Revolving stars

 Recently, we had an extended family trip to JB. This time round, we went to Pulai Spring Resort for 1N stay and another night stay at Sinar Eco Resort. There were very few reviews for Pulai Spring Resort so I was pretty skeptical about it but my aunty mentioned that it was very value for money, hence we decided to give it a try. The resort was about 0.5 hours drive away from the customs so we took a grab there.  Since we have 8 pax, we booked a 4 room villa for the amazing price of SGD220, which is about $27.50 per pax (inclusive of breakfast). This is the living room area (which managed to fit 20 pax when the MY relatives came over after dinner) The kids enjoying themselves in one of the rooms (They literally played hide and seek) Full moon viewing Enjoying the time in the pool There is a shallow pool for toddlers and babies All in all, we loved the place. It is very spacious for a huge family gathering and the price point is very good. The breakfast itself was not very impr...

 While packing the house a few days ago, I found this set of Beginning Readers that was hidden in one of the cupboards. I flipped through the set of books and they are very decodable for toddlers who have started learning the CVC words! Hunter is able to read some of the books by himself, with the exception of tricky words such as "the". I find that it is a good supplement for the phonics class and will be continuing to practise reading with Hunter using this set.

Today, I am going to share my review of the phonics enrichment school that I have been sending Hunter to since start of July 2023. To give you the background, Curious Thoughts Academy (CTA) base its phonics classes on Jolly Phonics, and is located in Bugis.  I first got to know about CTA when they launched their phonics workshop. Being the ambitious mum, I thought that I could save some money and teach Hunter phonics by myself. After going through the workshop, I realised the amount of work I have to put in to curate the materials, and I decided that it is best left to the experts and I would just revise the contents with him at home during the week. Below are the information from CTA. They run the classes by terms and classes are tagged by levels.        Price List for 2023                         Hunter is currently in Intermediate phonics and will be advancing up next year.  I love the approach ...

Raising kids in Singapore is atrociously expensive, so I would like to share what I do with Hunter on weekends and weekday nights to keep expenses down while limiting screen time. We try to do a variety of activities to make things interesting. 1. Paper cutting I got the divider papers from my company when they decided to discard the old documents. Hunter enjoyed this activity a lot after I got him the left handed scissors . (Apparently, cutting with a normal scissors is very painful for him as he would keep complaining that his fingers are unable to control the scissors)   2. Outing at Utown (NUS) This is probably the most underrated gem in the west. We like to go to Utown on the weekends to have a picnic and play with balls. And the best thing is that there is no crowd to contend with. It is also very kids friendly as there are 2 foodcourts nearby with toilets and water coolers all around. For adults, there is a Starbucks for your caffeine fix. 2. Outing at Singapore Botanic Gard...

My cousin and I planned to go to the Istana for a play date, but when we reached, we nearly fainted when we saw the queue. We unanimously agreed that there is no way the two little kids are going to wait in the queue quietly, and hence, we decided to change location. Since we were around the area, we headed off to The Joy of Toys. We were surprised that the main area was already full (at 10plus in the morning) so we paid for the entry to the Riding Room.  We were worried that the two kids would be bored after a while, but no! They stayed through the whole hour. Pretty amazing for 3 years olds. Me holding on to Hunter because he tried to ride the zebra There are two sizes for these animal rides. Carrying the big stuffed toys around All in all, it was worth it for $8 an hour. Both parents could also enter, and there were no additional charges. For more information, you may wish to visit their website .   

Being parents, one area which we are very concerned about is the amount of Chinese Hunter is exposed to. I came from a dialect speaking family, and PL speaks mostly English at home too. So we hope to give Hunter a Mandarin speaking environment (much to the chagrin of many people) since we tend to mix some English vocabulary into our daily Mandarin conversation. Friends and neighbours recommended the Ihuman Chinese app to us, raving about its effectiveness. We tried out the trial version, and eventually paid a lifetime subscription for it after much deliberation. Payment First, I must state that the payment method is very efficient for apple users who can read Chinese, but not so much for non-Chinese since all the instructions are in Chinese. It is also relatively cheap as we are able to subscribe to a lifetime membership. If Hunter uses it consistently, we would reap ALOT of benefits since they teach up to 1300 words. (If Hunter learns a word a day, that's going to be about 3.5 yea...

 Being a full time working mum, time with my boy is really precious. On weekday nights, I will try my best to revise what he has learnt in school/class for reinforced learning. Our weekday night routine (example) Depending on days, sometimes activities would stretch because Hunter was moody etc. 6.40pm: Reach home and have dinner with family. 7.00pm: Shower 7.20pm: Desk time - Min. 3-5 questions/exercises (max 2 pages) example of desk work 7.50pm: Games/activities to reinforce concepts/words learnt DIY games/activities 8.15pm: Independent play Example of independent play 8.40pm: Child-directed activity 9.10pm: Bedtime reading Assisted reading Hopefully this would be helpful for those who have asked about weekday night routines at home :)

At the last recent school closure, we brought Hunter to JB for a long weekend together with my parents. We took the KTMB train again and it was convenient and fuss free as the previous time . This would probably be the last time where Hunter gets to take the train for free. The rationale to choose Paradigm Mall was simple - a one stop centre for everyone. Since we didn't have our own transport, we chose an accommodation which is very near to the mall (2-5 mins walk) depending on which block you stay. The condo is called Platino and it's pretty new. Playground in the condo swimming pool This is how near the mall is. As usual, Hunter's priorities came first, which ended with us going to Utopia for both days of the trip. We signed up for the 3 entries package, which cost RM188. It comprises a free bumper ride and a welcome gift. One adult can also accompany him each time without additional fee. Socks are additional (RM 5 for a pair) because we didn't expect to go in so ear...