So, the move to Singapore

Local, long-term ex-pats, say that October is a better time to move here as it gives you longer to adjust to the weather. Well, I guess we got lucky! We got to move at the end of October.

It's hot and so if this is winter then I'm starting to understand Singaporean's rolling their eye-balls at me saying 'I like the weather!' 

This is our 6th week. One thing I will say we did right is to not stay in a hotel for longer than is ABSOLUTELY necessary. That goes for serviced apartments as well. It sounds luxury, staying in a hotel, but when you have no work/school and you're in one room for weeks. It's tiring!

OK, some people are fortunate enough that their husband/wife/partner can get shipped out before-hand and find your family somewhere to live. We didn't have that and left together - in some ways, that is much more practical, as I don't have a job here and so could do the home-hunting stuff and the child care. We were fortunate to be put in contact with an agent who can be so much more helpful than just apartment viewings - they're local and work with the companies your other half is working for. Hugely helpful but be honest with them - if you can't live there, then say so. You need to be near a transport link - well, we do.

Myths about living in Singapore:

1. 'It only takes half an hour to get from one side of the island to the other'
is nonsense. Whilst Singapore is reckoned to be about the size of greater London and the MRT (the equivalent of the underground) is SO much better than the tube, it is nonsense to think you can get around that quickly.
2. 'it's a 15 min walk'
Yeah, but that will probably be in 30 degree heat, with the possibility of rain. Bizarrely, I now walk much more than I did in England. However, you need to factor in the heat.
3. 'It's cheap'
no it isn't - you need 3 months up-front for everything - rent, apartment utilities, 'TV/phone and school. groceries are comparable in cost.
If you get any belongings shipped then there is a) the fact it will take 8 weeks and b) you will (may?) have to pay the apartment block $1000 SG for use of the lift - check with your shipping company!
4. 'I'll get a car'
go you! - no new cars can be imported if they are more than 3 years old. Your import cost is 150% of the cost of the new car. The rush hour traffic is island wide, there are tolls and parking costs to factor in - no, I'll not bother working out the cost because we'll not be bothering with a car here
5. 'buy, buy. buy'
yeah, it's all about buying stuff

But...

The weather can be lovely - you can leave your apartment in shorts
It is a muli-cultural nation, which I'm enjoying because I've found England (UK) right-now so openly aggressive
We're actively learning languages - Singlish, Mandarin, Tamil and another dialect of Chinese and you don't get that in the UK
the food can be AMAZING - OK, it's no new news that I'm a foodie and a fan of Asian dishes and i'm trying to learn alot - only to be dashed by their overt use of boxed kits! :-(

But!

1. sort out your Singpass - even if you have a dependent pass. do it. could take you 2 hours.
Oh, before you do this, you need to register and get your EP (FIN) and you need it for all sorts of stuff - it's an identity card
2. as a dependent you need to produce your passport for most stuff and have the person you are dependent upon present to get some stuff done (yeah! new for me!)
3. you'll probably need a local bank account - could take you 2 hours once you turn-up at the bank. You need your passport, your EP and the person you are dependent on.
4. you'd think SG is a really advanced nation - WiFi/4G everywhere=yes but you still get asked for a cheque and no bank will now issue you with a bank account that has a cheque book. welcome to the world of the mysterious GIRO
5. Mold - clothes and food go moldy here much more quickly than in the UK. I'm making a whole new post about local food though! You'll need hanging silica gel sachets for your wardrobes and I've also put some of the 'block' moisture traps in wardrobes and other cupboards

less can be more

well, not mathematically, but...

This was our drawing pens box;

all the pens, pencils, crayons were in one ice cream tub. After the recent 'mark making to writing' session, I have now spilt them

(crayons are now in the box labelled crayons, by the way!)

so, we have 1 for pens and 1 for crayons and I made a 3rd for pencils. all the spares are out of the way.

The session was great (I've already bleated-on in a previous post) and it gave me lots of ideas. One thing the trainer said is "less is more", so 1 colour of each pen, that works!, in a pot, is more inviting to a child than the big mixed box - unsharpened pencils, pens that don't work and broken crayons do not encourage little hands.Oh, and 1 pair of (child's) scissors is all that is needed. I check the pots weekly and sharpen pencils and remove any broken pens or crayons - i've kept the broken crayons as I've seen a few posts on Pinterest about melting them into new ones.

The felt pens pot - I made it as a cutlery holder for a Dino Dig party we had last year. Took yonks to make! (made from a baked bean tin, covered with paper mache and then painted green)

kitchen science - volcano's

we made an erupting volcano! bicarbonate of soda, vinegar, washing-up liquid and red food colouring.

The volcano is a small plastic mould that I found in a charity shop but there are so many tutorials out there on making ones of plaster (I bought some plaster moulding rolls from Hobby Craft for £1 each with the intention of making one)

This worked really well - given it's a small thing. Also, R extended the activity on his own - he got some plastic dinosaurs and they "all died beside the volcano and became fossils" 

a bit of fun on a Sunday afternoon that took-up around half an hour. one for the childminding list of to do's! 

"mark making to writing"

I attended a course yesterday evening, "Mark Making to Writing" - it was brilliant!

a lot was crammed into the 2 hours (the trainer had written it as a whole day course and WBC got her to present it in 2 hours!) - I came away with this long list of "stuff to do".

I'm not too bad at coming up with activities that "extend whilst being fun" (blah, blah, blah) but have so many more ideas now for helping my EYFS/Reception kiddies 

One thing the trainer did say, and it's something I bang on about so skip this if you've heard me bleat about this before :-) is that the Northern European countries (i.e. Denmark - highest academic rates anywhere in the world) do not expect children to read until Y2, when they are 7, and, boom!, they can read within 2 weeks. Yet, this country's successive governments' continue to lower the age of testing and increase expectation standards. idiots. anyway it is what it is and we are where we are...

We know that gross and fine motor skills are a precursor to being able to write and that, consistently, boys are more likely to be "reluctant writer"'s than girls - the key is to make writing available indoors and out, not make it about writing, using "dotty letters" is OK but that is not writing, it's handwriting! (why did I not realise this before now!!!)  story books, story sacks, powder paint in the rain - I have a huge list.

and so, this morning, we were threading loopy cereal onto pipe cleaners (I believe these are now referred to as "chenille sticks", whatever!), we then hanged them from a tree in the garden for the birds

My job today is to take photos of any birds I see eating the treats. How we extend this activity? well, possibly limitless - draw pictures of the birds, making a score sheet, make other treats, do different birds prefer different food?...

and, before, anyone makes a comment on the Fruit Shoot bottle - they are allowed 1 per week and they choose the day they have it but they must finish a cup of water before they can have it-those are the rules. I did research on the sugar content of bottled drinks, aimed at children, and Fruit Shoot won.

as cute as ...

a (cross-stitched) button :-)

but, interfacing needs to be applied to the aida before covering the button (I used a 22mm self-cover button)

and now I just need something to attach them to!

an A B C box

it has taken me some time to create this A B C box but it has, and continues to, be a great resource.

(when I find seemingly random objects, I always bear them in mind for other stuff-some people call this hoarding...)

The box is irrelevant-an ice cream tub in our case - getting the child(ren) involved in decorating the box is a good launch platform for this resource.

1. an A to Z magnetic set of letters - I got a set from the £1 shop
2. assorted items from A to Z - this takes time and I haven't got objects for all letters
3. a tub to store it all in - recycled ice cream tub

We play various games - I say "find a thing, find a thing..." and boo rummages for an object, says the beginning letter and then has to find that letter. I also use some of the objects in sensory bins. Some of the toys are "wind-up's" and so we play racing games. Once an object and its letter has been found, they get put back in the box and the letter is placed on the 'fridge (well, today it was)

This leads on to other challenges - can you find objects in a sequence that spells a word

I need more objects :-) and then a bigger tub (more ice-cream?)

cake day tomorrow...

School cake bake tomorrow - and no, I have no idea whether they meet food regs, but hey-ho

I love our little library (we go every week) and I am always picking up the latest cook book, I saw this:

me and the librarian had a chuckle about how everything was going to be too difficult for a "home cook" and that it's a nice coffee table book. yippee! so wrong, the recipes are in British measurements (hoo-ray) and they are doo-able - i took a lot longer to achieve results and I cook every day and bake every other day

Inspired by the rainbow cake - which is a magnificent looking thing! I've made these cup cake for the school cake sale tomorrow

Boo says they taste better than a rainbow - I can only guess that nothing tastes better than a rainbow, unless it's cake :-)

Since then I have topped them with some butter cream and sprinkles: 

in the background are some jammie dodgers from the same book - I made small ones as opposed to the one large one and the recipe amount made around 24 - but, I had some casualties because I have a fan oven and I have never cooked biscuits before so lost a few to trial and error