WY's BD Parties

Nursery

When WY was in Nursery, he attended the PAP kindergarten which operated from the void deck of B121. We didn't have a choice of nursery schools then, because Mother would not agree to do any more than to walk him to school in the morning and to bring hom home on foot upon dismissal. No school bus, she had said, because he was too young for it.

It was a super-lousy school. Worn-out furniture in spartan room with peeling paint & no proper hand-towels; rowdy children & parents/caregivers who pushed around & had no qualms about blocking everyone else's path as they stood at the doorway to wait for their charges everyday; aunty-teachers who only shouted and shouted but couldn't speak properly (imagine, I heard the 'form teacher' read aloud to the children "My mother goes to the market to buy a apple."!!!!!!).

Whilst we were there, we celebrated WY's birthday with only packets of oreo cookies. Those 3-pcs-in-one-pack type. We bought about 30+ packs and arranged them standing in a cane basket. Then we bundled them together with a big red ribbon. And we placed a giant candle right in the centre of this 'cookie' cake-arrangement. (Actually, it looked quite pretty. It's a pity we didn't think of taking a photograph of it then.)

Our idea was, given the condition & environment of the classroom, it would have been wiser to just let each child bring home his/her packet of oreo cookies so that we can avoid 'messy-ness' which we would have had to deal with if we had brought a cake to the class. And true enough, it worked wonders!

That morning, I just brought the 'cookie' cake-arrangement to WY's class close to dismissal time. The excited children gathered round and sang the birthday song after I lighted the giant candle. Then they happily received their packet of oreos before going home. So neat and tidy, and the 'form teacher' was also happy that there was no mess! She was, of course, also happy to be given some extra packets of the oreos for her own kids, lah.

Apart from this single 'relatively good experience' at this PCF kindergarten, the one year that WY spent at this place was a total waste of time as far as proper education and learning was concerned. Fortunately, we moved out of this place the following year.

K1 & K2

WY joined the Magdalene's Kindergarten in K1. There were some transitional adjustments, of course, but by and large, he settled down relatively easily because this school had a much much better environment. And the people there were much more pleasant.

I remember that I was not so sure if this was a better place than the kindergarten organised by the Geylang Methodist Church next to the MRT station. So I took a half-day leave one afternoon and checked it out.

This kindergarten forms part of the Canossian Eduplex. Also located in the Eduplex are the Canossa Convent Primary School and the Canossian Children's Home. The kindergarten partners the Home for the Hearing Impaired and so some hearing-impaired children attend it, too.

When I arrived, lessons in the kindergarten had already ended and school had already been dismissed. So it was relatively quiet. Only the principal and 2 or 3 teachers were still around.

I spoke to the motherly-figure principal, who shared with me how the kindergarten emphasized moral education and inculcating the right values in the children. As she leisurely walked me around the school compound, I actually felt the 'homely-ness' of the place. I even heard some birds chirping away on the trees whose trunks and leaves were still wet from the rain that had just stopped..... Hmmm....

The classrooms were located in a long block, very much like our Bartley Primary School except that its toilets were in the centre of the long straight block and the general office was located close to the end of the block. (BPS had its toilets at the end and office right in the centre.)

Everyday, Mother would bring WY to the void deck to wait for the school bus at about 10+ in the morning. When the school bus reached the school gate, the teachers would meet the children and walk them to a sheltered asssembly area in the centre of the block. Then they would sing the National Anthem & recite the Pledge before going for lessons. At dismissal, the teachers would, once again, march the children out to the gate to board the waiting school bus. All very orderly and disciplined. And very safe.

But being the 'kiasi' mother as I am, I still took leave for the 1st 3 days of the new school term to 'oversee' WY's settling-in in the new environment. I boarded the school bus (luckily, it was the 20-seater type) with WY but I sat at the back, away from him. The little boy kept looking back to 'check' that I was still around. Fortunately, the bus driver and his wife assistant were very friendly and understanding.

Then, when we reached the school, the principal requested the 'new parents' to stay out of the children's sight. And so I did. I spent the next 3 hours loitering in the canteen of the Canossa Convent Primary School which was directly opposite the kindergarten. Every time I saw the teacher bring WY's class from one room to another (I think the children were treated to some video shows on the 1st 2 days), I would crane my neck and try to watch out for WY.

Sigh, it was no joke because as I did this, I had to take care not to be seen by WY even from afar! And the hard canteen bench without any back support was far from being comfortable to sit on, especially since I was expecting WF and this was my 1st trimester only!

For WY's birthday that year, we ordered an 'edible-lego' cake which looked like this. It caused a stir amongst the excited children when R and I brought it to the class. The 2kg cake was shared amongst WY's classmates and the staff. WY also gave out some simple goodie bags to his classmates. I still remember how shocked WY's K1 teacher was when she learnt that I was (still supposed to be) in confinement that day! Hahaaha.....

The following year, WY wanted to choose a birthday cake that could 'scare' his friends! So, when we went online to select acake, he asked for a Godzilla cake! (Something that looked like this, photo from confectionery not available anymore.) R and I almost fainted from shock!

Luckily, we managed to convince WY to change his choice to a more pleasant-looking dinosaur. So, the birthday cake which was eventually chosen for his K2 class and staff was this friendly-smiley T-Rex!

P1 & P2

We didn't hold any birthday party for WY when he was in P1. Reason was simple: it was a 'proper' school and we knew that it was not the practice to have any party during lesson hours. Even a straightforward cake-cutting and sharing session during recess would have been frowned upon as being too 'lavish' and a 'show-off' in the school.

So, when WY was in P1, we had only our usual celebration at home with the rest of the family.

In the course of the year, WY attended several birthday parties of his classmates. Most were at the classmates' homes. And all except one, had something like this on their invitation cards:

"Please feel free to bring your favourite Gameboy & Playstation & XBox cartridges etc.".


At first, we didn't realise what this meant. But after a while, we 'wised up'. This meant that there would be only one item on the programme of the 'party' and that would be Gameboy or Playstation or XBox playtime before the TV set!

So, during these 'parties', the kids would simply gather and sit amongst some chips and finger-food like nuggets or cocktail sausages and raced or 'fought' one another on the Xbox in front of the TV! And because there would be only a maximum of 2 'handsets' (I don't know if these are called handsets, but you know what I am referrring to), only 2 kids would play at any one time whilst the rest just sat and watched!

For those with their GB or Playstations, they would just sit at the edge of the sofa and bury their heads amongst their individual devices as their fingers went twitching busily here and there! Woah, man! I was so shocked to see this! There would be absolutely no communication or socialising whatsoever! Might as well stay at home to play these!

And even the adults (parents of the birthday boy/girl and their relatives) who were in the house would simply chit-chat amongst themselves, not bothering to even socialise or entertain the adult-guests one teeny-weeny bit! Are your shocked?! I was!!

After a few such 'parties', we stopped saying yes to invitations which had the "Please feel free to bring along your favourite Gameboy or Playstation or XBox cartridges." type of messages.

Initially, I was concerned if WY would feel 'left out' because we didn't think such 'parties' were meaningful. So, one day, I asked him. His firmer-than-I-expected reply was, "No, lah. So boring to sit there and watch only. Whatever for? Anyway, my friends don't get to talk or even joke with one another when they play. Also, they are not even interested to cut their birthday cakes!"

So, I guess it's ok for us to just decline such invites anyway.

When WY was in P2, the same trend continued. So we didn't go to any of such birthday 'parties' that year. Instead, we attended those parties which were organised by fastfood caterers like McDonald's. Yes, it may well be that these served 'junk food', but there were at least the party games to look forward to. There was some 'fun' to look forward to.

Most of such parties were held in the condo clubhouses of the classmates' homes. Some of the hosts also arranged for the children to swim at their pools before the party began.

That year, sometime in June, we decided to place a booking for a McDonald's party for WY's birthday. Since we don't have a clubhouse, the McDonald's restaurant at Kallang became the natural choice of venue. And it was convenient, too, because most of his classmates stay near the school and this outlet.

The McDonald's staff was very seasoned organisers. Almost everything was taken care of: the decoration, the food, the music, the games, the cake and even some goodie bags for the Birthday Boy and his Guests! Not bad a deal, if you ask me, for the convenience and the hassle-free (no need for us to clean up, either!) 2-hour session! We only had to get some goodie bags ready for the children.

WY had great fun with his friends at the McDonald's party. They played game after game and talked a lot while helping themselves to their preferred set meals (yes, everyone could choose their preferred food from amongst a selected list).



All went well that day until a boy who had arrived late, took out his GB from his bag! And then, the other boys who were at first playing the games organised by the McDonald's staff, became distracted and started to gather around that boy to try to peer into his gadget as he played his gadget, right in the middle of the party!

I was rather upset at this, and I cannot remember the details now, but I think either CP or myself told the boy to keep his toy away in case it fell and got spoilt. Only then did everything become 'normal' again.

P3

When WY was in P3, we decided that it would be too childish to have another party organised by a fastfood caterer (WY had sugested KFC this time!). So after some thinking, R and I decided that we would try to organise a party at the indoor playground called Kids' Adventure at SAFRA Toa Payoh.

R and I discussed a lot about the Kids Adventure that year. Having been to a similar one in Switzerland (which was called Starbie) which HA brought us to, we had felt that it was a good alternative to the fastfood parties. There, the children could have a good physical workout + scream-out etc before they clean up and have their food. All under one roof, too, so it would be weather-proof!

But alas, due to my own neglect and bad habit of procastinating, I did not place a booking early enough. By the time I wanted to make a reservation, all suitable timeslots had been taken up. Sigh.

I 'comforted' WY and told him the truth - that it was really my fault that we couldn't book the Kids' Adventure for the party that year. And WY 'comforted' me and told me that it was ok.

We did have a celebration at CH School, though, very much like WF's birthday party in CH School. I remember WY chose a 'construction worksite' birthday cake from Prima Deli for this celebration. We still keep the toy construction trucks that came on the cake.

P4

So, for WY's birthday this year, I decided to plan and act early. In fact, planning started from some time after CNY. I went about asking colleagues for ideas and browsed around a lot (magazines + internet) to check out possible options. And I found out quite a fair bit.

Many options were available; we could have clay-pottery sessions, baking sessions, art & craft sessions and so on. Some organisers had their own locations to offer as venue for the party while others needed me to source for my own venue.

The 'packages' offered were wide-ranging and a little mind-boggling, too. But most importantly, however, most of these were too costly.

So, I decided to look further.

One day, an idea came to my mind. There is a Gallery at my office which is open free of charge to the public. And the information and materials there are educational and quite interesting. So why not bring the guests here, right?!

Besides, my PR colleagues who are in charge of this place are trying to attract more visitors to this Gallery and to market it to as many people as possible. So wouldn't this be a great idea?! The more I thought about it, the more confident and convinced I became - that this was where we would have the party this year.

I shared my idea with my colleague N, who agreed excitedly, "Yes, great idea!" And so, that's how the idea for the Big Project was born.

There is a cafe located in my office building. It would naturally be the place where we would have our food. And so, after some negotiating and haggling (actually, not much haggling, lah), the menu was decided:

Olive Rice, Hokkien Mee, Indonesian Vegetables Curry, Deep Fried Chicken, Cereal Fish, Fish Balls, Deep Fried Yam Cake, Almond Jelly with Fruit Cocktail and Fruit Punch

Together with my PR colleague called Asmah, the programme was also arranged:

Arrival ** Video Screening ** super-brief Briefing ** Light and Sound Show ** Questionaire Quiz ** Gurmit Singh's Know Your Singapore Quiz ** Buffet Tea at Cafe

With the blessing of her supervisors (whom I also spoke to about my plan to bring visitors to the Gallery - see the importance of networking!), Asmah also arranged for some souvenirs to be 'awarded' to the guests who successfully completed the Questionaire Quiz!

WY's form teacher also helped me to collate the RSVP list.

The day before the party, my colleague N got help to have some balloons inflated. Then she and I spent about 20 minutes in the late afternoon putting these balloons at the part of the cafe which had been reserved for our exclusive use during our function. N also helped to curl some multi-colour ribbons to complement these balloons! Hahaha...

On 1 September 2007, WY went for his early morning Chinese tuition class as usual. When he was done, R together with WF, drove him here to join his friends. The programme was scheduled to start at 1:30pm.

In the meantime, CP and I arrived early to see to the arrangements at the cafe. We carried the goodie bags which WY had helped to pack earlier, to the cafe. YP had declined to join us or let WS and WP join WY because to do so, they would have had to rush all the way from their home area to downtown after their enrichment classes ended at about 1pm or so.

For what we did at the Gallery & the party, these photos would tell it all (well, almost all). Enjoy!

(Aiyah, in the excitement, I forgot to take a photograph of the musical-notes cake before having it cut!)