Category Archives: Children

Sunday

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Yesterday, after quite some time, we went out as a family. What with S’s erratic work schedule, we hardly get time to go out together. We decided to check out the new mall in Jurong East – JCube. My impressions – same as all the other malls. Nothing so very different except for one shop Payless Shoes. Wow! So many shoes and the best part is that there were so many options in my size. My size is longer than the average size worn by women here and so it’s quite difficult for me to get good and reasonably priced shoes. I tried on many, but didn’t buy any. I will definitely go back when (if) I start working again. GG was also super impressed there. She’s getting to the age when all these things – shoes, bags, make-up are simply fascinating to her!

The USP of this mall is that they have Singapore’s biggest and only Olympic sized ice skating rink. GG wanted to to go in and try it out, but since we didn’t come prepared, I had to persuade her not to. We’ve promised her to come back and try skating there another day though!

We also had dinner at Chilis. Normally at most malls, it’s a challenge to find food to eat as we are vegetarians. But Chilis had some vegetarian options and we had American Southwestern (Tex-Mex) food. The portion sizes were huge and we could not finish our food. So a lesson for the next time – order less and share!

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S’s dinner – Enchiladas

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My dinner – Veggie BurgerImage

My Drink – Strawberry Lemondae – Super Yummy

Our starters which we couldn’t finish and had to take home in a doggie bag!

SA1 and PSLE

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The first semester exams have just ended and the results are in. BB & GG have fallen a full band down in raw scores. I asked around and was told this happens. Apparently Primary 1 & 2 are supposed to be the easy years and then Primary 3 takes that up a big notch! But the results have resulted in both BB & GG (and a very angry mama) being very disappointed with their marks. So we’ve decided to come up with strategies to make sure this does not happen for the next exam. Even though their school is not one of the branded schools, but just a neighbourhood school which is not a neighbourhood school, the papers were set at a level just slightly above what was taught in school. In BB’s class, apparently 40% of the class failed in the Maths paper! But the school also has alternative assessment so those marks may increase scores for the children and that 40% may drop.

The past few days I have been reading about about what is possibly the most dreaded exams every Singaporean child will undergo – the PSLE (Primary School Leaving Exam). Children here take it at the end of their primary school education when they are about 12 years old and in Primary 6. Although BB & GG have another 3.5 years before they sit for the PSLE, what I read has made me really scared. This exam pretty much determines your future and to get admission in a good secondary school means you need a very good/decent score. Also the exams are apparently set at about a year to two years more advanced than what the children are taught in school and all this higher order thinking skills means that they need to start now! So operation PSLE will start from the school holidays this year. I need to get BB & GG to start reading books meant for teens now so that they will be reading adult literature when they reach P5/P6. This will help them in English. Now to source for resources for Maths, Science and Hindi.

Puss in Boots – Movie Review

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I just realized what a boring life I live, when the highlight of my week is looking forward to Friday evening, so that I can sleep in over the weekend! Gosh! My life also does not give me any material for my blog, unlike the other parenting blogs I come across.

So what do I write about today? I know, let me review Puss in boots which we caught at a matinee last week. We saw the 10:30 show at the Cathay cinema in Causeway Point. If you are a Passion Card member, note, you get the tickets at S$7 with a small popcorn for two tickets purchased. This took care of the popcorn that BB & GG expect when they go to the theatre. Since we were going back home for lunch straight after the movie, I didn’t want them to eat anything else which can spoil their apetite later.

Set in the western town of San Ricardo, Puss in Boots tells the prequel story of the character in the Shrek movies. Voiced by Antonio Banderas, this Spanish speaking kitty wears heels, is a lady killer and is an outlaw. He has been searching for the magic beans which he learns is with Jack and Jill. He goes to their hotel room and tries to steal the beans but is thwarted by another cat who soon escapes the place. Following her to a cat traven, they have a dance-off cum fight, where he finds out that he is actually Kitty Softpaws, the softest paws any kitty has. At the same time, he also learns that his estranged childhood friend Humpty Alexander Dumpty is behind this meeting and wants the help of Puss to find the magic seed which has been his childhood dream.

So Puss, Kitty and Humpty plan and steal the magic beans. They plant it and go to the giant’s castle in the sky and find the golden eggs. When they realize the eggs are too heavy to carry, they carry the goosling which lays the eggs, eluding the terror which guards the goose and the eggs. Once back on earth while celebrating their victory, Jack and Jill catch up with them and hit Puss and decamp with everything – Humpty, Kitty and the goose.

On awakening, Puss tracks them back to San Ricardo and learns that all this was a plot by Humpty to take revenge on Puss for abandoning him when Humpty’s heist when they were children went wrong. Kitty was also on this plot. Puss then turns himself to the authorities and is put in jail where he meets the real Jack and realizes that the Terror is in fact the mother of the goosling who will stop at nothing to get her child back. Kitty helps Puss break out of prison to try and stop the Terror from demolishing the town. In the fracas, Humpty gives up his life so that Puss can save the goosling and when his shell cracks, he is found to be golden!

The verdict – the kids both GG, BB and all the rest in the theatre loved the movie. I was not sure what was there that made the censors put a PG classification, guess the slightly adult theme and fights was the answer. All in all, a movie worth watching, atleast once!

Woohoo…Friday’s here…

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It’s the end of another work week and a week closer to my holiday! You must know by now how excited I am about it (I can’t stop talking or rather blogging about it!)

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This week has been a mixed bag one with a dash of mommy guilt thrown in for good measure! GG has been pestering me to do something special with her, but other than shopping, which I’ve promised her soon, I can’t think of anything which I will be able to exclude BB. The thing is that I am incapable of doing something with one of them and excluding the other. In fact I am scrupulously fair to the two of them – even if I buy someone something, the other will get something else of the exact same value!

So what are we planning for this weekend? We’re going to take BB & GG to watch Puss in Boots tomorrow morning. I’ve heard many good things about the movie and so will review it later. My only concern is that it’s been rated PG, but hope any fears are unfounded.

Then later, it’s some spring cleaning time (time to clear GG’s closets of the clothes she’s outgrown) and then maybe the library!

See you on the other side of the weekend!

Dilemma of a mother

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Yesterday at work I got a call from GG. She sounded quite upset and asked me this question, “Mama why don’t we both spend more time together doing things?” I was quite set out by this question and the rest of the work day deteriorated. I spoke to her after I reached home and told her that when we go on our holiday (soon, very soon), we’ll do some mom-and-daughter stuff together like shopping and leave the boys at home

This morning when I woke up and checked my Facebook news feed, I saw that an old school friend had quit her job to be a SAHM (Stay At Home Mom) since her daughter was giving the equivalent of what is the O Levels here in May 2012. She wanted to be with her and give her moral support.

Everyday, especially now that the holidays are on, both G & BB don’t want me to go to work. On Monday when I was at home nursing a cold, both of them were so happy to see me there with them the whole day that it literally broke my heart!

This is an issue I’ve been grappling with for the past year or so. On on hand I do want to be a SAHM and be there physically for my children, but on the other hand, without the intellectual stimulation that work gives me, I am worried that I will mentally atrophy. I think going to work gives me the much needed ‘me time’ I need without needing to be a mom 24/7 and getting called to settle any/all differences/fights (choose the word) at home. The income I earn is useful too, to ensure that we are able to give our children all the extras that we want.

On one hand, I do know that if my current position was as interesting as it was made out to be in the initial interviews, then maybe I would enjoy this a lot more. As it is, the project I was hired for has been moved to mid next year and so i do not have any ‘output’ to show. Also since I leave about 3 hours earlier, the impression I get is that I am not thought as part of the team and things are happening without my involvement. Aah well, the best thing for me to do is to either accept this or quit. I have about a month to think through this well and would have made my decision by the time I am back from my holiday!

In the meantime, here’s something that came on my Facebook newsfeed a couple of days back. It’s an ivillage article about being able to afford to stay at home and what you can do if that is what you want to do.