Year 6 Production

Ace came home the other day and said that Year 3s have been chosen as the back up singers for the Year 6 production.. and because it is optional.. Ace says he wants to take part.. and so I signed him up for it lor... But I did not know what is the production about...

And then a few days later, he came home and said that they have to practice the songs they are singing daily.. and so I asked him for the song so that I can load the youtube video for him to practice..

To my surprise, the songs are:

• Tragedy by the BEE GEES
• Bad Romance by Lady Gaga
• Love Story by Taylor Swift
• some lullaby written by his music teacher

So strange right.. why would a primary school production feature a song like TRAGEDY... and the lyrics go like this somemore...

"Here I lie
In a lost and lonely part of town
Held in time
In a world of tears I slowly drown
Goinhome
I just can't take it all alone
I really should be holding you
Holding you
Loving you loving you

Tragedy
When the feelings gone and you can't go on
Its tragedy
When the morning cries and you don't know why
Its hard to bear
With no-one to love you youre
Goin nowhere"

so very unsuitable for children lor!

And then when I went to watch the performance.. I finally understood why...

 

Apparently, all the three year 6 classes will do one play they have rewritten based on a story by William Shakespeare... One of the classes did Mac Beth.. so that is why they chose this song.. for it is a huge tragedy...

The love song by taylor swift was for the Midsummer Night's Dream... and as for lady gaga.. i think tat is just a time filler when they change sets between the first and second play :)

 

 Choir boy waiting for the play to start..

 The amazing Mr M who is talented both as a musician and a teacher too.. from wat i observed, he is one of the most popular teachers in school.. cos he is fun... and also of cos the whole school goes only to him for music lessons and so everyone knows him..

Captured a nice picture of Ms R, Ace's teacher :)

After the production ended, they actually had some sort of mini graduation ceremony... firstly, they showed pictures of all the chidlren who were with the school since kindergarten.. and they showed their little kid pictures and the children had to guess who is who...

And then they had a portion where a few children from each class were chosen to read out something about what they have learnt from Horizon School and what are their aspirations when they go into secondary school. I dunno why.. even though I am the parent of the Year 3s, I was really very very touched at this juncture.

I wondered if I will be able to let Ace complete his year 6 here in horizon before we leave to go back to Singapore. The chances of that happening, I am afraid to say.. is very high.. given tat all seems to be dependent on Max's career... But that will mean we will be here for at least another 3 years...:(

But it would be nice... Ace did not have a chance to properly graduate from his Kindergarten... I will be very happy if he gets a chance to properly graduate from primary school.. Plus i actually think it would be much better if he could complete his primary school education here as i still prefer the curriculum in an intl school compared to Singapore's pressure cooker system...

PS: On the last day of school, Ace decided to make a card for Ms R to thank her.

 I find it amusing always.. that whenever Ace writes cards, he will wish people good luck. Even more amusing to me is when I read him all the well wishes he received for his birthday, he dictated a message for me to type back to them and he actually wished them PEACE.. such a strange thing to say, coming from a child, right?

Previous Post: Ace's Results 

Ace's Results

Ace received his exam results already...

Actually hor, not really like result result lah.. cos hor, his school exam.. I din know in advance one.. he came home and tell me.. "Mummy.. today I had math exam.." How cool is that! I think all my Singaporean parent friends must envy me!:) Dun have to nag, dun have to take leave and worry about it... Just encourage him to do his best in school everyday and kiss and remind him that "You are the best!" before he goes to school:)

Best part, this exam got no marks one.. the result is merely a category which tells you if your child is average, good, very good or behind his peers....

Before he brought home his result slip, Ace always told me that he tries his best in school and I tell him that that is most important to me. I am very happy to say that his teacher also commented that Ace tries hard! :) I am very happy with that!

At first glance, his results seem to be nothing to shout about.. it is just mostly in the AVERAGE category...

This one is his mid term result..  other than arabic, art and design and response to science where he is above average, he is average in all categories:) hahaha

But... if I put his mid term result for year 2 beside it... things start to look interesting...

 As you can see, Ace made a vast improvement as he no longer has any items falling in the area of a 3 or a 4.. and his arabic has moved on suddenly from being a 3 (working towards group expectations) to a 1.

Very proud of Ace for improving!:)

Here are his end of the year "results"...

Max says the phrase "I was rubbish in computers..." is very british because only the british will use phrases like that... My "ang moh kiah" (Ace's nickname when he was a baby because he looked like a mixed blood baby) is really turning into a true blue ang moh kiah.. wahahahaha....

I looked up all the assessment results. Apparently, 3c and 2a are both the average results of a typical Year 3.

As you can tell though.. our little prince is often DAY DREAMING and does his work TOO SLOW lah.. exactly like how he is when doing homework at home.. how come his teacher did burst a blood vessel like me?!:P wahahahahhaa

I am glad though that he is making improvement and able to express himself better :)

 Wahaha.. Ace still has got two left feet.. I guess:)

 I am actually very curious how Ace will develop his singing voice. Wonder if he will take after ME or take after his dad.. if take after me, I think he will have no problem singing on his own.. if take after Max.. then.. WAHAHAHAHAH:)

 I think in the area of soft skills.. like relationships, perseverance, etc.. he has stayed pretty much the same.. in areas of attitudes to learning and self esteeem, he has made some improvement.. but i wonder if it is because these things are more or less a person's character.. which doesnt really change much...

But I think this is such a holistic view of education.. it seems the british curricullum is also very much about character building....

Anyway, again, his results did not seem tat impressive till I placed last years results side by side..

 On the left, his Year 3 report, on the right the Year 2 one.. as you can tell, he can now write alot more things and express himself better!:)

 For PE, he made a VAST improvement!!!!

from so many 4s.. he has moved to mostly 3s except in two areas.. and like his mum.. he has good attitude in playing sports even if he doesnt play well :) wahahahahahaha... when I was in pri school, I was not the best player in the softball team and because I could not bat well, I was often only fielded in the field for catching and not batting. But if you talk about attitude.. I think I am one of the best.. hahaha..  cos I always attend all my practices without fail:)

 Needless to say, he has VAST IMPROVEMENT in his arabic. I think it is all thanks to his teacher, Mr Mohameed.. according to Ace, he did not really understand what is happening in arabic class in his first year.. so that is why he scored badly... but this year, he has a new teacher and arabic is much more interesting to him.. and as he got better, he got more confident.. and that is why he improved so much:)

But dun expect him to be able to converse in arabic just yet.. He can only tell you what Banana, Apple, table and chair is in arabic.. or say things like.. "The book is on the table.." "This is horizon school.." hahahha

 Anyway, Ace recieved two certs for his swimming... FINALLY AH! Max say.. "This is the cummulation of all the money I spent on his swimming.." when he saw the cert... wahahahaha

So... after comparing with last year... and taking into consideration that Ace is the YOUNGEST in his class (most of his classmates are 8 going onto 9 years old while he is 7 going onto 8), I think he is doing well! ;) Keep up the good work Ace.. and continue to do your best! I know you will continue to improve and do even better!

Previous Post: Ace's Birthday Party

Ace's Birthday Party

We bought some Oreos for Ace to give out in his class on his birthday. A few days before his birthday, Ace kept asking me if he could hold a party with his friends. I told him it was too last minute.. so there is not enough time to send invites and prepare....

Then on the day before his birthday, I recieved a text from Z's mum... actually, her text was to ask me if Ace could go to her house for a playdate... but i misread it and instead thought she meant tat she wanted Z to come to our house for another playdate again... and since it was Ace's BD, I told her OK lor :)

And then I told Ace and said he can hold a mini party since he has ONE FRIEND coming... and then I told him he should ask the neighbours if they will like to play tomorrow.... so that the two of them dun be very bored like the last time Z came here...

So Ace ran out and knocked on everyone's door and told them that THEY ARE INVITED TO A MINI PARTY TOMORROW IN HIS HOUSE BECAUSE IT IS HIS BIRTHDAY!

Wah lau!

Self invite lor... and then ta dah.. BOH PIAN LOR.. now got to really throw him a party lor!!!! So told Max have to go supermart shopping when Ace sleeps lor///

Wah, then someone super excited... ask him go and sleep.. dun want to sleep.. sit at the sofa with his notebook.. thought what he doing.... He was actually coming up with a list of things that he wanted for his party...

In the end, we bought a fruit cake (it was on sale), some muffins, biscuits, packet drinks and some kinderjoy... since going to do.. I tot just go and also buy some party stuff like balloons and all tat lah..

Suay lor.. the HAPPY BIRHTDAY sign that I bought hor, got a missing H.. so have to cut using magazine paper myself... Then gotto pack the goody bags, these and that, it was 2am when I finally got to sleep...

Next morning, while Ace was in school, I blew up the balloons.. (thankfully using the bicycle wheel pump instead of my mouth.. cos Ace gave me a kick n my mouth the night before while playing tat caused my gums to swell and my skin inside the mouth to break and bleeed... I couldnt even laugh too hard or what the day after...

Took out my mobile tables.. set out the goody bags and food...

And now, all ready to fetch the kids from the school bus:)

At the start, I made Ace finish his snack and I made Z some snacks.. so since they were eating, they were allowed to watch tV.. I told Ace after they eat, it is his party, he decides what games he wants to play :)

Then they gathered all the other children to play outside... too bad though that the watchman came and told them that they were not allowed to play outside because they were making too much noice (even though I already reminded Ace to play quiet games..) hahaha

So they all moved in to play DANCE CENTRAL on the kinect.

Poor Y.. her little bro refuses to let her play or do anything else when he is around.. so I tried to distract him and make him go out and play with someone else:) wahhaah

Eventually, J had to go for dentist appt.. Y had to go back home.. and so by cake cutting, only three children left:)

Birthday boy had 8 candles and somehow, he decided it was better for him to make one wish, blow one candle.. make one wish blow one candle :) wahahaha.. JH.. who is for some unknown reason on bad terms with J requested J use one of his wishes to wish they will be good frens again and Ace did :) wahahahaha....

Ace a little kan cheong cos first time use real knife :) Maybe i should go daiso and buy the small knife and let him practice...

Dun ask me what is it.. the children eat liao and decided it is better three pax share one ipad and watch cartoons on it.. i ask why dun use TV... Ace say TV is boring! wahahahaha

Then J came back... and so the boys wanted to play ball in the corridor, I told them watchman say cannot.. and they promptly played IN THE LIVING ROOM!

 After I took those few pics, I had to force myself to chat with my neighbour.. 没眼看... if i stay in the house i will surely scream!:) wahaha

Since I was bz with the party, no time to cook lor.. so we went out to eat :)

Ace chose this place cos of the desserts:)

Lava cake!

Max ordered this to let us try. is cheese ball with tomato:)

Very happy Ace...

When Z's parents came to fetch him, htey brought along a pressie for Ace too :)

Ace has been happily playing with this spinning target thing.. unfortunately we got no batteries at home.. so it cannot spin.. but tat doesnt stop my son.. he use the poles tat make up the stand and kungfu pole.. sigh...

But that was the end of his birthda lah :) JH said that it was the best birthday party ever and to Ace, he was just happy he had a party with his friends...  Even though the party was very simple, I think he was very happy :)

And I actually learnt my lesson from this.. last week.. he went to a party at someone's house and took limo to a fast food restaurant... i asked him what was his fav part of the party.  his fav part was the fast food restaurant cos there is a playground there.. moral of the story, I think the party is where they can have alot of fun running around.. and not how much we spend :)

Previous Post: Student Parent Conference