Pilgrim Mom Kena Scolding

Athos and Porthos have a Mandarin tutor who coaches them through their school syllabus. This has led to, I must confess, a rather lackadaisical attitude on my part when it comes to the boys’ progress in Mandarin.

And I was caught out today -

Tutor: 我已经开始准备孩子的 CA2.
Pilgrim Mom: CA2 是什么？
Tutor: 你这个妈妈真没用！

Ahem. For the record, CA2 is Continual Assessment 2. And I still don’t know what that really means….

George Eats Laksa, Not Durians

A few days ago we were playing Bible Quiz over lunch with some friends. One of the adults asked – “Who can name the first five books of the Bible?” After Genesis and Exodus, none of us were entirely confident about the order (which speaks volumes about our Bible knowledge!)

Anyhow, it was an opportunity to teach the kids about mnemonics, specifically first-letter mnemonics. The one I learnt in school for the colours of the rainbow was “Richard Of York Gained Battles in Vain”, which I always found a bit odd since the poor Duke is mostly unknown to Singaporeans. Much better that we come up with one that makes sense for ourselves!

Anyhow, I challenged the kids to come up with one for the Pentateuch so we wouldn’t be lost for the answer again. And the title of this post is Athos’ attempt, which I thought was quite a winner!

MOE suspends AWARE sex education programme

MOE has just announced that it will suspend AWARE’s sex education programme.

The statement says that “Today, schools are allowed to engage external vendors to supplement MOE’s sexuality education programme. MOE has reviewed the internal processes for selecting and monitoring vendors and found that they can be improved. MOE will put in more stringent processes to ensure that training materials and programmes delivered in schools are in line with the Ministry’s framework on sexuality education. Schools will suspend the engagement of external vendors until the new vetting processes are completed. The Ministry is also reviewing ways to provide parents with more information about sexuality education in the specific schools that their children are in.”

About AWARE’s sexuality education, MOE said that “in some other aspects, the Guide does not conform to MOE’s guidelines. In particular, some suggested responses in the instructor guide are explicit and inappropriate, and convey messages which could promote homosexuality or suggest approval of pre-marital sex.”

You can read the full statement here

The whole saga at AWARE has left me troubled. I didn’t like how the new guard came into power and their inability to articulate a coherent position and direction from the get-go. But I was also upset by the subsequent savagery online and offline that demonised Christians.

Aramis the preschooler

When Porthos started pre-school, he became well-known for crying at the start of every single schoolday for TEN WEEKS. (The eleventh week was the term break….)

Today is Aramis’ fourth day at pre-school and the contrast couldn’t be more stark.

Pilgrim Dad and I bring him to school and, like an old pro, he walks ahead of us straight to his classroom. The teacher helps him with the opening rituals – water bottle and hat out, namecard on the wall – and he settles in to play. It’s the last day that parents are allowed in the classroom so I quickly take some pictures, pause for a hug and kiss, and step out. Better that we start getting him used to not having us hanging about.

The nest empties out….

It’s 6am on the first day of the school year. The Pilgrim family stirs to life. Dawn has never been my time of day (and some of you will know why this is hugely ironic). My bleariness is made worse by having stayed up the night before to blog out my maternal angst.

The boys are not excited about breakfast. Porthos has already begun to fuss because he hates how the school shorts feel against his legs. I do a last-minute check on their school bags, then it’s into the truck as we head out to school.

We arrive with plenty of time to spare. In the back, Porthos has stopped whining about the shorts, and is now leaning half-awake against the window. The poor fellow looks tired. We park and help the boys with their bags. I’ve forgotten to adjust the straps on Porthos’ schoolbag and it hangs almost to his knees! As I fix his bag, I keep the conversation light and cheery, all the while praying hard for a smooth transition. Porthos, after all, was famous in kindergarten for crying through the first TEN WEEKS.

Porthos Goes To School

Happy New Year everyone!

It was only 12 short months ago that Athos started his primary school journey, and here I am again, round the corner from seeing Porthos off to Primary One.

I find myself feeling much the same way as the last time. It’s now 11pm and we have to be up by 6am so the wisest thing to do would be to sleep (and God knows I need it).

Yet I am sitting up in bed, unable to settle, feeling bereft, recalling random moments – how he got such a laugh out of mimicking my response to cockroaches (EEEEEEEK!), the pink misshapen heart he made me for Mothers’ Day, the way he picks up tunes and sings snatches of them all day long – and wondering how he is going to hold up tomorrow.

When I put Porthos to bed earlier this evening, I asked how he was feeling. “A little excited,” he said.

I was glad. Some years back when he started kindergarten, he held the school record for the child who cried the longest before settling down – 10 whole weeks. The first day he got to school without tears, the teachers actually stood in a row and applauded, and the principal said to me, “We were so happy to finally see him arrive at school with a smile on his face!”

I’ve spent the past few days psyching Porthos up for school in various little ways. We carved out personal shelfspace for him, let him decorate some magazine holders in his favourite colours for his schoolbooks, and brought him shopping for a new schoolbag, water bottle, pencil case and wallet.

Sitting at the door of our home now: two pairs of Bata socks and shoes, two schoolbags, two sets of school uniforms. And a mother’s heart waiting, wondering, praying.

Room for improvement in primary education? MOE wants to know.

In case you missed it in the news, MOE has begun a review of the primary education system in Singapore and is soliciting public views on the issues.

A committee chaired by Grace Fu is looking to “explore how schools can enhance holistic learning to better prepare our pupils for the future…. We want our children to be confident, retain a sense of curiosity and the desire to learn, be able to communicate clearly, and work well in teams and across cultures.”

The committee will be focusing on three areas:

• Rebalancing the learning of content knowledge and the development of skills and values
• Moving all primary schools to a single-session structure
• Moving towards all-graduate teacher recruitment by 2015.

Athos started primary school this year, and Porthos will start next year. I am experiencing both the strengths and some of the challenges of our primary education system, and wholeheartedly support what MOE is trying to do with this review, in particular the rebalancing of curriculum.

If you care about primary education in Singapore, I encourage you to send MOE your feedback.If you don’t have the energy to craft a well-considered response, please leave your thoughts in the comment section and if there are enough views I’ll pull together a consolidated response.

Red Sports: Let Our Children Run

Recently, there has been some national introspection about whether we are becoming less rugged as a people. It’s not something anyone can answer scientifically, but judging from the anecdotes, the answer is an unsurprising yes.

This op-ed from Red Sports speaks to that subject, and I must say it was discouraging to read that the numbers participating in track and field at the school level is on the decline. Not to mention schools giving up Sports Day. And defocusing on those sports in which they are unable to win awards

Have we lost sight of what’s important?

At least one school hasn’t. Seng Kang Primary has daily PE. And if you know anything about the primary school curriculum, then you’ll know how much vision and leadership it takes for a primary school to sustain that commitment.

Good on them. And as parents, let’s encourage our schools to do what’s right by our kids.

New Paper: The Most Boring Household in Singapore

This interview with up-and-coming Singapore politician Grace Fu focuses on her role as a parent. It struck me as containing many nuggets of parenting wisdom. I submit it for your consideration.

The Electric New Paper: The Most Boring Household in Singapore

I have to do a quick linkback to an earlier post concerning the Wii, and another on the modern-day malaise called the Nature Deficit Disorder.

Stumped by Primary One Math

Athos had some math homework over the weekend and was having difficulty with one question in particular. “Come, I’ll help you,” I said, beaming with motherly love and teacherly wisdom, all prepared to gently guide him towards the solution.

10 minutes later, I was practically foaming at the mouth, convinced that either there was a typo in the assignment in which case someone ought to be shot for wasting my time, or that our education system was perverse for pitching so high that something that ought to be fun became a destroyer of self-esteem (mine, never mind Athos!)

I’ve since regained my composure. As well as figured out the answer.

See if you can too!

Look at the following series of numbers. What number does the question mark represent?

1 9 2 ? 3 7 8

 

Of Cheese Pies and Other Expletives

For those who are curious as to how Athos is holding up in Primary One, first let me apologise for not providing an update. I remain ambivalent about public education as we are experiencing it, and have not been able to find it within me to put in words why I feel the way I do.

So you’ll just have to make do with vignettes for now.

And as far as vignettes go, this one is a screamer. [Grandpa, Grandma, if you're reading this, please make sure you're comfortably seated....]

Seeing Carbon Dioxide

I stumbled across this simple yet marvellous experiment that demonstrates that carbon dioxide is heavier than air. The science is probably a little too advanced for Athos and Porthos, but the metaphysics is not – that you don’t have to see something to believe it’s there

Mothers hold the key to the future of science

Now how do you like that for a headline! Here’s what The Australian had to say about it.

Off to School We Go

Athos, my firstborn, started primary school this week.

Truth be told, I have not been looking forward to the transition. Yes, Singapore’s public education system is widely admired. Government spending on education is second only to defence spending, and the results show, for example in our consistent top ranking in the international Trends in Math and Science Study.

But you don’t reach such heights without sacrificing something. And if you ask any Singaporean what that thing is, their answer will be a variation on the theme of soullessness.

Guilty as charged? I don’t know, but love it or hate it, our journey into the Singapore school system has begun.

Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?

There’s a conference that takes place annually in the US called TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design). Bringing together some of the best minds and achievers, TED is a forum to share and spread transformational ideas. It’s a pretty exclusive conference but earlier this year, TED began to make its talks available on the Internet for free, and under a Creative Commons license (i.e. they can be freely shared and reposted).

I cannot recommend the site more highly. The handful of presentations I have watched were stellar. Since this is a parenting blog, I wanted in particular to highlight Sir Ken Robinson’s talk titled “Do Schools Kill Creativity”. Watch it. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

 

Free Rice

After receiving this link for perhaps the 4th time in as many days (and reading Owlhaven’s post on the same), I finally decided it was time to mosey on over to Free Rice and check it out for myself.

And 600 grains of rice later, I’m pleased to say this is one of the coolest sites I’ve encountered in recent months. If you like playing with and learning new words, Free Rice allows you to test your own vocabulary while donating rice to the UN for every answer you get correct. It is deceptively simple, yet judging by the advertisers and the exponential growth in grain totals, I’m guessing the site is  getting a lot of traction. Hurray for social enterprise and please do go check it out for yourself.

Learn To Read With Starfall

A good friend sent me a link to Starfall, a free website that aims to teach children how to read. Created by the husband-wife team that was also responsible for the popular bluemountain.com e-greeting card site, Starfall has both visual, audio and animated elements, and can be used at home or in schools. The site also incorporates online reading games, and lots of printables.

I’ve used the site with Porthos because he’s not especially keen on reading. After the first 10 minutes, he was completely hooked, and I notice he’s now a lot more interested in learning and trying to read words.

Check it out!

Want to know more about infant vocabulary?

The NUS Dept of Psychology is conducting an Infant Language Study to better understand vocabulary norms for Sngapore infants (12 to 30 months).

If you sign up, you’ll be sent a questionnaire which will ask you to fill in a vocabulary checklist and to tick the words you think your child can say. You’ll also have to fill in a few details as well as a consent form. At the end of the study, NUS will provide you with a summary of the results i.e. what the vocabulary norms for Singapore infants are.

The study already has 200 parents and the researchers are looking for another 100 families before the end of the year. Do consider participating – call 6516 8768 or email psytsh@nus.edu.sg for more details or to sign up!

DIY Flashcards? Easy Peasy!

Most parents are familiar with flashcards – words and/or pictures printed on cards which you show to your child to teach vocabulary.

When Athos was born, I remember going through picture books and flashcard sets and thinking how some of them were too Americanised, too unfamiliar, too cluttered, too expensive etc. I thought how fun it would be to make them myself, so that they would feature things that reflected the world around Athos.

And smacking my forehead, I realised how easily that could be done via…

Primary One, Here We Come

Yesterday we reached a huge watershed – Athos registered for primary school.

Primary school! The words bring back a flood of memories – of classrooms and chalkboards, friends and enemies, teachers and homework, school fields and tuckshops. There were days I loved school, days when I hated it, and days when I didn’t have much energy left to feel anything.

As we made our way to register, I wondered how Athos would take to school.