It is 930pm and all the kids are in dreamland. It is a rare early bedtime in our house. And I should really be happy to hit the bed so early for the longest time. But in the end, I decide to use the precious silence at this moment to think and look back into January 2017. Call it learning from the past, or simply organizing my thoughts on what I did that I could have done better. As I am being carried away by the quick passing of everyday mundane life, it is good to pause to recollect, reflect and learn.
On the PSLE kid…
Ever since my girl jotted down the school’s schedule counting down to PSLE, I must say I am starting to get more than a little worried about how to help her do well in PSLE. I was at a dilemma and even self-doubt if I had made a right choice in insisting on no tuition for her. But after talking to the hub and drafting a revision plan, we trust that we are the best tuition teachers for her. Simply because we are totally focus on helping her and know her weakness better than others.
Since we are not engaging external tutors, I find myself totally responsible in giving her academic help. For the very first time, I bought the entire Top School papers. I visited the Popular bookstore more than 5 times to get the right assessment books for her. Many times, I fought with myself on this obsession with PSLE. This is not the kind of parent I want to be. This is not the kind of stress I want to subject my kids to. Didn’t I say I was determined to make PSLE a less ‘un-enjoyable’ year? While I thought I had only want to bring her up to a level of her own target marks, I begin to think that I may be overdoing it. You bet you will read the same dilemma and challenges I face when I recap at the end of the next few months. I am struggling and learning hard to juggle between giving my girl her rightful childhood and focusing on academic help, knowing we do not have much time left to catch up. Such tough decision affects how we spend our daily short nights.
On other 2 kids…
I am seriously neglecting the other 2 kids because each night with the short 1 hour, I spend a good 3/4 of the hour on my girl. Thank goodness, I am able to spend some time with Master 5 in the morning and walk him to school everyday. That leaves Master 10 with really little time to bond together. I know that, but I am not able to find a suitable time to spend with him. From now on, I shall designate a 15min time to do an activity with him every night before dinner. I shall update you if it works out.
On myself…
January is my favourite month. It is a month of celebration with New Year and Chinese new year and most importantly, my birthday falls in this month too. As I get closer to the big 4, family ties matter greatly to me. I do my best to teach my kids respect, contentment, and important values. While I am proud that I am being brought up well and proud that my kids live my values by their simple innocence, I do have areas to improve on. I need to learn to accept that I cannot teach other people respect and values. I can only teach my own kids these. Everyone lives his own life and I should not bother to change perceptions too. Life is a learning journey. I find myself so much more to learn and improve on, especially on relationships. I do hope to inspire and be a good listening ear and adviser to my kids in future when they face similar grown-up problems.
On a happy note…
Both my kids received the Edusave awards. It is a great encouragement and we are really proud of them!
Missy 12 and Master 10 appeared on the school’s subscribed newspaper 新列车Volume 1! They participated in the filming of Primary School Oral Video last December and the editor used the footage photos. Their friends and teachers were pleasantly surprised to see their appearance in both print and video. We are expecting to see more on Volume 2 too, I can’t wait to see!
On a different engagement, Master 10 and I got selected to participate in a filming of a kids’ show! This is going to be exciting! I will certainly share the details once it is aired on TV!
On a 3rd opportunity, Master 10 and I almost had a chance to appear on social media advertisement, but the client had decided to choose another family. Nevertheless, we were a little overwhelmed at these few opportunities all around the same time. I think all these are terrific experiences for us and I do hope that they keep coming!
So, my January ends with… lots of self-reflection…and I am glad that there are many exciting happy moments too! I hope February 2017 will be one with improvement and more kids bonding activities!
How is your January? 🙂
I recently talked to one of my kid classmate’s mum. She says my kids are very fortunate to have a Mum like me who believe in balancing our kids’ life. She has a P5 girl and she is also on the no tuition route. She says I have reminded and inspired her to look at her kids’ life. I think I can say the same to you too. Your kids are very fortunate to have you as a Mum, who looks after their well being and not just academic results. Which is why you are having the struggle. And you have inspired me to do the same for my kids too. So 加油！
BTW, I always like to read your monthly “rounding-up” post and I’m going to copy you in doing it. LOL.
Jac, you are always so sweet! Thanks for this encouragement booster 🙂 I certainly need it! I am looking forward to reading your round up posts!! It is good to learn from one another and remind ourselves on things that matter 🙂