Aaron's 1st homework

LSK doesn't give homework until the kids get to K2, and then also, it's only Chinese writing once a week. This is Aaron's first homework, done on his own, supervised by his big sister.

Nadine's first 听写

Nadine's first 听写 and she did absolutely well for a subject that she keeps saying is boring! Proud of her!

Aaron's "mother and children" portrait

Aaron drew this - mummy holding Jie-Jie's hand, and pregnant with him!

River Safari on 1 Jan 2016

On the first day of the year, we went to River Safari - one of the kids' favourite place.

It was a nice cool day, and the place was surprisingly not too crowded. We even managed to get some decent shots with Kai Kai.

We also took the river cruise. Didn't see very much, but it was nice and relaxing.

But what Nadine enjoyed the most, was reading the signs about the animals, mammals and fish.

English processor

As Jie-Jie picks up more Chinese in school, and practises them at home, Aaron has also been inspired to speak a bit more Mandarin, especially to Ma-Ma. The other day, Daddy suggested to him that they converse more in Mandarin to help Aaron improve his Chinese, and he replied:
"But I can't think in Chinese!"

So logical yet so funny! That is exactly why so many Enlish-educated people have difficulties with Chinese - because they think in English, and translate those English thoughts into Chinese, and thus they sometimes come out sounding retarded and silly.

What this little man says can sometimes really amaze us!

Aaron starts swimming lessons

For the whole of last year, I kept asking Aaron when he'd like to start swimming lesson, and his answer was always "not yet". Every now and then, I'd ask him if he would start swimming lessons when he turns 5, and he would say "ok" reluctantly.

So when I popped the same question again in the 3rd week of January, I was really surprised that he said "yes" within any second thoughts.

We don't believe in forcing the kids to go for any enrichment classes that they don't like nor enjoy. But swimming is an exception. It is a life skill that I want the kids to pick up as early as possible. I was really happy that Nadine loves the water like a fish since young. Aaron had not been as adventurous with water and had been very resistant to swimming lessons, even though he tags along for Jie-Jie's classes every week. I sure hope he starts enjoying the classes, and enjoying swimming like Nadine does!

Aaron's prophetic art

Aaron's class in Children Church did prophetic art a few Sundays ago, and he decided to "draw" something for Daddy ...

Nadine turned 7

It's always a bit of a stress to organise Nadine's birthday parties, because her birthday is so early in the year, and just after a busy December period. This year is even more challenging because I had a business trip the week of her birthday. So I negotiated with her to have a small celebration with 4 friends of her choice. 

She decided to invite 2 boys and 2 girls from her kindergarten - Yingzhe, Jaeden, Carisse and Kaitlyn. Unfortunately, Kaitlyn injured herself and couldn't come.

The kids had fun catching up over lunch, and playing at Happy Willow after that. The parents also had a good time exchanging P1 stories, and sharing our common gripe about how P1 has changed our lives - that we now have even less time for ourselves as we need to coach our kids with their P1 work.

As her birthday fell on a Monday, we held the birthday celebration a day earlier, on Sunday. And I now realised that had confused Nadine. She now thinks that her birthday for "this year", is 10 January, despite the fact that we bought another cake to celebrate with her on the actual day. I think she's confused with birthday and birthday celebration.

Nadine roller-blading

Nadine's been wanting to learn how to roller-blade. So Daddy decided to buy her a pair of roller blades for her 7th birthday. She was so happy and excited.

She had absolutely no fear nor inhibitions. Managed to walk around with the blades the moment she put them on. But will definitely need more coaching and practising to be able to blade properly.

Nadine in Primary 1

Nadine has been in Primary 1 for a month now.

As expected, she's adapted really well, although her first day didn't go too well. She had been nursing a cough, and had threw up some phlegm in class. So during recess, her form teacher actually came looking for me in the crowd of anxious parents, and asked me to take her home.

I think besides not feeling well, she was also suffering from a bit of a culture shock - all that seriousness in class, with no more song and dance, and the loooong hours, were a bit too much for her. It took quite a bit of persuasion from both us to get her to agree to go back to school the next day.

With her good friend from LSK, Carisse

The other highlight of her first week in primary school was her going to complain to her principal about a P2 girl who had said that all the girls in her class were ugly! Apparently the principal had just taught the girls during assembly to be nice to each other, and not to say anything rude to one another. Principal also told the P1s that they could go to her anytime. So Nadine took her literally! Think she was so used to her LSK principal who was so approachable!

Well, hopefully, she'll not keep going to see the principal, for good or bad, in her 6 years there!