Past Aug, our daughter won a second prize for the Colours of the Bible Competition 2019. She had painstakingly worked on her Noah’s Ark Creation. You can read the process here.
It was a joyous moment as she had shared earlier with me on her desires to win. I assured her that the process of honouring God with our best, is good enough even if we do not win. Nonetheless, she can tell God about her desires and see what God decides. To me, this prize was God’s way of honouring His children’s hearts…
I only saw the notification email on her win a week later. It was on my girl’s birthday itself. I was very touched and encouraged that God cares about my daughter’s desires and thus met my heart’s desire as well to reveal this on her birthday! We gave thanks to Jesus for this precious birthday gift from the Lord! His timing was perfect. Hope and promises exhibition was one that expressed how each artist had experienced and thus shared on what a faithful God we have! Thanking God for such artistic endeavours from Colours of the Bible.
Sept Holidays
We started the hols with beach cum playground and basketball play. Discovered a live starfish and I played 1 to 1 with my firstborn.
My girl also had her 1st gymnastics performance.
Back to Basics Bible Journaling
After the encouragement by insta mummy @stickiemama, I included my kids to write on the blank journal pages any verse that interests or stands out to them. I threw away the ‘this is too beautiful to be marred by our handwritings’ mindset. It was liberating and a pivotal moment as that resulted in a beautiful record of our family’s impressions from the Lord!
These child-like applications were few but so precious!
“Why do we need to end in Jesus name and not in your name or my name?”I asked the kids on a few occasions in the past.
It reminds us that talking to God (praying) is by grace, a privilege as we are covered by the redeeming blood of Christ. Jesus is our mediator and like a high priest, he brings us blameless before God. We don’t end in anybody’s name because none except Jesus could bring us to God. The measure of my words weighed much more than I realised.
When I saw this response from my girl, it struck me on how the holy spirit will be the one to teach and impress deeper truths in His own time and give understanding to His children both young and old.
Finally someone has started on the book which I have gone through. The below showed 2 generations of reflections. I am looking forward to more! The beauty of this journal writing, it is done in context of the scripture readings and reinforces the readers to reconsider the meaning as we record what impresses our minds or hearts. Everyone can learn and know more of each member as we read the input from one another.
It is simple enough for even my 8yo to do. I have a box of colour pencils beside the set of bible journals. My kids will journal during the weekend mornings while their daily routine is their bible readings. The kids also memorise scriptures in mandarin for their sunday school lessons.
Back to Basics Revision
This is also a time to catch up on revision for SA2. Kids are going through their old notes and creating new ones for the newer topics for science like the picture below. J made a comic strip for his mind map on Heat.
A has been working consistently on his ecourse writing and growing in his written expression. Read my review of this English Composition ecourse here.
It is also a time to review on corrections and going through 1 exam paper for each subject for the hols. I only started this practice of getting them to do exam papers during holidays from P4 after a friends’ advice. This is mainly for the practice of timing themselves so that kids can be prepared for the exam formats and work within exam conditions. I must say, this is done with much mindfulness. School directed homework is the priority when dispensed by teachers. Kids do assessment work or exam papers only in the absence or lack of schoolwork. I also give what we can chew on. For instance, this holiday, I could only go through 1 science paper and papa handles 1 maths paper times two (2kids). The rest I can only go through next week. I also choose quality over quantity when it comes to exam papers. Doing more papers does not produce better learning. Thoroughness would be a better gauge of better learning with adequate quantity to solidify the quality of work.
My goals are basic. Kids learn from mistakes and pay attention to the attitude behind the revision process. E.g Neat handwriting, effort made to answer questions in complete sentences, effort made to answer difficult questions, accurate spelling and the understanding of key concepts.
As shared in my post ‘Education starts from the hearts of our homes‘, I refrained from engaging any academic tuition or enrichment out of respect for my kids’ preferences since it was not a case of poor grades. I am grateful and content that our kids still try to do what we ask of them. It sounds simplistic but it could be trying in some days especially when mummy gets sick or stressed at work. Whenever we can’t understand an exam question due to the inaccuracy of the store-bought papers, or just inability to understand it, I wish I could just outsource the teaching to a legitimate tutor. For now, my kids know that their parents are just learning together with them. We remind each other to make the most of what we understand and the rest, we commit and trust God to provide us a way out.
Papa took kids for their rock climbing adventure while I stayed home to clear some work.
The main highlight of the week would be the Gardens by the Bay family time!
I expected my grown boys to yawn at the idea of bringing their drawing materials to the Flower Dome to sketch. To my pleasant surprise, they were still keen to occupy themselves with drawing and spent an hr drawing leisurely together. It was such a comforting sight for me to behold!
The rest of this post is for the feast of your eyes. Be mesmerised by the creative hand of God!
Orchid Scentsation
It’s a pity I did not manage to find the labels for the flowers. This last photo made me wonder in awe. This sparse bunch of flowers were unnoticeable. Upon closer inspection did I marvel at the unique forms of the flowers. The top is like a helicopter propellers while the bottom lies the intricate crown, with a fresh burst of crimson-pink glory. It reminds me to depend on God’s creativity and be content to be the flower that God is blooming in my life and in each of my children’s lives.
We toured till the night lights shone and left the GBTB with happy hearts.
Lastly, we finally visited the Jewel of our country. It is very similar to the Cloud forest at GBTB in a larger scale with a mall included! It was a very pleasant and refreshing experience! At T3, the kids indulged in a rare console time with playstation.
Term 4 here we come!
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