The Apple's Diary!

December supposed to be my favourite month because of Christmas. Somehow for this December, I'm feeling dismayed. The work pace has not slowed down and there is still a lot of outstanding work to be completed and I'm quite pressed for time. It has also turned out to be a month of unsure, uncertain and a lot of doubts. Unsure - should we move or stay put? The bedroom flooring is giving way. The laminated flooring has started to warp and it is deteriorating with each day. The biggest sore eye comes from the study room which has a bald patch (no thanks to the helper - you can read about the incident here ). Every other day, we would get something that is starting to give way or broken down. Coming to 6th year of stay at this address (since January 2010), it is either we do an overhaul or we move out. The hubby is more keen to shift out. But I'm holding back because there's the primary school to consider, the parental support I rely on during emergency, the convenie

We completed the parents-teachers conference for both boys over the past 2 weekends. This round, the teachers did not prepare any powerpoint slides nor showed us much of their class activities. Instead it was in a free-style format. For the big boy, the Chinese teacher commented that the improvement shown was in leaps and bounds. Overall, the child has gained more confidence, whether in speech or work and even led the class in songs and dance. Even the English teacher who was only with them for 3 months, nodded her head in agreement. His weakness in pronunciation in both English and Chinese still need to work on, pencil grip needs further improvement. The sequence of strokes in writing needed attention too. I was also told that at this stage, it was not advisable to go beyond 5 minutes of writing per session. Something for me to bear in mind as I continue my daily revision with them. I also found out that at N2 level, numeral literacy was limited to 1-20 with no input on addition

We were lucky when we booked our coach tickets to Malacca. There was a 3-day promotion by the Malaysian Tourism Board and we paid $50 per pax for a return trip. Then we managed to book the premier junior suite at Hatten hotel for this trip with breakfast thrown in and access to their premier lounge. So we went last weekend and the boys were cooperative in our coach ride. They napped in the coach on both ways which meant peace, peace and peace. Arriving at Hatten hotel being ushered to the premier lounge at level 12 someone obviously enjoyed himself roomy lavatory to freshen up We dropped our luggages at my mum's suite (since hers was ready) and made our way to the connecting mall for Tang Shi Fu. We were raving about Tang Shi Fu for their superb double boiled soup and delicious healthy dishes at JPO outing during our March Legoland trip. But we had a hard time navigating our way there as the mall directory wasn't very helpful. After asking several

We didn't had much travel this year. It was mainly to Malaysia which we covered the Legoland in March , Genting Highland in July and Malacca in November . The same number of causeway trips equal to the same number of staycation we had this year. We did a staycation during SG50 Jubilee celebration at Carlton. I was hoping by stroke of luck we got to experience fireworks display at near distance. But it turned out to be a disappointment. On National Day itself, the lobby formed a snake queue, all waiting to check in. The hotel car park was full. The husband had to drop us off first with all our luggages and the porter took it away. While queuing half way, the big boy complained his diaper was full and he wanted to change which of course, I didn't have any spare and I had to leave the queue. After a while, I relented and stepped out of the queue to remove his overflown diaper and he had to compromise by wearing back his slightly soiled pants. Once we re-joined the snake

"One Fine Day" mini series #3 - He finally got it! I have been trying for the longest time to get the big boy to colour within the borders of the picture. He didn't have the patience neither the right eye-hand motor skill to control. One day, he asked for the Poli colouring book which he received as part of goodies bags. He started to colour and then he showed me this. first colouring within the borders Woohoo! He finally got it at 4 year 3 months. These few days we started to practice more Chinese character writing which I have to monitor closely to correct his strokes and he has more phonics awareness now. I like to say a word and emphasize on the sound and ask them to make a guess on the letter the word starts with. After a month of sitting down with them daily to go through what they learnt in school helps heap! I also realise that he is starting to work out simple addition and subtraction. Uh oh… the tiger mummy in me starts to think about CMA, MPM et

My shades collection is growing along with my bags collection whilst I'm trying to control myself from acquiring another pair of shoes. Weaknesses of a woman I supposed. My hubby has been getting me a pair of shades every year. Quite an unusual gift, right? Dior, Gucci, Burberry And the shades come in cool boxes as well. 1st pair - Dior The first pair was from Dior. Then Gucci came along. 2nd pair - Gucci I like Gucci best for its design but somehow it just doesn't fit me well. latest addition - Burberry I just got my recent shades from Burberry. This fits me well and I quite like its simple frame while giving me good coverage. summary of my shades And that's me summarising my shady shades story.

"One Fine Day" Mini Series #2 - When books became their 1st Choice I did not expect the boys to make this choice although I had secretly hoped so. One Sunday morning, they woke up but remained quiet in their room. With 2 boisterous boys at home, silence meant they had something up their sleeves. I stopped whatever I was doing and checked on them. This was what I got. reading a "bridge" book following his brother's act The elder one was lying in bed with a book borrowed from library. The younger one followed his brother's act by picking up random book nearby. No doubt they can't read per se , I was glad that they chose books over toys.

"One Fine Day" Mini Series #1 - When we popped by MindChamps Preschool @ Holland Village We finally had the time to drop by MindChamps Preschool @ Holland Village. It was during yesterday lunch hour and decided on this impromptu visit. We are familiar with the Holland Village area so we knew exactly where the school is. For easy referencing, the school is located in the same building as Cold Storage. It took over the cafe 211 (roof top restaurant) premises. We were greeted by the centre Principal. A quick temperature check and sanitising our hands after filled in our particulars, we were led to the outdoor compound. It was huge! The whole school compound was huge! A total of 8 classmates with 3 at the outdoor wing. One was slated to be the reading/ writing program room while the other 2 classrooms were to be for the K1 and K2. Doors to the outdoor playground are locked at all times, even if the children are having playground time. Teachers are to lock the door from insi

It started with seemingly innocent remark on his noodles. Then it escalated to tantrum just because his clothes was slightly wet from washing hands. Soon we saw our elder boy transforming to an incorrigible preschooler that disregards table manners, became disrespectful to the elders and a bully to his younger brother. 2 Sundays ago, he broke my last straw and I decided on the spot that the 2 boys needed to undergo reform training, under no other but yours truly. So what was the "last straw" he did? That weekend, the helper was on her off day, so I cooked some udon as dinner. Upon seeing his bowl of udon, he immediately complained why he was given fat noodles and demanded I cooked again. Fine. Then later on, when I got him to write his name, he complained why his name was so long. That was it! I gave him a long lecture on how he has become, an ingrate brat who didn't know how fortunate he is. Then I banned him and his brother from their toys. Yes, in short, they are

Since the boys are in MindChamps Preschool, the next question people tend to ask would be - do we still send them for other enrichment classes after school hours? The answer is yes. The very first enrichment class the boys had attended was music appreciation. That was almost 2 years ago with Our Music School at Tanglin Mall. We only persevered for 2 terms before we moved on to Right Brain Training with Heguru @ Fusionopolis. Jon had a full year of Heguru in 2014 but we felt that he wasn't ready for their Preschool program so we withdrew him while Matt continued with Heguru. For the elder boy, he has started his Chinese enrichment class since beginning of this year with Berries. We wanted him to have Berries because this would increase the Chinese exposure and environment for him. The initial phrase would see him cry and then we heard teacher's complaint on his lack of revision. So we tried to buckle up but the feel was that he still wasn't good enough. So we tried even