My Penang Trip

On the 5th of December, my mother, my sis and I went to Penang for a chess competition. My chess competition was from the 6th to the 10th.

For the chess competition, there was a total of nine rounds. Its two rounds a day and one round on the last day. Each round was two hours per player with increment thirty seconds per move. At first I felt very nervous but after the first round, I was calmer. I won three rounds in total. Although I didn't win any prizes, but it was a good experience for me!

Pool... we swam almost everyday!

Round 1 ... I lost..

Round 2... I put up a very good fight but still lost. He commended me though for my good game.

Round 3...this girl again! I always played with her in Singapore and so far, I have yet to win her... but I won!! Actually she is my friend la... mummy so worried that I don't play seriously.

Round 4...lost

Round 5... lost again! This boy's opening very different from our usual style...my coach very nice. He took the effort to find games how other GM played against such opening and asked me to learn.

Round 6...lost...AGAIN...

Round 7...

Round 8...FINALLY, I win!

Round 9... I win again!

Thinking hard...

We have a game in between our match in the afternoon...

Beach is a place we go every evening to unwind...

Daddy brought the boys and my aunty over on the last day of the competition. So its our family's holiday now from 10th to 14th. We went to Adventure Zone, went for sea-sport like the banana boat, the jet ski and para sailing at the beach. The banana boat is when we have to sit on a float shaped like a banana and they will us along on a jet ski.

We also went to the War Museum, the Snake Farm at the Snake Temple, the fruit farm and the butterfly farm. At the butterfly farm, there were a lot of butterflies and caterpillars. There were also giant millipedes, a show and pictures about insects. I enjoyed the show very much as it was very funny. There was also butterfly stickers and magnets. We bought one magnet which was an orange butterfly.

Getting ready to "fly"...

Banana Boat ride...

Jet Ski with daddy...

Adventure Zone...

Zooming down the slide at the Adventure Zone...Thrill!

Snake Farm...

Chameleon on my head...

War Museum...Nicholas was a little scared of the exhibits

Butterfly Farm

The giant millipedes...

having a feel of it...

In summary, it was a fun and enjoyable holiday. My only grumble was not enough time there. We still have not visit the Toy Museum... we have another few more days there...

A Tough Decision.... (by mummy)

JOY

Received a call from Charmaine's P3 form teacher on Tuesday morning. The first sentence she said to me was "congratulation Mrs S!" I was like wondering if she got the right person then..what is there to congrats me of...I'm not expecting or something like that... With the awkward silence from me, she senses that I must be puzzled and so she quickly clarified "Congratulation! Charmaine got through round 2 of the GEP and she has a choice to join GEP program or remain with us and join the SBC (in house special program)". Regained my composure and thank her for passing the news and I will certainly convey her congratulation message to Charmaine. I was still confidently telling her that Charmaine will be staying put.

EXCITEMENT

Went down to the General Office to collect the brown envelope which contains the info and registration form for the GEP. There were 10 pupils from her school being selected! At that point, I was still so sure that she/we are going to take up the SBC offer!

When I got home, I informed her of the news and congrats her. She was a little shy about it though. She read through the booklet meant for the pupil and said nothing of it. Her sister was happy for her and congratulates her on getting through too. We told her we will go for the briefing and that she is the one making the final call...leaving or staying.

Went for GEP briefing on Saturday even though we are 99% confirmed of staying put in MGS. After the briefing, all 3 of us began to rethink of the decision. For her, she was excited to find that they have more time for discussion and teachers will not brush them off as silly questions. She was happy that READING is one of the requirement (sort of) as she loves to read. There are more hands on stuffs and more experiments too. In general, she is excited about the program.

To us, to be one of the 566 students out of 42,000 P3 cohort, we feel we should not give up the place without giving a try on the program. The only concern we have is whether she can cope with the program and what happen after P6? In her current school, they are able to get into its Secondary school with a low cut off point. So if she leave the school, she will have to really score very well (above 250) to qualify for any other so-called good secondary school. We did not tell her this as we do not want her to worry on things that is in the future. All she needs to consider is whether she likes and want to give the program a try.

DOUBT

As the excitement settled in, I began to doubt if there was any mistake in the selection. How can she be one of the top 1% of the cohort when she was never the smartest in her class. Although she was in the high ability class, but she never top the class! Her languages are weak for sure although she loves to read. Could it be by fluke? Was there any mistake? Wrong identity? Alamak! So many "???"! Hubby was more cool about this. He said that the GEP branch already assured us that there will be no mistake and its definitely not by luck that our kids were selected. Even then, I just can't help doubting and worrying...


DECISION

Over the next few days, we prayed and talked about it. She had set her mind on 2 schools and we placed it in the order of her preference. We prayed and done our part and leave it to HIM, just like the way when she goes for the GEP round 1 & 2. Back then, we did nothing...no revision... no practise..no special GEP prep courses. All we did on the day itself before dropping her off was to pray. We told HIM that come whatever may, we leave it to HIM...

OUTCOME

The posting letter came after 3 weeks. She was a little disappointed that it was not her first choice (she chose that school because of the strong chess team) but soon the disappointment vanished. We found out that almost all the other 9 girls from her school was posted there too! Her good friend and her kindergarten friend was there too! So then came the rush about... buying new set of uniforms, new school books and even went down to Bras Basah Complex to hunt some of the books in the ERP list (Extensive Reading Programme).

Well, we done what we can... Now we just hope she enjoys her new school and new program...