The Last Stretch

Yes, packing has taken its toll but alhamdulillah I have plastered the last reminders on my front door. It says, "YOGHURT, CHEESE, ICE PACK, and POTTY." The last items I have to stuff into the car. ie, the last things in the house that I have to stuff into the car. Of course, alongside are the water bottles the monsters will still be using tomorrow morning.

So the last stretch is finally here. The monsters are asleep, hopefully dreaming of Singapore Zoo after two days of not having my undivided attention. I did still PAY attention, I just had to divide it amongst the seventy-two luggage bags I stuffed into, onto and around the car.

Intermittantly, we did do some school, although Yusuff did not feel like being attentive. Even Scrambled Eggs Super didn't do the trick. He didn't like the birds, he said.

But Tasneem, alhamdulillah is always helpful when it comes to doing something different. We ran out of our colour cartridge, so clever little Tasneem had to colour in the MRT / LRT lines on this poorly printed map. Yusuff coloured his in too - but only wanted to colour the "shapes" the MRT lines made. That was kind of funky - me thinks he is going to be an extreme non-comformist when he grows up. And that picture is not upside-down, it's just how he happens to like to do his work.

I had my own map of course since I had to actually colour code in a way I would understand it and pin point our destinations for the next week.

And to give them a time-out, I brought the elder two out for dhaal morning. Considering the fact that I have been running up and down with clothes, diapers, swimsuits, baby food and everything in between, they have been very well-behaved alhamdulillah. If you're wondering, DH was away for the whole two days on work. Yeah, how convenient. Alhamdulillah my mum's maid stayed for the day, so the baby who does not sleep during the day nor the night, was pawned off to her for a morning nap.

We talked about Singapore some more and all the cool things we were going to do inshaallah. I do hope it all goes well and I hope whatever they are dreaming of now, will come true. Ameen.

Homeschool's Holiday Packing List

We are trying to travel light this holiday, as if there is no lighter oxymoron than that. But besides the necessities, we have decided that a few books, their new art kits and their handy-dandy journals will suffice as far as homeschooling is concern. What do you think of our kits? Little Monster Heaven? Well, we hope the handy-dandy journals will keep the colours of the walls.

So this is what our vacationing homeschool will look like:

1. An Art Kit each.

2. A handy-dandy journal each.

3. Three books each.

4. Whatever that can fit into their tiny backpacks. That's an hour's worth of packing, prioritising, unpacking and repacking.

5. Some toys for the baby who does not sleep during the day nor the night.

6. Swimming suits.

7. A float each.

8. A pair of sandals each.

Pretty light for the likes of us. Hopefully this will be enough for the homeschooling besides all those trips around the island. More planning to do.

Homeschool Heading for a Holiday

This will be our first official holiday as a family of a homeschooling-five. Inshaallah things will go well. We're visiting Singapore, by the way - just so I can say I brought the children on an international holiday. Heh heh. Kidding.

We chose Singapore because it fit our budget, is not too far from home (ie, my dad can collect us if we ran into any trouble), and there are plenty of sights for the homeschoolers. Besides, it's clean, as compared to the places here, unless they are heavily privatised, which equals more money.

Our places of interest include the Singapore Zoo, The Jurong Bird Park, The Underwater World, The Butterfly and Insect Park - see where this is going? Before children I doubt I would have been this bothered about animals and nature. It takes the innocence of children to appreciate both, so I look forward to what the children have to say about the visits. They are ecstatic about this trip and we have been browsing through the Visit Singapore website for ideas. This is my second time there by the way, and the first must have been 20 years back - and boy was that a boring Chinese New Year - visiting old aunties in old high rise buildings. It sounds mean but at that time... I would have like to go to the zoo.

Besides the animals, we have also thrown in the Science Museum and Toy Museum as part of our agenda.

Inshaallah I'll be blogging / reviewing the trip so perhaps other families with children who have never been to Singapore can read up on free, honest testimonies. And for homeschoolers, I'll probably be sharing ideas for unit studies later. I hope this works out for our family. Ameen.

Until then, I have set up the spending budget; I have to fix a schedule so that we don't end up at locked gates of the wrong location on the wrong day or time. I also have to make a list of things to pack - which is the hardest bit. Somehow, on the morning that we leave, I would have forgotten something important - like a toothbrush or the potty.

Well, until we leave - have to get cracking with that extra planning.