Oliver - The last day of Primary 1

This is Oliver very happy to leave home for the last day of Primary 1 at the Japanese School. He has grown a lot this year and his Japanese language has improved tremendously. He made so many new friends and enjoyed all the activities he did at school. You can see Oliver on his first day here.

Since I was on bus duty this week, I went downstairs see the kids off. They were all very excited!

They came home before lunch time with their school reports. Oliver was very happy with his grades and so were we. I invited all the kids and the mummies for BBQ lunch on the balcony. Matthew was still home before his flights so he cooked the BBQ and I baked some fresh bread rolls :)

Well done everyone. Now they are on a month holiday.  Happy holidays!!! 

Goodbye Primary 1-6

Another week to go then Oliver has to say goodbye to his home room teacher and his classmates. Only 3-4 kids from his current class will be in the same class in the next school year (which will start mid April).

To celebrate the hard work of the kids and to show our appreciation to the teacher there was a party held at one of his classmates' condominium.

The kids enjoyed watching a slide show:

Mummies busy organising the food:

It was very well organised. The kids had lunch with Ms Kobayashi and got to talk to their friends. 

Then they played some fun games that were organised by some mummies.

Ms Kobayashi with the prize boxes:

The kids sang a special Japanese song for Ms Kobayashi and gave her a message book. 

Without her help Oliver couldn't have done so well for his first year at the Japanese school. He was very very lucky. We were so pleased he had such an amazing year and made so many wonderful friends. 

Well done Oliver, we hope you will keep your wonderful smiles when you have a new teacher and more friends in April. 

One week off school

Oliver enjoyed staying home with me for a week. He was ok to go but we were worried about getting the finger dirty and wet. We still did lots of school work whenever we could and other times he just watched his favourite sports channels or enjoyed relaxing on the couch.

When he was little we thought he was left handed but once he started kindergarten, the teachers decided to concentrate on one hand. We weren't sure but the teachers thought he was right handed. Anyway that came in handy - he can draw and write ok with his left hand. Not as tidy as with his right but still good enough. His Japanese writing is quite good too. 

Award giving at school assembly

Oliver was very proud of himself early this week. Ayaka and Oliver got called out in front of all the students to receive their Japanese calligraphy awards from the principal. The photos were from the school website.

Well done Oliver and Ayaka!!

Japanese language is hard

I cannot believe how much Oliver has learned since he started Primary 1 in April last year. He can now read and write 51 hiragana, 51 katakana and 80 Chinese characters!! We are so pleased with the Japanese school in Singapore.

The Japanese School starts in April and finishes in March. He is now in the last term of Primary 1. The students are working very hard revising their work for the entire year.
Here is Oliver's katakana test. I shouldn't laugh but it was kind of funny...

Almost...

This is Oliver's mini test in his Japanese class. If you can read Japanese, it's almost right!?!?! He's getting there!

Art exhibition @ Japanese school

When I went to Oliver's school for the end of year teacher/parent meeting. We were encouraged to visit some of the classrooms that displayed the student's art projects.

I found Oliver's class display. It was made up of animals from the zoo. Oliver made a penguin. I thought it was rather cute.

When I looked at it closer I almost laughed out loud. Title for his penguin - "Oh, Good morning".
Other students put "Cute penguin family" "Penguin is smiling at you". I found his one unique! Oliver told me later that it was a deliberate work to make one of the penguin's arms up so he can express his movement. Not to mention his teacher mentioned his creativity and uniqueness in the meeting :) Well done Oliver. I love it.

Japanese school Sports Day 2016

Phew! it was such a hot day. We were all at the school field to see some great performances by Oliver and his friends.

There are over 900 kids at his school. They put them into 2 teams - team Red and team White. Oliver's class was team White (in the end team Red won...).

It started off with traditional Japanese calisthenics - a warm up exercise.

Ashley and Luca were both very excited. 

Oliver was in "tug of war" and "rolling ball" played by all the students and two different dance performances and a running race with Primary 1 students. 

The field is quite big and I couldn't spot him in his dance performances but I made sure I was right in front of the crowd during the running race. He is standing second from the right with a white hat. 

He looked so happy with all his friends. He told me he had such a great day. I am so happy he is loving his school :) :) :)

Oliver's art work

I had another opportunity to go and see Oliver's classwork. These are Oliver's artworks.
Clay party food - Celebrating the 50th year of strong relationship between Singapore and Japan.

I really like the white tiger. They had a school excursion to the Singapore Zoo a couple of weeks ago. Oliver picked white tiger. His title - Angry white tiger. I love it.

School visit

I don't think schools in Japan have as many school visit days as here in Singapore. Maybe because a lot more parent(s) are away on business they give more opportunities for the parents to come and see their children. Well here is another school visit day for Oliver. This time we were allowed to visit anytime during the first 4 classes. Of course Oliver wanted us to be there for the whole 4 hours but we decided to visit during his art class.

During the hour they had to use clay to make some party food to celebrate the 50th year of the Singapore Japanese School. It was nice Ashley could join in. 

Of course our little boy was busy making sushi!

They got all the groups together and visited each party in turn. It was nice to see this kind of class exercise instead of just sitting down ones. Unfortunately you are not allow to take pictures in the classroom except for your own child very up close for privacy reasons so I don't have any more to share. 

Instead I will show you some of Oliver's works that were displayed in the classroom:

Pokemon lunch box

Oliver requested if I can make some Pokemon bento boxes. Well at 6 in the morning this is the best I can do son. He was super happy coming home telling me all his classmates were so jealous. So he wants it everyday!!!

The first day back

Here is Oliver ready for his first day of Term 2 at the Japanese School in Singapore. He was up early and was very excited to see all his friends :)

Olives last day of Term 1

This is Oliver on his last day of the Term 1 at the Singapore Japanese School. A little sleepy but still he was very excited to go to school. He has learned so much and made so many friends over the last three months. I was very pleased to see him every day going out the door smiling and coming home with even bigger smiles :)

The school reports were excellent! We are very proud of him. Well done Oliver! I am so happy that all the extra hours you put in after school gave you these results. Time for a long break!

Checking out the venue

Oliver's class has entered into a dodgeball competition which is organised by the Japanese Association here in Singapore. It is supposed to be a very big event. The parents get involved heavily to lead the team to victory. There are 20 kids in the team and some parents become their coaches, referees, organising practice venues, deciding on the team uniform, and even lunch box ordering duty for the competition day.

I wasn't sure how much I could get involved, Matthew having irregular schedule and Luca and Ashley with me. So when there was a position to organise the after competition party I put my hand up!
Something that doesn't require a lot of work and I am good at.

It turned out it was quite a mission to find a venue which had good meal and drinks at a good price and can take over 50 people (of which 30 were kids!). I dragged my friends and Matthew to couple of places before deciding on the venue.

In the end we settled on a Japanese restaurant&bar in town which gave food and drinks for free for under 7 years old (half of Oliver's class mates are still 6) and adults can have free flow of alcohol and food for $50!

To ensure the quality of the service and the food Matthew and I went out for lunch one afternoon. We were amazed by the staff working there, they were fantastic! Food was great and we got a very big private room for the function. Couldn't be any better. I was very happy we finally found a place. My mission as a party planner was almost completed!

Dodgeball competition

Another special event Merryn and Dennis got to see during their short visit was Oliver's very first dodgeball competition. I am not allowed to put up any of the photos from the actual competition for privacy reasons. Sorry. I must say it was very well organised and the kids had so much fun. 

Oliver's team had two wins and two losses. They played very well against kids who are older. Oliver played as a key player! 

Everyone is already looking forward to the next competition. Well done Oliver!!

Oliver's school visit

I was very happy having Merryn and Dennis visit at the perfect timing :) They got to join us to go to Oliver's open school day. Parents and the family were invited to see a whole lesson. This time they were studying addition.

Unfortunately we are not allowed to take pictures or videos during class time. The Japanese school is very strict on privacy issues. We were very happy how he is doing in class. He was very confident and was chosen to answer questions a couple of times. He even went up to the front and wrote an answer on the blackboard!

After the session we got to see Oliver's Morning Glory which he planted a while back and has been looking after.

Also his art piece - He found a hamster on the school excursion ??

It was nice to show M&D how well Oliver is doing at his new school. What perfect timing for a visit!

Rain rain go away

How inconvenient! Just before Oliver's school bus arrived it started to pour down with rain...

I had to give him a pair of gumboots, a raincoat to cover his backpack and the umbrella for the 3 min walk from the drop off point to our tower. 

Homework

Oliver has homework everyday. Not a huge amount yet but everyday he has some math questions and some Japanese writing to do. Today Ayaka came around to do the homework together, straight after they got back from school (very very good habit, I like it!).

Ayaka (there are two Ayakas in Bayshore Park, this one is the older one who lives above us) had lots more and harder homework but she was so good.  Didn't complain, just carried on and finished in no time.

Somehow Oliver's math questions got harder today. He cannot read all the Japanese sentences yet so he struggled to understand what the question was asking. Very tricky useage of Japanese language was found in today's exercises. I hope he will learn to read fast and his comprehension gets better soon. Still I am very happy how he is doing at school. He is smiling when he leaves home and comes home with a big smile and endless talk about his classes and friends :)