Of Kids and Education

Walking The Line

2012-01-28T14:58:00.016+08:00

I know I've been a laggard in blogging. Sorry lah, it's CNY and my entire system has been in lockdown mode.

This CNY has been such a whirlwind affair, we've hardly begun to celebrate before it's over. To add to the excitement, Lesley-Anne came down with an unfortunate bout of food poisoning on CNY eve (which led to a 2am visit to a 24-hour doc for an anti-vomiting jab). Her new clothes and shoes remained untouched while she spent the two days of CNY in bed, eating porridge and ham sandwiches.

Incidentally, Lesley-Anne's Chinese zodiac fortune for this year read "The Water Dragon will be unfriendly to you." You don't say.

Anyway, she's feeling much better now and she had a chance to catch up on the feasting when my sister treated us to lunch at Shangri-la's celebrated buffet, The Line.

We're not frequent patrons of buffets as we don't have insatiable appetites, but it was a real treat. The Line is known for its spectacular spread - there's a Chinese, Indian, Western, Italian and Japanese selection, on top of the cold appetisers and of course, the impressive array of desserts.

We didn't sample all the stations. We simply zoomed in on our favourites, like the cold seafood. Crab claws, succulent prawns, raw oysters, mussels.

And sashimi, of course! As much salmon belly as you can eat.

The food was very fresh. We had too many helpings to count but the crowning glory has to be the dessert. This is one seriously awesome spread - makes you wish you were a cow just so you can have four stomachs!

Andre tackling the chocolate fountain.

Before conquering the ice-cream station. He had mango sorbet and raspberry sorbet with chocolate sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, chocolate chips and gummy worms. I call it the hyperactive drive concoction.

Topping it all up with a foamy cup of cappuccino.

Kopi tarik and teh tarik for husband and wife.

Eating at the Shang is really very pleasant. It's surrounded by green and as we discovered, even the squirrels have acquired a taste for fine dining. We actually saw a couple run up and down the tables outside, foraging for leftovers.

Just a by the way but there's a chocolate carving of two dragons in the Shang lobby which I thought was mighty impressive.

Me and my fabulous sister!

Festive feasting

2012-01-20T12:12:00.005+08:00

We've been celebrating lots of 'firsts' in our new home and here's another - our first Chinese New Year.

It's always exciting to dress up a new home and this year, we've decided to go green. The red flowers are coxcombs, we bought them just because they looked so festive.

But more than just a new location, this CNY is different because my mother-in-law is living with us, meaning we get to see the CNY goodies being made (as opposed to previous years where we merely ate them, lol).

While we still buy most of the goodies, there are a few that my mil will faithfully make every year. Don't even think about asking her to buy them instead as none will be able to live up to her standards. Mind you, I'm not complaining!

Here she is, stirring the jelly. This jelly is a lot more work than the regular kind. Besides making the mixture, it needs to be sunned for several days to give it that crunchy texture.

Home-made pineapple tarts. If you've tried these, you'll never go back to the gummy, commercial ones.

Besides snacks, my mil also prepares specialty CNY foods, like these yam coins which will be pan fried with mushrooms during CNY.

But my favourite, hands down, is the carrot and pumpkin kueh. For the carrot kueh, radishes are grated...

... and then fried with meat and mushrooms.

These are then mixed with flour and put into large vats (these are the carrot kueh) and steamed.

Come CNY, the kueh will be sliced thinly and fried till crisp, then eaten with sweet sauce. This is our typical CNY breakfast and I love, love, love it, the pumpkin especially.

Andre's school badminton tournaments will take place just after CNY (who's crappy idea was that?) and the coach is already warning all the players to stay away from bak kua, soft drinks and prawn rolls.

I think she's fighting a losing battle. She needs to resign herself to the fact that she's gonna have a sluggish team on her hands. I've seen the kids - they love their food more than they love badminton.

Well, I reckon the little dragons are entitled to usher in their year with some festive feasting. Happy New Year, everyone and may the Dragon charge into your life bringing cheer and blessings!

Lit my fire

2012-01-12T17:16:00.002+08:00

Last year, when Lesley-Anne attended a school briefing on sec 3 subject combinations. the teacher made it quite clear that she expected the SBGE (school-based gifted education) kids to either go for the special programmes or the triple science option.

Defying the recommendation, Lesley-Anne chose the literature and double science combination. To the teacher, she's probably not living up to her potential. She also told me she has friends who prefer the humanities but are being forced by their parents to go into triple science because it's more prestigious.

Deja vu. I faced the same scenario when I opted out of triple science to go into the arts class at sec 3. It's astonishing how some attitudes haven't changed in 30 years.

What I'm going to say next may offend the math/science folks. If you're a math/science person, don't kill me. I know it's a generalisation and doesn't apply to everyone. But back in my undergraduate years at NUS, I found the arts folks to be more interesting people and have a broader mindset than those from science or engineering. Towards the end of last year, Lesley-Anne started complaining that some of her classmates (the majority of whom are math and science-oriented) are very dull and narrow-minded. In contrast, she finds her humanities class this year vibrant and outgoing.

I don't think it's a coincidence. Kids who tend to think in black-and-white will veer towards the sciences because they prefer to learn things that are more tangible. They are uncomfortable with the humanities because they find security only in subjects that they can mug for or have fixed solutions.

The humanities, literature especially, are much more open to interpretation. If you're unable to form your own opinion or are used to having someone tell you what is the right or wrong answer, I can see why this will be difficult. Unfortunately, it is these kids who shun the humanities that will most benefit from it.

Of course lit is not perfect. The thing about lit is that it's so open-ended that sometimes, I think we take too many liberties with it. Students and teachers tend to get a little carried away, reading too much into texts. Afterall, who's to say they're wrong? And you're graded based on how much you say.

Lesley-Anne and I often joke about this. Eg:

Passage: "The curtains were blue."
Student's interpretation: "The author was melancholic."
Teacher's interpretation: "The author was reminded of the sea, where he used to live, and he was melancholic."
Author's intended meaning: "The curtains were blue."

Nevertheless, it's heaps of fun and I honestly believe that the humanities groom individuals who are more creative and more able to think for themselves. Lesley-Anne has had a great start to the year and is enjoying herself tremendously. She came home one day and said, "I have back-to-back periods of language arts and lit. Heaven!" I can imagine it's probably some kids' idea of hell.

True learning is not just about amassing facts or applying data. Math and science have their place, but so do the humanities, and the latter is definitely not the "inferior" option. Hopefully it won't take another 30 years for Singaporeans to understand this.

Teaching that inspires

2012-01-06T08:44:00.001+08:00

Before the school holidays ended, we made time for a family movie night. The chosen flick was Mr Holland's Opus. Set from 1965-1995, it's about Glenn Holland, a professional musician who starts teaching music at a local high school thinking it would give him time to compose his own music.

Initially, he is unable to make any inroads in teaching but over time, grows to become an adept teacher. The story also outlines his struggles coming to terms with having a deaf son. After 30 years of teaching, the music programme at the school is cancelled, putting Mr Holland out of a job and leaving him wondering if he had wasted his life.

There are several reasons why I love this movie. One, Mr Holland, played by Richard Dreyfuss, is portrayed as not your typical, idealistic individual but a very real, down to earth teacher with human failings that anyone can identify with.

Second, I like that Mr Holland is a music teacher. Just like in Singapore, music and other "soft" subjects are considered non essential in the US and this comes through in the movie. I love this quote towards the end of the movie, when the Vice-Principal broke the news to Mr Holland that the music programme was being canned:

VP: I care about these kids just as much as you do. And if I'm forced to choose between Mozart and reading and writing and long division, I choose long division.

Mr Holland: Well, I guess you can cut the arts as much as you want, Gene. Sooner or later, these kids aren't going to have anything to read or write about.

It's inspiring without being saccharine and overly dramatic, like many American attempt-to-feel-good movies.

Maybe I love it so much because it has so many parallels in real life. When Mr Holland started out as a teacher, it was simply out of necessity and he left the kids cold. It was only when he grew to love teaching and his students that he touched so many of them.

I've discovered that the best teachers are often not the ones who know the best methods. Andre has had teachers who no doubt, know how to teach. But some of them have completely turned him off lessons because they teach with the impersonal indifference of someone merely executing a task.

Kids are very perceptive. They know who are the teachers who care and who are the ones who don't give a damn. (Andre's friend had a math teacher who openly declared to the class after a frustrating session, "I don't care if you understand this, I still get paid.")

That's why I'm totally against those who go into teaching purely to chase a career path. Teaching is a calling, much like nursing. If you're annoyed by kids, you'll quickly find them a burden in your life and these kids will be left uninspired and unimpressed.

Schools may be surprised to know this but it's also not about how strict the teachers are. I've consistently found that the best-loved teachers, some of whom are the fiercest human beings around, are the ones who have a heart for the kids and truly want the kids to do well. The ones who love the kids they teach will find ways to motivate them to do better. The ones who don't, well, even with the best techniques, will leave the children disinterested. It's time we realise that learning is less about methods and more about attitudes.

This year, both Lesley-Anne and Andre have been assigned excellent teachers, for which I'm deeply thankful. In fact, when Lesley-Anne heard the names of Andre's teachers, she went, "wah, strike lottery!"

Indeed, getting good teachers is like striking lottery, since every school, no matter how good, will have its fair share of good and not-so-good teachers. I can think of few things in our children's school life as important as the quality of teachers. It is infinitely more important than the brand of the school or the range of its facilities.

So, back to Mr Holland's Opus. Do watch it, if you haven't already, for a dose of heart-warming inspiration. If I were the NIE, I would make all teachers-to-be watch this movie. In the end, it's not the grand gestures of teachers, just everyday little ones, that make a lasting impression.

"What the teacher is, is more important than what he teaches." ~Karl Menninger

Letters

2011-12-31T09:59:00.004+08:00

31 December 2011, New Year's Eve

Dearest Lesley-Anne

Often, I marvel at how I managed to have a daughter like you. I thank God for your selflessness, how you're always putting others ahead of you. Sometimes I worry it will allow others to take advantage of you but I have to trust that God will bless you with the accompanying wisdom to discern good from bad, and continue to guide your path.

You're mature beyond your years, thoughtful and bright, tempered with a dollop of level-headedness. I'm constantly amazed by your discipline, sensitivity, and most of all, your godliness. At the same time, your feistiness (I know I often call it pig-headedness) keeps you from being bland.

My wish for you this New Year is that you will delight in new experiences, not to be afraid to try something different, even if you risk making a fool of yourself. I know the world seems like a scary place and people can be mean, but choosing what is safe because it's familiar is no way to live your life.

I pray that you will let go of your defence mechanism, move out of your comfort zone and open up more to others. Expect more of yourself - you'll be surprised at what you can achieve. It's not about getting to know yourself better because who you are is not carved in stone. You are a work in progress and it is only by embracing life and whatever is thrown at you, that you will grow in depth as a human being.

You are an incredible young lady and I'm truly grateful to have a daughter like you.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Mummy

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dearest Andre

Where do I begin? You are such a (big) bundle of joy. I thank God for your spontaneity, your big heart and your eagerness to please. I live for all your hugs and kisses, given with such unadulterated affection.

Sometimes I worry about your innocence, how you're so unaware of the ways of the world and how you wear your heart on your sleeve. But I know it's this quality that makes you so genuine and lovable, and it's what draws people to you. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You keep me young because you keep me laughing! Without even trying.

For 2012, I wish for you patience - something we will both need in the PSLE year. I know that for someone who's always living for the moment, it will be an incredibly difficult lesson for you - to work towards a goal that seems so far away, and a reward that beckons only with hope, not promises.

But I pray that in this process, you will learn that diligence builds character (ugh, I know, I sound like the father in Calvin & Hobbes) and that you will come to understand it's the journey, not the end result, that will enrich your life.

May your generous spirit never diminish. When people around you judge you or try to make you feel less of a person, I hope you will always be secure in the knowledge that you are a champ in every sense of the word.

You are a blessing to many and I thank God that you have been entrusted to me.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Mummy

'Tis the season to be jolly

2011-12-25T00:00:00.004+08:00

We've lived in our new home for about a month now (after discounting the 2 weeks we were away in NZ) and it's only about now that I finally feel this is home.

It may sound strange but for the first couple of weeks, a part of me felt like I was living in a show flat. I would get very flustered when I saw newspapers carelessly strewn on the coffee table or half eaten bags of potato chips lying around. This is extremely uncharacteristic behaviour as I am a slob at heart. Tidying up, to me, is as fun as having a root canal. So it was very disconcerting indeed.

Thankfully, I'm back to my normal, messy self now. This house, however, is turning our entire family into couch potatoes. We've never had cable before (I know, we're stone age) and since my mother-in-law watches Korean dramas, we subscribed to Starhub.

My conclusion is that cable is EVIIIIL. Why? Cos now, no matter whether it's 10 o'clock in the morning or 4.30 in the afternoon, there's always something interesting on. Either Nigella is cooking up something decadently delicious or the folks at CSI are wading through the mandatory 100 red herrings to solve yet another murder, neatly within 50 minutes. Whatever. It's incredibly addictive.

These photos show only Andre but truthfully, all of us spend an extended amount of time in front of the telly.

It's official - I live in the house of sloth. I'm praying that we will OD on food and forensics soon so we can get them out of our systems and get on with our lives.

But after the hustle and bustle in the last quarter of the year, it's kinda nice to just zone out. It's also the first Christmas in our new home and I've found that playing the Glee Christmas album while doing absolutely nothing makes me happy. (It's a very campy album but infectiously jolly).

We've only a few more days to the end of 2011 and we've been celebrating the season with family and friends. Family, friends, food and gifts - all enveloped in the warmth of love and home. There really isn't anything more one can wish for. Looking back at the momentous year we've had, I can only say I'm unspeakable grateful for the journey God has led us on and His tremendous, unbridled blessings.

Blessed Christmas to all of you, my dear friends.

"One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don't clean it up too quickly." ~Andy Rooney

Andre's belated birthday sleepover

2011-12-19T09:47:00.002+08:00

Andre's birthday is in October and he wanted another sleepover like he did last year. However, since we were in the midst of moving house and a million other things, I told him he could have his party belated, after we'd returned from NZ.

So last Wed, a few of his friends came over for the first (and maybe last?) sleepover in our new home.

I really didn't have the time or energy to plan anything elaborate so I left them pretty much to their own devices. Pre-teen boys are actually reasonably easy to please. Eg, just plonk them in front of the tv and screen an action movie (Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull).

In case you're wondering, the pile of snacks was not provided by me, it was brought by a chip-o-holic boy whose mum generously catered enough for the whole group.

Of course, there's the computer. You can't pry boys away from pc games with a crowbar.

From experience, when you coop hyperactive boys indoors for too long, they start to go a little manic, so we brought them to the pool.

Not much swimming occurred, it was more a water brawl.

Dinner was simple fare al fresco - spaghetti and fried chicken wings. When I took this picture, one of the boys called out in alarm, "no, no, must delete the picture!" When I asked why, he replied, "If not, my mother will see that I ate too many chicken wings." LOL!

Cake time! My little boy is now 11 (well, for 2 months now).

I sent the boys to bed at 11pm, thinking that the chatting will continue for another hour. However, by midnight, we were still hearing laughter and loud thuds, prompting a tired Kenneth to ask me, "what on earth are they doing??"

We found out the next morning that at midnight, they decided it would be a good idea to stage a WWE match. Go figure! They finally fell asleep only at 1am but that didn't stop them from jumping up at the crack of dawn to play more computer games.

Kenneth was hoping to get a shot of them asleep but no chance. This was the scene that greeted him at 7am.

After breakfast, the boys made the most of the remaining time by having a game of table tennis and yet another dip in the pool.

You know the party was a success when the boys complain that their parents came to fetch them too soon.

I know it's very belated but I hope you had a very Happy Birthday, my dear kumara chip!

Aotearoa the Beautiful

2011-12-06T09:01:00.011+08:00

I am back!!!! And exhausted. And have a million emails to reply to, clients to reconnect with, and of course, preparations for Christmas.

It's always a bummer to come home from holidays. Especially this one because we really enjoyed ourselves to the fullest. This holiday to New Zealand (Aotearoa is the Maori name) truly was an over-achiever - busted all expectations. I don't foresee being able to top this one, at least not for a long time.

So this short post is just to say I haven't forgotten about you, my dear readers, but I probably won't be posting here much for the next couple of weeks. Instead, I'll finishing up my holiday posts on the Travel Bug.

If you haven't been following my journey there, please do! NZ is a terrific destination for a family holiday, I whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone.

Meanwhile, here are a few snapshots of the stunning country that is NZ.

Schools, national exams... and unconditional love

2011-11-18T16:19:00.006+08:00

As academic year 2011 came to a close, we received good news: Andre managed to get 3rd in class!

For those of you who have been following my blog, you will probably understand why this is such a happy surprise for us. Academics has never been Andre's strength and this prize was all the more unexpected because we've been so busy moving house that I haven't been breathing down his throat as much for the final SA2. My friend Lilian pointed out that Andre seems to perform better when he's left to his own devices. Not sure if that's true but it certainly reduces the stress for both of us!

I'm unspeakably grateful for this prize, more so because I'm hoping it will motivate Andre to work harder next year - the dreaded PSLE year. I'm so not looking forward to it. If I could take a pill and fast forward time till after the exam, I would.

Recently, I ran into a friend, who's the father of Lesley-Anne's p6 classmate, Ryan. His younger son just finished the PSLE this year and he said it was probably the worst time in his life. Everyday leading up to the exam, the boy would bring home a thick wad of exam papers to be completed and both father and son would stare despairingly at the stack (father is expected to mark the papers - brings a sadistic twist to the phrase "partnering parents in education").

He said it was a nightmare, especially since his younger son is not half as motivated as his elder brother. In fact, he thought both Ryan and Lesley-Anne spoilt the market with their work ethic. As he was tearing his hair out, pleading with his second child, it dawned on him, "So THAT'S what PSLE preparation is really like!"

I sympathised with him and when he heard that Andre would be doing his PSLE next year, I'm sure he's sending sympathies my way.

We've all heard it before - the PSLE has become such a high stakes exam that the pressure to do well overwhelms everything else. No one can escape - the kids, the teachers, the parents. So intensive is the preparation for the PSLE that it leaves an indelible scar on everyone. I suspect part of the reason why IP schools are so popular is because we all remember vividly the horrors of the PSLE and want to avoid another national exam.

Ryan's dad told me that after the PSLE, he just had 2 goals for his son: to retain his self-esteem and love for learning. Coming from a school teacher, I appreciate the wisdom. It's so easy to lose both in our education system.

We were discussing how even some of the kids in the best schools, who are probably the top 2% of the cohort, still feel insecure about their own abilities. Eg, I've heard how kids from the Raffles schools feel inferior because they couldn't get into the Raffles Academy.

This is seriously screwed up. It seems like our education system constantly tells our kids that they're not good enough. I've said this before - some schools, particularly the branded ones, appear more interested in what the kids can do for the school, than vice versa. Consider this and ask yourself if this is what you really want for your child.

For a long time now, I've understood God's wisdom in giving me 2 kids with such contrasting abilities. If both my kids were intellectually gifted, I would never know what it's like to parent a child who can't always understand concepts immediately or remember things he'd just learnt. It's a lesson in humility - that our kids' giftedness is a blessing, not results of our own doing.

Please don't be mistaken, I know Andre is bright. But when you have another child who learns and absorbs ideas at the drop of a hat, it's easy to use that as a benchmark and forget that not everyone is the same.

I always take advice from parents with all gifted kids with a pinch of salt. I know they're well meaning but what works for gifted kids often doesn't work for regular kids. It's not just a simple case of reading more to improve their language, or teaching a certain method to improve their maths. It's a lot of repetition, a lot of simplification and a huge bucketload of patience - something I'm short of.

As Einstein said, “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

I don't quite agree with the everybody is a genius bit but I concur with the second sentence. Sometimes, I feel that Singapore and Singaporeans have such a narrow definition of success that anyone who can't climb a tree or climb it fast enough is made to feel stupid or inadequate.

Each child's needs are different - I can't emphasise this enough. I speak from experience (and mistakes) parenting 2 kids who are complete opposites of each other. While everyone else's kid may be aiming for the top 3 schools, yours may rejoice at getting into a tier 3 school.

What's important is not to let society or teachers or other parents bully you into thinking it's not ok. Because at the end of the day, some kids are fish. By constantly trying to teach them how to climb trees and scolding them for failing, we may be missing out on the fact that they are fantastic, natural-born swimmers.

I wonder about kids who say, "I must study hard so I don't let my parents down." I understand the sentiment but I think it smells of the implication that they are studying out of a sense of responsibility towards someone else and not because it is something valuable to be enjoyed. Are we a blessing to our kids or have we become a burden?

I don't know what I will be like next year. I keep telling myself that God has a place prepared somewhere for Andre, that I should not be overly kancheong. But I also know how easy it is to lose perspective when you're in the eye of the storm. If that happens, somebody nudge me, ok?

Even as we push our kids to achieve more, we need to show that we love them for who they are, not who we want them to be.

"Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him." - Psalm 127:3

PS We will be going on our family vacation so I won't be blogging here during that time. I will, however, try to blog about my holiday at my travel blog so do check in there!

No more metal mouth

2011-11-16T09:40:00.002+08:00

In the midst of moving, Lesley-Anne commented, "We're having so many highs, I'm too busy to feel excited anymore."

I knew exactly what she meant. These past couple of months, we have so much going on that we feel like we're in the eye of a tornado. Lesley-Anne, in particular, had a lot happening in her life. In addition to the family stuff, ie moving house and preparing for our upcoming holiday, she went through her year-end exams and rushed to embark on a three-day school trip to Malacca. So much so that another monumental event in her life became almost an afterthought... the removal of her braces!

Yes, folks. After 2 long years of enduring metal in her mouth, pain and inability to chew tough food, the braces came off last week! When I blogged about it 2 years ago, its removal seemed like a remote event far, far in the future.

She has to wear a plastic retainer for 6 months, but compared to wearing braces, she feels like a prisoner newly released from her metal cage.

I love looking at the lovely flash of perfectly straight pearly whites every time she smiles. Makes all the sacrifice worthwhile.

Movin' on

2011-11-12T10:38:00.002+08:00

When we first found out that a neighbour moved out with 100 boxes, I laughed. "How can one accumulate so much stuff?" I wondered. Well, the joke's on me because when we called the movers, they estimated that we would need 120 boxes. "WHAAAT!!!" was my disbelieving response.

As it turned out, we didn't have to use 120 boxes... we used 114 (and this is after throwing out lots of things). All I can say is, when you've lived in one place for 11 years, you amass a frightening amount of stuff. So much stuff that nobody really needs or uses, yet we kept buying and hoarding. I kept thinking: we truly live in a world of excess.

We consciously decided to bring most of our existing furniture to the new place because we didn't want to add to the waste and growing landfills. What we didn't bring along, we gave away. Doing our little bit for the planet.

We started packing in a very systematic fashion:

Then as it became apparent that we were running out of time and space, all order went out the window. Amidst all the dust and exhaustion, Lesley-Anne and I succumbed to fever and a bothersome, hacking cough. I really thank God for my maid, she's a gem. Without her, we would never have finished packing, what with us trying to get the new house ready for moving in at the same time.

We had our very own Great Wall in our living room. This was the night before the move - to get to and from the living room, you practically had to jump over a series of obstacles.

The move itself was surprisingly smooth. I totally credit the movers. We used Soon Seng Transport Service and these are by far, the most professional movers I've ever used. Very punctual, no last minute haggling, no grumbles, about 8 guys did the job swiftly and to my amazement, cheerfully.

The furniture was wrapped very well and my piano survived the transit without so much as a scratch. They're not the cheapest in town (slightly lower than Shalom, the other folks we got a quote from) but very reliable. I think it's worth it for stress-free moving.

The last time our old place was so uncluttered was 11 years ago, before we moved in!

Andre in his old room.

Lesley-Anne in hers.

This was the only home my kids ever knew and they both grew up there so we have many lovely memories of the place. It's nostalgic and a little hard to say good-bye but it helps to know we're moving to another great place. I'm sure in time, we will be as comfortable here as we were in our old place.

All we need to do now is to create fantastic new memories :)

Splish splash!

2011-11-08T14:04:00.001+08:00

One of the advantages of this house was that the bathrooms were remodelled, so we didn't have to redo them.

There were, however, a few things we didn't like. The wash basins, for instance were made of glass and upon closer scrutiny, there were glue and sealer stains along the edges. Glass is extremely high maintenance.

So we decided to change all the wash basins back to good old ceramic. My brother-in-law advised us to go to Sim Siang Choon as they have lots to choose from. Lots is an understatement - Sim Siang Choon is like a giant Best Denki for bath products. I like that they display all their prices upfront and even have little paper measuring tapes and pencils ala Ikea for you to do your planning.

We chose two ceramic wash basins for the kids' and my mother-in-law's bathrooms, as well as other accessories such as toothbrush holders and toiletries wall stands. The original mixers (faucets) were in reasonably good condition so we retained them. The installation was done by our contractor. I think you can also engage Sim Siang Choon for the installation.

This is the kids' bathroom wash basin before:

And after:

Mum-in-law's wash basin before:

And after:

For her bathroom, we also installed grab bars for added safety, excellent advice by my friend.

For the master bathroom, we wanted a wash basin with a vanity so that we could store toiletries out of sight. Unfortunately, Sim Siang Choon doesn't carry many of these. So we decided to give Ikea a try, with their new Godmorgen bath series. It's very reasonably priced and like most Ikea goods, looks great. Whether it will last remains to be seen, am hoping for the best!

This is before:

And after:

The final change we made was the addition of a shower screen to the master bathroom. The previous owner used a shower curtain (right pic), which we thought was impractical and somewhat incongruous in an otherwise classy bathroom.

So we had a frameless shower door installed, to complete the look. This is what my bathroom looks like now:

My bathrooms before have always been purely functional and nothing much to look at. It's lovely to have one where I can unwind and wash my cares away. Taking a shower has never been so relaxing!

Window dressing

2011-11-03T12:48:00.000+08:00

If there's one thing I learnt about dealing with contractors, it's what can go wrong will go wrong. But in the midst of all that went wrong, a couple of vendors came through with minimal hiccups. One of them was D'Zander, the curtains company.

I discovered D'Zander through the Internet when I was looking for recommendations. The name kept popping up with real users citing their quality, reliability and reasonable pricing. The lady I spoke to, Doris, provides excellent service and was able to give advice on what sort of fabric I should use, which I appreciated.

We wanted a neutral tone for the living/dining area. The walls are painted Barley White, which has a yellow tinge (it looks yellower in the picture than it actually is, due to the lighting). We used Nippon paint for the whole house. It's probably more expensive than the brand-less paint used by some contractors but we think it's worthwhile. We used Nippon paint at our current place and 11 years on, it still looks relatively fresh.

This is the living room:

And the dining room. We used sheer curtains as it leads out to the patio and wanted to extend the look of the area.

For the master bedroom, we also adopted a neutral tone. Doris was the one who suggested having the track all the way up to the false ceiling and tying the day and night curtains in opposite directions for the smaller window. I think the effect is pretty elegant, I would never have come up with this myself.

The wall colour is 8148 Peaceful (I'm noting down the colours for my own record, don't mind me).

We used the same fabric for my mother-in-law's room. Wall colour is 0012 Soft Sands.

For the kids' rooms, it was slightly more complicated. I find that most curtain companies stock very few fun fabrics, except for the very kiddy designs with cartoon characters. According to D'Zander, they're harder to sell, so not worth stocking up on.

For my kids, I couldn't find any design I liked so in the end, I turned to the quintessential fun company - Ikea. Ikea has many lovely fabric patterns - they're quirky and not too expensive. The downside is that they often run out of stock, especially for popular designs, and the quality tends to be inferior, eg. most of their fabrics shrink in the wash. So it's something you'll need to cater for.

Doris was very accommodating - she took the measurements of the windows and told me how much fabric to buy for each of the kids' rooms, then charged me only a minimal sum to sew the curtains for me.

Lesley-Anne wanted a room with blue accents so we picked out this rich blue fabric with white leaf patterns. Her walls are painted 8126 Comfort. It's a lovely creamy yellow, much nicer than it appears in the picture.

When I first asked Andre what colour he wanted his room to be, he told me "orange and fire engine red!" I'm not surprised - it shouts his personality - but I shuddered just thinking about such a gaudy room. So we compromised. I gave him one wall in orange and the others in yellow. The red would be accents in the form of his furniture. (His grandmother commented that she would need sunglasses just to enter his room, lol).

To contrast the orange wall, I chose a white cotton fabric with writing from Ikea for his curtains. It's very cute but it's a thin fabric so D'Zander had to line the curtains. The orange shade is 8117 Zing. Lesley-Anne commented that Andre's room looked delicious and was the "happy" room. It really is cheerful, which is great for a kid's room.

I recommend D'Zander whole-heartedly if you're thinking of making curtains. The number is 6276 9921. Ask for Doris.

Lesley-Anne's sec 2 report card

2011-10-31T19:28:00.001+08:00

Lesley-Anne's exams took place two weeks ago and just as she has done ever since she entered secondary school, she took on the planning and revisions entirely on her own. Which was a good thing, considering I was knee deep in house preparations and work, and had absolutely no time to watch over her (except to yell out "jia you!" whenever I remembered).

I always thank God that I have a motivated and sensible daughter whom I can trust to manage her own studies. Her year-end exam results are:

English & Lit - 81/100 (A1)
Higher Chinese - 130/200 (B3)
Maths - 90/120 (A1)
Science - 80/100 (A1)
Geography - 47.5/50 (A1, highest in class!)
History - 39/50 (A1, second highest in class!)

While she has generally been diligent, I sense that for this exam, she has finally found her groove in note-taking and study techniques, to optimise learning. That, I feel, is more important than the results themselves as it will put her in good stead moving forward.

Even though her Chinese results were the worst compared to her other subjects, we're actually pretty pleased with it. Over the past half a year, her Chinese has improve by leaps and bounds through sheer hard work and determination (and a very good Chinese tutor).

Recently, her tutor set her a mock exam paper without telling her it was actually an 'O' level Higher Chinese paper. Much to her own surprise, she scored A1 for it. A year ago, this result would simply have been unimaginable, when she was still identified by the school for Chinese remedial. Improvement is a great motivator.

PS Please don't ask me for the tutor's contact - I know her schedule is full and she already has kids on a waiting list.

We're very thankful and this marks a good end to Lesley-Anne's school year. By the end of this week, she would have completed sec 2. I know it's a cliche but gosh, time really does fly.

Floored by wood laminates

2011-10-26T19:38:00.009+08:00

When we received the keys to our new place, the first thing we noticed was that the living/dining floor was not in as good condition as we'd initially thought. The granite had many deep cracks and looked worse for the wear.

Needing a quick solution and not wanting to go through the hassle of hacking the floor tiles, we decided on laminate flooring. Since it's laid over existing flooring, it's clean and easy to install. We also love the wooden slate floor look and ok, we know it's not really wood but it's much more affordable.

After some research on the Internet, we found that many recommended Inovar for its quality and lifetime warranty. It's a made-in-Malaysia brand and it even supplies to other recognised brands like Pergo and Supreme.

As luck would have it, there was a home decor exhibition at the Singapore Expo at the time and Inovar was offering their laminate wood flooring at the special price of $2.60 psf. It's truly a great deal, the regular price is $4 psf and Pergo's would probably go for at least $4.50 psf.

We wanted a light floor to make the room look bigger and we also didn't want anything too patterned in case it turned out too Little House on the Prairie (our furniture follows a contemporary theme). So in the end, we settled for Pearl Teak, a white stained shade.

Some preparation goes into the installation. First, you need to remove the skirting, then patch and paint it. This is a separate charge if you engage Inovar. We got our contractor to do it.

Next, since the floor panels are laid on top of existing flooring, the gap between the door and the floor needs to be widened. Inovar removed the entire door and sanded it down.

Finally, the installation! The floor panels come flat packed.

Polythene sheets are first underlaid as a moisture barrier.

Then the laying of floor boards begin. This is an amazingly quick process, the three Malaysian boys who did the job for us are seriously pros! Lay, align, hammer into place - speedy and with meticulous precision.

After that, they install the new skirting, which comes free of charge with the flooring. They select the skirting that's closest to the colour of your laminate floor.

Finally, they install the capping along floor edges.

The whole process took just half a day. Unfortunately, we discovered that one plank was chipped and changing that took more than an hour. It's complicated to change one plank, especially if it's right in the centre of your floor, because they'll need to remove all the interlocking planks from one side of your wall. It's something like a Lego system - you can't remove one middle brick without removing the surrounding ones.

This is before:

And after:

I love my Inovar floor!

Pictureka!

2011-10-23T16:27:00.002+08:00

My kids often bug me to play games with them and most board games, well, leave me bored. The problem is most of them require a pretty lengthy playing time, something I'm too impatient to sit through. So when we discovered the card version of Monopoly, it became popular in our household cos one game usually takes only a few minutes and you can play several rounds.

For Andre's birthday, Lesley-Anne bought him Pictureka by Hasbro, the card version of the board game.

There are 4 ways to play this game but we only like to play it one way.

You take a mission card which has a choice of 2 "missions" (see picture below) and try to complete either one by matching it with 3 cards. The first to complete 4 missions wins.

What's fun is that it is very open to interpretation and depends on whether the other players will accept your rationale. Andre, especially, will try to talk his way into having his mission accepted, no matter how absurd.

In fact, I can almost hear his brain ticking when I see him looking at his cards with a gleam in his eye and mischievous grin. "Get ready," I'd warn Lesley-Anne, "he's going to bedek his way out."

For example, when he got the mission "Something sporty", his choices were:

"A golfer..."

"A boxer..."

"... and a sporty guy who's sleeping!"

In another game, he drew "Something hot". He offered:

"The sun is hot..."

"This is a hot dog..."

"... and the caveman is HAWT!!"

Not to be outdone, Lesley-Anne got "Something with wings" and tried:

"The fairy has wings..."

"The parrot has wings..."

(Pause) "Red Bull gives you wings??"

We're tough opponents, we don't usually buy what the other is selling. But we always end up laughing a lot and really, can you ask for anything more in a simple card game? I also like that it's small and handy to cart around. We'll probably pack it along when we go on our year-end holiday.

Sold at most department stores and Popular bookstores for $9.90 each.

Wallpaper nightmare

2011-10-19T21:15:00.007+08:00

What's more painful than watching paint dry? Stripping wallpaper.

The plan was to start the paintwork on our house on Monday and I had envisioned a few freshly painted walls by the end of the day. Boy, was I wrong. The living room area was wallpapered, so before painting could start, the workers had to remove it. And what a time-consuming chore it is.

After 3 hours with only half a wall done (and earlier excitement rapidly draining), we realised it was a sloooooooooooow process. If you think you can easily rip off the wallpaper like a bandaid, think again. It's akin to peeling off a price tag from a non-price-tag-friendly surface. Except this price tag is the size of a cathedral window.

Kenneth discovered that adding water helped the process significantly and to speed things up, we rolled up our sleeves and got into the action. It can be rather therapeutic, especially when you manage to peel off a large piece at a go.

Actually, taking off the wallpaper was easy compared to getting rid of the dried glue. That, my friend, is a real b**** to take off.

When I surfed the Net in a desperate attempt to see if there were secret techniques to this task, I found many forums with large volumes of swear words (worse than mine) directed at wallpaper because of its immovability. Nice to know we're not alone.

That's not all. Andre's room had a full-sized wall mural which was stuck on wallpaper style.

It's pretty but no 11-year-old boy would be caught dead with a monster-sized Mickey Mouse on his wall, so we had to remove it. Apparently, this was some high quality laminate which left a thick impenetrable layer of dried plastic-like substance. Unlike the living room glue, it didn't soften in water and the only way to get rid of it was to chip at it painstakingly as it broke off into teeny pieces of plaster and dust. Enough to make anyone swear.

Finally, after 2½ days, the living room was wallpaper-free. The glue marks, however, were impervious to washing or scraping. Our contractor says he can successfully paint over the marks, so we'll see how that works out. Andre's room, on the other hand, has been half abandoned for now.

If there's ever a piece of advice I could give you with regards to home decor, DON'T USE WALLPAPER. It doesn't stand well to wear, it's unsightly when it starts to peel and as we've discovered, it's a real pain to remove. There are many other better alternatives to dress up your walls.

Meanwhile, we're not disheartened - it's just a little bump in the road. We're still having loads of fun and the kids love to see all the works. Due to the dust in the living room, we had to move our command post to the patio. Of course we have Internet.

And there's always something very special about having a meal in a brand new, empty home. Even if it's just Burger King and prata!

Keys to a new chapter

2011-10-17T09:01:00.000+08:00

Back in July, I wrote in a post that we'd bought a new place and will be moving end of the year. Well, we finally got the keys last week and to say we're excited would be a gross understatement.

The place we bought is is pretty good condition and reasonably well maintained but still, there are 101 niggly things that need to be taken care of. I know there are many families who will just move in and take care of these details gradually... but we're not that sort of family. We want everything to be perfect (or near perfect) so that when we move in, we can say "Aaahhh, this is our new home".

Even if this means running around like post-hibernation squirrels, trying to see to every minute detail ("buy extension to Andre's fan cord so he can reach it without standing on his bed"). I suspect there's a little OCD coursing through our veins. There were days when I was so exhausted that I went to bed and was out like a light by 10.30pm, which is unheard of for a night owl like me.

I wanted to record this process for myself since moving house is not something we do often (not for us anyway), so be warned that in the next few weeks, the posts will be predominantly on home and decor issues.

Sorry if you want to read only about education. The only education bit that's happening in my life now is Andre's upcoming SA2, which makes me weary just thinking about it, let alone blog about it. Thankfully, Lesley-Anne's exams are over and anyway, she did all her revisions on her own. Thank God for secondary school!

Back to the house. The first week we spent primarily meeting up with various contractors/tradesmen getting quotes. We didn't want to get a general contractor since we're not doing major renovations so even though it was more of a hassle, we decided to go directly to specialist vendors. Because we tried to get 2 or 3 quotes for every job, I think we managed to get better value in the end.

Of course, the quality of work remains to be seen. Hopefully we made the right choices.

This is our command post aka living and dining area:

The first 3 days were a whirlwind. At one point, we were meeting so many contractors that we almost lost track of who was quoting for what. Hooray for Excel spreadsheets!

Painting starts today. I can't wait to see how it turns out - colour really changes the feel of a house/room. Will blog about the progress, err... progressively.

Sec 2 poetry assignment - "The Cocoon of Change"

2011-10-14T22:14:00.000+08:00

This is Lesley-Anne's third poem for her poetry assignment. It's in the style of "Sheltered Garden" by Hilda Doolittle and the theme is growing up.

The Cocoon of Change

I have had enough
I struggle to break free

I have had enough
Of people holding my hand when I cross the street
Of people spoon-feeding me answers that I know aren't true

I have had enough
Of fairy tales and bedtime stories
For I know that in life, an ending is not always happy

I have had enough
Of this that suffocates me
The darkness closes in

But I want to see the light of day
I'm a butterfly longing to stretch her wings

Sec 2 poetry assignment - "In the Attic"

2011-10-10T10:28:00.000+08:00

This is the second poem Lesley-Anne wrote as part of the assignment mentioned in the previous post. It's based on the set poem "Under the Stairs" by Frank Ormsby. I couldn't find a link so I'm posting it here.

Under the Stairs

Look in the dark alcove under the stairs;
A paintbrush steeped in turpentine, its hairs

Softening for use; rat poison in a jar;
Bent spoons for prising lids; a spare fire-bar;

The shaft of a broom; a tyre; assorted nails;
A store of candles for when the light fails.

- Frank Ormsby

The theme is forgotten corners and here's what Lesley-Anne came up with:

In The Attic

Step in and hear the floorboards creak
Listen to the dripping water where the roof leaks
Breathe the mustiness of old rotting wood
Spot a box half-filled with cans of petrified cat food

The walls feel cool & damp to the touch
The creepers up the window block out much
Of the light that once used to shine through
While faint rays make cobwebs shimmer like dew

Old Christmas ornaments all stored away
Patiently wait to be seen on that special festive day

Sec 2 poetry assignment - "Good Morning"

2011-10-06T19:58:00.003+08:00

One of Lesley-Anne's recent literature assignments was on poetry. The students had to study three poems and write their own rhyming poems following the same style and theme. Out of the three, the kids could choose the one they want to be graded as part of their final examination scores.

Lesley-Anne loves such assignments. I don't know how I managed to bear a daughter who adores poetry. When I was her age, I thought poetry was a blight on the literature landscape. Maybe it has something to do with my pragmatic heart - my daughter's probably more of a romantic soul than I am!

The poem Lesley-Anne chose to be graded was based on "The Armadillo" by Elizabeth Bishop. The theme is something harmless coming to harm.

It's as follows:

Good Morning

Morning has broken and I have broken
Down from your harsh words hurled at me
And humiliation from your torments in
Front of all who can see

But I can’t see, I’m blinded by the pain
Your words are knives cutting through flesh
Causing pain like the burning, scalding fires of Hell
A punishment worse than death

But why punishment? For I’ve done nothing wrong
I retreat to lick my wounds, praying that they’ll heal
But they don’t. They fester and they rot
And emit a pain I’ll forever feel

They say each morning brings a new beginning
A blank canvas to start again
A fresh start? Or a stale end?
Is it still a start if it brings pain?

But as I crumble under your insults
I refuse to show emotion
For I know you would love to see me break
But I won’t give you the satisfaction

With other kids it’s different
For it’s not words they fear
But we are all in the same boat
For when the morning sun starts to appear…

They are beaten, scratched and clawed at
Until they taste something all too familiar
— Blood, crimson and sweet, on the edge of their tongue
Combined with the bitter emotion, fear

Their haunting, piercing, painful screams
Echo throughout the walls
A symphony of desperation,
As eerie as an owl’s call

Their tormentors are like wolves tracking them down
Before going in for the kill
They can smell your blood, sweat and tears
And won't stop till they've had their fill

But those children's wounds are superficial
While mine are buried deep
And it takes a herculean effort
And lots of self-control to keep
Myself from crying, as I’m backed
Into a corner with nowhere to hide
For abuse need not be physical
To kill you on the inside

She scored 24/30 for this. I'll also be posting the other two poems that she wrote as part of the assignment.

Au Petit Salut

2011-09-30T16:08:00.000+08:00

One day as a treat after the exams in September, we brought the kids to Au Petit Salut for lunch. It's a French, fine dining restaurant which offers an excellent set lunch for $32++. Not only is it great value, more importantly, the quality of the food is simply top notch.

Our family loves French food and one of the highlights of Au Petit Salut is their half dozen baked Burgundy snails with tomato and garlic butter. Words cannot describe how yummilicious this is - after you've eaten the snails, you soak up the garlic sauce with bread. Heaven!

Another entree, orange and pink peppercorn salmon tartare with baby spinach salad. This one is good too but not as good as the snails.

Lesley-Anne ordered the soup of the day, which was pumpkin soup. I didn't take a photo of it as it didn't look very special but oh golly, was I wrong. It is simply the BEST pumpkin soup I've ever tasted, no exaggeration. We went from "why would you order soup here" to "we must order the soup the next time!"

This is one of our favourite main courses - red wine braised beef cheeks with carrots, mushrooms and parsley potatoes. Melt-in-your-mouth tender. Mmmm...

Kenneth ordered the pork shoulder stewed in wholegrain mustard with creamy polenta. It's not something you can get everyday, the polenta is a lovely change from regular mashed potatoes. You probably need to be a pork fan though. I prefer the beef cheeks.

And finally, dessert. Homemade strawberry shortcake and raspberry coulis for Andre.

Crème brulée infused with fresh Madagascar vanilla beans.

If you're a chocoholic like me, there is only one dessert you have to try - Petit Pot au Chocolat. It's a pot of ultra-smooth chocolate mousse topped with hot chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

The portions are un-Frenchily large, I can barely finish one set lunch without feeling like I'm going to bust the seams on my pants. At $32++, it really is wonderful value and obviously we're not the only folks who think so, judging from the number of diners at this place. Reservations strongly recommended, if you don't want to be disappointed.

Focus on values - Heng Swee Keat

2011-09-23T08:47:00.008+08:00

Yesterday, Education Minister Heng Swee Keat gave a speech at the MOE Work Plan Seminar. In it, he gave some broad strokes of his plans for education. This is the first major announcement on education he's made since he took over the position, so I'm sure it was eagerly awaited by many in the industry.

You can read the full speech here and it's also covered in the Straits Times today. Basically, he calls for a more holistic, student-centric education system and outlines some initiatives he will be rolling out.

One of the key points of Mr Heng's speech is the focus on values. He wants values and character development to be at the core of our education system, which is something I totally agree with. But even he acknowledges that it's difficult to implement as it's not something that can (or should) be examinable or assessed. I'm sure he knows it's a mindset issue, not something you can simply institute. But for a start, he's telling principals and teachers that they should not cannibalise civics & moral education periods for remedial lessons. While this is may be a small gesture, I appreciate he's trying to signal the importance of values.

He's also stressing the importance of CCAs for character building. I'm a little skeptical. While I totally agree that CCAs can build character, these are often waylaid in the chase for medals. As I mentioned before, many schools are so obsessed with the medal tally for sports and performing arts, to the point that these override values such as sportsmanship, diligence, discipline, etc. Unless schools completely transform their world view towards CCAs, character building will continue to be an accidental outcome rather than an objective.

This whole issue of prioritising values is a thorny one because it requires a shared mindset among parents and educators. For eg, I was told an incident where a parent hired a professional consultant to help with her child and his friends' school project. Eventually, the project won an international competition. This is clearly an ethical issue and my question was, did the teachers know the kids didn't do the project themselves? And even if they did have their suspicions, would they have probed or just turned a blind eye? The parents clearly had no qualms about what I consider downright cheating. Such is the message we're sending to our kids - win or do well at all costs. I think if we say values are important, the system needs to stop consistently rewarding achievement over values.

The third initiative in the area of values is the introduction of a new Character and Citizenship Education curriculum. I don't know enough details about this to make a comment. Let's wait and see. My personal wish is that our schools will open up many more creative opportunities for the students to help others on a regular basis, the way international schools do it, so that social consciousness becomes part of their psyche. Going to the old folks' home once a year just doesn't cut it.

Yesterday, a Straits Times reporter called me to ask if I had any comments on the new homework policy Mr Heng was calling for. Basically, he says that all schools should study the needs of its students and define how much homework students should be assigned at the different levels. I told the reporter I had no issues with homework. At both my kids' schools, homework is generally manageable and not excessive. I'm quoted in today's ST page A8, by the way. It's not much of a quote, I'm surprised they included it.

My issue with stress at school is not with homework but with the single-minded focus on results and the accompanying kiasu-ism, as previously laid out in my letter to the Minister. When I met up with Sim Ann, Senior Parliamentary Secretary of MOE, following the letter for a chat, she mentioned that she felt the underlying cause of this competitiveness is the scarcity of university places. Mr Heng obviously shares her view as he has tasked his Minister of State for Education to look into this.

I'm not 100% convinced this is the root of the problem. I still think using KPIs to assess schools and teachers is a huge contributing factor and I'm a little disappointed Mr Heng didn't address this at all. I suspect having to overhaul HR is opening another super-sized can of worms and MOE has enough on its plate at the moment.

Incidentally, I found Sim Ann to be a lovely person - warm, genuine and with a great sense of humour (so important!) Not at all stuffy and pompous like some civil servants I've encountered in the past. She invited me to be part of a dialogue earlier this week which I was unfortunately unable to attend.

I think it's safe to say that Mr Heng and his team are taking parent and teacher engagement much more seriously than their predecessors. Perhaps they don't have much of a choice, considering the currently politically charged climate. Nevertheless, I'm encouraged that they have at least acknowledged and taken into account viewpoints from both parents and teachers, and not just at face value.

Is this education reform in the making? Or just a review? I want to be optimistic. As I told the ST reporter (can't believe I'm quoting myself), every little step counts.

Uncovering the Terracotta Warriors

2011-09-16T09:37:00.006+08:00

During the one-week September school holidays, we brought the kids to the Terracotta Warriors exhibition, currently on at the Asian Civilisations Museum.

Time for a dose of history and culture!

Brief history of the terracotta warriors: in 1974, an army of thousands of pottery soldiers and horses was unearthed outside Xi'an, near the tomb of the First Emperor of China. This amazing architectural find revealed a great deal about early China and Chinese art. This is a picture of the actual site.

An installation showing how the terracotta warriors and horses were made.

It was an ambitious project. Heads, limbs and torsos were made separately from terracotta and then assembled. Figures were originally painted in vibrant hues but these have decomposed over time.

This is the main display with a good representation of the major figures - the one right in front is the general.

Nearly 150 suits of limestone armour were found in the tomb. However, limestone is too fragile and heavy for battle so historians suspect they were purely symbolic.

Soon after the death of Qin Shihuang in 210BC, the Han dynasty began. The Hans rejected the life-size soldiers of the Qin dynasty and instead, opted for more modest figures purely as symbolic gestures. These are soldiers with shields.

In the tomb of Jingli, the 4th Han emperor, archeologists unearthed not just soldiers and horses but also animals, farming tools and everyday utensils. This is the mould for Han coins.

Figures were almost androgynous in nature but also featured women. Silly question of the day: Guess which is the woman and which is the eunuch in this picture? Andre thought this display was rather obscene, bwahaha!

There is an accompanying exhibition to the Terracotta Warriors - an installation by local artist, Justin Lee which blends Western pop art with traditional eastern sculpture. Very dramatic and cool, I thought!

The exhibition is very educational and definitely worth a visit. Even though it's smaller than I expected (45 mins is more than enough), it's still interesting, especially if you have no plans to visit the actual site in China!

Kids from local schools enjoy free entry and if you hold a Passion card, you get 50% off adult ticket prices. Pretty good deal. Exhibition is on till 16 October 2011.

Kason Age Group badminton tournament

2011-09-09T00:15:00.001+08:00

This week was the annual Kason badminton tournament held at the Chinese Swimming Club badminton tournament. The competition for this tournament is always fierce, as it's considered one of the most prestigious children's competitions for the sport.

Andre participated in the Boys Singles 11 and under and category. He only managed to get to the second round but what we're pleased about is that his competition performance has improved and he seems more confident on the court. Hopefully it serves as a motivational boost for him.

Here are a couple of video clips of his 2nd round match. He's the one wearing orange.

Combat laser tag with dad

2011-09-01T10:46:00.000+08:00

Last Friday evening, Kenneth and Andre went on a combat laser tag adventure. The activity was organised by a fathers' group from Andre's school. This group is part of the Dads for Life initiative, aimed at getting fathers more involved in their children's lives.

Conducted by Combat Skirmish, combat laser tag is a simulation game using infra-red technology. Each gun has a computerised system which indicates how many targets you've hit or killed. It also projects sound and lights when you are "shot". Perfect for active little boys who've always dreamed of being in a war scenario... without actual physical contact.

Here's Andre getting suited up.

There were so many highlights of this activity for him, but one of them has to be this oversized gun.

Testing out the equipment.

Not many pictures of father and son in action. Hard to fiddle with the camera when you're in the midst of battle. Apparently, the two of them were aggressively charging and shooting at their opponents throughout the game. Andre proudly declared to me, "I killed more than 10 people!" Truly an outlet for male testosterone.

According to him, the girls were "hopeless" as they merely huddled behind the trees, waiting to get shot at. Now you know why girls and national service don't mix!

I think it's a fantastic activity that packs a punch. It lets boys live out their war fantasies without any danger, unlike say, paintball. It also allows for great family bonding time or at least father-son bonding time, if your daughters aren't too keen.

Thumbs up!

Leaping lizards!

2011-08-26T09:59:00.000+08:00

For the record, I hate house lizards.

Well, I hate all types of lizards but the other kinds don't enter my home uninvited so they don't bother me. Some of you might say, "no big deal, I don't like them either." But you see, I REALLY hate those lizards, ie they terrify me to the point of temporary paralysis. The phobia is so bad that I can't sleep if I know there's one in my bedroom. I'm paranoid that it will crawl on the ceiling and drop on me.

At home, Kenneth is known as the Lizard Killer. There's always a bottle of Baygon (to stun them) and a rolled up newspaper close at hand. He has to be quick cos those darn geckos are trickily fast. He jokes that he should put up a chart chalk-marking the number of lizards he has demolished, as a warning to all their kin.

Don't tell me that killing lizards is a sin as they eat mosquitoes and other insects. I've seen those lizards, most of the time, they're not quick enough to catch the mozzies. Instead, they've adapted to the lazy Singaporean lifestyle by coming out at night to feast on leftover crumbs of food. In other words, totally useless. Don't count on them to eradicate dengue any time soon.

I'm not sure how this phobia came about, I suspect I was traumatised when young. I lived in an HDB flat teeming with lizards and since I slept on a mattress on the floor, I came into close contact with them. I guess it didn't help that my parents merely laughed at my fear. In fact today, I still have a long recurring nightmare that I'm precariously perched on a piece of furniture while the room is swarming with the disgusting reptile.

I'm pretty sure part of the reason for my fear is that lizards simply look grotesque. They're bug-eyed with misshapen heads, and feet that cling creepily onto anything like stubborn blue tack. They even drop body parts at will, for Pete's sake!

We've tried everything from lizard traps to old wives' tales like leaving out lavender, egg shells and pandan leaves (I think the last one is more for roaches though). We've also put gauze over the bathroom window. Don't laugh but in a very extreme measure, we've even taped up our back door (we don't use it lah, obviously) since we discovered it was a major lizard highway to our kitchen.

I'm happy to say for the most part, our home is now generally lizard-free, except for the occasional rogue one. I'm a little apprehensive about moving to a larger place on the ground floor at the end of the year. I'll have to figure out how to lizard-proof it. Meanwhile, I'm keeping the Lizard Killer close to me.

I've got the music in me... maybe

2011-08-17T23:04:00.009+08:00

A while back, I blogged about the ordeal that was Andre's Grade 5 theory exam. About that time, we also came to the decision that it was time for Andre's piano lessons to end.

It wasn't an easy decision. I had personally hoped that he would at least take piano lessons till the Grade 5 level (for practical) because before that, I believe it's hard to make a call if the child truly has no interest or if he merely doesn't like to put in the time for practice. I blogged about this philosophy here.

However, over the past year or so, the time pressures on Andre began to take their toll. What with school work, tuition and badminton training, he had hardly any free time left. He would practise the piano only when I nagged him to and at times, he would kick the piano in frustration or burst into tears when he couldn't get a piece right. It became increasingly obvious that something had to go - and piano lessons were at the bottom of the hierarchy.

I was pretty torn over this decision, especially since both Uncle Peter and I realise that Andre actually has an ear for music. But after the last set of tears, for the sake of his own sanity (and mine), I finally surrendered. I allowed Uncle Peter to sign him up for a Grade 4 practical exam, which he took on Tuesday, and that marked the end of this chapter.

I would say it wasn't in vain. For almost 5 years, Andre had some music drummed into him weekly by the wonderful Uncle Peter, who became more than a teacher but also a counsellor and friend. The two of them shared a fantastic relationship, it was common to hear laughter emanating from the room during piano lessons.

And of course, the music. More important than the ability to play the piano, Uncle Peter has managed to make Andre NOT hate music. In fact, when I asked Andre whether he would ever continue his lessons, he surprised me by saying he might take them up again in the future, though with the caveat that there be no exams.

That's good enough for me. Meanwhile, I made sure I recorded Andre playing his Grade 4 exam pieces. This might be the last time I'll ever hear him play anything!

1st piece

2nd piece

3rd piece

The gentle giraffe

2011-08-11T14:18:00.002+08:00

Growing up, Lesley-Anne was always a stuffed toy kind of girl. She never was one to play with dolls - her stuffed toys were her childhood companions.

She played masak masak with them (they were definitely more cooperative than her brother) and even dressed them up using scraps of fabric. I'm pretty sure in her mind, they all had distinct characters.

Even up to primary school age, she would still bring along a stuffed toy whenever we went out, often rotating among her favourites so they would get equal excursion time. Fair is fair.

However, one of them in particular, stood the test of time and that was Gerry the giraffe.

It was given to her by my sister when she was practically a new born so it's as almost old as she is. It sparked Lesley-Anne's fascination for the animal and remains a sentimental favourite for her.

She started a giraffe collection and was known by her primary school classmates as the girl who loves giraffes, which is somewhat ironic considering her physique is far from tall and lanky!

Here's a peek at part of the giraffe stuffed toy collection today (there's tons more! We're such hoarders). Bet you never knew there were blue or fat giraffes. I like the one on the far right with the googly eyes - it makes me laugh.

And other giraffe trinkets.

We will be moving house towards the end of the year and as a treat, I ordered a couple of giraffe bookends from ebay for her bookshelves. Aren't they sweet?

But it would be tough to beat the experience she had during our Bangkok family vacation last year. We visited Safari World and she actually came right up close and personal to an entire tower of giraffes, feeding them endless buckets of leaves and bananas. That was truly a highlight.

A Knotty Problem

A scarf for a giraffe
Would be forty feet long
But how would a giraffe
Know how to put one on?
- Patrick Winstanley

Sec 3 subject combinations

2011-08-04T19:27:00.000+08:00

This month, the sec 2 students in Lesley-Anne's school have one main thing on their minds - subject combinations for sec 3.

In my time, this was a much easier affair, largely because it was a lot more autocratic. In my school, the top 40 kids would be streamed into triple science, the next 40 sub-science, the next 40 pure arts and the next 40 commerce. Within these classes, the subjects were pretty much fixed. Eg. in the commerce stream, you would take Accounting and Geography.

We didn't really have any say in the matter. I was streamed into triple science but being very clear about my inclination towards the humanities, I requested for a change to the pure arts class. I was treated as a strange animal since I was essentially asking for a "downgrade" (I'm still miffed that even today, the arts is still consistently considered a second rate choice to the sciences). However, the principal herself was arts-inclined and so was sympathetic to my case. On hindsight, it was a good decision as I have no head for the sciences and probably would have performed disastrously.

One thing I thought was odd was that Art was a subject in my class. This always struck me as particularly cruel since there were students who obviously couldn't paint a tree trunk to save their lives, but were forced take it as an O level subject simply because they were allocated that class. For me personally, I loved it. One fewer subject to mug for!

The choice of subject combination today is a lot more democratic. Well, sort of. In Lesley-Anne's school, most subjects are compulsory:

Language arts
Chinese
Maths 1 & 2
Chemistry
One other science (Physics or Biology)
Social Studies

What the kids have to choose is whether they will take an additional science subject (which would make it the triple science stream) or a humanities subject (History, Geography or Literature), making it the humanities stream. Those going to the humanities stream would also need to decide whether Physics or Biology is their second science subject.

Lesley-Anne is most definitely humanities-bound. The question is which humanities and science subjects she will choose. Right now, it's most likely Lit and Biology though things can change, of course.

One of the issues she (and I'm sure many students) grapple with is, whether to take the subject that's easier to score or the one you're more interested in. I have been advising her to follow the latter. What's easy to score usually depends on the individual. For eg, Lesley-Anne's seniors tend to find Physics easier than Biology. But this could also be due to the fact that they're generally strong in Maths, something Lesley-Anne isn't.

She's also unsure whether to take up Lit as she hasn't been doing that well in prose analysis. However, I feel that if you have a keen interest in something, you will tend to be more motivated in it, hence increasing your chances of doing well in it. At the very least, you'll enjoy the learning process. Whereas if you take a subject purely for the sake of scoring, if this backfires, man, you're screwed.

Many students choose subject combinations for pragmatic reasons, eg either the one they think will give them the most options later on at tertiary level or the one that will open up the best careers. This is only my opinion and you are free to disagree with me, but I feel this is a very dated approach. Unless these choices also happen to be the ones you enjoy the most, I don't agree with this reasoning.

The world is a very different place today. Professional degrees are not always the most sought after anymore. In fact, people are carving up new (and lucrative) career paths all the time. The most successful people I know do not necessarily go to the best schools or have the best starts - they're the ones who have pursued their passions in a creative way and founded careers that are aligned with their interests.

And even if you're earning good money, many folks are realising that this is not enough to give them fulfilment in life. Personally, I know a lawyer who became a civil servant, engineers who became insurance agent or sales reps and a business graduate who became a teacher.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that at 15, we probably don't know all the possibilities out there, let alone what we want to do as a career. So unless you're very sure about your life's calling, the safest bet actually is to do what you enjoy. Remember the adage, if you love what you do, you'll never work a day in your life.

Drumming up the Singapore spirit

2011-07-28T20:40:00.006+08:00

Every year, the p5 cohort around the island get to attend National Day Parade rehearsals and this year was Andre's turn. Having attended NDP when I was very young, I know it's vastly different from watching it on tv.

However, we hate crowds so have never attempted to bring the kids. So it's great they have a chance to experience this with the school. True enough, Andre wasn't too enthusiastic about the trip at first but he returned from the Marina Barrage all smiles and thrilled by the experience.

Here are some of the photos he took using his handphone.

The goodie bag is a perennial draw - this year, the bag is not bad at all. Made of canvas, pretty handy and tastefully done.

There are four designs - HDB/MRT, the Merlion, Changi Airport and Orchard Road.

Have you displayed your Singapore flag yet? Majulah Singapura!

The Comedy Club takes on the Japanese Occupation

2011-07-21T09:44:00.003+08:00

In Andre's Social Studies class, the kids were told to break up into groups, write and enact a scene from the Japanese Occupation. I'm not sure if the teacher mentioned that the skit had to be historically correct but I cracked up when I read the script that Andre's group came up with.

I don't have the full script but the following was a short segment from the skit. Andre was cast as General Percival.

General Yamashita (banging on the door): 'Openupu!'

General Percival (fiddling with the doorknob): 'Hold on, this door is stuck!'

General Yamashita tries to kick the door open. "Ow! Hurry up!'

General Percival (opens the door): "Yes?" (notices Yamashita) "Good heavens!"

After a monologue, General Yamashita drags General Percival to the surrender room. "Do you wish to surrender unconditionally?"

General Percival (mutters): "Yes."

General Yamashita (thrusting a piece of paper into General Percival's hands): "Here, sign this."

General Percival (reads letter): "'Dear Emperor, we are running out of weapons and food. Please give us machine guns, rockets, green tea..' What is...?"

General Yamashita (hastily snatches letter back) "Sorry! Here, this is the one."

General Percival signs the treaty. He then crumples treaty and tosses it at Yamashita.

Apparently, the two boys really hammed it up. Andre put on a dead-pan face and spoke in what he thought was a British accent. I have to commend the teacher for not berating the group for turning the event into a Laurel and Hardy farce.

In fact, after all the groups had presented, the teacher allowed each student to vote for the following awards in a secret ballot: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Group Performance and Best Script.

Andre's group was voted the Best Group Performance! His best friend aka General Yamashita won Best Actor. Clearly, the kids voted not on historical accuracy but entertainment value.

The teacher gave out 'Oscars' to all the winners which I thought was highly sporting of him.

Some may say this isn't the way to teach Singapore's history but I'm certain the kids will remember this lesson much more clearly (and fondly). And maybe Andre can explore an alternative career in stand-up comedy.

Hey there, Mr Cloud

2011-07-14T11:20:00.003+08:00

Lesley-Anne has been learning about weather and climate in geography. Recently, in an effort to make lessons more interesting, the teacher asked the kids to write a short poem about clouds.

It was to be a four-line poem: The first line had to contain the name of the cloud, the second line should compliment the cloud, the third line should be a question to the cloud and the last line, advice to the cloud. There should also be an accompanying photograph of the cloud.

I truly feel for the teacher. She was attempting to break away from the normal routine of dishing out boring facts and do something more engaging. However, this class comprises mainly math and science geeks, and poetry probably ranks somewhere between "housework" and "memorising the phone book" on the kids' 'likes'. So her effects went unappreciated.

When the teacher realised that no one had done the assignment, she gave them five minutes in class to complete it on the spot.

According to Lesley-Anne, this was one of the impromptu creations by her friend:

Dear Mr Puffy
You are very huffy
Why are you so fluffy?
I think you should be happy

Lesley-Anne's contribution wasn't much better:

Dear Cumulonimbus Cloud
You make the sky look fine
Do you know your name is very hard to spell?
Please choose a shorter name next time.

If I were the teacher, I'd just make them go back to memorising the 1001 facts about clouds.

Moving to His tune

2011-07-07T09:59:00.002+08:00

This is Lim Tong Hai, ex-captain of the Singapore national football team and current team manager of Geylang United.

You may wonder what he's doing in our living room. No, we don't know him personally and no, Andre didn't win some "Meet A Local Sports Celebrity" contest.

You see, we recently put our place up for sale and have been receiving potential buyers. Lo and behold, one afternoon, Lim Tong Hai turned up to view our home! Kenneth recognised him, being an avid soccer fan. We asked if he would mind having a photo taken with Andre, who was slightly star-struck. If LTH was put off by being in the spotlight while doing a regular activity like house-hunting, he didn't show it. He was super friendly and obliging.

Anyway, I sidetrack - that's not the focus of this post. I wanted to share the circumstances that led to us putting our home for sale because it's a terrific testimony to how God works in our lives.

A couple of months ago, a sudden death in the family threw everything out of whack. Without going into too much detail, we basically needed to find alternative living arrangements for Kenneth's mum.

We felt that moving in to a larger place with her would be too costly and disruptive for everyone, so we decided to find a two-bedroom apartment for her in our condominium estate. This way, she can be close to us and we can walk over to check on her everyday.

Thus began a one-month rigmarole. What we thought would be a straight-forward process (there are more than 1,000 units in our estate, how hard can it be to find an apartment?) became a nightmare. Every night, I would pray with the kids, "Please help us find a nice place for nai nai".

We made 4 offers, put down the 1% cheque twice, even had agents shake our hands to seal the deal, only to have the deal broken at the very last minute for various reasons - outbid twice, 1 suddenly decided not to sell, 1 went into a price war. The situation became so crazy that 2-bedroom apartments in our estate were snapped up at record prices and in record time, often within one weekend of listing.

Kenneth and I started questioning why God wasn't answering our prayers and instead, seemed to be blocking our way. We began wondering if it's because we'd been heading down the wrong path. One Saturday, Kenneth saw that a brand new 4-storey semi-detached house opposite his mum's apartment was holding an open house. We went to take a look just for fun, as we'd seen it being built over the past few months. Turns out, it's a terribly impractical house with a scary price tag, definitely not for us.

An agent approached us and asked for our requirements. Just for the heck of it, we gave our wishlist - 4+1 bedrooms, condo facilities, move-in condition, close to amenities, blah blah blah AND below $x. It sounded ridiculous even in my mind. I half expected the agent to say, "Do you think we're in Disneyland?", but to our surprise, he asked, "oh, have you considered Y? It's a couple of streets away and it meets your requirements."

Our curiosity piqued, of course we had to take a look and the agent arranged for us to view a couple of units in estate Y (I'm not disclosing the name for privacy reasons). It turns out that the layout of the units suits us to a T. There's space for everyone of us, even a bedroom with ensuite for Kenneth's mum. Both Kenneth and I could have our own offices, such luxury! There was a very nice pool and the ambience inside the estate was lovely. It was even walking distance to the MRT, which is such a great bonus since we use the trains extensively. The best part was, the price was within our budget.

We were quite taken with the place but as perpetual skeptics, we were still not entirely convinced that moving to Y was the right thing to do. We continued praying, asking God to show us what to do since we're obviously quite clueless.

That very week on Friday, Kenneth was driving me to a meeting and we decided to stop for lunch first. He turned off to this area which was unusual in itself because it's not one of our regular haunts. As he parked the car along the side of the road, I looked across the road and there, staring me in the face was the large signboard of a shop with exactly the same name and spelling as estate Y! It's uncanny because it's not a name I've seen used anywhere else and it has a very odd spelling. And then I saw that a few outlets down, there was a shop with the name "Ken Home".

The feeling was surreal. I turned to Kenneth and said, "God must think we're pretty stupid, He has to spell it out for us like that." Kenneth added, "well, I did pray for a sign..." Talk about being literal. We took photos of the two signs, to prove they're not figments of our imagination.

As if that's not enough, when Lesley-Anne came home from school that evening, she excitedly recounted a dream she had the night before. She dreamt that she was with a friend and they came to this house she'd never seen before. Her friend asked, "isn't this your home?" to which she replied, "no, I've never been here." Her friend then questioned, "if it isn't your home, why is your Benjamin Bunny sticker on the window?" True enough, it was.

To give a little backgrounder, Lesley-Anne has been the most resistant to moving. She loves our current home and has often declared that she wants to live here forever. The Benjamin Bunny sticker has been on her bedroom window since the day we moved in some 11 years ago (which explains its weathered condition). To her, the dream was a clear message from God that she could make a home elsewhere and be happy there.

After that, we were 100% sold on the idea. I mean, if the Big Guy says this is the way, who are we to argue? We contacted a few agents to view more units at estate Y that very weekend. The last unit we saw was practically perfect for us. One of the few issues we had with this estate was with the maid's room and this unit actually redid the maid's room so that it met our requirements. It had also been recently renovated so that we could move in without doing any heavy work.

We made an offer, the owner accepted it and signed the paperwork within a day. No hiccups, no last minute hitches, everything was smooth sailing.

This whole episode was such a blessing for my family and there were two main things I gained from it:

1) Gratitude: actually overwhelming gratitude. You know, as Christians, our family is probably not the best role model. We sometimes forget to pray, skip church and display ungodly behaviour like yelling at each other more often than we should. Yet, God cares enough about us to painstakingly point us in the right direction, step by step. Amazing love. We sometimes joke, wouldn't it be nice if God could plant neon signs telling us what to do each time. This came pretty close to that.

2) Reassurance: in life, we frequently have doubt, whether we're doing the right thing or making the right choices. In this situation, when we're clear that this is God's will, all doubt or fear is removed. We don't have to second guess whether we should have bought this place or whether we paid the right price for it. Obeying God can never be wrong.

I've found that God doesn't relate to everyone the same way. He speaks to each one of us in the style that best suits us individually. For example, we don't like to take ourselves too seriously and we're uncomfortable with overly pious displays of devotion so we find that God often connects with us with a generous dose of humour. The challenge is adjusting our antennae so we can receive the signal more clearly. Perhaps the solution, like in many other areas in life, is just to listen more attentively.

So, that's the story of why our apartment is for sale. Incidentally, Lim Tong Hai didn't buy it. That would have been another interesting story!

"Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it." - Luke 11:28

Berita Harian/Pilot Pen/Ashaway badminton competition

2011-06-30T20:29:00.003+08:00

During the June holidays, Andre participated in the Berita Harian/Pilot Pen/Ashaway Youth Badminton Championships. Yes, it's quite a mouthful - guess they have to give equal weightage to all sponsors!

It's amazing the number of kids who signed up. Did you know that badminton is the no.1 most popular sport among students in Singapore?

Here are snippets of a couple of the games Andre played. He's wearing red in both.

It was also the first time Andre signed up for doubles in a competition. He doesn't always practise doubles so he and his friend need to work on their coordination but I thought it was a great experience, something different.

Andre conquers Grade 5 theory

2011-06-24T00:12:00.003+08:00

In March this year, Andre sat for his ABRSM Grade 5 theory exam. For most kids, this probably would just be a routine exercise but for Andre, it was a major milestone. Actually, milestone is a nice word, the more accurate word would be "hurdle".

The month leading up to the exam was seriously stressful. As the exam grew nearer, I became increasingly aware of how unprepared he was. Realising that there was no way he could memorise all the required French and German terms, I told him he just needed to remember some of the basic Italian terms (see my post on Andre's grade 2 theory exam). But when a week before the exam, he told me he thought "p" meant slow, I knew we were in deep trouble. (For those who don't know music, "p" means soft, it's the most basic musical expression there is.)

Andre's not dumb but I think Uncle Peter and I misjudged his readiness for the exam. It became even more nerve-wrecking when I found out later that the passing mark was not 50/100 but 66/100. "Please, please, just pass this exam and we don't ever have to do this again!!" I begged.

He drove the usually placid Uncle Peter damn near to heart failure. He told me during lessons, Uncle Peter would actually smack his forehead and mutter, "tian ah".

For the life of me, I couldn't remember why I'd let Uncle Peter sign him up for the exam (you know these things, they always seem like a good idea at the time!) The exam also coincided with the week of CA1, adding an additional level of stress. In desperation, I let him ponteng school on the Friday after the CA1 to study for his theory exam on Saturday morning.

That day, when Uncle Peter came for a much needed last minute extra lesson, he discovered that Andre suddenly decided there was a black key between E and F. "How can you not know what the keyboard looks like?" he asked in despair. It's an impossible question to answer. Sometimes, I think Andre lives in his own little planet.

It all came down to exam techniques, I'm sorry to say. We did the Singaporean thing. For composition where he had to compose a tune for a series of words, Uncle Peter basically taught him to write a C major scale up and down. Not the most interesting of tunes but you can't say it's wrong.

BUT... this story has a happy ending because Andre passed!! He scored 68/100, passing by 2 marks. I'm pretty sure it was the prayers that did it. Or maybe my sheer will power propelled him over the line.

It's a miracle. I need to frame this up because it probably aged both Uncle Peter and me by several years. The good news is, Andre never has to take another theory exam. Ever.

Lesley-Anne explores paper cuttings

2011-06-18T10:50:00.002+08:00

During the last week of school before the mid-year holidays, Lesley-Anne's school arranged for non-curriculum programmes for the students, which I thought was a nice way to end the term. Lesley-Anne was allocated the module, Chinese folk art, where she was introduced to the technique of paper cutting.

The students started out with your basic symmetrical cuttings and were provided with templates of the zodiac animals. Lesley-Anne chose these cos they represent our family (except for the horse, the teacher didn't have a template for the dragon, which is Andre's sign). Oops, I think I just revealed all our ages...

Following this exercise, the students moved on to more complex, non-symmetrical templates, requiring a sharp penknife and a deft hand.

The module sparked Lesley-Anne's interest in paper cutting and during the first two weeks of the holidays, she scoured the Internet to find patterns. She found the Chinese designs to be very complex and detailed, so she expanded her search to Western templates.

These were the first two she attempted: giraffe and wolf

Next, she did a dragon template cos she felt bad that Andre didn't have his zodiac cut-out earlier. It's now displayed on his wardrobe.

Finally, she decided to challenge herself and located this intricate design of Noah's Ark.

I thought it was a show-stopper and was very impressed by the results. I love her attention to detail and her patience. That's what holidays should be about! Not attending enrichment classes but taking the time to have fun and explore your creativity.

Translation of Zaobao article

2011-06-14T20:30:00.003+08:00

As promised, here's a translation of the Zaobao article in the previous post. It's pretty long so my friend only translated the left column portion which refers to the letter.

Parent’s letter to Heng Swee Keat on Facebook receives overwhelming response

On 24 May, following the swearing in of Ministers to the Cabinet, Ms Monica Lim posted a letter to Education Minister Heng Swee Keat on her Facebook page.

The 2000-word letter outlined the concerns of a parent regarding the current education system. The letter went viral, receiving more than 3,000 ‘likes’ and close to 600 comments on Facebook.

During an interview, Ms Monica Lim said, “What surprised me was that there are actually so many people out there who felt like me. Many young parents have communicated to me through Facebook and email, expressing concerns over the education their kids are receiving”.

Parents like Monica Lim feel that the Singapore education system is flawed. The system is currently too obsessed with results. There is a need for a total reform or we risk producing generations of “robots without souls”.

Monica Lim is a mother of two. Her daughter and son are in secondary 2 and primary 5 respectively. In her letter to Mr Heng Swee Keat, she said that over the years, through the learning experiences of her children, she has become increasingly frustrated by this education system that does not edify the development of children.

In her opinion, the problem lies with the fact that schools are increasingly run like businesses. Teachers are assessed and ranked according to quantifiable results (KPIs). Inevitably, parents and students too, become obsessed with getting good results in both school-based and national examinations, leading to indiscriminate tuition, favouring of branded schools, and schools raising their standard of examinations year after year. As such, students experience lower self-confidence and very high levels of stress.

Monica Lim said, “The backlash is that our children’s self-worth and perception have become intrinsically linked to their academic grades. They are judged according to their academic ability.
Because of this, students may fall prey to the “entitled mentality”, thinking that they are better than others simply because they are smarter”.

No progress if current view of success remains

According to a head of department at a secondary school, since the promotion of the “teach less learn more” philosophy by MOE in 2004, the education policy for local primary and secondary schools has seen some subtle changes. Despite the idea of a holistic education being widely accepted, not all teachers can, in this short period of time, stop their “spoon-feeding” method of teaching. The PERI report, which was released two years ago, is the best proof.

According to her, although currently, the main KPI for teachers is students’ examination results, other factors like how teachers impart character education, social emotional learning, 21st century analysis and creative thinking skills, and their communication skills are equally valued.

Schools are unable to adopt a more relaxed attitude towards results because they need to be answerable to parents. For example, even if students perform very well in CCAs but do badly in the examinations, most parents will still be dissatisfied and may blame the examination system. However, abolishing the national examination system will not solve the problem. Instead, people will lose confidence in Singapore’s education system. This will impede students’ chances when applying to further their studies at overseas universities in the future.

Do not make policies based on superficial thinking

Using the “teach less learn more” motto as an example, another teacher, who is the head of his school’s Chinese language department, further explained difficulties faced by schools. According to him, the underlying concept of “teach less learn more” is to encourage self-learning through different teaching methods, which is good. Some schools have increased depth in the Chinese language curriculum through the introduction of activities such as Chinese painting, Chinese opera, etc. But some parents have criticised that these activities will not help improve students’ grades in the short term. Instead, the “teach less” component will result in their spending more money on tuition.

This teacher further explained, “The crux lies with both parents’ and educators’ mentality. If they continue to embrace the view that academic qualification is utmost important, the current system will remain”.

Generally, teachers believe that the MOE’s education policy in recent years is basically sound. The problem lies with the fact that insufficient thought was put into the execution. They hope that in the coming months, other than “listening” to parent’s opinion, the ministry should communicate more with teachers to understand the actual problems on the ground.

A teacher said, “The MOE should maintain closer ties with teachers. Otherwise, policies will simply be crafted from the ivory tower. Many policy makers lack practical experience, thus they have one-sided understanding of educational issues”.

In addition, education is a long drawn-process. Effects of changes made will not show overnight. Thus, some teachers believe that as heads of schools, principals should not be rotated every 5 to 6 years. If the principals are allowed to serve in the same school for a longer period of time, there will be more stability. Teachers will not have to adapt to changes brought forth by new principals so frequently. More efforts can then be put into carrying out and assessing the benefits of educational plans implemented.

Monica Lim hopes that the MOE can be swift in its reform of the education system. Apart from reviewing teachers’ assessment, related issues such as the national examinations framework needs to be changed. She feels that the PSLE should be abolished as it is unfair to decide a child’s future simply on an examination taken at 12 years old.

This is not the first time that Monica Lim has written to the MOE. The difference is that this letter to the Minister was made public and she has received a reply from him. In his reply, the Minister thanked Monica Lim for her suggestions but being new, he indicated that he would need time to study the observations and suggestions he had received.

Although it is short, Monica Lim was heartened by the reply. She said, “He is a new Minister so it is natural that he cannot make any promises in the short term. But his response seems genuine and I hope to see changes in the education policies in the future”.

Letter to Heng Swee Keat in Zaobao

2011-06-11T09:19:00.001+08:00

In yesterday's Zaobao page 12, there was an education feature which talked about my Letter to Heng Swee Keat.

The article delved extensively into responses from both parents and educators and examined some of the many facets of education. I'm very grateful for this article because I believe the Chinese-speaking population is one large and important group that my letter hadn't been able to reach. Hopefully, this can also encourage them to speak up and air their views.

It's a full page article, so I wasn't able to scan it in full. Instead, I'm reproducing the article here. For those who are bilingually-challenged like me, I've asked a friend to help me translate the article. Will post it here when it's ready.

家长在面簿写信给王瑞杰获热烈反响
一“信”激起千层浪

● 潘星华　陈能端

　　新内阁宣誓就职后，育有一对儿女的林慧平5月24日通过“面簿”给教育部长王瑞杰写了封公开信。

　　这封2000多字的英文信列出一位家长对现有教育制度的种种疑虑。除了在面簿上获得超过3000人的支持（like)和近600条留言，这封信后来也迅速转贴到不同的网络论坛上。

　　林慧平受访时说：“令我意外的是，原来有这么多人和我有同样的感受。通过电邮或面簿联系我的年轻家长大部分的反映是，他们为孩子接受的教育感到非常担心。”

　　“担心”是因为像林慧平这样的家长认为，我国教育体系在执行上已经出现偏差，导致“崇尚成绩多于一切”的现状。再不彻底改革，恐怕会培养出一代代只会读书，却“没有灵魂的机器人。”

林慧平的大女儿和小儿子分别就读中二和小五。她在写给王瑞杰的信说，这些年来，通过孩子的学习经历，她对越来越无法起到启迪作用的教育制度感到沮丧。

　　在她看来，学校趋向“企业化”是问题所在。当教师的评估和各种关键绩效指标（KPI）挂钩，促使教师把精力集中在“可量化”的学生成绩上。无可避免地，为了满足学校和全国性考试的竞争，家长和学生盲目地追求成绩。这引申出的现象包括无节制的补习风潮、家长争相把孩子送入名校、学校为确保学生不懈怠，考试一年比一年困难，这不但打击学生的自信心也让他们在压力下喘不过气。

　　林慧平说：“我们越来越重视学术成绩，把成绩高低等同于学生好坏。但这样的风气很容易促使那些达标的学生产生‘理应获得的态度’（entitled mentality），让他们觉得自己比别人聪明就高人一等。”

对于这样的观点，受访的教师表示，家长的担忧有一定的道理，但毕竟是以管窥豹，只见一斑。

成功观念不改
大家继续原地转　　

　　一名在中学担任科目主任的教师指出，自教育部2004年提倡“少教多学”开始，本地中小学教育大方针已经潜移默化地在转型。或许不是所有教师都能在短时间内改变填鸭式的教学方法，但以全人教育（holistic education）为本的意识已经获得广泛认同。两年前总结出的小学教育检讨与执行委员会（PERI）报告就是最好的证明。

　　她举例说，目前，学生的考试成绩虽然还是以教师评估为关键指标，但其他指标包括教师怎么落实品格教育、制定社交情绪学习、传授21世纪技能如分析和创意思维、沟通能力等也同样受重视。

　　学校无法对考试成绩放松，是因为他们需要向家长交待。她说：“打个比方，学生的辅助课程活动（CCA）表现再好，如果考试不理想，绝大部分的家长还是不满意的。家长或许会说，这是考试制度害的，但往深一层想，废除全国性的考试也于事无补，因为这会让国家的教育制度失去公信力，学生日后要凭什么指标申请到外国的大学念书？”

政策制定
勿凭空想象

　　另一名担任华文部门主任的教师则以“少教多学”为例，进一步说明学校所面对的两难局面。他说，“少教多学”的出发点是很好的，目的是通过不同方式鼓励孩子自发学习。为此，一些学校可能会在华文课融入深广元素，比如向学生介绍水墨画、京剧等。但一些家长会批评说这根本无法在短时间内提升孩子的华文成绩，而学校老师的“少教”反而迫使他们得花钱补习。

　　这名部门主任说：“关键是家长和社会对成功的观念一天不改变，只要他们仍然坚信文凭至上，制度怎么改，我们终究是在绕圈圈。”

教师们认为，教育部这些年所采取的大方针基本正确，只是在执行上缺乏透彻的考量。他们希望，教育部的决策高层接下来除了要仔细聆听家长的意见，更应该多和前线工作的教师沟通，了解他们面对的实际问题。

　　一名教师说：“教育部要和教师拉近距离，不然很多时候决策似乎是凭空想象的。许多决策者缺乏实战经验，或者教学经验不长，对教学的理解是片面的。”

　　另外，教育是“百年树人”的过程，改革不可能一朝一夕见效，所以一些教师也指出，作为学校的最高领导者，校长不应该每五六年就调走。如果校长能够在一所学校逗留长一点的时间，校方的治校方向会更稳定，教师也不用随着校长的轮替，不断改变以配合新校长的作风。这样一来，他们就能好好地延续一些优质的计划并有效评估这些计划是否达到预想效果。

　　林慧平则希望教育部可以“快刀斩乱麻”，除了教师评估应该重新探讨，和这个环节息息相关的全国考试框架也有必要改变。特别是被许多家长视为“一考定终身”的小六离校考试应该考虑废除，因为凭孩子12岁的成绩就决定他未来的学习道路是不公平的。

　　林慧平不是第一次就教育课题写信给教育部，不同的是，她这次的公开信获得王瑞杰的正面回应。王瑞杰感谢她的建议，并表示刚刚上任，还需要对各方所提出的观察和建议多做研究。

　　虽是简短的答复，却让林慧平感到欣慰：“他是新部长，无法在短时间做出任何承诺是自然的。但他看来真诚，希望教育政策日后真的会有所改变。”

甫上任部长面簿
上百家长留言谈教育

宣布王瑞杰出任教育部长后，他的面簿上就收到了上百条有关改进教育制度的建议。以下是部分的留言内容：

Thong Kar Lai：

“为什么有越来越多学生需要补习？连还没有进入小学的孩童也要参加这些课程。这是新加坡独有的社会现象吗？很多家长愿意支付昂贵的学费，只为了确保孩子不输在起跑线上。我们的教育体系是不是无法满足家长的要求？考试成绩难道是养育孩子最关键的事情吗？

Steve Lin：

　　“尊敬的部长，我希望你不仅会关注学生的需要也同时照顾教师。教师教学时间太长，过于繁重的工作已经促使许多人失去教学热忱。或许你应该从真人秀节目《卧底大老板》（Undercover Boss）获取灵感，亲身到学校体验真实的情况。”

Thian Beng Yap:

　　“只有心灵的修养才能塑造品格正直的人。头脑用于思考，心用来感受。我们的学生可以思考，但都没有能力感受，他们很多时候不能设身处地地为别人着想……”

Dick Tay：

　　“学校为什么在假期还要求学生要上网作‘e学习’功课。这和规定学校假期的原则背道而驰。家长最终还要请假在家里陪孩子做作业。请改变这样的政策，让家长也能和孩子一样，好好在假期中休息。”

Michelle Wong：

　　“请你考虑重新检讨小一入学政策。和永久居民、外国人相比，新加坡人应该享有绝对的优先权。现有的抽签政策，也就是公民比其他人多一票应该废除。我建议所有学额优先考虑新加坡学生，剩余的才让给永久居民和外国人。”

家长电邮谈教育

"我认为新加坡的老人被子女疏忽，工作压力只是借口，我觉得缺失的是这里没有从小就必须进行的道德教育。”

"请给孩子一个自由的写作空间，别限制和束缚他们，相信他们的眼睛，相信他们的表达能力。也许，他们的语言是稚嫩可笑的、他们的思绪是条理不清的，但这些都不重要，因为那才是他们真实的世界和想法。”

"直通车计划似乎造成了名校的学额被垄断的问题，感觉上，好象形成了教育体制内的精英阶级。小六生只要在PSLE取得优秀的成绩，他就进入了这个阶级，得到重点栽培，一辈子念的都是名校。国家重点栽培人才是好事，可是这也可能造成一些晚开窍的学生无法得到名校教育的机会，邻里中学的学生即使会考成绩不错，也无法进入顶尖的初院。这种情况的出现，就表示直通车计划剥夺了教育体制中让学生凭借自己的努力，使自己能够往上流动的管道。”　　

"高才班的学生，往往十分自我，我担心这些孩子太高估自己，无法接受失败。我们的高才教育是不是已经迷失方向？”

"老师的工作量越来越大，压力也越来越重，没有了家庭时间，甚至可能陷入焦虑症。把老师当公务员管理，给高薪，要求更多KPI，很多时候浪费精力在应付报告和一些看起来像是满足教育部纸面要求的Project，根本没有时间和精力去更好地关心孩子。这是否本末倒置？”

"政府不能以“小一优先报名权”为carrot，叫人们为社区服务，而是应该想别的奖励方法，去鼓励这些社区领袖。”
　　
"校长为什么必须六年换一次？新校长须至少一两年时间去了解学校，等他掌握好信息，要贯彻新措施提升教学和设备时，他又要离开了。结果，换了新校长，又把前一任校长的措施都改了。”

"希望学校能把教育回归到以育人为本的性质，把学校当学校来经营，而不是一间机构。很多学校把家长学生当客户，把General Office 称为Customer Service Centre，把建立品牌做为终极目标。其实，学生无论读的是不是名校，都应该享有同等的教育和潜能发展的机会。”

国际评为“卓越”　国人却有微词
我国教育体系为何“内弹外赞”？

　　自1995年新加坡中二学生参加国际学生趋势研究，无论科学或数学都名列世界第一后，新加坡式教育不断在国际上获得高度认可。经济合作与发展组织去年发布“国际学生能力评估”，新加坡5000名15岁学生的数学、科学和阅读表现，分别排名第二、第十和第五。国际顾问公司麦肯锡评估，新加坡教育体系已从 “优良”步入“卓越”的阶段。

　　这被外人看起来是一等一的新加坡教育制度，却不完全被国人认同。在此次具分水岭意义的大选之后掀起的改革声浪中，教育制度改革，也是众人关切的课题。

　　多位专家学者家长教师对本报“为政策把脉”专题，发表意见。

张齐娥：　　
教育应该延伸到家庭　

前官委议员，悦榕控股高级副总裁张齐娥请教育部重视兴建“心件工程，情绪工程”。

她说：“教育的最终目标是学做人，学怎样修身、齐家、扶社、治国、平天下，不能只重视分数，教师怎样去教学生是非常重要。这个教学法最棘手之处，是它牵涉到哲学、诗歌、文学等软实力的源头，只有这样才能整顿心灵，找到有根的灵魂，建立坚韧不拔的能耐。”

除了提出“学习型组织learning organisation”的概念，张齐娥认为教育部应该协助推广“学习型家庭 learning family”的概念。

她说：“培养新一代，家庭和学校的责任是相辅相成，而不是相互推卸。学习，要从家庭开始。从两个人怎样组织家庭，怎样相处，怎样分工合作，到怎样怀孕，怎样迎接新生儿，怎样教育孩子，怎样参加活动，怎样选幼稚园，怎样小一报名，进了学校怎样学习等等。这个专业工作需要请教育部来协助。我希望这个学习不是开一门课来做知识灌输，而是把它渗透进教师和家长互动的所有活动里。所有的资料也可以罗列在网上，让年轻家长从网上学习。‘学习型家庭’希望能变成一个运动，促成父母、孩子和教师之间多沟通，大家一起长大。这是社会工程，希望每个家庭成为一个学习家庭。”

教育工作者：好的教师比堂皇的教室重要

　　新加坡教育投资在过去半世纪重视硬件建设，大量建设美轮美奂的校舍，购买最先进的电脑设备仪器，臻于世界级完善水平；未来需要倾向“软件”投资，减轻教师工作量，普遍实施小班制，增聘教师，增聘行政人员处理非教学工作等等。

这些工作教育部已经在做了，但是做的步伐不够快。大力减轻教师负担应该是教育部接下来要努力的大事，是改革的重点。

新意元幼源校长陈鸣鸾是资深幼儿教育专家。她接受本报访问时说：“我们的教育预算不少，今年就有109亿元，但是投资的方向需要重新评估。”

　　她说，校舍、设备等硬体已有世界级水平，教师的薪金也做了调整，现在是否应该考虑小班制，减少教师任教的班数，再减轻他们负责课外活动或行政工作的工作量？实行小班制，就是要聘请更多教师，而软体比硬体更重要，只要有好老师，校舍不够堂皇并不要紧，电脑不够先进也不要紧。

　　“印度的教育资源比我们差，但是全世界都去印度找科技人才。所以，问题还在教师，教师最重要。”

她说，学生超过40人的大班给教师的负担太大，他们有改不完的作业，如何再去把课教好？所以，小班制是重要的。只要有小班的空间，其他什么设备一时跟不上不要紧。教育的投资应该先用在人上面，不要本末倒置，不要先硬体后软体，硬体可以共享，人怎么共享呢？

华中国际学校去年四名学生成绩名列全球第一，其中三人是在国际剑桥考试局举办的“国际中学教育普通证书考试（International General Certificate of Secondary Education, IGCSE）”的数学科和华文科，考获全球第一，另一名是今年参加国际剑桥考试局举办的企业创作赛取得全球第一。

这四名学生其中三人是新加坡人。问成功原因，他们说：“小班，是小班让我有更多时间受到老师照顾。”

新跃大学人文与社会科学院中文课程有60%学生是在职华文教师，主任罗福腾副教授对记者说，他发现新加坡华文教师的工作量实在太大，除了备课、教书、批改作业，还有很多额外事务，如要负责课程辅助活动，还有指导诸如端午节、中秋节、春节等文化庆祝活动，实在太多。

他说：“很多学生从早上6时到晚上6时在学校教书，7时赶到我们这边上课到晚上10时，第二天又一早去教书，疲于奔命，简直累死他们。”

罗福腾对华文教师必须教三种课程也表示关注。他说：“学校为了公平，经常让教师分教快捷班、普通学术班、普通工艺班。这表示教师必须准备三套课程，教三种不同水平的学生。课程内容不同，学生不同，作业不同，教师要不停调整自己的头脑，是很疲累的。其实为了公平，学校可以安排教师一年全教快捷班，翌年换教普通学术班，后年再教普通工艺班，这样教师只需备一次课，批改一种作业。”

他也建议教育部增聘教师。

前清华大学校长梅贻琦有一句名言：“大学者，非大楼之谓也，乃大师之谓也”。

　　其实，教师之重要，不只在大学，中学小学幼儿园何其不然？当教育部为全国学校兴建了大楼后，现在应该思考的是怎样以各种机制，在学校培育大师。

MyPaper reporter chimes in on creative writing

2011-06-09T09:57:00.003+08:00

Article in today's MyPaper making reference to my letter to the Education Minister, specifically the portion on creative writing.

MyPaper 9jun11 education2_0001

From social to mainstream media

2011-06-05T10:30:00.003+08:00

A reporter from the Straits Times called me on Friday, asking if she could write an article about my letter to Mr Heng Swee Keat. It was to be a side bar to the main story on the Education Minister's comments about schools.

Interesting how one letter can garner so much publicity. Truly the power of social media! Anyway, I hope the Minister will heed the call of parents for real reforms and not just make cosmetic changes. If he truly wants honest feedback, he should speak to teachers and students not "pre-selected" by schools, and certainly not only parents who serve on school boards.

A friend of mine suggested that the Minister spring surprise visits to schools and attempt to sit for a PSLE maths paper. That would certainly make headlines!

Straits Times, 4 June 2011 page A6

ST 4jun2011 Education 1

ST 4jun2011 Education 2

Andre-isms

2011-06-03T16:19:00.000+08:00

Just a light-hearted post to end a hectic work week!

Over the years, Andre has been entertaining our household with his off-the-wall quips, often without meaning to. I sometimes post these "Andre-isms" on Facebook but I thought I would just compile some of them here, so I can remember them and refer back when I need a good laugh.

xxx

Andre: "That's the shop with all the fake women."
Lesley-Anne: "They're called mannequins."

xxx

Andre: "Is Labour Day when all the mothers remember how painful it was during labour?"

xxx

Andre trips and falls on his butt in front of his classmates.

Teacher: "Are you alright?"
Andre (dusting himself off): "It's ok, it runs in the family."

xxx

Me: "You ate fried food again?!"
Andre: "Popcorn chicken is not fried! All the sauce made it soggy."

xxx

Andre to me: "I'm lucky because you're quite clever and I have your genes."

xxx

Andre (after being berated by me for a sub-par assessment paper): "Even though you scold me, I still love you."

Ok, so this last one is not funny in the least, but I really think I have the sweetest son.

TGIF!

Letter to Heng Swee Keat Part III

2011-05-30T18:49:00.007+08:00

The third and final installment of the trilogy! Today, I received the eagerly-anticipated reply from Minister Heng. It reads like this:

Dear Monica

Thank you for taking the time and effort to share your thoughts with us. These are important inputs that we will study carefully.

It is my first week at the Ministry, and I am studying the many observations and suggestions that I have received.

Warm Regards to you and your family,

Heng Swee Keat

I know for some of you, this might seem rather anti-climatic but to be honest, I did expect an answer along these lines. I mean, there really isn't much he can say at this point. It would be irresponsible for him to make any promises for reform before he has studied the system in detail.

The plus point is that he has read it and given the public outcry, I believe he has to acknowledge the need for change. It's just a question of when, how much and in what direction.

I have appealed to the Minister to read the 500+ comments on my FB note, to hear the heartfelt and sincere views of parents, teachers and students. Thank you for speaking up and I encourage you to continue to share your feedback with MOE. We can all be agents of change. Really.

"Indifference, after all, is more dangerous than anger and hatred. Anger can at times be creative. One writes a great poem, a great symphony. One does something special for the sake of humanity because one is angry at the injustice that one witnesses. But indifference is never creative... Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end." - Elie Wiesel, April 1999 address to President Clinton and the US Congress

Letter to Heng Swee Keat Part II

2011-05-27T17:03:00.000+08:00

"Your letter has gone viral. Better clear out all your Kate Spade pics."

My very funny friend texted that message to me on Wednesday, after I'd posted my letter that morning. My original intent was rather innocent. I had wanted to take the opportunity of a fresh polls, new Education Minister and the promise of transformation by the PM, to share my concerns on the local education system. Usually, I would just post it on my blog but this time, I thought if I also posted it on Facebook notes, it might attract a few more readers.

You know that scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom where Indy singed the soles of his feet in the mine shaft, yelled for water and to his horror, was suddenly faced with a roaring tidal wave? Well, it felt a little like that.

The outpouring of angst completely caught me off guard. I mean, I knew there had to be parents who shared my feelings but I definitely did not expect the flood of responses. My first frivolous thought was dang, I should have checked my grammar more carefully.

Apart from comments, I also received a deluge of emails, many relating personal and heart-breaking accounts of their kids and encounters with teachers and schools. Suddenly I was inundated by friend requests (sorry guys, no offence but I prefer to keep my FB friends to folks I actually know). I also received a few comments commending me for being "brave", which puzzled me. Maybe if I was a teacher, I would be brave for voicing out against the system. Why was I brave to speak up as a parent? Was there some menacing threat I didn't know about?

I started feeling a little antsy when the letter took on a life of its own. I received emails calling for me to lead the charge in education reform. Some people started scrutinising and picking apart every sentence I wrote, often reading too much between the lines. The arguments veered into obtuse directions with people hotly taking sides and as another friend put it, "they're feuding over things you never said." It was spiralling out of control.

Maybe that's what people meant by being "brave" because suddenly, I was feeling rather nervous. I wrote on my friend's wall, "Ok, I had my 5 mins of fame liao. Where's the Stop button?"

But I thought since I opened the Pandora's Box, it would only be responsible of me to try and clarify some of the issues that have been raised.

1) Many teachers wrote in to express their agreement with me but a few mistakenly thought I was blaming them for not teaching our kids well, possibly from this sentence: "If half your students fail in an exam, it doesn’t reflect badly on the student – it reflects badly on the teaching." What I meant was when students across the board get low scores, it makes the school’s teaching abilities look inadequate (ie it’s the school that looks bad, not the students). I certainly don’t blame the teachers, in fact I did say quite clearly that it’s because the exams are set at an unrealistic level.

2) Some readers accused me of pushing the responsibility of instilling values in children to teachers when they should be shouldered by parents. Where in my article did I ever make this assertion? I fully agree that cultivating values is the job of parents. However, since our children spend a large proportion of their waking hours in school, I would like an education system that is conducive to this endeavour and complements my efforts, instead of a conflicting one that emphasises competitiveness above all else.

3) Others accused parents like me of molly coddling our children, making them soft. Oh come on. This is the same kind of argument some folks like to use, usually starting with "In my time..." What would constitute tough enough? In fact, some say our maths standards are still behind those of Japan and Korea, so does that mean we should still be leveling upwards? Trying to create some balance doesn't automatically turn all our kids into weaklings. It's precisely this enslavement to standards at the expense of our children's well-being that I'm against. Of course there will always be over-protective parents. But to assume that all parents are irrational and therefore don't know any better, is just condescending.

4) Some comments said that I merely complained and didn't offer any constructive suggestions. First, all I planned to do was to write a letter. I didn't intend to present a thesis with supporting figures, supporting research and recommendations. It's just a letter!

Second, sure, I'll volunteer recommendations for change if I can come up with something brilliant but I take issue with the idea that before I can raise my concerns, I have to have a ready solution. To put it bluntly, isn't that the job of MOE? As parents, we are important stakeholders in the education of our children but we often don't have all the necessary information and research to make national level suggestions. If I'm feeling unwell, I'll go to the doctor and ask him to heal me. I shouldn't have to tell him what medicine to prescribe (and indeed, I don't have the required knowledge and resources to do so). And surely, not being able to prescribe my own medicine doesn't negate my right to say I think something's wrong.

5) Some commented that my letter was lopsided, that I only highlighted the things that are bad about our education system, not the things that are good. Well, yeah, I was trying to get Mr Heng to initiate changes. What's the point of listing all the parts that don't need changing?

6) Incidentally, I'm not advocating the US system as the one to emulate. The US system was mentioned only in relation to my remark on the interview with the Vice-Dean, Education of Duke-NUS, who is part of an American system. My point was that I liked how they don't assume the straight 'A' student is necessarily the best candidate (and this is for medical school!) If you like, you can read the article here (pages 6-9). In case you're wondering, you won't find the quote he made on Singaporeans because it wasn't included in the edits.

Perhaps what astonished me most about this whole episode was that there were so many Singaporeans who felt the way I did. I was overwhelmed by the enormity of what I'd unknowingly triggered. They expressed a torrent of frustration and what I sensed was this overpowering sense of helplessness (and increasing anger) over the education system. But if so many people felt this way, why hadn't they spoken up before?

To be honest, when I hear things like, "oh, say also no use, nothing will change," I get a little impatient. Of course nothing will change if nobody ever says anything! We need to shake ourselves out of this apathy. Here's a nugget of information: this is not my first time trying to engage MOE. In fact, many of the issues I wrote about in the letter came from old posts on my blog and I've previously emailed a couple of them to MOE but not received a reply. I have a strange feeling my name is marked at MOE under "pot-stirrer".

Why do I still continue? Maybe because I'm dogged. Or a sucker for punishment. In fact, any changes now probably won't benefit me anymore since my kids are already in sec 2 and p5. But somebody's gotta speak up. And I can't help wondering if MOE would have been more open to changes if all these parents and teachers had been more vocal about their concerns. I love one of the comments on my letter: "I think we need to break this cycle that says "Someone has to do something about it although I doubt it". We need voices brave enough to speak up... if this is affecting your children? Why wouldn't you? Would rocking the boat be that bad?"

After this long rambling post, you probably just want to know whether Mr Heng has replied to my letter. Sorry to disappoint you, folks, nope. To be fair, he's only been on this job a week and I hear he's been busy making his rounds at schools. I will give him the benefit of the doubt and update my post if he replies.

And yes, I did check my grammar more thoroughly this time.

Letter to Mr Heng Swee Keat

2011-05-26T09:48:00.001+08:00

Dear Mr Heng

The recent polls have triggered many dramatic changes, the biggest of which is PM’s consistent refrain for transformation.

In this spirit, I’m writing to you to ask whole-heartedly for a transformation of our education system. If not a complete transformation, at least a holistic review of some of the basic tenets by which education policies in this country are made.

As a parent with one child in secondary school and another in primary school with contrasting abilities, I have, over the years, become increasingly frustrated and disturbed by many areas of our education system which I feel are not edifying to the development of children. At the risk of sounding like one of those domineering, opinionated mothers, let me try to persuade you, from the point of view of a concerned parent, why a change is due.

Education is not a business

Many have felt that Singapore in the past few years has been run like a business and this mindset has filtered down to education. These days, teachers are ranked against each other measured by KPIs. If their students don't perform up to par, then they drop in ranking. I assume this affects their appraisal and promotion prospects. Principals are also under pressure to keep up in school rankings (and not just in academics), hence they push their teachers to achieve better results.

Here's what happens when schools are run like businesses. Teachers become workers assessed and ranked according to quantifiable output. The principal is like the CEO, answerable to a higher authority based on numbers. Students become products, they are valued only according to the quantifiable output they can contribute, everything else is peripheral or redundant. Everything is reduced to numbers.

Therein lies the problem. When you run a business, the focus has to be on results, preferably quantifiable results. Don't get me wrong, I think it's well and good to try and assess the effectiveness of a school. But instead of seeing how we can better assess the effectiveness of schools, we run the schools to make them easier to assess.

Education administrators love this because it's so neat, structured and orderly. But the problem is education is about moulding of individuals. And neither individuals nor learning is neat, structured or orderly. The process of education is not and should be like that of manufacturing, taking place in a factory.

A friend of mine who volunteered to lead a character module at her son’s school was taken aback when she was asked for KPIs. I have other friends who are teachers have expressed frustration at being assessed purely by how well their students score. If we take this route, there is no "business" value in helping a student overcome his learning disability or giving special attention to a child from a difficult family background because the outcome is not quantifiable. We're leaving it to the assumed social conscience of the teacher and the school to step forward in such instances. But realistically, ensuring ‘A’ students continue to get top grades will likely get priority because it directly impacts on the teacher's KPIs.

Obsession with results

The inevitable outcome of an education system that is run by KPIs is the obsession with results and by this, of course I mean quantifiable results. What happens then is the focus is shifted from the process of education to the end result of scoring, because that is what is measured in the end.

For example, I find that the way many subjects are taught in schools are based on the marking template, understandably because if the objective is to maximise scores, then you teach to fulfil this objective. I’m a corporate writer and one of my biggest pet peeves is the way composition writing is taught in primary schools.

Many teachers today are told to mark the language of a composition based on how many "good phrases" are used. In my son’s school, a commercial book of good phrases is part of the syllabus and the kids are told to learn these phrases, even for spelling. These phrases are often so bombastic and pretentious that nobody in real life would actually use them. Yet the students are taught them because “ticks” are given for each “good phrase” and added to their vocabulary score.

I remember during a parent-teacher conference, I raised my concerns to my son's English teacher. To my utter surprise, she agreed with me. She said that once the school started imposing the memorising of good phrases for composition, she ended up with 44 scripts of almost identical introductions (mostly about the "fiery sun in the sapphire sky"). Unfortunately, her hands were tied.

I know why this is imposed - it's to make marking simpler. This way, schools don't have to depend on the arbitrary standards of each marker and the marker just has to follow a matrix. It's certainly more orderly but don't mistake it for creativity. I don't know any other education system which designs its curriculum around the grading. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

To me, attempting to come up with a template for creativity is simply oxymoronic. Ironically, we’ve managed to suck the creativity out of creative writing.

This obsession with results extends outside of the classroom. In my daughter’s school, the performing arts groups are given funding according to how well they perform in the SYF. Likewise, bigger budgets are given to sports that bring in medals. The list goes on. What this breeds in the race for medals and results is that schools often prioritise these over values like effort, sportsmanship and character building.

Even otherwise worthwhile activities, such as CCAs and community service, have lost their noble intent somewhat, as many students now perform these duties clinically for the sake of window dressing their resume.

Valuing people based on academic results

As a direct outcome of a school system that emphasises scores above all else and uses these scores to dictate the child's educational path at a very early age, Singaporeans have become obsessed with chasing grades. While I don’t deny grades are important, for many, they have become life-centric, meaning kids spend every waking hour performing tasks that will help them better their score.

The mindless pursuit of academic achievement has become so over-arching that many parents are now sending their kids for what I call indiscriminate tuition – tuition in every single examinable subject whether or not the child actually needs it. My daughter is in an SBGE (School-Based Gifted Education) class and her classmates were either from the GEP in primary school or top scorers in the PSLE. So I was startled when she told me that most of her classmates have tuition in 3 or 4 subjects. Tuition has become a crutch - even if the kids are doing well on their own, parents fear the consequences of doing without it.

The backlash is that our children’s self-worth and perception have become intrinsically linked to their academic grades. Teachers, peers and possibly parents judge the value of students according to their academic ability. I know children whose self-esteem is low simply because they don’t do as well in school as their classmates. In the “branded” schools, it also breeds elitism because these students deem others less academically-inclined as somehow inferior. When my daughter attended her first day of school in sec 1, many of her new classmates, meeting her for the first time, didn’t ask “what’s your name?” but “what’s your t-score?”

This treatment of academic prowess as a “superior” skill can be seen throughout our system. Although we profess to embrace all talents, it’s often lip service. Prefects and student leaders are usually chosen first on their academic ability before their leadership skills. In many DSAs for sports, schools still ask for academic results before they will even entertain the child for a trial. The message we seem to be sending is: we'll look at your other talents IF you have the academic ability.

Putting standards above learning

In my son’s recent p5 mid-year exams, in one class, every single child failed the math paper. This is a common scenario among some of the popular schools. Obviously, it’s not because the students are intellectually deficient. It’s because the papers are often set at a level designed for only the top 25% of kids. In fact, one question required a method that had not yet been taught to the students. It’s a mockery of the “teach less learn more” motto – does it mean the teachers teach less but the kids somehow have to learn more on their own? No wonder tuition centres are flourishing!

I’m tired of hearing the age-old excuse from schools that this will spur the children to work harder. Incidentally, this is not supported by fact. I suspect it's an urban legend spread by schools who wish to justify their "high" standards. I meet many parents and students who are more demoralised than "spurred" by their consistently bad results.

What is the point of this? The age gap between my two children is only three years and yet I can see that what my younger child has to learn at his age is markedly more difficult than what his sister had to know.

Perhaps this constant accelerating of the educational syllabus is a knee jerk reaction to the influx of brilliant foreign students, but this is no justification. We need to recognise that these kids have completely different motivations. They are here purely to study, to carve a better life for themselves, much as our students work harder when they study overseas. Do we then use these as benchmarks to whip Singaporeans into shape?

No education system is a one size fits all but we need to consider the best interest of the majority of students. If half your students fail in an exam, it doesn’t reflect badly on the student – it reflects badly on the teaching. I find that in setting the curriculum and exam papers, there seems to be some semi-sadistic streak in MOE and schools, to trip kids up and make them feel stupid. It's as if someone is saying, "Aha! I managed to set a question that no one could answer!" There will always be a small percentage of brainiacs who can ace any exam, no matter how difficult. That is not a logical benchmark by which to design curriculum or exam papers.

Plea for a more meaningful system

In the course of my work, I had the opportunity to interview the Vice Dean, Education of Duke-NUS. It was, in my mind, one of the most inspiring interviews I’d ever conducted. In his words, “We don’t just want the straight ‘A’ student. Does having one less ‘A’ make you less of a person? We know Singaporeans are already great at memorising facts – we’re looking for passion, dedication and the ability to see a problem through different angles.”

I feel we could use more of that mindset here. Singaporean educators are often proud of our high standards but let's be honest, we're good at ticking off checklists, exams and competitions. We laugh at the laissez faire American system for its laxity but in truth, they have churned out more innovators and thinkers from their messy system than we have (even after adjusting for size and population).

I will be the first to admit to occasionally suffering pangs of anxiety when my child doesn't do well in an exam because it's hard to stand firm in the onslaught of a tsunami of kiasu-ism. But at the end of the day, I try to keep reminding myself his character and happiness matter more. I want a kinder system, one that encourages my child to explore the world around him, not closes it up. One that shows him the richness of issues and topics out there, not limits him to four subjects.

I want a system where I can encourage my child to enjoy music, art, sports for their own sake, and not with the pre-requisite that he does well academically. I want him to want to help others, and not because it counts towards community service hours in his report book. I want to groom a child with integrity and respect towards others, and I hope others can appreciate him for these values.

I am doing as much as I can in these areas but I cannot fight against the education system. I'm writing this in the hope that as you now helm the Education Ministry, you can make the transformation happen.

Thank you very much for your time.

Revisiting maths models

2011-05-23T10:04:00.002+08:00

I haven't written a maths post in ages, since Lesley-Anne finished her PSLE, actually!

However, this year, I found that Andre frequently had difficulty with problem sums that featured two different variables in numbers, eg. number of coins vs value of coins. Somehow, he couldn't grasp the method that is commonly taught in school and used in assessment books. I guess it doesn't help that these sorts of sums tend to look very complicated and that gives him a mental block.

After some experimentation, I found a way to teach him using the model method and I'm happy to say, it really works! A similar question came out in his mid-year exam and he could solve it. Ironically, the teacher didn't understand the method and put a question mark next to it, which annoyed me a little. As long as he could arrive at the answer, I thought it shouldn't matter that he didn't use her method.

Anyway, I thought I'd share it here, for the benefit of those kids who might face the same difficulty. This probably works with kids who are visual learners.

1. In a coin pouch, there are 12 fifty-cent coins more than twenty-cent coins. If the total value of the fifty-cent coins is $21 more than the total value of the twenty-cent coins, find

a) the number of fifty-cent coins in the pouch
b) the total value of coins in the pouch

As a starting point for the model, assume the number of the coins for each denomination are the SAME and draw your model based on the VALUE of the coins, This is easy cos in terms of value, 50cts will always be 5 parts and 20cts will always be 2 parts.

Next, you draw in the value of the extra coins, in this case the 12 fifty-cent coins (always, always remind them that they're looking at VALUE, not number. This is critical!)

So you find the value of 12 fifty-cent coins, ie 12 x 0.50ct = $6 and add that to the model.

Now, you're told the value of the fifty-cent coins is $21 more than the twenty-cent coins. This is represented by the portion as drawn here.

Clearly, $21 - $6 = $15 -> 3 parts, so 1 part -> $15 ÷ 3 = $5

To find the number of fifty-cent coins simply take the total value and divide it by 0.50

$5 x 2 + $21 =$31
$31 ÷ 0.50 = 62

Answer: a) There are 62 fifty-cent coins in the pouch.

Finding total value of coins in the pouch is also a cinch, just find the value of the twenty-cent coins and add it to $31.

2 x $5 = $10
$10 + $31 = $41

Answer: b) The total value of coins in the pouch is $41.

This type of question can also be in forms other than money, eg. number of animals vs number of legs, or in this next example, number of vehicles vs number of wheels.

2. In a carpark, there are motorcycles and cars. 5/7 of the wheels are the wheels of the cars. There are 12 more cars than motorcycles. How many wheels are there in the carpark?

Similar to Question 1, first assume the number of both types of vehicles are the same and draw the model based on the number of WHEELS (4 wheels per car, vs 2 wheels per motorcycle).

Next, add in the additional wheels for 12 cars, which is 12 x 4 = 48.

Now, the question states that 5/7 of the wheels are the wheels of cars, meaning 2/7 of the wheels are the wheels of the motorcycles.

Looking at the model, there are already 2 parts to the motorcycles vs 4 parts to the cars, therefore 48 has to be equivalent to 1 part.

So total number of wheels is 48 x 7 = 336.

Answer: There are 336 wheels in the carpark.

For those of you new to my blog, I'm a firm believer of using models for maths as they've helped my kids, who are both visual learners (and algebraically-challenged), tremendously. If you're interested, you can visit some of my old posts on how to use math models (click on the 'Mathematics' label under the Blog Contents column on the right).

Andre's ode to mum

2011-05-19T14:19:00.000+08:00

Two weeks ago, Andre's English tuition teacher assigned him this writing task - to write a poem about his mother. It was actually intended as a present for Mother's Day but since Mr Procrastinator never got around to doing his work till yesterday, it came belated.

It was a task that flummoxed him, since he'd never written a poem in his life. After much whining (and some pleading with his sister to give him some "clues"), this is what he came up with:

My mother is the best
She never takes a rest
She likes to read a book
And she is a good cook

She is so loving
And also so caring
She makes us laugh
And she is part of hedgehog's staff

She is very smart
And she can create a piece of art
She is very nice
She likes to give advice

I know it sounds incomplete. This is because he was supposed to write 10 verses (which I thought was rather ambitious of the teacher) but he declared himself brain dead by the time he had churned out 3.

It was finding words that rhyme that he found terribly tough. In fact, for the last line, he had a couple of alternatives: "She doesn't like mice?" "She has a lot of lice?" Obviously my threats to throttle him made him reconsider the latter.

William Blake he is not, but it's still poetry to my heart ♥

A library of memories

2011-05-16T08:45:00.001+08:00

This post really came about because a friend posted this picture on her Facebook account. Doesn't it bring back tons of memories? Not too long ago, borrowing books at the library meant queuing up at the counter, slotting the book's borrowing card into your own library card and then bringing the book to the librarian for the due date to be stamped.

This was the ritual I grew up with as a faithful visitor to Marine Parade Library (not the current one, this one was at the site where a spanking new NTUC Finest now sits.) We were then only given 4 cards each, so I would often use my parents' cards to add on to my precious weekly allocation.

Lugging home my hoard, I would dive right into the selection, even at the dining table and late into the night. To say I was a bookworm would be an understatement. Since I only received books as gifts on my birthday, the library was a necessity to to feed my reading obsession. In fact, my childhood would have been miserable if I didn't have access to the library.

The selection of children's books at the library wasn't terribly inspiring but I grew up reading many of the perennial favourites by Beverly Cleary, Mary Norton, LM Montgomery and Elizabeth Enright, for example. Each time a new book was released onto the shelves, it would be snapped up eagerly. Shows you how many kids were hungry for reading material back then.

Back then, all books were bound in sturdy hard covers with glossy sleeves wrapped in plastic, unlike the paperbacks in the library these days which get dingy and torn so easily. Somehow, I feel that modern libraries have lost a part of their essence without the musty smell and rich texture of hard backs.

Nowadays, borrowing and returning books is a simple affair, all automated at self-service machines. The convenience can't be beat, I have to admit, but a perverse part of me misses the librarian stamping the due date on each book with such convincing authority. Growing up, I actually thought being a librarian must be one of the best jobs in the world because you get to read all day (besides stamping the books, of course).

As proof of how much the library was a part of my youth, I still have these in my possession:

My old library cards!! How many of you still have these? Go on, call me a hoarder. In my defence, I only hoard the really important stuff.

"I remember being in the public library and my jaw just aching as I looked around at all those books I wanted to read. There just wasn't time enough to read everything I wanted to read." - Charles Kuralt

The value of paper qualifications

2011-05-12T01:24:00.001+08:00

What's up with Blogger???? This post was up on Thursday 12 May and suddenly, I find it's back in my draft box, unposted. GAAAHHH. To all those who left comments, sorry, I think they've inexplicable disappeared.

Over the past two weeks, I've been trawling the internet for GE news, like thousands of other Singaporeans. One of the blogs I like to visit is Mr Wang Says So. Apart from the fact that he writes insightful political pieces, he's also a terrific writer. By terrific, I mean his writing style is simple but engaging. If I'm not wrong, he's a lawyer working in the financial industry but what captured my attention is that he's also an award-winning poet and a published author.

About a year ago, I was startled to discover that he's the brother of my friend and ex-business partner. My friend is a supremely talented artist so it looks like the creative streak runs in the family. Singapore is a tiny place.

Ok, commercial over. The reason I brought this up was that in the midst of reading Mr Wang's blog, I stumbled across this post on the value of paper qualifications. I love it because it proves what many people like me have suspected for many years - paper qualifications are really not worth that much. The humour is that Mr Wang had to literally lose them to confirm the point.

As he says, when you're young, "the most important purpose of a certificate is to help you get another certificate (for example, the PSLE cert helps you to get the O-level cert which helps you to get the A-level)." After that, certificates are most often needed for employment.

At some point, even this ceases to matter because what's important is how we perform on a job, not a piece of paper. Curiously, that's where I find that people sometimes err - by equating their own value with their certification. When I was still under employment, I sometimes came across individuals who would spout things like, "I have an MBA from ChicagoU." Which would be ok if it wasn't said in a tone that implied I should be impressed by that fact alone.

A paper qualification is a paper qualification. The important thing is what you have learned in the process of acquiring it and how you are applying the knowledge. The fact that you possess it is often irrelevant. Worse, some people actually believe that having that extra certificate means they automatically make better decisions. Trust me, you can have a Harvard degree and still make mistakes that cause organisations to bleed money. (I'm pretty sure the bankers and financial experts involved in the US sub-prime mortgage crisis didn't buy their qualifications from the black market).

I wrote this post because I feel many Singaporeans have become obsessed with grades and paper qualifications. From the time our kids are 12, we push them to conquer every paper hurdle, starting with the PSLE. While these certificates may be important, they shouldn't be life-centric, meaning your kids spend every waking hour performing tasks that help them achieve the next piece of paper. I hear of so many sec 1 kids who, meeting new classmates for the first time, don't ask "what's your name?" but "what's your t-score?"

It is a mindset that continues into adulthood and is easy to spot - the adults who still bring up their 'O' level performance, academic awards or how they scored an 'A' in a subject, in their conversations with you. These are the folks stuck in the paper mode. Their self-worth is embodied in these achievements so they have to constantly remind others of them, even if these events happened some 30 years ago. It's a little sad to see.

Paper qualifications are merely the tools to help us achieve our goals. Realising that these qualifications don't define us also helps us to be less judgmental towards those without. Let's have some perspective.

The best Mother's Day

2011-05-08T16:30:00.003+08:00

Saturday morning, Kenneth and the kids brought me to Epicurious Cafe at Robertson Quay for a Mother's Day breakfast. It's a quaint, family-run cafe popular for its weekend brunches and relaxed riverfront setting.

The food was unpretentious and tasty, the perfect way to start a lazy Saturday. Here's what we ordered:

Eggs Benedict with smoked salmon, sausages and roasted potatoes (we had two platters to share)

Pancakes with fruit and syrup

English breakfast tea with a complimentary serving of banana cake

The kids made me a lovely Mother's Day card (although Andre became rather evasive when asked about his contribution). As always, full of creativity and love.

But the absolute best Mother's Day gift for me was this:

Photograph: Roslan Rahman/AFP/Getty Images for the Guardian, UK

It took 22 long years but our nation has finally awaken from its slumber and made itself heard. The voices can no longer be ignored or brushed aside. Part of our pledge reads, "...to build a democratic society, based on justice and equality." Powerful words and it gave me chills to see people standing up for these values.

As I told Lesley-Anne, it's one thing to read about Singapore's history in history books, it's another to see history being made. And no doubt, 7 May 2011 will go down in Singapore history as one where the people grasped the reins and steered the massive political mothership through sheer willpower. I feel immensely proud of my fellow Singaporeans.

Stand up for Singapore!

Afternote: Came across this well-written political essay by Singaporean author, Catherine Lim. Worth a read.

Lesley-Anne's CAP portfolio 3

2011-05-06T08:26:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the side-track over the GE but hey, it happens only once every five years so I think I'm entitled to get a little excited :)

Anyway, back to education, here's a third piece from Lesley-Anne's portfolio for CAP (and the last I'll be posting). It's another poem, this time one that expresses her concern for the environment - one of her pet causes. Although it may not be superbly brilliant in terms of language, I give her props for her passion and conviction.

What if…

Humans didn’t ever exist?
I think the earth would probably flourish
All of this man-made machinery
Would be replaced by lush greenery

Where there were factories, cars
And streets of hot melting tar
Would be forests, flowerbeds
And thriving animals instead

What if…

All of nature could talk, scream and shout?
Only then, might we understand
That all this hunting we could do without
As the blood of these animals wet the land

All the felled trees would lie there groaning
The sky, filled with toxic air, would be choking
Mother Nature, is honestly going to die
But why won’t you stop this, why won’t you try

Who cares?

Well you’re a fine one to speak
But even now, surely you feel the heat
The earth’s heating up, the icecaps are melting
A few years on, the heat will be sweltering

Some countries will flood as sea levels rise
If you own beach houses say your goodbyes
But in other countries, there is no water about
It’s the opposite of a flood, it’s a drought!

So what?

Haven’t you been listening all this time?
Don’t you understand the severity of this?
To ignore this would be a serious crime
As this problem is too apparent to dismiss

Entire ecosystems are dying
Why aren’t you even trying?
To save your own home and life
As well as your dear children and wife

Oh no!

Oh yes! Don’t you hear the anxiety in my voice?
My heart breaks when I see what we’ve done
Your own life’s at stake, you’ve got no choice
It is your duty and from it, please don’t shun

Don’t think “But soon, I’ll be dead and gone
It won’t affect me; I’ll carry just carry on
With my own work and my own business”
‘Cause then, your children will inherit this mess

But, but…

Your business in fossil fuels will have to fold?
Well, that’s a price you have to pay
Earth’s call of help can’t be put on hold
Please respond to it, don’t turn her away

All this that I have said is true
The earth’s in a sorry state
Do your part now, I implore you
Before it is truly too late

But how?

Well, I am so glad you asked
Since saving the world isn’t an easy task
But do things bit by bit and start small
And you’ll help the earth in no time at all

By just recycling a ton of paper
You will save 380 gallons of oil and 17 trees
As well as 7000 gallons of water
And 4000 kilowatts of energy

That’s amazing!

I’ll say! And you don’t have to stop there
You can also help spread awareness across the nation
Maybe by starting an earth-saving trend somewhere
Or even better, join an environmental organisation

So you see you don’t need superpowers to save the earth
But the effort you put in will be of immeasurable worth
For even though we live in different places
Or are of many unique, special races
When we all unite just for this one cause
We’ll accomplish things worthy of Mother Nature’s applause

What the GE means for me and why I want to vote Ngiam Tong Dow as President

2011-05-02T12:18:00.001+08:00

It's GE time!! I'm sure you're as excited as I am. I feel sorry for those in the Tanjong Pagar GRC because I think more than ever, I sense that people want to have a voice in how our country is being run. This is a good thing for the obvious reason that apathy never did anyone any favours. It means there is no motivation to get things right because nobody cares if things go wrong.

The widespread awakening across the ground also signified something else - that people have been feeling unheard. The frustration resonates with me, personally, I have gotten terribly indignant over certain policies but no matter how much (or how many ordinary citizens) might rant about them, we can do absolutely nothing about it. It's like seeing a bulldozer slowly heading towards your car, but no matter how long and how loudly you yell at the driver to stop, he doesn't. All he does is tell you why your car HAS to go and why it's good for you somehow.

Like many others, I've been following the coverage online since it appears to be the more credible source of news these days. While there is lots of fiery debate, some of it is almost akin to emotional blackmail (on both sides).

So it was extremely refreshing to read this interview with Mr Ngiam Tong Dow, the ex Head of Civil Service. Even though the interview was done way back in 2003, almost a decade ago, it's uncanny how relevant it is today... and how he predicted the way we're heading. It's sensible, without the usual dreary rhetoric and dare I say, visionary.

What really blew my mind was that he managed to crystallise my thoughts about our political system - thoughts that were previously an incoherent jumble. After I'd read the interview, it all instantly clicked, "yes! of course!" If more of our civil servants had even half this guy's intelligence, ethic and guts to speak his mind, I'd say Singapore's future is bright.

He also talked about education in his interview and then, I understood that the way our education system is run, is a mini model of the way our country is run. He briefly mentioned the problem he finds with our education system:

"Each year, the PSLE creams off all the top boys and girls and dispatches them to only two schools, Raffles Institution and Raffles Girls' School. However good these schools are, the problem is you are educating your elite in only two institutions, with only two sets of mentors, and casting them in more or less the same mould."

...and its parallel in our political administrative system:

"So far, the People's Action Party's tactic is to put all the scholars into the civil service because it believes the way to retain political power forever is to have a monopoly on talent. But in my view, that's a very short term view... You have to allow some of your best and brightest to remain outside your reach and let them grow spontaneously. How do you know their leadership will not be as good as yours? But if you monopolise all the talent, there will never be an alternative leadership. And alternatives are good for Singapore."

Herein lies the problem, our leaders have become so entrenched in their dominance and ingrained in their ideology that they are unable to consider an alternative universe. No wonder some leaders have resorted to threats. When they say "Singapore will suffer", what they really mean is "PAP will suffer". The sad part is I think some of the leaders truly believe this because they have, maybe without realising it, come to equate the two. It would explain why they feel it is perfectly justified to have the entire civil service, stat boards and PA serve party interests.

And that's why my favourite sentence in Mr Ngiam's interview is this: "I think our leaders have to accept that Singapore is larger than the PAP."

At the end of the interview, Mr Ngiam gave this analogy of the Greek systems:

"Singapore is like Sparta, where the top students are taken away from their parents as children and educated... When I first read Plato's Republic, I was totally dazzled by the great logic of this organisational model where the best selects the best. But when I reached the end of the book, it dawned on me that though the starting point was meritocracy, the end result was dictatorship and elitism. In the end, that was how Sparta crumbled. Yet, Athens, a city of philosophers known for its different schools of thought, survived."

I now realise that with my vote, I'm signalling more than just my like or dislike for a particular party/candidate/policy. I'm making my view heard on how I want the country to be run, not in an abstract way, but the manner in which our education, housing, healthcare, transport, etc is approached. All of which affects us directly (on an infinitely larger scale than the short-term upgrading of my estate, which incidentally may not have as big an impact as you might think, according to this writeup).

I no longer believe that Singapore will fall without the PAP, like I was brought up to believe. I believe that our citizens are savvier, more resilient and care more about Singapore than the leading party wants us to think. Ultimately, I believe that Singapore is larger than the PAP... and the sooner the ruling party recognises this, the more respect I will have for them.

I encourage you to read Mr Ngiam's interview in full before polling day. It might give you pause to re-think what Singapore really needs to thrive. For years, the PAP has told Singaporeans that change and competition are good for us. Perhaps it's time for them to lead by example.

Lesley-Anne's CAP portfolio 2

2011-04-28T11:50:00.000+08:00

Here's another piece Lesley-Anne wrote for her CAP portfolio. I thought it was quite humorous, though I wonder if there's some Freudian meaning behind her tendency to saddle her protagonists with Tiger mothers.

No Guts, No Glory

Bill Watterson, illustrator of popular comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, once said “I’ve never understood people who remember childhood as an idyllic time,” and I wholeheartedly agree with him. In the future, if I look back and recall my childhood, all I’ll remember is getting chased by my mother due to my bad performance in school. It did not help that she was an expert at wielding a cane.

Just so you know, the reason I did not do well in school was not because I was lazy. Let’s just say that I was never strong enough mentally to endure hours of intensive revision. After about an hour, my mind would begin to wander and this seems to be the case for a few of my other friends as they would ring me up to ask me to meet them at the nearby mall. When I tell them that I have to study, they would somehow convince me that we could study together at the mall. Sometimes, after an hour of revision, one’s brain gets a little delirious and for a moment, you would have no common sense whatsoever. This causes you to believe something stupid such as the mall is a conducive study environment.

If there is one weakness of mine, it is giving in to peer pressure. Therefore, one can infer that the above scenario has taken place many times and that peer pressure has often gotten me into trouble. That is why I have become quite adept at various sports, such as having to avoid the cane. When your mother is the one wielding it, this is no mean feat. Most people do not understand me when I say my life is like the Olympic Games so here is an example to illustrate what I mean.

Well, as usual, I came home with a Math test paper in my hand. I’d failed miserably. The moment Mother laid her eyes on the 47/100 scrawled in bright red ink, she looked just like a bomb ready to explode. And this test paper just lighted her fuse. The lighting of the Olympic Flame - the start of the Olympic Games!

To express her anger, she snatched the paper, crumpled it into a ball and threw it at me. And to think, my teacher blames me for handing in work that looks like “kiam chye”. Thanks to my speedy reflexes, I managed to grab a ruler and used it to whack the paper back to where it came from. And I take the last point to win this badminton game 21-19. Unfortunately, it hit Mother and caused all hell to break loose.

She reached for the dreaded weapon, the cane. I managed to avoid the first two strokes but suffered a third one across my palm. Time to make a run for it as things were getting ugly. The finals of the fencing event ended with Mother as the champion and me in second place.

I ran across the hall and into the living room where I leapt over a coffee table and several chairs, widening the distance between Mother and me. I am the champion in the hurdles event!

I made a break for the open front door with Mother hot on my heels. For a split second, I felt like my heart had stopped and I held my breath. The next thing I knew, I was running out onto the hot and sunny streets. And I win the 100 metre sprint by a narrow margin!

Happy that my mother had given up on chasing me and did not follow me into the streets, I slowed to a brisk walk and headed over to my best friend, Andrew’s, house. As I entered the gate to his garden, I tripped over his pet terrier and fell to the ground, did a somersault and landed on my face. That ends the artistic gymnastics event with me winning the gold medal after that impressive finish!

After Andrew let me in, he asked me to play a game of soccer with him. I was about to head back out to the garden when he stopped me and said that we would play soccer in the house since it was too hot out there. I agreed and once again gave in to peer pressure. I guess my mind was still delirious after successfully escaping Mother’s wrath.

After five minutes, Andrew and I were running out of the house with Andrew’s mum coming after us. What happened you ask? Well, let’s just say that something happened to a window in Andrew’s room.

This leads me to my second weakness - I never seem to learn from my mistakes.

Lesley-Anne's CAP portfolio 1

2011-04-25T11:05:00.006+08:00

At the beginning of this year, Lesley-Anne applied to the Creative Arts Programme (CAP) organised by MOE and NUS. It's an external programme which offers writing workshops for students interested in creative writing.

Lesley-Anne wasn't successful in her application. Out of the 20-odd sec 2 students who applied from her school, only one was selected. I guess admission to the programme is highly selective. It's ok, Lesley-Anne says she might try again next year if she feels like it. In the meantime, I thought I'd share a few of the pieces she had submitted as part of her application portfolio.

Out of the pieces of writing she submitted, this poem is my favourite, I found it terribly funny and original. Plus it features a hedgehog (my signature animal) and a giraffe (hers!) Too bad they didn't have a happy ending.

An Unlikely Marriage
A Study in Nonsensical Rhyme

There once was a hedgehog named Valentino
Who was an outcast because he was albino
He was treated like a pest
As the other hedgehogs did detest
Anyone without skin brown as cappucino

Somewhere else, not very far away
Lived a giraffe, who was unique in a way
Her legs were long as heck
But she had a really short neck

And this, amongst her family, caused much dismay

Now these two characters in time
Would have their destinies entwined
Both would soon meet each other
And they would discover
That they both got along just fine

It happened one day at noon
At the local restaurant by the lagoon
It was love at first sight
And they took delight
In knowing that they would marry soon

Their marriage was a grand affair
With decorations on the church's ceiling and stairs
But I guess everyone just "forgot"
Since no one came to see them tie the knot
But they were so madly in love that they didn't care

The giraffe gave Valentino a wedding present
One that was really quite decent
Her husband was enthralled
For she wrote him a book called
"101 Uses for a Hedgehog" which was pleasant

Now Valentino hoped to give her a gift equally nice
So he turned to the local bookstore owner for advice
Who said "Since a great writer is she
Books should make her feel much glee
So write one for her and that should suffice."

Ah, my dear Valentino, marriage is tough!
Your book may have perfect grammar and paragraphs
But your dear wife divorced you for a grave mistake on your part
And that is that your book had a horrible title to start
For it was named "101 Uses for a Dead Giraffe"!

Sports in art

2011-04-21T00:40:00.000+08:00

Since we're on the topic of clay art, here's something Lesley-Anne did for a school art lesson last year. The students were told to design their own mascot for the inaugural YOG held in Singapore.

The mascot had to represent a particular sport featured in the YOG. Lesley-Anne's was a pink penguin, representing swimming. You can see it holding the torch.

Sports can be a muse for art. Afterall, the sporting form lends itself to much grace in movement. Just recently, Andre brought home a drawing that was given to him by his good friend. It's meant to be a card of sorts and portrayed Andre as a badminton champ in what looks like a major tournament.

I was quite impressed by the composition and line work. Andre was probably was more enthralled by the fact that he pictured as the "Man of the Match", at least by his friend.

In this case, art doesn't imitate life, so hopefully, Oscar Wilde was right when he said it's life that imitates art.

I'm sure for Andre, that's an optimistic picture of the future.

Here's a little piece of my art

2011-04-17T10:32:00.000+08:00

One day, Andre came home and told me, "I pity the p4s - they have to bring brushes, paint and newspaper this Friday."

"Why?" I asked, imagining the kids being tasked with some chore like painting a classroom.

"They have to do art."

It's a travesty but I managed to bear a son with an aversion to art. Maybe it's because it's yet another form of seatwork, something he obviously feels overshadows his life. His favourite subject in school, surprise surprise, is PE.

Last year, Andre found art tolerable in school because the teacher allowed them to draw cartoons all year round. In term 1 this year, his class was exposed to clay modelling, which he found quite fun. The kids were told to bring a photograph of themselves and use it to sculpt a clay model portrait.

This was Andre's self-portrait:

It's no masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but still mildly acceptable. That is, until he was told to paint it. Then suddenly, the self-portrait metamorphosised into a grinning Kermit.

I also noticed that the smile had widened from the original, the nose had completely disappeared and one corner of the slab had broken off. Clay doesn't travel well, especially when squashed in a schoolbag.

"Why on earth did you paint yourself green??" I asked, wondering if he had secret Hulk fantasies.

"It's the only colour in my poster paints that I have a lot of."

Pragmatism over realism.

Lesley-Anne turns 14!

2011-04-12T14:08:00.011+08:00

My darling girl is 14! Her birthday was on Sunday but as someone who hates fuss and frills, she opted for a simple celebration.

We chose to have dinner at Ichiban Boshi, which we love as the food is great and very reasonably priced. Ever since we discovered this restaurant, we've stopped going to Sushi Tei. They have several branches but we decided to try out the branch at Marina Bay Financial Centre Link Mall.

The sashimi is fresh and the beef is simply excellent - tender and very tasty.

For dessert, we went to Marble Slab Creamery. It's all the rage now, custom ice cream with toppings mixed on a marble top. Here's the service staff at work.

And a very impatient boy watching the process. "Finding the happiness within"? Perhaps.

This was Lesley-Anne's portion. She chose the Cookie Dough Drizzle, which is aptly made with Birthday Cake flavour ice cream, chocolate chip cookie dough, Oreos and fudge. Gooey with bits of crunch and a generous infusion of sugar. Yumm... one scoop is more than enough, I think.

At the mall, we spotted a Swiss Bake cafe and bought a small birthday cake to take home. Lesley-Anne chose the Raspberry White Chocolate flavour.

And so, another year has passed, my little girl is steadily and surely becoming a full-fledged teenager. Happy birthday, Lesley-Anne, stay your sweet self always!

Bukit Timah outdoor adventure

2011-04-08T10:11:00.002+08:00

Last Saturday, Lesley-Anne went on an outdoor adventure with a bunch of other sec 2 kids. They formed groups and were supposed to find their own way to the summit of Bukit Timah Hill, before navigating themselves to the Dairy Farm Adventure Centre.

If you know Lesley-Anne, you know that anything with the words "outdoor adventure" is not something that she would voluntarily sign up for. So it's a good thing it was compulsory! This is actually a very pretty part of Singapore.

She was quite stoked to catch sight of woodpeckers, apparently they're exactly (well, maybe not exactly) like Woody Woodpecker, with the red mane. Of course, they also saw macaques which are pretty aggressive in these parts. One snatched a banana from a teacher. (Bananas + Bukit Timah Hill = colossally BAD idea.)

The teacher managed to take some nice shots of the kids enroute to the summit.

Finally, the checkpoint! I think the teacher looks more relieved than the students.

Following that, they made their way to the Dairy Farm Adventure Centre where the students experienced abseiling. Lesley-Anne had previously missed out on this activity when she went for camp at p5, so she was quite pleased that she got to try this.

The whole trip took the better half of a day. I think it's good for her to move out of her comfort zone every once in a while to get some nature by osmosis into her system.

Black and white - book recommendations

2011-04-03T15:08:00.000+08:00

In term 1, Lesley-Anne studied the Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee for literature. This book is one of those classics that never seem to leave the classroom. For as long as I can remember, secondary school students have been studying this book for literature.

The novel deals with civil rights and racial bigotry in the segregated southern US of the 1930s. The protagonist is Scout Finch, who sees her father, Atticus, strive to prove the innocence of a black man accused of raping and beating a white woman. This book was made into a landmark movie, starring a young and dashing Gregory Peck.

I first read the book in my teens (no, it wasn't my literature text) but it wasn't till I read Alex Haley's life-changing Roots back in the 1990s that I became fascinated with this historical aspect of race relations in the US.

I decided to blog about this because I recently read another terrific book on this issue. It's called The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi, where black women were hired to look after white households, Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is home from college and anxious to become a writer. She begins to collect the stories of the black women and enlists the help of Aibileen, a maid whose has raised 17 children, and her friend Minny. The stories reveal the best and the worst of human relations at a time where racial tensions were high.

It was a book I couldn't put down. I'm finding it harder and harder nowadays to find truly engaging books. At a recent book sale, a lady next to me scanned the aisles and boxes of books and commented, "Too many people are getting published." I totally agree with that sentiment. There are many authors who are probably doing the rainforests a great injustice by having their words printed.

Anyway, I digress. This is a very compelling book - it comes across as honest without being moralistic. You come to feel for the characters and you get drawn into the plot. Even though the book portrays historical events in the US, themes of discrimination cut across geographical and cultural boundaries, and force us to re-examine the complexity and often, hypocrisy of human relations.

So if you're looking for something new to read, do give this book a try.

Preparing for p5

2011-03-30T12:58:00.000+08:00

One of the things I discovered when Andre hit p5 this year was that the academic leap from p4 to p5 is like an Olympic high jump event. This is also true for the transition from p2 to p3 but I felt it more keenly this time.

I think part of the reason for this is the change in format. In English, for example, the paper is now divided into two sections, with Paper 1 being the MCQ portion and Paper 2 the open-ended section. Paper 2 is where the kids tend to have more problems. Accounting for 65 marks out of a total of 95, it comprises a few challenging parts, including the open-ended cloze and the comprehension passage which now contains 10 instead of 5 questions.

For maths too, there are now two papers - Paper 1 and Paper 2, with calculators allowed for Paper 2. The issue becomes a question of speed. For Paper 1, the kids need to complete 15 MCQ and 15 short questions in 50 minutes. This translates into 3 questions for every 5 minutes. Not a lot of time, considering this doesn't even leave any time for checking.

For Chinese, I think there's only a slight difference, with two comprehension passages instead of one. Science is the only subject where the format remains the same, since the curriculum is now taught based on topics from p3-p6.

Apart from format, the difficulty level across all subject too, increases significantly. At Andre's school (and I suspect this is true for many primary schools), they start setting papers at the p6 standard for p5. This is presumably an attempt to prepare the kids early for the PSLE but for the parents and students, it's extremely stressful.

Andre just had his CA1 before the one-week holidays and it was a mini culture shock for us. The bar was raised two steps, causing many kids to stumble. I heard through the grapevine that in some classes, more than half the kids flunked the maths paper. Similarly for English. Perhaps the school wants the exam to be a wake-up call for the kids but I've always been ambivalent about this issue. Will it spur the kids to work harder or simply demoralise them? My friend, Lilian thinks the Singapore school system makes students feel stupid and parents feel inadequate.

We'll keep chugging along of course, nothing else we can do about it. But the PSLE feels like a chain around my neck - I can't wait till it's over.

Birdsong

2011-03-25T10:28:00.002+08:00

One morning, as I was at my pc, I heard a melodic chirp coming from Lesley-Anne's bedroom. As it grew more persistent, I went to check it out and saw this:

A tiny little yellow bird perched at her window! Aww... I don't call myself a true nature lover cos I don't like anything that slithers, crawls or looks remotely disgusting. But birds I love. Growing up, my mother had pet mynas who were so tame they wouldn't fly away even when let out of the cage.

So it was so uplifting to see this fluffy ball of sunshine, singing away without a care in the world. I'm not sure what type of bird it is, perhaps an oriole?

I inched closer to get a better look and it didn't seem afraid at all, even when I carefully pointed my camera at it. I managed to sit on Lesley-Anne's bed which was right next to the window, which explains how I got such close-up shots.

I sat there listening to it sing for quite a while, before I took a short video clip of it. Sure sounds like it's calling out to its friends. Living in a high rise, we don't get to interact with nature much so this was a sweet interlude.

"A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song." - Chinese proverb

Living childhood lessons

2011-03-21T09:40:00.001+08:00

Recently, I met up with a friend who teaches both primary and secondary school kids. We were chatting about schools and kids in general, then he said some that I thought was particularly poignant: "Kids don't have time to be kids these days. I see so few of them with joy."

This statement struck me because just a couple of days before, I read an article in The Atlantic Magazine by Christina Schwarz on how many kids have been stripped of the important phase called childhood because they spend these years preparing for adulthood.

I encourage you to read the full article - it's thoughtfully written. I especially like the sub-header: Childhood is more than merely a springboard to adulthood. In essence, the article states in our rush to cram our children's time with "valuable" skills so that they can go to a good college/get a good job/get a headstart in life, we may actually be depriving them of some of the basic skills of thinking and problem-solving that kids develop through play or just by being kids.

Schwarz claims that "We seem to have returned to the 18th-century notion that play for its own sake is a waste of time, that children can be allowed to pursue their natural inclinations only if those can be channeled into activities that will prepare them to be orderly and productive (and now, God help us, “creative”) adults — even today’s play movement stresses the uplifting “educational value” of play."

In fact, she adds that "today, apparently, kids have for so long been deprived of time and space to play that they no longer know how... toys now come fully loaded with elaborate personalities and histories created for them by their grown-up purveyors. Playtime has been replaced by lessons with professionals."

If you think about it, what she says is true. In the past, toddlers simply went to the playground. Now parents sign them up for a "gym". Instead of being allowed to observe the physical world around them, kids now go to science camps. If a child likes to doodle, the parents will consider sending him for art classes. It's as if something is only of value if it's arranged in a structured or organised environment, preferably by professionals.

My friend didn't read the article but he uncannily echoed Schwarz's views when he told me that these days, kids' lives consist of a series of instructions by adults. They're told what to do, how to do it, when to do it (and in Singapore, it's almost always academic). They've never had to look after a younger sibling, find their own way home or solve any of life's little problems. If you're thinking, so what? then get this: according to him, these are also the kids who have the biggest problems academically in his school and tuition classes. He can usually tell who are the ones who've always had things handed to them on a silver platter because they've never learned how to think independently or laterally to solve a problem. Ironically, this ineptitude translates to their school work.

Schwarz quotes Robert Paul Smith, author of Where Did You Go? Out. What Did You Do? Nothing. - "A kid needs time to lie on his back, opportunity “to find out whether he breathes differently when he’s thinking about it than when he’s just breathing” and to wonder who she’d be if her parents hadn’t gotten together. A kid needs enough downtime to be bored, yes — bored enough to stare at the sky and study the imperfections in his own eyeball."

If I were to convert this into pragmatic suggestions, it means letting kids have some unstructured play time (computer games don't count). In addition, a little responsibility doesn't hurt. My friend is an advocate of letting kids handle some chores, even if it's as simple as getting their own lunch. Through responsibility, kids learn to solve life's daily problems.

Critics may say Schwarz's view is a tad idealistic, afterall, times have changed drastically. The world we live in today is vastly different from the slow pace of life back in the 1950s quoted in the article. But if we realise that childhood has intrinsic learning value in itself, then by removing this phase of the equation and treating children as miniature adults, we're actually doing them a disservice because we're handicapping them in fundamental skills.

As Schwarz says, "childhood is not just preparation for “real life,” it’s a good portion of life itself." We all want our kids to do well in life. Perhaps then we shouldn't deprive them of such an important chunk of it.

The Lion King in the Lion City

2011-03-16T10:43:00.015+08:00

On Sunday, it was a family evening out to catch the new musical in town, the Lion King. Since it was also our first time at Marina Bay Sands, we decided to catch dinner there before the show and check out the place a little.

First impressions for dinner - this is a posh, upmarket place. Unless you want to go to the food court or you have cash to burn at the celebrity restaurants, there really is a dearth of choices for food. After surfing the internet, we made reservations at South Coast, an Aussie restaurant at the waterfront. What we didn't realise was that it had no air-conditioning. Not good if you're all dressed up for the theatre.

We sat at a large counter and ordered a couple of wagyu burgers, a pizza and Lesley-Anne had the macaroni and cheese. Halfway through Lesley-Anne's meal, she discovered a bug crawling in her mac and cheese. Ewww. I don't think it was originally there though, I suspect it dropped in midway. Another disadvantage of the open air concept. The waiter swiftly remade another portion for her.

Truthfully, the food was underwhelming and overpriced. The wagyu burger was nothing to shout about, neither was the pizza. The place was mostly patronised by ang mohs who notoriously love the al fresco idea even in crazily hot and humid Singapore. Somehow, I don't see this place being a hit with the locals. The Aussies are great in many ways but there's a reason they're not known in the culinary world.

After dinner, we explored Marina Bay Sands which I must admit, is pretty impressive. The skyline is picturesque, especially as the sun is setting.

A swirling water feature.

Inside the complex.

And then it was time for the show! The sets and costumes are excellent, the music will probably be familiar to most. I think I would have been more wowed if not for the fact that we were sitting up in the Himalayas, so even the majestic lion looked rather puny.

Nevertheless, my kids really enjoyed it and I think this show is an easy crowd-pleaser. Worth bringing your kids if they like the Disney cartoon version. Afterall, the show is only here for a limited time.

American Idol-ism

2011-03-11T08:21:00.002+08:00

In case you're wondering if the title of this post is a metaphor for something, sorry, it's not. This post has nothing to do with kids or education. It really has to do with American Idol.

Two reasons: 1) I have nothing to say about on kids or education this week 2) I'm a big fan of American Idol. Linked to reason no.2 is that I have a lot of opinions about this season (every season actually) and if you know me by now, you will know I cannot keep these opinions to myself.

I don't have a clear favourite yet - I think this is one of those seasons where my preference will change as it progresses. Part of the reason for this is that there are so many great singers this season. I believe this is the best lineup they've had for a long time and I credit the new judges for this (although they've been way too nice and unconstructive since the contestants hit the big stage). In the past, I've felt that Simon strong armed his way to get certain contestants who he feel are "marketable" and that often means young and blonde, voice was secondary (*ahem Kellie Pickler*). With JLo and Steve Tyler, it's quite clear they picked based on vocal ability so kudos to them.

At the moment, my bugbear is how everyone seems to be fawning over Pia. I disliked this girl the moment she massacred "I'll Stand By You" last week. The song is a tender message from one to another, declaring she'll stand by her friend/loved one. The way Pia screeched it, the friend would have completely drowned in Pia's pool of self-absorption. Apart from the original singer Chrissie Hyndes, Carrie Underwood nailed it as an example of how the song should be sung.

And then this week, Pia did it again. Wrung all the emotion out of that Celine Dion song by shrieking it to high heaven. Man, she's annoying. Almost as annoying as Lauren calling Ryan Seacrest "Peaches". In one of the earlier seasons, Latoya London sang the heck out of "All By Myself". Also a diva with a big voice but with all the emotion.

For now, I like Casey, Paul (not so much this week) and James. What they have in common is they all have big personalities and they seem very comfortable in their own skins. We'll see what happens along the way.

And just for fun, Lilian and I had such a laugh matching the contestants, some of whom didn't make the top 13, to their look-a-likes. Ashthon = Beyonce, Casey = Will Ferrell, Jacob = Bubba (from Forrest Gump), Scotty = Alfred E. Neuman (from Mad Magazine), Stefano = Joey Tribiani (from Friends), Brett = Simply Red guy, Robbie = Adrien Brody, Jaycee = Fat Bieber. Who knew there were so many lost relations!

Who out there watches the show too? Share your favourites and dislikes with me!

3 memorable meals

2011-03-07T09:14:00.002+08:00

Get ready for some gastronomic eye candy! Over the past few months, we've had some great dining experiences so I thought I'd summarise them all in one food post.

Memorable Meal #1:

It was Christmas time, and my sister and brother-in-law, being the wonderful people they are, treated us to lunch at Paulaner Brauhaus.

The highlight was the pork knuckle that Andre ordered. It's memorable partly because it's HUGE - just look at it! That must have been some pig. I had a tasting portion and I must say, it's possible the best pork knuckle I've eaten. Amazingly tender on the inside and crispy crackling on the outside.

Before you hyperventilate at the thought of this diminutive boy putting away such a gargantuan hunk of meat, let me assure you that he didn't finish it in that one sitting. He happily tar powed what was left and polished it off the next day.

Memorable Meal #2:

To celebrate my birthday, Kenneth brought me to the brand new Level 33 at the Marina Bay Sands Financial Centre. You might have guessed from the very unoriginal name that it's on the 33rd floor, with a panoramic view of entire city and Marina Bay area.

Currently, they're offering an executive set lunch at the very reasonable price of $33 (duh) which includes a mini appetiser and dessert buffet, with a main course. It's a terrific deal. The buffet portion doesn't have a wide selection but taste-wise, it was very satisfactory.

For the entree, Kenneth had the beer-battered fish and chips with mashed peas which is one of their best sellers.

Personally, I preferred my wagyu beef burger. Very tender and juicy, and I don't usually like thick chunks of meat. The accompanying truffle mayo was addictively tasty. If I could, I would bottle it and bring it home!

Level 33 also has its own micro brewery and Kenneth ordered a blond lager to go with his meal. According to the description, it has 4.5% alcohol, is smooth, full-bodied and slightly fruity. All of which means nothing to me since I don't drink but Kenneth says it's pretty good.

I would definitely love to go back except the parking sucks. The parking at the Financial Centre is almost always full so we had to park at the shopping side and walk over. And it's pricey too - 80cts per 10 minutes or something like that. It's probably easier to just take a train there.

Memorable Meal #3:

Finally, we had dinner with our good friends Isabelle and Joon a few weeks ago. It was a full fledged French dinner with foie gras, pan-fried escargot and confit de canard (duck).

It was a high caloric affair but oh, so worth it. Part of the attraction of visiting Isabelle and Joon is also their two gorgeous kids. Here's Andre playing Big Brother.

And that's really the best part of good food - being able to share it with warm and generous family and friends.

Badminton gold

2011-03-02T12:11:00.007+08:00

It was a happy, happy Sunday for Andre when he finally won his first medal for badminton.

Admittedly, it was only a small scale competition organised by a community centre and the competition was not as stiff as say, the inter-school tournaments. But still, a medal is a medal and it was the gold medal to boot.

As you can tell from the picture, Andre is beyond ecstatic over the win. This definitely provided a booster shot to his confidence, hopefully it will spur him to train even harder.

Here's a snippet from his final match (can you see his magic red shoes?)

Let's try Mummy's Supplementary

2011-02-25T13:58:00.001+08:00

Recently, there was some debate in the local media as to whether schools are being too kiasu in introducing supplementary classes from as early as p3. To me, this is one of those issues that will never find consensus. It irks me sometimes to hear people (usually non-parents) make dumb comments like, "Parents are impossible to please lah. Have also complain, don't have also complain." Well, duh, it's never the same set of parents!

I feel the parents who want the supplementary classes treat these the same way they treat tuition (which I wrote about here) - it's a crutch, since everyone else is doing it, their kids better do it too otherwise they'll lose out. Others just consider it free tuition, the more the merrier.

Andre's school implemented compulsory supplementary classes twice a week for p5 kids this year. Previously they only had supplementary classes for the top few classes and remedial classes for the bottom few but parents in the middle classes started complaining so they decided to institute a blanket rule for all.

Andre's schedule is already pretty packed, what with badminton training, piano lessons and Chinese and English tuition. So you can imagine I didn't welcome the news that he would have to attend supplementary classes.

Don't be mistaken, I'm not against supplementary classes per se, I'm just against herd mentality supplementary classes. Remedial classes work because they take place in small groups and target specific kids with specific weaknesses. The problem with most school supplementary classes is that they're really just extended curriculum sessions for the teacher to finish what she couldn't cover in class or do corrections, etc. Sometimes, teachers just dole out extra worksheets and then provide the answer key for kids to mark the work themselves.

I can't really blame the teachers, they have enough on their plates. Supplementary classes mean extra time and extra work for them. For the kids however, this is hardly productive. After 6 hours at school and a short lunch break, they have to sit down for another two hours of drills. I'm pretty sure very little real learning actually takes place. Worse still, by the time they reach home, they're mentally exhausted which means it's a challenge just to get them to finish homework, let alone do extra revision.

So after some heavy pondering, I wrote to his English and math teacher asking if Andre could be excused from the two supplementary classes. My rationale to them was that his two hours would be better spent with me doing one-on-one revision with him (which I would have to give up if he went for supplementary due to the sheer lack of time).

I was hopeful but not entirely optimistic the teachers would acquiesce since the classes were supposed to be compulsory. To my delight and surprise, both teachers agreed to my proposal. They were very understanding and said they would hand him any additional materials that were being done during supplementary classes. (Have I mentioned that I love this school?) I suppose one can construe that they're passing the buck to the parent but I appreciate that they're flexible enough to bend the rules when it makes sense. Not every teacher will do that.

I didn't ask for Andre to be let off Chinese supplementary class because that's one subject I can't help him with, and since the science class is held immediately before the Chinese one, it made sense logistically to let him attend that as well.

So now the onus is on me and I'll admit I'm a little nervous. It takes a great deal of gumption to believe that you can coach your child better than the school can and I'm not that brash to not have my moments of doubt. The CA1 is next week and I guess that's the acid test.

Meanwhile, even though Andre has to stay home and be drilled (and yelled at) by me as the price for missing his supplementary classes, he seems to be relishing it. A classmate asked him indignantly, "How come you don't have to go for supplementary?"

Andre replied with a broad smile, "I live a good life."

Hugs and kisses

2011-02-21T00:04:00.001+08:00

Andre's notoriously bad at birthdays. I predict he'll become one of those boyfriends who get into trouble for forgetting their significant other's special day and insist on getting married on Christmas/Valentine's Day/National Day just so he wouldn't have to remember anniversaries.

This year, he completely forgot my birthday (once again). If there are kids reading this, let me alert you to this very important fact: FORGETTING YOUR MOTHER'S BIRTHDAY IS A CARDINAL SIN. It's in the Mother's Bible which your mum received when she was in labour with you. You break that rule, she has the right to remind you loudly about your erroneous ways at strategic moments (when you're in school surrounded by your friends, for instance).

To Andre's credit, to make up for his oversight, instead of rushing to produce a 5-minute spontaneously scribbled birthday card, he spent a whole morning creating this:

Umm... a tissue box? Ah but it's not just any old tissue box. Inside, he'd filled it with little scraps of paper, each with the picture of a pair of hands or lips.

The idea is, anytime I felt like it, I could draw out a piece of paper and if it showed hands, I would get a hug from him. If it showed lips, I would get a kiss. I've used it quite extensively so far and it never gets old.

The best part? Andre assures me the gift will never expire. ♥♥♥

The girl who is humanities-bound

2011-02-16T19:09:00.005+08:00

If there ever was any doubt that Lesley-Anne is right brain-oriented, this removed it once and for all.

This is the result of the Higher Ability Selection Test administered by the Australian Council for Educational Research that Lesley-Anne sat for late last year. The school made all the students who entered via DSA sit for the test, to see if it can replace the current General Ability Test (GAT) for DSA applicants. I suppose they want to assess if the results are consistent with those of the GAT.

The test comprises a few comprehension passages, a series of math questions and a writing test. Since there are two English components and only one math component, it seems to me the test is slightly skewed in favour of those good in language. That definitely contributed towards Lesley-Anne's total score (not that we're complaining).

Anyway, this test sort of came at the right time. Since Lesley-Anne is is in sec 2, she'll have to choose her stream for sec 3 and 4 by the end of this year. The results confirm our belief that she'll fare much better going down the humanities route instead of the ever popular triple-science stream.

The red shoes

2011-02-11T18:45:00.004+08:00

You're looking at the most expensive pair of shoes in our household. And it belongs to the youngest member of our family.

It's not that we believe in spoiling our kids. What really happened was, two days before Chinese New Year, Andre's badminton shoes tore. It couldn't have happened at a more inopportune time. He had intensive training lined up and it was right smack in the middle of the zonal inter-school badminton tournament. With shops closing for the CNY holidays, it was a race against time.

So began a desperate hunt for a pair of replacement shoes and it was a frustrating one. Andre's feet are at an awkward size now, too large for junior sizes and too small for adult sizes. We also realised that compared to say, tennis shoes or running shoes where a myriad of brands and choices await, badminton shoes are annoyingly limited.

After several calls, we finally found a shop which had something to offer - this eye-catching crimson pair at a whopping $140 (discounted from $189!) Even then, the shopkeeper didn't have them on stock and had to collect them from the Yonex store. Apparently, this is the model Taufik Hidayat wears.

In case you're not aware, Taufik (right pic) is an Indonesia badminton player and former Olympic champion. As at Feb 2011, he's ranked the World no. 2, just behind Malaysian Lee Chong Wei. In fact, Yonex also carries the pair that Lee wears but it costs an additional $5 and I was adamant about not parting with any more cash.

"At $140, you better start playing like Taufik or I'm returning them!" threatened this very demanding mother. Andre was undaunted. He loved his red shoes and proclaimed that they helped him jump higher, run faster, even feel taller.

Astonishingly, at the very next badminton match, Andre played like a demon, impressing even the coach. He still lost the match (he met some extremely formidable opponents this year) but it's nice to see that he can hold his own against some of the stronger players in his cohort.

So was it the shoes? I'm sure it's more psychological than miracle but at least he's earned the right to wear them for now.

Hoppy New Year! 兔年快乐！

2011-02-06T13:51:00.007+08:00

How did you usher in the Year of the Rabbit?

Ours was one of over-eating... as usual. Chinese New Year brings out the gluttons in all of us and right from the Reunion dinner, we steadily feasted our way through a series of delectable meals, peppered with snacks in between. Even as I type this post, I have a bottle of prawn rolls in front of me and wondering why my pants have again, mysteriously shrunk in the wash.

This being the year of the Rabbit, of course the White Rabbit sweet had to make an appearance. I hear melamine in small doses is harmless. Oh wait, didn't they change the formula? Too bad, I think it was the melamine that made it yummy.

Then there was the saga of our pussy willow. Usually, we buy pussy willow that comes in a bundle and just stick them in a narrow pot. This year, we decided on the spur of the moment to buy the potted pussy willow from Ikea (mainly because the accompanying crimson pot with the auspicious 福 was so pretty).

We'd never encountered pussy willow grown in soil before, so we were totally fascinated when it started sprouting leaves. Kenneth, not wanting it to bloom too much, decided not to water it, leading to all the leaves wilting about a week before CNY. We're a family of blue fingers.

After trimming the dead leaves, we discovered the branches had begun to lean to one side. Plant moves towards sunlight, ohhhhh.... It was like an evolving science lesson. Futile attempts were made to coax the branches towards a more balanced position.

In the end, it kinda worked itself out (with a little help from newspaper stuffing in the pot).

Chinese New Year is primarily about family afterall and it was great fun catching up with relatives we see just once a year. It's also a little sobering to realise that the number of places you visit decreases as the years go by, due to deaths of older folks. Always a timely reminder to cherish loved ones.

兔年吉祥, 年年有馀!

Footballer for a day (or month)

2011-02-01T18:18:00.007+08:00

For the past few weeks, Andre has been dressed in the garb of his favourite footballer. This was a shirt and shorts set we found in Bangkok and bought just for fun. I think we paid about THB 220 for it or about S$10.

What we didn't count on was that Andre would wear this day in, day out and only remove it reluctantly when it became grimy enough for me to yell at him to change. The minute it's laundered and dry, he wears it again. If he could wear it to sleep, he would.

I've already heard Kenneth groaning more than a couple of times, "Messi again??"

I'm not sure what it is, Andre isn't even a soccer fan. Messi is one of the few footballers he knows, I don't think he can name 5 others. I've come to the conclusion it must be material of the shirt - it's soft, cool and very comfortable.

So Lilian, if you're ever back at Chatuchak, I just might have to tompang you to get me an entire football team's worth of shirt sets.

(Mini Messi from the back)

Education and the great divide

2011-01-27T12:00:00.004+08:00

A few days ago, the local news profiled MM Lee as saying that the main difference between students in "branded" and non-branded schools is parents' educational backgrounds. Branded schools have a much higher proportion of students with graduate parents, which according to him, provides for a more favourable learning environment for the child.

His advice to less educated parents is to bring their kids to the library early and teach them to acquire knowledge by themselves.

If only it were that simple! While I agree that the free educational resources in Singapore, like libraries, access to IT etc, are excellent, they're not enough to make up for the enormous disparity in resources and opportunities (which I feel is the real crux of the matter but not an issue MM Lee would want to address because it's an inevitable fallout of a capitalist system and has no solution).

The proliferation of tuition centres and enrichment programmes across the island demonstrates that these are no longer occasional luxuries, they are de rigueur in many families. How then, do you compare the standard between a child who has individual coaching in every subject and is groomed to answer each question to a T versus the child who has to depend solely on what he learns in school, without parents able to provide additional guidance?

You may say, well the second child just has to work harder. True, but more and more in our society where the playing field is constantly being leveled up exponentially, the odds of his ability to play catch up are quickly diminishing. I feel that's why these days, you hear less and less of national scholars with hawker or taxi driver parents. They're now largely from middle class families.

It's time for the zonal badminton school competitions once again and yesterday, I was at one of the matches to support Andre, who incidentally has been appointed co-captain of his school's junior team this year. The school they were playing against is a neighbourhood school not known for its academic standards. As I looked at the kids, I realised instantly these are not privileged kids. They wore faded PE t-shirts and school shoes. They were as hyper as hamsters on steroids and I'm guessing, not the type who would typically do well in school academically.

Those kids clearly had no external coaching and were participating in the competition for the first time. Nevertheless, they showed unbridled enthusiasm and even as they were getting trounced, they gave everything they had. Their team mates cheered with gusto every time one of their friends managed to win a point. One boy in particular, impressed me. He's pint-sized, skinny and even though his opponent was making him dance circles around the court, he ran down every single shuttlecock like Speedy Gonzales. Andre's school coach told the team, "see, I want that sort of determination!"

Andre's team eventually won the match 5 games to nil and that was a great boost of confidence to the school but amidst the celebration, I just felt for the kids at the other school. Their spirit was such a contrast to the students from those of one of the top national badminton school teams (and a branded school), which was also at the venue yesterday. Those students showed an aggressive, competitive streak. They trained up to 7 times a week, most of them had additional coaching outside of school. They played badminton purely to win.

The thought then hit me how lucky our kids are. Where we see talent, potential or interest, we can provide the opportunities for them to nurture these areas. From yesterday, I saw that many other kids are not so fortunate. Even if they have the passion for badminton, their parents may not have the time or money to help them develop their skills.

Singapore can claim to have the Junior Sports Academies and the Sports School to groom sports talent but I know for a fact that to pass the trials, you need to already have some level of proficiency in the sport and those who make the grade almost always have external coaching. Potential and interest are not enough to get you past the door, which means kids like those at the school Andre played against yesterday will never get the opportunity.

I don't believe that money can buy success but it's hard to dispute the fact that money can buy you opportunities which increase your chances for success. If there was a Lee Chong Wei or Lin Dan from a disadvantaged family in Singapore today, would we be able to discover him?

We all love to hear underdog stories but instead of merely celebrating how some guy managed to beat the odds, it's my wish that our society can help increase the odds for these folks.

Weighing in on the Tiger Mother

2011-01-23T13:02:00.024+08:00

For the past couple of weeks, netizens have been up in arms about Amy Chua. I will state for the record that I wrote this post yesterday, before today's deluge of articles on the topic in the Straits Times, so these are strictly my views. In any case, Amy Chua is a professor at Yale Law School who just published a book "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" by Penguin Press. The Wall Street Journal printed an excerpt from the book entitled "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" which led to an uproar throughout the US (and thanks to the Internet, halfway across the globe).

In essence, it talks about why the Chinese parenting style produces more math whizzes and music prodigies than Western parenting, the latter she clearly considers soft and over-coddling. The excerpt describes her personal parenting practices for her two daughters, which include not being allowed to go for sleepovers or playdates, no tv or computer games, no grade less than an A. She has called her kids "lazy"and "garbage". When her 7-year-old daughter couldn't perfect a difficult piano piece, Amy forced her to practise for hours without water or toilet breaks until she got it right, threatening her with no lunch, dinner and birthday presents. I recommend you read the whole article (if you don't, Amy might say you're "cowardly" and "pathetic").

It all sounds like something from a Nazi camp, yet has familiar echoes. I think anyone who has a Chinese parent or is a Chinese parent would recognise the tune to which Amy sings, even if it's not to that extreme. Take this paragraph:

"Chinese parents demand perfect grades because they believe that their child can get them. If their child doesn't get them, the Chinese parent assumes it's because the child didn't work hard enough. That's why the solution to substandard performance is always to excoriate, punish and shame the child. The Chinese parent believes that their child will be strong enough to take the shaming and to improve from it. (And when Chinese kids do excel, there is plenty of ego-inflating parental praise lavished in the privacy of the home.)"

Come on, admit it. You do that too.

As you can imagine, that article has unleashed a storm of polarizing responses. Some laud Amy's courage and tenacity while others have condemned her. One reader called her the "worst parent ever" and she has already gotten death threats. Admittedly, it's hard to take Amy's side as she appears slightly manic. She's not only the Tiger mum, she's the Tiger who mauls other tigers.

Since then, Amy Chua has come out to say that the title for the article was not from her, it was a publicity ploy by the publishers (brilliant, by the way. Her book is already No.4 on Amazon's best seller list). She claims that the excerpt took all the most controversial parts of the book and highlighted them, that the book was also meant to poke fun at the Chinese parenting stereotypes, and that she never meant to imply that one parenting style was superior to another. In fact, the book was a coming-of-age for her because she realised she had to change her approach when her own daughter rebelled against her draconian methods at age 13. In this follow-up piece in the Wall Street Journal where she answers some of readers' questions, she appears a lot more humane.

Then the New York Post published a heart-warming letter from Amy's daughter Sophia, now 18, to her mother, thanking her for raising her the way she did. She sounds like a wonderful individual - certainly not the neurotic, nervous social recluse you would expect. Typical of me, I had a moment of suspicion - hmm... maybe her mother made her write that letter. But to be honest, it seems pretty genuine.

I really haven't made up my mind entirely about Amy Chua. Is she a crazed control freak trying to cash in on book sales or the quintessential strict but loving Chinese mum? As for whether such methods work, for every well-adjusted, accomplished individual that has blossomed from heavy-handed parenting, there's one who's resentful, insecure and laden with baggage. Therein lies the complexity of humans - we're all different.

In general, I'm more Hobbes than Shere Khan. However, like most cats, I have a Jekyll/Hyde syndrome and occasionally, the Tiger in me awakens and goes a-roaring (strangely enough, usually near exam periods). I think there's a little bit of that Tiger mum in all of us, though I would never recommend taking it as far as Amy Chua. Nevertheless, her article has brought to the forefront one of the most valuable tenets (in my opinion) in Chinese parenting - we believe in the enormous potential of our children, often much more than our kids realise themselves. To be good at anything, you have to work at it and that's why we push them the way we do. Not because we want them to be someone they're not but because we know they are capable of accomplishing a lot. Oh and by the way, that's how we build self-esteem.

So here's my message to my kids: the next time I make you do yet another fiendishly challenging math problem sum or attempt that convoluted piano piece - that's how much I believe in you.

Book recommendations for kids who love Roald Dahl

2011-01-19T09:15:00.002+08:00

Until recently, I didn't know much about Anthony Horowitz the writer, except that his Alex Rider series is very popular among teens and pre-teens. Lesley-Anne is one of the fans of the series.

However, I could never find any of his books in the library and from browsing at the bookshop, I felt that the Alex Rider series would be too advanced for Andre.

In the December holidays, Popular held a sale and I saw this 10-book set by Anthony Horowitz. After discount, it was less than $70 which seemed like a great deal (each book supposedly retails for £5.99. I googled some of the titles on the Internet and read many reviews of how these books are great for boys who are reluctant readers. The deal clincher was the fact that he was described as the contemporary equivalent of Roald Dahl. So I took a chance and bought it.

It turned out to be a good buy.

Like Roald Dahl, Anthony Horowitz grew up miserable in English boarding schools with cane-wielding headmasters. Also like Roald Dahl, he has a wicked sense of humour and utterly memorable characters (especially the villains!)

Andre has yet to read all the books but here are a few he has finished (and enjoyed).

Granny bears resemblance to Roald Dahl's George's Marvellous Medicine. Both grandmas are not of your sweet, nurturing variety but evil, kid-hating villains. Groosham Grange and the sequel Return to Groosham Grange tell of the adventures of David, a 12-year-old boy who is sent to a repressive boarding school for wizards full of dark magic and secrets (Harry Potter anyone?)

When asked, Andre told me he still prefers Roald Dahl, I suspect because Anthony Horowitz's humour is slightly more sophisticated. I would put the reading level of his books as one notch higher than Roald Dahl's. Nevertheless, I feel he's currently one of the more engaging writers for young readers. Worth checking out!