We were not sure if it would be today, per what was written in the calendar. So for the first lesson today, you attended in your school uniform. Then you said that it was to be today, during Chapel.
So during the break time, you changed into your lehenga (I had just sewn the hook while you were attending the first lesson). And we quickly went downstairs to have some pictures taken.
We had ordered the present for you in hopes that it would arrive on time before your school starts. But it was half a day late. You attended lessons today using the iPad.
In the morning, I received a SMS saying that my courier will be arriving today. At around 2pm, the delivery man called and said he would be on the way. He came in the rain and dropped off the 2 parcels.
We quickly had it wrapped.. sorta.. since the only piece of wrapping paper we had at home was too small, we just covered the front and back which had the computer brand on it.
Then we asked you if you'd like to have your present earlier. You hesitated and finally agreed to it. This was what daddy gave you:
Today is the first day of the new school year. I did not have time to take pictures of you both, but managed to take of you while you ate your lunch.
Yup, you are both still attending online lessons at home. And this year the school has mandated the wearing of uniform while attending classes as the camera is to be turned on all the time.
Of course, I have the ever willing Mei-mei's picture:
It took us a long time to decide on whether a laptop was needed. And then what laptop to get for Ko-ko. Your Mac was already nearing the end of it's life. Then when we checked the delivery date online, it said 20-25 working days! Oh no! Looks like we needed to order earlier so that you will have the laptop around when your new school year starts. You will be needing it for the ICT subject.
The teachers in school come up with very interesting CCA activities (used to be called Co-Curriculum Activities, now called Creative Class for Advancement).
This is one of the assignment for "Dressing Sense". You need to dress up for a trip to Disneyland. So with the assumption the weather is summer/spring, you dressed up in leggings, singlet, a cap, complete with a backpack, sport shoes and most importantly a water bottle.
1. Birthday party
2. Beach Party
3. School
I had walked into your room as you were having CCA today with Miss Chan. The topic was planting. So you asked me to take pictures of our ladies fingers to show your friends.
So I went downstairs and took other pictures too:
Today marks the end of the EYE exam week. It was all conducted online and there were moments of "stress" (for mummy) as I face issues to get the stuff printed. Luckily daddy was around the first time and Ko-ko was not having his exams the second time it happened.
Here is the mirror on the table we set up next to the writing table. I was so fearful that my little rampaging bull would knock it over when you got up from your seat.
The End Year Exams for the both of you starts this week. Mei-mei begins today, while Ko-ko begins tomorrow. Here is the little one getting ready for the first exam, Music. We had to set up a table to place the mirror for the invigilators to be able to see your hands during the exams via Zoom.
For Primary, there was trail/mock exams to instruct the children on how to have the exams and also to check if there would be any issues before the actual exams. While for Secondary, there was one briefing from your homeroom teachers last Friday with the necessary instructions (including the need to wear school uniforms!) before exams starts.
I got the shock of my life as 10 minutes after the exam started, you walked into my room and said that you had finished the paper. I asked how many questions there were and you said 50. Faint.. can you even read so fast? But it turned out everyone in your class completed the exam within 20 minutes. Phew...
Then came paper 1 for Science, you also finished within 30-40 minutes. And again for Science paper 2, you even told me that you had read through your answers 2 times and you completed in less than 30 minutes. Oh well.. I hope you were not careless.
*Be strong, my heart.. this week is going to be a stressful one!
Just two minutes before your English lesson started, you decided that you needed to answer the call of nature.
And of course, you were smart enough to bring the iPad along. So since we still have the stool, this was your temporary study area! Gosh a new way of attending classes!
Luckily it as English lesson and Miss Joanne would start the class with some riddles.
Sigh, please have a new practice cleaning the system at a fixed time so avoid this happening again!
It's the last day for submitting your homework! Yikes and we're just finishing up the work.
With the MCO 2.0, the school decided to proceed with having online exams for the primary school children. As for the secondary school children, Ko-ko initially had to cram for his exams which unexpectedly was planned to be brought forward by a week, but the school still could not make it before MCO came into effect.
The school provided briefing to the children as we as parents on what would be needed for the online exams. On top of that they had 2 trial runs to see what issues may arise during the real exam day. As much as the school tried to iron out as many issues, on the exam days itself there was quite a bit of panic. One main issue was the usage of the answer sheet. The instructions were not consistent where some teachers insisted on the usage while the parents were told that either the answer sheet or question paper would be accepted. Nevertheless, the teachers involved have tried really hard to ensure everything goes as smoothly as possible. To me, the online exams were a cause of headache but the teachers have been amazing in trying to make the best of something new.
This Covid has led to many new things and changes in our lives. I really hope that all goes well soon and we can get back to as normal as possible a lifestyle soon.
It seems like I am also busy helping the both of you with your school assignments. This round is a 5 minute video on sports. I initially suggested cycling, but you said that you didn't want to as you are still not able to ride on two wheels.
But as you managed to learn cycling on two wheels over the weekend, you decided not to do badminton and changed to cycling instead.
Then the weather decided to rain every evenings! Oh no! We finally decided to just record in the porch after a slight drizzle. Luckily too the rain stopped, so we managed to get some footage of you cycling on the field across the road.
This time we had prepared some speech cards, so you knew what to say and we didn't have to have too many takes. The one with the most takes was of you cycling out of the house as you were just like a drunken cyclist!
When I had combined the clips, the total time was just over 3 minutes. Oh dear.. so I got you to make slides/pictures as title for the video. Then it dragged to over 4 minutes. A check with the parents in your class group and they mentioned it could be 4-5 minutes. So we're done! Phew!
For this round, you had a major assignment to make a model studio apartment. I had to spend quite a lot of time in search for the materials needed to make it. Imagine making the model on an A4 sized paper. Ahem.. someone "accidentally" cut the base slightly larger.
As usual, Evan took his time to start and then for every night leading to Thursday last week, we stayed up to make the tiny items for the house.
On Saturday evening, it was announced that Penang along with many other states in Malaysia (excluding Pahang, Perlis, Kelantan and Sarawak) would be placed under CMCO again as a result of the spike in Covid cases again.
This meant that schools will return to being online and increases in restrictions again. It's a good thing that I am still working from home. Or else, I'm not sure how Mei-mei would behave during lessons (Ko-ko too!).
The reaction from the both of you on the CMCO:
Evan: Forever on movement control! There goes my youth!!
Evelyn: I like and don't like having online school.
On Sunday we headed to school to pick up books. First we went early in the morning for Evelyn as daddy and I had planned to go to Tesco but abandoned the plan as the queue to enter was so long. Then we bought groceries and lunch. After lunch, we headed to school with Ko-ko to pick his books and then went to the hairdresser for both Ko-ko and daddy to have a haircut.
One good thing (for everyone) would be that we all do not need to wake up so early to get ready for work/school.
Today Mei-mei woke up early.. perhaps it is her "internal alarm clock" and was all ready before lessons began at 8.00am.
As for El Sluggo Ko-ko had to be woken up. He refused to wake up earlier so he just ate his breakfast then sat on the throne and finished right before Assembly started at 7.30am.
Here is a picture of Mei-mei having lessons next to me.
Miss Kavetha, your Maths teacher conducted the first extra class for this summer break. You were initially not keen to join, but in the end had fun attending classes.
