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Which GEP School was XXBB Posted to?

Which GEP School was XXBB Posted to?

The destructive force tied a knot in my straw. 😑

And so, it is now year 2023 and the school term has started. I am receiving messages from everyone asking me which GEP school had XXBB been posted to. Well, he is now… back in his old school. This entire GEP school picking journey felt like a roller coaster ride which ended back at the starting point.

We didn’t expect him to qualify for the GEP.

At the very beginning, we had never expected him to get through round 2 of the GEP exams. When we received the notification that he had been selected for the program, I had to admit that I was feeling really surprised and proud of him, for I have known parents who had sent their kids to GEP preparation courses just to get them selected for the program and he had zero preparation.

He didn’t want to leave his current school.

He was elated that he was selected but he was not keen to leave his school because he was perfectly happy there with his friends, favourite cca and having lots of time to pursue his sports interest.

M : Eh, since you don’t want to go GEP, then why did you go for round 2 and even did well in it.

XXBB : Because you said I needed to do my best for everything, right?? And after that I get more choices and I can decide what I want. I wanted to see if my brain could stretch enough for it. (Hmm… ok, he just regurgitated what I said to him ever so often. Must praise him arh??)

M : Why don’t you just try? The program is very interesting and you wanted to stretch your brain right???

Brainwashing began…

I was trying to “brainwash” him into going for GEP in the 2 days before I left for Korea. The hub continued by showing him the video and sharing how interesting the program was. Finally, he agreed to give it a shot. I was tasked to do homework on the GEP schools and present them to the bosses (what to do? I was at the bottom of the hierarchy. Even had to work on my holiday trip… zzz) So I messaged and spoke to friends and family members who had kids in the program (yes!! FROM KOREA!!!) and presented the pros and cons of the program and various schools to the bosses. (Pro right?!) They discussed and picked the schools together and submitted the form.

Change of mind.

One week before the school posting, he suddenly informed us that he wanted to stay in his current school. For the entire week, we tried to get him to change his mind even until the day the posting was announced. He stood his ground.

Was it really for him? Or for me?

It was such a pity to give up on the program which was so highly coveted for. I had to take a step back and ask myself, was it really for him or for me? I don’t deny that I was really proud that he made it to the program on his own and I would have wanted to go if I were the one to choose. But at the end of the day, I had to remind myself umpteen times that he wasn’t me and what we wanted was different. It took me quite a while to come round to the fact that he really didn’t want to go and i shouldn’t impose my will on him.

Rejection of the offer.

We wrote to the MOE to reject the offer and also to the school principal that he wanted to stay and hoped that his place hadn’t been given away. The principal assured us that he could stay and would be back in his current class.

Back to square one. Look on the bright side.

So, yes, he is staying in his current school. I try to look on the bright side that now I have more “me” time because I don’t need to do so much free Grab driving to ferry him across the island and I have even arranged car pooling with 2 other parents to take turns to ferry them to table tennis training. And XXBB announced that instead of using extra time to figure out the GEP stuff, he can now play table tennis every waking hour.

Oh, that is why I have time to blog now. Because today is not my car pool duty day!

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!

Tiring Out the Destructive Force Part 4

Tiring Out the Destructive Force Part 4

He was left alone while daddy was working and I was going through 姐姐‘s papers.

Hmmm… it’s too quiet… I get worried when it gets too quiet. The last time he went all quiet, I saw water gushing out from the toilet door gap. He flooded his room toilet. 😑

I’d better go up and see what’s left of the living room.

Waaa!! Surprise!!

When gadgets, computers and TVs are removed from the equation, the kid automatically starts playing with the old forgotten toys and board games. It’s good to go gadget free. Looks like his addiction is waning, he’s stopped crying for the computer. 💪🏼

My HBL Life

My HBL Life

When I’m not busy preventing one kid from 拆房子, I’m marking past year science and maths papers of the other.

Tween refused to let me take photo of her doing homework. 😪 so can only post her ugly handwriting on exam paper.

It’s even worse if I lose the answer key. 😩 Then I’ve to do the whole exam paper from page to page!!! Macham taking PSLE several times. 😓 Such is my life. #sadlife

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!
WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

#hbl #baobei #psle #exampapers

Tiring out the Destructive Force Part 2

Tiring out the Destructive Force Part 2

Today’a goal : getting him out of the house and working off excess energy.

7.30am (Only… Sigh…)

I did my 20 mins of swimming while they played catching or monkey or whatever in the pool. Then I was roped in to play Marco Polo, catching, piggy, one leg hop fight, monkey (a lot of animals here…practically the whole zoo).

We had the whole pool to ourselves until 9am when people started arriving to use it.

Ran home to avoid the crowd.

Only 9am. Shit… what else to do. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Short Swim... Huff and Puff!
Short Swim… Huff and Puff!
Check out my little ears!
Check out my little ears!
Cheeky-up-to-no-good smile
Cheeky-up-to-no-good smile

9.30am

The whole family took turns to keep him occupied in the morning.

Playing Chinese Chess with 姐姐
Playing Chinese Chess with 姐姐

姐姐 played a few rounds of Chinese chess with him. It’s so hard to post pictures of the tween nowadays. She refuses to pose and when she does, she bans me from posting it on social media. Sigh.

Tween would only let me take her side view photo.
Tween would only let me take her side view photo.

Very aggressive play… ate up many of 姐姐‘s pieces…

Aggressive play by XXBB
Aggressive play by XXBB

姐姐 needed to do her psle revision. Passed him over to Daddy. They played so many rounds that he got sick of the traditional one.
“Eh! Your pieces are not set up properly!”
“Haha! I just invented a new way of playing. We can set it up any way we want to counter the opposite player.” Ok…. #playuntilnothingtoplay 🤦🏻‍♀️

His own way of playing chess
His own way of playing chess
Making funny faces
Making funny faces

It’s not even lunchtime yet. This is going to be a looooong day!

Late afternoon… (his usual gaming/tv time)

Reality has finally set in! Now he’s 生不如死!Feeling very Cham and sorry for himself. #repentance

Feeling sorry for himself
Feeling sorry for himself

He’s happy again. No computer gaming + no tv = play board game. He’s generally a very happy kid. Figuring that there’s no way around his punishment, he decided that he might as well keep himself happy playing games. He’s occupied until dinner time…

Happily playing board games
Happily playing board games

I predict that we will go through all the drama again tomorrow. Meanwhile, happy board gaming!

Chronicles of the Destructive Force Part 1

Chronicles of the Destructive Force Part 1

The destructive force swept through my house like a hurricane. Within 1 week of HBL, he’s broke :

  • the Angel of Hope I carefully brought back from the States. He was hitting his table tennis balls in the house and it knocked it off the display shelf and beheaded it. I was hopping mad. He tearfully emptied his entire piggy bank of $35 and borrowed $22 from Daddy (to be paid back in instalments of $2 per week) to buy one off EBay.
  • all these table tennis balls. I’ve absolutely no idea how he managed to crack them up like this. That’s why he’s named the destructive force.
  • a Gaudi display mug that’s twice his age. I was bathing when he did it so I’d absolutely no idea what he did. When I came down, he was 罚站 in a corner in the living room. Unable to find it online for him to buy it and go into further debt. Do not be mistaken that he’s crying out of remorse. He’s agonised because he’s had his computer game and tv rights removed for 1 month.
The Beheaded Angel of Hope
The Beheaded Angel of Hope
Pulverised Table Tennis Balls
Pulverised Table Tennis Balls
Feeling sorry for himself because of the ban. Picking up the shattered pieces of my beautiful Gaudi cup. T.T
Feeling sorry for himself because of the ban. Picking up the shattered pieces of my beautiful Gaudi cup. T.T

At the rate he’s going, I won’t have a house left by the end of HBL. 😩

#hbl #sigina #xiaoxiaobaobei #destructiveforce #angelofhope #gaudi #tabletennis

Tiring Out the Destructive Force Part 1

Tiring Out the Destructive Force Part 1

When the kid starts running around in the house, breaking my precious limited edition figurines, he gets sent out to do skipping. To work off excess energy!!

Oh have you finished skipping? Hmmm… go and do one-legged skipping. Yes. 1-legged. Shoo shoo!

What else can I make him do after this??? 🤔😩

#hbl #covid19 #destructiveforce #skipping

Ming and the Piano

Ming and the Piano

He proudly showed us his result slip. “I’ve got perfect score! Only 3 people in 2 classes got it!” “Huh! So easy arh! Your examiner must have been very lenient.” He didn’t take offence. Probably was in a super good mood 🤣 Or he didn’t hear me. 🤭

The good thing was… he dropped the idea of stopping lessons.

“Mommy, if I’m too busy, the first thing I want to stop is Yamaha.” “Aiya you only practise 5 mins every day. How much time will you save?? 5 mins??” “Nooo! I practise 15 mins every day ok! Not 5 mins!!!” “Ok lor. You save 15 mins every day. What would you do with this extra 15 mins?? Watch Netflix?? Anyway 15 mins a day can get you good results, what’s your problem huh?” “Ok ok. Don’t make me practise more than 15 mins!” 🙄

Extremely satisfied with his perfect score!
Extremely satisfied with his perfect score!

#sigina #foreverbargaining #yamaha

HBL exercise – Cycling

HBL exercise – Cycling

Our morning exercise today – cycling!! Our tyres were totally flat because we hadn’t cycled for quite a long while. Had to get air into those tires. puff puff

Pumping flat tyres
Pumping flat tyres

宝贝 decided to go for a neighbourhood walk with Daddy. So it’s just the 2 of us. Spent too much time getting ready (hunting for pump, pumping tyres, getting gear ready etc), didn’t have much time for the actual ride. Or we would be late for the next item on the timetable.

We are ready for the ride! Finally!
We are ready for the ride! Finally!

As usual, the ride just had to pass through the neighbourhood playgrounds. Highlights of ride – playgrounds.

Riding along the PCN
Riding along the PCN
The proper way to cross a traffic junction - Stop and check for traffic!
The proper way to cross a traffic junction – Stop and check for traffic!
Compulsory stop - playground!
Compulsory stop – playground!

Watching Monkey Ming wriggle up and down the poles…

I spy, with my little eye, a monkey on the pole!
I spy, with my little eye, a monkey on the pole!
A long way from ground...
A long way from ground…

Ok! It’s time to scram! Other kids are coming to the playground!!

Our extremely short ride...
Our extremely short ride…

#hbl #xiaoxiaobaobei #cycling #playground