The ONG family Homeschool

Our Homeschoolers Sing! Christ the Lord is Risen!!!

As I mentioned on the FB page,  conducting christian young persons choir is one of the more meaningful things I do as a homeschool mom. It is not meant to be an exclusively homeschool choir, but it turned out that the homeschoolers were the ones who were able to attend on monday afternoons. Kids who go to school are already quite tied up with school and CCA activities.

Anyway, we started this choir to give our children an opportunity to sing in a choir setting: sing in parts, do sectionals, learn singing techniques, etc.The fruits arising from this endeavour has been tremendous! Most exciting are the reports from parents of how their children are practicing their parts at home, enjoying singing together. I can testify to that: my own kids have been breaking out in song and in different parts whenever and where-ever (especially when they are travelling... :) )

We have been putting up half yearly concerts for the children to present what songs they have learned, as a chance to perform before an audience of family and friends. I'm so thankful to have such a wonderful and supportive community of homeschool parents who will turn up and enjoy their children's work. And their children are simply a pleasure to teach: responsive, polite, and attentive. Creative and humorous! They make choir sessions such a fun learning time.

Alas, with baby no. 6 due end June, I decided to have just one term of choir this year and we culminated all the choir we had done from January till March with a mini Ressurection week concert. Will certainly miss the kids. :(    

During choir, I do allocate some story and activity time that is related to what the children are singing so they sing with greater understanding. We enjoyed learning about the passover sacrifice lamb and Jesus the Lamb of God. What a blessing to teach (in most cases here, reinforce) bible truths to the children, how Jesus loves us to come to earth to die for us.

Without further ado, here's the older choir (9 -15 yrs) singing Look and Live. I challenged them with a more difficult program this term and they really rose to the challenge. Well done!!!

Listen to the last chorus where they sing acapella. :)

 

And this was the grand Finale combining with the younger choir (6-9 yrs) with Christ the Lord is Risen Today. So wonderful to hear their pure voices singing in glory and honor of Jesus!

 

Lord willing, we will re-start choir next year (2013). When bb no. 6 is 6 months old! :)

Blessed Resurrection Weekend to all. Jesus died once that we might live. He rose again to prove He has conquered death and we who believe in Him will follow in the same!

 

Field Trip: Terracotta Warriors

We were doubly privileged. We had the chance to see China's Terracotta Warriors! They are in town till 31st Oct. So happy that recently, homeschoolers who have the certificate of Exemption (that means only primary school going aged homeschoolers, not the teens, sadly) have been given the same privileges that school going children get. We only had to show the kid's ezlink cards and sign in, and their admission charges were waived! AMEN!

What a rare opportunity to see some of these famed sculptures. From many English Comprehension passages ago....Qin Shi Huang Di the first Emperor to have unified China. He wanted to ensure that in the afterlife, he would still be king. So he had his minions (700 000 of them) to sculpt his subjects, not only a 8000 strong army, and the calvary horses and chariots but also musicians, court jesters, farm animals, etc. etc.

 
Sadly, these are only a finite man's imagination of what life after death is. Only more of the same.  

Isaiah 55:8-9  For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

 

This is the kneeling archer. One of my favourites because of his dignified expression and posture.

I said we were doubly privileged because before we went to see the exhibition, we had a real life history buff, (one from China even!) give us a very interesting "pre-lesson" on Qin Shi Huang and ancient Chinese warfare. Lesson in chinese too! ;) Uncle Daan! Thank you! (So whatever little tidbits of information I share here, I attribute mostly to D. )

Quite incidentally, Daan and Carol took a honeymoon trip to Xi'an and they bought for us a mini terracotta warrior set! How cool is that, right? What a treasure to us they are!

 
The one in the front is a General and the one to the left is a commoner, no uniform.

The newly conscripted commoners have to fight wars to earn armour and rise the ranks. Before they could do that, they needed to be tough enough to survive being a front line foot man. Ancient Chinese warfare was much like the persians or romans, whereby they will set their army in formations. One tactic was to put the newbies out first so that they will run through the enemy lines and break their formation, allowing the calvary or archers or what-have-yous to go forth while maintaining their formations. So I guess that this also ensured that only the real "soldier material" conscripts actually became soldiers.

You hear lots of times that the Terracotta Warriors stand very tall, like 1.8 m tall. This fact didn't quite hit me until I experienced the exhibition, seeing them real life.... it's like woah, they ARE tall!!

Since the whole army was individually sculpted from real life faces, not cast in molds, 8000 unique faces (and different hairstyles!) imagine that.... People wondered if Qin's army really was so tall or were they just made like that to look more imposing?  The answer is yes, they probably were this tall. Firstly, Qin's army were from the North and apparently the Northern stock of chinese are taller people. (Unlike Southern stock folks like me. Sob. Shorty Southern stock me.) Secondly, Qin had plenty of people to choose from so he could have chosen only the tallest ones for his formidable army. Impressive.

 
Qin's Terracotta army consisted of many horses as well. 520 horses with 130 chariots and 150 cavalry horses. Phew. That's a lotta work.

See the life like expression of the horse? Looking at him, you could almost hear him neighing!

Would you believe that horse weighs 600 kg? Talk about dense. No wonder it could survive 2 200 years! It took a modern crane and 8 men to move it. And by the way, it isn't easy for all that weight to be resting on four thin stilts of legs either. (I can imagine the middle of the body section collapsing in. Or the head falling off.)

The people weigh half of that. Only 300 kg. Only.

 
Papa giving a little lesson to the kids.

We really enjoyed standing by them and noticing all the details about their clothes and what they might have been holding and their facial expressions. What a pleasure to do "school" with your own children and walk with them through it!

 
 At the exhibition, the kids had some fun activities to do. Collect stamps on a little worksheet. :)

 
There was a little parallel exhibition by a pop artist, Justin Lee. The kids totally enjoyed his art too!

So if you are in Singapore, and you haven't yet had the chance to go... you should.

 

Follow up Post: Peek into Our Grocery Cart

Since I did this post on a Peek into Our Grocery Cart, a reader and friend was kind enough to share with me a lobang to buy fish! :D (She empathized, having many mouths in her family to feed too, that fish can be very dear to buy...) Thank you so much A.! So touched you took the time to care and share!

It's at a wholesaler in Jurong called Song Fish Dealer.  I haven't gone before but I'll take her word for it and will be visiting soon! yay!

She writes:

You may wish to buy salmon from the wholesalers...we get ours from Song Fish. The last time I bought salmon, it cost $18/kg and with 6 to 7 pieces prepacked, it only cost less than $40. They sell a whole lot of other stuff too...including frozen food. Opposite them is Ben Foods, also sell wholesale...they are the ones who bring in Farmland Meat Patties. Only thing is Ben Foods open to public only on Saturdays, starting at 10am. Song Fish opens at 8am I think. If you do go, bring cooler bags or a big styrofoam box filled with ice to store the chilled purchases.

By the way, they do sell fresh batang fish, salmon, pomfret, prawns, squid etc. And they will scale, clean, cut and pack it to your specifications. The downside is, they only accept NETS or cash....

A Peek into Our Grocery Cart

I like to say, what I find mundane may turn out to be something of interest to others. This is one such post: our groceries cart. lol

When folks post on their blogs, the content of their post may end up being taken up by other parties for completely different purposes than the writer intended, for good or bad...

Someone reading this post may be one who is considering how much it would cost to feed a family of seven in Singapore. (Actually, since some of my 5 children are still small, we consider it as four adult portions at the moment....)

Someone else might be doing policy studies? Or someone who does surveys on what is the market demand for home products or this profile of shoppers?....*shrugs*

Our weekly groceries is mainly to stock up on daily necessities and enough food for about 6 meals to cook (this excludes breakfast, which we usually have bread and spread or ham).

I asked my hubby how long I take when I do groceries. (He is usually holding the kids at the library upstairs while I shop in the basement NTUC.) He told me roughly half an hour. I was surprised as I thought I took more like 45 minutes. I guess I have quite perfected the route of combing through our NTUC to grab what I usually grab without too many back tracking.

Tonight, no. 3, the 7 yr old, decided to give the library a miss and come grocery shopping with me. He helped with pushing the cart, which by the end (as usually is the case) gets piled pretty full and heavy. I warned him twice not to engage my ankles under the front bar of the shopping cart. He got the message, eventually.

I counted on my very long receipt that I had about 31 items on it. This was somewhat longer than usual because today, I spent a little more stocking up on the canned food and frozen food (frozen fair price prata the big pack which I sometimes serve with chicken curry, and frozen Tays chicken nuggets, also the big pack...) 

I wonder if others out there have a habit of placing the "tougher" items like bags of rice or the canned food first on the conveyor belt to be checked out first? I do. So that when I re-load the cart, I have these items at the bottom and I can then dump the more delicate items (eggs, leafy vegs) on top.

I bought some nice and conveniently packed tom yum soup ingredients (limes, limau leaf, lemon grass etc.) to cook fish soup with salmon. The kids seems to like the soup. :) Salmon is quite dear. I bought a salmon fillet for $8.45. It might not be enough for my family so I bought another package of the bone/ head for $2.03. It nice as there's more skin and bones (good for soup) and the fatty bits. yum. I happen to like to grill those too because of the fatty oil.

And as for the final tally, it came up to... *drumroll*...$170.50!!!(Which is about US$138.)

It was more than usual (usually about $110). The most expensive item I bought tonight was the 900g can of goat's milk for the 2 yr old, $48.

This weekly grocery shopping is not the only place I do grocery shopping. I occasionally stock up on frozen foods through qb foods. And I get my bread flour and other baking stuff from Phoon Huat.

God provides, He is our all sufficiency.

So, I hope that was an interesting/ informative/ not too boring look into our weekly shopping cart. :D

 

 

Horsing Around: Rider's Lodge, Johor

 
Horsing around and around and around....

 
Alrighty, this post we become a family/homeschool/travel log blog! :)

 We discovered a horse riding "lobang" in Malaysia, Johor about 1 hour's drive from Singapore. Rider's Lodge. As we all know, land scarce Singapore, it is hard to find horse riding *at affordable prices*.

The children did two days of one lessons and it worked out to be about S$50 per hour. The staff were friendly and helpful, the trainers were patient and encouraging. The lady trainer is from Lithuania and the man is from Spain.  We also did a two night stay there and enjoyed the facilities.

 
We watched Matilda get saddled up.

 

Day 1 of lessons, the trainer taught the children some horse riding basics.

 
 

 

No. 3 got the tallest horse! lol. But very obedient horses. mostly. :)

 

Some exercises to learn balance in the saddle.

 

 

Why a horse riding trip? Well, mainly because the two little boys have been horse crazy for the last few months. No. 4 chose a plastic horse figurine set over a nerf gun! So that's how much they love horses. :) see this post... 

 

No. 4 (5 yrs) is too young to join in the lessons, so he got a nice pony ride through the oil palm plantation.

 

 

This is the beautiful manor that we stayed in. Looks classic but built in 1999. ;)

In the room, the kids taught me how to play monopoly deal. fun! 

 

And they played other games as well.

 

We enjoyed the swimming pool at the neighbouring gold course. We are allowed to use it! And use it we did! :)

 

The kids are getting good at this flipping into the pool thing. See this post for the video when they first started the flipping thing. haha

Big breakfast for a little boy. He was so pleased. If anyone is intending to go and stay over, I would suggest the bed and breakfast  as the meals are quite pricey. Just drive out to the nearby Kulai town for coffee shop food and regular malaysian prices.

 

At night we played some pool. It is a little known fact that I (Suwei) can play pretty good pool! Played on and off since secondary school days but more so during university. Just happened that that night no. 1 beat me by a *few* balls.

 

We ventured out to the Kulai town just 5 mins away. Bustling pasar malam (night market)! We instructed the children to stay close.

 
 

 

Couldn't resist buying the Penang laksa. It was spicy, sweet, sour... yum!

 

Hubby and I did a trail ride into the oil plantations while the kids babysat each other in the room. :)

 

Two handsome boys. :)

 

Baby no. 5 could only watch from the side lines and kept asking can I sit on the horsie?

Her wish was granted. But only for a minute. :)

 

 
on day 2, the children, under the spanish trainer, learned how to trot. At first they were bouncing away in their saddles. lol. Until they got the rhythm of the trot. No. 3 seems to be quite a natural! 

 

Well, bye bye horsies. Hope to see you again soon. :)

It was a good family time away and we cherish the times we can spend together as a family ilke this. We also had a good time of getting into God's Word and praying for God's will for us. God is so good to us!

A Bible Conference & Seminar by Missionary David Cloud

Search online for David Cloud (Way of Life Literature) and you are going to get into some controversy. I have grown much from this man's literature ministry. Just by his writing output alone, you will know he is not an ordinary Christian. To me, he is quite the closest person I know personally who is Psalms 119 personified. He is truly the most hardworking person I know when it comes to studying the Bible and researching about issues that pertain to the Church, church history, the Bible, etc...Prolific, I tell you.

Come, and be blessed, be encouraged, be challenged.

Challenging Preaching and Lessons by Missionary David Cloud

We are pleased to have Missionary David Cloud to here with us from March 11-15 for a series of challenging messages from God's Word on issues families face in the Last Days. Our prayer is that this will be a blessing and encouragement to you. 

Our meetings are open to all but please note the meeting schedule below.

 

Keeping The Kids, 11-13 March

This seminar aims to help parents and churches raise children to be disciples of Jesus Christ and to avoid the pitfalls of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Statistics show that a frightening percentage of children that grow up in Bible-believing churches drop out when they reach adolescence. They either go full-fledged into the world, or they remain on the periphery of church life, or they join a contemporary church that essentially promises them they can have Christ and the world, too. We are convinced that this does not have to happen, because God has given promises in His Word about child training, but winning the battle is not easy and requires complete dedication by the parents. 

Who Should Attend:

Parents

Grandparents

Youth and Teenagers

Youth and Sunday School workers

 

Music, For Good or Evil, 12 March

Music can be used for Good or Evil, but how will you know what to use it for unless you are grounded in the Biblical principles of music? Contrary to contemporary philosophy, music is not neutral and the Christian is accountable to God for its proper usage.

This seminar aims to equip Teens, parents and those serving in any music ministry to under the principles of what constitutes godly and spiritual music and how to discern styles of music.

Who Should Attend:

Youth and Sunday School workers

Youth and Teenagers

Song Leaders, Music ministry workers

 

Sunday Morning Service, 13 March

We are honoured to have Bro. David Cloud to minister to us God’s Word on this Sunday morning. All are invited. There will be nursery and a children’s chapel available during the service.

 

History of the King James Bible, 15 March

This presentation covers the fascinating history of the English Bible from the 15th to the 17th centuries, focusing on the Wycliffe, the Geneva, the Tyndale, and the King James. Brother Cloud has an extensive personal libraries on this subject which includes many rare titles from the 17th to 19th centuries. He has done firsthand research in England, Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkey, Greece, and Israel, and has examined two of the 14th century Waldensian New Testaments.

Who Should Attend:

Pastors, Missionaries, Church Staff and Workers
Parents, Youth, Teens

 

Meeting Schedule Summary

“Keeping the Kids”

11 March, Friday 7.30pm-10pm Part 1

12 March, Saturday 2pm-5.30pm Part 2

13 March, Sunday 1.30pm-3pm Part 3

 

“Music, for Good or Evil”

12 March, Saturday 10.30am-12.30pm

 

Sunday Morning Schedule

Adult Class 9.15am-10.15am

Worship Service 10.45am-12.30pm

 

Sunday Afternoon Schedule

“Keeping the Kids” 1.30pm-3pm Part 3

 

“History of the King James Bible”

15 March, Tuesday 2pm-5.30pm Part 1

15 March, Tuesday 7.30pm-10pm Part 2

 

Note: 

1. There will be nursery provided for Sun morning

2. There will be Question & Answer sessions, time permitting

 

About Way of Life Literature

Established in 1974, Way of Life Literature is a fundamental Baptist preaching and publishing ministry based in Bethel Baptist Church, London, Ontario. Wilbert Unger is the Pastor of Bethel Baptist. David W. Cloud is the founder and director of Way of Life.

The goal of Way of Life Literature is to stand for the truth of God’s Word without compromise, to preach the Gospel, and to produce well-documented materials to strengthen New Testament churches in these apostate days. We are also church-planting missionaries in Asia.

 

Field Trip: Pompeii Exhibition

I declare!!! Field Trip Friday!!! I say so, coz I'm the Mom. heehee...Since we are homeschoolers, we get to go on field trips when most other kids are in school. We get to avoid the crowds!!! I went together with our friends (two homeschooling families) and over there, we bumped into two more homeschooling families! :D

It's so great, the Singapore National Museum is having an open house this Fri, Sat and Sunday. Ok, if you didn't know, you missed that. BUT, this coming Friday, Sat and Sunday (21 -23 Jan) is also going to be Open House!!! FREE!!! Opens at 10 am. Highly highly recommended.... and here's the reasons why....

 Pompeii was a Roman city situated in the bay of Naples, Italy. And the fact that the city was decimated in AD79, means all the exhibits that are on display are actual artifacts from the time of Jesus.

Roman Gladiator helmet

This was a Roman Gladiator's shield. My eldest who loves to read about ancient warfare will tell you this is for close armed combat.... as opposed to those big long shields that are for marching formation to deflect in coming arrows... :)

The sudden and devastating destruction of Pompeii made me want to find out why God rained His wrath down on Pompeii.

My children and I saw for ourselves the many gods that the Romans worshipped. These were from family altar tables.

Psalms 115:1-8  Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.

And as expected, the Romans lived in opluence and to add to that, sensuously.

Sabazius, the Roman god of fertility.

There are websites that postulate that Pompeii was destroyed as a direct response from God for Rome's act of destroying the Temple in Jerusalem in AD70. That is highly interesting.

Whatever the reason that God destroyed Pompeii, He did so in a fashion that the world still looks upon in horrifying awe.

The resin casts of the victims are on display. They are a shocking and solemn testament that God's judgement is Final.

 

Speaking of the second coming: 1 Thessalonians 5:3  For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

 The video below was a good pre-lesson that we watched in preparation for the field trip. One of my children got so frightened watching it that he didn't want to go for the field trip. :p But he found that the museum wasn't as scary. :)

  Just imagine, when us adults learned about Pompeii, it was only through textbooks or English comprehension passages. This day, our children can go and SEE the ACTUAL artifacts that the people who lived in pompeii used when they were alive! Imagine that.

We are indeed blessed to be living in Singapore that our children have so many learning opportunities.  And free of charge too!!!

 

 

 

What an Awesome Sight!

 

He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.  ~Albert Einstein

 

Sunday evening, at the field outside Christ Church Sec. A hundred kites in the sky!

Praising God for pleasures such as these...

 

 

Homeschoolers' Sports Day!!!

We were so blessed to have had the chance to participate in a Sports Day with other homeschoolers today! Yay for the Singapore homeschooling group for organizing this event! Actually, it's parent run but broadcasted through the yahoo homeschool group. It was held at the Singapore Sports School. Wonderful effort! and so thoughtfully done.

Yes, all these are HOMESCHOOLERS!

There was a kiddy program for the 6yrs and unders who were not participating in the races...

And sand play... who cares if this is actually the long jump pit? You know.. kids and sand....lol!

And I have to say, the children present were a different breed of children from the kind I generally notice at school bus stops or public places. They were well behaved, none were swearing, they enjoyed playing together, no fighting, great sportsmanship, stopping a game to check if another child is alright ... all very pleasant children!

My baby found a ball and offered it to an 11 yr old boy who graciously received it from her and talked to her. I think many 11 yr old kids do not know how to respond to babies. :) My eldest (and I!) also enjoyed the many cute little toddlers around today.   

no. 3 gave it his best-est shot and came in 2nd!! That look of determination on his face was priceless!

no. 2 came in 2nd in her age group race too! Yay!

No. 1 didn't win a medal BUT very importantly, he made some friends with other homeschoolers his age! Boys and a soccer ball on a pitch? Scroll up and see kiddies and sand pic.  

Wow! did you know there are so many homeschoolers in Singapore?? This is not even half. not even a third!

It was so thoughtfully organised, the top 3 runners of each race got medals PLUS every child got a certificate of participation. That's says so much about recognizing each child's effort, and not just about rewarding outcomes.

Fantastic family bonding time: there was a family relay! Papa carried baby and ran the last leg. :) Oh yes! And papa won 2nd in the Dads race! We're sooo proud of him!!! YAY!!!

Meeting blog friends: a fellow homeschool mom came up to me to say she loved the latest birthday cake! (Sorry I didn't get her name.) And another reader friend whom I finally met in person today. Yay!

It was a great day. So drained I konked out when we got home and when I came to, it was 5:30pm!!! :p

______________________________________

haha... jusut realized there are sooo many exclaimation marks in this post!!! must've been too excited!!!!

Visit to a Mast Ship! Sagres, Portugal

Ok Ok... I'm posting this up fast so that who ever wants to go can make plans to go.

The Sagres is presently berthed at Keppel Bay (harbour front MRT is the nearest) and will receive guests only for the next two days (21, 22 oct.) 10 am -10 pm with lunch breaks 12- 2 pm and dinner from 6- 7pm.

Admission is FREE!

It is a 73 year old Portugese ship but modelled after the European ships that sailed 500 years ago. Simply breathtaking and exciting! Just walking around brings your mind back to pirate movies or stowaway stories. I loved imagining sailing in it in the big ocean or looking up in the still of the night at the sky full of stars.

14 stories high!

No. 2's first reaction was, mama! there are so many ropes!

The only regretful thing is that all the sails have to be up.

if not, the Sangres looks like this! Magnificent!