October is always a busy month for us because of the final year examinations for the big girl and all the party planning I have to do for all three kids. Since we don't go for any tuition and hope to remain tuition free for the coming years, it means I have to try my best in my limited free time to do some revision with the firstborn and hope that she finds her own motivation to keep working hard and strive to do her best in not just schoolwork, but in everything she does.
I can't tell you how many times I wanted to scream out loud or lose my cool, especially when we go through things like oral and compo revision, when she can't seem to read a good number of Chinese words that she has learnt before, when she gives up on a Math question and asks me for the answer before she even attempts it, or when she repeats the same mistakes that we have already gone through. It's not easy, really not easy, trying to teach your own kid and I totally understand the frustration. That said, it's also a learning journey for me because not only have I given back much of my knowledge to my teachers and need to relearn many things, I also realised I have a lot of room for improvement when it comes to being a patient, encouraging and supportive mum. I'm very thankful for this girl who has proven herself to be responsible, mature and sensible and it's also heartening to see how she takes charge of packing her schoolbag, revises her weekly spellings, jots down her exam dates, takes the initiative to do her assessment books in her free time and is always finding opportunities to pick up a book to read.
On the other hand, I'm also planning for the year end birthday parties for each of the kiddos and even though I try to keep them on a small scale, I'm still very much into coming up with themes, doing DIY decor and inventing our own games to play too - and there's always the food and dessert table to think about. For now, I'm in the midst of doing a spy party for the big girl and her friends because she wanted this theme and I must say it's tiring yet very fun to do too! Will share more about that soon!
Like what I always tell her nowadays, you reap what you sow and for all the efforts you put into doing what you do, you will get to enjoy the reward and that immeasurable sense of achievement at the end of the day. In October's "Happiness is...", it's about enjoying the fruits of our labour and looking forward to the exciting year end.
