Fun @ Indoor Playground 11 September, 2011
Posted by dear1dear2 in Baby, Dear2, Learning Training, Sports & Health.1 comment so far
Indoor playgrounds are great places for our little ones. Apart from having a safe (aka soft) avenue for them to learn motor skills through play, climb, run arounds, they are also a great place to learn the first socialisation skills through interaction with other kids. Mummy loves to bring Baby1 to indoor playgrounds!
So far, we’ve only been to three of such. KidsAmaze at Jurong Safra seems to be the largest with the tallest playground with multiple storeys (really!!), but for our 19-month old, this seem to be kinda advance for her yet. We’ve heard of SingKids at Vivocity and T3, but at $18/hr per adult on weekends, it seems a bit extravagant…. There’s also one at (Orchid?) Country Club, but the pictures I’ve seen doesn’t seem very impressive with just 1 tiny ball area.
Let’s talk about those 3 that we’ve been to.
First, parking is free, so plus plus plus points. It’s free entry for kids under 1 year old, and $8 whole day for our 19-month old. Adults go in free, yeah. Among the 3 that we have visited, Fidgets is the largest, with 3/ 4 separate areas including 1 small corner for babies under 12 month. The play area for the older kids is very large, ample space for kids except when the kids are ‘released’ from whatever birthday party they were attending in the function rooms. During this time, you’ve better stay away from the play area until these rowdy bigger children return to their parties.
Go Go Bambini @ Dempsey
Again, parking is free at Dempsey, so horray. $6 for our little ones, and free for us parents. The interior however was very disappointing. First, the staff did not even ask if we want to sanitize our hands. No sanitization for us means none for other parents and kids there too. Hmm… This scores minus points at first impression. Then upon passing the gate, we were unsure if we need to change into socks already.. There were visible shoe prints on the floor, but the play area is just next to it!! Eeks, I don’t want to talk about how someone can walk (shoe or sock, I don’t know) into the toilet which is just round the corner, then go back into the play area.
On the play area, it’s really kinda small and low, and it gets even worse when the kids are released from their party. For a while, we were happily enjoying the exclusiveness to us (it was just us one family there on that Saturday late afternoon), but we had to scramble down to safety when the tods come scrambling up. It was a nightmare to even recall it.
Peekaboo @ Kallang Leisure Park
No free parking at the stadium area, so we put coupons every hourly because we don’t know how long Baby1 will enjoy the place. At $10 per entry, it seems expensive for a play area slightly bigger than that at Go Go Bambini. But despite it’s squeeze, the main playground is fun! Ample of balls in the balls area – that’s what I will really call a Balls Area. There’s even lots of rockers, and a mini slide and a mini swing, a tod-size sink/oven area, and a mini house, all so suitable for our little one. Yeah, truly, until Baby1 reaches 2 when she’s more mobile and confident in running around on her own, big playgrounds and slides don’t attract her as much as these little ones.
Next up, I’ll want to bring Baby1 to Polliwogs at East Coast Park. The parking at ECP is usually horrible at the most popular area where the playground is located, so we’ll see how it goes when we are there.
Have fun!
- Dear2
Baby1′s First Day in School 1 September, 2011
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It’s 1 September 2011 today, Teacher’s Day, and it’s Baby1′s first day in school!!
At 6am, Baby1 woke up crying for milk. No choice, gotto drag our sleepy bodies up and make milk for her. After that, it was eyes’ wide open and play until we set off for Granny’s house at 7.30, slightly earlier than our usual timings.
In the car, Baby1 fell asleep while Mummy and Daddy were chatting away. Oh no, will she sleep past the 9 o’clock school time? But no choice again, better let her sleep a bit now rather than have her tired later. 15 mins of cat nap and Baby1 was wide awake again, ready to play. Throughout the whole morning, Mummy and Daddy and Granny keep telling her that she’s going to school today and she’s going to play with many Gor Gor and Jie Jie, hee hee…
At 8.35, Baby1 held onto Mummy and Granny’s hand, with Ye Ye walking behind, and we walked all the way to the school premise. The 2 hours Little Learners Playgroup is located in one of the void deck in the RC, a good 10 mins walk from Granny’s house. For the very first time, Baby1 walked all the way on her own without carrying! Good job, baby!
From afar, we saw a few toddlers in the same yellow and blue uniform. The teachers were still inside preparing the class, so every one was just sitting around. To prep Baby1, Mummy and Granny kept showing her “there’s Jie Jie and Gor Gor, later go play with them”. Ye Ye was seated a little behind the void deck, so during the 10 min wait, Baby1 was running between Ye Ye and Mummy, as well as occasionally leaning over Jie Jie’s bottle to see what she was drinking.
At 9, the teachers, set up 2 small chairs at the door and began distributing thermometers. We had already taken ours at home using the specially-bought forehead thermometer. One by one, the students lined up and the teacher began inspecting their tongues, palms and feet with a torch light. We let most of the students go in first, and Baby1 had her turn next. Oh no, Baby1 started to get frightened when the teacher tried to get her to open her mouth. Oh no, will this begin her tantrum-throwing when everything was so-far-so-good until now? The teacher managed to perform a quick inspection and temperature recording and we were off into the room.
Inside, the Gor Gors and Jie Jies were quietly sitting around the tables and playing among themselves. By now, Baby1 was more interested in playing outside, then being inside the room. Luckily, one slightly older Jie Jie came along and began staring at Baby1, probably because she’s a new face. That helps to warm things up a little and Mummy was frantically ushering her to go play with Jie Jie. Soon after, another bigger Jie Jie with an Apple tag on her shirt came along. She take a badge from the box on the table and pinned it to Baby1′s t-shirt. Surprising, Baby1 didn’t protest at all!
Class was almost about to start by now, but Mummy was still worried, will Baby1 cry later when Mummy and Granny leaves the room? But no sooner than this thought, the teachers started to urge the earlier older Jie Jie to come play with Baby1. Supposedly she is the ‘Monitress’ as we have heard from the teacher. Baby1 was led further into the room to mingle with a group of kids, and we only manage to pick her out as she is the shortest and fairest in class. Seeing that she was nicely mingled with the other students, Mummy and Granny quietly sneaked off and the teacher closed the door to start the class.
Granny decided to hang around since we have to pick Baby1 in an hour’s time. The class usuallylasts from 9 to 11am, but the teacher advised an hour’s lesson for the first few lessons until the students gets more familiar. We went to the nearby Community Centre to blow air con, and when we returned 45 mins later, Ye Ye was still sitting outside the class. Hee hee, Ye Ye was worried that Baby1 will cry in class, so he decided to ‘standby’ outside, sounds to me like typical Daddy Dear1. :p
At 10, the door opened and Baby1 was ready to go home carrying her own bag and a paper fish in her hand. And she seemed happy, not at all crying! Horray, seems that Baby1 had an enjoyable time in school today.
Mummy, Granny and Ye Ye walked Baby1 all the way home, stopping at the playground to play a little while.
It was Baby1′s first day in school, and I am glad that it was a happy one. Tomorrow is Teacher’s Day holiday, the whole of next week is School Holidays, the following Monday is Polling Day off-in-lieu, so it’s gonna be some time until her next lesson. Hope the second and third and subsequent lessons turn out well for Baby1 too. :)
- Dear2
JLPT 3 2009 results 28 February, 2010
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This morning as usual, I went downstairs to buy breakfast and some grocery shopping at NTUC. On the way home, I decided to check the letterbox… :D
There was a huge pile of mail, many of which were related to the baby bonus for Baby1. Then there was this 1 letter from The Japanese Cultural Society, Singapore… :D
If you have read my earlier post, you would have known how I had 2 years of Japanese language lessons some years back, and how I deferred taking my JLPT until this year. Having 2 years of formal lessons under my belt, I was pretty confident of tackling JLPT3 directly (I did not take JLPT4).
However, I was getting rusty from the lack of practice. My revision didn’t go as well as planned since I was busying myself with baby stuff. And perhaps I was a little bit lazy. Hehe… But hey, I still do my weekly fair share of reading practice (raw manga) and listening practice (raw anime). :P
On the day of the exam, I was feeling very nervous. I was really ill prepared. However, I calmed my nerves and handled the exams with my years of exam experience. When I left the exam hall, I had hope that I may pass after all.
And now, the results:
- Writing-Vocabulary – 67/100 – 67%
- Listening – 83/100 – 83%
- Reading-Grammar – 150/200 – 75%
- Total – 300/400 – 75%
Yeah… I passed! Ha ha ha ha ha! I passed with a score of 300 (passing score is 240), not bad. In O-level terms, I would have scored an A1. :D
My poorest section was in Writing-Vocabulary, and rightfully so. As I had mentioned, I was ill prepared, and the one thing that required the most memory work and study time was vocab. And it really showed.
My best section was Listening. I attribute this to the 2 years experience I had interacting with my native Japanese teachers. Quite frankly, my Japanese teachers spoke much faster, more non-standard, and with more slang. So I naturally was able to understand most of what the exam audio tape played.
For Reading-Grammar, I did average. This was becos a lot of the information in the passages can be deduced from context. And somehow, I have more of a knack for remembering grammar than remembering vocab, so I was able to draw upon my memory from deep within to understand the comprehension passages.
It was a good result for me, given the little time I spent on preparation. Now, I hope to advance to the next level and try my hands on the new N3 level which is set between JLPT 3 and JLPT 2. Of course, N3 is not going to be a walk in the park. I’ve most probably already used up my luck and rusty memory with JLPT 3, so I need to study study study! *Growl*
頑張ります！
-Dear1
JLPT3, here I come 15 October, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear1, Learning Training, Nihon no koto.2 comments
I’ve always been interested in Japanese language and culture (but less the history). So, when the opportunity presented itself to me some 3 years ago, I took up a structured Japanese language courses at my school.
In all, I took 4 modules in Japanese language over a span of 2 years. It was 7 hours of lessons per week for 13 weeks per semester over 4 semesters. So that meant I’ve had 364 hours of formal training in Japanese. The textbook that we covered in class was the Minna no Nihongo series 1-1, 1-2, 2-1 and 2-2.
It was also a great opportunity in the sense that I didn’t have to include the results of these Japanese modules towards my modular credits at school. Essentially, they were considered extra-curricular modules. And that was great because I really dun foresee myself scoring A’s in a language module. And I was right, I scored mostly B’s.
I decided that I should sit for the JLPT exams to get myself accredited. I also decided that I should skip the JLPT4 exams as it was just going to be a waste of money. Level 3 will supercede level 4 anyway. And the exams are held once a year so it made sense to skip a level and save 1 year.
However, the date of the JLPT exams did pose a problem. JLPT is traditional held on the first Sunday of every December in Singapore. Unfortunately, StanChart Marathon is also always held on the first Sunday of every December. It will clash every single year.
I did contemplate about taking JLPT as early as in 2007 (after 1 yr of formal lessons), but I finally decided to attempt the full marathon with Dear2 instead. In 2008 (after 2 yr of formal lessons), I again thought about taking JLPT, but still decided to stick with our half marathon. This year however, Dear2 is expecting our first child so all our running plans are cancelled for the rest of the year, and so I decided that I will go ahead and sit for my JLPT3. :D
Now comes the tough part, I have not been studying Japanese for the past 14 months. The only chance I have to practice was during our Japan honeymoon, regularly watching anime and interpreting the product descriptions at Daiso.
There is roughly about 7 weeks to the exams and I have not started revising yet. I need to study all 4 Minna no Nihongo books to prepare for this exam. In effect, I need to revise everything I had learnt over my 2 years of study. And I haven’t started yet… oh no…
My goal is to attain JLPT2. Anything above that would be a bonus to me and would only be attempted if I have the time (and motivation). But first, I need to get past the hurdle of JLPT3 this year. Time to pull up my socks!
-Dear1
Driving License Obtained – Yeah 1 August, 2009
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One of Dear2′s 2009 new year resolution was to obtain her driving license in 2009, and that was exactly what Dear2 did – pass her driving test. Yeah!
Ever since Dear2 penned down her new year resolutions at the beginning of this year, she immediately popped down to BBDC to sign up as a member and to kick start her driving lessons (talk about striking while the iron is hot!). So in Jan, she started on studying for the Final Theory Test and had her first practical lessons as well.
In Feb, lessons were stopped for 2 weeks as Dear1 and Dear2 went on the belated Japan honeymoon, and it was back to the tiring ordeal of 1 lesson every Sat AND Sun (the sacrifice of lazying on a weekend morning was indeed a huge and draining sacrifice when Dear2 had to wake up early in the morning to go for the lessons. Why? Becos the ‘good’ afternoon slots were often grabbed way in advance..).
The big day finally came, and it was a Sat (on hind sight, Saturdays are probably not the best days for driving tests, but that was the earliest date that is available to Dear2, after subtracting the ‘first and fifteen day of the lunar month becos BBDC is located right beside a temple). Behold! The ‘light’ weekend traffic so used to Dear2 becos all her lessons were taken during weekends was seemingly not so smooth after all. No choice, we’ll just have to give our best shot.
The test started with the circuit courses first. As an okay learner all the way throughout the course, Dear2 was almost confident that if she’ll just do everything as per normal, it’s gonna be a pass. It was a breeze through until when Dear2 knocked down a pole during reverse parking. ‘Sorry’ or not is not going to help, for the tester had already doomed to fail this unfortunate candidate.
To cut the long story short, Dear returned with a 32 points. Understandably, the pole costed 10 points, and rest of the 2s and 4s that came from ‘failure to ensure safety when moving out’, ‘failure to check blindspot’ easily chalked that 22 points up. Crap lah, Dear2 was so trained to AUTOMATICALLY turn her head every time during a turn and what is this ‘failure to check blindspot’!?!? It was pretty clear what the reason was, and simply no recourse, so might as well resign to fate and go prepare for the next test.
Gotto top up the BBDC member card as Dear2 planned the balance to be just nice for 1 test attempt, gotto book 2 more lessons before the system allows u to register for the next exam, gotto check the lunar calender and book the next test date again. Luckily the benefit of a school member is that we get to have test dates much earlier than private students (my $68.48 per lesson fee can finally be justified, as compared to private students whose lessons typically cost around just $50).
No pole knock downs, everything was smooth, and Dear2 was determined to exhibit a calm and confident look (tip: this is the most important tip as most learners who have been through the process will tell u; of course, the underlying condition is that u mustn’t strike the kerb/ knock down poles/ cause near-accidents/ be in an accident during the test day). The outcome for Dear2 – an unsurprising pass. Yeah!
Overall, Dear2 spent $2,200 on getting her license, quite a hefty amount as compared to peers who spent only about $1,000 odd. It’s unfair, but I’m just glad that I am a qualified driver now. Haha..
- Dear2
The BBDC Experience 9 January, 2009
Posted by dear1dear2 in Dear2, Learning Training, Vroom Vroom.1 comment so far
Dear2 passed her Basic Theory Test (BTT) when she was 20 years old. And Dear2 is sitting for her Final Theory Test (FTT) in a month’s time. All because there isn’t any time validity from the time u passed BTT till the time u get your driving licence, but once u have passed your FTT, you need to get your driving licence within 2 years. Yeah, Dear2 is set out to obtain her driving licence very soon!
The registration process at Bukit Batok Driving Centre (BBDC) was mortifying. On a week day night at 8.30pm, there’s soooooooooo many people at BBDC! Everyone seems to be either waiting for their number to be called, or booking/ checking something at the rows of computer terminals, or waiting to go/ coming out from class. BBDC’s human traffic beat that of any shopping-centre-on-a-weekday 2 hands down.
Registration as a student of BBDC proves to be super confusing too. Customer service must be dealing with millions of students everyday cos they seem to expect that u know exactly what lessons u need to book, or what tests u need to sit, or when u can apply for what. Come on, I’m paying so much to be a student of your centre, u’d jolly well explain CLEARLY to me what I need to do. But no lor, they seem to expect that u know the process inside out already………….
An orientation briefing on the day of registration was conducted to induct new students, basically to give u a better understanding of the learning course in BBDC. Being a fast notes-taker, Dear2 was still unable to take down all the notes that the instructor rambled on at super fast pace. Luckily for all the scribbles, these precious notes really did help to give a better understanding for me to plan out my schedule when we got to that stage.
Fine. After totally comprehending the flow chart from the Class 3 Driving Licence Course brochure (mind u, the flow chart on the website seems to be outdated), Dear2 finally proceeded to top up credit (u need to put money into your BBDC account which is used to pay for everything) and book the lessons and tests.
So, I need to attend all the 4 Theory Lessons even though I already have my BTT, and even though the theory lessons are called Basic Theory Lessons and Final Theory Lessons (dun be misled!). Yes, I can skip the Basic Theory Practice, Evaluation and Test since I already have BTT. Oh, so I need to attend the Final Theory Practice, Evaluation and Test, and have to pass Evaluation at least 14 days before sitting for Test. Oh, so I can start my Practical sessions now already. Oh, u can’t book 2 consecutive lessons in 1 day (Shit! Den I can’t optimize my time. Still thot of going for 2 consecutive lessons every Sun so as to be more efficient.).
Dear2 has attended her first 2 practical lessons so far. Next lesson, Dear2 should be going out onto public road once she has obtained her Provisional Driving Licence (PDL). The previous 2 instructors were by far okay, competent enuff to warrant the fees that I’m gonna be spending (a rough calculation sets u back by at least $2,200 for that piece of licence, and that is provided that u pass first time. *faint*). And kudos to the instructors for being so generous with their tips on handling the vehicle and road conditions, it really does help a lot to learn from the teachers who do value proper and considerate road usage.
Gotta work hard. Ermm, or rather, gotto stay focused on the road. Gambatte.
- Dear2
