The ONG family Homeschool

Dear Daughter's Testimony of Salvation

Another day of great joy for us! Our second born, the eldest girl (11yrs) was baptised today!

I still need to pinch myself sometimes. I can't believe this young lady standing before me is my little girl!! She is truly blossoming as a beautiful young lady who has a sweet spirit and a love for godly things. Surely it is by the grace of God because I can only think of how I should have done better to be a better mother to her. I'm not being pious.

We encouraged her to serve The Lord in whatever capacity she can now and in time, God will give her bigger things to do.

For independent baptists, we believe in believer's baptism, by water immersion. (No infants and no sprinkling)

As such, we have the candidates to say their testimony of how they got saved and the church, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, will vote to accept (or reject) the testimony and thereby joyfully add a new member into the church through baptism.

Here is our no. 2's salvation testimony. For His mercy and grace to save our dear child, to God be all glory! We are so thankful for this day!!!

*glad tears of joy*

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I was born in a Christian homeschooling family and have been taught about God since young.

8 years old:
On an ordinary night, when I was 8 yrs old, my family was having bible time. My father was talking about where we would be going when we die. He said that if we were not saved, we would be going to hell. That really struck me a lot as I was really scared about going to hell!!! This is because I knew I had sin. One of my sins that I can remember was telling lies. I told lies because I didn't want to be punished. And for that I got more punishment. I knew that for my sin I would not be able to go to heaven because my sins were against God who lives in heaven.

That night, my father also said something that comforted me! He said all I needed to do to be saved was to ask God for forgiveness for my sins and believing that Jesus has already died to pay for our sins.

One of the verses that I remembered my father read was 1john 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness."

9 years old:
The part of 'asking for forgiveness' sounded very simple to me. But yet I still didn't really understand the part of 'believing'. It was one year later when I was 9 years old that I understood what believing was. Believing is having faith and trust in the invisible God. The bible says that God is invisible in 1Timothy 1:17 'Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever'.

And Hebrews 11:1 says 'Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.'

At 9 years old, I believed the invisible God and I prayed together with my father to receive Jesus' gift of salvation.

10 years old (last year)
Sometime last year when I was 10 years old, I wasn't sure of my salvation because of my impatience with somethings and my siblings. That made me think back to my salvation experience at 9 years old and I wondered if I were saved. So, one evening, I prayed by myself in my bedroom and asked God to come into my heart once again and I asked God to help me to be more patient. I am now more patient with things and my siblings.

Baptism:
Last year after Dr Terri Coomer came to Singapore and MBC to speak and challenge young people, my father encouraged me to be baptised. I understand that baptism is the first steps of obedience to God and that it is one's public testimony to identify with Christ.

I want to be baptised because I want to serve and please God by serving in the orchestra and other church ministries. I also want to be an encouragement not only to the young ones but also to the older ones: to be saved, to be baptised and also stand for Christ.

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.

 

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!

 

 

The Singapore Arts Festival Kids Art Village!

My kids were busy last week with the Kids Art Village, which is part of the Singapore Arts Festival. One of the moms we are in contact with on the homeschoolers network works there and kindly offered the group an opportunity for our children to participate either by submitting their art works or projects, or become art ambassadors to facilitate some craft making for visitors.

There are three themes over three weekends and the first is just over. It happened that the theme for the first weekend was "Great Inventors" and just so happened (I believe it is God's devising!) our eldest (11yrs) had just been working on a project of his own devising: The PaddleCopter.

 

The model he made for the exhibition: ice cream sticks, satay sticks, 3 buttons, plastic gift wrapping paper and hot glue gun! Voila!

Here's a description of his dream vehicle, a Paddlecopter. We used the following writeup in the poster (with his draft drawings) we put up to accompany the model. I did help him compose this but it was mainly his own words:

Inspiration:

A saw that there are more and more traffic jams in Singapore and this prevents people from getting to their destination faster. He dreamed of how good it could be if people could fly and bypass the traffic. So he thought about travel by air instead of by land. 

What is the PaddleCopter?

It is a flying vehicle that helps people get around faster by air. It is powered by paddling, like a bicycle.

Why the PaddleCopter?

- Convenience:  As there are more cars on the road these days and more traffic jams, the PaddleCopter helps people to escape traffic jams. There are no red lights…. Just watch out for trees! 

Future models will include systems to enable landing on water.

- Environmentally Friendly: The PaddleCopter is made of natural and commonly found materials so it a “green” vehicle. Also it does not run on gas so it doesn’t pollute the air.

- Cheaper: Because the PaddleCopter is made of common materials and does not have a motor, the cost of it is much cheaper than cars. And since there is no need to pump petrol into it, people save on weekly or monthly costs.

- Healthier Choice: The PaddleCopter encourages people to do their daily exercise while commuting from one place to another.

Some Drawbacks:

- Parking Space: In land scarce Singapore, even parking space is limited and the PaddleCopter, because of its wing span and rotary blades need quite a lot of space for parking. Future prototypes will include folding wings.

- Limited traveling distances: Depending on the fitness of the user,  it can be tiring to be paddling for too long. However, there is the glider that can help ease the strain but this too is dependant on wind direction and weather in general.

- Weather: If it rains, the PaddleCopter will not function well.  

Materials:

Bamboo, PVC pipes, Aluminum, Polyester sail cloths, rubber tyres, Steel cables.

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As homeschoolers, often the projects the children do are just for display at home and then chucked away. So I was really excited that this project of his could actually be on display, and even on something as big as the Singapore Arts Festival! Very thankful for this opportunity for my children to learn! 

I'm glad also that the children embraced the opportunity too.

Research for the project 

For the project, no. 1 really dug deep into detailed thinking about all the different aspects of such a flying vehicle would entail. One can see all this from the above write-up. (His points!) This is the result of his own interest and passion on the subject. I believe it shows. :)

He did some research about how gliders work by going on youtube (in my prescence, he's not allowed to roam around the internet privately). He thought about the downward drafts that are created by the propellers so he thought to solve the problem with a valve in the glider which will open when the propellers are turning and close when the paddler wants to stop, rest and glide when he has reached a certain height!

Aural Presentation

Part of the experience at the Kids Village was being an Art Ambassdor. My eldest had the chance of meeting groups of students (primary school ones and even kindies) as well as adults to do a presentation of his invention. We video-ed him doing one such presentation but unfortunately, I accidentally erased it. *smacks head* *twice* It was really wonderful to see how he composed his presentation (spoke off the cuff!) and was able to communicate his ideas to his attentive audience. 

He particularly looooooved the kindies. He thinks they are so cute. He noticed a little girl about the age of his own little sister and he felt a little sad for her that she didn't have her mommy with her. 

So I asked him if he needed to present his project to the little ones as well. He said of course, but he brought it down to a level that they could understand. Papa was there listening to several of his presentations and he noticed that he explained the valve to the older kids but left it out for the kindies group while he explained other aspects. :)

No. 1 has so much experience in speaking to kids of all ages (his own siblings), as well as adults. I'm glad he was given this opportunity as an Art Ambassdor to showcase this well socialized homeschooler! :)

Meanwhile, no. 2 and 3 were in another tent doing art and craft.

I signed up no. 2 and 3 to be Ambassdors as well and their task was to facilitate (teach) a craft to groups of visitors (students) who came. (again, I managed to singlehandedly erase all these photos!!!!) The children were given training on one day before the exhibition. They were to teach visitors how to make paper tulled birds. Very fun.

At first, no. 3 was reluctant to do it but I told him he had to and at the end of it, he would see that it was a good experience. They don't have many opportunities to work with many children so this was a good chance.

It turned out great! They managed to carry out their tasks which was teach around 6 other kids to make the paper birds. Each group took about 45 mins and they did three groups each.

Character

At the end of Day 1, no. 2 (9 yrs) told no. 3 (7 yrs) that he had been doing some part of the bird wrongly. After that he kept saying he didn't want to go back the next day. I asked him was it because he made a mistake, and he said yes. It was a great opportunity to talk to him (once again) about not allowing our mistakes hinder us from moving on and that we ought to learn from our mistakes and improve ourselves. So he went the next day and he was glad he did! :)

God has been so good to us even as we carry out homeschooling. He has been actively growing and nuturing our children in ways us as parents can't, it is really amazing. He is really amazing.

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Deuteronomy 6:4-9  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.  And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.

Proverbs 10:22  The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

YOG: Handball and Canoe Kayak

Just got back from Canoe Kayak slalom race today and felt I needed to update here for readers like Chwee (hi!) who are not able to be in Singapore at this exciting time: the Youth Olympics happening in Singapore!! ;)

Handball 20 Aug

I love handball. I played a teeny weeny bit when I was in Uni. I was goalkeeping. It felt like being a human punching bag.  So I really cringed when our Singapore goalkey got whacked right in the face in the second half. He was out for the count poor guy.

Ha, and this is the reason I love handball... the way they fly into the semicircle and SMASH down a goal. I tried so many times to get  a good shot of them flying but this was the only half decent one I managed. :(

This is how she kept entertained. :) Clappers

We watched 4 matches (30 mins break 30 mins). Sadly, the Singapore boys we stayed till 8:15 to watch lost miserably to the giant Egyptian boys.

The most exciting match we caught was France vs Cook Islands (men). The French were really powerful and fast.

The French team. How to play against players like no. 6??? Can't believe he's a teenager.

Canoe Kayak 24 Aug

We had a crazy time finding the venue. All thanks to yours truly who assumed wrongly that Marina Reservoir was at the Marina bay. bah.

We (that's me and the five kids and three other young ladies whom we invited) ended up walking almost 30 mins in the 3 o'clock sun to get to the venue which was at the mouth of the Kallang River. I'm soooooo thankful that my kids were real troopers and didn't complain (much) and that I had the stroller with me and baby was good enough to sit in it.

So we finally got there. My head was throbbing for a bit due to the exposure to so much sun.

We got distracted when the organizers offered us free face paints for us to decorate our faces for a competition.

I did his left cheek and his right was no. 1 and no. 2's handiwork. We didn't win anything and no. 4 here was kinda disappointed he didn't get a prize. haha.

The music was loud and leaving the venue made the ears feel numb. Kinda like when leaving a discotheque. Awful.

Taking the train home at rush hour with five kiddos was somewhat nerve-wrecking but thankfully a kind soul gave up his seat for me. So there I was, carrying a wiggly baby, one son on my left knee, one son on my right knee, the other two standing at the handle pole and bag and stroller tucked away as unobtrusively as possible. Again, thank God that the children were very co-operative despite being very very tired and baby, she fell asleep. :)  

Anyway, will post more photos in an album on my facebook page. Watch for it.

RoboCup 2010 Singapore.... Good good!

Yup, as expected, the boys loved the day at the RoboCup 2010 at Suntec yesterday! I'm so glad for my brother in church, Conrad, for inviting us to go for this field trip. Thanks Conrad! He sells these electronic parts that create robots, so do go and check out his site Inex Robotics! You can add him (Inex Conrad) on facebook too. 

 

 

There were several categories for robot soccer ranging from this the junior section to the larger zippy "vacuum cleaner" ones....(These are pre-programmed robots not remote controlled.)

 I call them vacuum cleaners because, being ego-centric, that's the name I can relate with. haha

I can only relate to robots on my human level. SO I had fun imagining the robots when they were spinning their video censors around to detect the ball as them shaking their heads in bewilderment. Where's the ball? Where's the ball? Where IS that ball? 

And then, on the 4th floor at the convention centre, were the "humanoid" robots.

These cute little ones were hilarious!!! They kept falling over trying to step to reach the ball. (I hope I didn't offend the team members by laughing so loud. :p But I wasn't laughing at how poorly they were playing soccer but how funny they were falling over and getting up and they weren't anywhere near the ball.)

And the strategies the creators employed to get the robots to stand up again was so cute too! Some would sorta do a split, and with legs straight, draw their feet back together in a quick motion. Others' arms would do a backward contortion and sort of back flip back on their feet in upright position.

What really impressed me was God's amazing design and creation that we can walk and balance and stand up so effortlessly. We can make micro, split second decisions to correct ourselves when we lift off one leg to plant it infront of the other leg. When we see a computer that needs to be programmed to do that, and with a very limited set of instructions, it's just amazing to think what our brain does so effortlessly. The work of an amazing creator God who designed us (and all creatures and life) with infinite wisdom. 

  This guy is heavy! (From team NUS! My university! Yae!)

It took two people using a pole stretcher to move this robot around and it was heavy! My engineering trained hubby told me later that it's heavy because every moving part needs a motor and it all adds up to a very heavy machine. haha. He can appreciate the robots for a totally different perspective, the marriage of Engineering and Artificial Intelligence. But again, we were in awe, thinking of God's amazing design that our muscles are not that heavy and controlled from a central information sending organ, the brain.

Science Centre Pixar Exhibition now on! (And some of no. 4's latest art...)

You have till 27th June to catch it!

The good papa had a leave day to claim, so we went to the Singapore Science Centre for the Pixar exhibition ! 6 tickets (with help from the SAFRA card) cost us a discounted $106. Ouchie. But I think it was quite worth it because it included the Science Centre proper as well as a screening of "Up" in 3D!

Other than a few other guests, we mostly had the whole place to ourselves that morning screening. :)

It was the children's first experience in a "movie theatre" and their first 3D movie. We don't go to cinemas.

There was no photography allowed in the exhibition but I'd say it is good for the kids because it is very accessible to them, since it's all about their favourite and familiar Pixar movies, and their well loved characters. There were a lot of story board panels and sketches by the artists. All about behind the scenes, how Pixar movies are made. We learned a lot.

Not to spoil the surprise but the best part of the exhibition has got to be the ZOETROPE!!! We were so enchanted by it we all burst out laughing with glee! As it describes on the website that it is "truly a magical feast for the eyes" and indeed it was!!

The kids (and adults) learned that it takes a whole team of people (professionals) to pool all their talents together into one movie. What a lot of work is put in!!! Everything has to be created for the screen: the lamps, chairs, forks. Every twitch on the character's faces had to be moved by the animator. Down to the last digit of the little finger. Phew.

Patience and hard work. Tons of patience and tons of hard work. Phew.

 

My little no. 4 is even more inspired to draw now! ;) Here's some of his latest drawings (he's 4 yrs old.)

His peacock. The brothers and sister reported that he spent a long time on this piece. ;)

His Dragon. (Looks like Tweety Bird from hell.) Inspired from How to Train Your... oops! This is a Pixar post! :p He was too afraid to watch most of it anyway. I can't find his two headed ones. I don't really approve of that show. It being all medieval and dark looking.

I'm so glad that Pixar has nice wholesome stuff that has some depth to it.

And my favourite from today! Banana Boat! :D 

He just loves drawing at the moment and we just provide him free flow of rough paper to draw to his little heart's content.

Time for catching up!

You know I'm busy with real life when I'm posting after such a loooong break! :p

Resurrection Services @ Maranatha Baptist Church

Been busy busy with preparations, rehearsals for our Resurrection Sunday program. Glad to have had a good witness over those 2 days where we had visitors hear about God's mercy and love for them.

Romans 5:8  But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Choir!

Gotta get some pics and videos of those days! I'm especially happy because it was the first time that no. 1, 2 and 3 participated in choral singing, sometimes with the adults and sometimes with other children. And under my conductor-ship! That was really special. I'll count that as part of (home)school as well. hahah.

I asked the children what they learned from their experience. They answered: following instructions, staying focused, obedience, etc. What a great learning opportunity! So thankful to God that they had a chance to sing in a choir.

In the course of choir practices and rehearsals, I earned the un-savoury title of "Pharaoh" from my brethren. I wonder why???? :p

Baby has turned 1!

Sigh. Folks were asking me if I baked anything special for her. No, actually, I didn't. Firstly, we don't really celebrate our baby's first birthdays because they won't remember much anyway. And secondly, I was too busy with rehearsals.

Nevertheless, Baby did have a nice day. We sang her Happy Birthday song all through the day, and if you left a comment on Facebook (on the Fan Page as well as my personal page), she got 3 smooshy kisses and 1 squishy hug for each comment, as promised. Actually, I more than exceeded the quota.

She's lengthening out and becoming more toddler already. She's been calling everyone Papa. She's been taking a couple of awkward steps un-aided too! Toddler phase!!! YAE! 

Pinafore Project part 2

I've finally finished sewing no. 2's matching pinafore and I'm soooo happy!!! She loves it too! They look so sweet together wearing matching sister outfits. Will definitely post pics when they're ready. :)

Pics pics pics.... to be up soon! :P