The ONG family Homeschool

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.

 

Re-Posted: Ball and Chained to the House because of Baby? Not Me!

I wrote this in June 2009 when baby no. 5 was 2 months old. Some of my thoughts on how we ought to find ways to let the baby fit into the family schedule and not the other way around. Especially in Christian ministry.

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Babies need sleep, I certainly can understand.  It's terrible when the baby doesn't get enough sleep and gets all sorts of cranky from over-stimulation. However, I'm coming to know of more and more parents of babies (some are not so baby anymore, like a 3 year old I know), mostly first time parents, who sacrifice so much of their time out of the house for the sake of their child's sleep. For instance, they can't go out after 7 pm because baby has to sleep (in his cot). Heaven forbid that there be interruption of their child's all important time for physical growth and development! :OP 

Why am I writing this post? I'm thinking about last night. The Ong Family was at the airport last night sending off our dear Filipino missionary friends off. We all had a good time of fellowship and catching up with dear brethren, some we haven't been able to sit down and chat with in a while.

We were out the whole evening and got back at mid-night. Baby no. 5 (2mths old) naturally came with us! When we reached the airport at about 8:30pm, she was sleeping. So I put her into the stroller and there she stayed sleeping till we left the airport at 11:30pm. And she slept all the way home in the car seat and when we reached home, she fed a while and went back to sleep again.

Although we are not full-time in the ministry (as in, employed by the church), the Lord's work and His ministry are a very important aspect of our lives as individuals (hubby and I), and now, spilling into our family life.

As a "lifestyle choice", our children and babies go with us when we need to go. We have interesting photographs of our baby no. 3 sleeping in my cello case during our orchestra practice on Saturday years back. No. 4  was barely weeks old when I lugged him and no. 3 along to Bishan for no. 1 and 2's gymnastics class three years back. Our babies sleep anywhere! They have to! They grew up happy too! :) And I can also look back on my life, year after year, baby after baby, of happy memories of times serving God in the family as well as in church work with my dear brethren.

So, a lot of it, I attribute to a matter of training. Train the child to sleep anywhere, not only at home and in the cot. Then the child will be able to get rested even when the parent needs to go out. If the parent trains the child to fall asleep only in his cot, he's forever going to be worrying about making it home to the cot whenever sleep time comes.

And the other is, it comes down to priorities.. Is meeting all the (perceived) needs of the child more important than, say, serving God in His house? Using your talents for Him in various ministries of the church? Going door knocking to pass out tracts? Being in church on time on Sunday?

It is one of the "difficult to understand until you test it" truths from the Bible. Matthew 6:33 says But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

First serve God, mind His things and He will take care of our things. He has proven His Word true in our family! All praise and glory to God.

Too many parents work on the assumption of one. One child. The parent wants to do everything and make sure everything is perfect for their one child. Throw one more into the mix, all these "luxuries" have to go. Unless, perhaps, they get one more adult to serve the other child. Imagine then, with my family, throwing 2, 3, 4 more children in to the mix, how can we possibly only centre on the needs of the baby?

Other than sleep, the other thing I've noticed that keeps concerned parents at home is food. This is for those who have 6 month and above babies. The un-initiated (eg those with no children), may be thinking, what's the problem? Well, for some parents it is of utmost importance that their baby eats healthily. So, no salt, no preservatives diet. Us asians raise our babies on rice porridge with veges and fish or pork mince thrown in. To get this, it pretty much means you have to cook it at home. 

Okay, it's not hard to cook the porridge, pack it in a thermos and go out, right? The tricky bit is what happens when you go travelling?

It's pretty amazing that my family has traveled out of the country every year despite having a baby every other year for nine years. Every other year, with a toddler, we've flown somewhere (like Perth, Bangkok, Shanghai, even UK). Every year, we spend a week in Malaysia with our brethren for church family camp. (No. 3 was 1 mth old when he attended church camp.)

It certainly takes a bit more planning and effort. I've found a way to cook porridge "on the go"! My wonderful vacuum pot. My only regret is that I only found this pot from 4th baby onwards. But again, my babies turned out okay eating some "outside food", albeit very meshed. :)

It comes down to: if there's a will, there's a way. We love to be at church camps to be fellowshipping with the brethren and listening to the Word of God and growing as a family together. And the fact that we have a baby won't stop us from going. By the grace of God, we have always been blessed all round, in every aspect.  

After coming back from the airport last night, I've got the itch to fly off to somewhere again! ;) Come little baby, and fly with me. 

 

Junior Handy Men (and woman!)

Friday morning, papa left the house with a short instruction to the eldest (11 yrs), fix up the shelf.

Fridays happen to be "bless the house' day for us. The vacuuming and mopping of the floors can take about 2 hours. I had some help from the children but I was still exhausted from my weekly exercise routine. (haha.) In the Singapore heat, I could wring sweat from my t-shirt by the time I was through!

I showered and relaxed on the bed to the sound of hammering... after a while, I went out to look. What a sight met my eyes! :)

 

It was mostly no. 1 doing the supervision: asking his siblings to organize the pieces and hand him the parts after he had consulted the manual. They had a hand in knocking in the nails and screwing the screws... under no. 1's watchful eye.

lol, since young no. 1 has loved fix it toys like lego. Now he gets to "play" on bigger, real life projects! :)

 
Now, do homeschoolers have opportunity to practice leadership skills and working in a team and character building?

Most certainly! ;)

no. 3 said jokingly, eh, why is mei mei sitting there, she didn't do any work!

So proud of my kiddos! Good Job, kids!

 

Re-Posted: What's the Name of that Guy???: Adventures in Bilingualism/ Biculturalism

Yep, Moon Cake Festival is coming up again! What's your favourite Mooncake? Mine's the flaky yam one. I like salted egg too! :)

Can't believe this post is 2 years old now! First posted sept 2011.

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Lemme just quickly capture the essence of our breakfast conversation this morning. This is third generation Chinese Singaporean trying to pass on Chinese culture to the next bewildered generation.

Mom:         Ok kids, Zong Qiu Jie is coming up! What does zong mean?

9 yr old:     "Middle".

Mom:         what does Qiu mean?

silence

Mom:         Autumn or fall... and what does jie mean?

9 yr old:     "Festival".

5 yr old:     So zong qiu jie is "middle fall festival"? 

Mom:         er... Yah! But most of the time, we call it mid Autumn Festival. Same thing. But papa, can you tell them about the story behind the festival?

Papa:         OK. hen jiu hen jiu yi qian, (long long ago), the earth had 10 suns and this warrior.. his name was... *snap* what was his name?

Mom:         Zheng He? No wait. Was that the guy who threw the rice dumplings in the river?

Papa:        No no... that's the guy who sailed across the seas. Was it  Wu Song? Noooo... that's the guy who beat the tigers.

Mom:        But anyway, dear, this is the Moon Cake Festival lah. Moon. not Sun. Ok, children, the story is about this evil emperor who was afraid of dying and wanted to live forever and his magicians or physicians, whatever, succeeded in making him a pill, or something, that if he ate it, he would become immortal. His wife or concubine, or something like that, was afraid of that happening so before the king ate the pill, she grabbed it from him and she swallowed it. And she became a fairy and floated up to the moon.

Papa:        And somehow, her pet rabbit went up with her.

Mom:         See? The drawing on the moon cake box, there is the lady and that's the king. Now, papa, can you re-tell that story in Mandarin?

Papa:         ............... (distracted)

5 yr old:     But that's not a real story, is it?

Mom:         Of course not! The bible says "the wages of sin is death". And "it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:". Nobody is immortal.

5 yr old:     oh.....

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Yep. That was the gist of it.

Goodness, a quick check on wiki reveals FIVE versions of the story!!!And I am humbled... hubby was right! The Moon Cake Festival is about suns!

And, before anyone choking at my terrible rendering of Chinese folklore wants to jump in to set the record straight: yes, I know it wasn't the guy who threw rice dumplings into the river. He commited suicide in the river and the villagers offer his spirit rice dumplings every year. Like that makes any more sense. *shrugs*

But..... what's the name of that guy???

My Child Centered, Homeschooler Mindset

In Singapore, we have a Compulsory Education Act which requires all children primary school going age to be enrolled in school. So the year that the child turns 6, the parents have to either apply to a primary school to enroll their child, or..... if you are homeschooling, apply for an exemption (a COE or cert of exemption) from the CE act. Guess which I am doing?

All too soon, I have to apply for my fourth baby. I almost forgot, actually.

But that's because I have a child centered, homeschooler mindset.

You see, my fourth child is a december baby. Being a child centred homeschooler as I am, I look more for the development milestones of my child, rather that the chronological age of my child. Mentally, I place my child as a five year old. He's learning to read, do some simple addition. It's wonderful to see how intelligent he is! :D

(The other day, he figured that the answer to 6 + 4 is one more than 5 + 4. Just by looking at the earlier sum and making the connection. I'm not boasting that my children are geniuses or anything like that. I'm just a parent enjoying watching my children's development as it unfolds. The learning journeys I take with my children are dotted with surprises like these. What a joy and privilege to see them grow. Praise God!)

I forgot he is actually turning SIX at the end of the year and hence I have to apply for him now! In fact, it was a fellow homeschool mom who reminded me that I have to be applying for the COE this year. lol! Imagine that.

But how I feel sad for all other year end babies who have to catch up a whole year in development in order to do Primary One. This development gap is less pronounced in the later years but when they are young, from babyhood till kindie, what a big difference even 6 months makes for a child!

So, I've never been through a P1 registration exercise despite having now, 3 children who are primary school going age... I hope I never~ I hear it can be quite stressful. :p

Now to get on with that application... :)

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If you are intending to apply to homeschool, do email Ms Tan who is one of the CE unit staff at MOE. She will furnish you with details. [email protected]

 

 

 

 

 

 

Homeschooler FunFair 2011

Thanks bro J for the lovely photos!

The Homeschool FunFair was a blast! The Lord blessed us with wonderful weather, the families came and set up their stalls, there was a happy festive atmosphere and most importantly, we all had a great time together- meeting up and making new friends!

Juggling my five stones as a marketing grab. haha

By the end of the day, I only had 3 sets left! Whee! The kids earned some pocket money that day and they are so happy. Read more about our little Five Stones Factory here!

Food stalls!!! You know, something I'm learning about food at homeschool gatherings.... always super yummy!! And the KIDS bake fantastic food too! Because it is homemade/homebaked/homecooked by well practiced hands.  Mmmmmmm...

 

Hubby and I are particularly pleased with No. 1's enthusiasm with planning, making, setting up and manning his paper aeroplane game stall. Some lessons to be learned but overall, he did a wonderful job! This game stall was a passion driven project of his own devising:

 
His planning stage. We scavenged some old corrugated boards from church and he used them to cut the holes for the planes to fly through.

The building stage involved drilling holes (with papa's electric power drill no less!) into a thin pipe and using his knots knowledge to tie the pipe to the hoop. All by himself!

As a mom watching him grow, it's really amazing to see all the things he can do now at the age of 11. I am most thankful to God for this privilege to watch this young man develop and grow! Most exciting. Wouldn't miss it for the world. :)

 
With the help of papa and another uncle, he set up his game. Just use whatever is available to prop up the boards! 
 
It was most enjoyable watching him in action: talking to his young customers, instructing them about the rules of his game, folding the airplanes, cheerfully encouraging them after each attempt, etc. etc.

 
He (and his 7 yr old brother) have become quite an expert at folding different paper aeroplanes for different flight requirements. haha.... so he could advise his customers.

 
Those who didn't want to fold planes had the option of throwing balls too. The rest of the family got in on the action as well. Papa got out the loud hailer to draw the crowds... :) I could hear him from the other end of the garden where I was manning the five stone stall...

Well, there's a (not-so) hidden agenda behind this post as well! This post was in effort to de-bunk the myth that homeschoolers aren't well socialized. lol! Where did that urban myth come from anyway???

;)

We homeschool because God's word says to. And indeed, we have been soooo tremendously blessed!

Psalms 18:30  As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the LORD is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.

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Here's another post about no. 1's creative passion in designing: submission for the Arts Festival 2011, a PeddleCopter. :)

 Dear readers, do drop a hi! That really makes my day. :) If you have any questions regarding homeschooling or Christian parenting, do email me too!