Zaccheus 2nd Birthday

Zaccheus turned 2 on 20 June 2010. Months before his birthday, I had been thinking whether should I organise a kids party for him or book an external venue such as Gogo Bamibini to celebrate his birthday. My extravagant and illogical personality told me to go ahead as it is an annual event and what most important is, our little darling is happy on his BIG day. On the other hand, my frugal and logical side of me told me to celebrate frugally for few reasons. Firstly, to prepare for Zacch's exorbitant school fees starting next year, secondly, we recently spent on a holiday trip to HK and lastly, not to make it make it a point to spend so much on his birthday celebration every year.

The decision was an easy one. I chose being frugal and decided to hold a simple but warm celebration with family members and friends whom are dear to us. And being a Thomas & friends train fan, the theme was obviously Thomas & friends train cake and matching clothes for Zacch.

Despite being a simple celebration, Zaccheus had great time playing with his cousins and blowing candles from the Thomas & friends train cake.:) Once again, I want to wish my little darling a belated blessed bithday and may the grace and favour of God be upon him.

Zaccheus's fourth overseas trip - Hong Kong

Gong gong once said:" Zaccheus is barely 2 years old yet have been to many countries". Indeed, Zaccheus has travelled to Bangkok at 11 months, Malaysia at 15 months, Japan at 18 months and Hong Kong at 23 months. Whenever possible, DS and I will plan for a family vacation during my school holidays break. Being an avid shopper myself, I can't help but tend to choose countries with many shopping places. However, HongKong was never on our list when we were planning for the trip in late April. Actually, DS and I wanted to bring Zaccheus to either Desaru or Port Dickson together with Godma Eve, but our plans to travel there had to shelf aside due to late bookings. That's when we decided to go to HK for a short 4 days 3 nights stay.
During our 4 days in HK, we were like the typical tourists - visiting places of interests such as ladies market, fai yuen street, causeway bay, harbour city, ocean park etc. We chose to bring Zaccheus to ocean park instead of the overated Disneyland in HK. To my dismay, Ocean Park is nothing just like a humongous amusement park. Their underwater world was flooded with people with little ventilation inside. Little Zacch was fine with the seemingly lack of air while DS was cursing with frustration. Zacch liked the Panda village as he got to hug Panda mascot over and again. I have to admit that the Sea lions show was amazing with Zacch clapping from time to time. The kids rides were nothing to brag about as most are available in Singapore. Even the adults rides like ferries wheels, rollercoasters & abbys are similar to the rides in our country. The highlight of the day was the cable car rides. For someone who is fearful of height, I seemed to enjoy it on the return ride back. On the contrary, Zaccheus was enjoying the rides tremendously. He kept chattering non stop throughout the 10 minutes rides, which made DS, Godma Eve and I laughed.
The shopping trips were good but tiring as I had to carry Zacch in my arms for most of the times. He either refused to sit on the pram or allowed DS to carry him. At one of the fashion clothes, Zaccheus told me:" no no clothes. Want toys." At that moment, I realised that my little Zacch has already grown up. He wants to make decision and be in control. That makes me more cautious if ever I want to bring him out for a shopping outing together.
I think the place that Zaccheus enjoyed most was not Ocean Park nor the toy stores. It was the hotel room where he could play with the telephone, jumped on the bed and had rounds of pillow fight with Godma and DS. He also enjoyed taking the train and bus rides. Overall, bringing Zacch overseas might be tiring but it is truly worth it when I know he is enjoying himself.

June holidays - 1 week enrichment programme in JG

Being a working mother, I can't help but feeling guilty that I am unable to spend more time with Zaccheus during his formative years. As such, when it comes to school holidays like now, I would be eager to sign Zaccheus up for holiday programme. Today is the last day of his 5 days holiday programme at Julia Gabriel which costs slightly more than $300. After attending the 5 lessons, I have to admit that the programme doesn't meet up to my expectations. The reasons are as below:
- The holiday programme is only conducted in English instead of billingual in playclub.
- Each activity was draggy with playgound time stretch to as long as 30mins.
- No speech & drama during the 2 hours lesson.
- One day of outdoor trip to Sentosa was neither engaging nor fruitful. Parents & kids were left on their own to play at the beach. Shouldn't there be some activities at the beach area? Why am I paying so much when I could bring Zaccheus to beach myself?

Nonetheless, I want to give credit to the tireless and energetic teachers whom have never failed to make every lessons fun.

Having said this, Zaccheus will still be attending JG in the next 2 terms till he starts Chiltern House next January. However, I might want to change from the billingual playclub he is currently attending to Edudrama from next term. My take is that I am really unsure how much Zacch has benefitted from the playclub even after attending 2 terms. Of course, one takeaway is that Zaccheus is in love with 'school' and 'class'. Compare to Playclub, I think Edudrama is a better choice of enrichment class. It encourages and instills confidence in the child as they are encourage to speak up and act during lesson. The former is good for a daily school programme but not suitable for a weekly enrichment.
To sum up, these are just my opinions. Whether the Edudrama is really beneficial will have to wait till Zaccheus attends the lesson.

First movie in cinema - Shrek Forever After

Holidays have begun - it means more fun-filled activities for Zaccheus as Mummy is available to spend time and bring him for outdoor trips. The first day of holidays began by watching the movie, Shrek Forever After, together in the cinema. At first, I was worried that Zaccheus might not be able to stay throughout the 95 minutes show but my worries were unfounded. After watching this movie, I am quite sure that Zaccheus and I are going to watch more cartoons in the cinema in the years to come. :)