Grace Dislikes School..

She's going through a phase where she dislikes school..  

Every morning, she will not fail to try her luck. 

- My teacher say today is a school holiday..

- My teacher say today no need to go to school..

- Today my stomach is pain, can i don't go to school?

- Can i go to work with you today?

- Can i don't go to school today because i love you mummy.. 

When asked why she doesn't likes school, she always tells me they do boring stuffs in school like learn to write A, I, O, P, 1, 2, 3 (ok, maybe is my fault.. But she attended 2 years of pre-school prior to this, so she already is all done with those alphabets and numbers.. She's now into doing additions, mind games and challenging puzzles etc at home when the rest of her classmates are still stuck at ABC and 123, so maybe it explains why she finds school boring and slow.. )

Half of me wants to pull her out of school because i fear she will end up hating school if i don't.

Another part of me feels that there has to be a routine for her because when she heads to P1, she has to go thru school even thou she may not like it. 

Another reason is also because she cannot be stuck at home the whole day wasting time.. She needs to go school and mix around with other kids of her age and play with them..

So what do you think i should do? 

I do know of some parents whose kids to skip pre-school altogether and only attends enrichment programs. But i am not a SAHM where i have the luxury of coaching her the whole day..  I will have to return to work next week and may even have to work late on weekdays, so she might end up being all alone at home if i take her out of school completely.. 

Ok.. Am in dilemma..  Throw suggestions at me please!!.. :D

2 Little Monkies = 1 Big Plan

Something big is brewing..

If you don't cooperate with me.. I'll kiss you till you do!!

*Bleh* How?? U going to change your mind?? :P

She's Growing Up Way Too Soon!!

My baby is growing up too FAST!!

Her at 3.5 years old..

Monkies and their Master Pieces

Since i isn't able to bring the monkies out on most days, so bought some art pieces for them to keep them busy.. Howeve, Nick isn't very patient, nor interested in crafts, so Grace end up doing almost everything.

Nick with his froggie photo frame.

Grace with her car photo frame.
Grace with her cat sitting on her head. She did it at the art class..
Grace and her little lamb which she did at art class too!!

Grace painted the Santa..

She also do up the foam crafts..

She did this cute paper bag puppet..

While Nick did this "crossed eyed" lion..

That perhaps summaries what kept them busy this whole school holiday.. :)

The Strawberry Shortcake Show @ Centrepoint

The 2 younger monkies been stuck at home almost all school holiday cos mummy is so so busy with work.

Finally, was able to apply leave last Friday at the 11th hour to bring Grace to catch the Strawberry Shortcake show at centrepoint!

The "important" sticker that we had to start Q-ing from 11am. Show only starts at 1pm. :P For the 2 hours in the Q, Grace never stop asking me what time is the Strawberry Shortcake coming out.
The happy monkie with her "precious" sticker..
Here she is with that 1 precious photo with Strawberry Shortcake.

Grace and Her Tutu..

Finally.. My notti princess is willing to put on the tutu, but only for a mere 5 mins..

Never Mind, that 5 mins is enough to send me flying over the moon!!!

The Hand-Made Tutu

Who ever says all princesses likes tutu?? Tsk tsk..

Mine, for sure, is one who hates it.. Who cares even if mummy made a trip down to spotlight and buy the stuffs then, stay up till 5am just to complete it.. *sob sob*

See her look when i forced her to put it on??

The Big Bully is a Scary-Cat too!!

We watched the NDP live at the padang again! And, this time, she didn't use the flag and cover her head / eyes anymore..

She just simply burst out into tears and tried to cry louder than the fighter planes.. After the first one that flew by, she insist i have to carry her and help her to cover her ears while she hugged her head.

After the segment, i asked her about her fears and she says it was so loud and near her that she was afraid that the will drop on her head!

Kids.. Simply adorable!!

This School, That School..

You perhaps cannot understand how can i ever be so impressed with a Kindergarten. 

I took what Grace learnt in school for granted.. I felt that since we are paying arms and legs for Shichida Kindergarten, the amount they have taught to her was value for money.  She's usually ahead of her peers in childcare be it her speech or her motor skills.  

Since the previous childcare Nick and Grace was in was dirt cheap, i thought that they would at least do some good job in teaching sufficient stuffs if not more. 

Well, it isn't so. 

At first i thought the childcare was facing shortage of teachers problem, so i sent Nick for enrichment classes. The other reason i thought was, Nick is a slow learner. 

Well, now am thinking otherwise.. I think the childcare has short changed the kids!! 

It's week 4 since Nick started this current kindergarten, and, 

1. Instead of like the childcare had said, 1-20.. This kindergarten is doing 1-100.  

2. Nick is spelling words, reading and writing! And not just going on and on with phonics sounds only!

3. He's reading and writing chinese words unlike in the childcare, he never knew how to read and write a single word!

Damns, what have they been doing in childcare all these while?  How much more is he supposed to know but dunno because they aren't taught to him in childcare? DARNS!

I am not Kiasu! So Not Kiasu!!  Just ranting!!

Desaru Fun! (Dated 3 July)

It was out of the blue that hubby and me decided to head up to Desaru! Friday morning we talked bout it, and Saturday, the whole family headed out to Desaru! Yes.. That's almost how impromptu our trips are!!

Us on our way there.. 

Arrived!! Finally.. After the 2.5 hours drive.. 

Hubby and me in the van at the Fruit farm.. Picture taken by Grace.. Not bad hor!

The fruits at the farm..

The Koi pond in the farm..

The mini zoo in the farm!

Us at the Ostrich farm.

Happy 45th Birthday Singapore!

It's still a bit early, since it's neither Singapore's Birthday nor Nick's Birthday yet! But well, by chance, some unknown Mr Nice sms-ed me by mistake telling his friend he has some 2 tickets for the preview for him. :P I asked if i could have them since none of the monkies had watched the NDP live before!  And he offered the tickets to us instead..  Not only did he offer the tickets to us, he offered us 4 tickets!! :) Of cos, he made my day and he made me so thrilled that i simply forgotten i needed 5 tickets instead of 4.. Haha.. How could i ever be so BLUR!! 

Nevertheless, while we were leaving home to catch the parade preview, Grace cried buckets when she came to know that she will be left behind.. After much pleading and crying, we decided to try our luck at the door. 

Count us damn lucky!!  Luck didn't only strike us once, but TWICE!! At the entrance, we were told that only 4 could enter the parade preview since we only had 4 tickets and another hunk saved our day.. He had 2 tickets but he only needed 1 to enter.. So we gotten the extra ticket from him and head into the padang for the preview.. :P 

* In the pictures, you see both Nick and Grace opening their mouths so big cos they were screaming at the top of their voices when the hear National Day songs that they knew how to sing! Machiam so proud being part of the parade!!

* In the last picture, you see Grace taking the flag and cover her face, that's because she was so scared by the fighter planes and mummy was too busy telling Nick to watch, taking pictures that i didn't get the chance to hear her telling me she's scared!  So in order to prevent herself from crying, she took the flag and cover her eyes hoping that by not seeing them = not scared! Made us laughed till our tears rolled up while we were looking thru all the pictures!

 

A Baking cum Movie Date with Best Friends and Kids!

It first started with a movie date.. i 'chio-ed' a few girlfriends with kids to catch Toy Story 3. Then, auntie Irene came out with this idea of meeting up before the movie for a little baking session with the kids.. 

So, this came about.. 

Grace mixing her nutella into her cup-cake..

Nick and Ernice.. 

Hiroshi..

It was supposed to be a kid's baking session, not too sure why auntie Xtine was busy "digging" the nutella.. 

Auntie Irene, our baking "instructor"..

Then, auntie Xtine busy writing her name on the cupcakes.. 

Auntie Jen and Jake were also busy filling their cuppies..

Our cuppies are almost ready to go into the oven..

While waiting to put the cuppies into the oven, Nick and Grace were busy taking pictures of each other..

The cuppies are BAKED!! The "fruits" of their labour!!

After that was the movie date which we had forgotten to take pictures cos it was super chaotic.. Never in my life had i gone to the movies with over 20 people.. :P 

The date was fun.. We should do this again real soon!!.. :)

An Impromptu Trip to KL (Dated June 2010)

It was a normal weekend when we pop by JB so that the monkies could play with their cousins and a family dinner with the in-laws.. 

Grace on the swing

Grace on her get-around-scooter..

After dinner, the monkies refuse to go home.  They claimed that it was a long long time since they stayed at a hotel.. And, it didn't take long for daddy to decide that we are heading to KL for a short weekend trip!  With no clean clothes in tow (except the monkies PJ since we had plans to deposit them with in-laws so that hb and me could catch a movie), we had to pop by a local mall to get what we needed before heading up to KL.

A 4 hour drive up, we arrived around 11ish, ate supper and pop into the hotel for check-in without a reservation. The only thing we could do was keep our fingers and toes crossed, hoping they have rooms, otherwise, we will be hotel hopping around the town, looking for a room.. :P

After check-in, the monkies instantly dozed off after changing into their PJ..  

The next morning, lil monkie woke up, EXCITED!! 

Then, they declare they wanted to go for a SWIM, but it was too early. The pool wasn't opened yet, and even if it did, the water would be too freaking COLD! 

So, the 2 monkies ended up "swimming" in the bath tub.. 

So cute hor.. I heart this picture.. Nick's head here look double the size of mei-mei's one..