Happy birthday, daddy!

Last week, we celebrated both Matt’s birthday and Fathers’ Day. Matt’s birthday was 2 days ahead of Fathers’ Day and it was actually the first time M was meaningfully involved. She went to school as usual that day while we headed to Dempsey Hill for a rare meal together – early lunch at the PS Cafe. After that, we caught a movie before picking M up for dinner

We made the mistake of letting her know we’ll get daddy’s birthday cake after dinner, as she turned out to be disinterested in her dinner. She did not eat much but since it’s a special occasion, we decided to let it go. We went to the Icing Room (another Breadtalk outfit) at Compass Point to get a ‘Decorate-it-Yourself’ cake. We had passed by once and thought it’ll be fun for M.

So, M was excited from start to stop. After I showed her how to squeeze the icing out, she was pretty much on her own. She certainly had her own idea of how the cake should look like and she can’t help tasting the icing packs. The final product was far from pretty in my opinion but it did not matter to daddy.

Fun aside, the vanilla cake we got was not exactly tasty. Not surprising since it was a normal sponge cake with a thick layer of cream on the outside; there were a few pieces of preserved fruit in between and that was about it. Not forgetting of course the heap of icing and sugar toppings on top, courtesy of M. Well, I guess it’s not the cake you’re after when you choose something like that.

Two days later on Fathers’ Day, I was trying to get M to wish Matt “Happy Fathers’ Day” but she kept insisting “No, it’s Happy Birthday!” Ever since then, she’s been bugging us about when my birthday is. I wonder when she’ll get enough of birthdays!

Schoolhouse by the garden… 6 months on…

M has now attended 3 months of the half-day programme and 3+ months of the full-day programme atSchoolhouse by the garden. With the exception that she’s falling sick more often, we are happy with the school so far. The class size has grown from 8 in Dec 2008 to 12 now. With two teachers, one local English teacher and one PRC Chinese teacher, class management still seems manageable.

Just a couple weeks back, we met up with the teachers during the annual Meet-the-Parents session and were presented with an evaluation of M’s developmental progress. One observation shared by the teachers is M’s positive learning attitude. She’s always keen on hands-on activities and very attentive during story telling sessions. However, both noted that she’s always distracted during flashcard sessions. Oops! I wonder if I caused that with all the Glenn Doman flashcards when she was younger.

According to the teachers, M is also generally cooperative and very aware of the good behaviour that is expected of her. For example, she’ll say “Teacher M, I never run”. With regards to interaction with her peers, she’s willing to share toys but does not like anyone to touch her bedding items. As for her likes and dislikes, she loves getting her hands dirty during arts and craft and cookery classes but dislikes rough play and getting water in her eyes during water play.

We’re happy with her development so far and we continue to like the school environment and community. The management updates parents with monthly newsletters, each term’s curriculum and documentation of class activities. M has been happy with school except for a short period of time when she had a change of teacher.

All in all, a good 6 months and its a thumb’s up for us!

A first for the family!

A couple of weeks back, our family tried kite flying for the first time and it was fun!

Somehow, both Matt and I have not tried kite flying through our childhood and adulthood. Anyway, we’ve passed by the open field around Sengkang several times and seen lots of people enjoying kite flying. And every time, we kept saying we have to do it one day. I finally got my act together and remembered to buy a kite on one of my shopping trips.

Our first attempt was on a Sunday morning. Not a good idea, we realised. We were the only souls on the field, the sun was scorching and there was not much of wind. we can’t help laughing at ourselves! Nonetheless, we gave it a go and managed to get the kite up into the sky. Not bad for a start. M got really excited about letting out the line and watching the kite soar higher and higher. But we couldn’t last long in that weather and called it a day pretty soon.

Our second attempt was definitely more enjoyable. It was a cooling Saturday evening, the perfect weather. We reached the field just before 6pm and there were lots of people there already. The wind condition was ideal and the kite soared without effort. In fact, we let the line out to the maximum in no time. M was more interested in people and kite watching this time. We bought another smaller kite thinking that M may be able to attempt on her own but it did not work well. The other professionals and their kites there proved more intriguing for her.

The best part of this activity is that its free! A rarity in Singapore… And we’ll be returning again soon!