The Apple's Diary!

Moving on to the 2nd Quarter of 2017  with Maid... So it has been a month since she joined us. Minor hiccups here and there but overall, I have nothing to complain. She has her handphone with her all the time, she asked for wifi nightly for 2 hours, she probably nap in the afternoon when no one is home. She could be also chatting over her hp  while working but I am not going to bother so long work is done and no monkey business from her. It could be a good match for both of us. She prefers to be left alone, quietly working and I like to leave her to work in the background. We can communicate, no language barrier makes it so much simpler to convey my wishes. She's easy going and I appreciate that. Cross my finger that all will be well from now on. The boys... we are still doing our nightly routine which has now become part of their life. They automatically just sit at their table and wait for me to start their nightly revision. Even if they have some grand plans on buil...

I have never pay much attention to academic term until this year. This year is going to be such a memorable year, because we have to make several (major)  decisions. For the past 3 months, we saw the boys being more "auto" in their nightly study routine. finally all done! We finally completed Matthew's Heguru set of worksheets that were given in 2015. It took us so long to complete these 24 books. Yet it is late better than never. With him in K1, I am starting to expose him to assessment books and more writing and reading. This is in bid that he has a more gentle learning curve. He is still in Berries although he protested in the beginning. He is still having his piano class although the pace is real slow (as expected actually). Show&Tell - Jon's MBS For big boy, he has more work to do since he is in K2 now. Spelling and 听写 weekly and I mean this is introductory to Primary school life, we should still cherish this preschool year. swimming les...

On 24th February, we welcomed our 7th helper. She's 7th since we started having a live-in helper in 2011. The first 6 helpers were all from Myanmar and only 3rd helper was good enough to last almost 4 years with us. But the last 3 experiences with Burmese helpers really made me sworn off this nationality. It is a big no no now for me to take Burmese helper. It is also funny how whenever I change a helper, I have to replace some of the household appliances. This round, I had to change my airpot, my frying wok, rice cooker and vacuum cleaner. My Zojirushi airpot was damaged. Hopefully,  Tiger can last longer new Tefal rice cooker better don't damage the latest HappyCall frying wok new vacuum cleaner So 7th came. First impression of her was rather good. She snipped off her long hair for easier management (suggested she is really serious in earning her keep here) and understood I am a working mummy so I had very little time to ori...

This is about a bowl of Assam Laksa, no no.. not from the Food for Thoughts company at Botanic Garden. This is about how a bowl of Assam Laksa brought forth a string of deliberate thoughts on preparing young children for school and the kind of society they would be moulding. the Assam Laksa set from Old Town It started with someone in FB posted her great Saturday morning with Starbucks coffee and croissant while waiting for her kids in an enrichment class. I commented that Saturday morning is my favourite time of the week as well. Her response made me re-think some of the decisions I am going to make in this year. "Well, don't we all love Saturday morning with our sacred Me-time. But it's us again when we lament on the different classes we need to send our kids to." Life of a Singaporean kid. Classes, classes and more classes. Homework on holidays. Spelling learning on a day out. We are fortunate, yet unfortunate. Do we really need a top A student to...

This year the preschool arranged a charity drive instead of asking for food donation to make into a hamper to present to some charity organisation. The beneficiary is SPD and the champs did art work to put up for sales. Parents showed their support by purchasing coupons to be utilised in the charity drive. One booklet cost $30. coupon booklet We arrived near to 5pm and the whole place was bustling with people and activities. I was rather impressed by how the charity drive was organised. Each classroom had a header to indicate the type of items you could purchase and the K2 champs, together with the teachers helmed the stalls. We spotted Jonathan after a while and he was selling recycled bags done up with his class. selling his ware It was good for the champs to man their stall and took charge in collecting the right amount. We didn't explore all rooms because it was really very crowded but I saw there was even food and drink stalls and potted plants for sa...

20 January 2017 - I sent the maid home, right after her loan was paid up. Her expression, she couldn't wait to leave my place too, aha mutual agreement. Just that she didn't know if we were sending her to agency or back to her hometown. 6 February 2017 - I received my liability discharge letter from MOM. That rounded up my 5 years of employing Myanmar maids, 6 of them in total. With this last one, I am not going to employ another from this Nationality again. The experience with them got from good to bad to worst. So from the day we sent her to airport, we were on our own since then. The children were not used to having no one to pick up after them initially, especially Matthew. He has been asking when is the new Auntie coming. As for us, the week before CNY really shacked me to the max. After that, I guess we got a hang of the routine and smoothen out some of our personal preferences to make way for more important things. We got the Xiao Mi robot to vacuum our floor whic...

Another brand new year, another year of adventure and highly anticipated events to come! We welcome the new year by attending Sunday service with the children in tow. Thereafter a good lunch at Crystal Jade, followed by bonding activities. We did not forget we need to exercise and hey, I got my new toy on the 2nd day of 2017. After hearing about Bake cheese tart, I also got to try it without a queue. I shall let the pictures continue the story and yes, I am ready to take on 2017. Jon's depiction of human anatomy There was no Sunday school on 1st Jan, so the children sat in a very packed chapel with us. To keep them occupied, I gave them drawing paper. Jonathan then drew this human anatomy. I thought he was quite accurate with the way how our lung lobes are spilt, the position of our heart and we have 2 kidneys. doing art at Westgate We had lunch with the children's grandaunt. Then the boys chose to do the art craft over the seeds playground. There was a car...