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PSLE Furore

PSLE Furore

When I picked up 宝贝from school after her PSLE Maths paper, I asked her how it was. She replied that it was not very easy, but ok lah. She said she wasn’t sure of 1 or 2 of the questions and she assured me that she “checked” through her paper thoroughly (which was usually just flipping through… roll eyes).

“Mommy! Check with you! Is 1kg 1000g or 100g?”

“1000g lah!! KILO leh!”

“Oh no!! I put 1000g initially then when I checked through, I decided to change it to 100g!” she moaned.

“How many points?”

“2 points.”

“Ok lah… won’t die.”

So she was happy again.

Little did I know that, the Maths paper was the subject of such a huge uproar on the internet.

Mid afternoon, my phone sprang to life with a deluge of messages! I thought, “Waaa! Stock market crashed or what?! Or covid hit 10,000???” There were messages popping up in many chat groups and some personal messages asking me about the difficulty of the paper. I was like, “She said ok leh.” And I was bombarded by dozens of copies of screenshots of parents who had taken to social media lamenting about their kids breaking down, vomiting, fainting, or dunno what. And there were open letters being shot to every single MP in Singapore (I am not surprised if PM Lee received quite a few of those.) Even ex-journalists with or without children weighed in on that.

I was truly shocked at all these. Even if PSLE is a major exam, but does it even warrant such a furore? Over the years, I have heard from friends that their children thrashed their textbooks and notes, some even burning them right after PSLE. I am a person who respects books as they contain knowledge and we must always respect knowledge. I can’t imagine what kind of hatred they have for PSLE to justify for such behaviour.

Our children take their cues from us. If we, as parents put an over emphasis on PSLE, then it is highly likely that they would treat it like it is a matter of life and death? Seriously, PSLE is not the end of the road. Many of my friends even told me that they were more stressed up about the exam than their kids…

Many blame the MOE, the society, the school and well, everyone else except themselves for the “stress” on PSLE. Maybe, we should look within ourselves. Are we the ones who are truly stressing our kids out? No doubt it is an important exam and should be taken seriously, but there is life after that.

Coming back to the difficult Maths paper, according to 宝贝, it was not easy but doable. After all, there will always be a few difficult questions to filter out the top students from the average. How many people out there can get full marks for an exam paper? No full marks won’t die wan lah. After all, what’s done is done. There is no point in comparing answers, berating the child or making a huge fuss out of it. I just want to give my 宝贝 a good hug and tell her that no matter what the results are, she has already done her best. Let us move on and look forward to an exciting Secondary school journey! She is already doing market research on which trendy bag to buy for Secondary school…

Meanwhile, she has been playing Roblox every day after the first PSLE paper. Macham like holiday has already started… and ya, we play Roblox together with her too. Haha! PSLE is over for me! Yay!

HBL can be Lots of Fun!

HBL can be Lots of Fun!

The kiddos are starting think that HBL is lots of fun! Morning exercise this morning was to play catching (me included) at the playground for 1 hour!! Tired die me!!! 😵

We owned the playground!! No one else was there! The rest of the kiddos were still in school.

The exercise area, on the other hand, was pretty crowded!! Virus 🦠 alert!!! 📣📣📣

Our very own playground!
Our very own playground!
Crowded exercise area!! Virus alert!!
Crowded exercise area!! Virus alert!!

Meanwhile… HBL can be lots of fun! Keep chill everyone!!

#hbl #covid_19

Coping with HBL – Timetables and Schedules

Coping with HBL – Timetables and Schedules

HBL here we come!! 💪🏼 The kiddos used their last HBL schedules as a reference and did up their new timetables for this round. It’s much easier this time as they’ve done it before.

Xiaoxiaobaobei's Timetable
Xiaoxiaobaobei’s Timetable
Baobei's Timetable
Baobei’s Timetable
Baobeis with their Timetables
Baobeis with their Timetables

Time management is a life skill. Kind of liking this home schooling thingy as I can add on more extra stuff. 😈😈

We’ve done our 1h swimming this morning. Slightly behind schedule but we will catch up! I noticed that the kiddos added a lot of buffer in the planning. There are lots of food breaks. 🤔 And SOMEONE certainly doesn’t take 30 mins for piano practice. More like 5 mins. 😓

Looking very serious with HBL
Looking very serious with HBL
Timetable right in his face
Timetable right in his face
We are on ZaoBao!!
We are on ZaoBao!!

Zaobao (早报) picked up on the news and we are on the news!! ok ok.. cheap thrill….

#hbl #covid_19 #zaobao #timetable #baobeis

Gaming is Serious Business

Gaming is Serious Business

This is serious business. He spent 15 minutes (with some inputs from his sister) writing down all the various tower names from Toy defenders (a game in roblox). If only he’s this serious about his schoolwork… 😓 (he emphasised that he’s “more important” under the credits section).

I can only remember a handful of these names. (Yeah. Lao niang has to play this game with him as a chaperone.) My brain just goes into screensaver mode whenever I see these names.

#roblox #xiaoxiaobaobei #playisseriousbusiness

宝贝 and her Medal

宝贝 and her Medal

baobei and her medal
Baobei and her medal

A medal to commemorate her last year as a table tennis 🏓 player in her primary school. The team emerged as the East Zone Girls’ champ. Perfect score of 5-0 against every school and 3-0 for every match. They could have had a shot for overall national champ. Too bad it was cancelled due to covid.

Well done Kong Hwa Girls’ team! 💪🏼

NOW it’s time to mug for PSLE! Shoo!

psle #nsg #girlpower #konghwa #tabletennis

Exams? What’s that?

Exams? What’s that?

I just came back from my holiday (yet to put the photos together – will publish on my ailing travel blog when I get my act together, if ever…). During the trip, my travel mates were shocked to know that I ditched my kids in Singapore and came on a holiday without them and worse, one of them was having her exams while I was gallivanting in China.

“Huh! She’s having her exams and you are here? Don’t you need to be there with her?”

“For what? She’s the one taking the exams, not me! I can’t take her exams on her behalf leh!”

“To do last minute revision lah! To give moral support!!”

“Aiya, last minute revision no use wan lah… Already revised with her! Her fate is in her own hands!! Plus she doesn’t even like the taste of chicken essence… ”

Even during the “supposedly” revision period, she was happily playing with her brother at the playground with a few equally “bo chap” friends while her peers were caged up at home. Well, that’s provided that she’s finished whatever she was assigned to do.

Some parents argued that the pressure put on the students was exerted by the school, the society and well, they themselves and that they had no choice. I attended a camp by T. Harv Eker and this was something that he said, “Everyone has a choice, even at gunpoint. It’s just that some choices are more difficult to make than others, if a man points a gun at you and wants you to hand over your money, you have a choice. Either you hand over your money or you can choose not to hand it over and face the consequences.”

I believe that children take the cue from their parents. I admit that I am a very result driven person. I do try very hard to curb that instinct, whenever she presents me with her exam papers. Instead of focusing on the results, I am trying very hard (yes, trying extremely hard, I’m getting better at it now) to focus more on the process of learning, which I believe that once she acquires the skill, it will follow her through her entire life. Who even uses modelling schemes to calculate stuff when they are working? I used zero calculations that I learnt in Uni in the course of work (think triple integration… strength of materials.. duh!!), you just punch in a string of numbers and some software will automatically churn out the answers for you.

And, in the future, who knows what kind of new industries the world will have? Who’d ever thought that being a blogger, or influencer (not influenza) now would make a decent buck? My parents probably would have said, “Simi lai eh! Go and be a doctor/lawyer/engineer!!”

Yeah yeah, i know. Some of  you are saying,” Hah! You are not at the PSLE stage yet! Now you yaya papaya!” Well, who knows. In 2 years’ time, I may sing a different tune when I come face to face with the terrifying PSLE! (According to 小小宝贝, it’s Please Stop Learning English… sigh. 😑). As of now, as long as she finishes whatever she’s supposed to do, she is free to explore activities that she loves doing. Right now, she’s crazy over table tennis, and her “aspiration” is to play table tennis with her equally table tennis frenzied friends everyday.

And if, she isn’t able to do the 3 difficult Maths questions during the PSLE, I just have to accept that she doesn’t belong to the top 1% of the brilliant kids who are meant to be mathematicians in future! I doubt it will traumatise her for life. I hope that my daughter is a lot more resilient than that! (Sorry, just can’t resist taking a swipe at the kiasu Mom who wrote an open letter to the MOE for traumatising her son because the Maths paper was too difficult. Being catty here! 😜)

Our favourite pastime is to play around with snapchat. So bimbotic! 😘😜

Home Made Gluten Free Okara Crackers

Home Made Gluten Free Okara Crackers

Ever since I bought my soy milk maker, I have been churning out home made soy milk (and other plant milks like almond milk too!) and… lots of soy bean pulp…..  Well, I hate the idea of wasting stuff and those were premium organic soy bean pulp!!

If you google, you will be able to find various uses for the pulp and here’s one that I have tried out. Okara Crackers! I replaced the wheat flour in the recipe so that the crackers can be made gluten for my 宝贝.

Recipe for Gluten Free Okara Crackers

265g soya bean pulp (one round of soy milk will yield this amount – thereabout)

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp salt

10tbsp one to one GF flour

herbs or cheese flakes or cinnamon sugar (optional) to create different flavours

Add all ingredients into a mixing bowl. Mix them until they achieve a pizza dough texture. Using a rolling pin, roll them as thin as you can. I prefer them thin so that they are crispy.  If they end up to thick, they become chewy in the middle. Cut them out into desired shapes. Fastest, most efficient shape – use a knife to cut them into squares or rectangles. If you want to make it into a fun-filled family event (be prepared to do a fair bit of cleaning up), use cute cookie cutters!

Oven setting : preheat 180°C. 15-20 minutes.

The kids love it! They can knead the dough like play dough, cut them up into their favourite shapes and EAT THEM!!! Yums!


Industriously cutting up his dough.


Messy but edible.


Little gingerbread boys and girls and a few animals to keep them company!

We are Pokémons! 

We are Pokémons! 

小小宝贝:Jie Jie! What Pokémon are you??

宝贝:I’m Pichu! Because I’m cuter than Pikachu! (Hmmm… okie….? she has great faith in herself… I suppose that’s not a bad thing. ?)

Didi, you are a Dragonite! Because you are a dragon! 

小小宝贝:No!! I’m a baby dragon so I’m just a Dratini! 

宝贝 : Mama is a Ninetales because she’s pretty! (I’m not a fan of Ninetales but I like the flattery part.) Then what about Papa???

小小宝贝 :(with a matter of fact look) Snorlax lah! Because Papa snores!!! (???)

Discerning children I have! Children say the darnest things! It’s a good thing that the hub doesn’t read the blog!

Earning Pocket Money

Earning Pocket Money

It all started one day when 宝贝 lamented that she’s taking forever to save up for something she wanted. Holding her head between her hands, she was poring over her daily accounts book to see where she could squeeze out more money.

“Well, if you can’t do away with the necessities and save more money, then you will have to make more money. Do you want to make money?”

“YESSSS!”

“Ok. I need someone to distribute flyers. Do you want to do it?”

“You mean stand on the square and give out paper to the passerbys?”

“Yep. I will pay $2 per hour. So, do you want to do it?”

She nodded eagerly. She probably didn’t realise that it’s harder than it seemed. Having done road shows, exhibitions, flag donations, school building donations and even kart kiosks, I know how difficult it was, even for an adult.

“But I want you to do it with me! And Di Di too!”

“Ok fine! I will distribute flyers right beside you!” Walk the talk right?! No sweat. I have thick skin anyway. Di Di aka 小小宝贝 also agreed. Not knowing what he was in for.

So I grabbed some flyers for the tuition centre (Check out Master Class for English tuition for P5-JC2. No point wasting a chance to advertise! Don’t worry, I’m not the one teaching. We have fully qualified MOE teachers hailing from top schools holding the fort.). And we decided to give out flyers outside Parkway Centre, after her dance class.

The BIG Day arrived. Armed with a small stack of flyers, we stood around the basement, among other flyer distributors.

“You only gave me 5 flyers!” She flapped her sheets at me.

“I will give you more when you have used them up. Let’s just do it for 15 minutes first. How much would you  have earned by then?”

Frowning in deep thought, “50 cents? Does Didi get that too?”

“Of course!” Meanwhile, Didi was loitering near the ice cream shop display, ignoring us.

“Hokay! Let’s start!”

I did a few demonstrations and received many rejections, as usual. When I finally succeeded in giving out my first flyer, I smiled triumphantly at 宝贝. She was standing behind me, holding her flyers, looking at me doubtfully.

“There will always be rejections. It’s just part of it. It’s ok. Just persist!” Giving her the YOU-CAN-DO-IT sign.

She spent the next 5 minutes drawing circles on the ground with her shoe.

“Eh, hurry up leh!”

“I’m thinking of how to do it!”

“Ok, let me demonstrate again!”

Then the slew of excuses came. “It’s drizzling! I don’t want to stand in the rain!” “That’s my friend! I don’t want to give this to her!” “They don’t want to take it!”

She finally worked up her courage and walked boldly towards a parent, but one foot away, she suddenly turned around and strode back.

“What happened?!”

“I’m too shy! And why is Di di not doing it! He’s just looking at the ice creams!”

Ok fine! I called 小小宝贝over. “Eh! Are you here to distribute flyers or look at ice creams? Do you want to buy things?” He nodded eagerly. “Do you have money?” He shook his head. “So how?”

The little one said, “I must give out flyers to the uncles and aunties.”

“Ok Good! Tell you what, for every flyer you give out I give you 10 cents! Ok???”

“Yay!” Sigh… Expensive wages..

He looked at me wondering what to do next. Sigh. He was oogling at ice creams when I was doing my demonstrations. So, I gave out a few flyers to show him what to do. I pointed him to the parents sitting around the cafes and Macdonalds.

Without a word, he trotted up to a parent who was messaging on his phone, stood beside him and stared at him with his big round eyes, carrying his cute Eeyore bag and handed out a flyer to him. And… the scumbag waved him away!! Couldn’t he see that a little 4 year old was mustering up his courage to do that?!

Surprisingly, he wasn’t daunted. He walked up to another parent and handed the flyer to him. (Somehow he preferred to give out to Daddies). The daddy smiled and took it from him and patted his head.

He turned to me and gave me the brightest smile ever and hopped in glee. Then he went on to give out another one. The daddy walked past him (he was too small) and didn’t see him, then suddenly realised that the little kid was trying to give him something. He turned back and took the flyer from 小小宝贝.

Meanwhile, 宝贝 also tried to give out her flyers after watching her brother do it. Only to be waved away as though she was a pesky fly. (These parents will get their just desserts!!! Will it kill just to take a piece of paper from a child?!)

Then the hub’s call came. OK. Time to leave.

And so, 小小宝贝 made 20 cents.

Everyone agreed to do it again the next week. 宝贝decided that she would give out at least 1 flyer the next time. 小小宝贝 was looking forward to it as he had first tasted the joy of making money!

Some friends widened their eyes and exclaimed, “Waa! Zun Bo!?” Well, it’s a way to teach them the value of money, that it’s not easy to make money and to only spend the hard-earned money on things that they need. It’s also a way to build up courage and approach people. I find that our children are too soft and too dependent on us, parents, to do everything for them. We need to let them do things on their own, do the tough things, albeit in a safe environment. And definitely, facing up to rejections. It’s not easy to take rejections, but I always believe that, with every rejection, we will just emerge stronger and build thicker skins!

Taking the first step is always the hardest. But once, the step is taken, the rest will follow. For 宝贝, if her 4 year old brother can do it, there shouldn’t be a reason why she can’t do it as well.

So if you happen to be around Parkway Parade on Saturday morning, do come over and say hi to us and give some words of encouragement to the 宝贝s!

If you want your children receive free flyer distribution lesson, you are welcome too! But you pay them their wages ok!!

 

 

 

Rainbow Fish Play

Rainbow Fish Play

I’ve always enjoyed children’s plays. You will be surprised to find that their standard is pretty high, with engaging storylines, colourful and innovative sets, wonderful acting and singing, well written original songs and local puns! Best of all, the tickets cost a fraction of what I’ve to pay for an adult’s play or performance. It doesn’t cost me an arm and a leg (2 arms and 2 legs, in fact) to bring the whole family there. The only drawback is, I’ve to book tickets way in advance. I hate watching plays from a lousy seat. Just a pet peeve of mine. ?

I’m very blessed to have children who enjoy them as much as I do, with minimal fidgeting. 

Right, back to my topic. Rainbow fish. Well, it’s based on a well-loved children’s book with beautiful illustrations on pride and selfishness. iTheatre managed to expand it into an enjoyable 40 mins musical. 


The sets are thoughtful and innovative. 


Colourful under the UV lights. And very fine puppetry work we have here. The actors did a wonderful job in bringing the puppet sea creatures to life with their expressive voices. There’s the proud and selfish rainbow fish, witty Big Violet, excitable Little Green, friendly Small Blue, sociable Tiny Stripes, motherly Starfish, villainous (but cowardly) French accented Hammerhead shark (who’s mad about sushi and sashimi) and wise old Octopus. 

My favourite character is the witty Big Violet which is both abrasive and eloquent. Heck! He even speaks Shakespearean! 

“Any fish by any other name will smell as fishy!”- Big Violet. 

So if you haven’t watched it, get the tickets now at Sistic! Check out their website


Our wefie ritual, while waiting for it to start!!

Trying to selfie with the stage but failing miserably. I need to buy a new selfie stick. The last one went kaput!!