What to teach?

Homeschooling gives us the liberty to teach our children many things, and opens the doors to many new worlds.  I'm terrible in that I'm something of a neophile.  I'm always excited about new things to try.

Lately, it's been Literature, and soon, it will be Writing.  Yes, reading and writing.  Heh.  I've always been terrible at Literature. I had lousy Literature teachers at school and never could fathom the aims and objectives of the subject.  But I'd like my children to grow to love good writing, so I thought I should introduce them to good stuff.  So I've started Sarah on The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame.  We've chosen to read the unabridged version published by Simon & Schuster, under the Aladdin Classics label.  I'm still floundering, still trying to figure out how and what to teach her.

I've ordered a set of writing and reading books that should be arriving here soon.  Amongst them is a book called Reading Strands which supposedly will help me to teach Lit.  Hope so.  I never did get it, and don't know if I ever will.  In the set is Writing Strands, which is supposed to be an excellent writing curriculum.  Sarah will need to be able to write good compositions with 'complex sentences' if she wants to do well for her PSLE.  I don't ever recall having been taught how to write.  I just did it most naturally.  But her writing to date has been too simple in my opinion, and not well-organised. Some of her compositions have great introductions, a confused middle section and practically no conclusion.  So I had to get her some help. 

Then, in the same shipment, I expect to receive a new set of Latin texts.  At the moment she has finished with Prima Latina, so I'm starting her on Latina Christiana I. 

My part time helper had a relapse of her cancer and will no longer be working for us.  So this past week, we have had a homeschool break for Major Spring Clean.  I think we'll be taking school breaks every 8-12 weeks for this Major Spring Clean (or Summer, or Autumn, or Winter). And every 4 or so weeks, we'll take another break for minor spring clean.  No more do-nothing homeschool holidays.  But at least the children all chipped in to help.  I'm very proud of them.  They cleaned without complaining, and did quite a good job.  Today is Thursday, I should have finished, but I have not done the kitchen.  Fever has stopped me.  Anyway,  I think I need to do the kitchen another time.

The government has implemented 'cooling off' measures to curb the skyrocketing COE prices lately.  Now, car buyers must pay off at least 50% of their car's price, and the remaining loan can only be spread out over 5 years.  I'm happy.  Hope the car prices come down.  Maybe owning another car after this present one 'dies' might not be such a pipe dream after all.

One reason I don't blog very often is that I've just been lazy.  Every time I have seen the "Blogger:Dashboard" bookmark on my bookmarks bar, I have told myself "nah, I'll do it another day".  I guess that "other day" has come.

We've just started a new year, and a new year of homeschooling.  The year-end holidays were a good break.  Our family went to Phnom Penh with a few other members of our church.  It was a busy time.  There were relationships to cement with Pastor Narin Chey and his family, the boys at the Alpha-Gamma-Omega-Dormitory, and the lovely folk from Mission To The World. 
(Photos to insert from other laptop)

All in all, the experience was one of great humility for us, to see the fervor shown by these Cambodian Christians whose history had been so fractured.  Their simple faith in our Lord to provide all their needs made us realise that we have too much here, and thus we fail to depend fully on God for everything.  I made many new friends.  We should go back again soon.

Another event took place before this mission trip.  It happened right at home, in Sarah's bedroom.  Her tiles exploded one Saturday morning with a frightening noise and tile chips flying.  It has made me somewhat paranoid about those hollow tiles that are everywhere in our home.  Anyway, HDB replaced Sarah's tiles for free, since they had laid the original ones in the first place.  In the meantime, all 3 beds plus 2 wardrobes managed to fit into the boys' room, and they lived in this 'dormitory' for over a month.

We have been fighting many fires lately.  In summary, besides the tiles, there was the leaky toilet, the fried router and its replacement, terrible coughs and colds, the passing of a friend in a horrific car accident in Tasmania, as well as difficulties in character training for our children.  Some changes for 2013 - Sarah's great gym coach Nicole Tolhurst returned home to Perth, so now she has an ex-SEA games Philippines gymnast Coach Ronnie.  I want to teach her Composition in a more systematic way, so I'm ordering a book "Writing Strands".  Our family started on a new guide for Family Worship - Long Story Short.  I started on a new Bible Reading plan "Discipleship Journal".

I'll promise (again) to blog more regularly.

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” (Isaiah 52:7)

I love being reminded about the good news of Jesus Christ.  It is such a joy and encouragement for a weary heart to hear the gospel preached from week to week in church. Jesus reigns indeed! Thank God for a gifted preacher in Pastor Chris Seah of Proidence Reformed Presbyterian Church. 

On the homeschooling front, things have been moving along.  We have decided that Sarah is really Dyspraxic, rather than ADD.  Ben is still exhibiting ASD characteristics.  Gabriel is as cute and clever as ever. 

But academics aside, there is still this constant struggle to shape and mould our children to follow Christ.  Obedience has been the greatest struggle.  Obedience, being a submission of heart 'right away, all the way, and with a happy heart'.  These precious years are going by so quickly. 

For mummy, the constant mess that the house is in is a cause of stress.  But I have to learn to look the other way most of the time, and be content with little clean-ups, which don't last long enough.

Still, there is much, much love here in this household, and we are so privileged to have the Lord our God with us each and every day.

COEs Up

Off topic post, perhaps a little of a rant...

The Singapore government has recently announced that the quotas for small cars under 1600CC will be reduced significantly over the next 6 months.  This move will drive up the cost of the Certificate of Entitlement (COE), which is a license that one needs to bid for in order to buy a car.  Presently, the COE for small cars is over $59,000, which is more than the cost of the car itself!  When we bought our car in 2009, we paid about $40,000 for it, COE and all.  Our car belongs to the 'budget' category, with engine size of less than 1600 cc and hailing from Korea.  It suited our family of 5, living on a single income.

The Singapore government has also recently been lamenting the lack of population increase (aka babies being born).  It is encouraging couples to have more children, and at a younger age.

Public buses in Singapore are well-known for being unfriendly to strollers and wheelchairs, and actually, anything that is not on two strong, healthy legs.

Put all of the above together and what do we have?  One confused me!  I'm not too sure what to put as a priority now.  We are told to have more children. But then cars are being priced out of the reach of any average Singaporean family.  So how do we get our children around?  The buses are unfriendly to pram-toting mums.  Taxi prices are increasing.  So the obvious effect?..... Couples will now think even harder before having children.  After all, if we have a child, mum may probably want to stop working for a few years to care for the child.  Family will be on a single income.  But then we cannot afford to replace our now aging car on a single income with the prices soaring like that.  And mum will be housebound because the only way out is the bus, which is unfriendly for infants in arms and strollers.  So it all looks so bleak.... better not to have children.

Sorry... RANT!

Hmmmm, this blogger has changed!!  Where's the title?  Where's the box for the tags?
Nevermind.

APRIL 2012
Our highlight of the month was a trip up to Cameron Highlands in Malaysia.
I drove.  Stopped halfway for a rest at our favourite hotel Holiday Inn Glenmarie.  What I like about this place is the beautiful view out of the full-height room windows - the golf course.  The rooms are really quite spacious, clean and very comfy indeed.
The food at the golf club has gone down in quality with the addition of the air conditioned section :(.
The drive up to Camerons was uneventful except for the heavy rain which sent torrents of water pouring down from the hillsides.  The kids were enthralled by these 'waterfalls', but I, as driver, was very stressed.

The OMF Bungalow was beautifully set on a hill, overlooking the town of Brinchang. I'll let the photos speak...

Needless to say, the children had a blast.  We met several missionaries on break.  It was a very refreshing time of sharing with the missionaries.  It opened our eyes to the real life and work of a missionary.  What a blessing!

On the way home to Singapore, we stopped the night again in Glenmarie.  This time, with Fiona and family.  Kam Loon decided he'd drive to Subang Jaya to have dinner.  But alas, we got sooo lost.  We spent almost 45 mins finding our way there, when it should have taken us just 5 mins.  On the way back too, same thing.  We should have asked the hotel staff for directions before we set off.  Maybe next time, we'll take the shuttle bus into town, and grab a taxi back.

Vacation

We took a short holiday to Bintan at the end of March. It was to be the last of our off-peak holidays because Gary is going to start work at a school. Off-peak vacations are bliss... no crowds, no queues, plenty of space to spread out. Nice. The Mangrove Tour was really nice. We learnt about the stilt roots, pencil roots and ribbon roots, and saw a yellow banded snake sleeping in the branches above us. The beach was beautiful, but that belied the fact that there was POLLUTION in the form of oil/tar in the water. Whenever we would step into the water, we would get tarry black spots on our feet or slippers. Fortunately, the resort provided some kerosene to clean it all off. But still, I would have liked to wander more into the water.

Highlights of our vacation :

The Mangrove Tour

The all-day blackout (for the sake of the generators, once in 5 years)

The power trip that same night due to a fierce thunderstorm

The discovery of another swimming pool in the resort, very very quiet, and with a slide!

Kid's Club. They had fun, especially on the Tour of the House with a buggy ride thrown in.

Sarah totally loved the flying fox and the trampoline. I totally loved the Indian meal at the Spice Restaurant.

The kids loved to ride on the 'Jungle Bus'. The shuttle bus that brought us around the resort.

Kuih Bakul

Hello there! Just woken up from a Rip van Winkle sleep since my last post.

School has been underway for about 3 weeks now. We're still adjusting to schedules and adjusting the schedules to suit us.

This term's targets

1. For Sarah to learn to be more on task and do everything without a)daydreaming, b)fidgeting or c)being distracted by things around her.

2. For Ben to be able to fully come on board.

3. For Gabriel to learn to occupy himself without too much interruption to us

4. For me to manage all my household chores, and sleep earlier at night.

Today, I attempted to fry up some kueh bakul. That's a sticky glutinous rice 'cake' that is the tradition of the Lunar New Year. Legend has it that some monster (or god??) is released during the month before the Lunar New Year, and it prowls the kitchens looking for food and gossip to report to the 'gods'. So people make this sticky cake to glue up the kitchen monster's mouth so that it cannot report all the bad things to the gods in 'heaven'.

Well, I called Mum this morning to ask her how to do the kueh bakul (also known as 'nian gao') with yam slices. She said to sandwich the yam between slices of kueh bakul, dip in batter and fry. It didn't sound right to me. Shouldn't one sandwich the kueh between the yam instead? That would make it less sweet!! Anyhow, I tried it her way. It turned out quite nice, except that the yam was not sufficiently cooked inside. But just now, I looked it up online, and actually, I was right all along. The yam should be on the outside... it would cook better. And also the melted kueh bakul would not stick onto my wok like it did just now. So, conclusion : sandwich kueh bakul between slices of yam.

OK. Time to start school now.