Ace's School Days

Finally got my butsudan set up....

And that is Ace chanting... he says he is chanting for a little brother to happen soon... wahahaha.. But i think perhaps he also chanting from the stress of a new school ;)

Even though Ace does not need to go primary one in Singapore and I am glad we dun have to go through that huge transition from kindergarten to primary school, to me, the fact that Ace goes to an international school in Dubai gives me lots of stress and added responsibilties...

Firstly, I have never studied in an international school and do not know what is the norm. Do we buy our own school bags or do we have to buy those with his school logo on them? What is the norm here? And because parents are not allowed into the schools, I don't really know how lessons are like here and what he learns... all the unknowns give me alot of stress...

Not to mention, I worry about whether he can fit in.. whether he can understand his friends and teachers (since they have got accents from all over the world) and whether they can understand him (since Ace is more fluent in Singlish than English..muahahah)..

Then come the matter of lunch boxes. I was told in the teacher parent handbook that they have two snacks times a day and are required to bring two snacks.... but wat do you prepare? is it a norm to prepare the night before? or do I have to wake at 5am to do it? What sort of lunchboxes are good? Do we need to buy a lunchbox bag? And these gave me another few strands of white hair...

Then comes the matter of how is Ace going to learn Chinese and learn enough math so that he can catch up when he goes back to Singapore? If I were to teach him myself, what do I teach him and how do I teach him? Where can I get a good lesson plan? how can I make him respond to me like he would respond to his teachers in school... and so, another few strands of white hair appeared....

Most of my friends think I am enjoying life and always ask me questions like "How is your tai tai life in Dubai?" But the fact of the matter is, while I think I have close to tai tai life in Singapore, I think I am ah sum life here in dubai lor...

You see, on top of these things that I have to constantly worry about, my typical weekday starts like this:

6am: Wake the little prince and also wake myself so that I can go prepare breakfast. Nowadays I make soy milk before hand and let him eat either soy milk with cereal or a banana as breakfast because it is something he can eat fast and doesn't take me much to prepare it... Then I have to keep chasing him to move quickly so that he doesn't miss his 6.30 school bus.

6.30am: Ace goes up his school bus and I try to go back to bed. If I cannot sleep, I wake and try to watsapp or FB my sgp friends since it is already 10am in sgp... If I cant zzz, I will watch some online drama till I feel tired (currently watching The Big Bang Theory and I just LOVE Jim Parson's character Dr Sheldon Cooper! I can't stop laughing at him!)

Usually i will wake around 10 plus.. on days where I sleep late the night before, I wake at 12 plus...

I brush teeth, potter around the house a little bit.. clean a little here and there... mop, sweep, vacum, wipe, clean toilet, clean the kitchen, wash kitchen towels (not all at on the same day thankfully) and around 2pm, I have to start to make Ace's tea break snack.

2.50pm: Go downstairs to pick Ace up. Usually the first thing he says to me when I see him is, "I am very hungry.." That is why I need to pre-prepare his snack so that first thing he can do after he takes off his shoe is eat. Ace will take his own sweet time to eat and meanwhile as he eats, I have to clean his shoes (cos dubai is very sandy and the outside and inside of his shoes is always filled with sand), clean his bag (because he puts his bag on the ground in the bus and his leg kicks it so it becomes sandy as well), take out his bottle and lunch box to wash and check if he has any homework and if there is any message from his teacher in his SOS book.

3pm: Just as I am about done, we have to start our lessons! In Horizon School, they require you to raed to and have your child read to you daily... so we will spend 15 min reading.. and afterwhich we will do some work, watch some videos related to what I want to teach him... and then in between while he is doing work, I have to prepare snack number two because this boy is a hungry hippo...

4.30: This hungry little boy eats another snack and we continue with our studies after that.

5.30pm: It is time to prepare to cook dinner. Time to wash the veggies, cut them and prepare to cook them... Around 6 plus, I will start to fry veg and wait for max to come back. We usually have dinner at around 7 and thankfully, Max helps to wash up after dinner... and then I have a bit of time to watch tv, check email and FB and then by 8 plus, I have to either make salad sauce (for Max's salad) or soy bean milk (for Ace's breakfast). Then have to iron the clothes that the King and Prince are going to wear tomorrow... In between also wash, fold and keep clothes....

9.00pm: I shoo Ace into the bedroom and read a book with him, talk to him a little and leave him to sleep.. and then I start to prepare the snacks that Ace will bring tomm and also prepare Max's salad lunch for the next day. Then i will have to pack Ace's school bag. Usually by the time I am done, it will be 10 plus 11pm in the night already. And then i try to spend a little bit of time alone with Max just to chat or watch tv together...

The feeling I have is that I start working from 2-11 everyday non stop and cannot eat snake one.. so sometimes I really feel very tired. To the extend that when weekend comes, I am all spent... last weekend, I was so tired that when max told me he is going out to watch soccer and that I have to cook dinner, I felt like dying.. I was so tired it was almost impossible to wake up and I literally had to drag myself to go and cook dinner.....

And very unfortunately, on Fridays, most restaurants are closed during lunch hours (as it is weekend and time to go mosque) and so leh, friday have to cook at home too...

While I do enjoy cooking but I also really look forward to taking a break from it during the weekends. But leh, me taking a break brings us to another issue to worry about, :"What do we eat today?" Wahahahahaha... And since there are not tat many good and cheap restaurants here, we have been playing rounders and visiting and revisitng the same restaurants again and again... but I am not complaining.. at least we managed to find thai food, nasi padang, chinese food and even a super nice indian restaurant to go to :)

Anyway, my point is this.. Ace going to school has created alot of extra work for me... like I told my friend, the difference between dubai and Singapore for me is this: I have to take over Gong Gong's job of cooking and providing bfast lunch and dinner for Ace, Zhen Popo's job of nagging at Ace for all the dos and don'ts, Popo and Ah Yee's job of teaching him abc and 123 and chinese, Yeye Nai Nai;s job of playing with him... That's one person doing 6 person's job leh!:)

Today, because Ace was not feeling well, we skipped the afternoon lesson. I felt so much more relieved and less stressed as a result. I just hope that all this extra stress and work is all worth it and that Ace will have something to show for it when we are done with it.

PS: Okie, this is just a post to complain about how much work I am doing and how much I am sacrificing for my family.. wahahahahahaha... Even though i complain, I do love what I am doing because it is really sweet to have Max beside me to talk to me, tease me, spend time with me and just be with me....

PS: The Many Faces of Ace In School
That is Ace in his Horizon School uniform...


Smart boh... after he went to school, we found out that actually no need to tuck in one.. so after day 1, he goes to school with his shirt tucked out:)




Initially when I am lost about wat sort of lunch box to let him bring to school, I just use any Lock Lock box I had... and his Toy Story water bottle we brought from SGP...

After he came home from school, his shoes are so sandy.. so got to wipe with cloth.. this is compare and contrast before wiping and after wiping... Now I lazy liao.. i just kok kok kok on the floor and let the sand come out and wipe once every 2 days instead...

That is Ace in his PE attire for swimming days and PE days...



That is him in his school hat which he needs wear everyday as long as he is under the son.. to give maximum protection, all the school hats here are like tat... look like Ace with long hair hor...

Maybe that is how my daughter, if I have one in the future.. will look like:) hahahahaha:)

Ace and his swimming gear...
This pic is hilarious because he wants to take pic but say he cannot show off his nipples and so he used his hands to cover his nipples.... wahahahahhaa:)

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