How’s the going for you and your family? Here’s ours. : )
Testing patience in
Academics
This year, with a P4, P3 and P1 in tow, school has been enjoyable for them. J as expected, faced challenges in his new Science subject . However, this time round, there is A to assist when he gets stuck in a question. I have yet to teach J the mindmapping strategy. That will be left in March hols. Basically, the kids have been consistently doing their own homework and plowing through basic assessments. Each of them will work on the assigned pages and mark the answers themselves. The onus is on them to understand what have gone wrong or learn from a question that they do not know how to answer. It is part of self-check and self regulation skills to acquire.
Nontheless, mummy here still checks on their work on weekends and gets heart attack on the way they had marked with either ‘no mistakes’ or wrong corrections. The maths also often do not add up when an assessment is barely touched for the week. They did not do according to the portions agreed upon. Consequences of piled up work was completed during a weekend with less time for play and outings. Quickly, the kids realised they have to pull up their socks on their own revisions if they wished to have an enjoyable weekend family time.
With tests already in progress, I have learnt to trust in the Lord for their own learning progress. Our new growth mindset mantra for academics is the same in life. If they make a mistake, or do not know the answers for many questions, it means they would learn new stuffs, the very things they do not know! Their minds are GROWING! In fact, it is a great thing to make mistakes, it means they are being challenged beyond their comfort zone. Therefore, self checking and learning from their corrections are important habits they have to develop on their own. If they still do not comprehend, they can ask us or their school teachers. Going through their tests is another opportunity to grow deeper in their understanding of the concepts taught in school.
I am looking forward to how we can learn together in our tests in school, in life and the hols!!
Faith : Our One Word Progress
After sharing how my One Word became 4, the whole atmosphere at home likens springtime sprouting its first signs of shoots. The seeds of each One word is slowly hidden in our hearts and minds every morning when we recall the key scripture for each child. We are more or less able to memorise the verses in English and Mandarin. Daily, on the way to school, I will pray over the child’s One word for God to speak to them and bless them according to the scripture.
By doing so, we meditate on God’s words. When viewed in the lenses of our One Word, as we apply it to our daily experiences, the scripture springs alive and becomes meaningful to us. The beauty of having this vision of One word presents itself whenever I think about my kids, I no longer view it with the lens of the past with all their weaknesses to discourage me. I view them with confident hope where the journey of being trained by the Lord becomes a blessed goal to run forward in pursuing.
Example 1: A is encouraged to stop and Think before he speaks or act. He remembers to stop when he is upset about something and thinks by praying or walking away so that he can have more time to cool down. By this, I mean his frequency of acting rashly has decreased. And we celebrate with each baby step!
Example 2: J faced a bully case (since last year) and he was fearful of how the bully will react if he does not follow his orders from past experiences. I went through with him how he need not be afraid as God will be his aide. We refocused on Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. As he seeks God with a sincere heart and in faith, he can be assured that God will not only cleanse him from past guilt of listening to the bully, but also empower him to be strong and courageous to stand up against the bully. I assured him that it is better to let the teacher know of the incident than follow the bully’s bidding.
Example 3: E was delighted to be appointed as a monitor of the class. On the same day, she threw a tantrum as she was tired and refused to cooperate with Korkor’s instruction to start doing her homework at the stipulated time. A with his strong sense of right and wrong, chided her behaviour and remarked on how could she be a monitor with her misbehaviour? To that, I intervened and reminded A about thinking before speaking. We all make mistakes at some point, even if you are a monitor or teacher or principal. It was also a good opportunity for E to grow secure in the Lord. It’s OK. It’s OK to fail or not perform well as a monitor. The important lesson is to be humble, admit the mistake and move on to be a better person. God loves her and will be with her to help her in whatever she does! Below is a second reminder she did for her room.
As for my One word, it was interesting to see how Emmanuel can be interpreted in so many ways I have never wondered before.
Below is the latest expression of what God with us means to me.
他疼爱百姓； 众圣徒都在他手中。 他们坐在他的脚下， 领受他的言语。
申命记 33:3 ‘住在你里面’
The sermon made by 胡传道 inspired me to paint on ‘Remaining in Him’.
As we remain in Him, receiving God’s words of life in us, we will flourish like the well watered garden. John15:4
He also dotes and loves us dearly. Which reminds me of us being the ‘Apple of His eyes’ psalm17:8
As I exercised faith in painting the background of this ‘living waters’ blindly (closing my eyes), I experienced a liberating expression. I was amazed at how the colours come to live in this happy ‘accident’. As we remain in Him and He remains in us, we will experience God’s living waters! 【住在你裡面】
詩集：讚美之泉 16 – 相信有愛，就有奇蹟，28 歌詞由 Sam Wong 提供，謹此致謝！
在乾旱無水之地我渴慕你，
在曠野無人之處我尋求你。
得救在乎歸回安息，
得力在乎平靜安穩，
我等候你，如鷹展翅上騰。
住在你裡面，住在你裡面，
如同枝子與葡萄樹緊緊相連。
住在你裡面，住在你裡面，
領受生命活水泉源永不枯竭。
After I completed my painting, it was a usual weekend that kids head to The Little Executive and I strolled in KK hospital’s park. This scene suddenly resonated what I had just painted and I was very touched by the Lord’s constant reminder to remain in Him. To trust and rest in Him at all seasons of life.
At the same time, I am on a frenzy spree buying Growth Mindset literature for my teaching and learning! If you are wondering what happened to my Growth Mindset series, I am just having a long pause since I lost all my power point slide resources from my computer wipeout last Teacher’s Day. I have to rebuild everything from scratch. Do bear with me as I slowly compile my resources and plan a new series for my school curriculum. I will be reviewing on the books that I purchased in a month or so?!
Let’s run the last leg of this school term and enjoy the March holidays with your loved ones!
—————————————————————————————————————————
If you enjoyed the post, follow our journey at
Growing HeARTS 123 