball constantly and my incessant encouragement was making her so motivated and happy! 

5) Seeing Big Bee tumbling and rolling around in a Zorb ball in the pool, feeling protective yet letting go mentally for her to explore on her own. It was also very liberating to just stay with Little Bee who was paddling happily in the baby pool, whilst witnessing how much fun Big Bee was having on her own with her 2 good buddies on the 2 pool slides. They had indeed grown up, freeing themselves from the restricting arms of us, their parents! 

6) Giggling at a laughing and exhilarated Little Bee who was bouncing up and down on a trampoline, falling and getting up, bouncing and falling again. This would be a perfect lesson for a little child like her to learn about the literal ups and downs of life! 

7) Enjoying the resplendent multi-hued sunset at the far-reaching beach at low-tide, watching the 4 kids digging around for tiny hermit crabs, loving the fact that they were truly enjoying nature and were close to creatures of nature, nurturing these creatures and not destroying their habitats. 

8) Getting back on the beach the next morning again, and seeing 2 groups of sandcastles - one under our pavilion by the kids, and another one right under the searing sun by the fathers. It pleased my heart immensely to see the kids indulging in perpetual chatting - not of the rigmarole type these days, but proper discussions about school and life in general, with Little Bee joining in from the side. Seeing the fathers build a gigantic sandcastle, only to be destroyed by the kids eventually. What a wonderful lesson in the transient nature of things on earth :) 

9) Bewitched by awe-inspiring weatherscapes of all kinds - from intense, tangerine hues of the sunset to the vivid sapphire skies dotted with white cotton-like fluffy clouds to apocalyptic, dark menacing clouds hovering like a giant monster over us! Fantastic! 

And finally, nothing beats having all the time in the world on a beach resort to spend time with the Bees - this would be something I will cherish as much as possible before they forge ahead with their own independent lives in future! 

Women's Soccer

* A page from Big Bee's diary*

On the 21st of August, Papa and me went to watch the YOG women's football match in the evening. The football match was held at the Kitchener Road stadium. Unfortunately, Little Bee was sick so Mummy had to stay at home and look after her.

Papa parked at the humongous carpark. There was also an enormous swimming pool in the stadium. We sat at the front row in the grandstand. The view was not really that wonderful because there was a speaker blocking the other side of the football field.

The first match was Turkey against Chile. When we arrived, they already finished the first half. The score was 2-2 so it was quite exciting. The second half finished but the score was still the same. The game continued. Chile shot a goal. Everyone screamed like mad. I did not know which team I liked most, so I supported "Turle". It was a mix of Turkey and Chile.

After that, Papa went to buy some snacks. Papa bought a hotdog and a bottle of orange juice. He let me eat some of his hotdog bread. After that, we went to watch the second match. It was Equatorial Guinea versus Iran. Surprisingly, everyone was cheering for Iran. They will hit their chairs three times and shout "Iran". Equatorial Guinea had shot 2 goals.

Soon, I wanted to go home. Papa did not want to. He said that if I stayed till 9.45pm, he would buy me something. I stayed till 9.45pm. We went out of the stadium. Papa asked a man where the shop with the YOG gifts was. The man said it was inside the stadium. We could not go in again so we went home. But I still think it was a fun night!