(2006/06) June 2006 MTB

mspiggy,

u r rite.. at least I think so too. My hb said I pampered and baby him so much till he becomes sooo clingy plus his personality also plays a part. But really, they do get better as the years go by... Even though he still refuse to go to independent drama class without me ard, he will still go to gym class on his own. And ashite is right about the friends part, if he made close friends in school, he will tend to be more willing and happy to go.
 


Paula,

Have to admit that i am rather slow to follow in this forum. Rather shocked that you placed Kelly into Odyessy. How is it going for her now?

Yes, it's hard to get committed teachers nowadays, esp when their salary is like really low?

What about the teacher wen that you have been saying about? Bet that she is someone in whom you and kelly will really miss.
 
<font face="tahoma">Aishite,
Thanks for sharing. I agreed that it's really "ME ME ME" stage now for Wes. Especially with Nat, everything also cant share with her. Refused to let me carry her even at times.

Rodeo,
yap I did use his good frd to lure him. Sometimes work but sometimes not. Really depend on his moods these days.

Sunflower,
I did talk to his sch principal on this. But I think the problem is the main teacher, I observed that she's not very friendly, and quite rough on handling kids.

E.g. when she's checking Wes's feet in the mornings, she raised his feet so high that he always toppled off his chair! Instead of apologising, she asked Wes to sit properly! I was there and saw everything.

My mum said that she accidentally knocks down a kid while pulling out a chair for him. And she just continues her things without going to help the kid. I think I will have to gather more "evidences" before talking to the principal. But I suspect CC teachers are hard to comeby hence principal also "dare not" do much else they will leave.
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Poohy,
I'm trying not to pamper him so much now... But I also worried I will hurt him indirectly. Really torn!
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Rebecca,
She is doing very well in Odyssey. Something that has surprised me cos she only took two days to settle down into her new school and subsequent days, she was able to say goodbye to us. Have been coming back with conversation on what she does in school and etc. Her teacher compiled a journal for us and we are really happy and relieved to read about the level of her volunteerism and participation in class.

Yea, we missed Teacher Wen and her Chinese teachers. The day that I went back to settle the paperwork set tears crying… think, the bonding is very strong. Think they are very attached to Kelly. We are still staying in touch with them and are making arrangements for regular gathering.

How is it going for you? Where is your child now? I found it unbelievable that I withdrew K from LV@RP too … but guess, once the leader is seldom around and wasn’t very transparent in communicating with parents, standards go down… but all in all, still a pretty decent childcare centre if parent can close one-eyes to the regular absence of teachers and leader.
 
yoyo gals... any post natal massage lady to recommend? i rem last time u gals were raving abt this malay lady? :p

recent no2 mums... any recommendation?
oki? mspiggy? ;p
 
aishite,

Suddenly realised all our kids have grown so much... Shann has grown so much, and she has a pair of nice long legs
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duffybuff -

Famous one is Global ART - alot of shops ard sin
Suntec hv one LPN ART - but quite ex
Turf city hv a Art boot camp - looks cool
There is also one call HANS ART - few places in sin.

or the one tat paula send her kelly one in novena.

Old kidsloft - also hv a new one call abrakadoodle art studio.

u can google them for their website easily.
 
MTDT - wow, you are still as resourceful. btw - i wld like to send my twins for PG like JG or similar before they turn 18 months old. any recommendations? there is one school at orchard area that conducts PG. also, what abt the Great World City area, do they have PG for 1 yr olds and above?

Mummies, have you heard of Edufarm? Would like to send Jake to some enrichment classes there when I return, but I have not clue about the centres.
 
Toto
Edufarm has quite a no of 'centre' over the island. They operated mainly at the RCs. Not sure abt quality of the classes though, cos i have been on the waitlist for the enrichment classes for some time...they cant seem to form a full class.
 
toto - u coming back soon? wow.. like so fast huh!
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PG like JG huh. hmm... i only noe JG, GUG, kidsloft. Hmm... busy buddies @ GWC consider?

Edufarm - quite a commercialised sch right? they seems to hv lots of programs. but never really check them out.
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Steffi, MTDT, oh thanks. no wonder edufarm has so many centres... then out for me liao. still thinking of sending J there for abacus, phonics and reading, and speech and drama cos it is near my place. heya... cannot cut down on logistics... still gotta send twins to JG... GWC busy buddies - is it good?

Anyway, my plans might be dashed as hb just told me we have to stay in the US for another 2 yrs... aiya... dunno whether i shld return earlier so J can brush up his mandarin and attend classes...
 
toto - went busy buddies trial before but at their old branch. not bad.
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ooh.. stay in usa 2more yrs gd mah. :p dun need to come back n join the ks race here lah :p
 
toto,

is J attending school in US? read that you are homeshooling him? u r not considering return to LW? r u concerned about catching up with the ks curriculum in singapore when you return? by then, J would be almost K2 already. time flies.

GUG has classes before 18m. I am putting Josh in LW when he turns 18m.
 
poohy, J is attending school in the US, but the curriculum here is nothing compared to what we do back home. I am waitlisting JAM for LW - J starting Jan 2010, and AM starting Jul 2010 when they turn 18 mths. But recently, hb says we need to extend till Jan 2013, and I cant, as I need to do PV in 2011, go for PV interview in late 2010, and J needs to at least do K1 and K2 in Sing, else he will be too behind. And I need to polish up his Mandarin when he returns. I have a feeling LW is not able to equip J with all these, so I might need to switch him to another kindy with proper classes/enrichment.

I am thinking Barker Rd Methodist Church Kindy. Any comments from mummies here? Seemed to me like a school with good curriculum and enrichment, and J can spend a good 6 hrs in school, not sleeping them away in a full day programme like LW, but really really learning. I like BRMCK cos they are God centered and they offer proper enrichment classes. Just that distance is an issue, so I might need to move to stay near the school.

Re homeschooling - i am doing bits and pcs here and there, but sometimes, i feel i cannot achieve much with J. of cos, with homeschool, u do not set fixed curriculum, and go with the child's interest, but if i adopt this principle, i am really learning very little each day, with slow progress... that is where the KS part of me comes in, as J will eventually need to join the KS race back in Sing, so i feel it is my job to equip him.
 
Duffy,
K is with Arts Loft right now. The school is located right inside the Arts Museum and would take the children to tour the exhibits twice a term; something like arts appreciation lesson.
 
toto - wow, actually u r very well plan liao. tot of PV etc etc. which sch are you going to do PV for?

sigh - I still hv no idea for prisch...

others leh? :p
 
paula - ooh arts loft huh. Zav went there for sch excursion recently. quite a neat place. I forgot abt it....

the previous sch in novena leh? gd?
 
toto,

understand what you meant abt equiping J for the primary school here. The curriculum in sg is super ks. What to do, unless we migrate.

Anyway, I am also looking out for a good pre-school for the kids next year. May switch them over.... LW lacks sufficient enrichment classes in the afternoon and I ended up with lots of classes on weekend.

Paula,

what kind of enrichment is offered at odyssey? Its quite near to where LW is now.... thus it is one of the schools I want to visit shortly to find a next school for the kids.
 
poohy, another option is to stay on at LW but bring our kids for enrichment in the PM. if i cannot find anything suitable for J, i might have to stay with LW at least for N2, and switch when J is in K1.

Like i mentioned, there are many schools out there offering enrichment, the question is whether the enrichment is of any good. I have frens at SJCK and Newton kindy who do not send their kids to enrichment in school, and chose to send them to enrichment outside of school. that will create heaps of logistics issues for us, mothers with 3 kids...

Paula, oh yes, how is Odyssey? do they offer enrichment?

MTDT, no la... i am just planning to go for PV and aiming for the same pri sch as Paula... it's all planning at this stage.... hopefully I will get PV, so i can move to the area and attend BRMCK.
 
Poohy,
So far, ODY is not offering any additional enrichment classes. The only enrichment class is Music for the Intelligent Minds offered to N2 and above classes. Their curricula are extremely holistic and exploratory, I must say. Their children are quite strong in literacy, it seems, at the gauge of their project works, even in N1, the children are being taught to recognize and read words in English and Chinese. In terms of curricula, I think they are quite advanced. If all goes well (teachers guai guai and good, principal on the ball), I think I will let Kelly graduated from here. They do prepare their children from P1 when they are in K2. They will change the classroom setting to resemble that of mainstream schools and children will be told to wait in their seats for teacher to arrive… that kinda of stuff.

ODY does offer full care schooling and so far, the experiences and exposures that the children are being given, I don’t think additional enrichment classes are needed. They have just completed a 3-weeks Arts Odyssey project and their arts will be exhibited in the Arts House on this Sunday. Then, there was a 3 weeks Chinese Culture immersion program which just ended and the children will be putting up a performance next week. Apart from that, they integrates culinary into the curricula and also, speech and drama is integrated into N2 curricula (if memory serves me right) too. But for the latter, it seems like the children are being trained with their speaker’s corner and being trained for performances. They also have personalized learning path integrated into their curricula and I find that Kell really benefits from it.

MTDT,
No lah, all these while, I have been looking for an arts school whereby it can be more educational and exploratory. Her previous school was good but I find that it concentrates too much on the skills and the end result. I wanted her to approach arts as a hobby but if they place too much emphasis on techniques and the end results, then, I think it is going to kill it. Art Lofts… the founder majors in early childhood education and Kelly is under her. She handles kids very well and at every lesson, we pick up knowledge about arts, appreciating arts, arts can take place in different form of mediums and format. This is the kind of exposure that I wanted to expose her too loh…
 
Paula,

I am ok with LW morning classes especially from N2. As they are pretty good especially the chinese language. The english phonics part only start N2. Their emphasis is learning through play. My concern is the afternoon hours.. where they generally spend time listening to a story and then some art n craft. Not very optimised use of time.

Is K in full day?

toto,

actually I agree with you that the problem of finding another school is whether their enrichment is any good or not. I definitely expect quality in the enrichment. And that's partly why we bring our kids to best of breed enrichment on weekends for music, gym and drama. But I had hope that somehow the school they attend can provide enrichment like abacus, swimming, phonics so that I dun have to find extra time to bring them on weekends.

For saturdays, S has 2 classes of violin (group and individual), J has music appreciation and edudrama. For sundays, S+2J has 3 hours of back to back gym class. Leave us with very little time for family outings. They had been telling me they wanna go to the zoo, I still need to take leave for that. And I had not even enrol S into an abacus and swim class yet. Eventually I will have to factor in another time for S to attend his music theory class too. Oh and Josh will join this whole thingy next year too with his JG playclub. Logistic nitemare. I am telling my hb we gotta split on weekends liao...cannot all go to same place... so that activities can be concurrent.
 
poohy, ha ha.. i am also going thru ur phase, but luckily AnM can attend similar sessions. next yr, J will be in LW AM, and PM, he will have abacus (most likely edufarm), phonics (havent decided where yet), berries (pandan), and swim twice a week (own condo). plus AnM will attend JG playnest twice a week untill they qualify for LW. in between, i wld like to squeeze in some gym classes for them. and i want to keep sundays free for church.... hence all these activities need to be completed during weekdays, that's why no full day for J at LW, only AM classes will suffice.

poohy, do you think LW phonics and mandarin is good enough at N2 level? wonder whether i shld add on JG edudrama Eng and Man.
 
Poohy,
Oh I see. Phonics is integrated into their Letterland curricula. K is in full day. They will be introduced to the phonetic sounds of vowels next month as they have completed A to Z already. Afternoon routine reads: wake up at 3.00pm. Proceed to clean up and tea break. 30 mins of play. Lesson resumes at 4.00pm. It rotates. Some times, it is reading story. Some days, it is arts lesson at atelier, then on some days, it is personalized learning path time and on other days, they concentrate on building up their eye hand coordination through manipulative toys.
 
toto - wat pri sch are u n paula eyeing? i cant rem haha

poohy - why S needs both gp/individual violin class? wow.. ur schedule really scary! haha

Zav cc next yr onwards hv pottery, swimming, chinese calligraphy enrichments (fm ext trs). In house trs wld do culinary, eng/chi S&amp;D. It really does free up my wkend tremendously. Esp the Swim class as i wld enrolled him somewhere if his cc doesnt offer any.
 
toto,

I do believe LW should be strong in imparting phonics in their student but may not proceed as fast as many other schools. For example, at N1, they had absolutely no exposure to phonics yet formally. At N2, they are very strong in mandarin though... to the point that I let S stop his berries class since the school cover more or almost the same stuff. At this level, english phonics start at A-Z. I am not sure whether they do simple blends yet... but I believe they would utimately measure up in speed.

Both S &amp; J are into digraph (th, wh, sh, sp, st..etc and words ending with ing, tion etc) in terms of blending now with me... so I no longer depends on the school for phonics. But I do hope to put them in external phonics lesson so that they can move on from where I am teaching them... they are past simple blends already. Joelle is doing more complex blends too where I teach her the divide and conquer way. I am half past 6 kind so I do hope they can learn formally from montessori school.

In terms of language, they should measure up. But maths, I feel they are weaker in curriculum... maybe its just me being ks. I teach them to count to 100 now. And is imparting addition and subtraction skill to them... both S &amp; J are learning on the same content at home cos I got no time to teach separately.

Paula,

thanks... hmm I have no idea what LW use for their phonics... I dunno the difference... for me, I just teach whatever comes to my mind... mostly montessori method.

MTDT,

S graduated from his baby violin class few months back so he is in individual class now. His individual class is on sat morning. Then saturday evening, we go back to mandeville for group suzuki class conducted by Ms Sylvia Khoo. Not sure whether you heard abt her but she is quite famous. In her class, Samuel went through the older songs which he had already learnt.... but he does it with more discipline, rigour and pay more attention to correcting problem in his posture. I also hope it encourages him as group class tends to be more motivating with all the other children. His individual class is more advanced in the songs he plays.... speed is faster, average 1 new song every 1-2 week. Both class has different focus and is complimentory. But I am deliberating to stop his group class though cos its so taxing to have 2 violin class on weekends. I still gotta reserve an extra timeslot on weekend for his group ensemble class. In mandeville, every 3 weeks of individual class is followed by 1 week of group ensemble where they play as an ensemble and will prepare for upcoming concert.

I put a lot of time into his violin practise actually... we hardly do any academic work at home anymore these days... I only have time to practise his violin with him. Mostly its abt 45-1 hours a day. We watch some of the other kids play on youtube after practise at times to fine tune his playing skill, posture and dynamics. I really enjoy the violin journey with him though.

Are u going to put Z into violin or piano class? I din enrol Joelle yet cos I felt she lacks the discipline and dun want to subject her to such hard work unless she really really is interested. S does go through a lot of "hardship".. I am very strict with him with this regard.
 
poohy - really kudos to u. i read ur blog thus noes how well S is doing in his violin. at his age - really v v discipline and kudos to him too!

Zav - I shd be going the piano route. at the moment, he is still in a gp class. not tat much stress ;p

Zav cc also started phonics this yr. started with ABC... I think they are doing simple blending as Zav wld "demo" at home to me :p At home, i teach him sight words as I hv no idea how to teach blending :p Chinese - no words yet, still like playing a fool :p Maths - shd be still counting n sequencing only.

ya, if wan to be ks.. really lots to do. Berries, Abacus, phonics class, etc etc. Time n money not enough! haha

Ashite - character montessori in SK. they hv a pool within the sch compound.
 
mtdt,

I do think S has cultivated great discipline out of this violin journey. He used to love to play then there comes a period where he simply refuse and had made no progress for months. Since few months back, I incorporate much more discipline and his practise time gradually lengthen unknowingly to 1 hour at times. unknowingly cos we are always very engrossed and time just pass. Plus he got quite a number of songs to polish given he has 2 teachers with different requirement and emphasis. I feel I am very demanding on him at times... so I am trying to relax more recently... give him a day with no practise as break etc where we go cycling etc.

But the hard work is rewarding too... he actually plays so much better and much more confident than he used to.


u r rite about the ks part. But sometimes, I worry whether they will be able to cope with their primary school. Luckily they generally love going to the enrichment classes. I would normally stop a class the moment they request that they do not want anymore. Most of the classes were upon their own request. I stop berries at S's request.
 
poohy, kudos to you, and S, well done too! you are a FTWM with 3 kids yet you are putting in so much effort, sometimes i wonder how and where you find the time and energy to teach the kids. do share with us how you do this, maybe you shld dedicate one section of your blog on home teaching, which will definitely benefit mummies like me! I do not really do much in terms of teaching phonics as i have no clue! maybe i shld take some lessons myself....
 
poohy - think for S, his great interest in violin spurs him on. am sure u wld be very proud of him when he plays so well. rem to inform when he starts his concert performance! hehehe
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Ya, we are all worried abt pri sch. sigh.. thanks to MOE! i agree... generally most impt is kid loves to learn. then all the ks gesture we prepare for them, they still take it with stride! haha
 
re: home learning

actually I din do much or not as much as I want. Always feel tired and lethargic. When I am not feeling too tired, I will go through some phonics with them... but of course they would learn better if they go for formal classes which will cover a more formal curriculum. Me is on and off kind. Mathematics and Mandarin, I hardly touch those... really once in a blue moon when I remember hehee...

anyway, I am feeling more and more anxious as S approach K1 soon... so fast. and he is quite behind compared to many other kids who attend kindergarten etc. I think I gotta buck up and teach him more at home.

toto,

actually I wish I can leave sunday free too. I wanna bring the kids to church sunday school already. Hopefully can start doing so end of this month when my hb finish his RT. I really believe spiritual needs are as important.

btw, there is a couple more mindchamps opened recently. Maybe you can explore them too
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I am going to pay them a visit soon.

mtdt,

ya I think its becos of the KS curriculum of MOE. I think of migrating at times when I think of the kids having to cram and hot house in primary schools. I keep that option open though.. I have quite a number of colleagues who migrated when their kids were in mid to higher primary... they feel they dun wanna have their kids grow up so stressed.

paula,

no lah you had done such a great job with K to give her the right stimulation and opportunity... I really feel envious
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Gals

Let's share some funny quips our kids are saying these days? Here's 2 of hers:

1. I didn't want her to eat Fisherman Friends lolli and told her these r spicy n she won't like them, she said "Let me try, so I will know whether I like it or not"

2. She's supposed to go to sleep on her own, but always luvs for me to be there wif her, so tis is how she coaxed me ... "Mummy, can you come and sleep with me for just 2 minutes, just sleep a little bit?" And she put her her thumb &amp; index finger close together to signify what the "little bit" means
 
ashite,

S is so cute
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J's speech and communication had not reach this level yet...

re: mindchamps preschool

mummies, any review or comments? I am going later before lunch to their tanglin branch to take a look at their centre. Fee quite affordable at 1280 before subsidies.

I wanna go odyssey but no one picked up the call just now... so will be going next week.

another thing, any review/comment on Pats@Jubilee?

re: montessori schools

mummies, you all know of any very good montessori schools in the vicinity of clementi, jurong west, jurong east, alexandra, tanglin, tiong bahru (redhill/queenstown/buona vista) areas?

I am actually interested in montessori schools too. My fren sent her girl to Josiah Montessori and the curriculum and progress seemed impressive. But its too far for me... at millenia walk... we will never be able to reach the kids before 7pm to fetch them.
 
Ashite - S v cheeky huh! :p

Here are Zavier recent conversations:

One day after dinner:
ZT: Mummy... why you eat didi into your tummy??
MT: huh? no lah.. I din eat.
ZT: I also wan to eat Didi!
MT: @_@

Excursion day when we were drawing a family of stickman
MT: ok this one is papa, this one mummy and this one holding hands is Zavier ok?
ZT: then didi leh? I draw didi ok? *drew a tummy at the mummy stickman
MT:
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hi MTDT &amp; pauline,
thanks! will be going the trial at artloft.. suppose to go yesterday but boy was sick so cancelled the trial. will go soon!
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also thinkg of sending him for the trial at lovekids - speech &amp; drama class.
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not sure if it's good.. since near our hse so thkg of going for the trial too.
 
Poohy,
Odyssey was buzzing with activities in the past few weeks. They had an exhibition of the children works in The Arts House yesterday and is busy preparing for a performance this week. I heard they will be having an open house on this weekend. Look for Weelai… she is the program director.

Duffy,
Kell had a great time with Teacher Shirleen on Saturday. She made paper and is working on sandpaper printing next week. See you next week!
 
my boy was down with flu since last week.. so doc prescribed tamiflu.. so we hv to quarantine him for at least 5 days.. though the doc din say we have to keep him at home. well, we hv to be considerate mah.. so kept him at hm for almost 7 days liao.. he can finally be let out of the hse. poor boy, kinda deprived!
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but we'll go for the trial only next wk... this wk we'll go for something light.. perhaps just pinic at pasir ris park.. if the weather is good.
 
re: Odyssey

I finally went down to Odyssey to take a look just now. Been trying to call them but no one seemed to answer so hb and I decided to "gatecrash" as we are not too busy today.

One of the teachers was our guide. I was impressed with their effort to involve the parents. As I was told that they actually have projects every 2 month or so where the kids will put up performances or art (even for the 18m tod class) and invite the parents to view. I like that as it makes parents understand a little more about what the kids had been doing instead of waiting for the Parent teacher meet twice a year.

I also like the fact that the teachers used some chinese character card in the style of JG's bilingual playclub for N1 level. They introduced basic phonics sound from tod class to N1. And for N2, they does writing of the alphabets.

The clean and well decorated classroom was refreshing too. The art glassroom was nice too. Overall the centre was clean and I like

The teachers told us the curriculum is exploratory based. This is actually similar to LW style. I was told that they only started phonics blend at K1 level, which I find its a bit slow compared to kindergartens and montessori. LW starts basic blend at mid N2 which I also find a bit on the slow side. But well, reading is not all about phonics... but starting early does help internalising.

On the exploratory and individualised learning path, I find it a bit vague and hard to gauge how well they does that without really immersing into the program for a period of time. And that takes the right type of student with the right type of teacher to work.

The teachers that we saw during the tour, as a whole, look a bit too young and we were unsure of the amount of experience they have.

I note that they do not have sand play (which I feel is an important sensory experience) and the outdoor curriculum is not as strong as LW. As they do not have that many ride-ons, I was told that some kids may be doing cycling, some may be drawing with chalks on the outdoor play area. Hmm the outdoor area is a little small. But I guess most centre have relatively small outdoor area.

The main thing I do not agree with was that there are 3 K1 students in the N2 class. As there is only 3 K1 student, these children join the N2 students in most of the common activities except a few which they will then adjourned to another room for their activity (that K1 room is used as storage in the meantime it seemed). I feel that its not a good thing for the 3 K1 kids.
 
Overall I think its a nice cc with a nice and clean environment though I have some reservations. Maybe partly because I may not be speaking to the right person eg. principal who would be able to represent their ideas better.
 
duffy- yes cristofori is also another one like yamaha.. alot of branches. but their gp music class only starts from 3.5yrs? and 1-1 individual class from 5yos.
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their toddlers gp class - not cheap too. $200 for 8lessons. (i just happen to check it out at my punggol branch! haha)
 
Toto,
Read that u have the intention to enroll J to Berries N2 next year right ? They have a new branch at West Coast CC &amp; their timing is much better than Pandan. Chloe and Mum2b's Felicia are there
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Wen,
how hav u been? din c u in sch today... they had a simple mini "concert" for Teacher's Day. Each class went on stage in the church hall to sing 2 songs. I din catch any pics of ur Gal cos the class was spaced out and she stood on opposite end of my boy.

I was too slow to catch ur Gal when she went up the Stage ALONE! "Uncle R" had asked for volunteers to "present" balloon sculpture to each teacher- I think Gabby must have raised her hand so he picked her. She went up the stage but thought the balloon was for herself, so Uncle R explained it's for G to present to the teacher. And she did!
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Let me crow abit...
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, my Gal sang with her class their 2 songs, then she did a solo piano recital of her exam pieces on the baby grand (multiple multiple mistakes :p but I guess we bohchap cos exam just over, heehee). Boy sang with HIS class their 2 songs. Finally Girl went on stage with her Drama class for some act which seemed messy to me.

Cldn't text u these cos I left my phone at mum's, but so excited had to tell u!
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