BIL will be back from the States in about 2 weeks time.  The kids are expecting some goodies from him.  Apart from Lego, WH is asking for car models and Ferrari parts for his model car. He can’t wait for BIL to come home and everyday he has been mentioning /asking when BIL will be back. They even take the initiative to skype with BIL.

My kids will never have a chance of having direct cousins unless my brother gets married, but good thing they still have distant cousins. So far they have 2 distant cousins (kids of my cousins) and more are joining the family this year. My cousins sister and another cousin’s wife is expecting and due around the same time. We have received baby shower invitations this coming school holiday. Well, I think it doesn’t matter to my children is they have cousins or not. They hardly see their distant cousins anyway.

JS’s been attending drawing class at school on and off since last year. This term is going to and end and if she were to continue, I need to sign her up again, but I am thinking of pulling her out and enroll her to another art class.

I haven’t found the perfect  art school for her. I don’t exactly know what kind of quality I am looking for in an art class, but those she has attended before and those I have checked out, seems to have some quality missing which I am not able to pin point out.

Cost again is one issue. The drawing class at school is cheap. The fees for a term class lasted 6 months is equal to the monthly fee conducted outside school. But the drawing class in school seems to be very monotonous and generalize. I do not find joy in looking at her art work produced in these classes as I know it is not truly her inspiration and work. It is merely a look and reproduce kind of drawing.

I want her to be able to express her thoughts and feelings through drawings and at the same time taught on some technique to refine her drawings.

I am not sure if the art school that we visited will be able to fulfill my requirement and I am a little temper to give it a try. I want to see drawings that is natural and raw. These kind of drawings bring a lot of happiness and joy.

At the same time, I also found out another artist that conduct classes for children at my area, but her slot is limited.

Sometimes I do wonder if I have been fair and treat each child equally.  When come to extra curriculum activities, we (Hub and me) seems to give the eldest a priority. JS has been given more chances and opportunities compared to her younger siblings. Of course the two younger ones haven’t reach the age of such activities, but WH seems to have been deprived from it.

From very young, JS has attended Gymboree, TumbleTots (That time I was very kiasu!) and then when she was 4, she started with MRC Maths and Mandarin, later she has experienced other arithmetic maths course, drawing (Genioart to Da Vinci), music class and even ballet before the podiatrist advise us to stop her for that. There’s also seems to be a reason for her to attend all these courses.

We are very clear with JS’s direction and interest. We know that she is good in art and music and has an keen interest in working with the PC. So we encourage her to build her skills in these area and when she said she wanted to attend whatever class, we will try to fulfill her wish.

But comes to WH, I think we have not given him the equal opportunity as his sister. He did join his sister at Da Vinci for a short stint and he also attended music lesson, but none lasted long. We still haven’t discover what course is suitable for him. He is certainly good in maths and creativity but we haven’t discovered his niche.  I wanted to sent him for self defense. At the moment , we are putting this on hold, as attending these classes in school will be cheaper compare to outside.

I notice when comes to extra classes for WH, we are lacking the enthusiasm as with JS. One thing is budget constraint, and other is time and I am also very lazy in making extra trips to sent them to class. Sending JS alone itself to different classes is already tiring enough. Isn’t this kind of attitude showing unfairness in how I treat my children??

Yesterday he went for the art trial class along with JS and now he says he wanted to join the class. But daddy said NO.  I can sense his upset-ness.

I told him we will try to find other class that is suitable for him. I told him he is good at maths, he can go robotic class and I also told him that Jie jie is very good at drawing, so we sent her to drawing class. He replied “I am good at my left brain, but I also want to be good with my right brain like jiejie. I want to be good with my left and right brain. I want to learn drawing also. “ (He clearly knows that left brain is more for logical thinking and maths and the right brain is for art..we briefly told him before – I can’t remember when. But he remembers it very well!)

I really don’t know and can’t decide yet. I can sign him up, but I know hub probably will make noise about me spending unnecessary.  The problem with many kids and only one income family…. some kids will have to sacrifice.

This is one of the activity we have started at home before we even go to see the doctor. We will have more of such sessions on the fit ball at home soon.

Hub is complaining about me spending his hard earned money like no body business. He starts grumbling about me buying too many books (unnecessary to him!!) , signing up classes for the kids etc.  This is the toughest part of being a SAHM. Always have to depends on hub for spending money. I have already cut down on spending on myself . I do go for facial, massage and such but I have not got myself any new cloths, handbags and shoes. How I wish I have a job, so that I can have more say on my spending.  I know my friends will be asking me to join insurance or MLM business, so that I will have the flexibility on time as well as earning good income, but these are really not my cup of coffee. I am never good at networking and do badly at talking to people.  For a start, perhaps I should start to buy gold coins and investing in gold

My boy is a joker. He tries to clown around to cover up his lack of dexterity but at the same time he is no longer timid like before he went to school. I used to worried that he is such a sissy because when he was younger, he never really behave as rough as a normal boy does.  The change came from the influence of his school friends. There are more boys than girls at school as his classmates last year, though this year it is even out.

The way he plays with his friend at school is well accepted by his friend. They play along very well. This morning he being a very friendly little chap tried to play with 2 of the boys at the drawing class. These 2 boys doesn’t seems to like his joker way of playing.  They are playing fight, the 2 boys get every annoyed when there’s body contact on them and they return hand and fight back with real seriousness. They are obviously stronger and tougher than my WH. I tried to stop my boy from playing rough with them as he is obviously at the loosing end, so unlike how his friend at school respond to him. He got boxed, pinned down by one of the boy that is taller than him and he was knocked off from the kids bouncing gym ball like equipment.

He just doesn’t know that he might end up with serious injuries. I am worry now. When he goes to primary one next year, there will surely be more boys like this. I am worry that my boy not able to control himself and get himself injure.

There’s a new art school in our neighborhood. They are giving trial lesson and I signed up JS for the trial class. WH & JL wanted to follow too.

I didn’t bring my camera, here’s some poor quality snapshot using my phone camera

I am impressed that JL sat in the class for 1 hour and 45 minutes without making a fuss, she didn’t even check on me and was following the class well. I have not expected to really sit in the class and follow the lesson. I even told the teacher to just give her a piece of recycle paper.

Lesson started with a story telling session. Today’s theme is “discovery space”. The teacher talked about the solar system, astronauts, aliens and stuffs like that.

WH is a keen participant. I heard him answering a lot of questions and he seems to know quite a lot about space and science. JL also concentrate , staring at the board and never disturbed the class, though she seems a little out of place.

The teachers did not leave JL out and included her in the games before drawing activity started

Game session

JL started scribbling on her small piece of recycle paper while the teachers are attending to the other students. Because the older student works in pair, the teachers were busying sorting them out.

JL works in full concentration. Very serious with her work. I even observed her changing colours. The crayons belongs to JS, since we only brought one set, (never expected WH & JL to join in)

The teachers didn’t just leave JL to work on her own. One teacher saw she is serious with her scribbling and gave her a full size art block paper.

She immediately start to work on it. But this time round she used only one crayon. The teachers were impressed with her scribbling and started giving her some suggestion as in remind her to change colour and one also hold her hand to draw a bigger circle at the center of the art block paper. Guided JL that she should colour on her scribbling and at the end guided JL on some final touch.

Towards the end of the session, JL has warmed up and started approaching the teachers by herself, showing teachers her work and telling the teacher she has done.

I expected her to run around, look for me etc, but she didn’t. For 1 hour 15 minutes, she sat and draw without even walking around to disturb her brother and sister. She didn’t even walk over to check on her brother & sister’s work. She is just so absorbed in her own work.

The first piece of scribble on the recycle paper.

JL’s work (2 year 6 months 3 weeks and 4 days old). Teacher held her hands to draw the big round circle at the center after seeing her keep scribbling at the side of the paper only. The rest of it are all solely JL’s scribble  without teacher’s guidance. It was her own colour choice too, though the teacher did remind her to change crayon, but didn’t tell her where and how to colour.

97% was JL’s own effort.  She told me she drew a moon.

WH’s with his work.

JS’s work.

I was standing outside the classroom for a good 1 hour and 45 minutes. I also noticed that JL hasn’t found her dominant hand. She is still alternating with both hands.

I have not decided if to enroll WH for the class and I certainly have no intention on starting any lesson for JL at this age though she seems quite capable. The teachers were impressed with her work but also said that they are not accepting JL. The reason being she is unlike other children of her age, which might run around throughout the lesson (which they actually get to rest their hands and finger before continuing), my JL puts in full concentration to colour for a full 1 hour 15 minutes, without rest and stop. Her muscles are still developing at this age, the teachers do not want to put a strain and overwork her little fingers muscles by doing so much drawing and colouring. In fact after she has completed her scribbling, she asked the teacher for another piece of paper.

I am never a prudent spender. In fact I have spent all my hard earn blog money over the years on impulsive shopping. Last night we were shopping at Cold Storage. As of my habit, I will just walk around , see what I need and dump it in the trolley. I am never like most housewife, take the brochure, start comparing prices of each products to look for best buy. Hubs start nagging on me. “Didn’t you see this brand is cheaper than that one?? Simply spent my money” Booh..hoo…I really must change my shopping habit.

JS truly has her heart and interest in arts and we are going to motivate her to excel in that area. We realize there’s so much to do in the art line in case in future she decided to venture into it. From graphic designer to illustrator even as a beautician. There’s just so many areas she can explore into. In case she really wants to be a beautician, we can sent her to Paris or Florida Beauty School to get the latest skills needed to be a top beautician. But I think she is really more into illustrating. Maybe she will find a niche in graphic designing.