Why quiet kids love naughty characters

Last week, Lesley-Anne and I participated in two events. The first was NLB's Read! Fest on Friday at Bishan library where Lesley-Anne talked about growing her love of reading and writing, and we shared the behind-the-scenes process of getting Danger Dan published. We were surprised and very encouraged by the great turnout, which according to NLB, was quite large for a children's author. 

Even more heartening: two mums had brought their kids to listen to us speak because they said Danger Dan got their sons to love reading. One had even travelled all the way from Simei to Bishan to meet us! To us, that's the ultimate compliment for any author - that our books are not only read and loved, they spark the love of reading. We're so very moved.

The second event was the very next day at the Celebrate Singapore Books fair at Wisma Atria. It was a meet and greet session - we answered questions from the audience and signed autographs.

Again, we were so blessed to meet a few young Danger Dan readers whose parents took the time to bring them down to meet us.

One observation I've made when meeting our fans - the majority of them seem to be very shy and introverted. When I ask them a question, some of them speak in whispers. Sometimes, it takes nudging from their parents before they would ask for autographs. More often than not, it's parents who tell us their child wants to know whether there will be another Danger Dan book. 

You know what? I feel such an affinity with these kids. Some people may find it unusual that quiet kids like Danger Dan because Danny, the protagonist, is so hyperactive and noisy. But to me, that makes perfect sense. As a kid, I was painfully shy and bookish. Raising my hand to ask a question in class was as terrifying as jumping off a cliff. Yet one of my favourite series was the Nicholas books which feature a clueless, active and mischievous boy. The character couldn't be more different from me.

But what some adults don't understand is that Nicholas was appealing to me precisely because he was so different. Fiction is a gateway into a fantasy world for kids to live a different persona. Why would I want to read a book about a mousy little girl? I was already leading that life! How much more exciting it was to read about this kid who always got into trouble and said the silliest things. Plus the books are hilarious and great fun to read.

When Lesley-Anne and I conducted a primary school reading workshop under the ASCD last year, the class had a quite a few kids whose hands were perpetually up, asked 101 questions and talked non-stop. Funnily enough though, at the end of the session when we called out the names of the students who had come up with the most creative and vibrant ideas (they had drawn costumes and time-travel concepts before the session), we discovered that the winning drawings weren't from any of the chatterboxes but the quiet kids sitting in the corner with nary a peep. Still waters run deep.

Lesley-Anne and I understand this perfectly because we're both introverts. Just because we don't open our mouths doesn't mean nothing is happening in our heads. On the contrary, there could be a whole fantastical imaginary world in there just waiting to explode! (We're the perfect case in point: two introverted females writing about a loud-mouthed, excitable boy.) So if you have introvert kids, don't assume they are thinking ordinary, boring thoughts. Give them an outlet, a trigger for the imagination and be prepared to see their creativity soar.

Same thing with reading: sure, it's nice to read about characters that you can identify with but don't assume that because your child is quiet, he or she would only be interested in serious characters or books.

When Lesley-Anne and I conduct school talks, it's sometimes hard to tell if we're making any impact at all, especially if the audience isn't very responsive. But we'd like to believe that sitting quietly in the school hall is a student who is encouraged by what we share and lives vicariously through Danger Dan. I imagine the kid snuggled on a comfortable cushion at home, chuckling to himself or herself while reading about Danny's silly antics. And that makes us very happy indeed.

School holiday appearances

We've been busy, busy, busy these school holidays! For Lesley-Anne, apart from studying for her block tests which take place right after the holidays, she and I have been hard at work on our upcoming special history edition of Danger Dan, Secrets of Singapore. The book is shaping up nicely and we're really excited about it. More will be revealed in good time! Incidentally, we've recently been told that Danger Dan books are now available in Phnom Penh. How cool is that?

Meanwhile, we have been invited to participate in a couple of events this coming week. The first is NLB's Read! Fest 2015. We will be speaking at Bishan Library this Friday 19 June 3-4pm.

The talk is similar to the one we conduct for schools - Lesley-Anne will share how she grew her love of reading and writing to become a published author, and we will also give an insight into what goes into publishing a book. We will leave ample time for Q and A as we love hearing from kids and readers, so this is the opportunity to ask all the burning Danger Dan questions you might have! If you have kids aged 9 and above, do bring them along. You may just drop in at the event on that day but if you want to ensure you have a seat, do register here. 

If you can't make it on Friday, you can also catch us the following day (Saturday 20 June) at the "Celebrate Singapore Books" fair at Wisma Atria basement 1, more specifically, the space currently occupied by Isetan Orchard. The fair is on from 16-30 June and is organised by the Singapore Book Publishers Association. We will be there to meet readers from 2-3pm or thereabouts. If you can't locate us, look for us at the Epigram Books booth. I believe most of the local publishers will be represented at the fair so do turn up and show your support for local lit!

What I have learned from the Sabah earthquake tragedy

It was supposed to be a celebratory weekend, with Singapore hosting the SEA Games. Then out of the blue, horrifying news emerged that a team of Tanjong Katong Primary kids with their teachers was trapped at Mount Kinabalu when an earthquake hit Sabah.

I felt heart sick at the news, especially when updates came in on the rising death toll. What a terrible, terrible tragedy. As it stands now, six students and one teacher have lost their lives. Tomorrow has also been declared a Day of National Remembrance in sympathy and support of the families who have lost their loved ones.

But even as condolences poured out for the victims and their families, there have been infuriating comments by netizens who are baying for MOE or the school's blood with righteous indignation, saying "they have to be accountable", also they need to "learn from this".

It made my blood boil. Why is it there are always folks who deem it necessary to open their mouths and say things that have no value to anyone whatsoever? This was an ACCIDENT. I capitalise it cos some people seem to have trouble understanding the meaning of the word. An appalling, tragic accident but an accident nonetheless. Accidents can happen anywhere, anytime. They are unforeseen.

This was not a case of negligence. Many have climbed the same route on Mount K before this group (yes, even kids) for years, without incident. It's considered challenging but not dangerous. An earthquake is something out of the ordinary. In the Borneo region, earthquakes aren't even that common. There was no reason to suspect that anything out of the ordinary would happen on this trip.

What disgusts me is that some people just have the need to blame others when something bad happens. Somebody must pay! (Worse still are those who use incidents as simply another opportunity to take pot shots at the gahmen). Newsflash: bad things do happen to good people. All the time. It often doesn't make sense and it doesn't mean it's necessarily somebody's fault. All that group did wrong was to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I think MOE, especially Minister Heng Swee Keat, has handled the situation with sensitivity and promptness. Much appreciation and admiration also go to the Sabah mountain guides who risked their own lives to save others, unlike some allegations of the ineptness of the Malaysian government. 

Photo: Vee Jun Dumlao

Some people are saying the incident was preventable and why should 12 year olds have to go to Mount K. I can understand that people are more upset cos it's kids. There's something about young lives cut short that's especially tragic and heart-wrenching. But behind the sentiment that we shouldn't allow kids to go to Mount K is the belief that I find more and more prevalent among Singaporean parents these days -  that we should shield our kids from anything that has even the remotest possibility of danger.

If we follow this argument, there will be no end because what one person considers "potentially dangerous" can differ drastically from the next. Go South Korea can get Mers. Go Middle East got civil unrest. Fly over Ukraine can get shot down. Go to NZ, Japan or China can have earthquakes. Maybe that means we shouldn't go overseas. But wait, my kid can also get hurt at Outward Bound School! Go camping can get dehydrated because not used to the heat. Or get hurt by wild boar. Ok ok, maybe no need to teach 12-year-olds leadership skills? Just go to school and back (and maybe tuition centre). But leave the house also can get knocked down by crazy drunk driver! (And anyway go to school also quite inconvenient these days. Must go all the way to Mount Sinai leh. MOE so one kind.) Maybe just stay home is best. Home-school lor. Wait a minute, stay at home also can have danger. Can get scalded by hot water, cut by sharp knives, suffocated by leaky gas pipes, etc. How liddat??

Ok, I may be exaggerating but you get my drift. At what point do we stop treating our children like they are made of glass? If parents feel that every accident is a justifiable reason to force the authorities' hand, very soon, we will be stunting our children's life experiences by curbing their every movement. As a result, we will be bringing up individuals who are completely incapable of functioning in society, let alone be a contributing member. As I've said before, if our entire life's goal is to not let anything happen to our kids, well...nothing ever will. We can't protect our children from every single "what if".

Everyone has their own risk appetite. If you really feel uncomfortable about letting your child go on an expedition, by all means, don't give permission. That's your right. But please don't strongarm MOE into mandating that every other parent should toe the line that you set. Here, a mum of an ex-TKPS student speaks up on the value of the Mount K expedition.

Back to the topic at hand, which is the responses to the incident. In a crisis, the most valuable people are those who offer help, offer support and if not, at least offer prayers. Not the ones who point fingers and think they are so brilliant cos they speak with the benefit of hindsight. These contribute nothing and make a difficult situation worse. Furthermore, I suspect many of these empty vessels are those who in a crisis, would be the least likely to help others. The ones who talk the most tend to do the least.

How we choose to respond to any situation is up to us. If there's something I "learned" from this episode, it's that challenging times reveal true characters. I cannot even imagine the pain the parents of the lost ones must be going through. The least we can do is show our solidarity and grieve with them. May we show ourselves to have a gracious heart.

Biodiversity and heritage at the Lee Kong Chian Museum

On 28 April, the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum at NUS officially opened and both Kenneth and Lesley-Anne, being biology and geography buffs, were looking very much forward to it. Even though I'm not much of a nature person, natural history museums are one of my favourite types of museums (other than fine art galleries).

So when the opportunity came along for a free visit plus a talk last Friday evening, Kenneth jumped on it and signed us up. Some basic history - the museum has had a tumultuous past, with its artefacts being moved from place to place for a long time. During Singapore's growth years when the focus was on the economy, the last thing the government had on its mind was funding for a collection of ancient artefacts. As a result, many of them were almost destroyed and some were lost.

Happily though, they now have a beautiful new home at NUS. I found the layout of the museum very user-friendly and easy to navigate. Ok, first up: most people who come to the museum are drawn primarily to the three dinosaurs - Prince, Apollonia and Twinky (the last name always makes me chuckle)!

They're right in the centre of the main hall and every half hour for a couple of minutes, coloured lights come on to give them an ethereal effect, which is pretty cool.

But as they like to remind visitors, the museum is so much more than just the dinos. If you would like to know more about the collections, Straits Times ran an informative article here.

Some of the biodiversity displayed is an integral reminder of Singapore's past, eg. when tigers roamed the island. In fact, they were so common that the museum would constantly receive gifts of tiger skins! The pic on the left is of a 1.75m leatherback sea turtle caught at Siglap Beach in 1883.

There are walls and walls of mammals, birds, fish and other zoological exhibits.

This is the comparison of a human skeleton with that of an orang utan.

Everyone in my family knows that I am afraid of, no...TERRIFIED of lizards. So when I saw this display, I was so grossed out I couldn't stop staring (if that even makes sense). It reminded me of the scene in Jurassic Park where Billy thought he was looking at a fossilised raptor and it turned out to be alive. I thought it was the most frightening exhibit in the museum...

 ...until I saw this:

As if squiggly lizards are not yucky enough, there are flying ones! I'm so never stepping into a jungle. My kids laughed at me. They so enjoy seeing me squirm. Though they showed the same level of horrified fascination at the insect walls:

I don't remember what these are but they look like something out of an Alien movie. Oh by the way, they have live scorpions in a glass tank too. That's really something.

And in the Arthropod zone, is one massive crab! I bet Andre is thinking those legs would taste pretty good in chilli sauce...

My honest opinion is that the museum is truly well worth a visit. Lesley-Anne was so enamoured with it she said she wouldn't mind returning for a repeat visit.

In order to ensure the crowds don't get too big, entry is by pre-booking ONLY. You can't just turn up and buy tickets. You book your tickets online for a pre-determined one-and-a-half hour time slot which means you won't have to jostle others to get a good view of the exhibits. Singapore residents pay $16 (adult) and $9 (child, senior citizen, NSF). You can book your tickets here. NUS staff and students enjoy free entry.

Improving relationships with MBTI

On the internet, it's common to find all kinds of quick tests that assess your personality type. What colour are you? What occupation should you have? What Harry Potter character are you? And so on. Most of these are for fun and a little hokey because we all know that there is more to someone's personality than can be prescribed by just answering a few simple questions.

However, I've always felt that there is some merit to understanding your family members' personalities for pragmatic purposes. Knowing what makes them tick, what they need, the circumstances under which they function best, etc, can be helpful in growing an appreciation of each other and reducing conflicts.

By far, the most comprehensive personality test out there is the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Some people find this doesn't work for them as their personality might not fall anywhere within the 16 types but for our family, it's pretty accurate.

The MBTI test is not free but you can try a very similar one here. Kenneth, Lesley-Anne and I tried it and we got the same results as when we did the MBTI previously. When kids are too young, their personality might still be forming so it's better to take the test when they're older. Andre only took the test about a year ago and his results surprised me a little. I always thought he was an ENFP but it turns out he's an ESFJ. This means he's caring, social and popular (think cheerleader!) but needs structure and certainty (it explains why every time I ask him to try something new, he will get anxious and bombard me with all sorts of "what if" questions).

Knowing personality types can be very helpful for parenting and learning how best to respond to our kids. Eg Kenneth, the ESTJ, focuses on discipline and structure while I, the INTP, focuses on knowledge. So together, we provide a good deal of physical and intellectual support. Unfortunately, since Kenneth and I are both T on the Thinking-Feeling scale, we tend to overlook emotional support and the double whammy is that both our kids are Fs (Lesley-Anne is an INFP), meaning this is precisely what they need! When our kids encounter a setback, Kenneth is likely to lecture and I tend to lead them through where they went wrong. But what they actually crave is emotional support and comfort. Understanding this, we now consciously try to offer this when they're feeling discouraged (even though it's quite counter-intuitive to us).

The knowledge can also allow for more effective assignment of tasks. Hypothetically if we're going on a holiday and we want to divvy up the tasks as such:

1) Logistics: transport and hotel arrangements, planning meals, getting tickets etc
2) Knowledge: do research on the historical and cultural background of the places we visit, significance of attractions, etc
3) Social: mingling with the locals, talking and spending time with them to understand how they live
4) Journaling: creating a visual and written record of photos, pictures and blog of the trip

Based on our personality types, the ideal assignment would be:

Logistics: Kenneth (Administrator extraordinaire)
Knowledge: Me ("There's always an opportunity for learning!")
Social: Andre (Mr Personality)
Journaling: Lesley-Anne (Inspired by beauty everywhere)

The nightmare version of this would be:

Logistics: Me ("Is the train leaving in 15 or 50 minutes?")
Knowledge: Andre ("Leaning Tower of Pisa...pizza...I wonder if there's anything to eat...")
Social: Lesley-Anne ("Just say hello...*10 minutes later*... just say hello...")
Journaling: Kenneth ("I think I'll just stick a smiley face after every picture.")

As mentioned, not everyone finds that MBTI works for them but it does for us. If you can find a type that describes you very well, the MBTI can be useful in many ways, such as pointing the way to career types and understanding the way you learn. Do know though, then over time, one's personality can also change slightly so you shouldn't let it define you.

Even if you don't take it too seriously, it's fun checking out the many MBTI charts out there to find out which Star Wars character you are, which Disney character you are and so on. Here's a funny one on prayer - spot on for me!  

Keep calm and mother on

I've sure the person who decided that Mothers' Day should be right smack in the middle of exams is a non-mother with mummy issues. Because nobody can be that cruel. As a friend told me, this is ironically the period when her sons love her the least, what with all the screaming and panicking going on (the mother, not the sons. The sons apparently couldn't understand why an exam period wasn't just another day, ie chillax day).

Anyway, Andre is right smack in the middle of his SA1 and Lesley-Anne, even though her exams are only after the June hols (which is even more sadistic!) is juggling several deadlines, including her first H3 Literature draft.

So Mothers' Day was a quiet affair in our household (not that I'm complaining - I like quiet). For lunch, our fantastic helper whipped up an oxtail stew dish worthy of a Hainanese chef. Seriously, we eat like kings in our home, thanks to her.

My kids somehow found the time to make something for me. All done in a hurry, I'm sure, but still very much appreciated. It's exam time after all and they know I'd much rather see the good grades, heh.

Dinner was a quick break at Aston's, one of our regular eating places. The food is good and easy on the wallet (something that's increasingly a consideration as Andre continues to eat like a vacuum cleaner!) Andre loves the rib-eye here and for just $19.90, you can get the Prime Ribeye X'tra Cut which is 250g of juicy prime steak in mushroom sauce with two sides. Can't be beat.

And since we're on the topic of mothers, a small piece of news: there's a book out by Armour Publishing. Quite funnily, it's called Keep Calm and Mother On which is pretty applicable to this period! It's a compilation of 21 stories by mothers of all ages and from all walks of life.

I was invited to contribute an article and mine is on raising a book-writing daughter, something you're probably familiar with if you've been reading my blog! Whether you're a new mum or a seasoned one, you might find solace in the stories featured here. I'm told you get a 15% discount if you buy from the link above and key in the code "motheringon21".

I hope all you mums had a relaxing Mothers' Day and remember, our kids may not always say it (especially during this period!) but I'd like to believe  we're all supermums in their minds. ♥ ♥ ♥

 

Dance little lady dance

It wasn't that long ago when I wrote about Lesley-Anne enjoying JC life, partly due to her love for dance and her Dance CCA. In the blink of an eye, it's time for her to step down as a senior (the JC2s stop CCA from mid of the year so they can focus on the fast approaching A levels).

Joining the dance group was the most fulfillment Lesley-Anne has ever gotten out of any CCA. She has not only improved tremendously on her dance techniques, she has also had the opportunity to perform many different dance styles.

Being part of dance is no walk in the park. People often have the mistaken idea that a dance CCA only dances or learns choreography. The truth is a huge chunk of each three-hour session is spent on technical exercises and each session starts with PT (push-ups, crunches, etc). Dance is a very physically demanding performing art, almost like a sport.

In fact, Lesley-Anne is now the most physically fit I've ever seen her. If you've followed my blog, you'll know that sports has never been Lesley-Anne's forte. For the NAPFA test, she's always struggled with the 2.4km run but from her dance training, running stopped becoming a hurdle. This year, for the first time since primary school, she scored a gold in NAPFA. She was so motivated she decided to try and maintain her fitness by going jogging twice a week. Here she is with Andre. Brother and sister running together! Who would've thought?

It has been such a huge blessing for Lesley-Anne to be part of her dance CCA, in no small part because of the instructor, Dan Kwoh. Despite her not having joined a dance CCA previously, Mr Dan took a chance on her and gave her the opportunity to blossom. He's a terrific mentor to his students and great at identifying potential. Eg. if he feels that a student is particularly skilled at expression, he will give her an opportunity to showcase this. He noticed Lesley-Anne's technique (as a result of her ballet training) and gave her a pas de deux (dance duet) part in the school's Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) item. Ok, it's also partly because Lesley-Anne is so petite - it means she's easier to lift!   

Mr Dan is not just a great teacher, he's a fantastic choreographer. That explains why he's so popular as a dance instructor for schools. He's currently teaching 6 schools and choreographed all the dances for this year's SYF. He held a mini rehearsal/concert for family members of all 6 schools to see the performances and I was completely impressed by the sheer scale and creativity of all the dances.

This is a pic of one of the secondary school items.

And these two pics below are of Lesley-Anne's school dance. Mr Dan tends to pick more abstract concepts for JC and this one depicts the fear and loneliness associated with dementia. I know, right? So cheem! But I thought they totally pulled it off - it was beautiful and haunting.

You can watch the full performance here. Sorry for bad recording - this was taken from our seats and we couldn't find the official SYF video online.

All 6 of Mr Dan's schools achieved Distinction for this year's SYF. I can't say I'm surprised but it speaks volumes of his skills and dedication as a dance educator.

I think Lesley-Anne is very fortunate to have discovered something she's passionate about and been given the opportunity to pursue the passion in a nurturing environment. I've always thought dance to be an exquisite art form and is pure poetry in motion. As pioneer American modern dancer and choreographer Martha Graham put it, "Dance is the hidden language of the soul." Such a blessing that Lesley-Anne is able to channel this language as a mode of expression.

"The dance is a poem of which each movement is a word." - Mata Hari

Puzzling over logic problems

I'm sure by now, all of you have read about the problematic Cheryl who wouldn't just tell Albert and Bernard her birthday but made them guess in a roundabout way.

Later, it was revealed that it wasn't a p5 question as originally thought but a math olympiad question. To me, this isn't really a math problem - it's a logic puzzle. That's because I don't love maths that much but I love logic puzzles and I'd much rather do this sort of question than: "Prove why aw32p+b53xy divided by √7421h  = a gazillion".

I've been doing logic puzzles for about 20 years (at night, before I go to sleep) and I love them. Somehow, they satisfy this little part in my brain that likes to solve stuff without massive real-life consequences. So this post is for all the people out there like me who love logic puzzles.

Did you know there are actually magazines with loads of these puzzles? I posted about them many years ago on my blog but thought I'd write about it again, in case you're interested.

Where I get my fix: Dell and Penny Press Logic Puzzles. These are magazines which you can subscribe to (6 issues a year). Each issue is organised by level of difficulty, from 1 to 5 stars (well, the Dell ones. Penny Press is similar but they don't list the stars). If you're new to this, I recommend getting one of their value packs of back editions cos it's very good value for money. Cheaper than subscribing (partly because you only pay for international shipping once).

I thought I'd give you a glimpse into the type of puzzles that are in the magazines. Here's an example of a 2-star one, in a similar vein as the Cheryl type of problem:

There are also placement type puzzles, where you have to figure out where each item belongs:

Then you have the puzzles which are solved using an elimination grid. Personally, I don't like these and I usually skip them (there are a lot of them in each issue though):

And then towards the end of the magazines, you'll get the whopper 5-star puzzles which usually take me a few nights to complete (if at all). Often frustrating but when you solve them, you feel a sense of accomplishment!

So there you go. Logic puzzles have been around a long time so the Cheryl question isn't revolutionary in any way. I think it only made headlines because it appeared as a math question. More importantly, if you don't think of it as "maths", which instantly conjures up all the negative connotations of "school", "work" and "impossibly difficult exams", it can actually be *gasp* fun!

Colour my world

I always thought I knew Lesley-Anne inside out but the day before her 18th birthday, she shared with me something about herself that caused a little explosion in my head. She told me she had synesthesia.

You're probably thinking, "Syne-what??" I know, I said the same thing.

Background: since Lesley-Anne was very young (maybe about 6 or 7), she has told me that she sees letters and numbers in colour. Because it was always mentioned in passing, I'd never taken it seriously. I've even told her I feel the same as I do think that an 'A' looks better in red than in yellow, for example. However, I didn't know that in her case, it was almost literal - she sees specific letters in specific colours in her mind.

Just to clarify, it's not a case of mistaking colours. When she reads a book, she knows it's black print on white paper. However, she occasionally gets flashes of a word in colour and if she pictures a letter or word in her head, it's in colour. And the colours (with their specific shades) she associates with those letters are unchanging over time eg. 'A' and 'M' are always red, 'D' is green. I told her to type out for me the letters in the actual colours she sees in her head, and here they are:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Lower case letters are one shade lighter than their capitalised companions.

However, she sees the individual colours only for letters. Words work a little differently because when we read, we process words, not individual letters. So when she sees a word, the colour tends to be the one most prominent in the word or the first letter of the word, especially if it's capitalised. Eg Mummy has three 'M's so it appears red to her.

But what was astonishing to me (and Lesley-Anne) was that she never realised that it was an actual neurological condition with a name. She thought everyone else experienced the same thing, partly because I had been nonchalant about it. Trying to justify my reaction now, I told her, "well, would you have preferred growing up thinking you were abnormal?" Although throughout the conversation when she was explaining to me what she experienced, I told her she was weird several times. Making up for lost time.

How she found out was that she casually mentioned it to a classmate. Her classmate told her, "You see what? Oh, it's called synesthesia!" (She was stunned that her friend knew this and her friend was equally stunned that Lesley-Anne didn't.) So apparently, there are many kinds of synesthesia, which is a neurological phenomenon where the stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to an involuntary experience in another pathway. Some people see colours when they hear certain sounds, others associate them with specific tastes. You can read some of the theories of how synesthesia develops here. Lesley-Anne has grapheme-colour synesthesia, which is one of the more common forms of synesthesia - associating colours with letters and numbers. I found an interesting first person account of how synesthesia helped him with spelling here.

Incidentally, the colour she associates with each letter would be different from someone else with synesthesia. That's why when she sees signs where each letter in a word is coloured differently, that bugs her because the shades would not be the same colours she associates the letters with. It's kinda like imposing your synesthesia on others. If you suspect you might have synesthesia, here's a free online test you can take.

Anyway, that's how I discovered something completely new about my daughter, just before her 18th birthday. And coincidentally, since we're on the topic of colours, this was one of the gifts Kenneth and I got her this year:

Adult colouring books are all the rage now and we thought it would be a great gift for her to de-stress, since she's under so much pressure this year. There are many such books in the market, we chose this one - Color Me Happy. It's really great value. You get 100 intricate pictures to colour in and the pages are made from thick, quality paper to minimise bleeding if you use markers.

Lesley-Anne tried out a page and she loved it. She said it was very therapeutic. It does make me happy just looking at the vibrant shades. (Tip: you can get a set of 30 markers for just $2 at Daiso!)

So my baby girl is now 18. She can now legally drink and drive (separately, not together), not that she's inclined to do either. "I got EZ-link card, no need to drive!" she declared. When Kenneth offered her a sip of shandy ("only 0.5% alcohol!"), she made a face and declined. She really is a guai kia.

Happy birthday, Lesley-Anne! May God release rainbow hues of blessings on you and may your life always be colourful ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Kids and mums share their thoughts on my books!

Haven't had much time to blog lately, partly because my helper is on home leave and that's when we realise just how much we've come to depend on her. There are dirty clothes to wash, uniforms to iron, meals to prepare, dishes to wash, floors to mop and vacuum, yadda yadda. On top of that, Lesley-Anne has fallen ill, which means I not only have one fewer minion to help out around the house, I've got to take care of said minion. Bah!

Anyway, over the past few weeks, I've received some really nice reviews of my books, which I'm sharing here. First up, The Good, the Bad and the PSLE: I accidentally chanced upon this lovely review by an NLB librarian. She says, "If you’re interested to read about the experience of a parent with school-going children in Singapore, do pick this up. It is a light read with not-so-light underlying issues."

And all the way in Hong Kong, a reader Alice Chan, shared on Instagram that she enjoyed the book. So happy to hear that the issues raised resonate with parents even outside of Singapore!

Next, Danger Dan. Some kiddos have been enjoying the books and their mummies have made the effort to share both theirs and their kids' views in this very informative and lively blog post.

Our favourite part was when one of the mums said her daughter was so engrossed she wouldn't put the books down even at mealtimes or bedtime. Wah, you made our day! Thank you, Mummy Angie! You can also check out the mums' Instagram posts here and here.

Finally, Lesley-Anne and I were interviewed for a Singapore Motherhood article on 15 Singapore Authors (and Celebs) and their Favourite Childhood Books.

To find out what we read as kids, click on the link. (I know, I know, technically Lesley-Anne is still a kid...doesn't feel like it though!)

Speaking of books, for those who are curious as to what Lesley-Anne is reading now, her reading list is influenced by the topic she has chosen for her H3 Literature (a research paper for 'A' levels equivalent to the S paper in our time.) Over the past few months, she has read Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (which I'm reading now, based on her recommendation), Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro, Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey and Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess.

If you're into dystopian novels, some of these titles are worth checking out (although be warned, they could get you pretty depressed). In the meantime, keep reading!