"I Am A Young Botanist" Badge

June 27, 2015

Nowadays, it is not easy to raise a kid, man.

This June holidays, Jay has a couple of school project.  It is voluntary project, but the kid says "must do”.

Because once you do it, you can get a badge.  “I am a young botanist” badge.  And this badge is given by Science Centre.

And the kid sure wants it.

It has a couple of categories.  You can either become a botanist, or a zoologist or a environmentalist.  But looking at the process of how to earn it.  It is NOT EASY man!

At the beginning of the term, Jay says he wants to be all three of them.  

And now, we figure out it is not easy.  And this term, we can only accomplish one of them.  Although I did bring them to the Zoo, River Safari and so on.

But after 3 weeks, we finally figure out, it is not easy project.  And it takes time to do it.  If the kids can do it themselves it will be ok, but the problem is, the parents need to give some guidance here and there.

That is what makes the project difficult for both me and my wife.  We need to travel and we need to work.  So, it will be impossible to finish all three of them.

But all of us were so happy when we finally done 23-24 stars out of the required 20 stars.

Here is what we did.

After discussion with Jay, we decided to do the Botanist project.

We have to find all kinds of seeds for him.  And luckily, I bought a lot of seeds from Taobao.  hahaha

Here is my seeds.

Let’s give it a box.

Place it nicely in the box.

The leaf press.  

Every day, when Jay is free, he will go downstairs to pick up leaves.  There are so many different kind of leaves.  So, it will be parents job to match the leaves to a name.

Not an easy job.  But slowly, cross referencing it here and there, and google it.  We finally got it done.

Here is the plant press.

Next is to make the Eco Bottle Garden.

We even let Kay Kay help Jay Jay to make the bottle plant.

The kids love the process of making the bottle plant.  Kay Kay has a larger bottle.  Jay one is small.  Well, just think about it, you still need to bring it to school.  So, the bigger the bottle the heavier.

Jay Jay hand pick his plants and seal it inside.  It is a eco system.

Don’t know what plants he picked.

But it looks nice.  He even took some of the moss I got back from Taobao.

Kay Kay one looks really nice.

It’s time to seal it.  

Few days later, the eco-system started...

Collections of ferns.

No joke.  He spent 1-2 hours every day just to collect and make all these collections.

So, hope that he will get 20 stars for all these efforts.  Let’s wait and see...

Jay Jay Is Now a School Prefect

Date:  Apr 1, 2015

Update (Apr 6, 2015):  Jay & his uniform with the Prefect Badge.

Today, Jay Jay is very happy.  After 3-months of trial period, the school has finally made him Prefect.

He is officially a member of 2015 Prefectorial Board.  This is his first taste as a leader.

I congrat him.

I also let him know that this prefectorial board is for the year of 2015.

So, it is not forever.

Means, he must have good behaviour, good leadership and good heart so that he will not loose the prefect status next year.

That is “Responsibility”.

He understood and he wants to be prefect for the next 4 years.

This is their pledge.

This is his batch.  Going to sew it on his uniform.

And this is the ceremony.

Model Pupil

Date:  Nov 15, 2014

This year, Jay Jay has greatly achieved all the goals that he set for himself.

Towards the end of the year, this is the most happiest moment Jay Jay had. 

He is going to receive a prize on the last day of school.

He is named the Model Pupil in his class.

This is probably the best present for himself.  He has been working so hard during the P2 years.

We have to thank Madam Lu for guiding him and be patient with him.

In school, he is in charge of cleaning the table in the canteen after the recess time.  He is also in charge of a team to clean the table in the canteen.

He was rewarded points for cleaning the table.  He make sure his teammates also clean the table well in order to go for the Team points.  

At the year end, his team has scored the highest points compare to other teams.  

Most of the kids will rush off and play during the recess time.  But he will make sure every one complete the cleaning table task before going to play.

That shows some leadership quality.

He helped Madam Lu to take heavy things.

In class, he helped the classmates in his team to catch up with their homework.  He will teach them how to do.  

He cared for things happened around him.

He is cheerful, and he is helpful.

That is why, he was awarded the “Model Pupil” prize for his class.

Good job Jay Jay.

Some thoughts...

1.  During primary school years, kids should enjoy the precious childhood years.

2.  It is also important to build up the good characters since young. 

3.  In my humble home, there is only few very strict and scary house rules the kids have to follow.

     a.  Respect elders, respect others.  When adults are talking, eye contacts has to be there.  Ear must listen.  This includes domestic helper too.  Yup, they will get canned if they do not respect our domestic helper at home.

     b.  Cannot lie.  Cannot blame others if you do wrong thing.  Cannot cheat.  

     The kids will always get canned if they did not follow these house rules.

4.  Jay Jay has come a long way to win this “Model Student” prize.  He almost become a “bad student” last year, but thanks to the patient from Madam Lu, 知错能改 and thanks to all the efforts Jay Jay has put in himself, he has shows some good quality of leadership and care.  And by going extra steps, he has earned himself this “Model Pupil” prize.

5.  He is also recommended to be a Prefect for next year too.  He is very happy about it and feel very proud of it too.  This is what he has aimed for since the beginning of the year.  And he has finally got it (I think).

I am so happy to see his achievement and will wish him to continue this way.  :) 

Well done Jay Jay.  Daddy Mommy and Kay Kay all are very proud of your achievement!  Keep up the good work!

PTPS Lower Primary Sport Day 2014

Date: Aug 17, 2014

Yeap!  Time flies.

It is that time again, 1 day before the National Day, which is the Lower Primary Sport Day.

This is the day where all P1 and P2 students gathered together to compete in sport.

Now, the speak out the sportsmanship oath.  Promise to compete fair and square.

This year, Jay Jay compete in two even.  First is the Zig Zag run.  Watch the Slo Mo video.  

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/Qkly8YV_wiw

Next is the Hula Hoot Skipping Race.  He is indeed pretty fast.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/pcJ08sMC13o

Of course the happiest moment is to get the medal.

This is the medal ceremony.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/zWF-7QF3SqU

Yeah!  The first medal.

Another medal.

Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/v/J8_vYUSEvqk

Although it is not gold.  A silver and bronze already make this boy happy and smile all the time.

OK.  That’s it for Lower Primary Sport Day.  Next year will be more competitive.

English Spelling

Date:  Feb 11, 2014

I don’t know how the MOE curriculum is in terms of giving spelling to the kids.

I think this is going according to teacher’s own preference.  Even teachers in the same school has different standards too.

Here is Jay Jay’s P2 spelling list from Pei Tong Primary School.

After I read the list, I found it OK because this week theme is mostly past tense and so on.  And they also learn large, larger and largest.

So, I think the strategies is to teach the students to write good English sentences thru Spelling.

Spelling is usually on Wednesday, and the list is given only on the previous Friday.  You get the weekend to practise it.

And sometimes, the teacher will just say the first 2-3 words and expect the students to write down the whole sentence.  This is like memorising the whole sentence.  Only at the end, she will speak out the full sentence.  I guess this is all right, as it really force you to remember the structure of the sentence.

This is week #2 list.  This week is all about present tense.

So, you notice that #6 is “The train travels through the tunnel.” here.

Check out Week #3 where you have “The bullet train travels through the tunnel”.  

I am guessing that may be a lot students got it wrong, so, teacher decided to add in for students to learn the words and structures.

Now, #10 “Silk scarves are more expensive than cotton ones.”  (she has some error)

And the following week they student is tested on “These scarves are more beautiful than the cotton ones."

So, it seems to me that they keep getting the students to familiarise with sentences that they already known and then, modify a bit to become another sentence structure.

So, I checked with some other schools, their kids still have not been given full sentence spelling yet.  So I am guessing this is up to the School’s English department how they going to give spelling.  Their students are still being test on single words.

Last years, towards the end of he term, they started to give 1-2 sentence in their spelling list.

This is another class in P2 in Pei Tong Primary School’s spelling list.

As you can see, it is also very long sentences.  So, I guess I am right to guess that it is Pei Tong Primary School’s English department decision to devise such spelling strategies.  :)

http://ptrespect6.blogspot.sg/2014/01/spelling-list-with-date-corrected.html

Helping Out @ Pei Tong

Date:  Jan 20, 2014

Every year, before the CNY, Pei Tong Primary School will have some activities during the recess time.  

I usually will help up the PSG (Parent Support Group) in some of these events.

This year, we have CNY card using beads, CNY Food Introduction to introduce all wonderful CNY food, CNY Song Karaok and Chinese Drawings.

So, me and my wife station at the Chinese drawings section.

Setting up the table.

We have a professional artist here to teach the kids how to draw.  

It is nice for the kids to learn how to use the Chinese Calligraphy brushes to draw gold fish.

Wow.  Drawing gold fish is too complicated.  So, I changed to teach people to draw to mandarin oranges and write the word 吉.

Jay Jay dropped by to see me.

Day 2.  Still many students came to draw the Chinese painting.

Today, every one draw mandarin oranges because it is easy to draw, fast to complete and more students have chance to draw too.

I like this one.  Simple.

I love to hang out with kids.  I love to teach them what I know.