2019

 

And.... it's 2019! Where did time go? In a blink of an eye my little babies have morphed into these mini adults with personalities of their own.

The parenting conundrum... what to do when Google, other parents, FOMO get to you?

Trust your instincts!

It's taken me 10 years to finally BEGIN to feel confident in my own skin, as a parent, a business owner, employer and spouse.

So what's happening in our hood?

Madison is a quiet, sweet 11 year old now, she has this seriousness and dream-like quality to her. She loves to boss her siblings and cousins around, and she takes this job very seriously. In fact I barely have to discipline Liam anymore- Madison has naturally taken that over. She is good at what she puts her mind to, which includes golf, drawing, playing the piano, playing computer games, writing and reading.

Annika is a boisterous 9 year old, who competes incessantly with her sister and brother. She is the obstinate one, the one who wants to get things right. She is also sometimes the mediator or the instigator of fights. She, however, has a heart of gold, and would be the one with the soft spot for the brother - when he gets into Madison's bad books. She is good at everything she tries at - tennis, golf, swimming, gym. It's difficult because sometimes we don't have time to focus on her- it's mostly spent on number one! She unfortunately does not like to read as much, her attention span can resemble that of a gnat.

Liam is finishing up at Pat's Schoolhouse ( thank goodness, the fees are killing us!) and will be performing at the annual graduation ceremony. He loves to sing and dance. He is the lawyer of the family. Liam has this way of weaseling out of doing things, and getting stuff that he wants. Developmentally he is not at the same pace as his sisters but that's ok! I know it's just a question of when he's ready.

Take reading for example.

Liam was not reading well up to just recently. He would not want to try reading books by himself.

My good friend, and colleague Caroline Lee suggested motivational instruments such as stickers or stars.

We upped the game and included a dollar value to the stars.

He got very excited and promptly started shopping online (!) for his Lego stuff. He found a Lego police station ( that was over $100) but I refused to buy it until he got his requisite stars. Liam got it in his head to start stock checking EVERYDAY! And it actually sold out.

So he found another Lego boat ( $115!) and tracked stock too. When he told me it was down to 2 I caved in.

The bright side is that he can suddenly read Mr Men books. Incredible. He even started Geronimo Stilton books because I told him each book was worth 10 stars.

Chris has entered the realm of private practice. It's been a bit nerve wracking but very exciting nonetheless.

The tumultuous baby years are over. Onward and upwards to the next phase of life!

New School year

2016 has begun

Madison starts Primary 2 at SCGS this year. Where does time go! She was just in Primary 1! This year things get a little bit more serious, with year end streaming. She was very fortunate to have had her P1 form teacher continue teaching her English this year.

Annika is finishing up at Pat's Schoolhouse. Unbelievable. I still remember Madison in K2, preparing for her year end concert, Chris being away in Germany etc. Now it's Annika's turn! She's so excited to be the big girl at school. She has had the most impressive changes over the past 4 years. I still remember the days of her tantrums, whining, refusing to eat etc. Now she's ready for school nice and early, there's barely a struggle with breakfast, getting ready etc. She's doing well with her reading ( phew !) . I think she's looking forward to starting primary school!

Liam started Playgroup at Pat's Schoolhouse just a week ago. Things couldn't have gone better. At the end of last year I started to bring him along to school when I dropped Annika off, and let him hang around, to play with the toys, in the playground at school. I think it helped and he understood that he was going to school with her. For the first 3 days, Chris' mum accompanied him to school ( and took tons of pictures!). Then this week it was solo time. I couldn't be more proud of him! I drove Annika and him to the entrance, took him up the stairs and he willingly went over to the teacher, and waved 'bye-bye' to me! Not a tear! The teachers have reported that he's doing ok in class, and hasn't had any major problems so far.

Now that all 3 are in school, things have simplified tremendously! My 2 helpers have tons of time in the morning to tidy up/ iron/ cook etc, then bus over to school to pick the 2 younger ones up. That saves me from rushing around at lunch time trying to make pick up. Madison still goes to school via schoolbus, but I'm considering letting one helper take her to school by public transport. Schoolbus is $140 one way per month! Public transport for one child is $12 a month! Add the cost for an adult at $30 and it's still about 1/3 that for schoolbus! The only thing is schoolbus is door to door so very hassle free.

Tennis lessons have come to a bit of a stall. The lessons with Weber haven't continued because he is too busy, so we are left with Saturday sessions with Hashim. Which is fine. I'm encouraging Chris to spend more time coaching and playing with the girls because that'll probably make the most difference in the long run. Golf is still at Marina bay for Annika and Madison is going to try the school at Tanah Merah Golf course. The girls have forgotten about art lessons for now, and I don't think we will re start for the moment.

Hopefully we will have a nice peaceful year at school... I'm a bit nervous with the curriculum advancing, but it's what it is. Cheers to a new year!

Hard Rock Hotel Penang, December holidays

We've finally taken a family vacation away with Liam!

With the drop in the Malaysian ringgit, we decided to go to Penang for a short trip with the extended family. Chris' mum and Anthony joined us during our stay at the Hard Rock Hotel.

Chris and I have seen the hotel previously when we stay at the Rasa Sayang near by. The pool is really something.

So this time we chose it because of it's pool.

Completely fantastic experience. Going to the Penang Hard Rock Hotel is a great choice for families with small kids.

First of all it's a breeze getting into Penang from Singapore. The flight is 60minutes long, the airport has been renovated and fairly easy to navigate and to clear immigration. Just outside of the arrival gates we had easy access to large taxis that took us straight to the hotel in 30 minutes.

The hotel isn't big so it's great for small kids. We didn't have to navigate around grounds to get to food/pool/room. They have 2 main restaurants and the Hard Rock cafe. We booked 2 standard rooms and a Roxity family suite. The suite was a hit with the kids, but my grouse is that one bathroom for 5 people is not good on holiday. Especially with pool + sand = muddy floors and insufficient towels !

The kids had a ball! We were up early, had breakfast at the main hall ( which was of reasonable standard ) , then they hit up the pool. There is direct access to Batu Ferringhi beach as well, and for those keen there are boat operators willing to take passengers for 30 minute joy rides, jet skis for hire and banana boat rides as well.

When it got too hot out, it was usually time for a shower, lunch and then nap for Liam while the girls hung out at the playroom. The playroom was amazing! It's only a small space, but what makes it work are the facilitators and the hourly programmes. They had a 'cooking' lesson, face painting, story telling and apparently they could also participate in pool games !

We did manage to do a short tour of Georgetown during our stay. Penang has cleaned up alot since the last time we visited, and there are now tourists abound taking photos of the street art. Georgetown achieved Unesco Heritage status and no wonder. The main area is so quaint, and now filled with bustling new cafes and shops.

I had a spa day with my girls ( they are old enough to enjoy this! )-- booked us in at the Rock spa for a body scrub and manicures. To be honest, it was my first ever experience with manicures myself
( paronychia alert!!!)

All in.. a great family break.. we arrived back in Singapore in time for Christmas eve dinner with the rest of the family!

Busy weekend: Happy Willow, Tin Hill Social parties, Hard Rock Hotel Singapore

This past weekend was a whirlwind of activities. It felt like a blur of time.

Chris was away for 4 nights starting Wednesday in Myanmar helping out with a surgical mission.

Of course this coincided with a weekend of back to back events.

I started the weekend with a morning of appointments to clear.

At 11 am, Liam had his baby music class at Mandeville. I wasn't able to go so my helpers took him
( and the older 2 ) by bus. His teacher( also their piano teacher) actually asked the older two to be 'assistants' in his class but they declined!

They were done by 1230 so I drove over to pick them up.

At 1pm I took the older 2 to art class at CANVASS while Liam had his afternoon nap.

When they were done, we picked Liam up and headed over to Montebleu to find our friends and go for a dip in the pool. Of course 5 minutes into the pool and thunder, lightning and dark clouds rolled in. Fortunately our friendly neighbours were home and the kids went over to play. Dinner was a simple affair at home, and we were done for the day ( at least I was )

Sunday was a day of social engagements ( kids ). Since we were going to be out for most of the day, breakfast was at home. French toast, maple syrup and iced chocolate.

We started with Annika's usual golf lesson at 11am. We got there 30 minutes early, and got to do some practice shots before their lesson without too much grumbling. The driving range was very busy! Annika's class was a full class so Madison and I had to go to a different level to find an empty bay to practise. After 30 minutes the coach took the class to the putting green to practice. Of course I headed to the pro shop to have a look-see!

Fortunately I only had 30 minutes to shop. We left with 3 caps ( 2 Hello Kitty ones for the girls ; super cute! ) and an Underarmour one for me. And matchy matchy golf/tennis tops for Madison and me.

We had lunch at the Canopy cafe, then it was off to the start of the parties.

First up: Happy Willow at One KM. Madison was invited by a classmate, and the party started at 130pm. One KM is a new mall located strategically at Tanjong Katong Road, at the corner of a VERY BUSY intersection. I used Google maps to get there, and the traffic was quite bad on a Sunday! The carpark entry isn't very obvious and I missed it twice ! Trying to make a U-turn to get back was quite horrible too. Once in parking was terrible too. The shopping centre has only a single level of parking and it was constantly full.

Happy Willow is an indoor playground, with a small cafe for the parents to hang out. I think the kids played games and probably ran amok with each other.

I did the 'terrible mum' thing. I dropped and ran. Completely forgot to bring my socks so I couldn't accompany her in to say 'hi' to the mum.. Of course during the hour that I was away she managed to scrape her previously scraped and scabbed elbow causing some bleeding. That another mother had to clean up and dress for her. Oops. When I guiltily came back to pick her up ( to go to our next party! ) she was ok but the 'eyes' from the other mothers! Anyway.. I stand by my decision. It's Madison's friend's party not mine. She had heaps of fun at the party, and she learned to look after herself. The organizing mother did a fantastic job with supervising the kids, organizing food and loot bags!

So.. at 3pm I picked her up, profusely thanking my way out and headed straight for Tin Hill Social at Turf City. This second party was organised by Madison's classmate from Pat's Schoolhouse so it was a gathering of familiar faces. We always have a good time when we meet up. It's so easy with these women, partly because we have know each other since the kids were 4. The hostess was very generous: kids were catered for separately from the parents! We had our beer, ice strawberry or lemon tea and food: thin crust pizza, calamari rings, sweet potato chips to name a few dishes. The food was very good. Service was smooth, prompt and subtle. They kept feeding us, replenishing drinks and clearing used plates and utensils. Plenty of napkins, plates and cutlery for us as well.

The kids were well entertained: pony rides, pony and bunny feeding followed by a magician show. Actually to be honest I have no idea what the kids were doing. We were safely ensconced in the air conditioned bar area while they did their thing! It was fabulous. I had a really great time catching up with old friends, and we were so sad to leave! The party was supposed to end at 530 but it was nearly 6pm when we reluctantly got off our butts when we realized no one was left in the cafe !

Straight from Tin Hill Social we were off to Sentosa to meet up with the rest of our family gang at the Hard Rock Hotel. Geok is staying 2 nights in Sentosa for a work thing, so we thought it would be nice to let the kids play in the HRH pool.

It's an amazing pool. Half of it is covered in sand and the other half in tiles. It was crowded but I think had we come earlier in the day it would have been packed. The kids had an absolute ball. The water wasn't cold but it was very choppy from all the kids in the pool. No issue for the older ones but Liam! He was drinking in the sandy pool water like a fish.

Of course by the time we got out of the pool he had a belly full of disgusting pool water. I got him out just as he started to look green and made it to the sandy 'beach' just in time for him to projectile all the water. Nice.

To end off the day we had dinner together at the Starz cafe. It's a buffet restaurant at the Hard Rock Hotel. Perfect for kids actually. A little bit of chaos, a little bit of noise but good service overall and food quality was not bad.

So that was the whirlwind of the weekend!

Keeping the faith in Pat's Schoolhouse

There has been trouble a brewing at Annika's preschool, Pat's Schoolhouse.

When Madison joined the preschool, it was run by the owner Patricia Koh and headed by the principal Elsie.

After a few years, it was sold to Knowledge Universe, then 2 years ago the principal was changed to the current principal Serene.

For some reason , it just felt like Annika got the short end of the stick when it came to teachers. Madison had a fantastic run of teachers; 4 years of the same Chinese teacher, and continuity in her English/Math teachers. She had a great K2 year, which culminated in the year end concert.

When it came to Annika, for some reason her teacher didn't stay. She's had new teachers almost every year, and the calibre was not as good as what Madison had. Her last English teacher seemed quite confused and disorganised at times, and left midway through the year. Fortunately her replacement seems better; at least now I know Annika is getting her reading sessions in.

Now more trouble is a brewing. There are news of teachers leaving, teachers changing branches, kids leaving etc. None of that is completely unusual except that the timing seems to all coincide with having a change in principal and perhaps management.

But...after much thought and look see/ 'research' online, I think sometimes changing preschools is a bit like jumping from one hot soup to another.  Ultimately the preschool business is a business, it needs to stay profitable to survive.

Pat's Schoolhouse is now a part of the portfolio of the Busybees group, which include the highly regarded Odyssey preschools, Brighton Montessori, Learning Vision and Learning horizon Schools. I imagine they would have a large pool of resources and people to work with. Perhaps that might be safer than placing your bet with a smaller franchise? I am hoping they will see the need to maintain a reasonable and consistent standard in their schools?

The fees at Pat's Schoolhouse at Buckley is another sticking point. When Madison started it was $850 a month for a half day session. Next year it will be $1550 a month for the same session. But to be fair, there aren't any privately owned preschools that have maintained their fees. Schools in the same area as Buckley are all charging similar quantums, with the international schools charging closer to $2000. Want anything less? The child would have to travel to the school via schoolbus.

So I guess that's the premium we are paying for being located centrally. I'm not sure switching schools will make a difference in the long run? So it's going to be a question of finances ultimately.

I hope the school will be able to replace the teachers it has lost this year. New doesn't necessarily mean bad or worse. Healthcare institutions face the same challenge year in and out. Experienced doctors leave for private practice leaving the green horns behind. But that doesn't mean the standards drop. There are protocols for training, and the young ones are guided and taught well enough so that they are able to cope.

I guess I will have to decide by next year if I will be proven right or wrong. Otherwise I guess I will have to seriously be hunting for a new preschool for Liam!

Heal Medical Centre & Dental Clinic

My clinic has a new name!

Actually it's only because we are relocation the premises so I had no choice but to find a new clinic name.

Although it's just a physical move, the Ministry of Health (MOH) requires us to apply for a brand new license.  And they require us to separate the medical and dental licences.

So right now we are in the process of renovation and outfitting the new space. It's 2 bus - stops from where we currently are, and its on the 4th floor. Which means we still have the problem with visibility and location but I think that can be overcome with some advertising.

Who knew that clinic renovation could be so exhausting! I had to get the floor plans drawn up, submit them to MOH along with a few other licensing documents. When that was approved we had to submit more documents for renovation permits etc.

With the renovation underway, we had to decide quickly on finishings, colour and fittings. It was exhausting, looking at different shades of colours and having to decide on size, shape and design sinks! I initially requested for an interior decorator for a quotation, but seriously, I couldn't justify a $9000 consultation and design fee.

This is truly my first real work project, and I'm very excited about it. I finally get to specify the design based on what we do! Of course I hope it'll turn out looking ok.

Here's to the future! Heal Medical Centre, Heal Dental Clinic!

Finishing Primary 1

In the blink of an eye the year is drawing to an end!

After all that excitement about starting Primary School, the first year is well and truly over.
Madison had her last day of class on the 13th November.

There was a bit of excitement towards the end: she had to try out for the tennis developmental team in school. I took an afternoon off to take her there. It felt like a culmination of all the lessons she's had in the past 4 years. It didn't go well. It wasn't just that she wasn't selected to do the extra curricular activity for next year, it was just that she lacked the style and technique/ basics that she should have.

The result: I've stopped her at the Singapore Swimming Club tennis and private lessons that she's been doing for the past 2 years. I got the contact of coach Weber and his Alfo group at the Raffles Institution from one of Madison's classmate's mum. Coach Weber was very kind to allow the girls to try out at his group session the very next Saturday. Within that hour, he was able to show us that Madison did in fact have a nice swing.  I was sold.

So for the time being we are doing private lessons with him. I think of it as being 2 hours with the club coach squeezed into 1 of Weber's.

Annika is finishing up with K1 at Pat's Schoolhouse and there's been some upheaval at the school. It started with a change in principal from Ms Elsie to Ms Serene, and I guess with any change in management there is bound to be some disgruntlement until the dust settles. There has been a movement in teachers within the school-- not all necessarily bad, but it did unsettle the parents. Annika had a change in her English/Math teacher, but since then her reading has improved. I guess one of the concerns is if the new group of teachers will be able to maintain the standards at the school. School fees are also increasing year on year so that's a concern too.

Liam is a work in progress. He's getting into the difficult twos/threes stage and still not eating well. I suppose with that is also his speech is still not the best but we are starting to hear clearer words and sentences from him. I'm hoping that its a transitional stage... it's a distant memory now of Annika being a fussy eater-- she's so much better now, to the point I am able to take her and Madison out for meals on my own without feeling stressed. I've signed and paid for him to start Pat's Schoolhouse for 2016.

The other thing that's troubling me is the question of after school tuition.

I've heard so much from other mum's with older kids that it's pretty much inevitable from the end of Primary 2 if you want to avoid the whole screaming at the kids type thing. Perhaps tuition isn't as it was in the past. And the reality is that the classroom is 40 kids to 1 teacher. The kids don't get enough attention from the teacher. I think perhaps we should re-frame it to being more like university? Time is school is like going for lectures. Then home/centre based tuition is the tutorials for more individual attention and time to work on weak areas?

We went and did a trial / diagnostic test at a centre called Eye Level just yesterday. The guy running it seemed like a patient person, and his strengths are probably in English and Math( primary ).  The diagnostic test did show us the kids weaknesses and starting point. So maybe not a bad idea. The girls seemed to find him ok, but I guess only time will tell. I think of it more as individual attention for the kids outside of school?

It's so hard to know what to do! I don't want to do too much, but it's also unfair if all the other kids are getting the extra help and your child is the only one to struggle on her own, right?