Camp@HOME

The day I heard Ace sing God Save The Queen while bathing, I started wishing for some sort of Singaporean assimilation program.. or maybe some sort of camp or lesson where he could go to and learn more about Singapore... cos really paiseh that my son cannot tell other people more about Singapore while he can tell me so many things about the Union Jack.

At this point, I found that the portal www.overseassingaporean.com actually has a kids corner, and I found out they had a Camp@HOME programme for kids returning to Singapore during their summer holidays! Alas registration has already ended!

I decided to write in to them and appeal for a place if someone decides last minute not to attend and Ace was super lucky lor:) Someone was not able to make it and so, they were able to slot Ace in.

The only thing about the camp is that leh, I have got to bring Ace there and pick him up again.. which meant I had to spend many hours away from home doing nothing but WAIT.. (which I eventually spent either meeting friends or going home to sleep.. wahahaha)

Anyway, Ace was really excited and happy to be at the camp:)

After I dropped him off, I was given one big bag (for me) and Ace was given a small bag (for him) and it was filled with goodies for both the kids and the parents... like a cute t-shirt with many Singaporean foods and even a CD of the song, HOME:P

Every morning, the children had to sing Mahjulah Singapura and recite the Pledge before the camp started proper. Lucky for Ace that he had exposure to these things before he left for Singapore and so he could follow somewhat (and was humming Mahjulah Singapura while bathing and playing during those few days). Some of the kids had trouble with the song as they were born overseas and the words were in malay... a language not familiar to them... But I think by the end of the camp, most of them had gotten it:)

Day one, they were brought to LIttle India, China Town and Kampong Glam. They also went to the mint museum and they were each given a newly minted coin that Ace said is his treasure...

At Kampong Glam, there were all given a chance to do a Henna Tattoo and so Ace had a smiley face tattooed on his hand. As they were given some money to buy food and Ace is vegeterian, he bought a henna tube home and for the next few days, kept bugging me to draw henna on his hand.. hahaha..

Worse, he wanted to draw ON ME!

When I went to pick Ace up, he kept asking me to smell his shirt.. I thin they also went to the perfume shop and managed to try different types of perfumes on their shirts!

They also got a chance to learn how to play with traditional toys like the top:)

And so, day 1 was rather exciting for him. I think Ace was happy and tired cos afterward, during our short bus journey to meet Ganma Seok Ling for dinner, Ace fell asleep on the bus after a few minutes..

Day 2 of the camp was a full day immersion programme at Queenstown Primary School. That presented a little problem for me because the school was very far away and we were supposed to gather latest by 7.20am... in the end, I decided to just take a cab to buy both me and Ace a good 30 min more of sleep...

In the school, they were given a chance to go for lessons in their age appropriate classes and Ace was sent to 1 PEACE. His buddy is the class monitor of the class called Bryan.

Just so they could have a full experience of school, they even had to go through a fire drill...

Ace had a different buddy in Chinese class and that is his chinese buddy..

Meanwhile while they went for their CCA (which they had chosen on the first day of registration... Ace arrived too late and the art club tat he wanted was gone and so he chose library in the end), the parents were given a chance to attend a talk by MOE and so we could understand the different options we had when our children came home and how they can assimilate into the mainstream education system... Hehehe.. irregardless of how many years we spend overseas, Singaporean parents will always be singaporean parents as we will ask for the fastest, easiest and BEST way to let our children come back.. hahahaha

When i saw Ace after they ended their CCA, Ace kept clamouring for food and said he was very very hungry.. so he ate and ate and ate and one shot ate like 3-4 egg sandwhiches.. wahahaha... heng they provided food lor:)

And while he was eating, i asked him what actually did he eat for recess... he said as he was vegeterian, the only foods he could find that he could eat was chee cheong fan and so he had one chee cheong fan and one milo..

"Initially, I wanted to buy the lots of ice milo.. but I didn't have enough money leftover..." Ace told me..

We were told to give our kids $4-$6 for them to buy food during recess.. I gave Ace $6 and I wanted to see how he would spend the money. But even before I passed him any money, he already asked me if he could keep the leftover money... because he said he wanted to buy as souvenior from Queenstown Primary to remember his time there.. I told him if I gave him the money, it is his, and he is free to do what he wants with it...

I figured that if he bought chee cheong fun and milo, it would add up to only a like $2 max.. so since he only had $0.30, left over, where did the rest of the money go?

Our good friend bought another magic ruler ("So that I can lend it to JH (our dubai neighbour) cos now only me and J have it.. JH always left out when we play with the magic ruler...) I later found out that the magic ruler cost $2 and that Ace bought those two things before he bought his food! wahahahahha...

I told Ace that those two buys were not value for money..because the magic ruler and the magnifying class would have cost much less if we bought it elsewhere.. hahahah...

Anyway, I could tell that Ace really enjoyed himself because he kept going on about "my school my school...." just after one day... He also kept wanting to bring me to the different places tat he visited while in the school to take pictures before we left...

This is the 1 Peace classroom...

This is where Ace had his first fire drill:)

Ace at the canteen...

Ace fiddling with his magnifying glass on the train...

Ace got to watch a snippet of pinnochio and got a chance to do a drama of the story afterward during his library CCA.

Ace having fun with his magic ruler..

1 PEACE even  wrote him a card....

And he even recieved a goody bag from the school.. which included a bookmark made by the students of queenstown primary...

And some snacks....

That was his homework during his chinese lesson.. and Ace actually complained to me that he did not get much homework to do as he was a guest and did not have a proper workbook.. wahahahaha...

He was also really excited since most of the things he was learning, he had already learnt in Horizon School..

"I was the really brainy one today, mummy... I kept raising my hands to answer questions and me and my team got many points for answering the questions correctly! I know the answers to all the questions and even those questions about animal sounds cos I already learnt them in Mad Science.." he said excitedly...

"Mummy, I really really like Queenstown primary.." Ace told me when we were on the way home..

In the night, Ace bugged me again about the henna and while I was bathing, he decided to do his own design.. it ended up like a lump on his hand.. wahahaha:) heng he washed off immediately and so it din stay on his hand very long..:)

Day 3, the kids went to the Peranakan Museum and visited a few places of interest in Singapore...

They also bought ice cream from the ice cream man.. i am so pleased he has a common shared memory with me.. cos there are no ice cream uncles in dubai one!:)

That is Ace and his group leaders.. they are from the team called Bibi and Baba.. so on the first day, he insisted tat his leader's name is called Baba.. wahahahahahaa:)

Then they had some sort of performance....

Notice on the far left there is a little boy who kept doing forward rolls? Yeah.. tat is my silly boy.. I dunno if he is trying to gain attention or what... but he was the most active of the lot and doing forward rolls and pretending to fall down and also singing Mahjulah Singapura very loudly! hahahahaa

That is Ace getting his certificate for completing the camp..

Ace made a few friends.. and I made a few mummy friends too:) I even met someone I used to work with in Mediacorp!:)

The children were given also a goody bag filled with toys and foods tat will bring us a sense of nostalgia...

By the time it was time to go home, Ace was so tired that once we got a seat in city hall, he sat down and zzzzz all the way till tanah merah MRT... I had to start waking him from Bedok MRT and he finally woke when we reached tanah merah....

While walking home, the winds were blowing and the flags posted along the fence of the condo were all "bloated" and Ace says they looks like Singapore flag balloons:)

These are some art pieces they did in the morning... double happiness paper cutting...

Pasting of some pieces of sari clothes..

More paper cutting.. Ace says it is a lantern... and he designed it himself..

I dunno what you call this but it is those things you see hanging around during a malay wedding...

Some gifts in the goody bags:)

All in all, Ace enjoyed himself totally:)

Thanks to all at Overseas Singaporean and Horizon Learning for the wonderful camp!:)

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