家教

This evening, Keston woke up from his nap all flustered as my parents' maid was in my house. He's normally quite friendly with her, but he gets pretty disoriented when he wakes up and doesn't quite like anything out of the norm. So he was crying away and I had to calm him down by asking him if he wanna go Gai gai. I'd actually thought of bringing him to BPP to shop/walk. But cos he woke up so late-- nearly 6pm, I thought we'd just roam around downstairs.

Who knows, he kept pulling me towards the guard house aka main entrance and saying "Kai Kai". I had no idea he knew gai gai means to go OUT!! We seldom use the word gai gai, especially not when we were really going out. Anyway, to distract him...I thought I'd detract him to the playground. He had a blast at the playground, although he's still not willing to play with other kids especially those around his age. There were 2 older kids (looked to be around p1 age)--a girl and a boy, hanging around and they were the only ones he didn't mind standing next to. Not on purpose lah, just that when he wants to play with something and they're standing nearby, he will still go. Whereas if there was another kid standing near the slide, he wouldn't go near at all.

The sky was turning dark and all the kids had left the playground, but Keston refused to go home. The squash court was nearby and he must have seen the aforementioned 2 kids going in with their beach ball...or maybe he heard the 'Pong Pong Pong' sound so he dragged me to the squash court. I glanced in and saw the 2 kids and another older boy throwing and kicking the beachball around the court. The door was closed, so I sat down on a bench at the side while Keston stood at the door (closed) watching them play, occasionally turning to me smiling and going "Kick ball", and then just watching intently.

Awhile later, I heard 1 of the kids saying "Why is that boy watching us?" I didn't take any notice as we were outside of the court and K was harmlessly doing nothing. A couple of seconds later, the girl came out and said loudly "Excuse me!" Thinking she was harmless, I replied nicely "Yes?" And her reply astounded me.
"Can you tell him (Keston) to stop disturbing us?"
And then she stomped back into the court before I could say anything.

Keston was clueless and did not know what happened, but continued smilingly watching the ball bounce around. I was stunned. Firstly, Keston did not do a single thing to them. He did not even make a sound. How had he disturbed them? Secondly, I could not believe that a young child will talk to an adult like that!

While these thoughts were fleeting in my mind, the girl came out once more and repeated her command "CAN YOU STOP DISTURBING US?" I couldn't even believe that it had happened the first time, and it was happening a second time. Within the same minute! I was so mad, I think I said something like "EXCUSE ME? HOW IS HE DISTURBING YOU? WHAT IS HE DOING TO YOU? CAN YOU EXPLAIN TO ME HOW HE HAS DISTURBED YOU?"
She looked abit (just a tad bit) flustered and she staggered back muttering "Ok Ok Ok". Not an apologetic OK, but more like a oh-whatever OK.

I'm not even a confrontational person normally, but this incident got me so pissed off that you can actually see steam coming out of my ears. Only after I went home, then I realised I should have asked to speak to her mother or ask her what school she goes to...or I dunno, anything! What are kids becoming these days? Could it be true that parents are so caught up in the rat race that there is no such thing as 家教 anymore?

Kindergarten Confirmed

I know I'm cutting it abit fine for my 1 blogpost a week resolution. My last post was the beginning of last week and this comes at the end of this week :P I don't even have anything in particular to blog about!!!

Anyways, we have registered Keston for MCI Kindergarten. Hopefully it all goes well!

Pre-school search starts...

At the end of last term, we started discussing if we wanted to let K continue with BJG next year or to ease him into his future as-yet-unchosen kindergarten's N1 class. After a quick browse in the area and comparing pros and cons, we decided that K will continue with BJG for another year and go straight to N2 thereafter.

The pros of transferring to a kindergarten:
1. Much cheaper
2. Let him get used to a new environment earlier since he's gonna end up there anyway

Cons:
1. His nightmares will probably start again
2. Morning crying for at least a month
3. Shorter schooling hours
4. Odd schooling hours (by our standards)

As I'm quite insistent that K goes to a church kindy, we checked out the only 2 down the road--

1. Bt Panjang Methodist Church Kindy
Prior to visiting, I'd read good academic reviews from current/ex-students' parents....and because it's based in a methodist church, I'd more or less decided I WANT THIS. On site, the location was, well...quite dreary. Can't blame them as the church building is rather old. The decor is pretty dated and dark. HW hated it and was like No No No...so gloomy! But academic reviews are good! On the downside, you have to be toilet-trained before entering (which our dear friend isn't)...and you have to be 30months before starting school. Which means, K can only start in February. The fees are quite reasonable, being about half of what we're paying now. It's a 3hrs programme. With all that's said and done, it is FULL. We are like #30something on the waitlist.

2. St Joseph's Church Kindy
Now this place is HUGE and AIRY and looks really really nice! The playgrounds look fun and there's ample place to run around. I've also read pretty good reviews on this place, mainly about how nice and spacious it is. I must say I was pretty sold on the place. Plus, you don't have to be toilet trained and you don't have to be a full 30months to start! The morning session's full though, but there's space in the 2nd session, which is fine by me. The fees are about $200 more than the previous kindy (but still less than what we're currently paying). Then comes the negative part. The first, glaring thing that concerned me is that the school compound faces a graveyard!! Apparently there is a graveyard within the church...and it's smack like 50metres in front of the front facing of the kindergarten section. Kids are more err...in tune with their err...senses. So I'm not sure it's such a good idea. Then, the programme is a mere 2.5hrs. So after getting over the crying bit, there mightn't be that much time left for other stuff? Also, this school advocated playing over learning. I know this is a plus point for alot of parents..but I personally prefer more learning to take place in school.


As a parent, I take precedence in the academic value of a school. HW, on the other hand, was only concerned that the place looks nice & fun. So we were split on our views. I wanted Bt Panjang Methodist...and HW wanted St Jo. In the end, obviously my view counted more....and since Bt Panjang had no vacancies...we decided to enroll him in N2 the following year. We'd continue with BJG, or so we thought...

Yesterday after picking up K, teacher Stella asked us in for a chat. I was thinking "Uh Oh! Keston got into a fight!" She was so solemn that alarm bells were ringing in our heads. Then it turned out that the school will not be operating the playgroup anymore next year. So this will be our last term there. (And we just bought a new uniform!!!!)

And so begins our frantic search for K's new future school. There's a church near where the in-laws stay and recently we've noticed that they've also got a kindy within. It's pretty near our place...but I wasn't that keen cos it's really near the ils. Anyway, we decided to check it out today.
3. The Methodist Church Of The Incarnation (MCI) Kindy
Not so keen on the name either :P As there were some renovations going on, we took forever trying to find our way in...and then we walked round and round without managing to find the office. The place is quite big (not as spacious as St Jo) and there are ALOT of students. We found out their full capacity is 170 and they're nearing full cap. K doesn't need to be toilet trained. There is still a couple of vacancies for the morning session and also for the 2nd session. Plus points first, the church/kindy is undergoing renovations at the end of the year so everything will be spanking new when we start N1 next year. There will be proper classrooms for the N1 and N2 (right now, they are partitioned using little walls/shelves. Only the K1/K2 have proper classrooms). The bathrooms will be new. There will be a new outdoor playground. Basically, the keyword is NEW. The school will be fully air-conditioned with options to be non-airconditioned when there is an epidemic. They haven't had any closure due to HFMD as yet. The fees are abit more than what St Jo is charging but it is a 3 hours programme. Also, ALL except 1 of their teachers are locals.

For now, based on what's available and what we've seen...it seems that MCI kindy is the way to go. I'm still being stubborn, and hoping for more choices to drop our way. But if I procrastinate too long, I'm sure they won't have anymore vacancies already :P

Bad sleeping habbits

I've always envied mummies whose kids sleep before 10...9 even! K is a habitual late sleeper. I guess part of the problem is due to the fact that by the time we get home and bathe (myself and then him), it's already almost 10pm. He'll take his last milk feed on the bed and then roll around until he falls asleep. It used to be around 10.30pm up till a month+ ago.

Since a month or 2 ago, he started getting up to a whole heap of nonsense before sleeping. He'd insist that i turn on the light by pulling me to the light switch and going LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT, except he articulates as HEIGHT HEIGHT HEIGHT. And then he'd fumble at the door knob and 谢 谢 until I open the door to let him out. He'd then look for his Daddy and get him to bring in a toy, and then 2...and then 3! It was slightly ridiculous at first as he wouldn't stop playing until we all laid down on the bed with him. At that time he was sleeping after 12 midnight!

After awhile, he started 'stabilising' to 3 toys each night. It's always the same 3 toys. First, it will be a book....next, his doctor set...and lastly, his Hot Wheels set. We couldn't stop him from playing his toys...so we started limiting him to 5 minutes each toy and gradually to 1 minute. By then, he was just going through the motion of emptying the toys on the bed and then putting them back into the packaging/box!

But for the past few days, he's miraculously stopped asking me to turn on the light after his milk...and he's stopped asking to go out to get his toys. Although he's still sleeping at 11-12....it's a lot less tiring than having to keep getting up to open the door (because he insists on shutting the door everytime he goes in and out of the room).

I was very pleased with this improvement and rewarded him with a sticker for his sticker book. Last night, I made the mistake of showing him a new Thomas book we bought and he insisted on bringing into the room. But he didn't insist on turning on the light so he just fumbled around with it in the dark and gave it to me shortly. Again, I was pleased that he's become more 懂 事 ...but after 15mins of not falling asleep, he suddenly grabbed the book again and went LIGHT LIGHT LIGHT. Uh-oh!

Instead of turning on the light, I told him "Do you remember Mummy gave you a sticker today? Cos you were so good the last few nights, you went to sleep without all your nonsense....Do you still want to be a good boy? Do you still want a sticker tomorrow?" Surprisingly, he looked at me solemnly, handed over the book and laid down again!!

A blog post a week

I'm resolving to blog more.
A post a day would be pushing it...so I'm gonna aim for once a week instead. Let's see how long it lasts :P