Completely unimaginative title, I know.
1. H is about to start primary school now and I hope I've made the right decision putting her in this school. The only viable alternative is to put her in the school I'm teaching in and the reason why she's not here is because I was planning to get pregnant and did get pregnant at the time when registration was in session and so I thought I was going to leave forever. But now that the pregnancy was a short-lived one, it seems like I'll be with the school til forever (or at least, until I leave the service). I'm trying not to fret about the decision. I must convince myself that there is a reason behind everything and so I must be at peace with this. I MUST. (Saying that slightly louder to quell that noise at the back of my head that goes "Transfer. Transfer. Transfer.")
2.We just had the P1 Orientation and the P said that there are no exams in P1 to ease the pupils into school life and to let them enjoy learning. We also had the final Parent-Teachers' Conference with H's teacher the same afternoon during which she said that Huda can read, write and do her Math well. Alhamdulillah. The teacher said that we had nothing to worry about. No. I think not. A parent's job involves a whole lot of worrying and it's somewhat unnatural not to worry. Huda is, thankfully, like me, (and confirmed by the teacher to which we pretended to be somewhat concerned but we really are not) not at all blessed in the performance arts. So, with that, she can't join any of the time-consuming things like dance ensembles (have you seen how much time they spend preparing for SYF?). That leaves her with academic pursuits like reading, writing and arithmetic. Hur hur hur. All nerdy pursuits given stamps of approval by both parents.
3. I am thoroughly upset about the student care that we had picked for her. Initially it was owned and managed by AMP but AMP decided to sell it off to focus on the school-based student care which presumably are more profitable than under-the-block type of student care centres. With this, I am in doubt about my own working future. I know for a fact that I'll be working for the entire of 2013. But, I am really not too keen on using this student care service for more than a year so one good alternative is to transfer H over to my school by 2014, go on half load so that I can finish all my work by dismissal time and then go home with her. See? This is the "Transfer. Transfer. Transfer.'" noise that's going on in my head since today's P1 Orientation.
4. ME & Kindle
I bought a Kindle last month and have been obsessed about it since. I've downloaded USD130 worth of books in it so far. Some - I'll never read. Like, J.K. Rowling's Casual Vacancy. I don't read to get depressed and I couldn't get past the first page. But, because the book costs quite a bit of money, I won't delete it from my Kindle. Serves me right for buying based on the author's reputation alone. I thoroughly regretted it after I read reviews and synopsis of the book.
One good read is One Day by David Nicholls. It was good until I hit Chapter 18 and that's when I used up one entire box of tissue paper and caused some kind of flooding in Woodlands. I don't read to get depressed and I hated, hated, hated David Nicholls for a good 2 days before I (and another box of tissue paper) went back to the book anyway and continued reading.
Now, I thought I would love to go back to a physical book but Kindle has spoiled it for me. I used to think of myself as a book snob (not in that way) but in a way that physical book is superior to any form of technology. I've always felt that way when I read from the iPad. But, Kindle has changed that for me. Have you seen a Kindle in action? It looks just like a real book and for the old fogeys like me - it DOES NOT STRAIN your eyes!
And then, there's the dictionary function. I was aware of this function when I saw my friend's husband using a Kindle and he showed me the dictionary function. You just have to touch the word whose meaning you want to know for 1-2 seconds and the dictionary will pop up with the meaning of the word there. To go back to the book, you just press one button and there you are, back to your story. It's just too easy!
And of course, nothing can beat the convenience of having all the books you want in one device. I am in between at least 5 books now. I go back and forth between books depending on what I feel like reading. It's such joy. Just make sure you are the only one using the Kindle cos if you are sharing the Kindle with someone and the other person is reading the same book you are, the Kindle will open up the book to the last page you read. That's a bit annoying so I'm grateful that I'm the sole user of Kindle at home.
H sometimes uses my Kindle to read Fantastic Mr Fox but that's the only book she reads from my Kindle. I downloaded some picture books for her (Harold's Purple Crayon etc) but picture books are best viewed in the physical form. Besides, the Kindle is a black/grey and white/off-white device so children's books and Kindle don't go well together. Unless you get the Kindle Fire. Which is not really as great because it is not a dedicated reading device. If you get a Kindle to read, then you should just get the e-ink readers. This will prevent you from doing something else instead of reading.
Back to children and Kindle. No, I won't recommend it for young readers. Some still need to point at the words while reading and if you get the Kindle Touch or Paperwhite, the device will go to the next page. So, no go.
Let me wax more lyrical about the Kindle, okay? The battery life - it lasts! And lasts! Energy is consumed only when you turn the page so can you imagine how long the battery lasts? If you take this with you on a one-week holiday, you don't have to worry about charging it! I had to charge it quite frequently in the first few days because I was used to charging my toys the moment I see a less-than-full battery bar. And also because I was toggling between a lot of books in the first few days of ownership. But now that I have overcome the early euphoria, I cannot even remember the last time I charged the Kindle.
5. On the topic of reading. There's F's reading. H started off reading on a diet of Baby Can Read. It works as long as that is the only moving images your child sees. No other TV shows or videos. With F, I started her off on Baby Can Read and Baby Signing Times. Baby Signing Times were a whole lot more exciting than Baby Can Read so very quickly she developed a preference for Signing Times. Naturally, I killed off both. Now that she's almost 4 and in my warped world, at a rather late age to start reading, I'm starting with sight words for her. And I spell out the words. So she knows how to spell the/is/you/my etc and can recognise these words but there's not enough recognition on her part for the words to form a coherent meaning. Lesson learnt: Do not show any other videos other than Baby Can Read. In any case, F is read to often enough and I hope she picks up some words there.
6. F is also not using the Iqra' books to learn how to read the Quran. She got started on Iqra but I switched to the Tilawati series. There are only Tilawati Books 1 & 2. So far, F is halfway through Book 1. It's challenging teaching her, just as it was with H. But, I've learnt my lesson here. Stop before the child wants to stop and do not make it miserable for both mother and child. So, I go at her pace. Thankfully (and for this, I thank God each time this happens), she's self-motivated. She'll take her book, place it in front of me saying "Nak ngaji." Then, I must stop everything I'm doing and teach her. Each page takes about 5-10 minutes to cover. And then, that's it. I don't try to fore her to do more than she wants to do lest she gets sick of it (and me).
It's 12.18am now. I'm going to sleep. Good night, all.
Showing posts with label primary school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label primary school. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Sunday, February 19, 2012
February 2012
Doing monthly updates now. Hopefully I can sustain this for a while.
I am soooo inundated with work. My honeymoon period is over and I now barely have time to even check my facebook. I am now involved in areas which I previously have no interest in. But I should learn and expose myself to things which are completely new so as to rejuvenate my brain cells so that I (hopefully) do not get a severe case of dementia a few years down the road.
Farah's School Life
It was pretty uneventful, the first few days. She barely cried so I thought all was going to be okay. But, like Huda, the tears fell much, much later. After she overcame the baby talk (see previous entry), she started waking up in the middle of the night. (Both kids have been sleeping through the night, up to that point.) Sometimes, she would come to my room, wake me up, and tell me in a sad little voice, "Mak, besok Farah tanak pergi sekolah tau?" (Mak, tomorrow I don't want to go to school.")
Then, she started telling me nonsense like, "I don't want to go to school because my teacher's eyes are too round."
Sigh. I'm sure one day, she'll start enjoying school as much as Huda does. Til that day comes, I have to tolerate all these sob stories coming from her.
Farah the Theatre Practitioner
She can turn her tears on like a seasoned performer. As of now, it's still amusing although I don't really humour her much when she starts her tear-y sessions. She'll just bury her face in her eyes and sob quietly. It's seriously amusing when that happens. You'll see her shoulders moving up and down and you'll hear those gentle sobs coming from her.
She does this whenever anything displeases her, even something so small and insignificant. The other day, Huda decided to sit in the front seat when my father sent them to school. Farah, feeling lonely at the back, started sobbing. One day, I ended a phonecall with TheHusband without passing the phone to her first, she started sobbing. My brother and sister teased her about taking her bag, she started sobbing.
But, it's not that she's some weepy little girl. When my nephews tease her (and this can be particularly annoying), she'll turn into some feisty little thing and will disturb my nephew back. So, there's really no pattern in sight for now. It really totally depends on her propensity for theatrics at that point in time.
Huda's Quran Reading
Aiyoooh. Ever since the new school term started, it has been very, very erratic. I'm trying to keep it to at least 4 times a week instead of daily recitation as planned earlier.
Huda's School
I don't know!!!
Gaaah!
School A produces very good results but Huda will have no life for the next 6 years as homework will keep her very occupied . It helps that her cousins are in the same school too so it'll be more convenient when school is closed for Marking Day or whatever reasons. Only one adult needs to take the day off to take care of the kids and we can save on our childcare leave.
School B is very, very near our house and TheHusband can send the kids to school in the morning. Its results are okay; I think.
Should I put School A as first choice or School B? Both schools will still be double session next year so I doubt either school will be popular among parents. Hopefully, there won't be any balloting needed. I think I will wait til the last day of P1 registration before I make up my mind where to register Huda.
Argh!
---
All right. That's all for now. Hopefully I'll put up another entry soon enough. More about the kids and the antics they get up to (plenty).
Sunday, October 23, 2011
Language and Everything Else
The kids are doing some work at the dining table while I'm on the ipad. Heh. (I have a love-hate relationship with the ipad. But that's another story.)
Huda
Huda can now read quite well. There are huge areas for improvement, of course. Like rhythm and intonation. But, for now, I'm satisfied with her progress.
However, there's the issue with Singlish. I'm not from the I-detest-Singlish camp. I see value in it but only after the kid is competent in English. So, my ears hurt terribly when she goes, 'Inside have a spoon.'
Gaaaah! I am now in the process of forcing her to use 'There is...' and 'There are...' in her speech. It's not an easy task because I'm sure that she has friends who use 'have' to start their sentences.
Then there's the wrong structure for questions. She goes 'You go where?' when asking people where they are going. I must have corrected this at least 3000 times so far but I still hear this too often!
I'm hoping that by the middle of next year, I would be able to weed out all these problems and that she would speak in grammatical English. Hopefully, she would develop an ear for correct English and would know the correct contexts for English and Singlish.
---
Farah.
Farah sometimes likes to call people by anything except by their actual names. One night, while saying goodnight to her father:
Huda can now read quite well. There are huge areas for improvement, of course. Like rhythm and intonation. But, for now, I'm satisfied with her progress.
However, there's the issue with Singlish. I'm not from the I-detest-Singlish camp. I see value in it but only after the kid is competent in English. So, my ears hurt terribly when she goes, 'Inside have a spoon.'
Gaaaah! I am now in the process of forcing her to use 'There is...' and 'There are...' in her speech. It's not an easy task because I'm sure that she has friends who use 'have' to start their sentences.
Then there's the wrong structure for questions. She goes 'You go where?' when asking people where they are going. I must have corrected this at least 3000 times so far but I still hear this too often!
I'm hoping that by the middle of next year, I would be able to weed out all these problems and that she would speak in grammatical English. Hopefully, she would develop an ear for correct English and would know the correct contexts for English and Singlish.
---
Farah.
Farah sometimes likes to call people by anything except by their actual names. One night, while saying goodnight to her father:
Farah: Bye bye Momok. (ghost)
Ayah: Ayah bukan momok. (I'm not a ghost)
Farah: Ok. Bye bye Bukan-Momok.
---
She's not reading yet.
I used to put the Baby Can Read videos on for Huda. Although she couldn't talk til very very late in her toddlerhood, she could identify words. I remember that after a few months of Baby Can Read, she could identify the beginning sounds of words. For example, if I have a couple of word cards in front of her, she would be able to correctly pick out the cards for the words I want. When I give her a new word which she has not seen before, she would choose the word cards that begin with the same sound. I once put in the word 'butterfly' in the set of word cards she had. Up to that point, she had never seen the word 'butterfly' before. When I asked her to pick out 'butterfly' among the set, I noticed that she only picked out the words that begin with the /b/ sound. I believed completely in Baby Can Read after that.
Huda is now at Book 6 of Iqra'. That's the final book of the Iqra' series. She is a rather reluctant reader when it comes to practising this because while she can read, she does not understand what she's reading. Once she finishes book 6 (by the end of the year, I hope), she can start reading the Quran. I want her to start reading the Quran and at least cover 1/3 of it by the time she goes to Primary 1. This will make it easier because once she's comfortable and more fluent reading it, she just needs to spend 10-15 minutes reading it daily and I just need to check her recitation.
Primary School
Primary school will be a frightening time and I want to make it as smooth-sailing as possible. The only way to do that is to prepare her sufficiently for it so that she won't have to struggle. I hope that I am on the right track and that my daughters will not cause grief to their teachers!
Unfortunately, I'm not doing Baby Can Read with Farah. Tsk.
She enjoys being read to and insists that we read her countless of books. This is her father's area. Every evening when he comes back from work, he will spend at least half an hour reading to the kids. We visit the library every one to two weeks so there's a constant supply of fresh storybooks for them. This father-daughter reading time gives me some time to rush through housework: hanging the laundry, vacuuming and mopping.
TV
TV
The kids still don't watch TV at home. Of course, they do watch TV when we are at other people's homes but not at our own place. There are three videos that they watch sometimes though - Baby Can Read, Baby Signing Times & Iqra' (that's something like Arabic phonics).
Some people are surprised when they discover my no-TV policy. The standard questions will be:
Do they ask for it?
So what do they do at home?
How do you go about doing your work?
What if your daughters don't know anything about TV shows when their friends are talking about their favourite shows?
Short answers are:
1. No. They don't ask for TV when we are at home because it's simply not switched on when they are awake. We do have cable but we don't have the kiddy channels.
And no, it's not like we replace TV with computer games/ipad/iphone either. I am pretty much a Luddite when it comes to kids' entertainment. The more low-tech, the better. The kids are only allowed a limited use of the ipad on Sundays. About 20 minutes each. Even then, I sometimes distract them with a whole lot of other stuff that they forget about the ipad.
2. What do they do at home? They play/fight/play/draw/fight/play/colour/fight/read/play. They are used to keeping themselves entertained without the use of screens.
3. When I needed to cook or clean in the kitchen, Farah would take her toys and play at my feet. There is a kids' table in the kitchen and that's her work station when I'm there. When I'm hanging the clothes out to dry, she'll help me pass the clothes pegs. Vacuuming the floor will see her trying to chase the vacuum cleaner and sitting on it. When both are at home together at the same time, it's much easier because they will keep each other entertained.
4. My children know plenty about Dora from the books we bought and borrowed from the library. Huda loves the Disney Princesses but she doesn't know who they are exactly. There are plenty of books we can get if we want her to know about the princesses but we hate them princesses. Life is not about spending your entire life looking for a prince charming. Ptui.
(This fixation with the princesses may be a losing battle for us parents, though.)
Iqra'
Huda is now at Book 6 of Iqra'. That's the final book of the Iqra' series. She is a rather reluctant reader when it comes to practising this because while she can read, she does not understand what she's reading. Once she finishes book 6 (by the end of the year, I hope), she can start reading the Quran. I want her to start reading the Quran and at least cover 1/3 of it by the time she goes to Primary 1. This will make it easier because once she's comfortable and more fluent reading it, she just needs to spend 10-15 minutes reading it daily and I just need to check her recitation.
Primary School
Primary school will be a frightening time and I want to make it as smooth-sailing as possible. The only way to do that is to prepare her sufficiently for it so that she won't have to struggle. I hope that I am on the right track and that my daughters will not cause grief to their teachers!
House-Hunting
Saturday's headlines: Resale flat prices keep going up. I'm giving up. I'm not going to harbour hopes of getting another flat anytime soon. I'm just going to go ahead and get my floor to ceiling shoe cabinet.
---
I started this on the ipad but finished this of on the laptop a week later. The ipad is simply not a machine for typing.
Friday, July 22, 2011
Going to Work
1. Work
Leaving the kids now is more manageable. It helps that I like my main job (which is to teach).
(Repeat. I only like the main part. I still hate it how our focus can get drawn away from the main part because there are so many other things we are supposed to look at and give attention to. That's why I'm beginning to think that I'm better off as a relief teacher.)
(Sidetrack: I'll always remember this story that my favouritest supervisor in the whole wide world (I'm into drama and theatrics at time, just like my girls) told the school one day. It was about the difference between being a teacher and being a relief teacher. Being a teacher involves climbing mountains of paperwork and swimming through red tapes of bureaucracy. But if you want to teach, you have to apply to be a relief teacher.
Wait wait. Did I get the story right?)
Aaaaaanyway. For now, I'm coping well. Alhamdulillah. I just hope I won't be burdened by too many things in future.
3. The Girls
The younger girl is *really really* behaving like a true blue 2-year-old. She bites, she pushes her sister off the stroller (after first saying that she does not want to be in it), she pinches, she shouts, she wants her own way and nothing but her way, refuses her vegetables and wants to survive only on keropok, M&Ms and her 2 Dora t-shirts.
What do I do?
Exercise lots of patience and hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. (Besides scolding her jialat jialat and giving empty threats occasionally.)
I use Supernanny's Naughty Corner and it is effective in curbing bad behaviour. Whenever she shouts, I give her a warning (which normally goes unheeded). A few milliseconds later, she'll shout again. Off to the Naughty Corner she goes. But I only use it for shouting offences. Normally, after a trip to the Naughty Corner, she will be well-behaved for the next 1-2 hours.
But, kids this age have the attention span of a goldfish. So, I can't expect her to remember how unattractive punishment is for too long.
Talking about goldfish's attention - she has this rather annoying habit of not remembering where she puts her things and she expects me to go hunting for her missing item. Yesterday, she couldn't find her wallet (one of at least 3000 wallets/purses that she has at home - all of which contain various bits and bobs of this and that) . Now, this wallet was lying on the floor, less than 1 metre away from her so I refused to provide any help. She whined incessantly about the whereabouts of her wallet and when she finally laid eyes on it, she nonchalantly picked it up and moved on to the next activity. Which was to put this wallet in a bigger purse she saw in the toy box. A few seconds later, with the purse in her hand, she started whining AGAIN about her missing wallet! It was no longer in her hand. Grrrrrr. I refused to help her and she eventually found the wallet beside the toy box. She put it there so she could free both hands to pull the purse out of the box. Gaaaaaah! Situations like this happen on a daily basis and I think I gotta start feeding her gingko biloba or something.
And then, there's the Dora fixation. These days, she MUST wear her Dora t-shirt and her Dora panties to my mother's house. The panties, however, cannot be inside her pants/shorts. It must be on the outermost layer so that she can see the Dora picture on the panties. This is fine when we go to my mother's house early in the morning. We set off at 6.20am; it's still dark and no one can see her. It is NOT fine when we are going anywhere else!! The howls of protest we have to bear as we pry the panties off her...
-
The older girl is behaving like a fine young lady most days. Occasionally when she's tired, the cranky monster will get the better of her and she'll throw a mighty fit. These days, thankfully, are few and far between.
She's still the same shy girl when it comes to people she's less familiar with. A neighbour even asked if she could talk. Oh boy. If they only knew. TheHusband and I had to scold her just now because she was chattering non-stop when she was supposed to be sleeping.
She had her IQ test last month. She did okay. But her shyness really shows. When asked to describe the word shoes in as many words as possible. She just held up her leg and pointed to her shoes. When asked to describe a tree, she pointed at the trees outside the window. Aiyoooh. I was in the same room with her and I had to bite my lips to stop myself from interfering with the test.
For now, my main worry about her is the school she's going to in 2013. The school of choice is the same school that her cousins are in. It'll be administratively convenient for her to go to the same school as my sister's kids. (It helps that the school has a good Science programme - an area I so very very need remediation in.) Since last year, there's been no balloting for Phase 2C. I'm praying really hard that the parents in the area will still go the for other schools. The most annoying thing is that if I were to live in the block just next to mine, I'll be considered as being within 1km of the school. But as luck would have it, my block is considered as being within 1-2km of the school. Urgh. I must pray and pray and pray real hard that a) there'll be no balloting for the school again next year; b) they will consider my block as within 1km of the school; c) even if there's balloting, H's name will be picked. If she does not get a place there, the next choice will be a school within walking distance of our place. But, hmmmm. It's not really my first choice.
Nervous sigh.
It's still one year away. (Just calculated the exact distance on Google Maps. IF we manage to secure our Dream Home, it'll be just under 1km! We must, we must, we must get that flat. Salah. Checked http://www.onemap.sg/index.html just to be sure. Our Dream Home is not considered within 1km. Like this, might as well listen to the MND minister and put off getting a new flat by another 2-3 years.)
--------
Ooooookay. All this premature research work (which may be completely obsolete this time next year) is taking too much of my time. I told myself I must be disciplined and finish all my schoolwork on Saturday night so that I can breathe a little easier on Sunday night. But, it's now 10.40pm and 38 pieces of composition to read and grade doesn't excite me much.
Have a peaceful and blessed Ramadan, everyone! And in case there are no further updates, have a merry hari raya too!
(Psst. The date says 22 July but I just posted this a few moments ago on July 30. Started writing the first paragraph on 22 July but never got round to the next paragraph til today.)
Leaving the kids now is more manageable. It helps that I like my main job (which is to teach).
(Repeat. I only like the main part. I still hate it how our focus can get drawn away from the main part because there are so many other things we are supposed to look at and give attention to. That's why I'm beginning to think that I'm better off as a relief teacher.)
(Sidetrack: I'll always remember this story that my favouritest supervisor in the whole wide world (I'm into drama and theatrics at time, just like my girls) told the school one day. It was about the difference between being a teacher and being a relief teacher. Being a teacher involves climbing mountains of paperwork and swimming through red tapes of bureaucracy. But if you want to teach, you have to apply to be a relief teacher.
Wait wait. Did I get the story right?)
Aaaaaanyway. For now, I'm coping well. Alhamdulillah. I just hope I won't be burdened by too many things in future.
3. The Girls
The younger girl is *really really* behaving like a true blue 2-year-old. She bites, she pushes her sister off the stroller (after first saying that she does not want to be in it), she pinches, she shouts, she wants her own way and nothing but her way, refuses her vegetables and wants to survive only on keropok, M&Ms and her 2 Dora t-shirts.
What do I do?
Exercise lots of patience and hope that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. (Besides scolding her jialat jialat and giving empty threats occasionally.)
I use Supernanny's Naughty Corner and it is effective in curbing bad behaviour. Whenever she shouts, I give her a warning (which normally goes unheeded). A few milliseconds later, she'll shout again. Off to the Naughty Corner she goes. But I only use it for shouting offences. Normally, after a trip to the Naughty Corner, she will be well-behaved for the next 1-2 hours.
But, kids this age have the attention span of a goldfish. So, I can't expect her to remember how unattractive punishment is for too long.
Talking about goldfish's attention - she has this rather annoying habit of not remembering where she puts her things and she expects me to go hunting for her missing item. Yesterday, she couldn't find her wallet (one of at least 3000 wallets/purses that she has at home - all of which contain various bits and bobs of this and that) . Now, this wallet was lying on the floor, less than 1 metre away from her so I refused to provide any help. She whined incessantly about the whereabouts of her wallet and when she finally laid eyes on it, she nonchalantly picked it up and moved on to the next activity. Which was to put this wallet in a bigger purse she saw in the toy box. A few seconds later, with the purse in her hand, she started whining AGAIN about her missing wallet! It was no longer in her hand. Grrrrrr. I refused to help her and she eventually found the wallet beside the toy box. She put it there so she could free both hands to pull the purse out of the box. Gaaaaaah! Situations like this happen on a daily basis and I think I gotta start feeding her gingko biloba or something.
And then, there's the Dora fixation. These days, she MUST wear her Dora t-shirt and her Dora panties to my mother's house. The panties, however, cannot be inside her pants/shorts. It must be on the outermost layer so that she can see the Dora picture on the panties. This is fine when we go to my mother's house early in the morning. We set off at 6.20am; it's still dark and no one can see her. It is NOT fine when we are going anywhere else!! The howls of protest we have to bear as we pry the panties off her...
-
The older girl is behaving like a fine young lady most days. Occasionally when she's tired, the cranky monster will get the better of her and she'll throw a mighty fit. These days, thankfully, are few and far between.
She's still the same shy girl when it comes to people she's less familiar with. A neighbour even asked if she could talk. Oh boy. If they only knew. TheHusband and I had to scold her just now because she was chattering non-stop when she was supposed to be sleeping.
She had her IQ test last month. She did okay. But her shyness really shows. When asked to describe the word shoes in as many words as possible. She just held up her leg and pointed to her shoes. When asked to describe a tree, she pointed at the trees outside the window. Aiyoooh. I was in the same room with her and I had to bite my lips to stop myself from interfering with the test.
For now, my main worry about her is the school she's going to in 2013. The school of choice is the same school that her cousins are in. It'll be administratively convenient for her to go to the same school as my sister's kids. (It helps that the school has a good Science programme - an area I so very very need remediation in.) Since last year, there's been no balloting for Phase 2C. I'm praying really hard that the parents in the area will still go the for other schools. The most annoying thing is that if I were to live in the block just next to mine, I'll be considered as being within 1km of the school. But as luck would have it, my block is considered as being within 1-2km of the school. Urgh. I must pray and pray and pray real hard that a) there'll be no balloting for the school again next year; b) they will consider my block as within 1km of the school; c) even if there's balloting, H's name will be picked. If she does not get a place there, the next choice will be a school within walking distance of our place. But, hmmmm. It's not really my first choice.
Nervous sigh.
It's still one year away. (Just calculated the exact distance on Google Maps. IF we manage to secure our Dream Home, it'll be just under 1km! We must, we must, we must get that flat. Salah. Checked http://www.onemap.sg/index.html just to be sure. Our Dream Home is not considered within 1km. Like this, might as well listen to the MND minister and put off getting a new flat by another 2-3 years.)
--------
Ooooookay. All this premature research work (which may be completely obsolete this time next year) is taking too much of my time. I told myself I must be disciplined and finish all my schoolwork on Saturday night so that I can breathe a little easier on Sunday night. But, it's now 10.40pm and 38 pieces of composition to read and grade doesn't excite me much.
Have a peaceful and blessed Ramadan, everyone! And in case there are no further updates, have a merry hari raya too!
(Psst. The date says 22 July but I just posted this a few moments ago on July 30. Started writing the first paragraph on 22 July but never got round to the next paragraph til today.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)