This was a very short week for the kids in school. Because of the Jubilee Weekend, Friday was a holiday and Thursday was the National Day Observance ceremony which meant they were dismissed at 10 am. On Wednesday, the school had a National Day musical in evening. The whole school with the exception of the P6s were involved in the musical. So BB, GG and the rest of the cohort were in school for a few hours doing some mass clinics for the PSLE!

Speaking of which the PSLE Orals is in just about 2 weeks time and I am now seriously scared! I am going to work from home the two days to give them moral support!

This week will also be a short one with the school having their English Prelims Papers 1 & 3 (Composition and Listening Comprehension), then next week PSLE Orals!!’

Wish us luck please!!!!

This week was the usual one, except that GG went for her DSA Auditions at the only school she applied for. BB was quite jealous since he didn’t make it to his schools, but she did!

The school is a girls school and one of Singapore’s oldest. We both loved the school when we went there and GG is determined to get there – either by DSA or by her PSLE score! She applied for DSA through Choir and there were around 10 odd girls with her for the auditions. They had been asked to prepare two contrasting pieces which showcases her voice for the audtion, but they were not asked to sing them! What they had to do instead was sing some scales and then the school choral conductor asked them some questions. That was it! We’ll know the outcome sometime by the end of the month. In the meantime, we wait and watch and it’s back to studying for us….

Yesterday was the Hindi Prelims exams and for the very first time I saw BB asking me to wake him up early so that he can study, maybe there is still some hope for him. They woke up about 90 mins early to study. I just hope they’ve done well enough to get a B for GG and a C for BB (not much expectations you see)…

And so it begins…. PSLE got real for us this week onwards. BB & GG had their Prelims Orals this week with English on Thursday/Friday and Hindi yesterday.

GG said she went slightly out of point for English but Hindi was easy. BB as he is wont to say said both orals were ‘OK’!

One happy news. Last week while we were Facetiming with my parents and sis, S came home with the mail. There was an envelope from the school we applied for DSA for GG. I took it saying, “It’s probably a rejection letter” and opened it. But it was an invite for an audition to the school. We had applied under an aesthetics domain to this girls school and so next week she has to go audition for a spot in the school. You should have seen GG’s face when she saw the letter – she was literally jumping with joy – and all this while my family was watching from the other side of the world! Actually they got a bit worried on hearing GG shout, but, of course, were very happy for her.

Quite a bit of children I know have gotten to the next round at BB’s dream school and I am still upset about that. But I need to take that into my stride and focus on the exams. Hopefully BB scores well enough to chance shot number 2 at the schools where he didn’t make it. Otherwise we have identified another school, quite unknown actually, but which has a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) niche programme with an emphasis on Aerospace, not too far. Let’s see what BB does now.

The PSLE just got more real for us! This week both BB & GG got their entry forms for the exam. They need to show this for all the PSLE exams. Back in India, it used to be called ‘Hall Tickets’ and used to have our photos in it too. This one does not have their photos, because they will give their exams in their own schools, while we used to have to go another school to give the exam. The form also has their exam ID and the subjects they are giving (except for Mother Tongue, most of them will be the same – just some of the children will give English, Maths, Science as either standard or Foundation) and the exam dates, time, exam duration and reporting times.

Being the kiasu mum that I am, I scanned them and copied them (I made 5 copies each!) so that in the event it gets misplaced, we have another copy with us….

The school also gave us the prelims dates and Orals start in as less as 2 weeks. The end is near…..I see it….

As a way for all us to destress, we’re looking at a short holiday in a neighbouring country when the PSLE marking starts in October. So we can relax before the shit hits the fan!

On the DSA front, still no notification from any of the schools we’ve applied for and that’s another stress. I just wish I know if they are not going to get a call back for the next round, then we can focus on the exam itself. I guess I need to put that off my mind – if it happens, it happens. BB is going to be so disappointed if he can’t get to the round 2 of dream school!

Sigh!! I wish I could make things better for them. It was so easy when they were younger – a kiss always made things better – but now that life takes over, it’s only so much a mum can do!