Goodbye Rio (Olympic) 2016

Olympic 2016 in Rio de Janeiro has just ended few days ago, and I must say that the lil one and I enjoyed the event so much, especially because it was broadcast live on TV for 24 hours from the opening ceremony all the way to the closing ceremony.

This would be the first time for the boy to understand about Olympic (4 and 8 years ago he was too little to understand), the games, the competition, but also the fun side of the once in a four years event. I was also glad that he chose to concentrate on watching the daily events than playing Pokemon Go, hahaha…………….

He could sit still in front of the TV for more then 4 hours while watching the opening ceremony and was amazed to see the parade of hundreds countries who joined the big games. It was also the first time that knew some countries that the names he never heard before. So he was very happy because it was a new knowledge for him. There were also Independent Athletes and Refugee Team joining other countries which got loud cheers from the audience which made him curious why they were there and what were the differences between the two of them, so I had to explain to him. We also had fun seeing all the wonderful costumes and singing and dancing and finally to see the torch relay and the cauldron being lit (this was what he was waiting to see for hours).

The lil boy and I enjoyed it so much……………but where was the daddy??? Well, too bad he didn’t show any interest at all and chose to play Pokemon Go instead, hahaha……………..so even though the boy had said to him: “You have to watch this. It’s only once every four years. If you miss this one, you have to wait for another four years……………….” he still didn’t care, hahaha…………..what can I say……………thankfully the boy chose to be on my side this time.

The one thing that he was so upset was that this year Olympic event was held during the school days and only two weeks before exam started……………….so he had to miss so many games during daytime and couldn’t stay after midnight to watch his favorite sports on TV.

By the way, what was his favorite sports? Well basically, he would watch everything and was very curious about all the happenings and games that he never saw or even knew before, such as weight lifting, synchronized swimming, rugby sevens, or even rhythms gymnastics. He also interested in table tennis especially when team Singapore was competing. We laughed very hard while watching rugby sevens because it was so funny, he was very curious about the equestrian team, and he even wanted to see the sailing competition which was quite boring for me.

The good things was, we only missed day one of swimming competition, and for the rest of the swimming event days, we were there to watch and especially to cheer for Joseph Schooling of team Singapore, hahaha……….it was something that we didn’t want to miss since it was going to be the first gold (and new Olympic Record) from swimming not just for Singapore, but also for Southeast Asian countries. We were able to see  the legendary Michael Phelps for the last time on his Olympic games and the Refugee Athlete Team won the first medal on the Olympic Game.

He got 2 days extra holidays because of PSLE, so we didn’t miss the opportunity to watch the final day of Synchronized Swimming after midnight which we loved very much, and by the way team Russia and China were so awesome and they finally won gold and silver for both duet and team Synchronized Swimming. Too bad we missed Simone Biles in action because it was broadcast at around 3 am on weekdays.

Anyway, we really loved the experience and it was a good time for the boy to learn about sportsmanship, hard work, to never give up until the end, to learn from the failures, and most of all…………..to have fun along the way.

So………….Olympic Games…………..see you in Tokyo in 2020……………who knows we will be there to watch……………… (this was the boy’s wish and dream).

By the way, the boy still tried several times so his dad could enjoy seeing the games with him, and he even said this several times too: It’s only once every four years. If you miss this one, you have to wait for another four years……………….”but still, to no avail, hahaha…………so we finally gave up.

Reading Is The Best Way to Improve A Child’s Writing Skill

For some parents and children, Composition can be a stressful subject at school. For some children, composition writing is not easy and can be a challenging task to do. Especially when they have to follow certain rules, use certain expressions and phrases, write at least XXX words and several paragraphs, put the correct punctuation and grammar, use the correct tenses, etc.

In Primary 3, the teacher already asked the boy to add twisted ending in his writing, and when he came home he asked me immediately “What is a twist ending?” hahaha…………he didn’t even know what a twist ending was……….I was intrigue to say: “Why don’t you ask your teacher and let her explain to you?” But I finally explained to him by using some examples from the books that he already read.

Making a twist ending is still sound too difficult for him, so once again the teacher commented on his writing: “Make the ending more interesting.” Well, it needs practice to make a surprise ending, so we’re working really hard on that. Basically, his writing skill is already considered very good and he finds no difficulty to make stories (he had no difficulty in composition writing and so far his marks are very good), it’s just that he needs to think out of the box and must be encouraged to write something out of the ordinary.

Is it to much to ask from a P3 student? For me……….it’s not. I like it that the English teacher gives good inputs to improve his writing skills and it’s not just about using the correct grammar or the right punctuation. Since he likes writing a lot, he has to be challenged to always go one step ahead. Who knows someday he might be becoming a famous writer……………….

In my opinion, on of the best way to improve a child’s writing skill is thorough reading. Reading will broaden the knowledge, enhance creativity, introduce a child to new vocabularies and how to use certain expressions or phrases to create wow factor in a story, teach the correct grammar and tenses, help them to recognize good story lines and make twisted ending, present history facts or things that he/she doesn’t know about a place/city/country/person so they can insert those details in the story as to make the story more real, etc. But of course to be able to achieve those kind of things, the choice of books has a very important role. As the child grow older, he must read different kind of books that is suitable for his age.

As for me, I usually let him choose the books that he likes while also introducing new books to him. Sometimes he’ll take my advice, and sometimes not. I will try to choose books with higher level of difficulty step by step, and also thicker books as he grows older.

The most important thing is that he enjoys the books that he reads. Luckily we have good access to libraries where he can choose his own books to borrow. Mostly, he reads everyday, from science books, asterix comic books, mystery books, adventure books, or even history books……….I will always find him with a book in his hand in his spare time.

My mom used to complain of why the boy spends most of his time reading books and not learning English. I said that he is learning through reading, and that he’ll improve his writing skill by reading, and even during exam he could answer the difficult questions that weren’t in the school books because he had read it before. And I also shared once that he learnt how to read and write in English purely by reading the Peter and Jane compelete book series by Ladybird which is highly recommended to teach kids to read. I didn’t use flashcards or sent him to I Can Read tuition and didn’t even taught him the phonic system because I wasn’t (and still not) familiar with. It was truly only through reading. So he didn’t find any difficulties when he started his P1 in full English when we moved here (and he didn’t even study in an international school previously when he was still in Jakarta).

As my son grows older, his choice of books also starts to change. He still likes Geronimo Stilton books and he has huge collections of these books, but nowadays he doesn’t seem to show great interest again in Stilton books (probably he is bored because he has another options now).

Although the teachers said that the children should choose another books besides The Stilton books because they’re older now, but I still think these Stilton books bring good impact to the kids. They’re full of imagination and creativity, decorate with wonderful pictures, very funny, and teach good morals and values to the children. They also full of many history facts especially when they go for adventures in new cities, or when they traveled back through time on a time machine. That was when he started to learn about King Tut, Sit Lancelot, Sir Arthur, the discovery of a new place/city/continent, and other things. So I told my friends that we should not discourage them from reading Geronimo Stilton books, but we have to add other books for them to read too.

Some books from his Geronimo Stilton collections

Once, he was also a big fan of Roald Dahl’s books. After I tried to introduce these books to him for years, he finally showed interest and so far, he claimed that he already read all Dahl’s book that were available in the libraries (school and public libraries). He even said that Dahl was one of the best children book author in the world (and there’s no doubt about it, rite?). And about Roald Dahl………….well, what can I say??? His books are definitely good samples of good writing for kids. Some of his books are quite difficult, but they’re enjoyable and fun ro read.

Roald Dahl book from his books collections (a very thick one)

Once you start reading, you just can not stop

But then again, his sweet time with Dahl’s books and movies was over and soon he started to find other books. For a long time, I’ve tried to introduce him to Enid Blyton’s books to no success, but as he grew older he started to like some of Blyton’s books such as this one:

This is a highly recommended book for children. Although this is a thick book, but once you read this book, you just can’t stop. The story is about the children who lived in the farm years and years ago…………their love for nature, how they took care of the plants and animals, how they lived without electricity and hot water, how hard they had to adjust from city life to farm life, how hard thet had to work everyday…………..but they still had so much fun working and playing together in the farm. It tells about friendship, hard work, integrity, and even love and acceptance in the family no matter what had happened.

Then like me, he is now enjoying mistery books so much. And when you talk about mysteries, there’s definitely one name to talk about the one and only Enid Blyton. These mystery books really teach him about analyzing problems and how to solve problems based on clues given in the books. Even I myself started to read Enid Blyton’s books that he’s been borrowing from the libraries because it reminds me of my childhood when my eyes were glued to these books that I forgot to eat, study, or even take a bath and my mom had to remind me again and again, hahaha………….

What we like the most about Blyton’s books is how she described the kids, the villages, England in the olden days, and all the characters were all seem alive. My two thumbs up is how she always described the kids as well mannered and well behaved kids. They followed the rules, obey their parents, respect the elders, showed very strong friendship and integrity (something that some children lack these days).

The libraries do not have a complete set of all Blyton’s books and it is very difficult to find what we haven’t read in the bookshop, but so far we’re quite than happy to read what we can find.

The Five Find Outers and A Dog, The Adventure Series, The Secret Seven, Famous Five on the Case (this one is not purely by Enid Blyton), and other mystery books by Enid Blyton are definitely our favorite

Besides those books, I never know how……………but he started to read The Time Hunters Books by Chris Blake. Now…………these books, I will definitely say, are “boys books” or “books for boys”. I don’t think girls will be intersted in reading these books…………..it is full of battle, chasing and punishing criminals (from the Stone Age, Cowboys age, Aztec, Outback Australia, Pirates, Vikings, Romans), and inside there are Billy The Kid, Geronimo, King Tut, Shabash, Captain Kido the Pirate, Wyatt Earp, Sir Lancelot, and their weapons plus bravery levels and other things that are absolutely (so far) do not attract me to like them, hahahaha………… I think these are quite good for boys as long as you help to explain things like the battles, the punishment for bad people, etc. Good point is: these books are full of history facts and the boy has not been stopping talking about all the history facts that he had learnt from these books. Too bad it is very difficult to find these books in the bookshop (but so far he has read all the series that are available in the libraries).

Boys…………..these books are recommended by my boy…………….

There are also cards inside each books and we have to collect them and we can play card games. Plus, there are some game boards that I downloaded and so far we’ve been having fun playing with them. The boy took it to a different level when he decided to make his own Time Hunters Game Board and Cards:

He was very quiet and focus when finishing this game board. It took hours to complete all the details and the steps one by one

For us, the result was amazing. Look at how details he made every move. Step forward, backward, battle this character, roll the dice again………….we can actually play with his game board creation

Nowadays, he is over with his Time Hunters books (no more to read as he has finished everything) and is crazy with books from Magic Tree House (again……….he found these in the library without my help). And my oh my……………..these books are highly recommended to read. These are really good children books and are very suitable for children. Without further explanation, let me give one example of this book:

“A Good Night For Ghosts”………………..you will never guess what the book is all about………….

This book tells the story of Louis Armstrong…………….one of the greatest jazz performers in the world

Inside the book………….

These books tell the story of two children (Jack and Annie) who could travel back to the past when they entered a magic tree house in the forest. They visited cities around the world, met famous people, and had wonderful adventures along the way.

Imagine the boy started to know many things about Dipper (Louis Armstrong’s nickname) at his age while his parents only knew that he was once a jazz musician. After finished reading the book, he started to tell me many things about Dipper by saying “Do you know that….?” and after that gave me quiz to test whether I remembered his explanations or not, hahaha…………

This is how the adventures began

Going to Paris, anyone………..

This time, let’s travel to Iraq………….a very rare place to visit for children…………….

Let’s go to Ireland…………one of my dream place to visit

There are many books in Magic Tree House Collection, including the story of Harry Houdini, King Arthur of Camelot, and Charles Dickens

Books from The Magic Tree House Collections are not just story books, but we just found out that there are Fact Tracker Books. Interesting, isn’t it? There are research guide books and non fiction companion to the story books. Jack and Annie will research about the fact behind the fictions.

For example, “Tsunamis and Other Natural Disasters” is a non fiction companion to “High Tide in Hawaii”.

“Rags and Riches” is a non fiction companion to “A Ghost Tale for Christmas Time” and is a research about children in Charles Dickens’ time and the fact behind the fiction.

“Abraham Lincoln” is a fact tracker of “Abe At Last” and will answer these questions: What was it like to grow up in a log cabin, How did Lincoln become president, What was his family like, Why did the United State fight in the Civil War.

Abraham Lincoln Fact Tracker

“Sharks and Other Predators” is a companion to “Shadow of The Shark” and will research on: How many teeth do sharks have, What are their favorite food, What are some other top predators, How do predators find their prey.

Sharks Fact Tracker

If you want to know how did soccer get started, who are some of its greatest players, what is the world cup, and why is is so popular that you should read about “Soccer” fact tracker.

Fact Tracker Books……………..there is even a book about Ancient Rome……..

There will be many things that children can learn from these Magic Tree House Book Collections. So one again, I really recommend these books for children and I am sure they will enjoy them and learn new knowledge in fun ways.

So far, those are the books in the boy’s book list these days. This will change again soon (I believe) and hopefully we will find other good books to read. I can’t wait to see what great adventures that he will find and what new things he will learn through books in the future.

Oh, and one book that he (mostly) never fails to read every night:

The most important book: The Bible…………

The easiest way and most fun way to learn English and to improve the writing skill is through reading, but as my friends say, as the children go to higher classes, the composition writing expectations will be higher and higher and the challenges will be more difficult. I have friends who have children who struggle a lot in this area. I absolutely do not blame the children. If a child doesn’t like to write, it will be very difficult for him to compose a story. Like one of the kid had said “If I can explain everything in just 100 words, why I should make it to 200 words. The simple is the better, right?” Well, he quite got the point……………………

Writing is not just about learning how to compose a story and it’s not just about a talent, but it is also a passion. If a child doesn’t like to write, he/she will find it boring and will end the stories in just few sentences because he/she feels that it’s just enough to tell what’s on his/her mind. When someone asked how the boy could write so well, my answer was always very simple……………“because he loves to write………..”

Yes indeed…………….writing is considered as a hobby for him.. He likes to write, he even already finished some thick notebooks that are full of his writings. His favorite genres are adventure and mystery. When he feels to write, he will grab a pen and a notebook and starts to write for hours.

Anytime………..anywhere…………when ideas come to him, he has to write

He said he already finished his fourth book and will continue with the fifth one. He used gadget to find out about some facts that he wasn’t sure.

In our Sydney trip, I already told him that we won’t bring his Ipad, then he asked what should he do when waiting? Then he had and idea “Just bring me my pen and a notebook, I will write stories while waiting……….” For me, it was just Amazing! He has my gene, he likes to write, hahaha…………….

Waiting for the bus in a cold winter morning??? No problem, I’ll just write in the bus stop on top of the suitcase……..

Hopefully, he and I will be able to share his stories one day, and hopefully he will like to read and write as he grows up. Reading is a fun way to learn and improve a child’s writing skill, and writing will enhance a child’s creativity and imagination, teach them to think out of the box, and most of all…………….reading and writing are something that they will remember as the best times of their childhood.

So Much For My Dream Holiday

Me: For our next holiday, let’s have a relaxed holiday, don’t have to wake up early in the morning, go to nice restaurants, enjoy the food………….the view……

The boy: but I like to travel, I want to wake up early in the morning and go to some places…………..

Me: Isn’t it nice if we don’t have to rush from one place to another and just enjoy the days? I searched on the internet and find out some good cafes with yummy food and nice view and even a good playground too for our next holiday. No need to rush and we can enjoy the day………..

The boy: Hmmm…………okay………..we can do that……………………………but only for one day, okay! Only for one day! The first day only! After that I want to go to here and there (he named the places that he wants to visit)

Me: Sigh………………..so much for my dream and so relaxed holiday……………..

Well, we can’t really talk about our upcoming holiday now (although we’ve planned it) because we’re still in the middle of EXAM. Two more days of exam and that’s it! All done and we just have to wait for the results to come out. Well, temporary of course because after the holiday we must start preparing for the the second semester and there goes all the cycles again (school, homework, after school activities,  exams……………). One of my friends whose daughter is in the same class as my son and still has a small boy, said this: “I can’t imagine how am I going to do this one more time with my son when he’s in primary school. It will go all over again and I have to start from the beginning again with him……………thinking of doing this all over again already make me stress…………” We just nodded in agreement with her.

We absolutely cannot wait for the holiday to come, but at the moment, let’s just enjoyed our previous outings as we can’t do any outings in the near time.

The good thing of living here is of course there are so many activities for free for kids. I’ve blogged most about them and apparently I still have some that I haven’t posted yet.

When you come to Singapore and you are tight on budget, there are many free activities to do especially if you are coming here with kids. From free wet and dry playground at the mall (IMM, Tampines, Kallang, Katong, Westgate, etc), free parks with huge playgrounds (Gardens By The Bay, West Coast, Pasir Ris, Bishan, Sembawang,etc), Science Center Garden, Istana Open House with huge grass field, libraries, free entry to the museums on their Open House Days, to the newly opened Singapore Sports Hub. For the record, we only visit the museum on their Open House, so we never need to pay………….

All the museums are children friendly with lost of free activities during Open House. The activities also contains lots of educational materials for the children. Museums can be very fun for children and for adults, you can take beautiful pictures with the background of old museum buildings or the wonderful river or grass field view or bridge near the museums.

Art Museum on National Day

Free activity in Art Museum

These were made by Primary School Children

This was why we came here…………….to see this sculpture made the children in lil boy’s Primary School

Children Session At Singapore National Museum

This was absolutely one of the best children exhibition in the museum. National Museum is sooooo big and it dedicated its huge halls for this exhibition and turned into a big children playground like you’ve never seen. Absolutely worth to visit………….but it’s over now so let’s hope it’s having another children session again this year.

The theme of the exhibition was Masak Masak (in English: cooking, although it didn’t consist things about cooking only)

Our first stop was the Science Exhibition in the main hall. Kids could lean and try various experiments about Science…….and not only kids, but parents also had loads of fun playing here………..

Read the instructions first before you try

Move the ball from one end of the wheel to the other

Let’s try together……….

Have fun while trying to move the pendulum

Then we went upstairs to another hall where the real fun began……………..yes, the real masak masak (cooking) properties to play with were here and the children could play as long as they wanted.

Cut and stir fry the vegetables

Not just cooking equipment was provided, they could also watch educational movies in here

Bored with the movies………….go and try traditional costumes in another corner of the room

Children could also harvest some cardboard fruits and vegetables in the imaginary garden

Next to National Museum in Fort Canning Park with the old style building of For Canning Hotel. We actually went inside the hotel to look around and we loved what we saw inside the hotel.

Can’t believe it…………but we actually got lost in Fort Canning Park…………

Fort Canning Hotel

 Kinetic Garden Science Center

If you think that ticket price to Science Center is way to expensive (by the way, it has a promotion going on and the price is reduced a lot especially during weekdays), than why not just visit its big garden just next to Mc Donalds? It is also fun to play in the garden and children can still learn many things in here.

Daddy helped to spin

Lots of information is given around the garden. He was measuring his height with this activity

Walk Your Height (further information)

Daddy was on the other side and tried to hear lil boy’s voice

They were doing the Echo Tube Experiment

Singapore Sports Hub

And this is the new addition to the free fun places that we can visit in Singapore, we’d been here once before and we loved it so so much.

First of all, the super cool (and cold) Sports Hub Library which is more than just a library because where else can you have so much fun (not just reading books) inside the library?

This place (Sports Hub Library) was just opened when we visited last year

Giant Chess in the middle of the hall in first floor. Behind it is the free wii play games (you have to book first because so many people want to play this)

Other facilities include sitting room with sofas, free computers and internet, and books are in the second floor. Not to forget this one super fun activity (free but need to pree book at least 1 hour earlier on busy days).

Sabbuteo (Table Football). We had so much fun playing this game………And this is inside a library! How cool is that?

Next, we moved outside the library and went to the top floor where we found kids playground and gym facilities.

Let’s play and play even though it was already dark

The playground is quite big

We didn’t see many kids here……….this is a secluded place actually

You get hungry after exploring this place? Just go to the food court in Kallang Wave Mall which also has a small play area for children.

Let’s play football inside the food court

Child friendly food court

Chicken satay, grilled chicken and fish…….quite pricey and the taste was mediocre

We came on the opening night and brought home a red apple lunch box as a gift

There are still many other things that we didn’t have time to explore in Sports Hub, including the wet playground in Kallang Wave Mall that wasn’t opened yet when we came.

Bike Riding In The Park

In between the exams, the boy and I (daddy was at the bible study at church) managed to have a simple outing in Pasir Ris Park with my new bike. I bought this bike because the boy’s bike cannot fit into the car trunk so he cannot bring his bike to the park. Then I decided to buy a new bike for me and last week we finally headed out to the park and enjoyed our bike riding together,

My new blue bike

We went bike riding for 3 hours (so exhausted after that) and we had so much fun.

That’s all for now and will update again if we find any interesting places (either free or not) in Singapore.

Almost CNY 2015

I can’t believe that it’s almost Chinese New Year again. CNY is probably one of the biggest celebration in Singapore, so guarantee there are many things that I will miss once the CNY is over.

Those sweet Lokam (Mandarin Oranges) for some reasons (which I don’t know what) only appear one month before CNY and will be gone after CNY is over. I went to the supermarket 2 days after last year CNY and all those oranges were already gone. Mandarin orange is my favorite fruit and since I can have it once a year, I try to eat as many as I can. I always buy the cheapest one (usually also with the least attractive packaging………….but who cares, I throw away the package once I arrive at home), and so far I never find bad oranges inside. Most of them are sweet and others are not so sweet but also not so sour, so they’re okay for us. This year I buy the Pasar Lokam which cost $7.25 for 18 oranges. I had bought 5 cartons since 3 weeks ago. The lil boy doesn’t like this kind of orange, so guess who eat the most? Me of course, and number two is daddy. I will buy 2 more boxes before CNY is over.

We also cannot wait for the CNY holiday to come. Daddy’s office will be closed since Wednesday, and school will be finished at 10 am on that day………….no study at all, just the celebration. Then we will have long holidays until Sunday, and hopefully Monday we will be all fresh and ready to kick another 3 weeks before school term 1 holiday starts (oh holidays……….how we love them so much…………….).

Since daddy will not be going to office since Wednesday, I plan to skip school too so we can go out somewhere from Wednesday to Sunday.  A friend of mine, who knew that I had already bought and prepared the boy’s chinese costume commented on my idea: “But you already bought your son’s costume, don’t you want to see him wear that to school?” Then followed by a heavy sigh from me: “Yeah right, if not now, that next year I figure out the costume will be too small for him.”

Since the costume is very cute with Chinese Emperor hat that has little braided hair on the back of the hat, I want him to wear that so much………..I have a feeling that next year he probably doesn’t want to wear costume anymore because he will be in the Upper Primary League, and most of Upper Primary Students are too embarrassed to wear costumes.

Parents are also invited to see the CNY concert, but after knowing that the Primary 3 Students most likely will not be lining up as performers, I said to my friends that I probably will not come, yeah because my son will not perform so why should I come??? And then, here came another wise words from another friend: “Just come, sit at the back, and chat……..no need to watch the performance……….” So yes, I’ll come…………..to chat and socialize only, hahaha…….

On the other side, we (my friends and I) found that it is no way we are going to escape Singapore during CNY……………..because tickets and hotels are super expensive……………to everywhere and anywhere. So we’ll stay here and probably can come up with ideas of what to do during the holidays. Some places like Sentosa, River Hongbao, River Safari are completely out of the list because I believe 100 percent that we cannot stand the crowd (like what we experienced last year).

In addition, I joined Parent Volunteer (PV) to decorate a goat lantern and its’ done and already being displayed at the school. It was hard work but fun and to our surprises we could finish it in 2 days only.

Our beautiful lantern, made mostly from red hong baos. The face, the horns, and ears were made from paper plate

The tail was made from plastic cup and red hong baos. There were 6 parents who made this lantern, and I must say it looks fantastic……

Anyway, school is not slowing down although it’s almost CNY (but more about school later), and after the CNY holiday I believe there will be some tests too before term 1 is finished (so quick…….), so let’s enjoy and hopefully we can be fully recharge after the holiday is over.

And thank God tomorrow is Friday. It’s been an exhausting week.

A Well Deserved Holiday!

We didn’t actually plan for this holiday. I thought of where to go on this November school holiday and my first plan was for us to go to Penang, Malaysia. Daddy was agreed and he said he could take a week leave from his office. So after some consideration such as budget allocation and if daddy could take a week leave then why should we only go short distance, we finally decided and agreed to go to…………Australia! Yes, it’s very far from Malaysia to Australia but this was the place that we really wanted to go someday and we actually planned to do this Australia trip next year. After some calculation, we found out that we still had extra budget for this Australia trip and so why not doing it this year?

Our chosen destination for this time was Gold Coast. There would be many good things to do and see for the kid and adults, the flight tickets and hotel price were not as expensive as other cities in Australia, and mostly there would be beaches everywhere!. The boy was very excited and it was like a dream come true for him because he said he could finally visit other continent besides Asia.

We started with our visa application in September, and it only took 2 working days until we got approved. The approval was sent via email so it was very easy and convenient because we didn’t have to go back to get our approved visa. For Indonesian passport, the fee was SGD 200 per person and must be paid in cash. No need to make online appointment, we just came straight to Republic Plaza to submit the documents.

We downloaded the visa form from this website: www.vfsglobal.com/australia/singapore. Everything is clear in this website including the required documents, and if you have any questions just call the customer service like I did.

Read carefully before fill out the application form

Even the boy insisted to fill out his application form all by himself, he was super excited…….

We bought the tickets from Scoot Airlines, as the only direct flight from Singapore to Gold Coast. It’s a budget airlines, so basically you have to pay for everything: the seat selection, the baggage, the food, and even blanket. We paid almost SGD 1700 for the three of us including 20 kg baggage and 1 meal for the boy, quite a good bargain we thought considering it was an 8 hours journey from Singapore to Gold Coast.

We all couldn’t wait for the school holiday to start but first of course the boy must passed his exams first (which I already shared how hectic the days were), but thank God everything ended well finally. Just 3 days before his school concert, he whispered to my ear after I picked him up from school: “I’m a prize winner again this year.” I was surprised because I never thought he could be a prize winner again this year considering how hard his friends had already worked too.

On the d-day, daddy said I should be the one who came to stage with him because I was the one who taught him at home all this time, and were so proud of him when he was announced as:

• First in Class
• Third in Standard (number three from the whole Primary 2)
• Best In English (from the whole Primary 2)

We were so happy and especially the boy couldn’t stop smiling that day (but more about this later, hopefully after I finish my Gold Coast posts). As the streaming process will start in Primary 3, he will be going to the A (band 1) students class next year. This was his wish and he was satisfied with the result, although I said to him that it means that he has to work harder next year because all the best students will be joining him in this class.

The Chinese teacher is also promoting him to a higher class, which surprised me a lot because we are not speaking Chinese at home. My friend’s daughter was also going to join this class, and she said to me in desperation “more headache” which I agreed…………….

After the award ceremony, one of my friend said that the boy really did well and our trip to Australia is really A WELL DESERVED HOLIDAY for him! Yes, she was right. After his hard work, this must be the best gift that we could give to him.

Hopefully he will do better in Primary 3.

And so the Gold Coast trip was over and we came back last Saturday and it was a memorable journey for us. My sister and mother joined us and we absolutely had a wonderful time together. The boy said he was sad to go home again and he will miss Gold Coast a lot (well, not just him, but all of us too).

Definitely will miss this beautiful beach

 

 

 

 

 

September School Holiday

Holiday comes………holiday goes………….and although the cycle repeats itself so often, it is still very hard to accept when the holiday is finally over……….

Last week was term 3 school holiday, and I can’t believe that in less then 4 months the boy will be in Primary 3. How time flies! Even the boy always says: “Time goes so fast. Soon I will be in P3. I was in P1, P2, and now it’s going to be P3.” But before that happen, let’s pass this stressful term 4 which will be full of assessments and year end exams………….and we can’t wait for the 1.5 months year end school holiday! Quite sad for him because I know he’s going to miss his teacher which already been teaching him for almost 2 years.

Although we didn’t go out of town and daddy couldn’t even take leave from the office, but the two of us still had so much fun together and we managed to go out of the house almost everyday.

The boy was so sad when the holiday was over and couldn’t wait for the next Friday when he will have another school holiday again due to PSLE…………….hahaha………..

Term 3 school days ended with a special 3-hours after school football coaching session for all boys in Primary 2 (the girls’ session was held the previous day). Thankfully the weather was super good and the sun shone brightly so the children could practice in the school field (by the way, the school invited coaches from outside the school too…………….which I thought was very good). I felt very sorry for the girls who had session the day before because it was raining heavily the whole afternoon so they had to practice indoor. I didn’t think they could have the maximum fun, but I still saw them having so much fun with the soccer balls after I finished with my last rehearsal at the hall.

All sweat and tired after 3 hours playing football, but he said it was fun and he really enjoyed the session

And so……the holiday started and although we had an unplanned holiday ahead of us, we could still think tons of ideas to do together and most of them were spontaneously said…………..

Visiting Kid Stop for the second time

Since we really had nowhere to go and nothing to do, I just said: “Let’s go to Kid Stop again” and he was soooo…… excited and happy about this idea. So we just went off on Saturday afternoon and since we didn’t prepare at all and just go, we arrived too early and had to wait………………hahaha………

Visiting Kid Stop again

Visiting this magic theater was our main purpose and this was our first stop. This was closed the last time we visited and we were very glad when it was finally opened and with nobody else inside the room. In here, he could choose his background movie while he (pretended) to race his car in high speed.

Sang on the stage and appeared on TV…………..we could give extra sound and special effect too. This exhibit is a must try and children will be happy to see themselves on TV

So surprise to see this place almost empty 1 hour before closing time. So if you want a more quiet place to visit, probably you can try visiting this place on the afternoon session. Two to one hour before the closing time, the little children will be too exhausted and hungry to play again

Unfortunately, the boy didn’t find an almost empty place was fun for him……………so he asked to go home before the closing time! (shocking news for me…….). I guess “the more the merrier” applies wonderfully to children playground.

Go to the swimming pool

What is the best way to cool ourselves in the super hot weather like this then to dip ourselves in the swimming pool? It was in the middle of the day and the sun was shining brightly right on top of our heads, so jumping to the pool was the best thing that we could do that day.

The boy played in the water for 2 hours

Hungry…………….? Just go to Pastamania which is located just few steps away from the pools. In here, we can eat even with our wet swimming attire. He said the hot soup warmed his body and he finished everything from the soup, the bread, and the pizza

Then he continued swimming again until……………..the pool was closed because of the rain! See how empty the pool is after the lifeguards asked everyone to go out from the water?

The pool is closed? No problem…………..we can just continue eating……..

Time to go home since we didn’t know how long the pool was going to be closed.

He spotted this sign in our way to the bus stop

Playground Time

In here, playgrounds are everywhere……….seriously………..we can find at least 5 play areas near where we live………..and they’re all brand new! The old ones had been refurbished and now we get new playgrounds. Since the boy doesn’t really have time to play during school days and on weekends we usually go out far away from where we live, so school holiday is the best time to play.

All new equipment in the play area…….

Sliding down………..

Spinning around………….I also love to play with this, although I got dizzy easily

The best thing about playground is that you can always find new friends or meet old friends.

 Geronimo Stilton Is In Town

One of the best thing that happened on September holiday was probably a visit from Geronimo Stilton and his sister and cousins to United Square Mall in Novena. Of course we didn’t miss the opportunity to watch the show and take picture with Mr. Stilton himself (it was free by the way………..). The tickets were only given to the first 50 family who queued, and they were all gone just within minutes, even though it was Monday afternoon and not weekends.

As one of Geronimo Stilton big fan, the boy really couldn’t wait to see his favorite character on the books became real. He even counted how many Stilton books that he has before we left the home just in case Geronimo asked him…………..

We had to queue at least one hour before the show to get ticket number for taking one picture with the show casts, then queued again to enter the show area and get the best spot which was the front spot, and finally queued again to take picture. Phew……….lots of queue……….

We went to the show with his friend, who is also a big fan of Geronimo Stilton

Nice and interactive show………..

Finally…….he met Geronimo, sister Thea, and cousins Benjamin and Trapp

Dine Out

We also dine out sometimes during the holiday, because holiday and cooking just do not make good combination……………..

The boy favorite’s place is Swensen’s, because he can get free ice cream. Although I get bored with the food, but I agreed to go only during weekdays and lunch time, because they give free ice cream and drink during lunch time, hahaha………….

We decided to walk through the park to Swensen’s. It was a hot day so I guessed walking wasn’t a good idea at all

Not so healthy food for once in a month………..

Visiting Changi Airport

There is always something fun to do at the airport, that’s why we love visiting Changi Airport (although the parking fee is very expensive………sigh…………).

There is an exhibition going on in Changi Airport Terminal 3 Departure Row, and this time (will end at the end of September if I’m not mistaken) it’s “The Greatest Adventure” exhibition which will bring us to 4 different countries (that we’ve never visited before). It’s a super fun place for kids and adults and there are many good spots to take photos with. There are games, quiz with free souvenir, lucky draw when you guess how many spots does a pair of leopards have (only counts the spots on the leopards in the exhibition area), and also a children ride. For more information please visit Changi Airport website.

We were so shocked when they changed the roller coaster into this train ride. There was supposed to be a mini yellow roller coaster , and when we came it was already changed into this. Well, never mind, the boy still had fun riding it too.

Surprisingly, not very crowded

The staff there were very nice and helpful, and they helped a lot……………….so thank you very much for your great service……..

Entering The Great Adventure zone which will bring us to:

CHINA…………….I said to my boy that we will visit China only when he master his Chinese language, hahaha…………….I said I don’t want to get lost in translation in this country. I really hope this will encourage him to study harder………….

Hey look…………we’re in China………

MAURITIUS with its lovely beaches, certainly our dream destination and we will go there………….someday…………..

Relaxing and playing with the sand in one of the beach in Mauritius. the good this is, this beach is not hot because it has air con………..

BRAZIL…………..we need sponsor to go here, pretty please………..

Xbox game in Brazil

SRI LANKA……………….what an exotic holiday destination…………

Participate in the quiz and get a free souvenir

For those of you who haven’t see this exhibition yet……….I suggest you go and see because it’s really fun and worth to visit

 Lazing Around At Home

Although I still asked the boy to do some English and Math practices at home, but we also enjoyed relaxed days at home. We read books, played with gadgets, snacking almost all the time (couldn’t believe his appetite during the holiday when he could have 3 meals a day plus milk plus fruits plus snacks two or three times a day), or just laid on the bed while having our pillow talk. That’s why we love holiday, isn’t it?

We borrowed many books from the library and read all day long. That small soft pillow on the right picture was a souvenir from answering quiz in The Great Adventure Exhibition in Changi Airport

Leftover pizza for breakfast………….only happen during the holiday…..

One day, when we came home from the airport, we pressed the elevator button to the top floor just to see how was the scenery from the top floor, and it was awesome according to both of us. The view was truly beautiful, the skies were clearer, everything looked brighter, and we could see the big pond in the park from where we stood.

He said: ” I wish we lived in the top floor.” I was like….errrr……….maybe not really in the top floor because it looks scary quite scary to me especially when I have to hang my laundry outside the window……….but I really loved the view…………

Then we also decided to do some exercises by going down through the stairs and the boy would stop in every floor to see the view.

And we closed the holiday by joining POSB Kids Run which I already posted in before.

Before the holiday was over, we needed to do one more thing before the boy went back to school:

Get a haircut………………

POSB Kids Run 2014

September school holiday is over now. Although didn’t go out of town, but we still had so much fun together doing many things, especially for the boy and me. We closed the end of the holiday by joining POSB Kids Run on Sunday, 14 Sept 2014 in Marina Promontory. It was a new experience for the boy and we really had an enjoyable time together during the race. Well, although only the boy who joined the run, but all of us had so much fun too.

I already knew that there are many kids run in Singapore, and I always wanted to join The Cold Storage Kids Run, but too bad I was always late to know. For instance, for this POSB Kids Run, I registered the boy almost three or four months (I don’t remember exactly) before the event so we could got an early bird discount. When I informed my friend a month after my registration, she said all the spots were already taken up! So you see, Kids Run events are very popular in Singapore and thus we must be aware of the events even months before the actual date. I was lucky to find out about this race and made a fast decision to register the boy (thankfully he was agreed instantly when I said he would get a medal no matter if he wins or loose…………….). So yeap, that was his first motivation, hahaha……………

2 weeks before the race, we collected the race pack in City Square Mall. I was so excited to see his running tee………….

And I love love love his running tee. Blue and yellow are just match to each other, rite? It was bright and soft and comfortable to wear. We also got some souvenirs and snacks along with the running tee.

Daddy and I insisted that he should at least try and practice to run 800 m. By the way, he would be joining the 800 M boys category in the race. We finally made him run twice before the actual day, and he said he was very tired after the run…………

Practicing with daddy……….they were all tired after their morning run, which made me wonder whether the boy could reach the finish line on the d-day, hahaha………….

I was so nervous the night before the race and could hardly sleep. I woke up early in the morning to make breakfast and make sure everyone was ready at 6.30 am so we could leave home early. We were afraid that we didn’t get a good parking spot………..which fortunately didn’t happen. We parked in the building  just next to Marina Promontory and it was surprisingly not as expensive as we thought.

I asked the boy whether he was nervous and he said no. I said he was going to have so much fun and would meet hundred of other kids. Since it was not a competitive race, I told him not to worry about the pace, if he thought he was tired he could just walk. As long as he reached the finish and had fun, it would be ok, he would get a finisher medal anyway. That was what I told him before the race.

Arriving in the Marina Promontory one hour before flag off time. There were already many people (the 10 KM race was already started and the 1.2 KM kids race were almost started). Since we arrived early, we could walk around and see the surrounding

Free balloons for the kids. Behind him were the food stalls that sold coffee, cakes, pizza, biscuits, and bread. On the right: taking pictures with Wheat Wonder Biscuit The Mascot

Free drinks for runners

Portable toilets

Thank goodness for the wonderful weather that day. Although it was hot, but at least it didn’t rain. The event itself had already started since early in the morning and the boy could register since 7.45 am. His flag time off was 8.20 am. We made sure that he drank lots of water before the race and went to toilet before he joined other kids in his category.

When we collected the race pack, the event organizer had already given us the detail information of the event, including when to assemble, where to park, line closures of the streets during the race, map of the event including where the kids should assemble before the race, how parents could pick up the kids after the race, etc. My two thumbs up for all the staff (I think most of them voluntarily helped for the event, so kudos to them……..) who made the day of the event went smoothly and well organised. Even though my boy’s flag off time was almost the last one, but it was right on time!

If there were too many kids in one category, they would be separated into 2 or 3 groups,  so there weren’t too many children in the starting line. This was good because too many children started running together would not be too safe in my opinion.

I left the boy in the pre race tent for his category, then daddy and I arranged the best strategy to take pictures from the best spots, hahaha………..we had to compete with other hundreds parents, you know………… In this picture, the staff was taking the first group of 800 M boys category to the starting line with a big yellow and black sign “FOLLOW ME”. Daddy took this picture while I was getting ready at the starting line before other parents on the same category arrived.

The children were so cute, don’t you think so? When they arrived at the starting line (girls especially), they were busy looking and waving and shouting to their anxious parents at the left side (well, they were the celebrities of the day, rite?). Even the emcee said before he started counting from 5 to 1 to start the race: “Children, look to the left, smile and wave to your parents who will take your pictures and post in Facebook…………..” True indeed………….daddy even asked me to hold the balloon so he could update his facebook status about the race, hahahahaha……………..Before the race started, I run again to the left side so I could get pictures of him running few meters from the start line

All ready…………….

Yay……I snapped this picture and luckily it was not blur………..considering I only used a standard pocket camera…………..

And another one…………..happy faces everywhere………….very contrast comparing to the very tired faces of adults who competed for the 10 KM run, hahaha…….

Daddy had to sprint on the outer side to take his pictures. He came back very tired after that……………

Nice view on the backgorund

Almost reaching the finish line………….look at his smiles………he really enjoyed this!

Me………..waiting at the finish line

All the children were then ushered to the after race tent, they got a water bottle and a medal

I had to pick him up by showing this card (his number started with C, so I had to fetch him in tent C)

All sweat and thirsty………..

Sooooo proud with his first running medal………..

The proud mommy…………….the boy was so proud and happy that he refused to take off his race number and the medal even though we were already in the car

His second breakfast (the first one was before the race)

It was a fun and memorable event for us that I start to search for other Kids Run for him to join………..

He said (when we were at home): “I want to do it again next year……..”

Crazy For Books

We are book lovers. Everybody in the family likes to read. So when we moved to Singapore where libraries are very easy to find with superb book collections, we were very happy. Visiting library (usually once a week) has been in our agenda for the past two years. In school holiday, the library always double our chance to borrow book…………….so you can imagine how many books that we bring home on school holiday. When we get double chance to borrow books, we can go home with up to 52 books (we have 3 library membership).

The boy’s favorite books are (still) Geronimo Stilton books. Although there are many Stilton’s books in the library, the chance to borrow these books can be very low because as the boy always says: “These are popular books. Every child in Singapore likes to read Geronimo Stilton.” And of course one can not hope too much for the complete Geronimo Stilton collections in the public library, am I rite???

So we were very excited when we heard about Popular Book Sale in Changi Expo. Almost all books were on sale up to 50%. If we bought 5 or more English books, we would get 50% discount. And seriously, it was for real. I only paid 50% from the normal price at the book store. So we turned into book hunters for 2 days.

Actually, this book sale happened last February 2014 (I know, it’s a late post, but maybe you can prepare for next year’s event……..if there is any next year event).

We let the boy chose almost 10 Geronimo Stilton books as long as he promised that he would not buy anymore books for one year. The promise were already broke……………..by the parents, hahaha……………..we let him bought 2 or 3 Stilton books after that. Well, he never asks for toys anymore since he could read, he only asks for books and more books, so I think why not giving him those books.

Can you believe all were 50% sale?

I also bought 2 books for my nieces (the bible and early readers). I bought the dinosaurs book (full color, thick paper, almost 400 pages) for only S$10. Good bargain and the boy likes the book so much because he likes to know all things about dinosaurs

At first, we were quite hesitant to buy so many books, but then daddy saw a father with one daughter did this

The anonymous father stacked Geronimo Stilton books in his hand for as many as he could, and he still said to his daughter: ” What else? Take more………” And it raised daddy’s competitive side and he suddenly said: “Take everything that you don’t have. We’ll buy them all.” And I was like: “What? Wait a minute……we couldn’t let him buy that many books”

Second day…….ended up with 7 books

Wowwww…………look at all these books………

Recently, his teacher said that the boy had already borrowed too many Stilton books from the library, so she suggested that the boy chose another books to borrow, hahaha………..

And by the way, from the reading department………….after I’ve tried so many times to make the boy likes Enid Blyton’s books (as I used to when I was a kid), he finally starts to like Blyton’s books. Yaaaaayyyyyyy…………I’m so happy! I’ve tried to borrow many books from Enid Blyton, but so far he only likes “The Five Find Outer Series”. Yes, those were my favorite too, and guess what…………I still like to read those books too now. So we borrow the books from the libraries, we read together, and we even discuss parts of the book together. How awesome is that! He is just like me, he likes mystery books too, and Enid Blyton is absolutely one of the best mystery books writer for children. Too bad we can only find a few of The Five Find Outer collection in the libraries, and it’s not easy to find in the book shops too. Famous Five is easier to find than the Five Find Outer, but my son haven’t liked Famous Five yet.

The Five Find Outer consisted of 5 kids (Fatty, Larry, Daisy, Pip, and little Bets) who lived in a quiet small village in England. Fatty had a dog named Buster. Together they solved many difficult mysteries. The local police (Mr.Goon) never liked them and the children always made fun of him. The interaction between Mr.Goon and the children always created funny and entertaining situation

There are some difficult words in that he never heard before when reading Enid Blyton’s books, but I’m glad he learn new things and try to find out the meaning

 

 

An Active and Healthy ME!

I was waiting for my son to finish his swimming lesson. My son was taking swimming lesson with one of his friend at school. Her mother and I were talking about many things, and I asked about her vacation during the school holiday. I loved seeing her underwater pictures of her husband and daughter together during their holiday (truly speaking, taking good pictures underwater is still a huge challenge for me, so I don’t know how she could do it…………I was amazed). But that wasn’t the point. She shared that her husband likes to do sports, swimming, running, riding bicycles, go to theme park, riding roller coasters, snorkeling in the sea………and that is how she wants her children to enjoy life to the fullest.

Wow, that thought was kind of struck me., but again………….I am agree with her one hundred percent! It’s not the expensive toys, luxurious home, holiday around the world that will make deposits in the memory bank of our children, but how their parents spend time with them, doing even the silliest and childish things together.

For my son, doing outdoor activities is still his number one priorities to spend the weekend with his family (parents, grand parents, aunties, etc) and friends more than stay at home watching TV or playing gadgets. He is very excited and super happy when we go to the park, playground, theme park, and swimming pool.

He is a very active child and can spend hours (even up to 8 hours) doing outdoor activities. I believe that an active child is a happy child. But then again, how can he be active if he’s not healthy? Well then, I believe again that doing all kinds of sports, breathe outdoor air, moving all parts and muscles of his body are good for his mental and physical health. This also reflects to me especially when I look back to my childhood.

When I was a kid, I loved climbing trees, fences, and gates. There were mango, start fruit, guava, papaya, rose apple (jambu air) trees in the front yard and I loved to climb those trees almost everyday. I also liked to swing in the old and strong laundry hangers in my backyard, and picked fruits whenever they were ripen and ate them immediately while I was still hanging on the trees, because fresh fruits were always the best for me!

And what did I do everyday? Since there was no internet and TV at that time, I had no other options than to play outside with my friends. We played on the street in front of our houses, chases each other until the moon came and our parents had to call our names and urged us to come home for dinner. And then after dinner, we played again until it was time to sleep. We always welcomed new neighbors especially with small children because that meant we had more friends to play with.

My sisters and I also played in the small playground near our home with just two old swings and a large parking spot that used to be empty but very suitable for bike riding or chasing each other. We were very happy just with that small space.

I rode my bike with my friends under the scorching hot sun or heavy rain, and it surprises me now that even though I spent a lot of time under the hot sun or heavy rain, but I almost never got sick. Even if I was sick, I recovered quickly, because to be sick and had to stay at home the whole day was not fun at all.

I loved to swim and really learnt hard how to swim because my parents liked to take us to Megamendung in Puncak Area just to swim when holidays came. So not being able to swim was not a good option for me and my sisters. And Puncak Area 20 to 25 years ago was still very cold. The water in the swimming pool was freezing cold but my sisters and I stayed until the pool was almost closed. We swam in the cold water for hours and only came out when we were hungry. Holidays to Puncak was considered expensive for my family back then, so we always optimized our swimming time. And believe me, there was no traffic jam at all 20 years ago.

I still remember them clearly in my mind even until now because they were the best memories that I’ve ever had from my childhood. I was so happy and had no burden at all of what would happen tomorrow. All I could think was what to play tomorrow. I don’t remember all the toys that I ever had when I was a kid, but I remember clearly my family vacation in Megamendung, where we used to sit in the gazabo, the hot grill corns that was sold in front of the pool, the food my mother cooked and we brought to the pool, the shape of the pool, and even our old car that brought us from Jakarta to Puncak.

That is why I want my son to have the same wonderful memories as I do. The bad thing was, camera was not so popular back then, so I could only captured the moments in my mind and there were small details about my past that I completely forget right now. So I am thankful that nowadays, cameras are very popular, and as I said before that the memory in my camera then transferred to my computer can store our wonderful moments together for a very long time……….better than my brain. When I look at the pictures, they always bring back the wonderful and warm and sometimes emotional feeling that I can’t explain. And I am hoping that my son can feel the same too when he grows up and see his family pictures. That is why I love taking pictures, I want my son to remember almost every detail of his childhood and will pass the same wonderful memories to his children and grand children.

When I was a preschooler, I lived in my grand parents house in Central Java. It was a super big house and my grand parents had a huge chicken farm on the backyard (they sold the eggs and chickens to the market), so we ate eggs taken from the farm. There were also fruit trees in the front yard, such as mango trees and soursop trees. All the children who lived there couldn’t wait for the fruits to be ripen and picked from the trees, and waited impatiently for our turn to eat the fruit. And then when we moved to Jakarta, my mother who always loves gardening, planted star fruit, guava, mango, papaya, and rose apple trees in our front yard. I love all those fruits. I think that is why I like many kind of fruits since I was little and even until now. The memories of climbing the fruit trees, picking the ripen fruits by myself, and finally ate the fruits immediately (sometimes even without being washed first) had contributed a lot to my likeness to almost all fruits.

Well, the only fruit plant left in my mother’s house is now only small lime tree. She used to have many kind of flowers in our small yard across the street, but when the flood came, it carried away all the plants in our small yard too.

Now, my mom also wants my son to experience the same thing as I did. Well, she didn’t exactly say that, but I think she meant that way. Although in Singapore we don’t have a real garden, but my mom (whenever she comes here and visits us) always wants to make a small garden using flower pots in front of our apartment. She does everything and I just need to water the plants whenever she is not around (for your information, I don’t like gardening). She plants tomatoes, limes, and chili. She said my son will be very happy to see the trees grow and pick the fruits when it is about time. She also said she couldn’t wait to see the boy’s excitement when he picks up the ripen fruits and chili.

And yes, the boy is very excited to see the growing plants getting bigger and bigger everyday, and when he’s in the mood he will help water the plants.

I do hope that this experience will increase his love to nature and he will have amazing memories picking and eating fruits and vegetables from our own garden (we plan to plant vegetables in Jakarta too).  Having plants in front of our house also bring fresher air to our home, and plus we do not live in a crowded street, so I open the windows and door everyday so the sun and fresh air can come to our house.

So, I believe that in order to be healthy, a child does not only have to exercise, but also eat healthy foods. My family mostly eats big portion of vegetables, fish, kampong chicken only, and fruits. These days, I do not cook pork, beef (red meat), canned food and really reduce the consumption of food with MSG and preservatives (such as sausages and store-bought fish ball or meat balls). We change the white rice into red rice (but sometimes we still eat white rice too). Vitamins are also important, and nowadays we take vitamins which contain fish oil and sea cucumber jelly.

I feel that the frequencies of going to the doctors have been lesser and lesser these days. Even though one of us starts to get cough or catch a flu, it usually never stays long and without fever too. Luckily, the little boy loves fish more than chicken, so basically he will prefer if I cook fish than any other meat.

I do hope that all the combination of exercise and eating healthy food will keep us healthy and happy.

Yes, when I was younger (and also smaller) I was active and healthy, and I want my son to be active and healthy too, so one day he will grow up as and active and healthy person.

PS: This post (including the words on the pictures) are my thought only, and I believe that every family has different ways to raise the children. So please feel free to agree or disagree with me. Hope we all can raise active and happy children who will pass this to their next generation. 

Lil Bird Watcher in Pasir Ris Park

Few months ago, I went back to Jakarta on my own and I had to leave my lil one with his father and my mom for a week. I was feeling guilty as soon as I left the house (although he was actually fine) and decided to bring him something when I came back. I wasn’t thinking about toys, simply because at his age right now……..he doesn’t show great interest in toys anymore.

So it happened, I was opening the shopping catalog in the airplane, when I suddenly saw a nice pair of binoculars specially designed for kids. Then I knew what I would get for him.

My son likes to study, read, and learn about animals……………..all kind of animals including birds. He can differentiate one bird after another just by looking at the pictures in the book. We even went to the park to look for birds…………

His teacher even appointed him to present a short summary about a book that he borrowed from the school library, and guess what………the book title was: BIRDS. He had to speak in front of the whole school on morning assembly. I trained him at home and he said he was doing okay………….but more about that on my next post (no promise………….)

So I thought giving him binoculars would be suitable for him. We can go bird watching together and I knew he will enjoy it.

I was planning to buy him real binoculars, not just kids binoculars. I wanted a small and light binoculars with small bag and neck strap attached so he can put around his neck (easier to carry), but on the other hand I also wanted the binoculars with proper magnification and suitable for bird watching……………..and also not too expensive.

So I read the information about binoculars carefully and I went from one store to another to find the perfect binoculars. In my desperation (it was almost my last day in Jakarta and I hadn’t got anything that I liked according to my budget), I accidentally found them in one of the book store (Gramedia) for only Rp 230.000,-

They are not Nikon or Bushnell but still………….I like them so much. The binoculars are slim, light, and although they are only 7X23 but we were very satisfied when we tried at home and at the park. They are perfect for beginners like us.

Tried the binoculars at home

Looking for birds and aeroplanes

We finally tried these new binoculars at Pasir Ris Park. The lil one was very enthusiastic about the visit on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

Looking up……….

 

And down……….

Looking for birds from bird watching hut

Looking for creatures above and under in Sungei Tampines

Bird watching is making me hungry

Well, bird watching was not an easy thing to do. It was difficult to find birds, and even if we found them, they were moving very fast. But we didn’t give up yet, we decided to come back again the next week…………..this time riding the bikes.

We’re back………….

We met some groups of professional bird watchers with their humongous telescope equipped with anti motion blur camera were looking and waiting patiently for hours for a small blue bird. Lil boy made himself comfortable and confidently joined the group with his tiny binoculars.

Look who joins the crowd…………

We finally spotted the blue bird………..but with our bare eyes, not with the binoculars……………

When the blue bird came, everybody hurriedly snapped pictures of it with multiple shoots. The pictures were beautiful (I looked at one of the telescope-camera and I admired the results)

Waiting patiently for the bird

Ok, we were bored finally, so we left the place to go to the playground. Anyway, we already saw the tiny bird that everybody in the group was waiting for. Seriously, when we came back from the playground, those people were still there! It really needs unlimited amount of patience to be a professional bird watcher.

Looking for birds and ships from the bridge