The School Trial

Finally, hubby's persuaded to put Renee back to school.  He's seen the progress she's made via the enrichment learning and is doubtful what any school could deliver to help her further.  I agree with him on the learning part but since her meimei's born, I no longer have the time to coach her and seeing her slacking away and being bored at home everyday, it pains me.  Subsequently, hubby saw my point and decided to give the kindy another try - more to let her spend some time outside home with some friends as well(my only worry now is 'germs'... no good for her nor her meimei should she catch any virus from school).

However, it's not easy to get a slot at this time for K2s and we don't want to put her with a childcare - although hubby had thought it might free up more of my time but that's not what I'd want, even though it'd really give me and even the maid more 'free time'.  I just want her to be more occupied rather than lazing away at home...

Based on what a friend's told me and after speaking to the teachers personally, I felt that perhaps GUG would be better to 'match' her current 'level' but as they could only offer us an afternoon slot, hubby's not keen.  School bus service's not available for their afternoon classes and thus, sending and picking her up daily might be too costly - calculated, almost S$1k on transport, to and fro(even though it only takes less than 10mins to get there), half the amount if I'm to wait 3 1/2hrs for her everyday which is not feasible(of cos hubby wld take the opportunity to suggest getting another car, but I don't want to drive liao, at least not for the time being esp. when I'm so new to this area).

Luckily, I've not discarded the information I've gathered during my search for a kindy earlier this year when we 1st moved here and so, after discussing and narrowing down the list, we went over to a school named Sunshine Kindergarten(@ Namly Place) earlier this week, to have a look.  The place looks clean and they have a very good teacher/child ratio - 2 :10.  The students seem very well-behaved and every child would greet the teachers/principal upon their arrival at the school(why some of them arrived so late I duno..).  This is a Montessori school and with that, they go by individual child's learning pace(good and bad but since Renee's already learning via the enrichment route, this would be better).  I've not liked Montessori's method before, because of their phonics(just like I don't like zoophonics and the likes that teaches purely only on sounds or associate the alphabets with animals' names, etc...) but since Renee's already known her ABCs and had gone through some phonics lessons, I reckon it should not pose too much of a problem, plus this school's curriculum's approved by the MOE(most montessori's are not I've heard), so I guess it's ok.

The school follows the formal school calendar(same like Kinderland) and they'd normally have a 2 weeks holiday programme in June which I thought might be a good idea if Renee could join to see how she and the school can work together but this year, they'd be sending their teachers to some MOE's programmes, so there would only be a 1 week holiday programme(cost : S$250/wk) available.  Anyhow, Renee's seen the school herself and is agreeable, we decided and had confirmed with the Principal that we would let her join their holiday programme starting from tomorrow.  Let's hope things work out well, so she could continue with the school when the June school holiday is over.

Uneven Hair Growth

It's been a couple of weeks since we've shaved baby's hair and we can see some hair growth now.  However, the growth's uneven!  The new hair growth concentrates on the top/centre part and the sides and back are still smooth/'botak', oh no!  I've thought to re-shave her hair again but was told that it won't make much difference(just put on hat for her if we feel uncomfortable - which is something we always do, even for Renee) and remembering someone telling me that they've also shaved their child's hair a few times, thus I decided to just leave it as it is first and see how it turns out later - hope don't have to shave again...

The Exam

Renee went for her internal aural and practical exam @ Nafa YT today(theory exam was last week).

Things are different with Nafa's exam.  1st, the time given for preparation weren't as early as in private learning(also not as much practices with the pianist[only once during the studio class yesterday], but I feel that this shouldn't be a big problem if she's hard working enough), plus I no longer coach her the way as I did before, she's now practicing on her own...  2nd, unlike the ABRSM exams, there were 6 examiners at Nafa, instead of 1! - Papa said that this ensures fair judgement, hmmm, makes sense too...

Renee had gone in thinking that there's only 1 examiner but faced with 6, she was shaken(she told me so) and now she's very afraid that she won't get to continue learning with Nafa(she even tear-ed, on our way back).  At this, we told her that if she hadn't been lazy with her practices(everyday, less than 1/2 hr!), she shouldn't be afraid nor be bothered with whether there're 1 or 6 examiners.  Whatever it is, there's nothing much she can do now and we'll just have to wait 1-2 weeks' time for the results to be announced, to which she claimed that she'd work harder if she gets to continue, we'll see...

New Adult Teeth II

So much for the mental preparation(on the part of Renee), the senior doctor at the NDC told us that there's no need for the existing milk teeth to be extracted as they seem to be alittle shaky already.  We had not felt the wobbliness when we touched the 2 teeth but with her tools, she showed us the little bit of shakiness and we had to believe her(she's the expert after all right?).  We were worried about the new teeth being 'out of place' but she advised us to let nature takes its course and that the new teeth will grow in place once the baby teeth drop off and Renee sighed with relief when she heard this, :).

On the other hand, her tongue tie's another issue we need to ponder upon.  Although she has not much problem with most of her pronounciations and she could even pronounce her 'th', the doctor still asked if we'd like to have it rectified but as it'd take about 1 week to recover from the minor surgery, Renee's reluctant and we would need to decide if to let her go through it via local or general anaethesia(heartpain leh...), so this matter is put on hold for the time being.  However, it's a procedure which she'd have to go through and we're thinking that it would be better to have it done before she goes to primary school.  Will think about this...

Mother's Day Gift

As usual, I was packing Renee's stuffs in the room and I teased her about letting me have the little gift my SIL gave her when she came to visit me and baby at the hosp.- a japanese hello kitty cosmetic pouch.  I told her I needed a light weight one and since she's not using it, could I have it, haha.  At first, she said that she wanted it but not using it yet, then she said "ok lah", :D.  Seconds later, she said "oh no no, I have an idea" and refused to tell me what that idea's about.  Then she asked me where I've kept her coin bank - alamak, like that she's giving herself away already! hahaha.

When she came back from her violin class, I was still in her room when she came in clutching her backpack tightly to her chest - as if that would deter me from finding out, hahaha.

Hubby told me that she had originally wanted to give it to me immediately but he stopped her, so she gave it to me when we came back from our brief outing after dinner, :).

New Adult Teeth

Lately, Renee has been going into my room to look at the mirror and I've been wondering why she's suddenly been sooo 'vain'.  (Reason) :  Last night, papa told me that Renee's adult tooth/teeth is/are growing out!  However, Renee claimed that the existing milk tooth/teeth where the adult one(s) is/are growing, is/are still intact nicely, not wobbly at all, so I told papa that we'd need to bring her to the dentist asap and if need be, have the existing milk tooth/teeth extracted so that there's room for the new growth.

I've managed to re-schedule(we were supposed to return for follow-up/routine check in January but we were busy with the move then) a slot for her next week and we shall see what the doctor says...(I rem the dentist ever told me that it's actually no good for children to have their milk teeth dropped before the age of primary 1, So I must rem to ask her what abt in Renee's case now, heee...)

*No wonder she's been looking at the mirror - she'd been feeling uncomfortable with the new growth and had asked me if there's really such a thing as 'Tooth Fairy' and told me not to remove her tooth from under her pillow when hers drop one day, lolz...

Struggling

Time really flies!  So fast, my confinement period's over and my #2's also a mth old already.

Oh man, weather's been soooo hot and though I've had my hair cropped short prior to delivery this time round, but probably, due to the weather change at this time of the year, I've been perspiring like mad and with a not so easy task - breastfeeding, I've not been able to adhere fully to the traditional confinement what nots.  After the 1st shower(with boiled herbal water) about a week after delivery, I've been taking shower/washing my hair every 2-3days!  I've even had it cut shorter again just a few days ago, heee.

BF with Renee hadn't been that difficult(though I didn't latch Re much, mostly was Expressed Breast Milk - EBM) but this time round, it's sooo different and I've got mastitis the 2nd week even though I'm alot more diligent in latching-on baby and expressing!  Advices/suggestions from friends and acquintances from online forum helped and I'm now still trying my best to continue with breastfeeding.  Thanks to them whom had offered me their valuable information...

For baby's full month, we had wanted to hold a dinner celebration at Xin Cuisine(the restaurant that prepared our Wedding Banquet then) for our families and some of papa's close clients.  However, due to the uncertainty of 'how' to feed baby, we decided against it but we still delivered full month cake packages to our family members and cake vouchers to friends(esp. to thank those whom had visited us at the hospital/given gifts).  In the end, we still had a small dinner celebration at the restaurant downstairs my mom's since most of my family members had turned up.

As for Renee... due to the lack of my energy and time to supervise her, she's been slacking in most areas but we've finally signed her up with Berries, hopefully that would help her a little at least, with her Chinese.

On the music front, she's gone through Nafa's Masterclass II and though I hadn't been able to attend, I've watched the video - rather satisfactory, to me lah, lolz.   And recently, she's picked up the technique of 'Vibrato' on her own and when she played it infront of her teacher, the latter was surprised but still coached her the correct way of doing it, :).  This techique, I was told(Ms Mok), would be learnt in grade 3 but in the case of Nafa, it'd be in grade 2 - which means it would be taught soon in the next semester IF she manages to stay with Nafa, that is - I'm very worried about her theory... ^-^"

Next in highlight - Nafa's exams(both theory and practical), arrgggghhhhh...