The young that needs to be educated

On the little walk from our car to the school, a little girl from Rae’s class hopped out of the giant BMW and yelled happily with hand waving in the air”Rae!”. But the very atas Rae shot a glance her way and walked on! I was slightly embarrassed and kept nudging Rae to be friendly, but like a mule, she refused to budge and the little girl walked past us looking glum. Later that night, I decided that Rae’s unfriendly manners in the morning was not acceptable, I mean if she carries on this way, she will not have friends!

Me: Hey, what you did to C was not very nice this morning.

Rae: I don’t like her.

Me (slightly shocked): Why? She was so happy to see you, and you ignored her. How would you feel if your friends ignored you?

Rae: I won’t like it, but mama, C is very rude.

Me: really? And she’s the one that said hello to you!!!

Rae: She loves to yell and the other day, she hurt a friend in class, not only did she not apologise, she said “hur, I like to hurt people.”

Me: (speechless) well, it doesn’t matter what she’s like, we have to be ourselves, so you must smile and say hello to people who greets you whether you like them, or if they are nice.

Rae: alright.

 In the car yesterday on our way home, Rae pointed to her cheek where it was slight scratched and red.

Me:What happened?

Rae: A girl from p1 Charity was swinging her ding-dong wallet and it hit me here.

Me: Oh dear, are you ok?

Rae:Yes. A big jie jie saw it and told the girl what happened. And you know what she said to the jie jie?

Me: What?

Rae: She said “I don’t care.”

Me: (trying to choose the right words to say) next time that happens and they don’t apologise, kick them in their shin and then go tell the teacher.

Rae: No lah! Cannot do that. It will hurt them.

Me: Well, they deserve it and they hurt you.

Rae: If I do that, they will cry and that will make me cry.

Me: Why would you cry?

Rae: Because they are sad and it makes me sad to see them cry.

Me: sigh………..

Rae:Never mind, mama. It was only a bit painful when it hit me. I didn’t even remember until I saw you. It’s ok , its ok.

Makes me wonder what kind of family background these brats are raised in, to actually have no remorse for their wrong actions but delight in the process. Seriously, if such behaviours are not corrected in time, can you imagine the society our kids and their children will be living in???

A new beginging

We bid farewell to 2009 and said a less than enthusiastic hello to 2010, I’m not sure if it was because 2009 had just gone by right under our nose or was it because we are cautiously aware of the many new changes that lies ahead in the new year. Either reasons I think we’ve settled ok in the last 14 days. We are still alive!

Rae started a whole new adventure in life ~ entering primary school and although she gives politically correct answer to questions such as “are you ready for school?’ or “are you excited about primary one?” , as parents, Hubba and I knew that she was worried, unsettled and stressed about the new environment. Hubba and I had to reshuffle our lives a bit to accomodate the change as well, simple logistics such as waking up 1.5hours earlier every morning, Hubba sending Rae to school and then me to work, me working shorter hours, making the day’s dinner the night before, getting to bed earlier so on and so forth. We’ve managed quite well I would say, although it was quite a fair bit of getting used to in the first week. Now, everything seems to be so routine. 

I had taken leave for the first three days of school to help Rae settle in school. She cried a bit (ah who am I kidding?), but to her credit, the crying got lesser and lesser as the days progressed. She didn’t even shed a tear since yesterday! For someone like her, I think it’s a great milestone. She has even made many friends in class and really seem to like the school now.

I am very pleased with the school that we’ve chosen and I think all this adjustments (logistically) is worthwhile. On the second day of school, I walked Rae in to her classroom and she started to sob when I was leaving, a P3/P4 girl walked by (possibly on her way to the hall), saw the scene and stopped without anyone asking and said with a smile “come, don’t cry. Its fun to be in school! The teachers and your friends will be with you and your mum will come later.” and took Rae by her hand. I was very moved (and quite honestly, nearly cried).  As I thanked her, she replied with smile again “you are welcome and don’t worry, she will be fine.” ohhhhhh…….

I’ve had the chance to observed (while being the Squat leader outside the school gate) the way the teachers interacted with parents and girls, the way the other school girls took initiative to help out the little ones and even the school workers(gardener, guards, cleaners)are so polite and smiles much. I think they are very happy being there and there is a spirit of joyousness and love, how else can one be kind to another who is in need if she isn’t fulfilled emotionally herself? It’s almost like how a stressful work environment, produces grumpy workers and how a less stressful and caring boss can lead to productive employees.  They are the same logic.

Although the school being further from home and we have to wake up much earlier to meet the school hours, I think its efforts that are truly worthwhile. The environment of the school is so great for a child like Rae who needs constant encouragement and affirmations.  The stress-free school system is also something that really meets my idea of a primary school. I’ve done some reasearch and most of the feedback about this school has been really positive and girls from here all seems very well-rounded and happy people. And that, is what I want for Rae. One can be really academically high but unhappy and lacks human relation skills, I don’t think such a child would make it very far in life. This school is not in the top 10 but neither is it in the bottom 80, with a national passing rates of 90% and seems to do relatively well in all subjects and CCAs.  The school also provides a locker for each girl to keep books/art stuff that they don’t need at home so it does not have to lugged back and forth.  They’ve also given great thoughts into the planning of timetable, just so that the girls will not need to lug all the big and heavy books all on the same day. Its something minor but the efforts and thoughts are significant enough to show that the school cares, that is reason enough to drag me out of bed when the stars are still shining and the sun is far away (ok, I exaggerated).

I am happy, Rae is happy and Hubba seems happy too and that’s all that matters. It’s a good start to a great year and I am looking forward to the events that are going to unfold in the days, weeks and months ahead!

Happy new year everyone!

Rae’s first solo performance ~ 13th Dec 2009

Soloist in the making!

Orientation day

Okay, I realised this is waaaay overdue and I have many reasons for this tardy update but never mind.

Hubba, Rae and I trotted down in the new car to Wild Rocket for lunch on the day of Rae’s P1 Orientation for 2 reasons ~ 1) we love the pasta and desert there and 2) we need a proper, legal parking place as there’s literally no parking lots near the school compound.

The little kids were seated in the front of the hall accordingly to their class and the parents behind, also accordingly to class 🙂  I was a bit anxious and uneasy as I wasn’t sure if Rae would be fine without us as she has tendency to get stress in big, unfamiliar places. After several peeping moments, I realised Rae was as comfortable as can be and was busy looking around, exploring the school with her eyes.  The kids were taken to have a tour of the school by the teachers and big sisters who are assigned to each respective class, while the parents sat on for the orientation and later to the various vendors  located in different classrooms within the school.  As most of what we needed to get/do have all been done prior to the orientation, Hubba and I pretty much have nothing to do except get her uniforms. While trying to do decide how many to get (size was a non-issue as even the XXS was too big for Rae), we spotted our neighbour! Apparently, their eldest daughter was from here too and had great fun being in this school  Couple of weeks later, we met this couple and the little girl again at our lift lobby and chatted further.

During the orientation, we had a chance to meet with the Principal of the student care centre and spoke briefly.  She’s a young, enthusiastic and helpful lady and her team of teachers seems really nice too. I mean, I’ve heard so much about this centre and everyone says such good things about them and it sure is comforting to know that most of what is said is true.

I enjoyed the orientation, getting to know more about the school and their vision and the best takeaway of the day was that we had made a wise decision with the school choice. We left the school with a good feeling and Rae told us that she’s looking forward to coming to the school and getting to know her new friends!

We’ve also realised that Rae is no longer that shy, timid little girl who were be anxious or panic in unfamiliar ground. She was all smiles, and listened attentively to the teacher/Big sisters while being taken on the tour.  I think my little girl is ready to take on the daunting world of primary school where she’d be trained to be more independent, take on new roles etc etc….I am excited!

Playdate with the Michelles

Do..Re....Mi....

Lovey dovey

 

6th birthday celebration

All’s set and ready to roll, just pending caterer and ordering the cake and stuffing the goodie bag! All the invitation has gone out and we hope people will read and RSVP on time (heard horror stories recently about no RSVPs and/or RSVPs on the event day itself!!)

This year, we’ve decided to have a grander party to mark the end of her kindy years (and sort of farewell to her friends) and a celebration to the start of another phrase in Rae’s life. I guess for most parents and kids these days, what we’ve planned may not be considered grand but ordinary. But both Hubba and I believe in not over-giving to our child least gifts becomes a norm and not something precious or treasured. We didn’t grow up with lavish birthday parties(at most, a nice big bowl of hot mee sua smelling strong of chinese wine and top it off with a hard boiled egg), but look at us, we turned out fine. So, lavish parties are not a neccessaity, nor a given but a gift in itself. It isn’t a representation of how much we love our child or how important he/she is to the parent.   Okay, it sounds like I am defending ourselves.

So, its gonna be real fun, I hope. Instead of hiring a magician cum balloonist ( I was told they double up these days), Hubba wanted a retro party and went ahead to book a ventriloquist cum balloonist (hahahha how retro!). So that’s the ‘show’ part, and the kids are welcome to come take dip in the pool prior to the show to cool down and hopefully tired them out a bit so they are calmer for the rest of the party time. It’s going to be a 3 hour affair! Thank goodness for clubhouse, I think we’d both be so traumatized if we had to house 30 kids in our little apartment!!!!

I have one more training to prepare for and after that, I’d be able to concentrate on planning the goodie bags/make a decision on where to order cake and our impending holiday to HK, which I am really looking forward to.