A very boring week from my perspective. I was away from home the whole week for a related conference (more about that tomorrow), and so most days by the time I came home, GG & BB were asleep!

GG even wrote me a note on the things she wanted to tell me, but couldn’t! So sweet right!

We are having Parent-Teacher Meetings in school on Monday and Wednesday and I am sure the teachers and me will/should have a lot to talk about…

On another note, BB & GG have their NAPFA (National Physical Fitness Award) test on Monday and Wednesday and they are a bit scared about it. This test is to assess the overall fitness of students in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions with the test modified to suit age and gender. Of the six stations, they are worried about 1-2 that they are not sure of passing. They say they will be made to take it again and again till they pass it. More about this next week…

The CA 1 results came in this week and BB did fairly well, he could have done better, but we’ll work on that for the SA1 and the Prelims. GG didn’t do well in Maths, her nemesis subject, but other than that, she did ok in her other subjects. She still needs to up the ante though….

We also went to a Open Symposium at the School of the Arts (SOTA) as GG was interested in the school and try through DSA. It was quite a full house, but I felt that the process could have been handled better. Firstly it was not an open house – we were armed with questions and we didn’t get a chance to ask any. The open house is on the 11th of April, where you could see the school. This was billed as an hour’s programme and basically had the school principal and vice principal selling the school. While I understand the need to sell the school, but the fact is that unless you were a parent or child interested in the school, you would not be there at 7 pm on a Friday evening. Parents and children came there to see if the school is a right fit for them. Then once the hour’s worth of talk was over, we were moved to another place, by specialty (we were there for music) and taken to an auditorium, where someone from the faculty of music started talking. He was American (I think) and even though we were sitting halfway down the auditorium, what he spoke was very indistinct. He basically reiterated that was said above and not much in terms of new information. Then there was supposed to be a concert – by alumni and students! We didn’t wait for the concert and left at this point. GG is now having second and third thoughts about the school – one being the fact that school starts at 7:45 am, which means she needs to leave home by 6:30 am to get to school on time, notwithstanding any accidents or delays on the road….

Week 7 has been a very short week for BB & GG because of the Chinese New Year holidays. They went to school only 2.5 days, of which the last day was extremely short. The first day of the week was the Science exam, so essentially only Tuesday when they did any work in school.

The children have started reviewing their  CA1 papers in school, but I suspect the teachers want them to have a good CNY break as they don’t seem to really know their marks. BB came home on Wednesday in tears – I was working from home and initially thought he was being bullied in school, like what happened a few years back, but I was wrong. BB knew that he would not score the marks he was supposed to score in Maths, one of his strongest subjects, and he was scared I will scold him!

We’ll know next week, when the teachers go through the papers with the class and also when we meet the teachers the week after next! Right now, they are enjoying the only good break they will probably have all year!!

Exam time this week for BB & GG! They had their English and Maths Continuous Assessment (CA1) this week, followed by Science tomorrow. After this, is the Parent-Teacher meeting before the school ends Term 1.

Stress is slowly becoming a way of life for us, though I can see it is affecting GG more than BB. BB is more ‘happy go lucky’, but I think I stress for him. He is banking on getting into his first choice school, where the PSLE results are not very important.  I keep telling him to have Plan B, but am not sure if this has entered his brains…I can only hope and pray that he does make it to his first choice school.

Yesterday at the library, GG asked me if she could have a trip to a country she is currently obsessed with – Japan – if she does well in her exams and makes it to one of her schools of choice. BB also chimed in with a trip to either Europe or the US if he makes it. I’ve said YES….praying hard it comes true…

Another week has gone by. This week has been marked by sickness in the house. BB started it last week, followed by S and then GG who had it the worst of the three.

BB bounced back with a one-day course of Panadol, but when GG started coughing last Sunday, I gave her some Panadol and cough syrups that night and though she seemed a bit warm on Monday morning, she felt ok enough to go to school.

Back from school she was miserable. Coughing, a bad throat and even difficulty in breathing. Took her to the doctor who gave her two days of medical leave. But she insisted on only staying at home for a day. She didn’t want to miss school as its the PSLE year. My gut feeling is that yes she caught it from GG and S, but it’s also stress-related from the big exams she will be facing in October.

Not even 12 and stress like this! How i hate this system for making our children go through this at this age!! But we don’t really have a choice, but to make the best of the situation and equip the children to be resilient and to be able to face everything they encounter…I’m sure now I sound like one of the official government adverts 😉