.... is coming to an end.
When the grannies first arrived in mid May, I've made a list of things that the boys can do with them, and places for the foursome to check out together. Among other things, I thought it would be so much fun for the kids to go to the Rainforest Kidzworld, Sentosa and Changi Village with them. I am sure the boys would cherish memories of some long strolls and picnics with the grannies too.
But almost 5 weeks have passed and they have done NONE of these. Hmm... it is really kind of disappointing and I feel a little sorry for the boys.
Well, it is all down to complacence and lack of planning really. Everyone kept thinking that there is plenty of time for the boys to get out to do stuff with the grannies, but in the end, the kids spent all their time at home with them. On the days when I thought we could probably head out somewhere together, the grannies would have made their own plans. So it was either we go ahead without them (which is a shame since they don't get opportunities to do such things with the kids that much longer) or postpone the outings (which we did often and ended not making it later on anyway). C'est la vie!
Luckily, we had proceeded with our beach outings, play dates, park strolls, museum visits and lots of swimming in this June holiday. The kids must have been to the pool at least 15 times in the last 5-6 weeks! And they even had tons of fun at their newly-joined art and taekwando classes, something which I decided to check out with them only very recently, hoping to create some new experiences for them.
I must find ways to make it up to them in the remaining weeks before Baby O arrives. Darn! I feel damned guilty about it. Shouldn't have waited so much.
The boys have no complaints though. They are happy to have so much time to just play Lego and watch DVDs with grannies. Not forgetting the frequent swims which they always enjoy.
As usual, I shunned all academic kind of holiday enrichment classes, opting for more consistent coaching at home. Even for that, we slowed down significantly this month. I was so relaxed with Chip that we only did some Chinese reading now and again, plus some quick coverage on Maths concepts. I know Chip can afford the slack, since he is almost ready to tackle basic Primary one Maths.
I spent about 4 to 6 hours with M per week working on either Maths or Chinese activities. This is definitely nothing compared to those kids I know who are put in holiday programmes that run 3hrs/day for 4 weeks! Even if a child is a slow or poor learner, the sheer quantity of knowledge that can be covered in a whopping (3x5x4) 60 hrs must have some benefits on an average kid. Still, I can't ignore the opportunity costs which I think outweigh the potential benefits, in M's case anyway.
I reckon we've made good enough progress in a third of that time. A little respite, for me especially, is probably good before we step on the accelerator pedal in Term 3.
Golly, I am so not ready to return to the hectic schedule. But as the mummy, I must. I have to, for the sake of the kids.
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