The Apple's Diary!

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...

Am I talking about medical certification or commonly known as medical leave? Nope, the MC here refers to MindChamps. This brand has been part of our life since 2013 March. Could the preschool our boys in have been better? Yes and No. How the story unfolds later on is something we have not expected. Yesterday evening, we sent our boys for a free MindChamps reading and writing assessment. You ask why, since they are already in the MindChamps preschool and this enrichment is already covered. Yes, it is included in their curriculum. But we have never had a clear indication on Jon's progress. Hence, I took advantage of the voucher that was given by MindChamps when I attended at lunch talk conducted by them in my company. As suspected, Jon is behind his rightful level. There could be 2 reasons to explain that. First, he really doesn't know. Second, he doesn't have the confidence to even attempt the question. So while the assessor - a lady sent from HQ, explained how the asse...

On Monday, my colleague texted me to share a dreadful news with me. We were at the tail-end of our staycation and the message threw me and hub into a frenzy mode. The dreadful news : Current preschool would have to relocate by end of next year because the landlord which is JTC has planned to revamp the retail sector of Fusionopolis. The new place would be at Synapse in Biopolis. On first thought, it seemed like a harmless motion but if you had researched a little more, you realised that new location is inconvenient if you need to travel with public transport. So after we checked out from our staycation, we made an impromptu visit to the new branch at West Coast Plaza. You see, we had run through several scenarios which I might to use public transport and the thought of walking the long distance to the nearest MRT station makes me feel faint. The new MindChamps branch at West Coast Plaza is spacious with 7 classrooms, if I remembered correctly. Since it just started operation, ...