Read-Aloud Session of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

The kids' overwhelming response to our first read aloud sessions of CS Lewis The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe excited me much. I was so thrilled that they could actually follow the little nuances and even caught some of the little sprinkles of humor. 

But to pique their interest, I stopped after Chapter Two. That was met with loud and thankfully, non-violent protest. 

Let’s hope that this marks the start of their journey of reading for life and living. 

Meet Brave Maeve

Sammy just happened to pick up a book in the library  entitled “Brave Maeve” and written by Joanne Poon. because it had an interesting cover and he read it the moment he reached home. He was very tickled to read about ‘botak’ Maeve. I was intrigued at his response. That evening, those words “Maeve" and "Joanne Poon” just kept ringing in my mind and it suddenly dawned on me that it was written by my BSF friend Joanne Poon. A quick watsapp soon evolved to a catch up date and I was blessed to hear about how God worked in this family’s life in 2013 as mommy Joanne published a book to explain to Maeve about what the chemotherapy she was going through. I was blessed and touched and it reminded me of God’s grace and mercy in my own life and in Sammy’s life. 

Maybe, one day, I need to write too....

2013 was a year of cartoons

Of course, we did watch Turbo, FreeBird and others. Strangely, Sammy enjoys Cloudy with A Chance of Meatball 2 a lot.  Seems like an appear-out-of-nowhere post. Well, just reminiscing the times we can scoot off so easily to the movies without jostling with the crowd. 

Holidays that Reset and Restore

These family getaways with just the 4 of us are very precious. Precious because we enter into it synchronized - synchronized in our priority to explore with an open mind, synchronized with the knowing that we would be doing lots of walking and trekking if necessary, synchronized with no external obligations to meet, synchronized with flexible meal preference and some very specific meal preference, synchronized with reconnecting and spending time with each other. It was a holiday that reset and restore.

All this took place in the backdrop of accumulating work, school work and house mainentence etc.  But...it was well worth it.

A Traditional Japanese Wedding and Japan for the fifth time

A traditional Japanese Wedding - the perfect excuse for a short getaway to our fave holiday country.  But then again, even if there were no excuse, you would find us there:)

A Seemingly Benign Family Photo
 [ but it was one which required quite a bit of effort because
we had to pack our formal clothes and shoes amidst our winter wear and boots]

Daddy and Sammy with their Japanese friends

Sarah with a bouquet of cherry blossom and other flowers 

While Jie Jie is in school...

Sammy has been happily busy in his own ways, exploring and drawing and creating. Sometimes, I think this is a better sort of education. 

2014 - Sarah's Season of Schooling

Sarah’s School Bag which I bought from Seoul

Yup, this is the reason for my absence. After about two months, I think I am getting the hang of it....oh, and of course, Sarah too. Haha. 

What I love about it so far -

• I am beginning to gain a greater insight into Sarah’s mind as I witness how she struggles in some areas and excel in others.
• I am able to see how Sarah relates to others and her teachers. 
• Sarah’s teachers have been most caring and kind and patient. 
• Sarah is slowly understanding that going school is her responsibility and not mommy’s. And mommy is also understanding that going to school is not her responsibility but Sarah’s. 
• Sarah has learnt the tough lessons of projection and planning in order to achieve her learning objectives.
• Our journeys in the car doubles up as lunch time, spelling, prep talk time, Magic School Bus time, Cat in the hat time and Chinese learning time. I like that a lot. 
• I get to spend lots of time with Sammy boy and we have been enjoying our very regular trips to the Science Centre and library. He likes that a lot.

What I don’t love about it so far - 

• Many presumptions are involved in a mass education. These I had to confront because of Sarah’s learning styles. This actually turned out to be enlightening for me as I gain insights into Sarah’s mind and as my thoughts about education continue to evolve. 
• Institutionalization is technical and minute but very non inspiring. That does stress me out because I am fighting against time and schedule to fuel her curious mind, to build her imagination, to help her realize the great beauty of words and the art of language. 

There has been so much reflection and fine tuning on my part every week that its mentally exhausting. But pain is good as I have learnt. As I told some of my closer friends, my tolerance of institutionalization is pretty limited. We will see how long it will last :)

Chinese New Year

It was great to gather around my mummy's cooking and tuck in till we pop. 

My Breakfast of 2014

Birsch muesli with organic apple and organic half boiled eggs - yummily healthy :) 

"For the first time in forever"

Our bumper crop of passion fruits have finally arrived. Can't get over the satisfaction...for the first time in forever. On a side note, don't you just love the movie "Frozen" haha