Updates

Its been a long time since I updated this blog.

Ever since I started worked a few months ago, things had been moving so fast with so many changes. Here are some key events:

1) New job
Since my new job venue is very near to my house, travelling is a breeze. Imagine I only took about 20 mins travelling time and I can even walk to my work place from home too!

The work load is manageable with good worklife balance. It is what I like and wanted too.

Learn a lot of new things too and have the opportunity to get in contact with people from wide ranging background. Really an eye opener on some of the cases.

I looking forward to advocate for something which I strongly believe in if I have the opportunity. Yeah, I shall work on it and in time to come. 😎


2) Ting Ting graduation from Apple Tree School
She's been with Apple Tree playgroup for almost a year and graduated 2 weeks ago. I was so proud of her as she performed her graduation songs. 

I must say Apply Tree playgroup have a good structured learning foundation for the little ones. The fees are highly affordable. I like their Pinggu program and also they exposed the children to a lot of handicrafts which is good for their motor skills. Highly recommended! 

However, one concern was the high turnover rate of teachers. Imagine within a year, my gal's class changed 3 teachers. But I think it is common as playgroup teachers may not be paid competitively. 


Another concern is the mix of children which comprises of a lot of foreigners from developing countries. Some of them displayed undesirable behaviour like pushing others, snatching others' toys which influenced other kids negatively. The sad fact is these foreigners children also tend to play within their own group even for young children and they don't really mix around. Therefore Singaporean children became the minority. In my gal's class, out of 12 kids, only around 4 are Singaporeans. That explain the situation.

Anyway, for me, I felt that pros outweigh the cons for Apple Tree. Just that if you are a parent who is very particular about the mix of foreigners children and the turnover rate of teachers, then perhaps you should look else where. 


3) Ting Ting newly enrolled in childcare


She just started the new childcare and I must say I have good impression of their teachers and management. 

Most of the children in her class are Singaporean and there is a drastic difference in terms of behaviour. 


In the previous playgroup, my gal was one of the more advance kids in her class. She can speak relatively well as compared to the rest. But in her new class, most of the kids are very advance and can speak well and expressive too. They are also able to focus and concentrate better during lessons. They are very well behaved and independent. I hope this is something good for my gal's learning with positive influence. 


This new childcare centre fees are slightly higher as compared to others. But I think the quality is much better. Most importantly, I hope my gal can get to expose to good teachers and well behaved classmates who can influence her positively.  Now then I understand why some parents willing to spend a fortune just to shift their house to stay near to good schools. I will be thinking through this too. 

Ting Ting Development @ 3 years 6 months

It's been quite a while I updated my gal development progress. At 3 years 6 months, she is now an independent toddler who likes to do things by herself!

1) Brush Teeth & Toilet Trained Independently
The first thing she will do every morning when she wakes up is to go to the toilet and brush teeth by herself. She can now also use the adult toilet bowl to do her business without my help.

The good thing about her is, she doesn't like to use the kids toilet bowl seat cover and prefer using the normal adult one. So it is actually easier for me :) She even asked me not to peep on her when she is using the toilet!

2) Write Letters A to Z
She can now write letters A to Z by herself by tracing the dotted lines! But without the dotted lines, she can only write those more simple letters. With more practice, I believe she be able to write the letters by herself without the dotted lines aid.


3) Count Numbers 1-100
She is able to recognise and count 1-100 with some help. I believe in time to come, she will be able to count the numbers more fluently by herself!

4) Phonics
She is able to pronounce the first sound of the letters but some of the pronunciation is not so clear.  I am contemplating to enroll her to "I Can Read" program which is near to my house. I felt that learning phonics is important as this will help her to speak clearly and learn how to pronounce challenging words in future by knowing sound blending.

I had brought her to the ICR assessment and the teacher recommended her to start at the TCS (Thinking Creative Skill) level even though usually its more for 4 yrs and above. Even though it is not cheap but I signed up the course for her anymore. I shall write a separate review on ICR.

5) Mandarin
Speaking Mandarin is a challenge for her. Even though I tried to speak to her in Mandarin, but she would reply back in English. Teaching Chinese is quite challenging as hanyu pinyin is not easy to learn and for the child to comprehend. There are also not many teaching materials for hanyu pinyin for the toddler age.

So what I did was to try reading Chinese books to her as well. She can read and pronounce some of the words, but not very clear. I have signed her up to Beijing Language School. Shall provide a separate review too.

6) Questions
She likes to ask a lot of questions, literally in Chinese "打破砂锅问到底“. Some of her questions are funny yet challenging which I think is a good thing for her learning process.

7) Sight Words
She can now sight some simple words even though not too well verse yet. This is something I like to work on.

Overall, I am happy with her development and I observed compared to the children in her age group, she is slightly advanced. This is what her playgroup teacher told me too. Some may felt that I signed her up too many enrichment courses, however, these are something she enjoyed and match her learning needs. I can see that she look forward to attend her enrichment classes and kept asking for it. 

As I am working now and spend lesser time to do home classroom activities with her, these enrichment classes make up the void and further enrich her learnings in areas which are not my forte. 

Joseph Schooling and some thoughts

Everyone in Singapore is rejoiced over the winning of the first ever olympic gold medal by Joseph Schooling. As I read through his growing up story and how his parents went all out to groom their only son to pursue his passion and interest, this triggers some thoughts in me as a parent.

Some thoughts which I have in my mind are: 

1) If Joseph's parents choose to stay in Singapore for their son to go through the Singapore education system instead of going to the US, will Joseph be able to win the gold medal today? 

2) What had Singapore government done all these years to groom our local talents?

3) What do the US system have which S'pore lacks to be able to nurture talents consistently? 

Today, Joseph's gold medal and glory belongs to Joseph's parents and not the S'pore government. It is because his parents saw the sparks in their son since young age and believe in their son's talents and potential to do more. 

The sad thing is our S'pore government was not involved in this process to groom Joseph. All these while, they only focus on bringing foreign talents into the ping pong game and paid millions to reward them. After winning that one and only silver award, that silver medalist immediately go back to her home country to raise her family over there instead of settling down in S'pore.

It is this 'short cut' mentality which the government believes in bringing foreign talents to 'fix things' and neglected grooming our local talents that is now limiting S'pore progress and development. 

The existing S'pore educational system is too focus on raising people to be employee to fit certain jobs instead of developing people based on their unique strengths. 

In addition, the conformity mindset of majority parents' perception of what constitute a good career for their children plays a part in shaping their children too. 

In this system and culture, it is difficult for a child who is gifted to unleash his/her potential. The reason why Joseph is successful is due to the parents willingness to pursue a less travelled path for their child to develop his strength and passion. It is this willingness which propel them to seek the best conducive environment which can develop their child's gift. Sadly, it is a fact that S'pore does not have this system and environment. If Joseph's parents choose to stay in S'pore, Joseph will most likely conform to the system and be mediocre. 

On this thought, as a parent, it somehow hit upon me that the S'pore system and environment are inadequate to nurture talented children. Imagine Einstein would become a mediocre student if he was born here. His talents would never be discovered and contributed to the world. 

This prompted me of the need to seriously consider the options I have to raise up my child which will uncover the gem in her. 

My Long Vacation is over!

Have you watched the Japanese Drama "Long Vacation" before? It is my favourite drama and that was 20 years ago!

It was about a young man who was talented in music but was not recognised and a middle age lady who was a model but was dumped by her fiancee and her company as she was no longer popular and young.  So this two perceived failure, lonely individuals chanced upon each other and developed a relationship during their "long vacation".

I took my long vacation 2 years ago by choice to spend more time with my only child. It was not an easy decision for me. I was a workaholic who spent most of my time at work and strived to climb up the corporate ladder. So much so that when my gal looked blankly at me and refused to greet me, I realised something need to change. Also, after giving birth to my child, I felt that my ex company did not valued and recognised me as much as before and many incidents leading to it. I felt exactly like how Sena and Minami felt in the Long Vacation. Therefore after much thinking, I made the painful decision to leave my job which I spent 10 years of my best prime time working from an entry level officer to a senior manager position.

Come to think of it, this 2 years of long vacation is my longest break throughout my career. I had been working since 14 years old during school holidays in a cake shop, and moved on to work in travel agencies during my junior college times which continued to my university days. After I graduated from university, my previous ex company which was a very famous travel agency back then, straight away offered me a job. However after a few months, the company went bankrupt suddenly and I was out of job. I was desperately looking for a job after that but to no avail as it was the SARs period in 2003 and there was a recession. It took me 3 months to look for a job and I still remembered that 3 months of agony as I was the sole breadwinner of my family (I was not married yet).

Suddenly one day, my ex company which was a well known financial institution suddenly called me for an interview for a job which I had not applied with them before. Up till now I still don't know how they managed to get hold of my resume. Anyway, I quickly grabbed the opportunity and managed to get the job with an entry level position. I spent my best 10 years with them and had never ever harbour the thought of leaving until my gal came. So for a person who had not stopped working since the age of 14 (except for the 3 months hiatus due to the travel agency bankruptcy), this 2 years of long vacation is like a dream!

Did I regret my decision? Well, as a pragmatic person I always been, the opportunity cost of me quitting my well paid job was huge. But when I looked at how my gal developed during this 2 years and the happy times we spent together, it is worth it. In fact, these 2 years was the happiest time in my life. I would have wanted to stay this way forever.

However, during this 2 years, something happen too. Because of my long vacation, I got to see the truth of something. Deep down, I think God wanted to show me the truth. The truth which I did not managed to detect as I was so engrossed in my career. Ironically, these 2 years is my happiest time but also one of my most depressing time in my life. So yes, I've been awaken and I need to be realistic to plan for the future.

Taking this long vacation besides allowing me to spend time with my loved ones, opened my eyes to see the truth, it also helped me to re-look into my life what I can do to improve myself. I have acquired new interests like DIY and gardening.

So yes, I am thankful I took this long vacation. The opportunity cost of forsaking my career is the learning lessons to plan and prepare for my 后半生。

I have bucked up since then and realised what had gone will be passed eventually. I will now focus on what is important to me and plan for the best as I hope.

Looking at the recent events in this 2 years (Oil prices cut drastically, Grexit, interest rates increase, China stock market crash, Brexit, economy slow down and etc), I couldn't help but felt the next major depression may be coming soon. I was lucky to survive the 1997 and 2008 depression but having experienced the 2003 recession and seeing the impact to many others who were retrenched and bankrupted because they couldn't afford to pay off their debts, I am alerted by the recent events.

Therefore I felt although relying on single income seems ok for now as we do not have financial commitments like housing loan, car loan, maid and all along we been practising frugal lifestyle, but it may be risky in the near future as we never know what will happen. Even though his job seems stable, but I should not be complacent too.

Therefore I started planning to go back to work and I am thankful I found a new job which gives me the opportunity to contribute to the society and to grow intrinsically I hope. This new job is very near to my house too which reduce my travelling time so I can spend a bit more time with my gal. I think now is the best time for me to go back to work too. My gal has developed to be a confident and outgoing girl. She is always looking forward to play with her little friends be it our neighbour's children or her playgroup classmates or playmates. Due to her outgoing nature, she needs to have lots of social stimulation which being the only child, this is the part which is lacking. Therefore, I have signed her up to a childcare centre near our house which will start in Dec16 after she completes her playgroup program in Nov16.  I felt being in a childcare centre can fulfil her needs to be around people and make more friends. She can also learn to be more independent too.

My new job is starting soon in next month, so I can still enjoy these few weeks before going back to the rat race. I opted for a 4 day work week and took a pay cut. But it is fine as I think this job is able to fulfil my needs to contribute, to grow, to learn and to have a better work life balance.

Goodbye my long vacation. 2 years passed like a dream. I shall missed this time.

‘My ASEAN Adventure’ @ Discovery Centre + Army Museum + Star Gazing @Science Centre!

It was a non-stop action on Friday. 

Asean Passport @ Discovery Centre

We went to Discovery Centre first which was located at Joo Koon for the "My Asean Adventure" activity. I think it is important for my gal to know which are the countries in Asean as they are our neighbours. 

However, Joo Koon is very far away from our house as it is located at the end of West line, so I got to make the trip worth by visiting all the nearby places. 

Discovery Centre is located around 10 mins walk from Joo Koon MRT station. It is not really near to the MRT and quite a distance away. It was my first time to Joo Koon area and I felt the air around there smelt strange. Maybe it is near to factories or industrial buildings which emitted the pollution into the air. 

The Discovery Centre is located on a big plot of land with a big lake in the centre. That area is quite scenic and nice. However, there were not many people there that day. I guess it's because of the "ulu" location. 

We started off with the art and craft activity of making a lotus flower. My gal enjoyed and focused on making the lotus flower throughout the activity. 

Making lotus flower

Next we went to the Asean adventure venue. We took the Asean passport from the counter before heading to the Asean activity venue. 

It was located in an event hall showcasing each Asean country specialty and items. We need to complete the puzzles in the passport about each Asean country before we could get stamps on the passport. After completion, we were given a 3D puzzle of a building which she could colour it with coloured markers. 

Not a bad activity but more for older kids or adults. Anyway, I tried to show her each Asean country flags and explain to her some of the unique things found in some countries. Hopefully she can learn from it. 

I felt there's nothing much to see in the Discovery Centre. However they do screen latest movies like Angry Bird, X men and etc. The ticket price is cheaper too only $7. However the timing is quite bad only morning and evening 2 timings. There was no other timing in between which was a pity I think. 

She's colouring the 3D puzzle

Army Musuem

Since Army Musuem is just besides the Discovery Centre, so I thought why not just head over to visit it. 

Turned out they also have a kids dress up activity where kids could dress up as a soldier. The dressing up was one of the highlight and quite fun. There was a little girl soldier uniform with skirt which I thought would look nice on her but she refused to wear it and instead prefer the army uniform. She got strange taste lolx. 

There were also a number of toy guns, rifle guns, binoculars and etc for the kids to play with but my gal disliked guns and only chose those harmless toys like binoculars. 

After the dressing up, we visited the Army Musuem where the entrance fees is foc for S'poreans. Somehow, she disliked the Museum display on the 3rd level and was very frighten and kept asking to leave the place. So we quickly left the 3rd level and proceeded to the 2nd level where the place looked brighter with more interesting things to see. 

After that, we went to the outdoor adventure park which was just located outside of the museum. There were some fitness stations but the kids were treating it like a playground and having fun running around. 

There were also some equipment display in the park like the canon truck, army ambulance, big tanks and many others too. 

She enjoyed the dressing up and the adventure park the most so far. 

After visiting the Army Musuem, we headed to the Science Centre at Jurong East since it was on the way. 

Dressing up like a soldier! 

Fun at the Adventure Park

Star Gazing @ Science Centre

We attended the star gazing event again as there was a talk about Solar System which I thought might interest my gal. We reached there around 7.45pm but there was already a long queue for a time slot at the observatory telescope. 

While waiting for the queue, one of a Science Centre staff was promoting to us about the 'What's up there?" Live show which he was hosting at 8pm. He promised that it would be an eye opener experience and it was the last show for this school holiday. However the ticket price cost $14 per person and duration about 1 hour. Thinking it might be something worth seeing as we never watch a live astronomy show before, I bought the tickets for 2 :)

Turned out it was really an eye opener show. He showed us "live" how to identify the constellations and planets in our night sky and also zoomed in to the Moon and some of the planets like Mars, Venus and Jupiter really closed up which my gal thought we were on a spaceship! 

The most amazing thing was, he showed us how it was perceived to look like when we left our Solar System and eventually leaving the Milky Way galaxy. With all the galaxies in space, it looked like a cosmic butterfly from the Earth perspective! 

Of course, all these were simulated based on what the scientist thought the universe might looks like because our spacecrafts had never reach so far to picture the universe! The furthest spacecrafts we had were Voyager 1 and 2 which after decades of "sailing" in space, so far only Voyager 1 managed to get out of the solar system into interstellar space. It haven't even reach any of the nearest star system within the Milky Way galaxy! 

Anyway, space is an intrigued subject which always fascinated me but most importantly my gal also love it! I was astonished that my gal actually stayed still throughout the show. She kept asking me if we could go to space again! She thought we had went to space during the show lolx! 

The show lasted for 1 hour. It was a good and educational show and highly recommended! 

Showing the constellations

Closed up picture of moon

Mars closed up! 

Jupiter

Saturn! It was as though we were travelling past the rings too! 

After the show, we rushed to attend the solar system talk at 9pm.

After the talk, we went up to the observatory telescope and we got a treat to see Saturn! The closed up view of Saturn through the big telescope was so amazing! 

After the observatory telescope, my gal still wanted to see other telescopes at the open field area. We managed to see Jupiter  but it was not as clear as looking through the observatory telescope. 

We also saw Moon close up too. One volunteer staff actually helped us took picture of the moon from the telescope! It was so amazing! 

Our closed up photo of Moon! 

It was really a great day of fun and action. I loved going places and I enjoyed bringing my gal to explore and have fun! I can see my gal inherited my wanderlust trait too!  Hopefully next time when she grow up, she can bring mummy to tour the world, or perhaps if technology permits, travel to space too! :)

Avatars & Cloud Babies @ Ion + Police Heritage Centre

Avatars & Cloud Babies @ Ion

We went to Ion for the Avatars & Cloud babies drawing event last week. What they did was to draw a big cloud in the middle of a big piece of paper and wrote a theme on it for example "sushi". So the kids need to exercise their creativity by drawing their own version of sushi on it. 

It was quite fun for our gal as she loves to draw and colour with markers pen. But well at her age, what she did was scribbling and colouring all over the place lolx! 

As adult I felt a bit boring, but I think my gal was thrilled with all the drawing and scribbling. It was a short event, we stayed for about 45mins and make our way to the next event ~ "I want to be a Policeman!" tour at the Police Heritage Centre. 

Ting Ting scribbles! 

Her master piece haha

I want to be a Police! @ Police Heritage Centre

I registered for the tour by calling and emailing to the Police Heritage Centre @ SPF_Police_Heritage@spf.gov.sg a few days before. It was quite an easy process. The Police Heritage Centre is located at Novena, opposite the Ren Ci Community hospital. It took us about 10mins walk from Novena MRT. 

As we went on a weekday, so there was only less than 10 kids which was quite a manageable group I think. A Police officer briefed and brought us to tour around the Police Museum area. We could only took photos at selected location inside the Museum. 

It was an interesting tour as the police officer explained to us the history of police force in Singapore. It also showed the different uniforms which our police wore through the years. And yes, last time the police wore shorts! I think wearing shorts was so much cooler because of our hot and humid weather. 

Because it was a tour for the Children, so the tour duration was a short 20-30mins. After that we were brought inside a meeting room where the kids can wear the little police uniform and took photos! It was the most fun experience to dress up our kids with police uniform I think. All parents and children were so excited during the dressing up activity. 

My gal loved her police uniform so much that she refused to remove it! It was a very fun activity and I think it helps to expose our kids to understand what is police and why we need police to keep our society in order. Highly recommended event for kids! 

The white uniform. Somehow my gal don't wanna wear the little version white uniform. 

The old fashion dial up telephone which the police or everyone used 20 over years ago

Driving a boat! 

Her favourite police uniform. It's a pity there's no skirt or pants provided. 

Finding Dory activity @ Plaza Sing + Masak Masak @ National Musuem

Due to both activities located near Dhoby Ghaut MRT, so I brought my gal to both venue for a day out.

We went to Plaza Sing first to participate in the Finding Dory keychain making activity. She was given sheets of special paper with Dory and Nemo on it and she need to colour the characters. After completed the colouring, she handed the paper to the staff who put it into the oven which shrank the paper into a small harden thing to be made into keychain. Quite amazing. She made 2 keychains, one was Dory, another Nemo. 

Ting Ting coloring her Dory fish! 

Look, my keychains! 

Next, we went to the National Museum for the Masak Masak event. There is a colouring activity and a small play area with some slides at the first floor where the kids can play something like snakes and ladder by throwing the dices and following the steps. 

On the second floor, there are some bicycles and puzzles games for the kids to explore. I felt this time the Masak Masak event not as fun as the last one. In the last Masak Masak event, I remembered they opened up the 3rd floor and had a bigger play area for the kids to have fun. They had even cooking, puppets and many others. 

Nonetheless, it was a fun day out. Kids are kids, at this age, everything is fun in their eyes. This is something I appreciate for our gal's childhood. I hope she had fun everyday. 

Colouring the shapes and alphbets

The snakes and ladder play area

There's also some obstacles there to make it slightly interesting

The jigsaw puzzle activity on the second floor

Teletubbies and Numtum show @ Downtown east

We went to downtown east over the weekend to see the Teletubbies and Numtum show. I still remember I was very fond of teletubbies when I was a teenager 10-20 years ago. It brings back some of my happy younger days. 

Anyway when we got there, there was not much crowd and we managed to get the meet and greet pass for both Numtum and Teletubbies. My gal was engrossed watching the show and danced along with the music too. She is not familiar with all the characters shows that we watched during this school holiday so far. There is a lack of familiar characters like Dora, peppa pig and many others. 

After watching the show, she was very interested in the outdoor jumping jack ride. Even though I told her that the weather was very hot to jump under the sun and we need to queue up too, she still adamant to queue for the game and did not make a fuss while queuing. So no choice since she was so firmly keen and asked many times if she could play. The game took about 15mins and cost $10. 

She was so brave and was trying her best to jump as high as she could. When the game operator tweak the jump ride to the very top, she was so excited and was beaming all over her face! 

After the game, I asked her if she wasp scared for jumping so high, she replied that she was not scared at all! When I asked her how she felt when she was at the top, she replied "Happy!". 

It was a fun day out with lots of kids activities at the Downtown East. Highly recommended! 

How to have a debt free marriage

Just read this article about how couples in Singapore spend lavishly on their wedding till they are in debt and affect their marriage. Some couples are literally in debt the moment they are married.

I think it is due to the typical "面子" mindset - to have a lavish wedding so that every relatives and friends can be impressed and also lack of financial planning.

For those "to be" married couples, you have a choice. By making the right and rational choice, it can save your marriage from being a debt ridden one from day 1.

It brings back some memory about our actual wedding  9 years ago....

1) Wedding Dinner @ Chinese Restaurant in a hotel
Initially I don't even fancied a wedding dinner. I just wanted a simple ROM, dinner /lunch with close relatives and friends and honeymoon. However, it turned out that wedding was not just the 2 of us but it involved our families too. The "close" relatives list got longer.

Therefore after much discussion, we decided to hold it at a Chinese restaurant which was situated in the RELC hotel close to Orchard Road. The restaurant allowed us to book the whole venue with just minimum 12 tables. It suited our needs as it was also located within a hotel which added to our convenience too. The wedding package was very affordable. We ordered one of the most expensive menu and it costed $500++ per table (That was the rate 9 years ago).

The restaurant also threw in free 1 night hotel stay at the executive room and provided shuttle bus service for the guests too. Most importantly, the food tasted delicious. Our objective was to find a restaurant which provide good food and convenience for our relatives and friends. It might not have the best ambience, but nonetheless, it met our expectations.

We felt that by hosting our wedding dinner at an affordable venue and keeping it small (We had only 12 tables which met the requirement), it helped us saved some money and also saved the burden for our relatives and friends to give "big angbaos" too. We didn't expect the angbao money to cover the cost as we were planning to pay all by our own savings which was within our budget. Therefore even if the angbao can't cover the banquet cost, it didn't matter. We just hoped our relatives and friends enjoyed the food while celebrating the happy occasion with us.

However, it turned out that the angbao we received not only managed to cover our banquet cost, it even had enough to pay for our honeymoon to Maldives too! It was really a great surprise to us as we didn't expected it.

Btw the restaurant we had our wedding dinner was Tang Court Restaurant. It was no longer in business. It is a great pity as it served good food and good service too.

2) Wedding package ~ no additional photos
We signed up our wedding package with Sophia (yes the bridal shop which recently wind up) for $3000 which included ROM & actual day makeup, 30 photos, actual day photography and etc. They also throw in other perks like father's jacket, bridesmaid gown and many others. I felt it was a good deal and we managed to resist the temptation to add on more photos. Each extra photo cost $80. Up till now, I am still very glad that we sticked to what we had and not irrationally paid more for extra photos. Frankly after our wedding, those photo albums had been collecting "dust" in our cupboard.

One of my friend went Malaysia JB to take wedding photos to save money. Turned out she spent S$10k++ on her wedding albums due to extra photos. Therefore my advice to couples is don't spend too much on wedding photos. Just spend the minimum for memory sake but not excessive.

3) HDB flat @ non-matured estate
It is always good to buy your first home as a HDB flat instead of EC or condo. It is more affordable and also as newly wed couple, you need lots of savings for more to come like renovation, children and many more.

We bought our first HDB flat in a non-matured estate. I still remembered "n" years ago, I made the comment that I would "never ever" stayed in a non-matured estate. I was so used to staying at matured estate since young. But well, never say never. Somehow fate wanted me to "eat my words". When the opportunity came, we felt that the flat we buying met our budget and requirements as it is near to LRT station, bus stop and even a shopping mall.

Who would have imagined Ang Mo Kio will become one of the most expensive matured estate 10-20 years ago? The travel distance of only 15-20mins MRT ride to town jack up it's status. However, if you need to take a feeder bus to Ang Mo Kio MRT, it would also take addtional about 5-15mins depending how far you stayed from the town centre. So the total travelling time could take up to 30-35mins.

The non-matured estate which I'm staying now, takes about 20-25mins MRT ride to town. Inclusive of LRT ride to the MRT, it only takes about 30-35mins to reach town which is about the same travelling time when I stayed in Ang Mo Kio! Actually I prefer LRT to bus as the timing is predictable and more regular. It is also not subject to traffic conditions. Therefore, who knows, the non-matured estate today may become one of the most sought after matured estate tomorrow?

Because we bought the flat at an affordable price due to it's non-matured estate status, we managed to pay off the loan within a few years. We have one less burden and can focus on other important issues.

Therefore, my advice is to be open minded about staying in non-matured estate. It is not all bad. Choose a better location property in a non-matured estate is still way cheaper than staying in a matured estate. The cost savings is a big deal!

4) Renovation ~ no loan
We chose a contractor over an interior designer (ID). We designed our own house and hired the contractor to fulfill it for us at a much lower cost than an ID. Our renovation including furniture and electronics total cost about $30k. We didn't take up any loan for this and fully paid by our own savings. All these are within our budget too.

5) No Car 
Many couples tend to buy a car after marriage for family planning purpose. However buying a car in S'pore is not cheap. It cost at least 100k for a new car excluding cost of keeping the car (e.g. car loan, petrol, carpark fees, insurance, road tax, repairs & maintenance, ERP and many others). If we calculate the total cost to owning a car in S'pore, we are talking of at least 200k opportunity cost. The money which you could have saved and earned compounded interest over the years. I ever did some calculation that even if we take taxi everyday, it is still cheaper than buying a car.

Yes we didn't have a car and that makes a lot of difference. As we stayed near public transport, travelling is a breeze. At times when we need to travel to "ulu" places, then we will take a taxi. If not most of the time we will be travelling by MRT or bus.

6) No Maid
Many couples hired maid after they have children to cope with the daily house chores and work. There are many families in S'pore relied heavily on maids. Actually I quite pity the maids. They are human beings after all. However sad to say many S'poreans take them for granted. Many times, I witnessed those families who bring maid along didn't even buy the meal for them to eat. The maid will be busy looking after the children and feeding them while the parents can take their time to eat sumptuous meal. The children who have maid also tend to order the maid around. I saw once at a playground that a 6-7 year old girl ordered her maid to pick up a ball for her but the ball was within her reach. So if such a simple task like picking up a ball she also need her maid to do it for her, what can we expect from these children who brought up by maid?

We didn't hired a maid before and also don't intend to hire one. Firstly hire a maid is not cheap. We are talking of at least $700-800 per month inclusive of her monthly salary and meals and other misc.  Not to mention of the security deposit of few thousand bucks to pay to the agency. Secondly, we already have limited space in our house. It is difficult to accomodate one more person. Thirdly, due to difference in culture, it may not be easy for the maid to adapt to our environment. We may not be used to having a maid who live with us too. Lastly, I will be worried if the maid is mentally sound or have the personal touch to handle my child too. Which is why to save me the trouble, I prefer to Do-it-Myself rather than rely on a maid who is an outsider after all.

However, I did hire a part time maid before to help me do housechores during my maternity confinement period. It was fuss free and easy. She just came for a few hours to do the house chores, after which I would pay her and done deal. Therefore I am open to the idea of part time maid. It's easier and you can hire it on a need basis.

My humble suggestions for a debt free marriage...

Although we are not high income earners (With me currently a SAHM, our household income is  even lower as my hubby is now the sole breadwinner) but we are debt free. I think the right thing we did was to spend within our means. The good thing is we are both rational and we plan ahead and budgeted reasonably.

Here's some of the suggestions to have a debt free marriage.

Wedding banquet
~ The best option in my opinion is not to have any wedding banquet. Just invite really close relatives and friends to attend your ROM and after that go for a high tea or lunch/dinner at a hotel or restaurant. If you have more budget, you may want to consider booking a small function room in a hotel or restaurant for 2-3 tables.
~ If you really need a wedding banquet due to family pressure and don't mind a simple, small and humble wedding, try to source for restaurants located within a hotel to have the best of both world for good food and convenience.
~ Try not to have too many tables (e.g. >15 tables) You end up inviting everyone just to fulfil the tables. Of course if you really have that many close relatives and friends who will definitely turn up then it's good for you. But based on past experiences of attending big banquets, filling up the tables is a big headache for couples!

~ Don't harbour the thinking that the angbao collected will be able to cover your banquet cost. Most of the time it can't cover given that nowadays a simple sit down chinese wedding lunch at a 4 star hotel can even cost at least $1200-$1500 per table! It cost even more if you hold it on a weekend. If each of your table is minimally $1500, that means each of your friend or relative must give at least $150 to cover the cost but given the economic situation now, this angbao amount is really hefty and unrealistic! Therefore always ensure the total banquet cost is within your budget and never take a loan just to pay for your wedding banquet. If the angbao can cover the banquet cost then it is a bonus. If it can't cover it is fine too since it is from your own savings and well budgeted for.

Wedding photo package
Try to negotiate for more photos to be included in your package before you sign up and stick to the number. Don't select extra photos. They may all look very nice, but you are not going to see it everyday right?

First Home
It is more affordable to have a HDB flat as your first home. If you want more savings or ability to repay your housing loan faster, choose a non-matured estate HDB flat. Be open to the idea. It is really not so bad.

Renovation
Have your own idea of what you want for your house. Engaged a contractor instead of ID. The savings can make a difference. Don't take up renovation loan. Make sure the renovation cost including furnishing and everything is within your budget.

Transport
Adopt a car-lite (no car) lifestyle. It is really not the end of the world without a car. No doubt having a car is more convenient and you get more privacy, but no point spending your lifelong savings on a liability. 

If sometimes you feel lazy to take public transport, just take a cab. It is still much cheaper than having a car. 

A car will only depreciates in value through years, therefore it is not an asset but a liability. A very expensive liability which many people irrationally buy it through their nose even if they can't afford it!

However if you can really afford a car without taking a loan then by all means go for it! It is always a dream to own a car for most S'poreans including me. I think I may only buy a car after I have enough savings set aside for my child's education and my retirement. And that is a long way to go! 

Helper
Try to DIY instead of hiring maid. For me, I used electronic robot "Mint Cleaner" as my helper to do the sweeping and mopping at home. We bought 2 sets, each cost about $300++. I think we spent about $800 for the 2 sets but we used it for close to 8 years! So it means we spent about $100 per year on getting help to sweeping and mopping the floor which translated to only $8.30 every month! But of course if you can do it manually, it is even better as you can save more from buying robots. 

Some house chores need not do everyday as well. For instance washing clothes, sweeping and mopping the floor. For me, I do some simple sweeping daily and run my mint cleaner for a more elaborate cleaning every 2-3 days. Also I ensure my washing machine is full with laundry before running it. Therefore, I just need to wash my laundry about 1-2 times a week. In addition, I simplify my cooking by using electric steamer. I just need to prepare the food and put them all into the steamer to cook. The steamer will automatically turned off once it is cooked or when the water is steam off.

All these tools and process simplification will save some time in doing the mundane house chores. In addition, as your children are growing up, you can also teach them how to do house chores to share the burden too. I felt by nurturing them to do house chores from young, it is better for the child personal development and they can learn to be more independent and responsible too. 

Therefore having a maid may not necessarily value add to your family life. By not having a maid, you save $600-$800 every month, you save the trouble of managing them, you save the trouble of worrying about them if they ill treat your children, you save your children from becoming over reliant on maid and the possibility of becoming spoilt and many other 'savings'. Life still goes on without a maid! 

In summary, the key to a debt free marriage is to always check how much budget you have and spend within your means. Do lots of research to ensure the things you are buying are affordable without the need to take up loan. Even if you need to take up loan, try to pay off as soon as possible so as not to pay the high interest.

Having debt free means lesser stress!

Dinotrain show @ Seletar Mall

Watched this Dinotrain show last Friday at Seletar Mall. The show was quite interesting and educational too singing the a to z song for the different dinosaur names. 

My gal focused intensely on the show as this character is something new to her. I noticed this june holiday, a lot of more popular characters like Dora, Peppa, Spongebob shows are not in. Mostly are those less popular characters. Well, times are bad. Shopping malls in S'pore are not doing well I think. 

Anyway its good to have a change. Kids are kids. Anything that looks cute and colourful will appeal to them. 

Puppet show @ GoLibrary

We attended the puppet show and making program organised by golibrary. The puppet show was fun and interesting. My gal thoroughly enjoyed the show and her favourite puppet was the doggie. 

After the show, we stayed back and participate in the puppet making workshop. The puppet making process was quite easy but for my gal she still need some help to complete the puppet. 

Anyway we had a blast. It was a good show and workshop. We registered for the program on the golibrary website. But must be quick as the tickets run out fast. Btw the program is free but just need to register to get the seat. 

Her favourite doggie puppet 

Elvis Presley! 

Tayo the Little Bus show @ Marina Square

June school holidays are here again! My gal's playgroup also follow the school holiday schedule so I got to keep my gal occupied with loads of activities! We went to Marina Square for the Tayo bus show yesterday as our first school holiday activity. 

We never watch the Tayo cartoon before but since the characters look cute and I thought my gal will like it so I brought her to watch. 

The main character is Tayo the blue bus. The strange thing is usually such main characters are blue in colour same like Thomas the engine. 

Anyway it was an instant hit for my gal. She was engrossed with the show and I can see she enjoyed it very much! 

The show was a short 15mins duration. But prior to the show there was already a very long queue. We reached there 30mins before but we were already more than 60 in the queue so we didn't managed to get the meet and greet pass to take photo with the character. Btw they give out the meet and greet passes to the first 60 in the queue. So I think need to be there at least 1hr before the show then the chances of getting the pass is higher. 

Ting Ting development @ 39months

At 39 months, she is now able to do the following: 

1) Alphabets & Phonetics

She can read and understand all alphabets from A-Z already. She can also make the sound of the alphabets from A-H and slowly progressing to the rest. For the phonetics part, I played the phonetics video for her to learn the sound of different letters and currently her playgroup is also teaching some simple phonetics from A-H also. They will teach one alphabet every week. 

2) Writing Alphabets

I started to teach my gal writing alphabets by practicing on those workbooks which I bought. So far she is now able to write some of the letters by herself like A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, L, O, Q, T, U, V, X and Z. She still not able to write some of the letters like K, M, N, P, R, S, W yet. 

G was the alphabet which she took quite some time to learn. She would always stop at G but few days ago, she surprised me by writing G on her writing pad by herself! For a start, I think she wrote quite well! 

She surprised me many times by suddenly showing the understanding for certain things which I taught her previously. She might look distracted sometimes when I taught her which lead me to think she not ready yet. But a few days or weeks or months later, she would suddenly do or say or apply the things which I taught her previously. The writing of G is a good example. The learning of all the planets in the solar system is also another example and learning how to ride a bicycle and many others too. 

This lead me to remember what the classes in Shichida had taught previously. Never underestimate your child. If at first the child don't seems to get it, it's ok. Their brain may be taking time to digest. Therefore what I try to do is if she start to show some resistance, I will stop first and proceed to the next activity. The idea is not to force her to learn. 

Anyway, my plan is to teach capital letters first as I felt it is more easy, then slowly progress to writing small letters. 

Her first time writing G by herself! 

3) Numbers and Counting

She can now count from 1-20 confidently and occasionally beyond 20. I had started introducing the numbers from 21-100 by singing the 100 counting song while reading the book "100 days of school" with her. I borrowed the book from the library and it was quite an interesting book. The 100 counting song is a simple song make up by me just to make the boring counting process to 100 more interesting. 

It worked and she was picking the book every night and asked me to sing the 100 counting song to her. Yes I literally sing and counted 1-100 with her almost every night until I returned the book! At least now she got the concept from 1-100. She might not be able to count to 100 yet, but I believe by introducing to her early, it could help her to learn easier next time.

4) Simple Math - Addition

She can now understand simple addition like 1 +1 = 2, 1+2 = 3 and by adding 1 to each incremental number up to 10. She can also write simple numbers from 1-3. I haven't really started teaching her to write numbers yet but I will be starting very soon. 

5) Astronomy

She can now memorize all the planet's name in the solar system and in the correct order. She can even know all the Dwarf planet names too! She no longer like to watch Peppa Pig or Dora videos but her favourite now is to watch the planet song videos (But I would limit her to watch 2-3 times a week for a short period less than 1 hour each time). I noticed she will absorb learning faster when I add the music element in it. She can focus and concentrate better. 

6) Sight words

I bought some boardgames "My First Scrabble" and "Scrabble Junior" set for her to learn and recognise words in a fun way. I bought from Carousell for a price almost 60-70% cheaper than buying from retail shops. Of course the trade off is they are preloved, but the condition still very good. My logic is I'm not sure if my gal likes the boardgames. I don't want to spend a fortune buying things which I think she will like but if it turns out otherwise, it will really be a waste of money. 

We played the games together and it was quite fun. She can now recognise some easy words like "Cat", "Ant", "Dog", "Sun". I realised teaching sight words is the most challenging so far as she is used to visual pictures. Therefore I hope by injecting some play element, it can spur her interest to learn words. Surprisingly, she prefers "Scrabble Junior" than "My First Scrabble". 

 

Of course all work no play is boring. So I make sure I bring her to playground, attend some fun activities together, go for some sports like swimming, cycling, scooting frequently so that she can have more complete development. 

I hope by preparing her well, it could reduce her stress level as she progress to Kindergarten and Primary school. Seriously, I'm quite worried as I see most of the kids nowadays look so stress with their school work, attending tuition after tuition even at a very young age. I hope I will not subject my gal to go through all these. I hope she be able to cope with her school work easier and faster so she can have more time to develop her interest and passion.