Tiring Out the Destructive Force Part 3
To keep them out of mischief, tire them out with one leg stand competition! I can feel my brain cells withering bit by bit every day from coming up with new ideas.
#hbl #onelegstand #sigina #destructiveforce
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!!! 📣📣📣
Meanwhile… HBL can be lots of fun! Keep chill everyone!!
#hbl #covid_19
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.
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. 😓
Zaobao (早报) picked up on the news and we are on the news!! ok ok.. cheap thrill….
#hbl #covid_19 #zaobao #timetable #baobeis
First MRT trip
2 bedraggled rats caught in the rain. 🤣🤣 They took these pictures with the GPS watch.
Today marks the first day that 8 yo 小小宝贝 is taking the mrt on his own, under the supervision of his sister. The lucky boy has his sister to show him the ropes until she goes to secondary school next year. This is to prepare him to take mrt home alone in Term 4 when (or if!!) his CCA starts. He’s luckier than his sister who was thrown into the deep end of the pool when she was in P2. He’s much older than her at that time as he’s born in Jan and she was born in Sep.
4 years ago, I gave 宝贝 the choice of forgoing CCA or going for CCA but coming home on her own on the mrt. She chose the latter.
I took time off (I was still working at that time) to bring her home on mrt twice, with her leading the way. The night before she was to go home alone, she cried, begging me to pick her up from school after CCA. I refused. #evilmomalert
The next day, I hid myself behind the bushes at the mrt station entrance. She called me with her GPS watch at the school exit and asked me if I were picking her up. I told her nope and I would be waiting for her at home and she needed to be brave and watch out for bad people and traffic when she crossed the road.
Resigned to her fate, she made her way to the mrt. I saw her approaching the mrt from behind the bushes. The little thing was looking all around her all the time. Probably checking for bad people 😅 I had to stop myself from revealing my hiding place to hug her as she looked so vulnerable.
She went down the escalator and I saw her scrutinising the map to confirm her stops. She boarded the train and a kind soul gave up her seat to her because she looked so little with her humongous bag.
I managed to trail her to interchange and then I lost her when she alighted with a big crowd of commuters. She was too short.
I panicked a little and started searching the station for her. I checked her GPS location and found it moving away from the station, so I boarded the train to the final station. Meanwhile I was frantically calling her on the phone. The sigina didn’t pick up the call.
I searched the final station platform again. This time I was really at my wit’s end. I called home and my Mom said she wasn’t home yet. I didn’t dare to tell her that I had lose my young daughter. I was imagining that some evil guy had kidnapped her.
I ran all the way home like an Olympic runner, and there she was. Safe and sound. My Mom told me that she appeared at the door after she hung up the phone.
That took 5 years off my life… And thus marked the beginning of her maiden solo mrt journey home from school at 8 years 1 month old and my close heart attack.
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
Home Based Learning (HBL) in a Circuit Break (CB)
The trial Home Based Learning (HBL) which took place on a Wednesday just before the Circuit Break (CB) period went terribly. There were tantrums, crying, shouting from children and parent (yes, only 1 parent, because the other parent locked himself away in his study room, oblivious to the chaos.). When MOE announced school closures, I was horrified…If I were to put myself through that every single day, there would probably be a murder before the week even ended.
I work better when I have a schedule and clarity of what is going to happen next. I decided that having schedules for every one (including myself) could preserve our (my…) sanity. There was an article which was aggressively forwarded on all social media to not impose a schedule on the children. I beg to differ on that.
So, on the day of the school closure announcement, I set the kids on a task – create their own schedules for a typical school day during CB. They needed to factor in time for HBL, time for extra work or enrichment class practice, exercise, meals, hobbies and of course PLAY! We used the Canva software to create it. Canva is so idiot-proof that my daughter was able to create an invitation card for her birthday party when she was 6.
They felt empowered and had a lot of fun doing up their schedules, choosing their own backgrounds, graphics etc. I had to tweak the timings a little. I simply couldn’t allow them to have meals as and when they please. What am I?! A Cafe arh?! Sheesh. And the HBL timings had to be staggered so they wouldn’t fight over the one laptop they shared.
They stuck their schedules at their study spaces, at eye level, literally smack in their faces.
So far, it has worked pretty well. Sometimes they finish their work earlier. They get more playtime, so that’s an incentive for them. But for slipshod work, they get playtime deducted. No more whining, pushing of boundaries, complaining la dee dah. Along the way, we have also worked in time for doing household chores and cooking. Meanwhile, 姐姐 is now the appointed IT officer for her brother whenever he runs into technical issues. Delegation, delegation…
So ya, scheduling has done wonders during this CB period and I have retained my sanity. With luck, they may even turn into junior masterchefs and spiffy cleaners before the CB ends… Keeping my fingers crossed. Looking forward to my days of kiao ka-ing when my minions can cook and clean the house!
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!
It’s a NO WORK Day!
This morning, I decided that TODAY would be a NO WORK day. No office email, no thinking of work (ok ok, I made some work calls and messages, but really short ones!).
Morning – did my chores at home. Accompanied my grandmother to her rehabiliative care, had lunch with her, chit chatted with her and sat with her until she fell asleep.
Afternoon – listened to Mr. Talkative (aka 小小宝贝) tell me about his day at school, how he made his Vacuum cleaner gun (ya, another one of his numerous inventions. This one sucked up bad people.) with his best friend, ran him through his Shichida exercises and other brain training puzzles (which were languishing in neglect because I was too busy), practised his Yamaha music stuff with him. When 宝贝 came back from school, supervised her homework.
Evening – Rode through the park connectors with 小小宝贝 (shortened my life by a few years because of how he rode along the busy roads), while Miss 宝贝 preferred to play with her friends (Sigh! 女大不中留).
Night – Patted both of them while listening to them whisper sweet nothings to me, telling me how much they love me. Finally, I got to read my book. My new year’s resolution (every year!) was to reduce my pile of “Want to read, but no time to read” books.
It’s been a long time. And I kind of like it. Say… I really can get used to a life like that! Maybe it’s time to give it some serious consideration….?
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!
Sentosa KidZ Flea 2017 Part 1
I came across the Sentosa KidZ Flea 2 years back when I was doing research on flea market for children. However, we were always unavailable during the dates. This year, I made up my mind to participate in it! I checked with 宝贝 if she would be interested, well, of course she was! Ever since she was introduced to the concept of money when she started Primary 1, she’s now more aware of it. We currently measure prices in equivalence to her pocket money per day.
Sentosa KidZ Flea is an award winning event organised by Sentosa annually and it takes place during the March holidays. It is open to children (age 7-12 years old) for them to sell their handicraft, pre-loved items, new items or even to set up game stalls. It promotes the entrepreneurial spirit in a fun way! They even gave a briefing session to the children to guide them on what to do and also to warn us parents that it’s the “real world” out there. Anything, and everything could happen. So it’s up to us, parents, to decide how much we wanted to step in.
And so, I signed up for a store for 1 day (we decided not to be too ambitious on our first try) for the girls to try their hands at being mini bosses. After their briefing, the 2 老板娘s eagerly set down to conceptualise their stall and what to sell (with some inputs from their creative and helpful parents, us lah!).
And so, they brainstormed at a cafeteria.
They wrote down a list of possible names for their stall. They debated on whether to sell handmade bracelets and necklaces, pre loved toys or their paintings. In the end, they decided that they would sell cute stationery (think smiggle style) and pretty hair accessories. I overheard them saying, “if we can’t sell everything, then we can bring them home and use! yay!!” Duh…. (Priorities, Kids!!) Well, I couldn’t really fault them for their logic. Because if they liked the products enough to want to own them, then so would others..?? So they picked the products (that they liked… they squealed in excitement over the product pictures), debated over the pricing (based on the sale price at their school bookshops and Popular) and finalised the actual quantities they wanted to order.
Most importantly, they decided on who the bosses were. They have already recruited their little siblings to be their sales people and have worked out the wages.
They came up with their logistics list…
And…. their booth design! After lots of discussion, they finalised their uniforms on that day – Pink top (yes, that includes 小小宝贝) and leggings (they compromised on this and allowed 小小宝贝 to wear jeans).
What’s next? Wait for their goods to arrive, take stock and pack them nicely.
SO… If you are looking for activities during the March holidays…..
Do come down to Sentosa, Palawan Beach area on next Thursday 16 March 2-7pm. Come and patronise our booth! The girls (and boy) will be selling cute stationery and hair accessories at very affordable prices. And part of the proceeds will be donated to Charity! Look out for our little bosses dressed in pink tops and leggings (or jeans)!
Be there or BE SQUARE!
Cheers!