Multiparenting Cayen & Cayson

It’s slightly over two weeks. Seems like he still hasn’t made friends in class yet (except for one girl who’s in the school bus) though he seemed to like his school bus friends as they are always joking around, with his first friend leading the pack sometimes. They even played games on the bus something similar to Cluedo / Amongst Us concept. However, sad news is that he  also learnt that his first friend is leaving the school bus by February and rejoining only next year as she’s taking public transport.  His lunch reportoire is still chicken rice with different sides every day though he managed to try croissants on Fridays after I told him about the cafe. His review of the new school overall is that the food is cheaper but smaller in serving. Guess this really speaks to his priorities.  He also learnt how to make a lantern using Ang Pow this week and he was quite pleased about it . He came home to make one more on his own.   He has just started his computer lessons in school but it’s

After his Covid vaccination on Saturday, I was concerned about him forgetting and inadvertently running or participating in strenuous activities in school. So I reminded Ah Pa to remind teacher as he has PE lessons soon.  However, we understand from Chinese teacher that Cayen was very on the ball and had promptly informed the teacher of his condition and that he cannot exercise in the next two weeks. Teacher however told him to tell the PE teacher instead. I cannot tell if he’s responsible or trying to just skive and relax as a result of that.  Anyway, his canteen food today was chicken rice, egg and egg sandwich today. Again it’s because the queue was the shortest. I asked if he could walk faster so he could try other food but he said it was not possible as one teacher would lead them to their designated seat and another would release them into the queues. At the rate he’s going, I reckon he might be eating chicken rice forever.  Today his only friend was playing with another in the b

Cayson has been taking online piano lessons and physical violin lessons. I think he has been observing for a while , before he couldn’t help but ask the question to Ah Pa yesterday, “When can I get the proper piano lessons?” Perhaps he has seen or heard about Cayen’s physical lessons and hence, he’s asking.  This little boy also seemed to have a knack for numbers. Ah Pa showed him this computation on his iPhone , and he was able to replicate it on his own thereafter. He was quite pleased about it and repeated it a few times using the calculator.  12345679 x 81  12345679 x 72  By the way, you can try this for other multiples of 9 too like 12345679 x 63, 54, 45, 36, 27, 18, 9 . 

Before he got get home, we had some insights of his behaviour in school. Through the online chat with Chinese teacher, these were the comments: “ Cayen’s behaviour is good, attitude is good, he even help to remind teacher of things. And he loves drawing it seems, but we need to remind him on the appropriate time to draw”  Oops, I think reading between the lines, it could potentially mean that he’s “kaypoh” (busybody) and that he’s not paying attention in class.  Hence, once he got home, our first question was what exactly he reminded the teacher of. He said that he reminded them that it was end of class. We were horrified. That sounded like he couldn’t wait to end lessons and exit the class. We asked why he would say that. He said that teacher asked him to remind them of this as there’s people taking the school bus. Ok, then it doesn’t sound that bad.  On why he was drawing , he said he’s drawing dinosaurs as it was very boring and the teachers were repeating things that he already kno

He donned the PE shirt today and I saw the motto on the back of the shirt …   “ 勤 慎 端 朴 - Diligence, Prudence, Respectability, Simplicity”  which I’ve not seen in a while. That’s my secondary school motto too so it felt quite nostalgic.  The day whizzed past and here’s the highlights of his day.  - He found the shortest way to ascend to his classroom on 6th floor. I think he described something about starting from the field, crossing to second floor, crossing the rainbow part of the building, taking of the two paths etc. It sounded real complicated like squid game but he’s quite pleased he found a “shortcut” though I don’t quite see how so .  - He still didn’t speak to anyone in the class except to tell the guy behind to stop tapping his fingers or kicking his chair. And it so turns out he’s from SJI too. He spoke a little to his only friend on school bus today. Friends count to date : 1 .  - He ate chicken rice with egg and corn soup. He was quite pleased that he could already save 70

He’s started new school today. Given his usual personality, I was worried about him being able to make friends today . So I tried to ready him ahead of time using my tips of making friends. 1. Smile  2. Introduce yourself  3. Try to find common interests - minecraft , demon slayer , anything  4. See if anything else is shy like you, go make friends.  He said it’s “embarrassing” , it doesn’t work that way. It’s  not so easy. I asked why. He said he read from “Diary of a wimpy kid”. Erm, how is that a good reference ? Well, parents, be careful of what they read. It drives irrational fear.  In the end , we even gave him an “Among Us” mask to promote conversations (but sadly it didn’t work). Will try Demon Slayer tomorrow I guess.  Anyway, guess it’s really up to him at the end of the day. I eventually became more concerned about his ability to scale six floors in his school, especially with that huge bag that looked so heavy. That day, we did a trial run without the bag whilst buying book