Archives for January 2010

Fickle

January 11, 2010 · By ·

Been testing the water these few days with this question, “Do you want to go to school?” To my horror, K’s answer is now “No”.

Knew it. His interest to go to school was purely on a whim. He now prefers to spend time with me in the morning, reading together, learning from new lapbooks, playing with his hoard of toys that he recently amassed from Christmas, going for our weekly nature walks or simply tagging along while I ran errands during certain weekday mornings. Don’t know if I should give myself a pat on the back for making home learning fun for K.

Looks like “School is great / wonderful and you will have lots of fun and friends” indoctrination needs to start a.s.a.p. I still don’t have the guts, determination or discipline to home-school K for all of his preschool years.

Share it:

Related posts:

Categorized: His World · Tagged:

A good break from nap routine?

January 9, 2010 · By ·

I am a stickler for routines. Especially when it comes to making sure that K takes his afternoon naps daily.

K’s nap times are the only time in the day where I can have some ‘me’ time; enjoy a cup of decaffeinated coffee, bury my head into a good book, start work on new lap books or just leisurely net surfing. Thus I started to get a little concerned lately, when K started sleeping later for his naps and waking up a little too early in the afternoons. I believe this could be largely due to his transition from a toddler to a pre-schooler, and his sleep habits are slowly changing. I really dread the day when he will finally drop his afternoon naps :(

However, this week, I decided to go a little lenient on K’s nap routine when contractors came over to my place to fix a new air condition system. My helper took over the supervision at home, while DH, K and I went for lunch at Mr Prata @ Evans Road to satisfy my prata craving. Found out that K did not really like prata and preferred eating the bits of sugar on his plate.

We drove around town to get some errands done, sent Dh home afterwards, while K and I proceeded to seek some afternoon fun at Sentosa.

sentosa1I planned to drive into Sentosa so that there will be more time to explore the Nature Walk and then check out the beach thereafter. We ended up taking Sentosa Express into the island, as K wanted to take the train into Sentosa instead. Public transport is still very much a novelty for him, although I think it will most likely change after a couple of years from now when he has to take his school bus to school.sentosa2Sentosa was surprisingly busy for a weekday afternoon, we had to share the train with throngs of tourists and students. By the time we reached Sentosa island, it was almost 3 pm. So I decided that we skip the Nature Walk and head straight for the water play area at Palawan beach.

sentosa3It was a blazing hot afternoon. I found myself searching for shaded areas to hide, while I watched K have a splashing good time in the water play area, without being the least bit bothered about the sun. I slapped on lots of sunblock for K and myself, although that did not prevent us from getting a couple of shades darker after our visit.

After 2 hours, we headed back to our car, parked at at Vivo City. He was so awake and alert all through our excursion and did not show any signs of sleepiness until he got strapped into his car seat. He fell asleep barely 10 minutes into our drive back home and only got up when dh opened the car door.

Tried to get him to sleep early that evening, but he took almost 1 hour before drifting off to sleep. And then woke up, fussing every other hour from 11 p.m. till like 2 a.m., and then woke up at 8 a.m. the next day. Was a moody and fussy kid the next morning.

Maybe it is the break of routines that cause the sleeplessness or simply the mere excitement of the day that kept him awake? I guess I am right to trust my instincts to stick strictly to his afternoon naps daily, afterall, keeping to K’s nap routines is the best for him and I treasure my ‘me’ time too much to ever want to give it up.

Share it:

Related posts:

Categorized: His World, Mom's Musings ·

Me ‘Kiasu’?

January 8, 2010 · By ·

I never thought I will be thinking of this so soon…but today, I finally succumbed to the common syndrome that plague lots of Singaporean parents; planning ahead for their child’s primary education.

Just a few days ago, I loudly exclaimed to Dh that it is ok to stay where we are at now and then find a nearby primary school to register K in when time comes. I was thinking that it really did not matter and it was alright to drop our privileges (to be in one of the top 10 most popular primary schools in Singapore) to get into Phase 2A1 (if he joins the alumni) or Phase 2A2 for being a ‘old-boy’ of the school. So I thought to myself, “I wonder what is the big deal about getting into a good primary school, I should not be so ‘kiasu’ since K hasn’t even started kindergarten…”

I realised that I have put a foot to my mouth after I spent this morning with my neighbour downstairs; Lay Keng, a SAHM with 4 kids. Her oldest being 15 years old and Seth, her youngest child, is the same age as K. We talked about her children’s experience in primary school, 3 separate experiences and how each varied from the other depending on the type of school the child attends.

We talked about the parent volunteer system, how we can get into Phase 2B of a fairly good Christian primary school near our home (unfortunately distance of school is > than 1km), if the school have any vacancies for parent volunteers. Parent volunteers need to accumulate 40 hours of service (that’s akin to starting volunteering when the child turns 4). Anyhow I am not even certain that I will be accepted as parent volunteer, since I don’t even know what ‘service’ I can offer to the school.

Key take-outs from our conversation? It does make a difference which school the child attends. It will differ from the kind of support teachers/school can give to the other areas of development for the child (apart from academic development). Dh and I came from good primary schools (due to the effort on the part of our parents), so shouldn’t I give my child a chance to be in a better primary school as well?

It dawned on me that I am a kiasu parent, to be even thinking about this even before K turns 3. Just when I told myself from the start of the new year that I will need to learn to be contented, learn to live a day at a time and trust God for my future, I find myself thinking of things that are more than 4 years away. I find it such a irony when I don’t even know what will happen from a year from here, yet I am thinking of something 4 years from now?

It’s bizarre how having a child can make you conceive traits that you previously hope you will never have.

Share it:

Related posts:

Categorized: Education, Mom's Musings, Parenting ·
« Previous Page
Next Page »