Mindspace

Pictures from Phuket

Finally got them off the camera and online.

Feedback for Julia Gabriel Learning Center

i came to Julia Gabriel after the glowing recommendation of one of your Chiltern House graduates. She is now 9 years old and one of the top students at Yew Chung International School, one of Silicon Valley's finest bilingual programs. What impressed me was the child's sustained love for the Chinese language despite a non-speaking home environment.
Upon visiting Julia Gabriel, i see why.
The curriculum stresses play, creativity and drama, safe-guarding a positive context for language. It is drastically different from my own local education here, me also from an English-only-speaking family. A graduate of Nanyang Girls' High School and having successfully completed Chinese as a First Language, i am determined to ensure that my experience differs greatly from my children. i am still traumatized by hours of after-school tuition and strict learning pedagogy that is typical of Chinese schools.
Because i want to raise my children bilingual in America, i have to be very clear about what will be a sustaining influence in their love and sustained motivation for learning a language that their native country does not speak.
i am excited to find a partner here in Singapore that shares my values of nurturing a child's creativity, interests and confidence irregardless of learning content. My child may never reach the level of the local kids in their Chinese education, but with JG's partnership i can ensure that they preserve a continued passion and love the Chinese language that will carry them all their lives as Chinese Americans.
Thank you for a child-centered curriculum, creative props and lesson plans and most importantly of all -- warm and attentive teachers that is so integral to a child's learning experience.
As a graduate of Stanford's School of Education, i am acutely aware of the nuances of engagement and subtle learning goals employed through each interaction. It is a thoughtfully and well inform pedagogy. Congratulations on a great program.
We will be back every summer.

A Community of Values

It's the last day of our first week of school and i am sitting in Coffee Bean ( the local equivalent to StarBucks ) while enoch and mummy take my son.
Sitting the local Coffee Bean with my lap top, i am finally able to envision myself here in Singapore. i am getting whiffs of rest.  The foggy haze of jet-lag and vacation maladjustment is settling and i am finally getting enough mind-space to take advantage of slivers of time without the kids.
Forum Shopping Center, where Julia Gabriel resides, is the home of expatriate parenting. Ironically, it's the one community  i see myself having the most in common should i ever decide to come home. It's sad to have to find yourself identifying with Caucasians, it's something so completely counter-intuitive in the US.
Ironically, i am more race-blind in the US. There, my community, both as a parent and as a church-goer is so diverse -- something enoch and i pride ourselves  for being -- that i rarely notice what ethnicity my friends are from. My writing group is made up of an Indian, an Irish and an all American red-head. They eat up all my recounts of experiences back home and make me so proud i am Singaporean.  My woman support group is made up of Chinese, a Caucasian and an Italian. We get along infamously.
Usually language and values determines the attraction. Especially with my experience in recovery groups, i am trained to look past one's external clues to what we have in common. The "anonymous" part of CODA ensures that. We can't talk about what we do, where we live or how much money we make. It's what we have in common that counts.
Here in Singapore, it's hard to ascertain people's values. It's hard to know if they have any amidst the drives to work hard and keep up with the Jones. If i were to come home, i would need to find people who share my strong views on education, parenting and spirituality. The latter of which i really wonder if people here have any mind space to nurture.

If there is a mode of communication, there is room for friendship and warmth. Ironically, in multi-racial Singapore, the group huddle together in fierce loyalty, any steps outside the boundaries are made with self-conscious deliberation.

Finally Getting the Hang of it

Our 3rd week in Singapore and we're finally getting the hang of it. Finally getting the hang of waking up in the morning to a thoughtfully prepared breakfast by my mother, watching her dramatize all the items on the kids' plate so they would eat it, ( completely different from my " You don't want to eat it -- starve ! " stance i take ), pack all the kids in the car, watch my dad drive absent mindedly to school, sit in class with Aidan ( or wander around the malls' closed shops ) pick the kids up, eat lunch somewhere in Orchard and then drive home for nap. We chide, coax and threaten Aidan to take his nap, i try to homeschool Nally a little while Aidan naps, we wake up, Enoch takes them for a swim, i try to rest, and then we all go out to dinner.
We're getting used to taking the elevator up and down to the cars.
We're getting used to dragging them all around the markets.
We're getting used to eating every meal out and having my kids dine in public places, which is nothing short of a test in differentiation for me.  The other day, it suddenly occurred to me after hearing Aidan scream " MA MA! " across the aisles of Popular Bookstore i can actually pretend i don't know the kid.
We are finally finding things the kids like to eat -- pizza, pasta, chao siew pao, salmon roe "pop pop"s eggs on sushi, KFC pop corn chicken.
We are finally adjusting to the weather, adjusting to the heat, finding the cool hours of the night to go out shopping.
i am finally believing that my parents are voluntarily dealing with this chaos and work out of the genuine grandparenting depths of their heart which seems to be deeper than mine.
My skin is finally getting under control. i finally bought some new shirts to wear in the sun.
We are finally getting the hang of it.