Our learning curves

Past few months have been challenging as we enter another phase of her growth and emotional development.

Self-esteem is very important. Self-confidence is very important. Self-care is also very important. This also means loving yourself.

I find myself talking after listening more. I find myself counselling. I find myself using another type of patience.

This is a new learning curve for me and this time in the shoes called “MOM”. Not as a youth counsellor, not as a church sister or leader, not as a real life sister, not as a more matured friend, but as a mom. The whole ball game is very different. I always have these 3 words flashing across my mind each time a situation pops up : Handle With Care.

She is delicate and yet strong.

She is sensible and yet sensitive.

She is teachable and yet opinionated.

She is conscientious and yet absent-minded.

She is determined and yet perfectionist.

She has her very own learning curve and she knows it is getting more challenging and her feelings are more complicated now. She knows she has to learn to listen to herself first and at then, take in others’ words for reflection’s sake. Why ? So that she will not waver in her decisions and beliefs. She knows she need not be the same as others; do the same things, behave the same way, speak the same language and react the same way towards things, esp to get be accepted or be in the group.

Actually her learning curve is steeper than mine. I had mine. I was a “classic”. Ha ………

Baby’s Revision

Jeff’s teacher taught on the transportation theme this term. He did this “work” in a very focused manner.

He could go on but was shy when he realised that I was taking pictures. After “helicopter”, he said ,”Enough for the day!” Grinned and walked away ….

Train Play

This play took him an hour.

Poured the whole basket of trains and vehicles out.

Parked them properly and sorted them at the same time.

Built one brown track.

Built another blue track.

And another.

And another.

And play.

And Jie Jie joins in …………..

Why the hiatus in blogging ?

I stopped blogging for a good 1+ month (which is not the norm) before the last entry.

Why ?

Every Singaporean’s standard answer : Busy lor…..

It is true .

I was busy over the SA2 exams’ preparation for Zoe and my student.

I was busy over the year end events at the 3 children’s schools. I was writing and preparing thank you cards and gifts for their teachers. Jeff had lessons on till end of November and thus I shuttled between the big kids and Jeff’s schedules. The boys’ schools had PTC.

I caught up with a few good friends.

I read 3 Jodi Picoult’s books.

I donned on nurse’s armour and made sure I checked each boy’s temperature round the clock and the right medicine went to the right boy.

I still have to be up around 5am or earlier and most of the time, not by choice.

I embarked on a project. Tedious one but I do have help streaming in here and there. The timeline given is comfortable. Thus, no stress over this project. Anyway, I birthed this ‘baby’ and I will ‘raise’ it up.

So many excuses …………. hahahaha ………..

Ok, the actual reason is that I dislike blogging via the apple and I have not been logging in via Acer for as long as I have the apple in the hand. The screen on the apple is too small for me to blog comfortably. The readers who have a keen eye in observation will notice the short length and lack of photos. Too lazy to upload into the laptop and then to upload into the blog site, hahahaha ……

So, why am I typing away on my laptop again now? Because of the ongoing project , the laptop is in use of late …….

Yes, I do miss this keyboard, very much in fact. The apple’s keypad and auto spellcheck can get darn irritating many a times, but it is still an ingenious creation no doubt.

Will write more ……

A time to remember. A time to thank you.

Jeff and Teacher A

This lady is very precious to me. When I first started preschool teaching in a church kindergarten at 20yo, without my NIE training yet, she mentored me alongside (we took a K2 class each then).

Each time I needed help after school, she dropped what she was doing or preparing for her class students and took time to guide me through. I remember the many after school hours she spent training me (she didn’t have to, all teachers could leave school by 2.45pm).

The most valuable things she taught me :
1). Impart our Christian values into our charges and model Christ in the way we discipline and train them (Proverbs 6:22). Train the children lovingly and firmly. This is how I acquired the skill of talking to my children and they listen up. I never need to scream at my students for their misbehavior.

2). Have to partner with parents effectively , for the benefit of the child. I saw through her, how parents can become friends too or at least, great partners who complement your school teaching.

3). I want to be my students’ positive memory. I want my students to look back and if they can recall , they remember that their best childhood days were those days when they came to Mrs Ng or the then Miss Liau’s class .

I had the privilege to take my mentor to Hi-Tea at GoodWood Park hotel (a place Josh and I bumped into her when we were courting and she shifted to a table in the courtyard to give us privacy) last Saturday. She is such an encourager, not only as my mentor, now as my younger son’s teacher and as a mother who is 6 years ahead of me too. I can draw valuable lessons in bringing up and relating to a teen daughter.

Thank you, Mrs A Lim. You’ve been an inspiration , forever.

Thank You, Lord for her.

Amen.