What did Ning Learn in School?

On a regular basis, Ning will bring back her school work (in additional to all the monthly newsletter) and show us. Sometimes its artwork, sometimes Chinese poems etc.

So far, we're quite happy with the school's planning and activities. She gets to see a lot of children's play, went for numerous excursions and now she's learning the Tang poems and plants. Just last week, she asked me last what is CO2. And I told her its carbon dioxide. She told me her teachers are teaching her about how plants grow and make food. And we breathe out CO2. Wow... I thought I only learnt that in Primary 3 Science?

In the first half of the year, there was a monthly theme on occupation. And she got to learn about doctors, teachers, dentists etc. She got me to video this construction worker rhyme and I'm putting it up to share.



Construction Worker

There'll be some more videos coming up. She's been rather proud of her achievements and had always wanted us to video down. We gladly do that for her and for memory keepsake.

Treetop Walk - 2nd Attempt

In my previous entry, I talked about our "failed" attempt to make it to the HSBC Treetop walk because we parked at the wrong carpark.

Well, now that we found the nearer carpark to the walk, we made our 2nd attempt yesterday. If you're interested to go, the carpark is at Venus Drive.

The truth is, it was quite a mistake to be so ambitious. The distance from the carpark to the Treetop was more about 3.2km. And then the way back from the treetop to the Ranger's station was another 1km plus. So in total, we hiked, with the two kids for 4km.

Now, 80% of the time, we're carrying Zhi. And 30% of the time, Ning was being carried. It didn't helped when the tracks were pretty wet and muddy from the morning rain. We had thought since the weather was cooling, it'll be good to go hiking. But we forgot about the wetness of the ground.

To make this trip even memorable, right after our kids saw the huge lizard (see picture), Zhi got so scared that he refused to come down and walk anymore. So that explains part of the 80% carrying part. The other part that makes up the 80% came from the slippery ground and also he fell after running the first 50m of the hiking trail. Being a 'woman trapped in a man's body', Zhi complained of 'pain pain' and wanted us to carry him. The successful 20% came when I was so tired and angry at his refusal to walk, I literary pulled and scolded him to be brave and no lizards nor caterpillars are going to bite him.

As for Ning, the 30% of carrying happened right after she stepped on a huge caterpillar on the ground. And in the process, a 'cccrraaaccckkk' sound was heard. She was too traumatized and cried big time. That was when we had to carry her. Please do not mentioned 'caterpillars' to her for the time being. She'll start crying and felt horrid for killing the little worm.

The thing is, hiking can be fun. And being close to nature can be rather refreshing and enjoyable. Part of the hike reminded me very much of Kamikochi in Matsumoto, which we went to the Japan Alps two years ago. But it can be a pain if the kids are too young and had not much energy for a 4km walk.

On our way home, WF asked Ning if she had fun. Our little girl replied," Its not fun at all. We never play at all. We only walk and walk. I don't want to come here anymore." I think she summed it up pretty well.

Here are some photos we took:

We also made some discovery during this hike: That Zhi is afraid of heights!!! He was crying most of the time during our treetop walk. And kept mumbling 'scary... scary'... Sigh... I think our boy is more 'girlish' than our girl.

Anyway, the view is rather nice. It reminds us of the Capilano Suspension Bridge & Park in Vancouver (when we visited there in 2004).

Talking about the places we had went, we'll be leaving for Switzerland on Saturday and returning two weeks later. Between now and Saturday, I'll try to upload more entries and then when we come back on the 18th, I'll share more of our trip.

WF's Birthday - 21st August

Last Friday, we celebrated WF's birthday at home. I got him a strawberry shortcake which he likes and the kids sang him the birthday songs in bahasa Malay, English and Mandarin. Here's Ning's version of 'Happy Birthday' in Malay, though I am not sure if it was the correct version:


Happy Birthday in Malay

I must say, other than the sweentness we felt from the kids' singing and running around the house, the cake was also deliciously yummy. It was finished before I can have a second slice.

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

We brought Ning for the performance on Saturday. I am sure most of us know the story. But for Ning, it is something new. I thought the songs and dances (especially the wolf character) was really catchy and funny. But probably the message in the play might be a bit too difficult for her to understand (like the concept of lying?).

Anyway, we walk away with the theme of the play: If you start lying, you'll soon be crying.

There were some participation from the audience too. The kids put on the sheep's headgear from the programme posters and pretended to be sheeps. I think Ning like the participation part best. And the stage was nicely done up as well.

Ning with the sheep's headgear.

UP & Other Theatre Performances

I call this month the "Performance" month. Last Saturday, we brought the kids to watch Boom Bah, a short production that focuses on music and instruments. Luckily, unlike the 'Tick Tack Tock' performance, Zhi was less restless and was sitting on the floor watching the characters playing the various music. Of course, Ning enjoyed herself without us worrying.

This Saturday, we'll be bringing Ning to watch 'The Boy Who Cried Wolf'.

And two weeks later, She'll be going for 'The Little Green Frog' play.

As if it wasn't enough, we brought her to watch the 3D version of UP, the movie last night. It was her first big screen outing. And we decided that UP will be a good movie since it had received such good reviews. Plus we had always been so impressed with Pixar's productions (The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Toy Story, just to quote a few). Also, my students strongly suggested that it'll be suitable for a family because of the "very family values" that this movie projects.

Bringing her favourite doggie along for the movies and dinner at White Dog Cafe

Because it was her first movie, we were worried that the audience in front of her might blocked her view, so we actually brought a car seat booster along. Thank goodness, we didn't have to use that. The GV Vivo theatre had very good spacing and slope such that her view wouldn't be blocked. Also, they provide booster seats for kids if you need. I am not sure about other GV outlets or Cathay's though.

Well, the movie was good, entertaining and touching to a certain extent. In fact, full of creativity and colourful visuals. But for Ning, it might be too overwhelming for her. She ended up feeling queasy after 30mins of staring at the big screen with a too-big-for-her-face 3D glasses. Well, so much for her first movie experience. We reminded ourselves that we will make sure we book the last row seats if she's going for movies again. That way, the distance from the screen to her would be at a more comfortable level.

Here's how she looked with the glasses:

MacRitchie Reservoir

We had initially wanted to bring the kids for the treetop walk at MacRitchie for one of our Saturday outings. But upon arrival, we found out that the tree top walk is 5.6km away from where we are!!!

Trying not to be too ambitious and expect the kids to trek that far, we just wandered around the place and watch the students kayaking.

We'll be going again. This time, we'll make sure we park at a place near the treetop walk.

Portrait of WF

We always take delight in Ning's artwork. And I must say, her drawing can be so simple yet full of her own imagination at times.

Recently, she had shown a lot of interest in drawing people around her. And here's a picture of WF:


Here's why she drew it like that and how she described:
- Papa has short and spiky hair.
- Papa wears a blue pair of spectacles.
- Papa is wearing a blue shirt now.
- Papa is very tall. So I must draw his legs long.
- Papa's arms has got very big muscles (from all the badminton training and weights) so I draw it square square.
- And Papa's name is PAPAPA. So I write on the paper.

We're so proud of her, now this picture is pasted on our bedroom wall.

Here's how the real Papa look and the young artist:

NUS Rag & Flag Day

It was the annual NUS Rag & Flag day yesterday (080809). We happened to drive along AYE and saw the big floats at the sports field. That prompted us to drive in, with the kids, and watch the Rag's parade.

What a coincidence, we met up with a few NUS Bizaders the previous night (fri) and we were reminiscencing the old times. The next day, we managed to catch some action from the Rag & Flag event.

Luckily I had my camera in my bag and I started taking some pictures. We actually went into the students crowd and tried to catch a glimpse of the performances. I must say, the quality of the floats were definitely much much much better than our time. And they had such elaborate costumes, music, dance movements and even female dancers flying up in the air like those cheerleading performances.

Its a nice feeling to see such things again... and we were telling the kids that Papa and Mama used to do that in school too. Haha...

Here are the pictures I took. Not really clear because of the crowd, I took only the distance shots.

Changes Ahead

This week marks the start of WF's 3-weeks break from work. He had just resigned and will be joining a new fund in end August. Though I am not quite sure if his new job will be as flexi and autonomous as his previous, I can see he is quite excited even though the nature of his work is going to be the same.

In the next 12months, there'll be changes ahead. Like Zhi going to full day and us moving to a new place. Hopefully, it'll work out better for everyone of us.

The National Anthem

I mentioned in my previous post that I will put up the video of Ning singing the National Anthem.

Here it is:


National Anthem


2 more days to Singapore's 44th birthday!