It's gonna be a long month ahead!

I've been very lazy in updating my blog since the school holidays. In brief, we (plus members of extended family) went to Langkawi during the school holidays and had days of sun, sea and sand before coming back to welcome Nic home. Nic didn't tell ILs that she'll be back for a week and a half and when we came back from Langkawi, she gave them the big surprise by meeting us at the airport when we touched down. Following that was another one and a half weeks spent with her catching up and chatting. I must say it was the best period of time she spent with the kids as they are growing older and able to communicate and play better with her and she had a lot of time spent over at my place as compared to her last trips where she had to rush to meet friends while she's in town.

Just last Sunday, Ashlynne also had a big party bash to celebrate her full month. It was a grand party, with her parents inviting more than 80 friends and relatives to their humble place and the whole place was jammed with well wishers from noon to late afternoon. There was plenty of people, good food, favors, good conversations and catching up but goody girl Ashlynne was not at all intimidated by the overwhelming party. Even with the noise all around her, she slept like a good baby in her own bassinet and didn't whine or cry a single bit. She's really really a little gem to us.

Starting this week, I have been spending a lot of time with Hao on his school work and revision. It's only a month away from his SA2 and I am hoping to help him catch up on his revision. He's a bright boy, just lazy and very reliant on others to push him in his work. The frustrating part is that during the day time, I have too much on my hands that I am unable to focus on coaching him. So instead of doing that in the day time, I do that at night now, and let him do self revision in the day time on topics that he's more confident in handling himself. Needless say, Chinese is the night subject, while English and Mathematics is his day subject. Am crossing fingers that he'll understand his school work enough to pass his exams. Its not so much of competing for grades but to make sure he'll be able to catch up and build a better foundation for the following years later. I was told by his old chinese teacher in kindy that if he's not able to score in P1 or P2, then the following years will be very tough. Hope he'll be able to make it. It's really not easy to be a parent now, especially when there's so much competition around. We must really remind ourselves not to fall into the spiral and push our kids to compete academically. Nevetheless, it is still necessary for them to try and get good grades to be able to move on further on a better path forward. It's how the education system works here. So sad...