Ownership

On several occasions, Marieann has been staying back after school. She explained that she has been staying back after school to complete her homework together with her classmate. 
My first instinct is to want her home as soon as possible to do her homework. However, I realised that Marieann is learning to take ownership for her own learning. I guess I also have to do some learning. I am learning to let go where Marieann's studies is concerned. It's time that she takes charge of her own learning. 

Catch-Up

During the two days of PSLE Oral, Juliane had no school but e-learning at home instead. She managed to do some e-homework but not everything. Some documents/ programmes, which are required in order for her to complete her homework, strangely could not be opened/ viewed on the desktop but only on my work notebook. No choice, Juliane will have to catch up with outstanding e-homework over this weekend.

Cold Storage No More

I took my iPad 1 out of "cold storage". With heavier homework demands, sometimes the girls needed the easy (and quick) access to information and/ or references whereby the iPad comes in handy for them. The girls would share my iPad and use it when doing their homework, e.g. checking the dictionary, etc. But sometimes time is wasted as they took turns to use the iPad. Now with both my iPad 1 and iPad 3 in use, the girls no longer have the excuse that she is not doing her homework because she is waiting to use the iPad. :)

E-learning Again

It is e-learning day again for the girls because it is PSLE Listening Comprehension today. Primary 1 to 5 students need not report to school today and instead would have e-learning via MC Online portal. Recalling how much IT issues the girls had for their last e-learning days, I decided to work from home so that I could help them out if they encounter any IT issues as well as to keep an eye on them.
Today's e-learning was a breeze for the girls. No IT trouble at all. :)

Play vs Work

The sisters had a vastly different day.
Marieann - Play
Marieann was invited for a play date by her classmate, Nicole. The play date is at The Rink, JCube. Marieann and her classmates ice-skated from 10:30am to 12:30pm. It is the first time that Marieann ice-skated and she did pretty well, that is, she wasn't falling on her bottom all the time lol.

Going boldly where no novice skater would and didn't fall!

Yeah, I did it!

Marieann and her classmates

She joined her classmates (and Nicole's mother) for lunch (I have been abandoned!) and they later went to Nicole's place. I was initially hesitant to let her go to Nicole's place because Marieann still has homework (both school and tuition) yet to be completed and there's no one to bring her home. It was only when Marieann promised that she will do her homework when she comes home and Nicole's mother assured me that they will send Marieann home that I relented and let her go enjoy herself before coming home at 5pm.

Juliane - Work
Juliane was also invited to go to the play date but she decided that she would rather do her homework. We were both working at Starbucks, JCube. When I ran to check on Marieann at The Rink (twice), Juliane waited for me at Starbucks while doing her homework. In 3.5 hours, she managed to finish 80% of her homework while at Starbucks. Not bad. Maybe she can focus better when working outside.

Hard at work!

As we were "abandonded" by Marieann, we had lunch at Watami Japanese Restaurant before heading home at 3pm. Lunch seemed so much more delicious, satisfying and enjoyable after a hard (half) day's work. :)

My Ishiyaki Stamina Don ($11.80): Pork rice with egg yolk in stone pot, salad, soup and a drink

Juliane's Okinawa Ramen (half) $6.90

My Neighbourhood Homework

Juliane had to do a piece of school homework about the flora and fauna in her neighbourhood. Easy peasy. We live right next to Botanic Gardens which has no lack of flora and fauna lol. :)
Here are some of the flora and fauna in our neighbourhood, Botanic Gardens.

I think this is an Asian Water Monitor Lizard (?)

Ok, this is an insect, not fauna lol

Yes, this is an Oriental Pied Hornbill, resting in the trees in our estate

Front gate of Botanic Gardens, literally in our backyard! :)

Life Goes On

If my girls thought that they would get a break from their Saturday routine because I am not well, they were wrong, very wrong. Despite still recovering from my illness, I supervised my girls as they did their homework. Sorry, kids, there is no escape. Life goes on.

Saturday is Stay Home Day

Due to the change in the girls' Sunday tuition from afternoon to morning (10.30am - 12.30pm), Saturday is now officially Stay Home Day. The girls will have to finish all their school homework as well as tuition homework on Saturday itself. As a reward, I would allow them to stay up later on Saturday night to watch Incredible Tales lol. I would also let them have a break by taking them out for a meal after their Sunday tuition and they could also have Sunday afternoon to relax. In the evening, they would get ready for the new school week such as learning their spelling, etc. 

We used to go out for lunch/ dinner on Saturday and the girls could continue to do their homework on Sunday morning before their tuition in the afternoon. However, I much prefer this new arrangement as the girls could concentrate and gain momentum to finish all their work.  So far, the girls are okay with this arrangement too. :)

Catching Up

As the girls were at the carnival yesterday, it was catching up time with their homework today. It was also catching up time for me with my work and my sleep lol. I am still recovering from yesterday's carnival lol.
Too lazy to go out, we ordered pizza for lunch lol. It has been a long since we last had pizza! It was really delicious haha.

Getting Ready

The girls are getting ready for Term 2. By end of today, they have completed all their school holiday homework and have kept them in their homework files. They have also tidied up the ring binders for their various subjects (and I have signed all the worksheets and checklists that needed my signature). They have also checked and completed any online homework that they had to do.
Tomorrow, we will check one last time and the girls will be ready for the new school term, starting on 19 March 2012.

"Holiday" Again

The girls are having another "holiday" again today due to the PSLE Listening Comprehension. They are pretty happy about the extra day of rest and not having to go to school. But there are also plenty of school homework to keep them occupied for the day.

E-learning Days II

It is the second day of e-learning for the girls.
Juliane completed all her English, Math and Chinese e-homework.
Marieann completed her Chinese and Science e-homework. But she had problem logging into her English and Math group in Edmodo. When she called her friends to check, she had conflicting instructions from them. Sigh. In the end, I emailed her teacher. Thank goodness, she replied promptly. Now Marieann can complete her e-learning lessons and worksheets for English and Math. :)

Extra Holiday

meant extra homework for the girls. The girls, especially Marieann had a few extra sheets of homework to complete because today is a school holiday. So their joy at having an extra day of holiday is coupled with the lament of having to do more homework lol.

Homework Day

Saturday is homework day for Marieann. She spent most of the day completing her school homework and her tuition homework. She also started to learn some of the words for her English spelling and practised writing the characters for her Chinese spelling. I am glad that she is off to a good start. :)

PSLE Listening Comprehension

Today is PSLE Listening Comprehension. Good Luck to all P6 students, especially my P6 counsellees.

Marieann was happy because she didn't have to go to school due to the PSLE Listening Comprehension. However, she could not laze around because she had to complete her online homework.

Online Homework II

Marieann has managed to finish all 26 of her online homework. Told her she has to finish the remaining online homework today because there would be upgrading on LEAD portal on 19 March. Although the services resume after 20 March, I would rather she finish everything before 19 March than to rush through on 21 March.

There also seems to be a glitch with one of the assignments. The response rate and the mark remained as "0" despite having attempted all the questions in the assignment and despite getting the answers correct. :( Hopefully the upgrading will resolve that glitch. I guess this is one of the perils of using ICT.

Online Homework

I received an sms from Marieann's classmate's mother about their online homework. Their teacher has uploaded 26 English and Math homework onto the LEAD portal today. Thanks, Sharon for informing me. Appreciated it. :)

When I checked yesterday, there were only 2 Chinese online homework. Marieann has already finished doing them yesterday. I was still thinking to myself that Marieann is really having it easy this March holiday, not much homework. Haha. :P If not for Sharon, I would not have checked the LEAD portal again this week! Phew. Otherwise, Marieann would then miss submitting her online homework on time. :P

Schools are really into using ICT for teaching and learning. No wonder children now-a-days are so comfortable with IT and are really IT-savvy.

Honeymoon's Over!

It is official. P1 honeymoon is officially over.

Marieann came home with lots of homework. There were work from the Chinese activity book, the Math workbook, and English worksheets. On top of that, she has spelling tomorrow which she still has to revise. I was a nervous wreck when I saw the amount of homework. I just don't understand why she doesn't seem frayed by it all and why she could take her own sweet time to do her homework.
I don't remember assigning children that much homework when I was a teacher. A former SCGS colleague of mine and I both lamented about today's volume of homework as we had to supervise and rush our girls to complete their homework. Pressure to perform academically is catching up, however more with us than our girls who are the happy-go-lucky kind. Sigh.

P1 honeymoon is over! :(

Daily Homework

It's been a week since Marieann started P1. I am glad that she has no problem being in school, no anxiety attack, nothing. :) Must be like me, gung-ho haha. :P

My daily homework, after work, is to check if Marieann has any homework. So far, she always said she finished her work in school. Hmm, ok, maybe it is just the beginning of school so no homework yet. (I can't use my previous teaching experience because I only taught upper primary.) The second part of my daily homework is going through the time-table and packing the school bag with Marieann. She would read out the time-table, get the books and I will help her put them into the bag. I will probably do this for the month of January and after that, she will be on her own. :)