Are you going to Brave Maeve, The Musical?

Have you heard of Brave Maeve?

I first heard of Brave Maeve when I read this article, whose link I came across when someone shared it on Facebook. Maeve is a little girl who contracted cancer when she was three years old. Her parents brought her for medical treatment and rallied around her trying to ease her discomfort and ride out the difficult journey with her. Along the way, Maeve's mother, Joanne Poon, wrote a story for Maeve, trying to help her understand in simple terms, the grueling chemotherapy treatment she was going through. Thankfully, Maeve, who is currently about 7 years old, is now well. The story has since been published into a book, and now there is a musical on about it! 

Watch this video below, and read this article. 

This is such a heartwarming story of love and hope, that when I found out that the book has been published, I wanted to buy it, even though it was available for borrowing from all National Libraries in Singapore. Upon further investigation, I realised it was actually made free, you just had to go pick it up! I immediately made a trip down to pick up the book. Due to its popularity, I understand that there's not likely to be anymore copies of the book available for pick up. However, in addition to the National Library, Brave Maeve the book can be read at in Children's Cancer Foundation offices in National University Hospital and KKHospital, Singapore.

Joanne's dream, is to make this book available in all paediatric oncology wards around the world, so if hospital outside Singapore would like a copy of the book, just email bravemaevesingapore@gmail.com to request for one. In fact, kind volunteers have translated the book into the following languages: Chinese, Malay, Bahasa Indonesia, Russian, German, Vietnamese, Spanish, and French. The translated word documents of these languages can be downloaded off the Brave Maeve Singapore Facebook Page. 

The twins, Asher & Shawna, simply love the book. From the day I brought it home, the twins would often request for it. Often, we would have to read it back to back for at least two times, before we could move on to reading a different book. Now, they know it so well that they can read along with me, finishing the sentences of every line. They would ask me questions, like, why Brave Maeve had to go for X-rays, and why her parents had to stand outside the door and not beside her when she was having her X-ray taken. Every time the kids refused to take their medication when they are ill, I'd say "Remember Brave Maeve? You have to let the good soldiers in to fight the bad soldiers. Medicine is your good soldiers. You need to let them into you so that they can fight the bad soldiers for you to poo them out!" and they'd relent, open their mouths and swallow the medicine I was administering.

So you can imagine my excitement when I realised that they were putting up a Brave Maeve Musical! Wooohooo! Check out the cool poster below! We bought tickets for ourselves, and we're bringing my three nieces along too! The kids are so psyched up and keep asking me when they are going to see the Brave Maeve performance. We can't wait! :)

Do you want to go to the Brave Maeve Musical too? As of right now, I understand that there are still approximately 100 to 200 tickets available for the Friday night 8pm show on 4th October 2013, as well as limited tickets available for the Saturday night 5th October 8pm show. Venue is at 121 Dover Road, Singapore 139650 Lee Kong Chian Centre for Performing Arts 2 at The Anglo-Chinese School (Independent). Email bravemaevemusical@gmail.com to book your tickets now! 

Brave Maeve the book would be available at The Musical for a minimum donation of S$15 per book. This goes towards funding for a reprint :) You may also read more above Brave Maeve, her mummy Joanne, and their journey with childhood cancer in this blog post here on The Playful Parents.

Please note that this is not a sponsored post - I paid for my tickets! :) I just feel that this is a very worthy cause that we should support! :) Oh wait! Want to see Maeve herself? This video below is a video of Brave Maeve reading the story that her mummy wrote for her! :)

The Brave Maeve from Singaporean of the Day on Vimeo.

Lanterns from recycled materials

I love using recycled materials to make stuff, and lanterns are so cool coz it looks so awesome when the candles are lit up in them. I can't claim all the credit of course - I've had inspiration! Especially from these few blog posts from Hai Fang's blog :)

• F15 Jet Lantern & Army Tank Lantern
• NASA themed lanterns! Rocket, Lunar Rover etc
• Another awesome aeroplane lantern
• Pixar Cars lanterns 

Our lanterns aren't really in the league of those in the links above. But I'm happy enough with them! I help the kids with the structure, but the kids do all the painting required. I like crafts where the kids actually get to do something, rather than wait around for Mummy to complete them.

Here are the lanterns we made this year for the 2013 Mid-Autumn Festival :)

Technically, we made the plane above last year. But we didn't paint it last year, so I decided to give it some colour this year. Also, it kinda of turned out looking like a bird instead of a plane (It's a bird, it's a plane, okay okay, I'd try doing a Superman next year!). So I figured maybe if I paint it green, it'd look like an army plane? Plus Shawna had mixed up her yellow and blue so we had this army greenish paint there... and so she happily painted it green... I like how it turned out :) definite improvement!

 

This one above is made from takeaway salad bowls from The Salad Shop. I'd accumulated some when I was working in town in the past couple of years in my previous job. I loved the unique shape of the container and thought it would make a cool lantern. Got the kids to paint its insides. Stuck a quarter of a toilet roll in the bottom half to hold the candle in place. Wait till it dries, put in the string, and voila! Love this lantern! :)

This one above was actually partially inspired by Mum in the Making, her post got me thinking that actually a lantern is just a frame with sides, and just figure out a way to put in the candle, and we're all done! So what I did was to actually use a plastic bottle for the bottom of the lantern. The plastic sides of the bottle was split so as to form the square base - I folded the corners of the plastic sides and just stapled the paper to the folded ends. The paper is actually magazine paper, so you can actually use your favourite artist's picture, or even use nice wrapping paper, or drawing block paper with the kids drawings/painting on them. Anything goes! After I put in the string, I found that the top folded in, not maintaining the blockish shape - so I pasted ice-cream sticks at the top on all four sides(see bottom right hand corner picture). And the most ingenious part of this lantern that I like is... you can unscrew the red cap, stand a candle in it, light it, and screw back the cap with the candle lit in it! :p hehehe...

So those are our lanterns this year. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! :)

Isaac's doodles - show and tell!

In the children's childcare centre, the teachers often give the children paper to draw on while waiting for us parents to come get them. Thus, in the past few years, I often find many pieces of paper with Isaac's doodles in his bag. Asher & Shawna are still at the age where they aren't really able to draw something recognisable, but Isaac's drawings has progressed to the stage where he can do so.

The Christmas day drawing on the left, that he talks about in the viddeo. And the X-Men drawing on the right. See Wolverine's three claws?! See how Cyclops' eye power zaps the "Bad Girl Wolverine"?! Fierce ah!!! Storm looks happy in the sky though! Amongst the clouds she must be! :p"

Being a mummy brings out the hoarder in me, and I just couldn't bear to throw his drawings away. Thus, I started to collect them and bind them by the year, into a booklet. I also did that for the twins artwork that they bring back from school. Such a waste to throw them away, I thought. I tried to curb my extreme hoarder instinct by forcing myself to throw some of the art or craftwork that was too difficult to keep - like too three dimensional or had organic material like beans that I was afraid would grow mouldy in time.

I like the speech bubbles on the drawing on the left. Think it's some car chase or something! Big race on the right side drawing too!

And then I also had the idea to start taking videos of Isaac talking about his drawings - I thought this would be a good way to expose him to give him experience of presenting his work to others. Heard they have to do Show & Tell in primary school, so why not have some practice eh? Besides, I think the kids are still at a pretty cute age and I want to take videos of them talking and such... before they get too self-conscious about it - which reminds me, I must take more videos of them!

Yes, that's Batman flying through the night sky... hur hur hur... And on the right hand side - My Little Pony(s) apparently! One of Isaac's classmates at that point in time really liked My Little Pony and must have really gone on about it to Isaac.

Without further ado, let us welcome Isaac and Asher with Isaac's drawings! :)

If you're wondering why the boys are "slanging" - I'm not sure either. Perhaps they perceive that as The Presentation Voice or tone to adopt.

Love the drawing of Earth near the bottom left of the left picture! :) On the right hand side, Isaac draws a Zoo. I remember him being fixated on drawing Zoos for a period of time.

The week we had a Volkswagen Sharan!

We had a new friend for a week! Guess who? The Volkswagen Sharan! :) Volkswagen Singapore had so kindly offered us a week's loan of this fantastic family car, for us to try it out and blog about it.

The kids were all excited and asked "How come have new car?" We were quick to emphasize that we were allowed this privilege for only a week - we didn't want them crying and throwing tantrums when we have to go back to using our own car!

Even though we have a family sized car of our own, we happily jumped onto das wagen when we were offered this opportunity to try out the Sharan for a week. I'd always loved (toy) cars as a child, and when I was finally old enough to take the driving test, I passed it on first try :) My father's cars have all along been manual cars, so I was very proficient with driving with manual controls too. It's fun!

We were told that the Sharan has manual controls as well, if we so choose to activate it. We didn't try it though, being a little jitterish about driving a car that didn't belong to us. We had a whole load of other cool features to try out though, so it was all great fun!

Here are the kids giving a thumbs up! A seven seater car, the Sharan has three rows of seats. We like to install the kids in the second row so that it gives us lots of boot space. Two child seats and a booster seat fits into our own car just right, as Isaac is quite slim and can fit in between the two child seats. but with the Sharan - he has almost double the space! We could even fit in another proper car seat for him, if we wanted to.

Of the three kids, Isaac was the most excited about the "new car". Being the observant 6 year old he is, he started noticing many automatic functions the car had, stuff which could be done with just a touch of the button on the dashboard, without the driver even leaving his seat. 

For example, the side sliding doors on both sides AND the back door to the boot, can all be closed automatically by just pressing the appropriate button on the dashboard. The sun roof can be opened with a touch of the button... and when hubbs told Isaac that the car could even park itself... He exclaimed:"What?! Really?! Wow! This is such a relaxing car!"

Yes, it is true! The car can park itself! When we went to pick the car up, the Volkswagen sales manager gave us a quick run through of the car's functions, and gave us a demo of the car parking itself, vertical parking. We were suitably impressed as it looked so easy! We managed to give it a try ourselves, setting the car on it's Park Assist mode to park the car... in a parallel lot! And it did it! With great ease, I might add! Way cool!

Can you see behind the boys what we have in the boot? Bicycles! That's right!

With a simple flick and push, the back row seats can be pushed flat down to reveal an enlarged boot space. It's huge!!! All in, we managed to fit in a full 20" mountain bike, a foldable Brompton bicycle, two skate scooters, a box that had hubbs' inline skates and all the guards etc in it, and a bag of boardgames (oh, we always have some boardgames in the boot) - and there was still space to place stuff if we really wanted to bring more stuff.

In fact, with the spacious legroom in the middle row where the kids were sitting, we could even place their school bags in the same row as them. As such, there were times when we simply picked the kids up early from childcare, and drove straight to the park - with all our barang already in the boot!

If you're wondering why I don't have many external shots of the Sharan in this post - it's because I hardly took any! And no, it is not because the car ain't pretty - it IS a very handsome car (take a look at it from all angles here, by shifting the slider)... The reason why I took so many pictures of the interior of the car, is coz I'm a very practical sort of person. I value the function of an item, more so than its looks. And if you're thinking if that is why I took so many pictures of the boot... yes, I think that's the car's greatest asset! hehehe pun intended! :p

For me, as a mother of three young kids, and wife to a husband whose second love is the great outdoors - having a car with a humongous boot, is truly an asset. We are the sort of people who go camping with an 8-men tent, a huge ice box, a real telescope, 2 foldable deck chairs, and enough food to have a steamboat for five grown men - on a two day one night camping trip. It's a pity we couldn't get to go camping with our Sharan."Our Sharan" ? See, feels like ours already :p

 With our normal cargo for the week, the boot is massive. So we can afford to bring the back row seats up (middle bottom picture below) - the back row which could comfortably seat 3 people even though they meant it for two. They must be German sized ;)

We can also choose to just bring down one seat (bottom extreme right pic), and have more boot space. But actually, we do that so that our helper can get into the car through the back, instead of us having to shift the kids' car seats in front to let her in by the sides.Hassle free, this way.

There are also a number of other automatic features which are new to me, and which I think is a boon, for convenience as well as safety.

• The head lights are sensor driven and come on by themselves. I liked this as it was sometimes easy to forget to turn on the lights when driving in the evening, or when it rains heavily. It even comes on when you enter a dark carpark in the day time.
• Windscreen wipers turn on automatically and would go faster if it was raining heavily. Which is cool, coz when it is raining heavily, the roads are slippery and vision is poor - I don't have to worry about fiddling with the wiper controls, and just concentrate on driving safely.
• Side mirrors automatically tilt itself downwards when we are doing reverse parking - so that we can see the curb. I confess I never ever bother to do this with my own car, so it was very good that the Sharan would do it automatically! 
• When reverse gear is on, the music (be it radio or CD) would switch off. I thought it was a very good safety feature - one less distraction!
• Again, when in reverse gear, the LED display would show a view of the back where you are reversing to. It also shows the outline of where your car is expected to move to if your wheels were turned in whatever direction it was in at that time.

Even if you used the automatic parking feature the car has, you still retain some measure of control of the car because the Sharan does the steering, but you control the brakes and hence, the speed. Also, nothing beats a careful human eye to watch out for running children/pets or protruding structures when reversing into a lot. 

So, I was asking everyone the best one or two things they liked about the Sharan...

Shawna loved the built in sun shield in the sliding car door (above, extreme left). Frankly, I loved that she loved it because I didn't need to put up make-do sun shields for her as she complains about the sun shining in at her everyday! She also liked the control button at the side door which allows her to close the automatic door - she wouldn't be able to open the door though, coz we turned on the childlock.

Asher liked the sunroof. He would always ask us to open the shades to the sunroof which will leave the sunroof's glass panes closed, but the "ceiling window" clear, so that he can look through it at the trees and buildings we pass (above, extreme right). At first, we would resist doing so if it was the middle of the day - "It'd be so hot!" hubbs and I protested. But we agreed to bring back the shades as we are firm believers of learning from experience - so we figured that when the shades are withdrawn and when Asher feels the heat from the sun - he would learn his lesson and ask the shades to be put back on. But to our surprise, even though it was around noon time, it didn't feel hot at all! Apparently, the glass is tinted in a special way to admit the light, but reflect the heat! Miraculous! It made the car feel bright and cheery, without being hot. After that day, we would often drive with the ceiling shades withdrawn.

Isaac, when I asked him, said he liked the sunroof, the built in GPS navigation system( He liked seeing where we were going.) and, surprise surprise his three-point seat belt. I didn't expect him to name the seat belt as one of his favorite features, though it certainly is a feature I liked. If you see the second picture in this post, you can see that Isaac, even though being seated in the middle of the centre row, has a three-point seat belt - instead of a two point-just-across-the-waist seat belt that most cars have for the middle seat. Paranoid Mummy Pam, me, always fears that one day, Isaac might come flying out of his seat belt towards the windscreen. I pray that never happens, and was suitably pleased to see that the Sharan had a three point seat belt for all its seats.

Hubbs, as men would be, I suppose, said the car picked up pretty quickly (for such a big heavy car), and said that he was very impressed with the automatic parking system. We only used the automatic parking feature a couple of times, so it wasn't so much that we couldn't park the car ourselves, but that we were simply amazed that the car could park itself!

As for me... gosh, I am so gonna be revealing my inner Auntie-ness in this response... and lest I sound like I am gushing, I shall try to be brief in my description of the features I like which have not been mentioned above...

I love the keyless door opening system All I need is for the key to be in my pocket, and I can just slip my hand into the door handle and unlock the car. This is supremely handy since I am usually carrying ten million bags of the kids' stuff, or from the supermarket, or struggling with holding the umbrella while trying to carry one of the twins in a heavy down pour. I can even open/unlock the car from the passenger side door or the back (boot) door. Very handy.

The steering wheel has the radio/CD volume and chapter controls on it! This is immensely useful since I tend to always adjust the volume due to the kids' request to do so, or I also often lower the volume to hear what the kids are saying to me when they talk to me. They are at the stage where they get irritated if they are asked to repeat themselves, and yet very annoyed when they think we are not listening to them. They  have also started being aware of different songs and would like to request for specific songs at times. Thus, these controls on the steering wheel ranks as a safety feature with me - coz it keeps my hands on the wheel!

I also like it very much that I can flip up and down the back row seats with such ease that requires neither herculean strength, nor a genius engineer brain, and it doesn't put any of my fingers in danger of being crushed or snapped off. Very very much appreciated, thank you.

I also found it pretty incredible how the front seats can be adjusted in any and every way using those three controls on the side of the seat (bottom middle picture in the above collage), simply amazing. As such, I could achieve the very height, tilt or angle of the driver seat to my exact preference.

Last but not least, (my most auntie moment is here) I love it that because of the way the middle row flips up (see left hand side picture on the second last collage above) - it's very easy to clean!!! I can find the toys, and pick up the crackers the kids drop. I can easily vacuum away the crumbs of bread and other dirt that accumulates on the floor of cars... I can keep the car clean! Easily!

All too soon, the week came to an end. It was like having a friend come stay with us for a week long holiday. And now we say goodbye! With the Volkswagen Sharan going at $230k (including COE) as a recommended retail price, it's highly unlikely we'd be driving the Sharan again anytime soon. But if we should have this range of budget for a car in future, the Sharan is definitely a car which we will consider.

Meanwhile, thank you Volkswagen Singapore, for this week - the week we had a Volkswagen Sharan! :)

The pep talk on The Bully

Remember the post on Isaac being 6 years old already? I mentioned that Isaac's just had a pep talk on how to deal with bullies...

This came earlier than we expected it to. We thought it'd only happen in primary school, but no. Where there are children, there would be bullies. Apparently, one of Isaac's classmates is something of a bully/irritant/socially inept boy. He looks pretty normal and harmless to me. But I have heard from Isaac, some of the other kids, and even another kid's mom, that this particular boy, is indeed quite ill mannered and obnoxious to everyone. So at least I know that Isaac isn't making things up, nor is he being singled out. Even the teacher admitted that this boy was ill mannered.

A week before our Dinosaur Party in school, Isaac suddenly told me that he changed his mind, that he didn't want the dinosaur party to be in school anymore. I asked him why. He said "Because The Boy will destroy it!" and he started to weep bitterly. Yes, drama. I tried to ask him what sort of negative behaviour does The Boy exhibit but Isaac didn't know how to describe to me - other than showing me a rude (kiam4 pa4) face, which he says "The Boy always does that!". Nevertheless, I quickly assured him that hubbs and I would be present, and so if the boy starts to 'destroy' anything, we will stop him. Thankfully everyone was very well behaved at the party. But it kind struck me how bothered Isaac was by this boy.

Stern faced Isaac! :p
Picture by Orange Studios - Read our Orange Studios post!

A few nights ago, we were playing a board game with the kids after dinner, and... I'm not sure how the conversation started, but suddenly Isaac revealed the reason (or perhaps one of the reasons) why he was very frustrated with The Boy...

Isaac:"He says that I'm a girl!"

Me: " Is it true?"

Isaac: "No!" *incredulously*

Me: "Exactly! It's not true. So just tell him to stop saying that."

Isaac :"I did! But he still keep saying!"

Me: "Just ignore him, don't listen to him."

Isaac: "But he keeps saying it! I say to stop, but he still say!"

Me: "Did you tell Teacher Joranna about this?"

Isaac: "Teacher Joranna says not to tell her if people call you names. She say, please settle it yourself."

Me: "Right... she is right though, you must learn to deal with it yourself... So, er, try not to play with The Boy too much."

Isaac: "I didn't! I try to avoid him, but he will keep coming to me!
Me: "So you try to avoid him but he still finds you?"

Isaac: "Yes! When we go to different corners to do things, he will ask Teacher Joranna if he can change corner, then he will come to my corner!"
Me: "Then you ask Teacher Joranna if you can change corner, then you change to a different corner?"
Isaac:"I tried that already! Then he will change corner and follow me!!!"
Hubbs & Me:"Maybe he just wants to be your friend?"
Isaac:"But he keeps saying me!!!"

At this point, he was so upset he was almost tearing. I felt so sorry for him that I simply said:" Do you want a hug?" He nodded, hurried over, hugged me and sat on my lap. I felt so sorry for him Not because someone called him names, but because, I could feel his sense of helplessness... That he had tried everything he thought to do, but still nothing solved his problem. I also felt a bit sad that I knew I couldn't protect my child from everything in the world - he would need to learn to fend for himself. He needs to learn how to deal with it...

After he calmed down somewhat, we continued our discussion...

Me: " Does The Boy say mean things to other people too?"

Isaac: "Yes. He quarrels with everyone and call people names."

Me: "Ah... so what do other people do?"

Isaac: "They also call him to stop, but he doesn't stop. Especially The Girl, he always quarrels with The Girl. They call each other names all the time, because he starts first, so The Girl fed up, and started calling him names also."

Me: "Really? What do they call each other?"

Isaac: "He calls her The Naughtiest Girl, she calls him the Most Horrible Boy. He says she is Miss Ugly Pony Tail and she calls him The Boy with the Smelliest Mouth... and many others; I cannot remember all."

Me: "So all these names they call each other, is it true? Not true, right?"

Isaac: "Yeah... not true... oh except that The Boy really does have a very smelly mouth - coz he doesn't brush his tongue!"

Me: "Riiiight... But the point is, The Boy calls The Girls names which are not true. Just like he calls you names which are not true. So... you don't need to worry about other people thinking whether those things he says are not true. Next time, if he calls you names again, just tell him "Please stop calling me these names, because they are all not true."

Isaac is silent and mulls it over for a while...

Me: "So The Boy calls everyone names and quarrels with them?"

Isaac: "Yes, nobody likes him. Everyone ignores him because he is so irritating."

Me: "Do you think it is nice when nobody likes you and everyone ignores you?"

Isaac: "Not nice..."

Me: "Yes, it's not nice at all. So maybe The Boy is trying to make friends, but he doesn't know how. He only knows how to call people names and quarrel with people because that's the only way people will pay attention to him?"

Isaac looks a little stunned...

Me: "We cannot control how other people behave, but we can control our own reactions to them. So perhaps, what you can do is, the next time The Boy behaves well, you can compliment him by telling him something like. "It's nice when you behave like that, let's play together." you know, like how we tell Asher & Shawna that they are behaving well, to encourage them..."

Isaac: "Oh! Last week The Boy behave well for 3 days!"

Me: "Wow! You see, that's not so bad. So you can try to encourage him to behave well all the time!"

Isaac: "Okay... Can we continue playing this game now?"

Me: "Oh, okay. So... you feel better now?"

Isaac: "Yes, Mummy. I wish we had this talk earlier."

That's when I almost cried.

And that's when it struck me, that as my babies grow up, we may be faced with more and more of such 'problems'. Where matters are not as easily resolved as it may involve other people... People we have no control over. People who may be mean to my child simply because they feel like being so. All we can do is to pray that they meet nice people throughout their lives... and to teach them how to deal with it.

The Extended Tan Family Photoshoot with Orange Studios

I love photos. I love having nice pictures of my kids, family and friends. I enjoy taking the photographs, but that would also mean that I am often not in any of them. Thus, when Orange Studios approached us to do a shoot with them, I quickly replied to say yes. Especially when they agreed to let me bring my whole clan along! hehehe... Well, actually, it's just my parents, my sister and her family, and us. See how law abiding we are? Government say Stop at Two, my parents stopped at me and my sis. Government say have three or more... My sis and I have three kids each. Not too shabby, eh?

We've been wanting to get a nice shot of our three generation family. But, despite having two gigantic DSLRs in the family, photographs taken with the tripod and timer function is simply no match for this wonderful picture below. It is simply amazing that all 12 of us are looking at the camera and smiling too!!!

Photo by Orange Studios

And the amazing thing about the above photo and all the other photographs taken during the Orange Studios shoot is, it was all very spontaneous. We didn't have to line up according to height. We weren't shifted around like inanimate objects. We were not given any specific instructions to place our limbs in predefined positions nor anything like that. 

Being something of a control freak, I had to resist the urge to try to organise the kids to be synchonised "All sit with your legs out. Shawna! Sit properly! Smile! Ah yah, why some squat, some sit?!" Wait. I think I did say all that! Thankfully, the pictures just came out great. 

Ryan, the photographer, just seemed to have a knack for capturing us at our best.  

Photo by Orange Studios

We tried to ask for an outdoor shoot, figuring that nice background scenery would definitely be preferred to a boring studio shoot. But we were told that Orange Studios currently only do studio shoots, and no outdoor shoots. We further became even more skeptical when we realised that it was just gonna be a pure (boring!!!) white background. What? No ornate fake library background? No beautiful Japanese sakura flowers falling in the snow scenery? Er, not that we wanted those... just that.. er, er... you mean like that also don't have?!

But what do I know?! Look at the pix! Ryan's good, very good at making us the stars of our own shots. I can see, now, why he prefers to just use a plain white background. So that the emphasis is on us! :)

Photo by Orange Studios

You know, with my love for family photographs and making photo-customised items, I confess that I am a fan of those online website deals where you can buy a coupon for a really cheap family photo shoot... Thus, this is definitely not our first photo shoot, studio or outdoor. But, after going for a photo shoot with Orange Studios, I now understand the difference in service standards between mass booking photo shoots and the personalised service provided by Orange Studios. 

For mass booking photo shoots, the time allocated is fairly strictly adhered to. So, time is of the essence. As such, the photographers tend to frown when you appear with too much clothing changes and props. However, with Orange Studios, they actually make a personal phone call with you days before the appointed day of the shoot, to have a chat with you, giving you some tips on make up (light or none!), dressing (multi-colour is the way to go), as well as to encourage you to bring props along!

We brought our cardboard swords (above), Spiderman, Shawna's Minnie Mouse, bubbles... My sister's family brought their inline skates, Natalie her Lego, Rebecca her art box, and Isabelle brought along her whole collection of Geronimo Stilton books!

Photo by Orange Studios

We all brought clothing changes, and were very pleased to see that Orange Studios has a proper changing area in the studio that can provide you with some privacy to change in. Oh, you'd be surprised - we once went for a studio shoot which didn't have a changing area so the ladies had to go to the public toilets to change while the men hurriedly changed in a corner of the studio.

We had loads of fun that day at Orange Studios. Despite us being such a big group, Ryan was very patient and flexible with us, and especially the kids! We did big extended family shots, nuclear family shots, couple shots,  individual shots for the kids and many other different combinations and variations. 

I love this one of Asher below! Yes, of course we had to bring Spidey!  :)

Photo by Orange Studios

In my experience with the various photo shoots I have done with different studios, I realised that different studios have a different system of charging. So before you take on a studio shoot, be sure to clarify and understand what you are paying for.

Analysing Orange Studios' rate card, their system of charging is simple. You are charged $150 for the creative session of a one hour photo shoot in the studio, this is payable upon booking and is non-refundable. After the photo shoot, they will edit the pictures and place them in an online gallery for you to view and make your selection in the comfort of your own home. Thereafter, depending on how pleased you are with the resultant pictures, you can choose whichever package deals ($200 onwards) they have for you to buy the high resolution pictures, in soft copy, hard copy, flush mount album, or canvas prints. Thus, in other words, if you like the pictures taken, you can choose to pay more to get more of the pictures, but conversely, if you are not happy with the pictures taken, you can refuse to pay any more. Thus, you pay for what you want! :)

And boy do I have good news for you! If you like the style of pictures that Orange Studios does, why not give them a try? Quote "Tan Family Chronicles" and receive a S$150 cash voucher which can be offset from their package rates. However, you need to make the booking within one month from the date of this post, and the date of your photo shoot session needs to be within two months from the date of this blog post.

Look at the beautiful shot of my parents below... Frame it! :)

Photo by Orange Studios

Author's Note: Orange Studios offered us their photography services in exchange for a blog post. Opinions expressed are entirely our own! :) 

Isaac is six years old already!?

In a blink of an eye, Isaac turns 6 this year. Okay, make that many blinks of many eyes. But look how he's grown. That picture above on the left was taken on the day he was born, barely ten hours since he'd left my womb. The photo on the right was taken this year, two days before his 6th birthday. 

I was just scanning through the blog posts that were written during the month he was born... Sure brings back memories... and the thought that keeps repeating itself in my head surfaces again: My baby Isaac has all grown up! He is no longer a baby, and hasn't been for years. But somehow this year, it seems particularly stark, and in my head, I started to list the reasons why...

Isaac's like a mini-adult now. We can actually have pretty mature, reasonable and sane discussions and conversations with him. We see and hear him disciplining the twins like we do (the kids). And when he hears hubbs and I talking about something, he would often ask what we are talking about and join in our conversation. He has his own thoughts and ideas, and more often than not, his arguments makes sense and he actually has a point to make.

Isaac can read independently now. And boy is he a voracious reader! He reads so quickly that he often finishes reading the stash I borrow from the library by the very next day. We can now sub-contract reading to the twins, to him. The twins usually prefer hubbs or I to read to them, not because they don't want kor kor to do so, but rather, they want me or hubbs to do it. And so we do. But when they see that hubbs and I are really indisposed at the moment, they would happily allow Isaac to read to them.

Isaac can reach the light switches! It's incredible. Suddenly, seemingly overnight, he can switch on the light to the toilet by himself. But, he claims to be afraid of the dark. No fear, we usually send Shawna with him a la...

Isaac: "Mummy, I want to go pass urine! Switch on light for me!"

Me: "You can reach the light switch what. Go switch on the lights yourself!"

Isaac: "But I am afraid of the daaarrrk..."

Shawna: " I am NOT afraid of the dark!"

Me: "Perfect! Shawna, you go with him!"

And Shawna would accompany Isaac into the dark corridor until they reach the toilet where Isaac turns on the light and enters the toilet to pee... 

But seriously, he is growing taller by the minute - unless his pants all shrunk simultaneously, for I am seeing more of his ankles and shins nowadays...

Isaac's going Primary One next year!!! It is truly a milestone when a child begins his formal education. Isaac's been psyched up for primary school too, by his childcare teacher. They have been doing a good job of teaching the K2 class about what to expect next year in a primary school. Isaac's excited and more than once, he has already informed me "Mummy, I am looking forward to going primary school." Truth be told, so am I! I've heard so much about the stresses related to primary school, that I have been mentally prepping myself for it. Also helps that I decided earlier this year, not to look for a full time job (when my previous company closed its Singapore office), and do my My First Games biz full time, in order to have flexi working hours and more time next year to guide Isaac through the vagaries of P1.

Isaac's just had a pep talk on how to deal with bullies. I had initially started writing about it here, and then it started getting too long... so I will have that coming up in another post. But suffice to say that it really struck home the realisation that school-going kids bring home problems of a different nature compared to when they were young, when most problems were either health, eating, sleeping or poo related. We have consciously tried to get Isaac to talk more about his feelings and tell us about what goes on in school, with his friends etc. We want him to be able to talk to us instead of bottling it all up inside...

Thus, as evidenced above, even though my Isaac is currently afraid of the dark (he didn't used to be), and he is still very much a little boy in many ways... He is definitely growing up. I look back on my blog posts, and see my past photos and videos of Isaac when he was much younger, and I kinda miss him. However, we are very blessed, that Isaac's generally very well behaved, a joy to be with, and we pray that he will continue to be the wonderful, smart and kind boy that he is today.

Happy 6th Birthday, my Isaac. Mummy loves you always! :)

Isaac's Dinosaur Mad Science Party!

August is traditionally a busy time for us, can you guess why? Yes, that's coz Isaac is an August baby! :) We usually do not hold elaborate birthday celebrations for him. We usually just have a simple cake & goodie bag birthday celebration in school for him, and cake cuttings with the respective grandparents etc. The last time we had a huge party celebration for him was his 1 year old celebration. But even just organising the goodie bags and cakes is enough to make us quite busy already!

This year however, is a massive year for Isaac in terms of birthday celebrations. We had just changed the kids childcare a few months ago in May this year, and Isaac took to the transition remarkably well. When we actually asked Isaac "Do you want to celebrate with your old school friends, or your new school friends?" He said "Both!!!" and because he was very accepting of the change in school, we decided to reward him by agreeing to his request! 

We celebrated on the same day that the school was celebrating National Day!
That's why the kids were all decked out in red and white!

It was truly a bonus for us that Mad Science Singapore had gotten in touch with us early this year, offering to throw Isaac a Mad Science Party in school this year, for his 6th birthday celebration. So all we had to do was get a cake and settle our own goodie bag. Easy peazy, lemon squeezy! They have many different party themes they can conduct, but the topic chosen for us was an apt one - on Dinosaurs! Isaac has been reading a series of chapter books called Dinosaur Cove in which the two boys (protagonists) get transported to the world of real dinosaurs through a special portal, and has adventures with real live dinosaurs. Isaac has been so taken with this series of adventure books that he has been praying that he can see a real dinosaur when he prays at night before sleep! I told him that that is one wish that is impossible to fulfill, but we can have a dinosaur themed party for him this year. That appeased him somewhat. Phew!

So a couple of months before August, I touched based with Mad Science again, to confirm that this was on. I understand they are very popular for their parties, so I wanted to make sure the date was locked in for us! Two days before the party, I suddenly thought to myself "Oh no, what if they forget?" but I needn't have worried, for I received a phone call from the very next day, confirming the party once again.

Looking around the classroom walls, I spotted the above collage of the kids' work. Apparently the class also covered the topic of Dinosaurs recently, so this session was very timely indeed! That is Isaac's piece on the right. He wrote:"My pet dinosaur is a Gigantosaurus. My dinosaur can stand guard of my house and my dinosaur's name is Fang Claws"

The Mad Science gang needed about a half hour to prepare and set up. So while we sang the birthday songs (English, Chinese and Malay!) and cut the cake for the kids' tea time snack, the Mad Science team went into the classroom and set up what they needed to, in preparation for the session. 

The Mad Scientist sat the kids down in a classroom lecture style. He was very engaging and had no problem capturing the kids attention at all in the dinosaur themed session. He made it very interactive, asking the children questions about dinosaurs, getting everyone involved with answering questions, had the children thumping the floor like a dinosaur, looking and touching molds of dinosaur bones...

The 6 year old K2 class loved it. They listened attentively, enthusiastically raised hands to volunteer answers, and obediently carried out all instructions given to them during practical hands-on parts of the session.  Even Asher and Shawna who are 3 and a half years old were very attentive, could follow the programme and enjoyed the entire programme thoroughly.

Predictably, however, the kids' favourite bits of the party were the "practical" hands-on parts of it. We had two segments. In the first segment (below), the children got to make their own mold of a dinosaur tooth to take home. With all the materials provided for and laid out, the children simply had to insert the plasticky rubber tooth to make an impression in the sand, before the Mad Science crew poured plaster of paris into the holes, and wait for them to set while a second activity was done.

The children positively loved the second activity we had - they got to be paleontologist dusting for dinosaur bones! The kids were split up into groups of four kids where they huddled around a huge plastic container filled with an inch thick of sand, with a dinosaur skeleton in them. Armed with clean paintbrushes, the junior paleontologists embarked on their task with great fervour.

All too soon, the party came to an end for the kids. Even hubbs and I were so entertained by the whole session that we too felt a pang of disappointment as the party came to an end. That was how hyped up we were! :) But it was a solid 90 minutes of edu-tainment that was the highlight of the afternoon for all the kids and adults present. The kids got to take home their plaster of paris mold of dinosaur tooth in a plastic container too. I could see them eagerly showing the tooth to their parents when they came to pick them up from the childcare.

All in, we had a fantastic experience with Mad Science Singapore. Apparently, they even do workshops, holiday camps and corporate events. Their other birthday party themes are even more science based than the dinosaur themed one, and they really sound very intriguing indeed! So do check them out, and if you are going to have them conduct a party for you, do remember to invite us! :p

Don't change the registration system, Make Every School a Good School instead!

Primary school registration is serious business in Singapore. Some even claim that it was one of the most stressful moments in their lives, to register their child for the school of their choice. It is even seriously business in the way money exchanges hands - no, no, not under table coffee money (have you forgotten that this is Singapore?! ). No, I am talking about the fees that some people pay to the primary school they used to attend when they were young, to be an Official Member of the School Alumni. And we're talking about hundreds of dollars here, not tens of dollars. In any case, if this piece of news is anything to go buy, that may change, in future.

Okay first up, if you are confused about what I am going on about, you need to read the following links which will give you a good overview of the issue at hand and the Primary school registration system in Singapore.  

The Mad Scramble to Navigate P1 Registration by Little Blue Bottle will give you an insight into what an average Singaporean HAS TO ask themselves when registering their young ones for primary school. Navigating P1 registration - Selecting a primary school - by Little Blue Bottle will tell you what an average Singaporean SHOULD ask themselves when registering their young ones for primary school. And lastly,  Should the Primary School Registration System be Tweaked? by the same Little Blue Bottle will tell you what this whole issue about the possible change in registration rules is about.

Now, let me state for the record which side of the fence I am on. The hubbs and I both hail from reputable primary schools. So, yes, we are FOR the current system of primary school registration which gives priority to alumni of the respective school. 

In fact, about a month ago, we just registered Isaac for hubbs' alumni school. We thought long and hard about this, whether we should register Isaac for the school. The main factor going against it was the fact that we stay quite far from the school, and we are not likely to move nearer to it. However, the main reason why we decided to go ahead and register Isaac for the school, is mainly because hubbs feels patriotic towards his school. I am not kidding. The only reason why I am not objecting to this, is because it is a good school.

Also, like hubbs, I feel patriotic towards my own primary school as well. I would love to have my daughter go to the same school I did. Gosh, if I even had a choice, I would even want my daughter to go to the same secondary school I was in. Thus, I totally understand hubbs' sense of patriotism. And I think that many people who were from schools they feel patriotic to, would most likely feel the same way.

Some people say this is elitism. Why? Because they are jealous and want to get into these schools too? But why? Most Singaporean parents nowadays are born and bred here, meaning they would be alumni of some primary school as well. In the event that your old school has closed down, I understand you can call MOE to enquire and they will tell you which primary school you can qualify under Phase 2A for as the old schools closed down are usually merged with other primary schools to form a new primary school currently in existence. Hence, almost everyone, barring the non-Singaporeans, would have an alumni school to register at. So why are these people not registering at their own alumni schools but hankering after other people's alumni schools? 

I can tell you why. It is because, it would appear, that the popular schools that have most of their places taken up in Phase2A (the alumni phase) are in fact schools which are above average, good schools. So that is the real issue at the heart of it, isn't it? People want their kids to get into good schools. It doesn't really matter what name it has. I also know of people from so-called neighbourhood schools, who are proud of their schools. And we all know of the neighbourhood schools that have done so well that they have elevated themselves from the moniker of neighbourhood school into a 'branded school' status. These schools also have the Phase 2A alumni issue at play. Is it because these schools have a rich alumni that screams of elitism? No. These schools have the alumni issue because they are good schools! 

So let's face it. The issue is not the registration system. The issue is the quality of the schools. If the Ministry of Education makes good on its promise to Make Every School A Good School like it says it wants to do, then everyone would be more than happy to send their child to their alumni school, or in fact, any school at all - since they are supposedly all good, right? Thus, instead of wasting time and energy to change the registration system, they should work on the real issue of making every school a good school.

The current primary school registration gives priority to alumni, parent volunteering, religious and grassroots connections and also the distance one stays from the school in question. The distance rules have been in place for as long as I can remember. So, now, with the news put out that the Ministry of Education is seriously considering tweaking the primary registration rules, what other option do they have to use as a entrance qualifier? Distance? This smacks even more of elitism, to me.Or rather, it favours the rich. For this means that they can almost guarantee themselves a place if they stay near enough to the school. And we all know that property prices near the good schools are all priced higher because of it.

A fallacy? I hear some of you say? Now, let me assure you that I am probably one of the most qualified people in Singapore to say that it is true that property prices around a good school is higher because of the school. Why? Because I proved it. With empirical evidence. It was my dissertation topic back when I was in school. Here's the proof below, you can go look it up in the Building & Real Estate Library in the National University of Singapore. But yes, it is true 10 years ago, and I am certain it still holds true now. So, to tweak a system such that it will favour the rich the most? Now, if that isn't elitism, I don't know what is.

Some detractors of the alumni system also say the parents who hail from good schools did nothing and just benefited from it. So one day, out of curiosity, I asked my mum how she managed to get my older sister into our primary school. "Because I ligated. Government say Stop at Two."  When I heard this, I was simultaneously shocked, disgusted and felt sorrowful as I remembered how I used to openly hint to my parents that I wanted a younger sibling until my older sister came to me and said "Can you stop it?! Mummy cannot have any more children!" Government said Stop at Two, and we did. And we could go to a good school. Suddenly, I wondered if it wasn't a coincidence that a lot of my and my sister's primary school friends all only had one other sibling. 

A few months ago, at the dinner table at my in laws place, we asked my father-in-law (FIL) the same question: How did he manage to register hubbs for the primary school? This story emerged... Apparently, at that time, there was no unified nor clear system of registration. My FIL went to the school and queued up to want to register hubbs for the school. After quite a few hours, he reached the top of the queue, but the Principal said to him:"Come back tomorrow." The next day, he went again, and was told to "Come back tomorrow" again. He did that every day, for a whole week. Until he got fed up, and told the principal "I have been coming everyday like you told me, for a whole week, and still you have not allowed me to register my son into your school." To which, the principal replied:"Tell me why I should allow you to register? You are not an alumni, you are not even of the same religious belief, so why should we allow you to register?" My FIL replied:"Because the Government said to Stop at Two, and we did!" And so he was allowed to register hubbs for the school. TRUE STORY. I kid you not.

So that is the price we had to pay in order for us to have studied in a good school, and it is a heavy price that is more weighty than 60 hours of volunteer work. It is telling how similar both stories are. It is also sad, that it is this Stop at Two policy that has landed us as the sandwich generation made to bear the cost and stresses of an aging population.

Thus, I have a proposition. You want people to have more kids? Then let people who have three or more kids have their choice of primary school for all their kids. Plus free local university education - detailed discussion of that is for another post. But, I can confidently tell you. that if the government agrees to this two points, this method will definitely bear fruit - pun fully intended. 

Coming back to the real issue however... Make every school a good school! Don't distract the population with changing the registration rules. The only perfect solution to these problems is to truly make every school a good school. When that is done, school registration would merely be a formality. And everyone would be proud of the good schools they come from. So leave the registration system alone and get to work making every school a good school!!!

MegaBugs is buggerific!

Have you guys been to MegaBugs Return! at the Singapore Science Centre? If you haven't, you should do so really quickly, as the MegaBugs Return! exhibition's last day is on 18th August 2013! Just look at this humongous mosquito?! Ain't it cool!? It's the only mosquito I really wanna see - a fake one! :) 

The whole idea behind this MegaBugs exhibition is that they took the world of the buys and enlarged it so much that you feel like those kids in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids! movie! The bugs have been done so well, so realistic looking, that I'm sure those army pilots who fly past Science Centre in the sky would have gotten a shock of their lives had they looked down and saw the gigantic bugs in the carpark of the Science Centre!

This is one exhibition I really enjoyed very much. The bugs were realistically made, and they even put in some electronics to make some of its limbs move. Seriously cool. The kids enjoyed it too! Do you know, we didn't just go MegaBugs once, we went twice! And the kids are still asking us to go again! Surprisingly, it was Asher and Shawna who kept requesting to go back to MegaBugs. I thought 6 year old Isaac would have been more interested in this than the 3 and a half year old twins.

Huge models aside (and there were so many!), most exhibits came with a info board that gave more info on the gargantuan bug we were looking at. There were also mega-infoboards with all sorts of interesting info and trivia on bugs. This red console below is an activity counter where you can hear the sound of a bug, and try to guess which bug made that sound.

And what's a bug exhibition without real bugs?! They do have several displays with live bugs, as well as dead bugs. The boys liked the one where you could see the dead bugs kinda glowing in the ultraviolet light. I like the one where you can see like more than 20 huge cockroaches in a tank (middle picture below). Shawna preferred the exhibit of the dead as a doorknob bugs in a framed box below :p

Oh and if you have the time and energy, do shell out a few more bucks to catch the 3D film of "Bugs 3D - A Rainforest Adventure" that is screened in Annex Hall 1 of the Science Centre. It was very interesting, like seeing an episode of National Geographic on bugs, in 3D on the big screen. Now, Isaac really liked that one.

So, do plan a trip down soon, if you haven't seen it already! :)

Note: We were invited by P'Art 1 Design and the Singapore Science Centre to the exhibition on separate occasions. Both times which we enjoyed thoroughly :) Opinions expressed above are entirely our own!