Ethan's P2 English progress

Ethan's learning progress has not been comparable to his elder brother since young. We were aware of this since he was K2. We left him alone to catch up with school work for the past years but  it became more pressing when we saw his results for this year's mid year exams.

He was slow in understanding Math concepts, more so because he explained to me that he did not understand what the questions were asking. His English standard was not above average either. He struggles with Grammar, with basic rules like:

1) He 'like' - instead of he 'likes'
2) We 'likes' - instead of 'like'
3) This, That, These, Those questions
4) is, are, was, were
5) may likes / liked - instead of 'like'
6) past / present tenses

and so on...

So I started an intensive English and Math programme with him during June holidays (pockets of the days when we are not out). I spent some time sitting down with him to practise on grammar questions, explaining the rules. I also read Math problem questions with him, and broke them down into parts for him to understand what needs to be done.

When he brought his English term test results back home this week, I was happy that he scored 35/40, much better than what he used to achieve (low end of Band 2). He was proud of himself too.. citing the statistics that only like a handful of classmates were in Band 1, etc.. I scanned through the paper and was happy that he managed to score full marks for all the Grammar sections. We are making some progress!! =)

I am hoping that he will make the same progression for his Math as well, but only will know after his term test in August.

Mummy's birthday - 19th July

We woke up at 5 plus am on this day morning because Caden suddenly had a bad cough attack. He told us he had a sore throat and we could also hear his stuffy nose. So we gave him some medication and I couldn't get back to sleep thereafter..

So the day started badly as we knew our dear son has fallen sick. His cough started and was severe by afternoon.  We managed to get him to take a nap in the afternoon and he seemed better by evening time. We decided to go ahead with the plan to have our dinner at Paradise Dynasty at T3 Changi Airport. We didn't have to wait for a table given that we reached slightly before 6pm.

 

And the spread we ordered:

Egg Fried Rice - Yums!

Hot and sour soup La Mian - too spicy for me to finish all

Chicken Chop La Mian - it was good too

Caden felt cold so I guessed his condition was getting worse...




Na Bai - same taste as mine! ;)

my dear son admiring the departure crowd downstairs

Signature Xiao Long Bao

 

Total bill came up to more than $80.. gosh.. slightly more expensive than what we usually spend in Jap restaurant.. maybe more worth it to do Jap next time :)

After dinner, we sent our birthday wishes for Singapore at a booth set up in T3, to commemorate SG50. Both Ethan and Caden wrote birthday wishes and hang the tags on the Samsonite luggages ( Event was sponsored by Samsonite)



 

Back at home, Caden had a fever so we needed to cut my cake quickly, before we get him ready for bed..

 

Ethan insisted on blowing candles and cutting the cake with me this time round.

Guess what my ah lou bought for me this year? A new pair of running shoes. No more excuses for me not to exercise!

Although it was a simple and quiet day for me, I felt really happy. I think as we grow older, birthdays are no longer that significant, maybe what we really ask for is peace and happiness always .. .. I hope my dear son get well soon!!

Peach Garden Dim Sum Buffet - Thomson Plaza

 

As my birthday falls on a Sunday this year, and coincidentally, we have a long weekend before the Sunday (thanks to Hari Raya), we decided to try out Peach Garden's dim sum as it has been a long time since we last had one.

 

Thomson's Peach Garden dim sum buffet is currently running a promotion - 25% off the total bill with at least 4 diners. It was almost full house on Friday afternoon (and most of us had made reservations in advance). So given the turnout, I was thinking this must be good...

 

To my disappointment, the fried dim sum spread that were pushed and distributed by the aunties were all cold, so those dim sum lost the crisp and crunch touch. The steam ones were piping hot but the more popular items like har kow and siew mai ran out fast. We had to wait for a while before the new batches were pushed out in the carts. My other disappointment was that there were not much variety offered and the quantities were rather low. Although the buffet's period is from 3-5pm, the food was not continuously replenished from 3-5pm. I think they stopped pushing out food even before 4pm and whatever's that's left in the carts or table were whatever which were left for diners like us to feast on. As this was our first visit (and my last!!!!), we didn't know that we had to grab the fruits first before they were gone as the restaurant didn't replenish them after the first platter. I asked the waitress and even the manager if there will be any more fruits to be replenish, their blunt reply to me was no. And that was only 4pm to be exact. This is the worst buffet spread I had ever had to be honest.

 

We asked Ethan to help both of us to take a shot and he took a selfie on purpose instead!

Then his misson was accomplished...

 

Then he reluctantly joined in for a family shot...

Finally, he smiled!

Best dish of the buffet - Har Kow..

2nd best - Ice Cream! We have to queue up to get them...

Each of us had a 'sandwich' each..

Verdict:
Har Kow - Good
Siew Mai - So-So
Egg Tart - small and cold
Porridge - slightly cold but tasty
Steamed Glutinous Rice - Nice
Fried Prawn dumplings - cold
Beancurd skin roll - tasty but cold
Spicy carrot cake - Tasty but too spicy for the kids

I had dim sum buffet at Ju Chun Yuan Restaurant at Far East Square before with my colleagues and each item was served hot.. so if we were to hunt for a dim sum buffet again, we will probably head for Ju Chun Yuan.

Other recommendations which are non-buffet will be:
1) Imperial Treasure - Great world city
2) East Ocean - Ngee Ann city
3) Royal China - Raffles hotel
4) The Cathay Restaurant (Handy road)
5) Crystal Jade

Shots of their favourite Saturday activity - Football!

For Ethan's upcoming Chinese show and tell assessment - he was tasked to talk about his favourite person. Although he said it was me (**HAPPY**), we decided that he should talk about his Papa instead since there will be more context and pictures (given that I am mostly behind the shots). We were missing photographs of his favourite Saturday activity - Football, so I took the opportunity to snap a few shots last Saturday evening:

A few of the school mates joined in the game subsequently, and the boys had their fair share of good fun and exercise... I went back home after I got the shots done to chill .. hahaha