Yet another staycation

We did another staycation with the gals over Xmas weekend. This time at Changi Village Hotel. We were supposed to join the CC's KL Kidzania tour but that got cancelled due to poor response. Since it was the Xmas boxing day weekend, it is difficult to make alternative travel plans without paying super inflated rates so we decided on another staycation again. Our 3rd one in this last quarter. But the last time we stayed at Changi village hotel was in 2010 during our photoshoot with the gals with Bambini. Our maid was still around back then. A lot of changes at the hotel now. The Retreat spa has moved so they are taken over by Stella Wellness Centre. Really not as good. Rooms are refurbished but I can't really tell the difference.

It rained the whole of Day 1. So we ended up taking the free hourly shuttle to the airport for some respite. The gals did the Mickey Clubhouse Bouncy castle so they were happy. Day 2, the weather was good so hb brought the gals to the roof top pool while I got to enjoy a 45mins massage. We went cycling after that since we were given free 1 hr bike rental. But it started raining after just half a hour. zzz.


Day 3 we brought the gals to the pool again. Then showered and had lunch before checking out at 3pm. This time we tried a lot of eateries that I have been wanting to try. Jacobs café, our old favourite, Chock full of beans and The Coastal Settlement. :)

K2 Graduation Camp and Growing Independent

RA had her K2 camp at cc yesterday. She was excited to go, happily packing her luggage and looking forward to seeing her best friend Caleigh again. I think I had more separation anxieties than her. I wondered if she will be ok. When I heard that she and her classmates were at Swensons Tampines after they watched Penguins of Madagascar the movie, I went to the restaurant and see if I could get a glimpse of her. But the waiter told me that they just went 15 mins ago.

When hb updated me that he saw the whole group outside Starbucks waiting for their transport, I rushed there again. I saw the big coach bus but all the kid were already onboard the bus. Luckily their teacher saw me so I did get to wave bye bye to RA. Hb and I were bringing RL to watch the same movie (since she whined and cried that RA was going on a school camp but she can't), my HP's battery was dead. I especially bought a power bank to charge it on the go so that I won't miss any calls, knowing that the cc teachers will call to inform that the kids have safely reached the school.

This morning when we went to pick her around 830am, she still wanted to play with her friends. I checked with the teacher and she slept quite well from 10pm to 7am. We decided to go for bf and run some errands so that she has more time to catch up with her friends, some who have withdrawn from cc but especially came back for this camp.

Got to admit that RA has grown up. She is quite independent now. Able to go for camps without Mummy being around. She sleeps in her own room now too. Cos RL has finally agreed to give up her baby cot and slept on her own in a big bed on 17 Nov. So, I just need to tuck both gals in bed, close the doors and leave them. So my me time starts much earlier. We have been waiting in the room for them to fall asleep for the longest time. Didn't think there will truly be a day where they can sleep on their own but it has finally happened. Not a myth anymore. Haha.

Raelynn is 5 years old!!!

My little baby has grown so much n today she turned 5. She finally agreed to stop sleeping in her baby cot on 7 November. It has been her security blanket for so many years. Managed to convince her by promising her her own big study table like RaeAnne's.


Since we already celebrated in school last week, we had the whole day to spend with her. More like 2 days cos i planned a staycation n took 2 days leave. It is also dec hols n we are not bringing the gals overseas this hols.

First stop pf our 1 day tour, Daddy's school. Hb has been promising to bring them to vjc for the longest time. But he is too busy during term time n the sch is closed on weekends. The gals are intrigued by the treehouses in the campus but too bad that's under renovation.

Then we went to ECP for some cycling. Was trying to find the V skate board for RL. but the inline skating shop was closed so we cpuld only rent ordinary bikes. Hb n i tried teaching the gals to cycle with little success. Luckily a helpful daddy gave us some v useful tips. Another daddy was not as nice when RL nearly bumped into his son's stationary bike in the middle of the pathway towards the bicycle track. He said we have no right to be there. Grr....

Hot n sweaty, we went to Grand Mercure Roxy hotel to check in n showered the gals. More like a soak in the bath tub. Their all time fav staycation activity. The hotel was nice to upgrade us to deluxe room n give us an extra bed foc.

We were lucky to win some shopping vouchers during our last staycation at Katong Village hot. So we went to Katong V shopping mall for lunch n ice cream. The gals eent to ho2t indoor playground since we had the last 2 play sessions left.

Then we went to PP for dinner n came back for an early night for the gals. The next morning, we went for a swim at the hotel pool. Then we had lunch again at Katong V mall to use up our shopping vouchers before checking out of the hotel. :)

Double Birthday Celebration

Decided to do a combined early birthday celebration for RA and RL at Elfa today. RL's bd is next Tues, 2 Dec while RA's 22 Jan next year. But since it's RA's last year at Elfa and a lot of her K2 friends are withdrawing from cc today, it's a birthday cum mini farewell party.

Raelynn has been having a runny nose and slight cough since Monday. Last night the poor gal woke up to cry cos her nose was blocked despite us giving fedac. So in the end, we brought her to see the doctor in the morning so that she can get better since we don't want to cancel the school party.

Luckily the meds and the nap after helped her so after she woke up, we rushed to get the cake from Bengawan Solo, get the candles and inflate the helium balloons. I bought the helium balloons and goodie bags cheap from taobao. But never expect the helium air per balloon to cost as much as $9 each. But we were rushing to the cc, no time to shop and compare. So lesson learnt. :P

What is the theme for the party this year? What else can it be? Frozen of course. I think the gals probably ate more than 5 frozen cakes from their friends' parties this year already, Lol.
But luckily their classmates didn't mind. The cake was 3kg but the kids nearly finished it. Maybe because it was chocolate cake or maybe because it was tea break time. Anyway, I am glad we don't need to lug the cake back. Just a small portion for Ils to try. :)

Another Milestone for RA - P1 Orientation

Today is RA's P1 Orientation. She reported to the hall at 145pm. When the teacher brought her and her classmates to the classroom and the school tour, mummies and daddies stayed behind to listen to the Principal's speech and watch the various video clips and presentations. RA said she watched a video story, did some colouring in class, and went on the tour of the school.

Today, we found out that recess time for P1 kids is 9am. Lessons end at 130pm. Add another 15 mins for flag lowering, dismissal and walking home, the earliest she can eat lunch is 145pm. Some of the single session schools give a 15mins snack break at 12 o clock for the students to eat something light in the classroom. But Poi Ching does not have this practice. All along they were operating on double sessions.

So myself and another parent gave our feedback but the P said it's fine. They can pack some biscuits in their bags. But if the teacher does not give them an official snack time, the kid will not dare to take the biscuits out of their bags to eat. I think more than 4 hours is too long for 6/7 years old to go without food. Duh.

After the P1 Orientation 2 hr programme ended, the few of us whose kids are in the same class formed a whatsapp chat group. There were 4 gals and 1 boy. Coincidentally, all the gals went to Crestar Ballet before.

Our conclusion is that we cannot give the kids a full bf since they need to eat again at 9am and they need to eat a lot. If not, they cannot last till 2pm for those who stay further away from school. No wonder kids grow skinny after starting primary school. :(

RA's Graduation Ceremony

Today is RA's K2 Graduation Ceremony. She took a long time to memorise the thank you speech in both English and Mandarin but she finally did it. And she delivered the speech beautifully with the rest of her classmates at ITE East College hall today. She walked down the stairs to the stage waving to everyone with the other graduands but it was the furthest from my seat and I was trying to figure out the zoom function of my new camera so I missed it. Shucks!

After she walked to receive her certificate, she threw her mortar board up in the air but made sure it was close enough so that she can retrieve it back easily. She memorised her Speech and Drama item - I love colours and could even tell me that some of her classmates missed our parts. No wonder it sounded messy to me. She practised her dance moves and did everything beautifully not missing any steps. In short, she was great today and I am proud of her as always.

I imagined myself crying at her graduation since I did that for previous years' cc concerts even when she was not the one graduating. Lol. I did cry. But only a little when they played the graduation montage. The rest of the time, I was busy trying to capture the moments, record or take photos of her graduation ceremony so that she can see it without having to wait 1 month for the official dvd.

But seeing all the cute little toddlers turn into K2 graduating children make me feel sad somehow. Where did all the time go? How did my little baby grow up so fast?

Even though I quit my job to be a full time SAHM to spend more time with her when she was 13 months. I was only really a SAHM for 2 years because after that I tried out property, then teaching and now finally back at my ex company for a part time position.

She went to childcare when she was almost 3 years old. I picked Elfa because it has good Chinese foundation and I need her to have a good foundation since we intend to send to the nearest primary school which is a SAP school. Elfa has a half day programme for PN1, PN2. But from Nursery, there were only full day programmes. So she spent 8 hrs daily for N, K1 and K2 except weekends and public holidays. Add all that up, she really spent most of her formative years at Elfa.

Although I feel guilty because I feel I didn't spend enough time with her. What consoles me is that she made good friends at Elfa and she has two best friends who practically grow up with her at CC - Caleigh Au and Calyesta Tan.

Yesterday, the teacher got the kids to do appreciation cards for their best friends. And yes, my quiet gal received only 2 cards but they were from these two friends so they do treat RA as their best friend too. There were petty squabbles before and these are the same two gals who hurt her last year when they say "Don't want to be your friend", "Need to know the secret password for you to be my friend". She forgives and forgets and still treats them as her best friends.

RA is sad that her two best friends are withdrawing from CC after today's concert and they are not going to the same school as her. I hope she will always remember her friends and the fun times she had though I know that she will make new friends in primary school.



Tomorrow is another milestone for her. Her P1 orientation. She is lucky that one of her CC classmates (Jan08 baby) will be in the same class as her at Poi Ching. Her ballet classmate is also in the same class as she is also a Jan08 baby. Primary school will be another 6 years of her life. She will grow from a child to a teenager by the end of that 6 years. We are not withdrawing from cc yet since hb still has to work. School hols for him doesn't start until 2nd week of Dec. That's 3 weeks from now. And we've got a short couple trip in mid Dec. When we return, maybe we will try and let her skip school to give her a break. Unless she wants to go back to Elfa cc to play with her friends. :)

Thanks to all her teachers and friends at Elfa that made the past 4 years of her life so fun and memorable!

P1 Orientation Letter

Really excited. Finally received the P1 Orientation package from Poi Ching School today by post. RA will be in the first class and her house colour is yellow. Quite expected since I know the school allocates classes by the kids' birthday months.

Turns out I actually know of 3 other kids who will be her classmates next year. One is her current cc classmate, another is a neighbour. Both of them are my SMH mummy friends. So lucky that I am already friends with the mummies so we can update and tip one another off about class matters in future. Maybe even set up a whatsapp or line chat group. The third one is RA's ballet classmate. I am not very close to her mummy. Yet.... Lol.

Orientation is from 2-4pm on 14 Nov. There is a booklist included and a School Dental Services form that parents are supposed to fill up. We can start buying books and uniforms 1 week earlier on 8 Nov (Sat). Since Sat is our 'free' day, think we will probably drop by and get the stuff first, in case sizes and stock run out. Yes, the behaviour of a typical KS Singaporean. Haha.

Staycation at Katong Village Hotel

Since hb and I could not take leave for Children's Day, decided to make it up to the kids by bringing them on a staycation. Thanks to Agoda's credit rebates, we only paid $60+ for this staycation. According to my friends, this is the refurbished hotel. Used to Paramount Hotel and there used to be a Chinese restaurant run by Tung Lok.

Didn't bother us since we were there to check out Katong, i12 and maybe visit East Coast Park. When we checked in on Sunday, it was too hot to swim though Raelynn kept asking for it. We walked over to i12 and had lunch. Decided to skip watching a movie since that will take up precious staycation time. Lol.

Then we walked back and checked out the shops at the attached Katong V mall. There was an indoor playground recommended by my friends so we dropped the kids off for 1 hr of play. After that, we passed by a art and craft centre so decided to let the gals do some art and craft and create their own treasure boxes. When we finally hit the pool, it was almost 6pm. Definitely not sunny, but we didn't realise that there was no children's pool. And the only circular pool was 1.2m deep at one end and 1.8m deep at the other end. Definitely too deep for my gals so they were a bit freaked out. Luckily we brought along floats and even made use of the life buoys by the side of the pool.

After a swim, we walked over to the Katong stretch of eateries and ended up at Le Petite café. They serve French food. It was not bad but the gals were too tired to really enjoy their food. So we left immediately after dinner to let them have an early night.

Sleeping was a bit of a problem since I only booked a superior room. So there was only 1 King bed. With RL being a shadow kicker, RA did not get much sleep so I didn't get much sleep either. Luckily it was only for 1 night.

Buffet bf was included and it was not bad. The otah was recommended. They have an eggs and noodles station too. We decided not to take the shuttle bus to the beach since it was hazy. So the gals just had another shot at the indoor playground, it was time to check out. After check out, we walked over to Parkway parade for lunch leaving our car at the hotel. So it was really convenient.

All in all, we like the hotel especially the location. The only complaint was that there was no bathtub in the superior and deluxe rooms and bathtub is a highlight for my kids. Only for the expensive Peranakan room, the guest can get a huge round bathtub in the middle of the room. But that is at double the price of a superior room. Since the gals love staycations, if there are any offers in future, we will come back. :)

Lcentral

Raelynn started having spelling in July and it was tough for her. She did not even recognise all the alphabets from A-Z and definitely did not know her phonics. Spelling is frankly 2 levels above her, cos firstly, she needs to recognise the alphabets, know her phonics, recognise the words before she can spell.

The weekly spelling and the painful coaching by us made me realise that she needs help to catch up to speed for English. Maybe because she is a Dec baby or because she has not been paying attention in class.

I asked around. 'I can read' and 'Learning Point' were recommended but there were no centres in Tampines. A mummy friend recommended 'Lcentral' at CPF building, Tampines. I like it that they were ability based so there will be free assessment for each kid before they are put into a suitable class.

After the assessment which parents get to sit in, RL was assessed to be suitable for the most basic class - Foundation whereas RaeAnne was good for 'Preparing for Success'. In the end, we signed Raelynn immediately. RaeAnne only started last Sunday for Term 4 as there was a new PFS class on Sunday mornings with the same timing as Raelynn. Logistically, it is easier to drop off both kids and we thought it is good to give RA some exposure as well.

Lcentral fees unfortunately are not cheap, $560 per term for each kid so it works out to be almost $200 every month. But we have never given the gals academic enrichment so far. It is more out of necessity because RL cannot catch up with her peers and we don't want the gap to further widen. Hope we can see improvement after 1 or 2 terms then we can cut down on lessons. ;)

Ballet enrichment - Part 2

Ballet coaching started today but RA did not go. Simply because I did not sign her up. Have been asking her for the last month, but she has been saying no to Ballet exam (Primary). She said it's too difficult and her teacher cannot accompany them for the exam. I told her she will have a partner but she does not want to do exams. She just wants the usual Sunday morning ballet class.

Last year she was the one who requested to stop globalart and she was also the one who asked for ballet in May 2013. I tried to persuade her because I felt I should not encourage her to keep changing her mind and giving up when things get tough. After all, she already did the Pre primary ballet exam in April this year and all 4 of her classmates who went for the exam this year have also signed up for next year's Primary ballet exam. In fact, this time, 8 of them signed up. It seemed a waste to stop halfway.

She said she wants to go back to globalart because her cc classmate is there. But GA's Friday lessons clashes with Ballet coaching. So I brought her to globalart yesterday but her friend's class on Friday is full. Even if I sign her up, she won't be in the same class as her friend. So she was not keen.

I don't know if I am making the right decision by letting her skip the ballet exam. So hard to strike the right balance between allowing a child to quit due to lack of interest or just registering her for exams because she needs to learn hard work and commitment. I asked her ballet teacher that RA may not want to do the exam but all her teacher said was "She's still young".

Ok, maybe 6 years old is probably still young for me to force her to commit. I have given her a chance to learn ballet and to take ballet exams. If she forfeits her chance, so be it. Since she is entering primary 1 next year, she will have less time for enrichment. Plus, Her first piano exam will be in March/April 2015 (same timing as ballet exams) so guess we will just concentrate on piano for now.