Yay! School starts again!

Why Yay! ? Yay for me because I have loads of work to do! Both for my business My First Games, as well as backlog of blog posts for this blog... and a new travel blog that some blogger mums and I have come up with. Check out Petite Travellers! and LIKE us on Facebook too! Oh and, please LIKE Tan Family Chronicles on Facebook if you haven't already done so! :p

The month of June has been very eventful for me. It was one thing after another. Classes, camps, upsetting news, low times, fun times, playdates, sleepovers... I hardly got any rest. Hence the silence on the blog. The main difference between this June and past Junes, is the school holidays. Previously, all three kids were in childcare, you see. Childcare means that there are only public holiday breaks, but no school holidays. As in, during the normal school holidays like the one week in March and September, and the longer hols in June and December, the kids still go to childcare. Well, yes, if you wish, you don't have to send them in everyday. However, since you pay for the entire month, you might as well use the services, right? Besides, previously, I had to go to work. Hence, they have always had to "go to school". This year is the first time Isaac is experiencing the boons of a school holiday.

The Learning VIsion theme for this June holidays was World Cup! So fun! Made it easier for me to drop the twins in school for at least half the day!

And what a holiday it has been for us. I was much busier than usual since Isaac is with all the time now. The first week, I ferried him to his Chinese holiday camp and creative writing camp. The second and fourth week we had outings, playdates and sleepovers. Third week, we were in Langkawi. The twins were supposed to be in childcare the whole time, but we felt bad that they had no hols while Isaac did, so there were days which they didn't have to go, and even more days where I insisted they had to go to school, but that I would pick them up early and bring them somewhere in the late afternoon. This way, I could squeeze in the urgent things that needed to be done in the morning, and the kids get to go to school and nap, before I pick them up and whisk them away for a fun evening. 

It helped that the school had a fun holiday theme - World Cup! The kids learned about what the World Cup was. About soccer - playing the soccer game, the names of the different positions a soccer player plays, his attire, what the colours on the soccer jerseys mean etc. Pretty comprehensive, I'd say! Even I paused to read the info on the boards. I learned something new too - soccer boots were also called soccer cleats! When we went to the sports shop during the weekend, the twins would ask me to show them soccer cleats so they can touch the underside of the boots and see how different it is from normal shoes. Isaac enjoyed picking them from school just so he could read the info on the World Cup and play the foosball game they had in the childcare.

Asher & Shawna during Chinese class, role-play!

I guess it was not so surprising that on the first day of school, the twins were reluctant to go to school at all. They have had so much fun during the holidays and it was quite a serious bout of post-holiday blues that took hold. It took quite a long pep talk in the morning from me to Shawna, before she agreed to get dressed and to go to school. I tempted her with that fact that ALL her friends should be in school (some went on overseas hols in June too) and also that they would be going to Letterland again! Letterland is the system of choice that the twins school chooses to use to teach the kids their alphabet, how to read and pronounce and spell. It is an imaginary world that letters are personified into characters and have adventures too. The kids love it, especially Shawna. She would complain to me if they didn't visit Letterland.

I have another surprise for her and Asher tonight. I have a tonne of photos of her and Asher in school, to show her! The childcare, Learning Vision, started using this cool system thingy called LittleLives since the beginning of this year. I have been so busy this year that I haven't logged in at all, and only did so for the first time yesterday. And boy oh boy do I regret not logging in earlier! The private online platform, only for parents, is like a mini Facebook for the kids. It's a one way thing though, the teachers would upload the pictures, and observations of the kids online, which we can access daily and view on a Timeline, very much like our Facebook wall. 

Shawna's check in/out pix from January & February 2014

We get to see the Check IN/Check OUT photos that the kids take everyday, as a very fun way of taking attendance. It's basically an iPad placed at the entrance, and the kids would take a selfie of themselves when we come, and when we leave. The time stamp settles the date and time. This is certainly more fun than the sign in and sign out sheets of paper we used to have to write in. I understand they need to hand in attendance logs to the Ministry of Social and Family Matters. 

I love the Check In/Out pictures and couldn't resist writing this post just to feature the pix! We have been having fun taking the pictures too, making funny faces and trying to make some optical illusions. My only complain is that there isn't an in-built function for me to download all the pictures at one shot. I actually had to download one by one. Tedious! Complain!!! But then it's partly my own fault for not logging in to this LittleLives earlier this year. So I had a whole 6 months worth of pictures to download and save. So if you're a Learning Vision parent, go dig up that email with the password and log in right away! Search "LittleLives" no spacing, in your email inbox to look for the email.

Asher's check in/out pix from January & February 2014

The above is just a selection of the pix. On average we have two pix per child since they have one check in, and one check out pic per day. But I realised that if we check in/out more than one time, all the pix gets registered in your account. Cool!!! 

But now... I have another complaint!!! The file size for the pictures are really quite small. I guess they would have to be or they would take up a lot of server space... but it also means that the pictures may not be very clear when printed on paper... SIGH! I think I shall go feedback, I want higher resolution pix!!! :p I love the pix, I am a hoarder of pix! Feedback, feedback, I shall feedback! ("Feedback" is the politically correct term for "complain"! )

Tan Family Optical Illusions! :p

Interestingly, I just got a mailer which says that Learning Vision is having an Open Day this coming Saturday 5th July 2014, from 10am to 2pm, at all their centres... There would be storytelling and games in the theme of Eric Carle's Brown Bear Brown Bear, What Do You See? theme. I asked our principal and it's true! Hmmm... maybe I can bring the twins down while Isaac is at his Monsters Under the Bed writing class! And... we can take more selfies!!! hehehe...