(2008/07) July 2008

smiggle,
Things to look out for are basically if they will give you medical benefits and annual leave. Childcare leave too.

Cellow,
WAH! A for Higher Chinese! I had to try THREE times to get a B3.

Re clever kids:
I'm ignoring all posts. Best way not to panic is to ignore. *Cue ostrich pose*
 


PB,
yes lunch is tampopo on the ground floor. if you are approaching from river valley road entrance in the front, go all the way to the customer service counter on the ground flr then turn left.
they used to be in the basement, but shifted after Liang Court renovation.

re clever kids
ha got post meh? *ostrich #2 sticking her head in sand* HAHA.
watever la. i firmly believe calm mamas make for calm kiddos. since we are the emotional barometer of the house.

bbp,
WAH indeed at my 16yo self! i had fantastic teacher and extensive chinese tuition. PLUS i worked like a dog, pasting chinese proverbs up on my walls, even when brushing teeth and combing hair. flashcards for 16yos work too.

oh oh. today's ST has an article in the review section entitled 'the rage of mothers'
shd read... the rage of a mother of a teenager is a far far greater storm than the rage of a toddler's mother
 
re chinese
jx can sing like 2 albums of chinese songs. we listen to the songs in the car everyday so she can sing all the songs and remember the words. so maybe one way to help them is to let them listen to songs so that at least they can practice the verbalisation part. that's what last time my fren taught me. it's the same principle as teaching san zi jing. they won't understand what they are learning but good to get them to recite so that they get the hang of pronouncing the words.

ok so later i will bring cellow's pb and cin bunny's stuff along.....
 
i am dead meat - i cant even order fish ball noodles in chinese
sad.gif
.mb shld think of sending bean to msia for schooling :D
 
hi mummies... it's been a long time since i last posted... had been sliently reading but no time to post... coz lil A was sick and after that was me and now HB...

cellow/PB/SY
can i join lunch?? am on half day today so can join u gers... been a long time since i lunched with u gers!!!
 
jsp,
of course! come come, the more the merrier.

PB,
pls bring your baked goods along for me - thanks v much! muarks!
 
Cellow,
You are a model student you!
Same same la. I will try to balance work with play. And then occasionally panic when I feel I'm not doing enough.

SY,
Almost forgot to post. No need to bring my stuff anywhere. I'll get hubby to pick up from your place.

Re Chinese:
So we speak to Declan in English. My ILs speak to him in Chinese. So I guess since he's more exposed to English, he answers my ILs in English even though he does understand what they are talking about. So my mil goes on about how we need to help her aka one of us has to start speaking to Declan in Chinese or else soon he will stop talking to her cos it's just too ma fan. I've already recognised the fact that I do need to get Declan to speak Chinese and I DO speak to Declan in Chinese sometimes but I don't always do it in front of my ILs.
Question that keeps popping up in my mind is: What if I teach him the wrong stuff??? Cos my Chinese ain't good. Just like how my mil pronounces evening is e-ver-ning and I'm too pai seh to correct her. Worse is when she was trying to get Declan to say good e-ver-ning to our non-Chinese speaking neighbour.
 
*another A1 student in higher chinese puts up her hand*

*but sticks head back into sand as son pronounces 1-10 in mandarin with an angmo accent*
 
cellow
yes, speech therapy is on the cards. We know the q is notoriously long. but i wonder if private is worth the moolah paid?

Parents with special-needs children
ok, mayb N1 is not really there, but he is more challenging to raise than normal kids. Baseline: food. He refuse to go near anyone with food, wont even taste any. We had stayed out of restaurants/eateries cos he became ballistic. So ya, we feel that he has special needs. Child psychologist is on the card, but first he has to be able to verbalise. So speech therapy first, hah!

How he has changed me. Now i marvel at every little improvement he made, every new word he learnt
happy.gif
 
straw81,
this is my opinion - if anything is able to help my children overcome or at least lessen the impact of their special needs, go for it.

money can be earned back. you cannot reverse time for a child whose learning window has passed and now needs intervention.

serious thots for a monday morning

Mr C and I had a chat abt this before C1 ws born. if he turns out to have a learning or physical disability, we would move to Australia come hell or high water to give him a semblance of a normal childhood. wth w building a financial eggnest and retirement plans la... C1 and C2 are more impt.

although... SG has now made great strides in meeting the needs of special children over the past 3 years.
i hope i never have to do research on this topic for the boys.
 
YES! yay more pple for lunch.
more hands to hold in the freak out tog club
happy.gif


so we try talking only in mandarin later?
i can just imagine myself saying zhe ge, na ge, shen me.... hahaha.

brought C1 to jacob ballas children's garden last sat. wanted to tell him the water flows down fm the waterfall in mandarin. then gee, i cannot rem wat waterfall is in mandarin. bu pu izzit. smthing liddat one. haiyooor for myself.
 
cellow
seems like not fated to lunch with u all... HB just smsed me to say he coming to pick me up for lunchie... so gotta give this lunch gathering a miss again... u gers enjoy!!!
 
Ok I know which one! Tks Cellow! I am a few mins away!

A VERY RANDOM and boliao thought. Those who take bus, when the door opens as you are inside, doesn't the "psss psss" sound remind you of the beginning of (was it bananarama?) retro song "love in the first degree"?? :D
 
Miss Mich has already have had a few panic attacks when her little one is still not opening his golden mouth.... what san zi jing? har? har? har?

However, Miss Mich is not shy to announce that despite her B4 grade in chinese, her command and conversational skills in chinese is very the good. She comes from chinese (teochew too!) speaking family. she has no problem conversing with the chinese in china! however, reading - problem. write? lagi worse. Dyslexia is it.... Her FIL ever commented that "if you dun ever speak to eboy in chinese, no one else in this family will, you know?". ya I know.

oh, straw, send me a PM, i'll share with you my experience on speech therapist through .. k?
 
have our selfless, shyless invitation to kolo mee (by cellow) gathering in cin's house to be realised this wed???????? I can offer a ride for cellow too!!!! yes yes yes?
 
Hmmm I had the opposite problem! Me and hub both come from Chinese School and we converse to xun gal in mandarin. My mum too. Only my dad speaks to her in English. So before my helper came, xun gal was exposed to Chinese abt 90% of the time. So she was stronger with Chinese. Now with my helper, she speaks more English and I also think her school speaks more English. I can see her command of English rising. Though pronounciation for both English and Chinese still sucks -- we attributed that to short tongue!!!!
 
Hmmmm I used to converse and teach D majority in English. Then he starts lessons in JG and loved the mandarin teachers n started speaking in Mandarin most of the time even till now.
Soooo E speaks very well in Mandarin....haha
N she tends to automatically reply and speak in mandarin mostly even when we speak to her in English.
 
*kowtow to mummies with As in higher chinese*

*ostrich #3 on all others* I am super impressed by mummies who do so much for their children. But Ah Soh J is not dedicated or selfless enough to make speech cards for her kids, not rich enough to send them to enrichment classes, and not educated enough in Mandarin to teach her boys Tang poetry etc* Whatever will be, will be. If they need help in the future, we'll just have to dig deeper into our pockets to fund tuition classes...

PB
You must be terrifically fit! I just went for a session this morning and barely survived. Still trying to catch my breath now. Thanks for the book recommendation, we're going to the library later
happy.gif
 
mich,
sorry, you gotta wait till this sun at BG for kolo mee. this work week is looking to grey skies ahead for me.

jace,
think xun gal is in an advantangeous position. i would rather C1 learn mandarin first, then english is spoken everywhere in singapore so he would pick it up sooner or later.
 
CHINESE
Another freak out mummy here. Like BBP, I'm just going to ignore.
I'm really grateful to my mom and Ashley's Chinese tuition teacher cuz without them she would really fail mother tongue. I understand about 80% of day-today spoken chinese (not the TV report kind) but speaking is still difficult. Hee did I mention I learned Chinese through watching HK dramas hahaha. Emma is very fluent in Bahasa (including the slang!!!), with a bit of English and chinese here and there. She has to brush up on English and chinese!

Cellow
Wah we were next door (Botanic Gardens) last Saturday! I've never been to orchid garden so we went. It's really really nice. I didn't think the orchid garden is big but it is.

Tampopo lunch
Did you girls eat the Strawberry shortcake dessert? Tampopo's strawberry shortcake is super nice *drools*
 
tampopo pig's head
SY, PB and bbp,
the lunch is $15.80 for each of you.

SY, i will offset agst the amt for iherb that i FT to you this evening.

PB and bbp,
pls FT to posb savings 019 28856 0.

sd,
Wah we were literally next door to each other. i was there from 10-ish to 1230pm. i heart orchid garden as well. best is the building in the centre. kiddos can run around while adults rest our weary legs.
no one ate the tampopo strawberry cake! i had orange jelly which ws superb *slurp*

youpi,
even Mr C - who doesnt normally comment on other pple's children - are super impressed with your 2 boys. they are a credit to you, your time and your love.

*shoo away all the sickness from jsp's home*
 
Happy Valentine's to all you hot ma mas!! Enjoy your evening!

I just prepared dinner ready to be popped into the oven and shoo-ed off my ILs to have the long awaited, just-the-three-of-us dinner at my 2-year anniversary home (shifted in on V day 2009!).... soooo looking forward to it.... hee.. you see, we celebrate any anniversaries we can find.. hee hee...
 
Cellow
I dunno why I have opp tots from you. Maybe cos we always speak in mandarin at home(I grew up speaking mandarin at hm too). I want the kids to learn their English well 1st cos they can pickup mandarin anytime. Haha
N think their minds are too stuck in mandarin, u know hw many comments I have gotten from ppl asking if D know English!!
Cos he will either keep quiet when they talk to him in English or simply reply in mandarin!! Haha
 
Dor i have also the same thinking. I am worried that xun gal's english will be half bucket because it took me a very very long time to learn english and have not even mastered it yet! feel so embarrassed everytime my boss corrects my grammar -_-""
 
Wah mich so lomantic!

Wah I feel like eating strawberry shortcake now! Bad thing though is that tanpopo only oPens at 1130am so I had to give it a miss a few times Liao

Not gonna comment on mandarin cos I'm on of those def right at the bottom of the jialat list, can barely remember how to write my own name! Maybe I should start bbg on berries now like wuffy!
 
DD
oh no. reminds me that i also don't write chinese very well. when pple ask me for pomfret's chinese name, i realize that i never quite remember how it's written.

cin
can i self invite for friday evening too? :D

steph
if you're thinking about buying an affordable keyboard, my friend bought one from carrefour when there's a promotion (less than $90, mb $70 only) for her toddler son to twinkle around with. just keep looking out at their adverts.

tampopo
eh missed today's tampopo coz pomfret woke up many times last night and we both ended up waking only at 11.30am today -_- so much for trying to train her to wake earlier to get ready for school (some day)

straw
my pomfret's list of acceptable food , can count on one hand. fries, ramen, chocolate. i would like to find a food therapist pls. sigh. she'd rather starve than eat other things that i offer her. won't drink milk, whether formula or fresh, only would latch.
 
youpi
oh but you do make the effort to speak to L in chinese! i do think this is a most ingenious method. but, if i don't ever have a second kid, surely i need to consider speaking to pomfret in chinese soon.

how bad is the grasp of chinese in my household? just a couple of weeks back, mr dustee was shopping for lamps and was asking a chinese sales assistant about some ceiling light. halfway through, the sales assistant couldn't take it anymore and actually said to him (they were trying to converse in mandarin) "wow your chinese is really bad! ni de zhong wen zhen de hen cha" she was very exasperated by his attempts. quite amusing.

on chinese exposure
i think you mummies who speak to your children in chinese now, you don't really need to worry about their grasp of english in future. once they start school, all subjects except mother tongue is in english, naturally they'll pick it up. it's always good to maintain the chinese exposure at home.
 
continuing the tiger mum debate (from dd's link)
yeah hey even though mr dustee doesn't talk to his tiger mum, but he truly is still grateful to her for pushing him to study hard, learn the piano, go for swimming, tennis and art classes. he knows deep down that his mother loves him very much.

my mum was a kitty cat mum. y'know, like how street cats have kittens then abandon them? bleah. i actually kinda wish she had a bit more tiger in her and less kopitiam-cat. growing up i felt mostly that no matter what i did/accomplish didn't matter to anybody.

children really need to grow in an environment of expectations and to be conditioned to want to aspire to be better.
 
my own transport
when we do finally move out, i told mr dustee that it's gonna be a hassle trying to bring pomfret back to visit his parents on weekdays. so he's decided to be really generous and he got me my own set of wheels! so over the last weekend, we went out and bought it. we even got a child seat for pomfret.

yep. i am the envy of the town. i am now the proud owner of a BRAND NEW ......







...... bicycle with a basket in front and child seat at the back.
 
DD
Awww Tiger daughter's post made me want to cry... in a good way lah. She's inherited her mum's quirky sense of humour.

Cin_bunny
Yes to Friday pool time! Thank you for offering!
happy.gif
What time is good for you?

Dustee
Yup, I speak to L in Mandarin, but my kindy-level Chinese is not the ideal influence. So am worried about future teaching, and Google translate is getting a lot of hits from my laptop. But yes, I am glad I made the effort to do so, so that he is bilingual. It's an achievement for *me*, more than for him, I think, 'cos to him, it's normal.

Congrats on getting your own set of wheels! I've always wanted one with a basket in front. Ask Mr Dustee for a second set, the kind with four wheels, and engine, and a roof, else you can't bring Pomfret over when it rains right?

Cellow
Mr C has met my boys?

SD
Can I send my boys (and myself) over to you for Bahasa lessons?
 
DD,
thanks for the link. i'm a subcriber to this tiger mom's parenting style. to "hear" her daughter's side of the story just add more weight to her parenting style. like dustee, i wished my parents had been stricter with me. they always told me, "it's ok if i don't get good grades... pass can liao."

Dustee,
saw the 2 wheeler after scrolling down the page just made my mouth curved up
happy.gif
my son is sick again so not really in a cheerful mood. he's coughing every fortnight after started attending "school" again... sigh....

2 wheeler is good... so when it rains, you have excuse not to go over to in laws place hahaha... :p

Re: Mandarin
we only speak English to our boy. luckily, he picked up some mandarin from his teachers. he understands them but can't speak the language. am in a dilemma now. coz hb thinks it's better that we stick to 1 language now so that son doesn't end up saying "i want to drink 牛奶" after i taught him to say milk in mandarin. but i feel very pai seh when we see foreigners speaking good Mandarin and our chinese boy can't even say his own chinese name.
 
youpi,
he has met them but only briefly when you visited during C2's birth. ok i just asked him - he was eavesdropping fm the room while you visited and he was supposed to be doing his assignment. men smtimes....
congrats to you for your mandarin achievement!
happy.gif


LOL on exasperated sales asst's response to mr dustee's mandarin attempts....
and congrats on dustee's new wheels.
 
Cellow,
Noted! Give me some time to locate my IB token k? I really hate the hassle of the IB token, but yes I understand the security issue. Sigh.

cin,
What time is swimming? I'm gonna self-invite if I can make it.
happy.gif
 
Thumbs up to dustee's new set Of wheels, but ride safely ya..many reckless mOtorists around, I feel

Someone almost drove me uP the wall awhile ago when he misplaced his security blankie n asked for it 100x til he broke into tears! Finally after we hunted it down, he went to bed, but not before calling out to me (me sleeping beside him, and him going mummy, mummy, mummy x 10,000) does any of your kiddos do this? Bbg does all the time, dunno why
 
tennnnn hutt! PB and poppybunny will report for pool fun this friday too!

super lol till want to golek on floor on dustee's wheels! so funnneeeeee!!!!!

cellow
can i pass you the $ for the super yummy, salty until cannot be any saltier but still super yummy, ramen on sun at BG?

DD
thank you for posting tiger girl's reply. so nice, so touching, and so witty
happy.gif
 
oh i want to cry/laugh at tiger girl's mini essay and i love the way she said so aptly that living life to the fullest takes effort, not just spontaneity.

loved the sentence abt not taking the easy way out and interviewing the Israeli paratrooper instead of her grandparents.

reminds me not to take the easy way out w parenting as well!

so deep breath and hutt!..... bring the mandarin on! waterfall = pu bu, here i come!
 
friday pool date - lai lai all are welcomed! i say anytime 430 onwards good for everyone? those who do not have my addy, PM me ya
happy.gif
i will prepare light snacks for the adults and the kiddos. if it rains, we will reschedule for next friday!

dustee - nice that mr dustee has your same sense of humour..LOL. eh, am sure yr MIL will barge to come drive pomfret to her house :{
 
DD
i think it's a boy thing. jh still calls for me when he wants to sleep and always wan me to sleep beside him.....

cin
i wd love to go for pool date but can't....
sad.gif
will try to take leave next time!! lots of things to do in office....
sad.gif


michelle
can PM me the speech therapist that u go to? my sil may wan to send her son for assessment.

cellow
yes no easy way out for parenting. u said it right. sometimes i feel so tired with the kids but if we mummies dun do all these things, who will do it right? i always tell my hb, if i leave the teaching to him, my kids may end up failing their subjects.

mummies with 2 kids,
must really make sure the elder one is well taught then u can save a lot of trouble on the second one! me and hb were just talking abt how much jx has progressed in her speech etc and part of the credit must go to her talkative brother.

re BG
who is going on sun? so i can start packing the things..
happy.gif


Dustee
congrats on your new 2 wheels!
happy.gif


re tiger mum
i think i m going to be one! but the funny thing is my parents never push us at all. we were the good kids who always go study on our own. even though they will tell us it's ok not to do well as long as we try our best. but saying that makes us feel guilty and want to do even better! but i dun think this will work for my kids...jh probably will take it as the signal to slack haha.
 

So many posts!! lol on dustee flooding the forum with your wit! Cracked up on your new set of wheels! hahahahaha!

BG,

I am going! SY the HT are here liao? How much I owe you?

Michelle,

Good luck! Hope you find the ideal job!

On Mandarin,

Wuffy is a potato. He does not even utter a word of mandarin. San Zi Jing...ehhh...far from it lor. My kid's son who is an Aug 08 baby, not only speaks mandarin (and also recite the san zi jing), but can also converse in english, hakka and cantonese since he was 18 mths. now he can recite the full Singapore pledge in Chinese. I have put wuffy to berries... hopefully this "early intervention" will help...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

D
Crinone gel for sale
Replies
0
Views
240
Dimplez
D
C
Looking for Confinement Nanny in July 2024
Replies
2
Views
2K
amy cheong
A
B
Looking for IUI doctor
Replies
2
Views
593
Prb
P
F
Baby avail for adoption - EDD July
Replies
4
Views
3K
Muhammad habibullah
M
L
Looking for confinement lady in July 2024
Replies
0
Views
1K
Ladybelle
L

Back
Top