Any Mommies in mid-late 30s or over 40 with small children?

[snowball32]

Hi Diana,

Its very heartening to hear our kids started to talk and they will rattle and rattle on

School - If you have ear-marked any Pri sch you wish to send your kids to and its a popular sch or has balloting history within 1 km in the past years. Then, you have to consider to do PV with the sch latest by the time your boy turns 5yo to get a chance at phase 2B. However, the Education Minister is reviewing the Pri Sch registration process, you may want to wait a while before you decide.

 

[tamarind]

Hi mommies,
I have finally moved house ! Really back breaking hard work. My kids now each have their own bedroom. I am getting my sanity back. My old flat was so cluttered I was slowly going insane !

mumusings,
That price for ZOOB is OK. Glad to know that it is now available in Singapore.

 

[mumusings]

Hi Tam,

Enjoy your new home

All the hard work is worth it when you see neatness, new storage space and new paint around! Your kids must be very happy with their new big beds and room.

The zoob isn't put in the main stores - seems like their sales-only stocks. A few types of boxes available. The blackish box for mobiles is around S$49 if I remember correctly. Will likely get one to try and see if kid takes to it.

 

[tamarind]

bloom,
Good luck for your balloting !

 

[tamarind]

pink gerbera,
You take care of all 3 kids on your own ? My 2 kids, age 17 months apart, already drove me nuts when they were less than 4 years old. I seriously need help from my mother and maid, otherwise I could not have survived.

Preparation for primary school is necessary. Kids are expected to do comprehension passages of over 100 words barely 2 months after starting primary one. However, if parents focus on teaching kids to read well in both English and Chinese, kids will be able to cope easily.

 

[tamarind]

mumusings,
Even though my kids have their own space, my hubby and I now have less space because we need to squeeze our work tables into the master bedroom. I kept knocking into furniture in my own room :-(. I am wondering whether the $610K that I paid for this 130 sq m flat is worth it. I guess I have no choice because flats of the same size in other areas cost over $700K.


Diana,
I stay in Jurong West, very limited choices of primary schools here.

You must be delighted to hear your gal talk

 

[snowball32]

Hi Tam,

Congrats on your house-moving. I am getting quotations to renovate my house. Estimated quotes I get will set us back by about $60k to renovate whole house (excluding furniture). Very expensive

But, it will be even more expensive to buy another place. Sighhhhh....I wonder if our kids can even afford a house during their era.

Hi Diana,

I stay in CCK. The Pri Schs surrounding my place, though not the very popular ones, all need balloting within 1km. That is the setback of staying in a young town with many young kids around.

 

[tamarind]

snowball,
We spent about $30K for renovation without any built in carpentry except kitchen, and we kept the old granite floor for living/dining room. Hacking of all bedrooms, kitchen, toilets, old built in wardrobe caused me $5000. I bought furniture from Ikea and Seahorse, total about $6K - $7K. Feel very poor now.

You are right that it will be even more difficult for our kids to own their own flat in the future.

 

[happy_33]

HI Tam,
Congrats on your house moving!
Still in the same area or more to my old house (67? blocks)?


Hi Mumusings,
Finally managed to get the pan-fry satays but no time to fry them now. Can only try after my biz trip ...


re CL comprehension
Any suggestions how to improve CL compre? MCQ questions OK but those open-ended questions very badly done.
DS can read the passage but do not understand the passage.
How to work on this area? All suggestions welcome ... thanks in advance.

 

[yawn2]

snowball

you moving house? I spent $50k to overhaul the current house, excluding furniture and appliances. But we didn't engage an ID because no matter how we check, it would cost double. So I end up as the supervisor lor, hehe


tamarind

130sqm is huge! I want a bigger house too, now my house seems so cluttered even though there are only 4 of us. Kids are the main culprit in accumulating trash.
I intend to put them in separate rooms in the next house so they do not have excuse to blame each other for messing up their room. I will start to look around when price drop some more

my L shape sofa is from Seahorse. Very durable, been using for years, moved from previous house to current house & still in excellent condition

 

[yawn2]

Diana

I started PV when my dd was 5 yo. Have to start early because some schools need to interview and some need to clock more than 40 hours. In our case, the principal was feeling generous that year so only need to submit forms and he took in everyone who indicated interests. But some PVs outside 2km end up balloting

Irony is my kids are no longer in that school. Kind of wasted my PV effort. It wasn't that good afterall despites its popularity so I've transferred them.

 

[yawn2]

aa

my dd has the same problem. It's reading without understanding. Need to improve on standard of Chinese. easier said than done though. theoretically reading story books help but I guess it's rather difficult to get kids who are weak in Chinese to read Chinese storybooks. If they like to read, then we wouldn't have this problem in the first place, right?

Finally gave up teaching her myself & started her on Chinese tuition last month. Somehow she rather goes to tuition than let me coach even though my Chinese is pretty good. I guess she's not utterly convinced that mommy can teach, see me no up leh

 

[yawn2]

pink gerbera

if well prepared during preschool years, most kids should breeze through p1 - p2. p3 started to be slightly more taxing because of the introduction of Science. Chinese is also more chim at P3 as tested beyond basic syllabus. However, the big transition will be at p4 & p5. Good thing is it's not an abrupt jump so kids have time to adapt over the initial 3 years in primary school

This entire week we will be stuck at home doing 2 big projects due after school holiday. sian, can't even go shopping. Robinson having private sale today, so tempted

 

[tamarind]

yawn,
For Chinese, I ask my kids to read out loud from story books to me everyday. As they read I help them with words or phrases that they don't understand. This is an excellent way of teaching kids to read in Chinese. We cannot leave kids to read Chinese books on their own because there are so many words that they do not know, and there is no way for them to guess the meaning. Without any help, kids will lose interest. Reading out loud has worked very well for both my kids, they find that Chinese is quite easy. My girl's Chinese class has a very high standard but she can still do her work independently.

I bought seahorse queen size bed frame in solid pine for each child, only $109.

130 sq m is considered small for an EA. Older EAs are at least 140 sq m. I am paying for the location, very near MRT station, yet very quiet.

aa,
I moved to the EA close to JP.
For comprehension, as I wrote above, asking the child to read out loud from story books every day and discussion have worked very well for my kids, in both English and Chinese.

 

[snowball32]

Hi Yawn,

Too expensive to get another house. Even for the same size, I have to pay a high premium for convenient location and amenities. Moreover, my current house is almost paid for. So, we are looking around - IDs/ Renovation contractors to redo my current house. Aim to get this done before my DD1 starts P1 next year. Very stressful. So far, the quotations I get is around $60 - $80k. This will burn a big hole in our pockets

Hi Tam,

My maternal house at Pasir Ris is about 130sqm and that was a 5rm improved, selling at around $600k now in resale mkt. The EA in the same area is about 150 - 155 sqm, selling above $700k now in resale mkt....prices of hdb resale flats going crazy.

aa - when my DD1 reads, I ask her questions about the story to test her understanding and see how she "fish" the answers from the storybook. So far, it works quite well.

 

[annika]

Tamarind,

Congrats on your new place. I am sure it is most exciting for your kids although I am emphathise with poor mummy.

Other than when my DS#1 at CC and my twins at nanny (8:00am – 6:00pm), I guess you can say we take care of the kids myself. My parents both work and my in-laws are in the U.K. We have helper but we don’t particularly rely on her to take care of our kids. I tuck the kids to bed myself and I feed them all the meals also. Only 1 morning and 1 night milk feed, my helper will feed my girl. Soon, plan to train them to drink milk from sippy cups so don’t need helper to feed also. Helper is almost 100% housework only. My husband dislike the helper doing anything with our kids at all but he agreed that doing housework will take away quality time from our kids, thus helper is a necessary evil.
It is VERY tough especially when all 3 of them decide to whine at the same time. Sometimes, I really feel like just walking out of the house.

Diana,

Whereabouts in AMK do you stay? I am at AMK area too!
My twins are starting to babble also. The girl is better, she is a real parrot and good at mimicking. The boy a little behind, so far, only can say “ Bye bye, bear and baby…” alamak how come all B words.

Honestly, I hope MOE will phase out the PV scheme (after your balloting ok, Bloom!) because I find the whole thing very unhealthy and unfair. If I take leave, I would rather use it to spend taking my kids out than doing PV.

Yawn2,

Yes, now instilling my boy’s interest in reading because I believe that reading builds up foundation in the language. English is not a major problem but I sense his reluctance to speak Chinese because his Daddy cannot understand. So now, when its just the two of us, I speak Chinese nonstop to him (even though it feels very funny to me) and ask him to identify objects in Chinese to me. Its starting to improve a bit but I suspect I may have to send him to Chinese Enrichment.

Snowball,

So where will you stay when the renovations are on-going?

 

[snowball32]

Hi Pink Gerbara,

We intend to rent a place at around my place for 3mths while Renovation are on-going.

Both my girls attend fulltime CC. I also handle my kids ourselves and our helper concentrate on housework and cooking dinner only. Agree with you that housework will take away our little quality time with our kids.

My maid going back for 3-week home leave next week. I will be the maid for the next 3 weeks & have to pray hard that my maid comes back after 3 weeks. Sighhhh.

CL - I send my kids to a CC that are strong in their Chinese teachings. Both my kids are able to converse pretty well in Mandarin within 6mths of attending fullday CC.

 

[ahpeng]

diana, pink_gerbara
I am in Bishan!

bloom
the solution i used actually can kill roach quite fast. just killed another roach last night!heehee

 

[cupcake]

Hello mummies,
Pop by awhile. Only have time to glance through the postings!! Welcome all newcomers. Although I old timer, but post v little.

I remember a posting on how to teach 'more than' and 'less than' to a P1 kid? I can't seems to find that post, Can anyone help? My DD is having problems with that and I can't seems to find the solutions to teach her this concept.

 

[mumusings]

Hi All,

If ur kid is a fan of Hot Wheels (and small die-cast cars), the carry tin case for 18 vehicles is now S$5 at Metro sale

So glad I saw this because it's USD 10.75 on Amazon! Also helps stick on all his magnetic letters which are all over the place... http://mumusings.blogspot.com/2012/03/hot-wheels-18-car-tin-case-for-s500.html

Also Barbie, Zoob (Tam's recommendation) and Aleoca bicycles too. Was in a rush if not would have ended up overspending

 

[cheerful747]

Hello Mummies,

Good morning.How is everyone?March holidays is here, anyone goes travelling?

Lost this thread and manage to retrieve it.

Tam
Thanks for sharing all the tips on reading.Do you sit beside them while they are reading?Am trying to polish my boy's languages.

Happy Holidays everyone!!

Cheers,
Joy

 

[tamarind]

Joy,
Yes I sit next to them, and they have to read every word out loud to me. Now they are only reading Chinese books to me because they are reading many English books on their own. I am quite happy that my P2 boy is reading Chinese very well, he does not mind reading books with many small words, and he has learned many new words this way. I have heard of parents trying to teach single words or 2-word phrases, this is not a good idea because it is very difficult for kids to remember the meaning. The best way to learn Chinese is still to read from books.

Not going for any holidays, too busy moving house.

snowball,
Did your maid ask for salary increment ?
I would love to have a 150 sq m EA, but location is more important to me now, I need a flat close to my mother's flat.


pink gerbera,
Yesterday I received a nasty comment from someone, most likely an expat, who wrote that employers do not even pour ourselves a glass of water, we rely on the maid to do every thing for us. This is a very unfair comment because I know that many mommies, both stay at home and working, spend a lot of time taking care of kids. I have even heard of working mothers who go home to mop the floor, wash the dishes, bathe the kids, etc, because they want their maid to focus on taking care of the kids and do nothing else during the day.

In any case, I do not understand why people hate us so much, just because we have maids. We need help, we can afford to pay, and the maid accepts the pay to work for us. No one can force a maid to work for us. If the maid stays in her own country, she earns less than SGD100 a month. She can earn 4 to 5 times more in Singapore. Some people actually bother to spend time writing long nasty comments which are full of hatred to my blog. It is none of their business at all ! Instead of attacking my blog, they should write hate emails to Apple for the way the poor Chinese workers are being treated in iPhone factories in China.

 

[september]

Thks Snowball!

Pink Gerbara / Helen,

I live in AMK Street 31! How abt u all?

Tam,

Ya, happy tat beside papapapa she can finally call kor kor....hahaha guess my boy happy too.....

 

[snowball32]

Hi Tam,

We increased our maid's salary to match the mkt rate last year when she renewed her contract with us and we also gave her 1 off day a mth. We will discuss her pay again when she is renewing her contract with us when it expires next Jul.

Hi Joy,

It has been sometime since your last posting. No holidays this month. Planning to go for a break sometime in May, after my maid comes back from her home leave.

 

[poohy]

tam,

my boy dun seem to finish reading any book he started. How many pages do you get your boy to read each day when they first starts on chapter books? How about chinese books? Do you get them to finish a chapter before they stop?

mummies,

here's a video of my boy playing one of his favourite pieces.. he is still working on it though... hope it will become smoother as time goes by.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20J5S74AEgI

 

[tamarind]

snowball,
Since you increase her salary to market rate, then it is likely that she will return. I heard of maids who quit and look for new employers so that they can get higher pay.
I will be increasing my maid's salary to $600 this year when I renew her contract. She has worked for 6 years by June.

poohy,
I ask my kids to read at least 5 pages or one full chapter out loud everyday. The same for both English and Chinese books.

 

[mumusings]

Hi Tam,

You must receive very interesting letters all the time from visitors to your blog. I guess there'll always be people who make presumptions of all sorts (especially those who are just observers, not employers/employees). Stay cool and continue writing what is truth!

 

[tamarind]

mumusings,
Thank you for your encouragement !

I don't expect everyone to agree with what I wrote. However, I don't understand the mentality of those people who spend so much time writing comments full of hatred on issues that they don't fully understand. There are really all sorts of people in this world.

 

[gan1972]

Hi mummies, I have a 15 mth old gal and is a 40 yrs old FTWM

 

[gracemum]

hihi..any mummies with 1 kid ???
S cried yesterday said she has no sisters and brothers.. no one to play with .. very sad !
aiyo ! I also wanted to cry !
Even thought I brought her out very often

any kids age 7/8 staying around Bishan/AMK/Toa Payoh area ??? so that S could be friend w her or him !

 

[happy_33]

Hi Sharon,

I've only a 9yo boy.
Can understand how you felt as just recently my 9yo asked me how come he din have brothers or sisters like his classmates?
Asked me when can I "put" a sister in my tummy?? This is something very new as all this while he had been against the idea of having more siblings, always saying he wanted to be the one and only in the house.

 

[happy_33]

Hi Tam, snowball, yawn & mommies,
Good morning!
Thanks for all your recommendations, will have to "work" hard on DS Chinese starting from today.


Tam,
when you asked your kids to read out loud for English & Chinese books daily, do you stop them to ask them questions during the reading process or end of the 5 pages/one chapter? Else how do you know whether they understand what they had been reading?


Thanks.

 

[happy_33]

Poohy,
Samuel is really good!! How much time did he spend on his violin daily?

Starting this year, DS is having lesser time on his piano and violin. I'll be happy if he can spend at least 30 minutes on each instrument. Most of the time, he only practise what he is required to. On CCA days, he will be too tired to even play the piano.

 

[gracemum]

aa
S has been stop taking this topic for long time. don know why ? bring back this topic again yesterday. Yes ! she also told me .. who and who got brothers and sisters. I did explain to her about our cashflow do not allow we have more children in the house.

hi.. a piece of good news to share.. S gets Distiction on her practical grade 2 piano exam @ 6 Year old and 5 months after learning for 1 year and 4 months

 

[tamarind]

poohy,
Agree with aa that Samuel is really good !

aa,
I don't ask them questions because I think that kids don't like to be tested. They can laugh at the funny parts, and they often give their own opinions of the story, like this character should have done this or that instead, so that's how I know they understand the story. For phrases/sentences which I think are difficult for them to understand, I will just explain without waiting for them to ask.

sharon,
Congratulations !

How are neighbours ? Any kids in the neighbourhood that your girl can play with ? I remember that when I was young, my elder brother didn't like to play with me because I am a girl, I played with my neighbours' kids all the time.

 

[tamarind]

Hi Gan2973,
Welcome ! Please feel free to chat more. Who is helping you to take care of your girl while you work ?

 

[cupcake]

SHaron
Congrats. My dd is only going to do hers later in the year, but I will be very happy if she manage a merit. Can't seems to get her to practice, any suggestions??

Poohy,
Samuel is good, just the accompaniment a little slow.

 

[poohy]

aa, tamarind,

thanks...

aa,

he also only practises his homework... nothing much extra these days. When he was still in kindy, he practised average of 2-3 hours a day. When there are important events he need to perform at, he may practise 4-5 hours on weekend to finetune. Ever since he started p1, it can range from 1.5 to 3 hours. depending on whether he has cca or extra classes that day, and his home work load. He dun practise all his homework daily anymore, just select some to practise and distribute the load throughout the week. I tried to help him remain focus on certain objectives. We stopped his piano for a while now to allow him more time to concentrate on his violin and cope with school life.

sharon, congrats.. its really such a joy to see them rewarded for their hard work

I always love to see how happy he looked when he got news of his distinctions. He had gotten 3 distinctions from g3 to g5 so far. Its a nice encouragement. Hopefully he will do well for his g6 in time too. P3 onwards, school work will definitely be much more demanding... hope he can finish at least g8 before that.

 

[september]

Sharon,

I stay in AMK and hv a 4 yr old boy and 16 months gal.

 

[poohy]

muffin,

ya. I am trying to find a better accompaniment as this piece should be faster. But can only find this one which I downloaded. How I wish I can play the piano accompaniment for him...

 

[gracemum]

Tamarind.
Thanks !
no other kids at our same floor .. recently got one new born baby only, but all close door type.

muffin.
Thanks !
I put S on daily practicing schedule.. I think young children will easily to accept and willing when there is a routine stuff expecially after this sucessful exam

poohy,
Thanks !
sameul can practices such a long hour ? S the most is 1 hour! Totally agree on u is such joyful feeling when they got a D .. wow ! ur expectation quite high P3 (9 YO) finish G8. :> that is amazing..

Diana,
hi.. great ! Do meet up with me Ok let my girl has more friends.. expecially, we are newly to the north.. all friend stay at SK area .

 

[snowball32]

Hi Gan2973,

Welcome to chat

Hi Sharon,

Congrats on achievement by Sabrina. Sabrina is in P1 now right? Maybe can encourage to make friends with her classmates. Overtime, when she gets to know a few more classmates and become good friends, they can play and chat together. She will then not feel so lonely.

Hi Tam,

We have talked to our maid and did let her know that we if she completes the current contract with us and continue with her good performance, we will pay her a bonus. Thinking that this might be a better encouragement rather than keep increasing their pay. Hope this works for us.

Anyway, ignore those 无聊remarks. So what that they are expats. Some of them also treat their maids like dirt. Most of them use part of the expat pkg to pay the maid. I will definitely not take any transfer maids whom has worked for expats before as most of them are too pampered and become very calculative.

Iphone factories in China - Apple will reply that they sub-con their jobs out....so they are not answerable.

 

[poohy]

sharon,

his teacher's expectation is that he practises at least 2 hours a day. He does not spend a lot of time practising his pieces, he spends more time on scales and etudes. I do not enforce that he must practise a certain hours... we just practise the homework given and time just passes. Maybe because some of his fundamentals are still weak, that's why we spend a lot more time correcting those.. results of his previous teacher not checking some important basics.

he is playing g7-8 reportoire outside of exams nowadays... 1 year to reach g8 is not that ambitious already. its the music theory and aural/sight reading he needs time to brush up to that grade. He is not that strong academically thus I hope he can get all these grades out of his way before school work gets in his way.... and there after he will have a few years to work on his diploma level and competition.

 

[gracemum]

Snowballs
That why S told me. She like school because a lot of friends
The thing is she want someone can play together , can do homework together, can take shower together, can sleep together.. she was asking to sleep over at someone house. how can i do that , if friend parents never invite us.
and all her classmate all pick up by parents car.


poohy,
Sameal same age with my S rite ?
piano practical G6 exam needed pass G5 theory . Is violin the same ?

 

[poohy]

sharon,

he is p1 this year so think they are same age. abrsm requires g5 theory for g6 practical onwards. But not trinity. Personally, I make sure he progresses his abrsm theory to g5 by this year so that he can take either abrsm or trinity at any grade from now.

 

[happy_33]

Sharon,
Congrats!
DS just took his G3 last week, I'm only hoping for a pass (not even merit) as he really did not practise at all until two weeks ago. I've told the piano teacher that we just want him to enjoy music and learning new pieces, piano exam is not a must. Hoping music will help him to de-stress and not give him more stress

Guess that's the influence of classmates/schoolmates and true enough that DS enjoys going to school or even enrichment classes, for the company of friends or chat session during break. How about cousins? Does Sabrina has cousins of her age to play with?



Poohy,
Expectation of 2 hours per day practise is a lot!! Is Samuel with music school or private lesson?
I did not know that Trinity does not require G5 theory for >G6 practical, this is something new to me. Is Trinity very different from ABRSM?
DS teacher is working more on sight reading these days too.

For piano accompaniment, can't get the accompaniment for practical exams to practise with him? Guess you'll have to pay for it ...

 

[mumusings]

Hi Gan,
Welcome

Hi aa,
My son says he prefers having a cat/dog/rabbit in the house and will scold them if they pee on his toys. Hahaha... I know he's envious when he looks at kids in the playground but ego dictates that he prefers to be the one and only around.

Hi Sharon,
Congrats! Hope Sabrina continues to enjoy piano-playing.

 

[annika]

Snowball,

Good luck and hope your maid honours her word. In the meantime, just set reasonable standards and close one eye to dust bunnies here and there.

Tamarind,

On the topic of maids, no doubt there are a handful of bad reports of mistreatment of maids, but it is also wrong to generalize and assume that everyone who employs a maid work them to death and we do not lift a finger on anything. In fact, on many occasions, I find my friends and colleagues have the same problems, maids having too much free time by the afternoon.

My current maid is also my first one. Actually, I am quite disappointed with my choice and she fell far short of my standards. However, we kept her in employment because we felt she was genuinely kind towards our children, and that was more important to us than if she was a superb cleaner. Over the months, on many occasions, I found myself frustrated on many levels due to her inefficiency. Also, I realized that if I scolded her, then she actually does better. If I stop scolding, over time, she will ‘relapse” and slack again….so my husband and I concluded that we have to continue scolding…*how sick is that*
Anyway, her contract will end this Dec and we will probably finish her tenure, because we feel bad if we transfer her out, in case she gets sent back and she took such a huge loan that she hasn’t really made that much money yet. In my hubby word’s “I don’t think she is helping us, rather, we are helping her”.

Your maid willing to work 6 years for you is living proof that you are a good employer, so nevermind the naysayers.

sharon,

I am also mummy from the North!
Does S have cousins of similar age group?
Or, you can emphasize to her the importance of good friends and that sometimes, there are best friends who are as close as siblings.
Well done on her musical achievements.
I started piano at a really late age, about 10. By the time, I completed Grade 6 practical, it clashed with my O levels and after that, I found that I don’t have the time or interest to sustain it anymore. I think my Dad was most disappointed when I asked to stop even though he didn’t force me to continue or anything.

Diana,

I actually live along YCK road, intersection of AMK Ave 4 and Ave 5.
Are you working mum too?

Poohy,

Enjoyed watching your boy’s practice…it must make you swell with pride 

 

[mumusings]

Hi Pink Gerbera,
Me too. Had no interest in piano (and hate hate hate Theory) so dropped Grade 6 (when I was 10). Absolutely didn't want to go through exams and the same drills every day. For me, it's enough to be able to sight read, play favourite songs and do own arrangement for relaxation. Folks were disappointed but didn't push further.

Hi Poohy,
You son is amazing! Good idea to finish off the grade 8 if he really loves music, before all the academic workload gets heavier by upper primary. What are his musical ambitions, just curious?

 

[gracemum]

aa and pink gerbera
S has cousins some is in JB and in singapore only meet up 2/3 weeks or 1/2 months once.
always play till don want to go home.

pink gerbera and mumumsings,
Yes, Piano need daily practicing.. S in lower primary still in honey moon time.
I, myself like piano very much.. but no chance to touch when i was young. I like Richard Clayderman.
I wondering can a 6/7 YO child handle G5 theory ???