Cayson’s year in summary

In a year of Covid19, time flies faster than ever. We had our second parent meet teacher Teams session recently. As usual, Cayson received glowing compliments for being a good boy in school and above average mandarin skills (amongst mostly expatriate friends haha). And I also learned that he has planning and patience as well. Here’s why. 

Usually to start the day, he would have milk at home. Then on some days when he requests (since his school provides breakfast and we don’t want to waste), we would pack some small “fish” snacks or small piece of bread to bring to school.

What we learned is that other kids may sometimes pack their own afternoon snack to school (though school provides). As Cayson also wants his own snacks during tea, he would ration what he brought for breakfast , and leave a tiny morsel behind for tea. Teacher observed it, was rather amused and asked him to finish the morsel during breakfast as it’s a real small piece to start with but he mustered all his willpower and still kept some for tea. Hence, what teacher suggested for us to do is to pack a bigger portion of snack in future. What I was amused is the amount of self restraint and planning skills he has for a four year old! 

Outside of school, I have also observed that he had also grown much in the past one year. Even though he may love his fruits and food, he will always be generous and offer it to the family for sharing even though he only has a small piece and really treasure it like oranges or maoshan durian. And he also has a very good memory of the news I talked to him about at night. Till now, he still mused about Trump being a bad guy as he said coronavirus is not real, or about the old man who caught coronavirus on the ship but turned out to be a false positive after they re-tested him one day later. 

And as his mind grew, and so does his independent will and cheekiness. So this little boy no wonder listens all the time especially when he’s lured by play or following his brother. but it does make him very adorable as he’s generally very smiley and amicable. Behind that angelic face also lies a tenacious kid who’s rather resilient. An impulsive morning walk initiated by me at Punggol Waterway Park / Coney Island became a 8 km/11,000 steps walk over 3 hours and he only asked to be carried for 2 minutes. He had pretty endured the entire journey with our little shadow games (where we run when there’s stretches where there’s no shadows from the trees)  and minimal breaks in between. 

This year, he had switched from Shichida to Heguru as I felt it’s getting quite repetitive at Shichida. Whilst he was reluctant to go initially as it’s no longer parent accompanied, he managed to ease in after 2 sessions. Teacher even complimented him on his lively engagement in class and his maths and reasoning skills. In fact, I think the most remarkable reasoning and mathematics skills we’ve encountered at home is as follows:

(Ah Pa put on a nicer t-shirt at home.)

C: Ah Pa , are you going out?

Ah Pa: No

C: Is someone coming?

Ah Pa: Yes

(Ah Pa brings out four wine glasses)

C: Who’s coming ? Is it uncle A? Hmm, no .. uncle A usually comes alone. Should be uncle B and auntie C since they always come together. 

Whoa, I’m real impressed by his deductive skills! He can deduce that we have two guests. No wonder he’s picked up connect 4 , covered chess and card games quite fast too since it’s all about observation, pattern recognition and reasoning. 

His memory is decent too. That day, there’s a home assignment to create a recipe book with him and as I seldom cook, I was not sure how I can fill out the blank sheets of craft paper provided. Then, he reminded me of all the food that I have cooked in recent weeks like scrambled eggs, pancake, beef stew, jelly, steak etc. Thankfully I have started cooking a bit more recently, else there will be nothing to draw! But now I understand why some say that cooking is an act of love. From that day on, I feel more motivated to cook more too. (I went to replace my broken oven of many years. 

For this year, he is now learning to swim and I have seen him swim 2-3 metre without float. Hope he can master it soon since he likes to hang out with the big boys and played in the pool. We tried to get him on a piano trial but he kept talking to his teacher instead of playing so we are not sure if we will let him continue. As for taekwondo, he managed to pass the most basic grade .. he does pull a strong punch recently (I was surprised by the strength of it when it landed on my tummy!) 

Overall, it’s been quite an action packed year in spite of Covid19. Here’s wishing him a healthy and happy 2021!