The ONG family Homeschool

When Homeschoolers Get Together....A Night of Beautiful Music

Last night, was a musical night of choir for my three homeschooling teens! Now, most kids have opportunity to sing in choir in School. Choir, like other group activities eg. team sports, is something that homeschoolers usually find other homeschoolers to do together. So this special choir, which is a part of Cantus Novus Academy headed by Ms Tina Nguyen, is made up of mainly homeschoolers! So last night's concert was a Homeschooler get together of sorts! Wonderful! 

Would you believe those peach-colored dresses were custom tailored by a teen homeschooler?? That's another interesting story to tell: how and why she went into dress-making!

Ms Tina is standing on the right next to the lady in the red dress. And the accompanist is on the left, standing next to my son, Isaac, holding a bouquet.   

With Ms Tina. They love her to bits. 

Isaac even got to sing the opening lines of O Come Emmanuel, his first solo for singing! <3 Ms Tina does such a great job with vocal training, as you will hear in the video.   

 

Aww, he expressed the longing so well. I told him that we have to draw from our life experiences to express the feelings of the song. And so he told me he thought about the time when he was small and got lost and how he was looking for me. Awwww..... 

There were presentations by the different choirs (from the petite children's choir to the youth) and also some piano duets and vocal small groups. While the music presented last night was rich and glorious, everyone gave their very best effort and the music was of very good quality, this post is more about my observations of homeschooled kids. 

This morning, my teen asked me, Mom, do you think there are any mean homeschoolers? Everyone's so nice. I said, maybe it's just that the mean ones don't want to join the choir? lol

I've been observing homeschooled children for more than 20 years now and last night, I observed a little more! This I can safely say, these children are reflections of their parents and their home environment and I saw children who were raised in a gentle environment, full of love, acceptance and encouragement. 

There was a piano duet by two boys, both quite little, one more little than the other. They aren't siblings. When the song was done, I noticed the older little boy, in a quick but sincere action, give the younger one a "well done" pat on the head, right there at the piano before they took their bow. I thought that was so sweet and "big" of that little boy. He must be raised in a home that is full of these gestures and words of encouragement.

Last night, I was carrying baby Megan in my arms during the concert. I think I'm experienced enough to know when she is going to do an all-out yell and make a quick exit before that ever happened! :p Sometimes, though, she would let out a little squeal. 

When she did, the boy around 10 years of age, sitting in the row in front of me would turn around and give baby a warm smile. I could tell he loved babies and again, I thought, this is a homeschooled child who has an appreciation of babies! 

It's kinda sad that many younger people in our society don't have a chance to interact with babies. (Is it a wonder we have such a dearth of babies in our country?!?) During a recent interview, I brought my then-3 week old to the set. The fresh graduate crew-lady told me she has never seen a 3 week old before. How sad, I thought!

And recently, the family visited our eldest son's studio in his Poly, after school hours. Most of his course mates knew he got a new baby sister this year, so son was quite happy for the opportunity to show the baby to his friends. He cradled her and visited the various rooms of the studio where his friends were working. I was quite tickled by the reactions of one or two friends who kinda looked at my son and the baby with faces that said, Okaaay? What do you want me to do/say? Awkward. You can tell when people don't know babies. (or dogs, for that matter. I've noticed.)

I'm not saying all homeschoolers are familiar with babies. I'm saying it's nice that children raised at home have more chance to spend lots of time with their siblings and it shows.      

Last week, I had the chance to sit in during two of my kid's choir rehearsals. I really enjoyed Ms Tina's friendly but professional coaching style. I also noticed her accompanist, a 17 yr old homeschooler who is pursuing a diploma in piano. (see group picture above.) I was so impressed by her, not just her very skilful playing but her attentiveness during practice. When the conductress stops and starts, the pianist is right there, following her every instruction, giving the right notes for all the sections to begin. Seriously, I was utterly impressed by her attentiveness and excellent work ethic. My daughter got to make friends with her too. She has a very pleasant, friendly and sweet personality!

When I look at Homeschooled children, I often can see an imprint of their parent's manner on them. And when that parent has Christ's love overflowing in their hearts, it flows into the lives of the children so naturally too. I observed that last night.

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THANKS for taking the time to drop by! This blog exists to de-mystify homeschooling in Singapore. I love sharing about our family life as Chrstian homeschoolers. If you have any questions about homeschooling or Christian parenting, I would try my best to reply! Email me at [email protected] or post a comment!

Six Kids... the fun's just getting started!

In this exciting episode: the Ong family homeschool makes adjustments to life with six children, baby no. 6 update, no. 4 gets a neon green cast, and no. 1 our first PSLE guinea pig. Happy reading! :)

It's an interesting thing just to look back on family life over the 12 yrs we have been having children and compare how things change and get busier with each addition to the family. Of course things operate differently these days with six kids now and hubby and i need to adjust and come up with new strategies for the smoother running of things.

For example: ordering food at the food court. Our friends are quite amazed at how efficient we are at doing this. :)

As homeschoolers, our kids don't get to order food at the school canteen and when they were younger, I used to worry that they won't know how to do this fairly essential life skill of ordering food. Well, not anymore. No. 2 (10yrs) is quite good at choosing what she wants to eat, order two portions (for 4 kids to share) pay and calculate how much change she should be getting.

No. 2 will then portion some of her meal for her little 3 yr old sister, the two little boys will portion their own food too. Then no. 1 will order his own food, papa only has to decide on his and mine. These days, it comes up to 5 portions for our family.

That's our food court drill. ;)

Making Announcements. When the kids were younger, where we the adults wanted to go, we will just tell them to get changed, we're going gai gai (going out). These days, I have to answer a whole bunch of questions (especially from the oldest girl the Interrogator!) where are we going? Why are we going? What time are we leaving? Who is coming along? Etc.etc....
And I don't have just one person to answer. I have four!!

So, I have learned from the Duggers (you do know about the Duggers....): just round everyone up in at the room and give a detailed announcement. It's a whole lot more efficient. :))

With 8 members of the family, running errands sometimes needs tactical planning comparable to the army.

Take last Friday for instance. No. 1 is busy preparing for PSLE, so he was studying at his cousin's place instead of running around with us. No. 4 needed to get a cast done at KKH (more on that later) and no. 2 needed to renew her passport, and cutie baby no. 6 needs to make her first passport. And since no. 3's passport photo is one that he took when he was maybe three, though it is actually expiring next dec, we decided to lump him together with the other two so we can synchronise the passport expiries and hopefully we don't need to visit the ICA so often.

This was taken at the ICA building. The photographer was trying everything within his baby rattle power to get her attention and all she did was do a *roll eyes* whatever pout. lol...

So, I brought no. 2, 3 and 6 to the ICA, (me and not papa since I need to nurse no. 6). And papa took no. 4 and 5 to KKH, AFTER dropping us off at ICA. Where is no. 1? Studying at cousin's house, remember?

We managed to meet up for lunch and make it for no. 2's violin lesson at 2:30 and after that, fetch no. 1.

Crazy day! But I do thank God for two things: our vehicle and our handphones, without which, we could not have been able to accomplish that much.

Baby no. 6 update. She went for her 3 mth jab at the polyclinic the other day. I'm so thankful that these days, whenever I go out with baby (or even without), I'll have at least one able helper with me as an extra pair of arms to carry the diaper bag, fold the stroller and all that. Such a luxury! So that day at the polyclinic, no. 2 (10 yrs) was my able helper. She's really wonderful because she knows what help I am needing and she's proactive.

When the nurse found out that this baby is my sixth, she was like so happy for me, saying that it is such a good thing to have many children and have a happy, noisy, busy household. I do agree, of course. :)

More squishy tales...So, readers of this blog know how no. 5 (3yrs) is soooo in to kissing and squishing her baby sister.
The other day, I went into the bathroom, leaving baby asleep on the bed. When I came out, she was awake and crying and there was no. 5 next to her looking guilty. I questioned her, did you wake baby up? She nodded her head. After chiding her and reminding her not to do anything to wake baby when she's sleeping, I asked her to say sorry, which she did. Most apologetically. And I asked, sorry for what (specifically)? And she answered, sorry for not controlling myself.

Lol

No. 6 is 6 kg now and chubby wubby. She gets the attention and smiles from strangers constantly. I think it's because she's so round. But she's only on the 50th percentile! Boy, Singapore babies are well fed!
She gets lots of kisses and squishes all the time. This baby has so much attention from ALL her brothers and sisters....she is soooo loved!

 Fall guy. The kids were playing as usual one evening while I was preparing dinner. I hear no. 4 crying loudly. He cries loudly for the smallest things so I can never tell if it's really serious or not. :p But big korkor (12yrs) comes in to inform me he thinks it's bad, probably a fracture. No. 4's right arm. I finish cutting up my fish and go out to take a look. I gave the sweaty, tear streaked boy a bath and asked him to lie still and wait for papa to bandage him up.

Papa brought him to the (same) polyclinic the next day and got an Xray done (I'm thankful that we have such wonderful government facilities) and, sure enough, it is a fracture. No. 2 had a hairline fracture before (see her as a rollerblading flower girl with a cast here ;) ). Poor no. 4's fracture is worse. The impact of him falling on it must have been stronger. And his being on the chubby side doesn't help either. ;)

The day he fell, the kids were talking about it like seasoned pros. That's because they all have had some kind of fracture, dislocation, gaping wound stitching experience. No. 4 already started choosing what colour cast he wanted. Green.

PSLE preparations. Would it be interesting to people out there to know, that as homeschoolers, besides not having the experience of taking an exam in a room full of other people the same age as yourself, and observing all the accompanying behaviour (no talking, walking around, looking around, etc.) they also need to learn things like writing their full name on the exam script? I forgot to remind no. 1 to do it until my sister (more senior and experienced homeschool mom) smsed me.

Remind him to write his full name.

Orh.

On a separate note, homeschoolers also don't line up in twos. We were watching a childcare class going on a walk the other day. A class of about 10 little 2 year olds holding on to a ropey thing- apparatus to train the very young the drill of lining up in twos. Oh, and waiting, because one kid didn't want to cooperate and hold the apparatus.

Homeschoolers just don't do the lining up thing very well. :p

Back to our PSLE candidate. I was asking him the other day, perhaps we can go on a short trip somewhere to celebrate the end of PSLE and where did he want to go? He said he wanted to try snorkeling. :) but then he asked what if his actual PSLE results were bad?

I told him that is a separate matter and, to me, of lesser consequence. Coupled with the fact we don't intend to out him into public sec sch, the results don't have much bearing on the next step of his education. Because we have freed ourselves of that constraint, we tend to look on the broader picture, the longer term goals, like praying about what career to the Lord would have him to do.

I have have seen how diligent and serious he has been studying for this exam- I have not had to push him at all, he has been self directed in his studies and revision. In fact, I am the one asking him what work he was doing for that day and he would tell me, and at the end of the day, I'll have several school exam papers and assessments to mark. I hope all my other children will be like him! I had to chase him out of the house to go and play and relax in the evenings because he was at the desk for too long!

For hubby and I, this display of his good character is more worth rewarding than good grades. The good grades will in themselves, be a reward. In 10 years' time, no one will even bother how he faired in his PSLE, but his good character and positive work attitude will carry him through life.

I will certainly try to find the time to write more about our self directed learner and the PSLE experience.
For many homeschoolers, the PSLE is actually quite an interruption to the long term educational path we have mapped out for our children. I do wish that the MOE could at least have a feedback session with us as a community to hear how their policies are panning out at at our level!

To top off all this madness, I'm doing another wedding cake this weekend, plus I've been sewing.... stuff. Will share pics real soon. :)

The life of a SAHM is boring and mundane? Some days, I wish so. Lol!

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. Truly, without Him, His wisdom and His guidance, we would not have this joy as a family.

Field Trips: Jurong Bird Park

Horribly backdated, this field trip was done in early May!

Even worse, Jurong Bird Park was supposed to be no. 3's birthday treat..... His birthday that was in November last year! It was raining daily last year end, and then with this and that, we shelved it till now. Thankfully, our children are emotionally resilient enough to stand some disappointments. :p

We had wanted to go earlier in the pregnancy but somehow only managed to do it in the 3rd trimester. So, I just parked myself at nice locations to watch birds while hubby ran about with the kids to see the birds.

See, I would tell you what bird birthday boy in orange and brother are pointing at up there in the tall cage, but I wouldn't know coz I was parked at the Swan Lake or somewhere, enjoying the scenery.

Our birthday boy, no. 3 (8 yrs) is the bird boy. He LOVES birds and will observe them whenever he can. It is a bonus that we live in a pretty untouched part where there is field and a tree outside our window. We have even had woodpeckers visit our tree. He will identify the male and the female and tell us other trivia he read somewhere. When we arrived at the Bird Park, he was so happy, he told hubby and I how much he loves us. :)

Such beautiful birds. We especially love the Lori Loft.

 

Love feeding the Lories. But quite unnerving at the start.

This one wanted to have a taste of no. 1's ear!

LOL!

And baby no. 5 clinging on to papa with fearful curiosity.

I'd like to think I tagged along so that the family could have a nice meal of chicken sandwich. ;)

 

This pic of me doesn't half show how hefty I have become. (That's why I'm posting it.)

Oh Yes, the new splash park at the Bird Park is really nice. The Kids enjoyed it thoroughly. I was soooo wishing I too could sit under that giant bucket....

 

January Birthday Galore

It so happened that our first two children were born 2 years and 10 days apart from each other in the month of January. And their papa too is born in January. So we have quite a lot of fun in January! :)

Isn't it cool, Homeschoolers get to declare a school holiday when it's their birthday? It was our dearest eldest child's birthday today. It's really amazing how quickly the years pass. We are barely clinging to the last glimpses of kiddy-hood left in him. He is already very firmly embracing teenhood! (This includes all the teething difficulties we have experienced.)

Anyway, we had a wonderful day at our East Coast Park! Loads and loads of family fun, minus the crowds. ;)

We rented a really really fun family cycle thingy. It was a hoot!!

We also rented a tandem bike. Here are no.1 and no.2 in a rare moment of playing together. lol

We made our way to the Jetty and enjoyed the sea breeze and all the sights and sounds. 

On the whole Jetty, only this man was catching fish after fish, so we stopped to look and learn.

This was his catch of the day! Some Needlefish, right here in our waters!

And the man was kind enough to spend some time talking to our inquisitive homeschoolers about the fish. I'm so glad for interesting learning opportunities like these that happen far from a classroom with four walls, far from a textbook with mere pictures and words. :)

We heartily and gratefully acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ for blessing us with all these moments we can enjoy together as a family. Cherishing every moment. Hence the blog. ;)

Oh yes, this is the new gundam that we gave no. 1 for his birthday present. We don't watch the program but he really really relishes fixing up the toy. :)

He finished it in 2 hours!

 

 

Homeschoolers' Sports Day 2011

This is a short 21 second clip of no. 1 (in black and yellow T) running, yet it says so much about the wonderful homeschooler's family oriented, parent initiated endeavours.... for the love of our homeschoolers!

The parent volunteer photographer "planking" on the track to get an interesting photographic perspective. ;)

Homeschool Mommy enthusiatically cheering her dd on!

Sounds of many many cheering homeschoolers in the background! (50 plus families represented!! only the tip of the iceberg.)

11 year old homeschoolers giving their best shot at running!

Yay for Homeschoolers' Sports Day! We had so much family fun and we are so thankful for the homeschool community for organizing this event and making it happen!

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.

 

Our Little "Five Stones" Factory!

 
It's really great to be homeschooling! The children get to learn in so many different settings and the learning is all so natural and "by the way".

This week, one of the days, we all got caught up with preparing for Saturday's Homeschoolers' FunFair. What a wonderful community of homeschoolers we have. Some homeschooling moms got together and helped to organize a funfair for the community. Yay for those moms who saw the important learning opportunities these events provide for the chidlren! I'm so thankful! The homeschoolers get to set up their own stalls and decide what they want to sell. It's happening tomorrow morning (30th July). If you want more details, do email me.

The eldest is preparing a game stall and was busying formulating the game, how it is played, cost per try and prizes. etc. His papa and I are proud of him.

But the other thing we are bringing to sell at the funfair is five stones! :D Did you play it when you were young?

How we got started with the five stones....We were at a Heritage festival at Ang Mo Kio recently. (Something held in conjunction with the National Day celebrations.) Our children had a chance to play some of the games that we used to play as children like "golie" (marbles) and five stones (bean bags).

So I cut up the cloth and no. 1 had a go at the serger. He loves it! I think to him, it's like working a power tool.
 

No. 2 and 3 helped in various ways like cutting the threads and turning the pockets inside out.

 

 
The younger ones had the easier jobs of sorting the stones and placing them into the bags.

The older ones had a hand in sewing the last seam.

haha... I told him, maybe if he can do a good job with the sewing, is interested in biology and helping people get well, he might be a surgeon one day! :p (in my heart of hearts, no, I don't want him to be a surgeon.)

We were not at our desks that day, but we were STILL learning and doing "school"!

1. Calculating profit and cost. We were busy deciding on the price of each set. And thinking of all the ways to get people to buy, like having a discount if they bought 3 sets, etc. We talked excitedly about sales and if we sold at 30% discount, how much that would be.

2. Patience and perserverance. We made a total of 25 sets! That translates to 125 little bean bags!!! And that translates into lots of patience and perserverance! But I'm glad the kids didn't complain a single bit but were working happily together. I guess they were all excited about the task at hand.

3. Team work and valuing each team member's contributions. Even though younger ones did the easier jobs we learned to value each as important to get the job done, and ease the load all round. no. 4 the 5 yr old was packing the stones and twist tying the bags. He also helped in turning the pockets inside out and filling the bags with rice grains. Though it wasn't as important as using the machine to sew the side seams, he did help in the way he could and that made the job go faster!

4. Lots of Maths for the little ones. Counting in fives! Little no. 4 was learning five times table and number bonds without knowing it! Like if there were three stones, how many more stones do we need to make a set of five?

5. NE. National Education. Participating in making the five stones, my mother also had the opportunity to tell the children of the times when she was a young girl and poor. They didn't have money to buy toys so they made their own. My children were surprised that por por (grandma) played five stones! :)

6. Learning to sew with the needle and thread. The older three children had a chance to do some stitching. And they know how a bean bag is sewn now! I never knew how before this. But hubby and I did some research on google and we learned how to as well! Life long learning! :D

7. Sales. At the funfair tomorrow, the kids will have the chance to talk to their customers and sell their wares! Calculate change! etc etc...

8. Sense of achievement. Most definitely!

 
Praise God, we are happy and blessed!

 

 

 

 

Train Track Walking!

thanks bro J for all the beautiful pics!  
 
 
 

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!

Chinese New Year 2011

Yikes! I haven't posted in yonks!!! make that beyond yonks!!! :P I think this was the longest I've gone not posting... it almost feels alien to be typing an entry....

I've been understandably busy...*pats self on shoulder* Afterall, it's Chinese New Year. :D We have been happily busy with baking.....This year, I learned two new New Year goodies recipes (besides our usual wonderful pineapple tarts.) Amond cookies we learned at ladies fellowship. (Thanks Mrs Sng for teaching! ) And I decided to try kueh baulu this year too. I love eating them, that's why. I went the trial and error method and tried some recipes that I found on the internet. 4 ingredients: eggs, flour, sugar, baking powder. But the proportion to which they are mixed makes a world of difference. Hence many different recipes with different proportions. Which to choose? eeney meeeny miiinae mo.

The first one turned out too eggy. The next one was too much baking powder... and so on. In all, I wasted 16 eggs, much time testing, tweaking, till I got one that I was half satisfied with. (Though I still feel it is too heavy in texture.) Then again, I think my food standard has risen. :p

As usual, my sis' family came over for the annual pineapple tart bake-a-thon.

Factory, more like. This year, BIL got in on the rolling and portioning action.  lol... but a good pineapple tart consists of quality jam and lovely, buttery pastry. My dear sis spent whole nights cooking the grated pineapples into jam. That really makes a whole lot of difference than store bought ones.

It's all good fun working together and chatting... all part of the festivities.

Besides helping with the baking (like rolling the almond cookies into perfect rounds, they love that job!) my kiddos were busy helping to decorate the house with their bunny creations. It's the Year of the Rabbit!

This is our goodies corner! With the children's ang pao rabbits at the top there. And I love going to the orchid farm to get bouquets of orchids for new year.

I'm so thankful, this year, with God's enabling help and my mom to guide me, I managed to sew jie jie mei mei dresses for my two little girls. It is indeed such a joy to dress them in my own handiwork!

My first bodice, sleeves and zipper! :D Keep pushing on and learning new things!

We started feasting even before reunion dinner, with a mega reunion dinner with my husband's paternal side of the family. His father has eight brothers and one sister (and people these days say a family with 5 children in large???) So that makes for a LOT of cousins and nephews and nieces!!

And one can imagine that a family dinner this large can be quite a rowdy affair! And they are Hokkien to boot! We had really good food....

We had sucking piglet! The kids (and I) were somewhat horrified to find the teeth still intact.... 

But... suckling piglet was nonetheless mmmm mmm yummy!

*crunch crunch*

And they were roasted on site:

Oh yeah...

We had the usual Chinese New Year dish, fish maw soup. The children asked what's this?? and papa said Sponge Bob. lol

So we ate Sponge Bob for dinner.

And we also had the now politically incorrect Shark's Fin Soup!

I really shouldn't say this but it was yummy.

So the main part of CNY celebrations have come and gone. We've got some more visitations to do and some more guests to receive but I think the main part is over.... I thank God for a new year and a promising start. Haha, still starting 2011 homeschooling wise. haven't quite got into the swing of school things and then this break to break the whatever momentum we were gathering.... But it's ok. We go by life's rhythmn. Not the School's.  :)

HUAT AH! I'm posting a vid of the Ong Clan lao yu sheng. This is a kind of new year salad which I will allow wiki to explain, for obvious or not so obvious reasons...Listen to the song in the background. It's talking about the god of fortune or prosperity coming to your house to visit you. Somewhere in there, I said I'd be afraid (coz he dresses kinda wierd.)

 

Again, there is no true propserity unless the God who gives all good things blesses you!

James 1:17  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.