Elsie Elsie kick a ball, Elsie Elsie had a great fall....
This happened 2 months back and I wanted to blog about it but I forgot. I wanted to note down this incident which scare the hell out of me.
On 28th July morning, Elsie was playing and kicking a mini soccer ball with Andre. Somehow she missed the ball and fell to the floor hitting hard on the right side of her head. It immediately swell big and she was in great pain. As this was not the first time she fell, it didn't really bother us much except to apply gel and hopefully the swell will subside soon.
That morning the girls were supposed to have their swimming class and I forbid Elsie to go. Due to the bump on her head, I wanted her to rest at home instead although she was crying that she wanted to go swimming. I'm glad I made the right choice.
I message Hui Elsie's condition at the pool when Chloe was having her swimming lesson. Hui told me Elsie vomited. I panic and wishes for the lesson to end faster so that I could rush home to take a look at this girl.
When I reached home, Elsie was restless and still sobbing on the sofa. Hui had a friend's farewell cum birthday party to attend that day and he left the house with the 3 kids with me by lunch time.
I fed Elsie lunch and after half way, she vomited again. She kept complaining her head was very painful and she felt sleepy. So without finishing the balance of the macaroni, she lied on the sofa and fell asleep. Just 20 mins later, she was up crying loud complaining the pain again. This time I got REALLY worried!
I sms Hui's second sister to come over and help look after Chloe/Andre so I could bring Elsie to KKH. BIL was very kind to send me there while SIL jagar the other 2 kids at home. As usual, it's always long Q waiting at KKH A&E. While waiting, Elsie said she was hungry. So BIL went to get her sandwich from Delifrance. Before she even had a bite, she vomited again. I was worried sick and almost teared.
Hui came to KKH 1hr+ later. Finally it's our turn to see the doctor. She touched the bump, examine Elsie and said there seems to be some fractured. So a x-ray was done to see the condition. Result of x-ray was out 5 mins later and we went back into the room to hear the results from the same doctor. She took very long to look at the x-ray results from her computer screen and the longer she took, the more worried I am. I'm so scared that she will turned to me and say Elsie need to be admitted, condition not so good, blah blah blah...
End up......she said the x-ray look very normal. Cannot even see any fractured. Just a bump there which is normal due to the fall. My tense shoulder since this morning finally managed to loosen. My heart finally stop bumping so fast. I felt so relief. She gave me a brochure to read which listed all the possible symptoms due to a fall and said if Elsie went back and vomiting continues more than 4 times, had some symptoms listed in the brochures, I need to admit her immediately. She was given an appointment to see a neuron specialist one week later for review check.
After she went home, she seems to be her own self again. Bubbly, active and playing happily with her siblings. She could finish her dinner too without vomiting anymore. I stop her from school on Monday too so I could monitor her one more day at home. She was doing great except on and off complaining of the pain which the doctor say is normal as there were bruises around the bump. Once the bruise and bump heal itself, she will be fine.
1 week past and it was the review with the neuron specialist....
He did a few test on Elsie to make sure her brain is working fine. He asked her name, if she recognize me, walk in a straight line, hold something on her hand and ask her more questions to see if she can speak properly without mumble.
"Elsie is fine. She can be discharged with an open date for appointment". I told him this is the first time I see she had some signs after a fall. He told me it's normal because if the fall is hard, the brain is shaken and within the first 6 hours, the person will feel nauseous, restless and sleepy. Some might even be unconscious for that few minutes. Once the brain recovers itself, all these symptoms will be gone. He took a look at the x-ray that was done back then and said the results looks good. No damage anywhere.
Finally this whole saga is over! Hopefully no second time of falling from any of the kids with such symptoms that Elsie encountered! My heart cannot take it!
Friday, August 16, 2013
Primary 1 registration
P1 registration is a scary process for all parents, especially if they have a specific school of their choice yet not affiliated to it in anyway and past records required balloting.
In Singapore, this is how the P1 registration phase works:
Each phase is further breakdown into distance between house and school: within 1km, 1-2km, >2km.
Example:
If I belong and register under Phase 2B after doing parents volunteering work:
At time of vacancies available under Phase 2B = 30
Total number of registration under Phase 2B = 55 (breakdown as below):
Within 1km = 25
1-2km = 10
>2km = 20
All those under 'within 1km' will enter the school successfully. Balloting will start for those under 1-2km and 10 people fighting for 5 seats. >2km? Sayounara! Those balloted out and stay >2km will have to register in another school or register again in the same school for Phase 2C which usually will end up balloting again if demand > supply. The same procedure apply in all phases.
For past history records, all schools under phase 1, 2A1 and 2A2 require no balloting and all registrants will successfully enter the school. Balloting usually starts at 2B onwards for those rather popular schools.
Ok............So............
Lately we had been pretty headache regards to the choice of primary school for EC. Since last year, I had been monitoring the trend in forums and MOE website during the P1 registration period. It starts between June-Aug period every year.
Since I had a pair of twins entering P1 together in the same year same time, I am really trying to avoid any balloting risks because if I did not get balloted, I had to find those balance schools with vacancy enough for 2 pax in the last stage 2C Supplementary if I wouldn't get a school in phase 2B or 2C.
Parents volunteering work to get into phase 2B is also something I want to avoid. I feel the school wants to cheat away our free services for something not guaranteed in return. For popular schools, mostly phase 2B will end up balloting and some parents who did 40-80 hours of services with the school did not end up with a seat for their child as they were balloted out.
So the only choice is trying to get into Phase 2A1/2A2. Phase 1 is out since EC are the eldest children. When it comes to Andre's turn, I will have no headache as he will successfully enter the same school under Phase 1 with EC still in the school.
We are considered lucky because Hui and my school are still up and running strong compared to other friends whose primary school had already closed down. So this makes us falls under 2A1 if we join the school alumni paying a fee or 2A2 as ex-students but not alumni.
Now here comes the hard part!
Distance between home and school is actually my first concern when comes to primary school. Of course, there's still the popularity (ranking), logistic plans, chances of getting in that have to put into considerations too. Both our schools are SAP school and had very good reviews of nurturing top students. SAP schools focus a lot on chinese language and culture and theses schools offer Higher Chinese starting P1. Such schools are actually my girls' nemesis because they are 'Jiak Gan Tang' (eat potato aka dun like/speak chinese)!
Last year 2012, we were almost fix to choose NHP because it is just within 1km to my mum's place. I have to do a statutory declaration with MOE first to use my mum's address at point of registration in order to be under "within 1km" category. So the logistic plan will be us staying over at mum's place from Mon-Fri and go back our own home every Friday night to Sunday. Sunday night we will be back at Clementi again so the girls can go school on Monday easily. This plan will continue till our house reach 5 years from date of purchase and we are able to purchase a flat at West side (hopefully near mum's). Andre will also has his pre-school education at a school nearby mum's. Hui kept asking me to join the alumni in order for us to move up one level under 2A1 but I refused. Reason being we are not really 100% firm on this plan and things might change when it's time for us to register P1 in 2014, especially our house is still in Hougang now. Also base on past history, Phase 2A2 had equal chance of entering successfully without balloting too and mum's house is within 1km which means we have highest priority in this phase 2A2.
This plan was brought up again for discussion this year at around the same time because of this year P1 registration. Few weeks ago, a second option was raised by mum which now causes a big headache because both options have it's pros and cons (Luckily I insisted not to join NHP alumni)!
I need a third party opinion!!!
Option #1: Per the plan as in 2012 above.
Option #2: Totally the opposite. Mum move over to stay at our house Sunday night - Fri, go back home Friday night or Sat morning.
CONS:
MBS is like a 10km drive from our house. If the kids were to take school bus, they could be the first-in-last-out situation. This is the main point that keep me thinking and thinking if it's worth to have this option as I feel spending a lot of time in the bus is a totally waste of time which can be replace with more sleeping hours and doing homework or relaxing at home!
Hui did mention I could be the "bus driver" to send and fetch them from school since I work from home. But what if I need to go back office? What if I had conference calls during that certain hour. Also not to forget Andre's preschool which we plan to enroll him with Kinderland@serangoon (if we choose this plan) requires me to send/pick him up from school too. If I can't, mum will have to take a straight bus 101 to help me fetch him. Then what about EC if mum is out of the house? MBS is afternoon session for P1 and P2. Class starts 12.20pm to 6.20pm. Kinderland starts 8am to 11am. Also CCA for MBS starts in the morning for those in afternoon session. Looking at this plan, if I am the one to be the chauffeur for everybody, the whole morning I will be damn busy with the kids and no time to work at all! And sometimes I do have calls at 7pm which I will not be in time to fetch EC because Ubi area is always jam especially after office hours. Then what if I decided to change job which requires me to be in office and not working from home anymore? Or maybe Andre go childcare instead? Still many open discussion and things to plan here.
PROS:
The plus point would be we need not worry about moving house 2 years down the road, which involve again a huge amount of $$ for renovations. Clementi is such a matured estate, the price of the flat will definitely be more than what I sell from current flat. Also we have a lot of friends/Hui's family staying at the East/NE area which is quite convenient for any gathering and visits. Mum intend to rent out one of the room to earn some passive income if we go with this plan so she had more pocket money to spent and save. These points are the reason why we are keeping this option open too.
If you were me, which option would you choose?
(Hui actually prefers option #2)
In Singapore, this is how the P1 registration phase works:
Each phase is further breakdown into distance between house and school: within 1km, 1-2km, >2km.
Eligibility
|
Primary One
Registration Phase
|
For children who are
|
Phase 1
For a child who has a sibling studying in the primary school of choice |
Phase 2A(1)
(a) For a child whose parent is a former student of the primary school and
who has joined the alumni association as a member not later than 30 June
2012.(b) For a child whose parent is a member of the School Advisory / Management Committee |
|
Phase 2A(2)
(a) For a child whose parent or sibling has studied in the primary school
of choice(b) For a child whose parent is a staff member of the primary school of choice |
|
Phase 2B
(a) For a child whose parent has joined the primary school as a parent
volunteer not later than 1 July 2012 and has given at least 40 hours of
voluntary service to the school by 30 June 2013(b) For a child whose parent is a member endorsed by the church/clan directly connected with the primary school (c) For a child whose parent is endorsed as an active community leader |
|
Phase 2C
For all children who are eligible for Primary One in the following year
and are not yet registered in a primary school |
|
Phase 2C Supplementary
For a child who is not yet registered in a school after Phase 2C |
|
For children who are not
|
Phase 3
For a child who is neither a |
Example:
If I belong and register under Phase 2B after doing parents volunteering work:
At time of vacancies available under Phase 2B = 30
Total number of registration under Phase 2B = 55 (breakdown as below):
Within 1km = 25
1-2km = 10
>2km = 20
All those under 'within 1km' will enter the school successfully. Balloting will start for those under 1-2km and 10 people fighting for 5 seats. >2km? Sayounara! Those balloted out and stay >2km will have to register in another school or register again in the same school for Phase 2C which usually will end up balloting again if demand > supply. The same procedure apply in all phases.
For past history records, all schools under phase 1, 2A1 and 2A2 require no balloting and all registrants will successfully enter the school. Balloting usually starts at 2B onwards for those rather popular schools.
Ok............So............
Lately we had been pretty headache regards to the choice of primary school for EC. Since last year, I had been monitoring the trend in forums and MOE website during the P1 registration period. It starts between June-Aug period every year.
Since I had a pair of twins entering P1 together in the same year same time, I am really trying to avoid any balloting risks because if I did not get balloted, I had to find those balance schools with vacancy enough for 2 pax in the last stage 2C Supplementary if I wouldn't get a school in phase 2B or 2C.
Parents volunteering work to get into phase 2B is also something I want to avoid. I feel the school wants to cheat away our free services for something not guaranteed in return. For popular schools, mostly phase 2B will end up balloting and some parents who did 40-80 hours of services with the school did not end up with a seat for their child as they were balloted out.
So the only choice is trying to get into Phase 2A1/2A2. Phase 1 is out since EC are the eldest children. When it comes to Andre's turn, I will have no headache as he will successfully enter the same school under Phase 1 with EC still in the school.
We are considered lucky because Hui and my school are still up and running strong compared to other friends whose primary school had already closed down. So this makes us falls under 2A1 if we join the school alumni paying a fee or 2A2 as ex-students but not alumni.
Now here comes the hard part!
- Maha Bodhi school at Ubi (ranked top 20, partial single session - P1/2 afternoon session) OR
- Nan Hua primary at Clementi (ranked top 10, single session - all morning session)
Distance between home and school is actually my first concern when comes to primary school. Of course, there's still the popularity (ranking), logistic plans, chances of getting in that have to put into considerations too. Both our schools are SAP school and had very good reviews of nurturing top students. SAP schools focus a lot on chinese language and culture and theses schools offer Higher Chinese starting P1. Such schools are actually my girls' nemesis because they are 'Jiak Gan Tang' (eat potato aka dun like/speak chinese)!
Last year 2012, we were almost fix to choose NHP because it is just within 1km to my mum's place. I have to do a statutory declaration with MOE first to use my mum's address at point of registration in order to be under "within 1km" category. So the logistic plan will be us staying over at mum's place from Mon-Fri and go back our own home every Friday night to Sunday. Sunday night we will be back at Clementi again so the girls can go school on Monday easily. This plan will continue till our house reach 5 years from date of purchase and we are able to purchase a flat at West side (hopefully near mum's). Andre will also has his pre-school education at a school nearby mum's. Hui kept asking me to join the alumni in order for us to move up one level under 2A1 but I refused. Reason being we are not really 100% firm on this plan and things might change when it's time for us to register P1 in 2014, especially our house is still in Hougang now. Also base on past history, Phase 2A2 had equal chance of entering successfully without balloting too and mum's house is within 1km which means we have highest priority in this phase 2A2.
This plan was brought up again for discussion this year at around the same time because of this year P1 registration. Few weeks ago, a second option was raised by mum which now causes a big headache because both options have it's pros and cons (Luckily I insisted not to join NHP alumni)!
I need a third party opinion!!!
Option #1: Per the plan as in 2012 above.
Option #2: Totally the opposite. Mum move over to stay at our house Sunday night - Fri, go back home Friday night or Sat morning.
CONS:
MBS is like a 10km drive from our house. If the kids were to take school bus, they could be the first-in-last-out situation. This is the main point that keep me thinking and thinking if it's worth to have this option as I feel spending a lot of time in the bus is a totally waste of time which can be replace with more sleeping hours and doing homework or relaxing at home!
Hui did mention I could be the "bus driver" to send and fetch them from school since I work from home. But what if I need to go back office? What if I had conference calls during that certain hour. Also not to forget Andre's preschool which we plan to enroll him with Kinderland@serangoon (if we choose this plan) requires me to send/pick him up from school too. If I can't, mum will have to take a straight bus 101 to help me fetch him. Then what about EC if mum is out of the house? MBS is afternoon session for P1 and P2. Class starts 12.20pm to 6.20pm. Kinderland starts 8am to 11am. Also CCA for MBS starts in the morning for those in afternoon session. Looking at this plan, if I am the one to be the chauffeur for everybody, the whole morning I will be damn busy with the kids and no time to work at all! And sometimes I do have calls at 7pm which I will not be in time to fetch EC because Ubi area is always jam especially after office hours. Then what if I decided to change job which requires me to be in office and not working from home anymore? Or maybe Andre go childcare instead? Still many open discussion and things to plan here.
PROS:
The plus point would be we need not worry about moving house 2 years down the road, which involve again a huge amount of $$ for renovations. Clementi is such a matured estate, the price of the flat will definitely be more than what I sell from current flat. Also we have a lot of friends/Hui's family staying at the East/NE area which is quite convenient for any gathering and visits. Mum intend to rent out one of the room to earn some passive income if we go with this plan so she had more pocket money to spent and save. These points are the reason why we are keeping this option open too.
If you were me, which option would you choose?
(Hui actually prefers option #2)
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Andre's 2nd birthday
This is a very belated post which I wanted to post right after Andre's birthday party. But laziness came over me as usual when comes to blogging on time!. :(
Andre's party at Costa Sands Resort @ Pasir Ris for 3D2N (from 3rd-5th Aug) was planned really last minute. Our initial plan was not to have party and go for a trip. We thought of Taiwan but threw away the idea as the expenses for a family of 5 were over budget, considering a cruise trip is coming up in Nov. Then we thought of Bali and utilize our Krisflyers miles but all flights during that period were in "waiting list" status if we were to buy using the Kris miles. Then Bintan came to our mind but somehow we didn't choose it either. Then it was some hotel stay in RWS but all rooms under the package deal were fully booked on that Sat, 3rd Aug. We also thought of just a family outing to Sea Aquarium but as his actual day falls on Saturday, the crowd might be unbearable. Discussion were ongoing weeks and weeks with no conclusion until beginning of July, we finally decided on this chalet with Duplex room (2 story) after doing some checking on availability.
So after venue is booked, subsequent plans would be the theme, goodies bags for kids, birthday cake, food and decorations. Theme was another headache because Andre doesn't seems to have a FAVORITE. Everything he also like for just that while only. Then crazy me thought of Tayo the little bus theme because he always asked me to play the theme song in iphone youtube for him. This Korean cartoon was introduce to him after a poly friend gave Elsie/Chloe 4 bus toys characters from this cartoon as birthday present this year May. I sort of regretted after fixing this theme because I can hardly find any decorations items and goodie bags with this character! Hence, I had to go for customize and DIY-ed!
Food: We wanted to do a BBQ instead of buffet as we wanted to make this party a small affair with close family members and a few group of friends only. Some staple food were ordered too to keep the guests tummy filled while waiting for the BBQ food to be ready.
Overall it was a good party, relaxing and no rush as we did not have to check-out the next day morning. But we didn't stay for another night either because we didn't take leave on Monday and the girls' had school. So we did a key drop at the reception on Sunday evening and went home to unpack and rest.
Andre's party at Costa Sands Resort @ Pasir Ris for 3D2N (from 3rd-5th Aug) was planned really last minute. Our initial plan was not to have party and go for a trip. We thought of Taiwan but threw away the idea as the expenses for a family of 5 were over budget, considering a cruise trip is coming up in Nov. Then we thought of Bali and utilize our Krisflyers miles but all flights during that period were in "waiting list" status if we were to buy using the Kris miles. Then Bintan came to our mind but somehow we didn't choose it either. Then it was some hotel stay in RWS but all rooms under the package deal were fully booked on that Sat, 3rd Aug. We also thought of just a family outing to Sea Aquarium but as his actual day falls on Saturday, the crowd might be unbearable. Discussion were ongoing weeks and weeks with no conclusion until beginning of July, we finally decided on this chalet with Duplex room (2 story) after doing some checking on availability.
So after venue is booked, subsequent plans would be the theme, goodies bags for kids, birthday cake, food and decorations. Theme was another headache because Andre doesn't seems to have a FAVORITE. Everything he also like for just that while only. Then crazy me thought of Tayo the little bus theme because he always asked me to play the theme song in iphone youtube for him. This Korean cartoon was introduce to him after a poly friend gave Elsie/Chloe 4 bus toys characters from this cartoon as birthday present this year May. I sort of regretted after fixing this theme because I can hardly find any decorations items and goodie bags with this character! Hence, I had to go for customize and DIY-ed!
Food: We wanted to do a BBQ instead of buffet as we wanted to make this party a small affair with close family members and a few group of friends only. Some staple food were ordered too to keep the guests tummy filled while waiting for the BBQ food to be ready.
Overall it was a good party, relaxing and no rush as we did not have to check-out the next day morning. But we didn't stay for another night either because we didn't take leave on Monday and the girls' had school. So we did a key drop at the reception on Sunday evening and went home to unpack and rest.
Some decorations done around the area. Kuddos to Hui for DIY-ed the Tayo bus backdrop for cake cutting. Majority of the pictures of Tayo bus cartoon characters were gathered from the internet and printed out. It's really not easy to find Tayo Bus characters decoration items. Also the sand arts I bought from Taobao last year finally can put into good use! It's really expensive to do these sand arts at our local retail stores which cost about $5-$7 per piece. I bought a set (with 200g of 10 colors sands and 20 sand art templates) for about SGD$13 only!
Cookies baked by me, Nutella Cuppies by Gek Eng and Jelly hearts cheesecake by SIL (Jessica).
All baked with love and oh-so-yummy! Goodie buckets (top left pic) were also specially ordered and customized with Tayo stickers stick on it. Of course the food items inside were from supermarket.
The men (and little man!) behind the scenes for decorations and starting the BBQ! Thank you guys!
Tayo the little bus theme cake. The 4 little bus toys were specially bought from qoo10.sg to be used as cake toppers. So after the cake cutting session, they belong to Andre as his play toys!
The guests that were present for the party. Missing were SILs and BILs.
They were busy taking photos for us.
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you....
Andre's new friend. Both passing the luminous ring to each other, again and again.
See his trademark "cheese" pose?
The girls kept nagging they wanted to open DiDi's present.
So after the guests left, it's present opening time!
Day 2 at the chalet. More sand arts and BBQ food left over from yesterday.
Happy 2nd Birthday, my dearest 老三! May you grow up with happiness, be healthy and successful in your life! Mummy, Daddy and your 2 elder sisters love you so much! But that doesn't give you the authority to bully your sisters in giving in to you always and become a spoilt child, ok? :)
See how much the kids had grown in just 1 year! 我们也老了!
