Service and Sharing

When I volunteered to get Jordan into school, I brought JED on occasion. When that extended to an island wide search for crickets and they asked why volunteering meant I had to do so much, I explained the difference between just finishing my job of volunteering at school and serving the school. I explained that service meant helping others without really expecting anything in return and that while I had volunteered to help the school to get Jordan in, I didn't expect that my going out to buy crickets every two days was going to give me an extra or better chance of getting her in.

I didn't think they heard or understood me but towards the end of last year, Jordan came and asked me if she could serve at her kindy. Her reason was that if Mommy could serve, so could she. When I asked what she wanted to do, she said she wanted to read to the children or help them at art or something. When I asked her if she expected to get paid, she said no. She emphasised that she wanted to go back and just serve.

The trick was trying to find something she could do and not make more work for the teachers. There was also the problem of trying to figure out when she could go what with her own school and crazy schedule.

It's taken us all these months to find a slot and something for her to do. Eventually, we did; something totally up her alley.

On the last day of the term, she returned to her kindy to share with the K2 children how she wrote stories. They were about to embark on a book project in the next term and she had done one when she was their age. She brought in her manuscript as well as the eventual book that got published and like a visiting dignitary, went to each of the classes.

The teachers like me didn't know what to expect so we had to wing it. She went in with her bestie from the same kindy, Chloe. We introduced them and got her to read her story to them and ask questions. She was noticeably nervous and she couldn't make her voice louder. By the end of the first reading, she was audible from the back but still tentative. To make things better, we got her a mike that she could strap around her and that changed everything for her. The performer in her stepped forward.

Even though she claimed that she was still nervous, she read her story with a song sing lilt and answered the questions clearly. All this was done in utter seriousness.

By the second class, she had her schtick down pat.

First she would introduce herself as would Chloe. She would tell them what she was going to do and then she would do it. She would read her published version while Chloe flashed the identical pages from the manuscript. After that, she would take questions. The teachers and I felt like we were staffing her, telling her where to go and picking out the questions she would address.

This is a sampling of the questions she took.

1. How do you write stories?

A: I have to think very carefully. I use the pictures I have drawn to make stories. Sometimes I add in actions to make the story more interesting. 

2. What is the most important thing on the cover of the book? 

A: The title.

3. How long do you take to write a story?

A: This book that I read took me one week to write. But sometimes I write them in one hour. Or sometimes, ten minutes. (See more about this exchange below)

4. What steps did you go through before the book was finished?

i..  I draw the pictures then I coloured them with crayons and drew the outline with marker.

ii. Then I told Auntie C (her teacher) the story and she typed it out.

iii. I cut out the text and stuck them to the pictures.

iv. Then they got printed and they stapled the book in the middle twice. (She was very obsessed with the stapler and the book being stapled. She went on to explain how to use a stapler.)

5. Why did you write about butterflies? (Her story was The Butterfly Trip)

A: Because I could draw butterflies very well.

Listening to her, we came to the unanimous conclusion that she looked and played the part of the writer pretty convincingly. Quirky clothes and accessories.

On top of that, she seemed to have a knack of facilitating the questions, getting the children to answer questions just like they asked her. No surprise for a child born of two teachers, she had all the teacher mannerisms down; stopping mid sentence when the children spoke over her and giving them a look, shushing them, ending questions with a finger flourish to indicate that it was for children to respond.

Funny things she asked or said to the children.

1. The question was which Starlight (K2) class was she from. Her answer was "I was from..... (insert drumroll) Starlight 4..... + 4! And WHAT'S that?" (pointing at the children)

2. Each time she read the book, she added a little bit extra into it, ad-libbing as she went along.

3. When explaining the back page which was the 'About the Author' page, she pointed to her signature and delivered a public service announcement.

" This is my signature. It's curly and it's special because I am the only one who can sign it. If you copy my signature when you are an adult, you can go to jail! That is called forging!"

4. When asked how long she took to write the book, she tossed the question back to the children with

"You guess how long?"

"1 second!" was the response.

"How can that be possible? 1 second is like you counting 'one!'"  she countered.


5. She pointed to the photograph of her at the back of her book. "This is me. 2 years ago! Like you, now!"

She was on a high after that. She smiled and waved and promised to come back.


When I asked her what was her favourite moment, she said she didn't know because she just loved being back at kindy and hoping that what she said would help them write better stories.

Some days, it's easy to forget that she's not yet 8.

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And it's a wrap

The last 2 days have been the whirlwind windup to the end of term. It was 2 days of just plain playing with their teachers and friends while also getting a few practical lessons in to do with using money to buy food from stalls (this time at depressed and controlled prices with stall holders being mostly mommies ready to over dish the food to the queuing, hungry children.

The highlight for both of them was water play though Evan got more water time than Jordan. Jordan started out the day with a mild fever. On any other day, I would have her stay home but this time I was torn between it being her last day in school and us flying half way round the world on Monday night ill. Eventually, her teacher let her play for a little bit before sending her off to do something dry.

No last day can be complete without reminiscing and trying to capture memories hence the customary pose-awkwardly-with-the -teacher shots; especially teachers that they are oh-so-fond-of. Jordan's class also had a little autograph book of sorts where they exchanged phone numbers with everyone so that they would be able to keep in touch with one another.

The day eventually came to a close, no matter how much the kids didn't want it to end, it had to and they closed with a finale encore of their concert pieces. This time I got to see Evan perform it up close and Jordan lamented how she didn't want to leave the school.

Then just like that, the noise and buzz in the school died down, the children left reluctantly, after a million hugs with the teachers and kindergarten is over.

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I don't wanna grow up

-Crazy momma post ahead!-

Following on from the last post as we finish up kindy, we've been busy with Primary 1 orientation. It's where the kids meet their teachers and classmates for next year. They get taken on a tour of the school. Evan's eyes gleamed when he saw the complicated playground at the back of the school. Jordan just wanted to walk on the balance beams that they had.

Another reason why they do orientation is so that the children don't get too overwhelmed by the sea of students that will engulf them on the first day of school. And to the school's credit, they do a pretty good job. Even though in each of the orientations we attended, they were screamers and a lot of tears, Jordan and Evan held up admirably.

But they weren't the problem. I was. Both schools required us to drop off the children with their classes. At Jordan's school, as we rushed into the hall without stopping at the bathroom or anything, Jordan gets whisked off by an older student without so much as a wave and a bye to Mom. With Evan, it was pretty much the same thing.

I was then left to wander off and find a seat by myself to listen to the principal's briefing. And as she did so, it dawned upon me that while the kids seemed cool bananas and aptly prepared the face this new environment, kudos to the kindy for prepping and psyching them, no one really prepared the Momma!

Packrat rolled his eyes at me when he realised that I had tears in the corners of my eyes and I was asking him anxious, paranoid momma type questions like "What if he/ she is hungry? They hadn't eaten yet?", "What if they need to pee? We didn't go to the bathroom before coming in?", "What if they panic?" and a thousand other paranoid, crazy 'what if?' questions.

And then, there was the buying of their school books from the bookstore and as I did that, I kept thinking, it wasn't that long ago that I was doing it for myself in secondary school and now I'm doing it for my kids. Why am I doing this for my kids? How can they be big enough for me to buy primary school books for? Cognitive dissonance and overload. 

So my conclusion is that while the kids are ready to move on and grow up (they can't wait apparently), I'm desperately clinging onto their last vestiges of baby-hood. Once they head up to primary school, by no stretch of the imagination will they still be my babies! And I'm not ready to deal with that.

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It's Official! We've survived kindy!

The twins have graduated kindy.

I am proud to announce I did not cry during the graduation walk in even though I did tear a little bit.

And then, just like that, there was a finale and it was over. Just like kindergarten is for them.

I am sad for them. But at the same time, proud. The principal made a point in her speech about how when the little ones entered, at what was Muffin's age at the beginning of the year, they had problems with separation, focus and the inability to take instruction. She pointed out their complex dance choreographies and their stage presence as an example of how they have grown.

*Nods*


The concert did feel like the apt end to the kindy years; the showpiece that seemed to epitomise their years there. And Packrat and I are massively proud of how they have turned out. But by their successes, I don't mean their ability to read and write though I am proud of that too.

But they are confident little beings. Evan had confided in us that he was nervous and excited about the whole thing, the dancing, the walking up to get his scroll and ensuring his motar board does not fall off his head. But he did great. His performance of Mary's Boy Child was earnest and he did everything right. He even looked like he enjoyed himself. Jordan was part of the main cast, as one of the narrators. She did her speech bits with flourish, standing all alone on stage facing thousands of parents and immersed herself in O Holy Night.

They have become social beings. Every where we went, we were met with shrieks of "EVAN! COME HERE!" and "JORDAN! TAKE A PHOTO WITH ME NOW NOW NOW!!!". Evan had a bevy of girls trailing him (we were told later that the girls liked him because he was gentle and not loud and rude) and Jordan flitted from group to group somewhat celebrity-esque, with girls making space for her to insert herself into their photographs. Packrat and I gazed on with a tinge of envy and bewilderment. Envy because neither of us were social like Jordan and popular like Evan. We were always the odd ones out in the class. And bewilderment because we had no idea where the two of them got it from.

I suspect the school has a great deal to do with it. I know little ones who have told their parents without a doubt that they were staying on at St James, that they weren't going to primary one till they were ready and till then, St James would be there for them. While that amuses me, it also shows that great amount of attachment the children feel towards the school. I don't know if the twins realise that they are leaving yet but I sure do and I felt more than a tinge of sadness when Jordan brought home this yesterday.

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Mom the Rehearsal Mistress

 The twins graduate kindergarten in about a month and to celebrate it, they wear little mini caps and gowns, walk onto stage, receive their scroll (conferring them honours for finger painting, playground and sand play), take a bow and curtsy before strolling off. After that, they put on their dancing shoes and do a song and dance for us. From what I've gathered,  they've been rehearsing hard at school.

Jordan came home brandishing a piece of paper. She explained that she had to learn everything on the paper and say it without it. She had lines essentially. She was one of the three narrators for their performance and she had to be word perfect by November 2.

I had flashbacks to the time in secondary school where I had to emcee my school's Awards Night concert. I had no one to really help me and it terrified me massively. I remember muttering the lines every night as I fell asleep. 

So for Jordan, the most important thing is to treat it like it's a normal thing. People go up on stage and speak all the time. Right. Well, at least I can try and make it as painless as possible.


So, how do I help her?

So my job has been to make sure that she can pronounce words like "environment", "practically", "sumptuous" and that she says words like "salmon" correctly. It's taken me back to teacher training days where we were taught to pronounce words like "pronunciation", "vehicle" and "restaurant".

For Jordan, who still doesn't understand grammar rules implicitly, she remembers the big words but not the verbs and articles which hold no meaning for her.

I get her to stand on a raised platform. A chair, a stool, she wanted the dining table but I was slightly worried about the fan lopping off her top part of her head among other things. We all gather on the floor and watch her.

I tell her to look at us in the eyes.

Her brother balances a lion atop her head and this time I don't take it down. I tell her to keep the lion on her head. It helps her stand straight and not "goyang' like a palm tree.  She's learnt the meaning of the word "goyang" since.

After a week of practicing, the hardest bit is getting the lines out of her without the script and with minimal prompting. I've taken to contextualising her lines by asking her questions that would lead to the lines as answers. So far, it's helping but that soon will have to go.

It's coming along.

All I know is that being a stage mom and rehearsal mistress is hard work. 

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Capturing Faith

The one area that fascinates me with JED is their belief in God. I know their faith is actually a reflection of our faith because they aren't old enough to fully understand God yet but even then, their faith is touching.

We see snippets of it when one of them hurts themselves and the other two (or at least one of the older ones) would pray that 'God takes away the pain.'

They know how to pray for things that matter, like their school to remain open

Of course, we also see them use it for more mercenary purposes like "God, please bring me a pair of binoculars for my birthday."

Recently, there has been a great amount of concern expressed over Satan and how we will know it is Satan since he can take many forms. It took me a long time to explain to them, particularly Evan that while Satan was powerful, God was even more powerful and God was on our side.

He then drew a parallel to the Transformers. God was the leader of the Autobots and Satan was the leader of the Decepticons. Strangely apt.

 And then, there was Jordan who drew God. How wonderful that in all the bright colours and beauty, God was placed in the middle. They seemed to have pretty much hit the nail on its head.

I hope that JED will always have the faith of little children.

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The Beginning of the End

I am a sentimentalist and the twins are nearing the end of their pre-school years. They are going to leave the kindergarten that has become so dear to us and I can say without a doubt, it was really worth the wait.

Today was the twins' Open House. Their last one. I saw through the years, their projects becoming more and more complicated, demanding more creativity and thought out of them. Their projects never sound like much when we get the title but when we attend the Open House, it never ceases to astound us, how much the children have done.

Evan's class project was on chairs. We had done quite a bit of work on it during the holidays but there was still more to see! My two favourite presentations. 1. The mega art chair that they built out of used drink cans (417 to be exact) that could hold the weight of an adult. The children charged $1 for each person to sit in their 'throne' and were going to count how much money they had made during Math class. 2. The Point of View exercise where each child sat around the chair and drew the chair from where they sat. I struggle to teach pre-university students how to look at multiple perspectives in an argument and I was extremely heartened that Evan was being exposed to this visually at 6 years old.

Jordan's class project on books. She got to publish her own book and part of the open house was a book signing. She had taken this very seriously and had asked me to print out 'cursive' worksheets of her name to practice for the book signing. She also rehearsed very hard because the class had written a story and she was narrating a part of it, with backdrop and all that they created. She did it word perfect.

The same thing strikes me every year. They are immensely invested in their projects and they take great pride and ownership in it. And in my opinion, if this was the only thing they picked up from their years at kindy (and it obviously isn't!), then the kindy has already done right by us.

Thankfully, I have 3 more years of Muffin's project Open House to look forward to and to gush about. After that, I shall truly be sad.

 

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Painting, mosquitoes and an unexpected conversation

A grocery run led me across the road where I saw a marquee set up and long tables where people seemed to be painting. On closer inspection, it was a community event set up by the constituency- the all powerful one; Tanjong Pagar and there was indeed painting- communal batik painting. On the other side, there was a display of mosquitoes to raise dengue awareness and balloon sculpting.

Something for each of the kids.

I high tail home to get the kids to return with all three and Packrat in tow.

As expected, Evan was fascinated with the mosquitoes; them at different stages of their life cycle- larvae, pupae and the adult ones malevolently flying about in a contained box. No photos because Evan was both fascinated and freaked out by the them and gripped on to my arms for dear life.

Both of them loved the batik painting. If I hadn't been holding the container of dye, I would have done some too. I suspect it will become a mural of sorts somewhere.

Muffin didn't do any of that but loved the balloon swords they were giving out and duelled with anyone willing to give him time of day.

They marched home with the 'swords' held high, patriotically coloured in national colours resembling a shaggy rag tag contingent for National Day.

Because it was a community event, the MPs for the constituency were in attendance. I point out to the twins one of the constituency's MPs Indranee Rajah and tell them that she helped saved their school.

Jordan walks up to her, stands by her side politely and waits while the she finishes off her conversation with someone else. The MP notices Jordan and Jordan mouthing something to her in all the noise. She bends over and Jordan says to her "I am Jordan. I am from St James Kindergarten. Thank you for saving my school." 

I can't get out of Jordan what Indranee Rajah's response was. Every time we try to ask her, she tells us what she said and smiles. But the MP did break out into a big smile and looked up at me to ask if Jordan is my daughter. I reply in the affirmative and she asks where we live; that to me is a strange question. But she does comment how nice it is that a little girl came up to her and spoke to her and how interesting that she and Evan (who had by then torn himself away from his beloved mosquitoes and appeared by my side) were twins.

Packrat's only comment on seeing a photographer take a photo of the exchange; that it doesn't appear in the press because Jordan looks like a little street urchin with wet hair, an old t-shirt and shorts paired off with wellies. Unless the press wants to try to make scruffy chic.

All this for the want of some painting and some mosquitoes.

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Somewhere over the rainbow

How to make a child beam from ear to ear?

1. Allow them to still have their birthday celebration in school even though their birthday was two weeks ago.

2. Allow them to choose the image print for their cake. (Evan wanted Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Jordan wanted My Little Pony)

 

3. Show them the cake that they are going to share with their friends and get them all jazzed up about it. (Evan refused to have a snack before school for fear that he would have no room for cake)

4. Have them do a combined birthday celebration. With 60 children singing happy birthday to you, it's very hard not to be thrilled. Especially when all the lights are off.

5. Not tell them what cake their cousin baked them and see their jaws drop when they realise that there was a full rainbow in it.

How to make a mom beam from ear to ear?

1. See the enormous cakes get inhaled by the children. (The guilty conscience popped up because the teachers were going to have to scrap the kids off the ceiling)

2. See Evan lick his fingers while he very graciously gave everyone else cake first (Including Jordan's teacher)

3. See seven pretty layers laid flat on a plate. I know it's a lot of colouring but hey, they get a rainbow cake just once.

4. Have both Evan and Jordan spontaneously thank God for the wonderful party they had in school even though all we did was bring cake.

5. Hear all the children talk so excitedly about the cake and the characters and hear them engaged in a conversation with the teachers about what twins are and why Jordan and Evan were twins.

I'm sad that it's the last I'm going to be doing for the twins. It's just another sign of them growing up so fast. Thankfully, there's still Muffin!


 

    

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Oh! The Places We Will Go!

It's amazed me that the projects that the twins get allocated seem to always suit them perfectly. Evan would have had fun with Jordan's Book project but he totally loved the geekness of his Chair project. He was in heaven when we were out looking at chairs, testing them out and insisting that we took photographs of him in them. He even got up enough guts to go to the counter at Ikea and ask them for a catalogue for his project; his words not mine.

If I got Evan to write stories or draw, he would be reluctant. But give him a dismantled chair to assemble and his eyes light up like it was Christmas. Packrat and he spent a great load of time assembling the chair, messing around and pretending to paint the chair. The name of the game was to get as dirty as possible and paint on the most impossible bits of themselves. But the chair did look very cool after and Evan and Packrat did spend a great deal of time together pretending that they had carpentering skills.

Here are some stills that I've taken out of his project booklet chronicling what he did. 

Because two projects are a lot to handle, I tried to do things that bridged both. That meant ordering and reading a book about the Wishing Chair by Enid Blyton. I'm big on getting them started on Enid Blyton, partially because of nostalgia but partially because I think there is a lot of cultural capital (post colonial though it may be) to be gained. 

And because of that, when the chair Packrat and Evan built was dry, they thought that they would mutter a few magic words (I could have sworn I heard "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious " being mumbled) and turn the chair into a Wishing one. But as with the tooth fairy, the chair's magic powers come from the fairygodmother, me. So with a wave of my manic wand and a Bibbity Bobbety Boo, I turned the Ikea chair into a Wishing Chair complete with paper wings on their legs like the one in the book.

The other thing that Evan really likes to do is to explore. Jordan is happy to stay home and draw and look at her books. Evan, however, itches to be out of the house doing new things all the time. Everyday that he is not in school, he starts the day asking "Where are we going today?". He also knows to ask to go places, the zoo, Sentosa, the Bird Park, Takashimaya! On more than one occasion, he has started his sentences with "How I wish that we could go to..."

So, we took him seriously, gathered a bunch of local travel brochures, got him to cut up his wish list and stick it up on his wishing chair. On a side note, it is downright difficult to find a travel agent when we need one. I think it's because people book their holidays online and the travel agents that do exist, exist in Chinatown and other places too far for the crazy busy fairygodmother to get to.

Thankfully, the boy doesn't have lofty dreams of going to Caribbean islands and Disneyland. Most of his choices were local. He did say he wanted the Wishing Chair to take him to Penang. But since we've just got back from there, there wasn't a real need to put it on the again. And as much as possible, we will try and take him on as many of these adventures as possible. After all, his wanderlust does very much come from the both of us.

At the same time, we picked up a silly poem about a Table and a Chair having a conversation and while he has it memorised, he isn't as keen to recite that in class than to show off his Wishing Chair and talk about all the places he would like the chair to bring him if the chair were real.

I wish the chair was real too. I would totally use it. No ERP, no ridiculous Hello Kitty type traffic jams and no expensive fuel. And what's not to love about red/ pink flapping wings on each chair leg? To quote Dr Seuss,

“You're off to Great Places!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting,
So... get on your way!”

That, is totally up ours and Evan's alley. 

Technorati Tags: JED, School Projects, Ikea

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The Little Story Teller's Adventures

'Tis the time of the year for project work again. Every year, before the June break, we wait anxiously to find out what project the twins will be involved in for the next term. I love project work season. I love how their classes take on relatively simple and straight forward themes (they are all pre-schoolers after all) and turn out mega projects. It always culminates in an Open House at school that I am guaranteed to leave with my jaw on the ground. I think I am relishing this year's projects with the twins more than ever because I know that it will be their last.

This is the first of 2 posts. One for Jordan and the other for Evan. Next year, Muffin starts his annual project cycle. Unfortunately, the twins would have gone on the Primary One by then. It would have been great to go to 3 project work presentations at school.

Anyway, Jordan's class project is about books.

We'd done an array of projects at home to do with books. We did some of it during their "Fake Birthday Party" but that seemed to make the project totter dangerously around obsessing on Charlotte's Web. So we moved away from the spider and the pig.

The great thing about these projects is that we can base it on what piques their interests and we can build on it. Jordan loves drawing. At the same time, with no surprise coming from a family with two English teachers, her Chinese ain't that hot. So to help her do something she wouldn't be all that comfortable doing (reading an entire Chinese story book), I get her to illustrate her book as a puppet show. And that's where she takes off. She draws all the characters herself though by the lion, she gets tired and asks me to do it. I tell her, truthfully, that I can't for the life of me draw a lion for her. I could write her 10 stories in Chinese better than I could draw the lion. I am not sure what that is testament of; my inability to draw or the delusion that my Chinese is actually better than my art.

Anyway, she came up with all the puppets, coloured and mounted them herself. I painstakingly wrote a 4 page script, careful to only use words that she could read. It became a task of Dr Seuss proportions (Green Eggs and Ham was written with 50 words). All we were short of was a cardboard theatre stage but her 'wayang kulit' attempts that started with halting Chinese soon gave way to smooth Chinese story-telling with the help of the table's edge. (Video will go up once I get one without Muffin squealing in the back ground or Evan talking to me.)

Today, she came home with an addition to her project. What must have been a lesson in school about writing a narrative was very quickly assimilated. She told us that stories required 'conflict' and could quite quickly identify 'conflict' in her bed time stories with us. On top of that, she produced a little story booklet, complete with 'conflict' as well as an ending open enough to warrant a sequel.

It combines her loves of My Little Pony (very very hot favourite with both Jordan and Evan), drawing and story telling. We left it mostly intact, wanting it to be all her  (The first page, she corrected when we read it out loud and she realised her mistakes. We stopped because we wanted to keep it in the spirit it was written).

And tonight, as a family, we discovered an almost wordless book with only 12 words in it. It's called Tuesday by David Wiesner. It's a great book because we get to make up stories based on the pictures. And we took turns making up stories. Each of us, Packrat, the twins and myself (Muffin was happy counting frogs or toads as Packrat claims) came up with a story paying attention to different details and each of us had different favourite images.  And what we identified as 'conflict' was entirely different. A lesson on perspective if you will.

We will probably let her bring the book to school to share with her class. I'm going to miss doing these mega projects with them next year when they go up to Primary One. Fingers crossed that they get to do these things then but I'm not putting any money on that.

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