Summing up our 2 months Circuit Breaker

1st of June marks the end of Circuit Breaker and today is the first day the boys went back to school. Initially thought it will just be a month but ended up Circuit breaker extending for 4 more weeks.

The feeling this morning is nice as Felin and I slowly walked the boys to school while enjoying their laughters and constant brickerings along the way. I also finally have a peaceful morning to do my work and I appreciate the peace and time for myself which I had waited so long for.

During this period, I took responsibility of their studying schedules while Felin need to be attached to her work in the study room. I had arrange for them to study English on Mon, Wed and Fri and Chinese on Tues and Thurs. Maths and Logics will be any time available after their nap or after lunch. Arts, Movies and Games will be on weekends and some evenings. They are now able to read relatively well with new knowledge of phonics and plenty of writing practices. They are also able to write quite well for their age for both English and Chinese. They can do additionals and subtractions up to 20 for now. Think these 2 months have been a good drilling for them with all the worksheets and workbooks I purchased are all completed.

Felin had good time catching up with them as well - with food. She made dumplings, bread and tang yuan regularly during this period with the boys. Our helper also experimented new dishes for us like roast pork and char siew, etc... We had almost all meals together everyday and its no doubt the best period where we built our bonds as a family during mealtime. Joshua is eating faster nowadays and I'm still barking at Josiah for putting food too long in mouth and getting distracted while eating.

Few of the boys favourite activities during this period were building tents and watching movies. They simply love building tents all around the house using their creative ideas from whatever material they can find. They will then request me to read stories with them in the tents. They will then jump and tear down the tent just before they go to bed. We also do crazy tik tok antics with the boys to perform for Mummy and made some self made toys for them. We even analyse how to win in Tit Tat Toes and practiced the game together.

I can remember the wonderful feeling of reading stories for them in all their self made tents at night before they go to bed. The eye contacts with them are priceless and I'm sure they will remember some of these things when they grow up.

During the final days before school reopened, I opened up the old tent that I purchased nearly 20 years ago and pitched it right in the middle of our small Living room. We spent 2 nights in the tent and watched movies over the weekends. They closed up the tent and played funny children games in it while we smile outside. I know this is the highlight of this Circuit breaker because when I asked them what they remembered best during this period, they answer is, "We slept in the tent!". "We watched Movies" and "Aircon!"...

Overall, the 2 months will probably be the most memorable months I ever spent with the boys. I never know that there are so much that I can teach them except that plenty of patience is needed to plan their curriculum. My past concerns about their ability to focus and learn are actually unfounded too. They are quite teachable as long as we, as parent put in sufficient time to nurture them. I found that the education part really rely on me and Felin and not on my helper or the enrichment classes that we sent. Its the time that we are willing to spend on them to make them remain interested and disciplined. Most important is. They are happy everyday. There is not a single day that we will miss their laughters.

Not all was rosy though. My momentum at work slowed down, I was frustrated that my other colleagues have more time while my time to work had reduced by more than half. I was also more pressured with low sales and having to learn new ways to interact with my client and finding new prospects during this period, etc... The boys sometimes misbehave, fight and throw tantrum which makes me really angry and I have to think of ways to deal with them. They also became used to staying at home and ended up not wanting to get out of house to sweat which I prefer them to be outdoor than indoor boys.

Though I enjoy this period, I still hope Covid-19 issues will be resolved soon and we are able to get back to as normal life as possible soon. Thank God for this period that you allowed me to spend with my beautiful family...

Singapore Covid-19 Circuit Breaker starts today for 1 month

It was nearly 3 months I last posted my update. If not for this partial shutdown in Singapore, I might not have time to write.

Covid-19 was pretty unheard of and I shrugged it off as another Influenza or round of Bird Flu. Never did I expect that it will become a pandemic that affect millions and ten of thousands died globally. We even have to reach a stage of that we need to be partially locked down with schools and most offices closed. We are not allowed to dine in restaurants and public areas like pools, gyms, playgrounds are closed.

My investments and sales are badly hit and somehow affecting my mood negatively at home. Feeling stressed with the monthly monetary commitments but life goes on and I will take this chance to sharpen my knowledge and systems while spending long quality time with the kids. I really hope covid-19 will ends soon and I can go meet my clients once again.

For now,  I am trying to develop new home based study system for the boys while building their character just like how our DPM Heng Swee Kit announced on our $60bil Covid Budget: Unity, Resilience and Solidarity. Their life are simply too good that they seems to lose their patience and resilience in their learning process. Always feel that they give up too easily and lost their ability to delay gratification.

It is going to be our full month with the boys. Everyday going to be a weekend but the difference is that our choice of places to go outdoor is extremely limited with everywhere closed. I am going to endure on their constant whining, fighting and behavioral issues. It will surely be a challenge to pack their time while we have to juggle with our work at the same time. They are actually a distraction and they constantly fight for attention from us every few minutes. I managed to buy some books, crafts and online material before the circuit breaker begins to occupy them while we work. Felin and I had agreed some some rotation of duties while we work.

They boys are now 5 years 3 months. Josiah is 111cm and 18.2kg while Joshua is 102cm and 15.5kg. Josiah is really heavy and my daily 2am wake up call for him to pee are getting more difficult as I need to carry him while he struggles and resist to go toilet. He can get a bit rough and show signs of violence when he can't get what he wants. A lot of discipline is needed on him and the problem is that he seems not to remember what he is being punished for in many occasions. He hates losing and avoid being challenged.

As for Joshua, he now ask many profound questions and able to think quite deep. He is still generally quieter outside and very conscious on how others look at him. He will avoid things that he feel he won't do well like Mathematics and Chinese. He is strong with language though. He also does not like to wait but slightly more patient than Josiah.

I will have a lot more time with Felin and the boys over this period as I will not go office that often. We will go for more nature walks with them this month. I'm Stressed, yes with reduced income, high expenses and investment losses, but I'm going to take it as if I'm going for a 1 month holiday and forget about all the monetary stuffs. Just remember that whatever wealth I gained are given by God and temporary. I am only a steward of the money he gives me in this life. Also learning to count our blessings that all of us are healthy and we have food on the table everyday.

I will be setting certain targets to achieve on work and family this month. New life starts today and I hope to update how I survived through the month and the results I achieved by the end of the circuit breaker. Wish me good luck...

Boys are now 5 years old

I again need a holiday in order to find time to update the boys progresses. There are so so many things that I want to talk about but I simply forgot the details.

They just celebrated their 5th birthday. Josiah dropped his first tooth during last week of December which we don't even know where it is. We suspected he swallowed it. We managed to catch his 2nd tooth drop which is on 12th January which is on his birthday. That was funny.

As I was in Korea, Felin celebrated their birthday at Changi Airport and brought them to watch a movie which they are not really interested to watch. They just keep playing at the kids play area.

Just 2 weeks before that, they were just having Influenza A virus and Joshua hit a record high fever of 41.6 degrees.

This is how Joshua celebrated his 2020 new year day countdown.

We as usual celebrated the Christmas Party. We had lots of fun too.

We invited the boys classmate to our house for a swim and dinner and they had lots of fun too. They always call her by full name Lee Zi Qing. Look at their funny faces.

Lastly, Joshua is now 15.5kg at 101cm and Josiah 17.5kg at 109cm. Josiah is really getting heavy.

Last to update about their behaviour. Still difficult to ensure they eat and study well as they are always so restless especially the case for Josiah. He still need to put in more effort in his learning but I got to encourage Joshua to be interested in Maths too. He simply refuse to learn his addition or substraction. I always believe that they must have the interest to read and have a good grasp of Mathematics for their academic now.

Joshua is still not night toliet trained and Josiah need go toliet at 2am every night and this is causing me to have insufficient sleep as I always till 2am to bring him to toliet.

Physically, I think they still need to be more brave and daring when doing their playground times and to improve on coordination and agility. Kids of their age are already cycling and they can hardly balance. How I wish to buy a bicycle for them to learn too.

This year, they will start to learn swimming and a 1-to-1 learning on phonics during a teacher that my client Tan Chee Eng recommended.

Thats all for now as we will be celebrating their birthday in their childcare centre tomorrow and perhaps a nice meal with family. More photos in future.