On Their Own

Being a working mum means that I have absolutely no control over what the Bees are doing at home in the daytime. I do not have the luxury of time to be by their sides all day long, guiding them on homelearning. I could not savour the sweetness of them by my side the entire day. 

And they had gotten used to me dashing off to work every morning, although Little Bee had been whining and crying every Monday morning, lamenting the fact that I work. Well, I try to be back during lunchtime at least once or twice a week to spend time with them - and more frequently during the holidays! So, it had indeed been tiring in terms of schedule while juggling between work and family. 

What I would do every morning is to let them know briefly some suggested tasks that I would like to see them complete. And I am heartened by the fact that the Bees generally accomplished these tasks independently, especially Big Bee, being such a big girl. Little Bee still needs some reminding and guiding by my good mother. 

I was very tickled one night when I came home and saw this piece of ragged paper lying around on the sofa - a story written by Little Bee all by herself! I believe she asked her jie jie for spelling help but no one assisted her in sentence structure (which was pretty obvious!) 

The story goes: 

One day a cat and a dog are have a car and they are very happy so they want to have to drive!!

Other pieces of independent work involved journal writing with Big Bee helping and encouraging Little Bee, like the journal entry below where Little Bee wrote about her school carnival. It was really fun to read what she wrote without any influence from me. 

Sometimes, Big Bee would work on her own homelearning after observing what I had done with Little Bee (see the Solar System minibook below). 

There were also lots of sketches and doodles by the 2 girls. 

What was really heartwarming was this collage created by both of them, with each of them drawing different pictures and combining these into a quilt of sorts! I love observing these little tell-tale signs of teamwork and camaraderie between the sisters in the day (as they tend to fight for my attention in the evenings, sadly!)

I seriously cannot decipher which Bee drew which picture!

It was really amusing for me to come back home every evening and try to spot what they were up to.