Cut-and-Paste Generation

Last night, Son No 1 was struggling to complete his 500-word English writing assignment. This assignment has been in the back-burner for weeks. The teacher has kindly extended the submission deadline from this week to next week. So, it is "die-die must do" now.

This assignment ties in with the Commonwealth Essay-Writing Competition and there are a few topics to choose from. While I wanted to adopt a hands-off approach, I couldn't help intervening when I saw Son No 1 starting and stopping on a few topics. The problem, of course, was lack of planning and thinking.

Anyway, I helped Son No 1 choose what I think is the easiest topic for him - which is to write a letter to a friend in another Commonwealth country explaining about his own country. I gave him a few ideas on what he could write on and left him to do the job.

Thing is, even with all the scaffolding, he could not manage more than 1 paragraph after one night. There are many reasons for this. Though it is too tedious to list all the reasons here, one of the main attributable reasons, I find, is that this generation is too used to the "cut-and-paste" method of learning. Let me explain.

Son No 1 has many assignments for his various subjects and so he should have enough practice in writing. However, most of the time, the subject information can be found in Wikipedia and these kids tend to take the short cut (no pun intended) and "cut-and-paste". As a teacher, I am well aware of this temptation. So at the time when I was teaching in high school, my assignments were seldom the topical or factual types, but rather problem-based. That way, students still need to do their research, but at the end, they have to produce their solution in their own writing.

Anyway, coming back to this topic, I have warned Son No 1 of this bad habit when he is doing his assignments. He is aware that his brain is conditioned to this mechanical response - fingers type in search words, click, eyes look for related topics, fingers execute "cut-and-paste" function, format, print. Voila - assignment completed. And then I ask, "And so, what is gravitational erosion?" Don't know.

With awareness, I hope Son No 1 will conscientiously try to develop that part of his brain that is involved in writing. I am not talking just about grammar and sentence construction. I am talking about creativity, ideas, reflection. Writing is what we, the educationists, call an intrapersonal activity. One needs to sit down and focus, put ideas together. But of course, to build up ideas or content, one needs to read widely and most importantly, think. Now don't get me started on ''thinking" - it's worth 5,000 words at least.

At least, Son No 1 knows his weakness. Meanwhile, it's back to the drawing board for his essay...

"Toon Town" Zoo

Be warned. The Children's Zoo has turned into the "Toon Town" Zoo.

Those of us with children will remember the Children's Zoo within the Singapore Zoo. It was the favourite section for pre-schoolers because the children were able to pet the friendly animals (guinea pigs, rabbits) and feed the goats and other animals. The Children's Zoo has been closed for a while for a major revamp. The last time we visited the zoo at end-August this year, the whole section was still barricaded and hidden from view.
To my horror, when we visited the zoo today, I saw that the Children's Zoo is unveiled and has become "Toon Town" Zoo - that's my name for it. There are these ghastly strongly-hued cartoonish structures at the entrance (see left) which appeared starkly out-of-place in this environmentally-friendly zoo.

Dominating the entrance are a carousel with gaily decorated pony mannequins (ugh! - see below) and the run-of-the-mill tourist souvenir shop. In my view, it is crass commercialism at its worst. What is the management thinking about? Surely there are other ways of making legitimate money. If we had wanted these attractions, we would have gone to Orchard Road or some other theme parks. This is the Singapore Zoo, for heaven's sake. I don't mean to be overly-critical, but my main emotion this morning was one of disappointment.

When the children wanted to feed the goats, we found the goats in a new home. Another horror - the path outside the goats' new home is largely cemented, with hardly any trees. Few trees = few leaves = little feeding opportunity. The children had to literally scavenge the whole place for a few miserable leaves to feed the goats (see below). The children still fed the goats cheerfully but with visibly less excitement.
OK, enough of that. Let's talk about some good surprises... hmm, the family membership fee has gone up from S$150 to S$180 per year. Nope, that's not it. Prices have gone up everywhere, so it's not a surprise. YES - there is a new boat ride (see below) which starts at the Children's Zoo and ends at the exit. It serves to carry visitors back to the exit without their having to walk through all the exhibits, a walk that is easily half an hour. But seats are very limited and you need to wait for designated times.

(Above) The boat, Pedro, is named after one of the otters in the Zoo.
(Below) During the cruise at the Upper Seletar Reservoir.

(Above) The children enjoying a little KFC picnic.
(Below) The jaguars are still alive and well. Thank goodness, feeding time remains unchanged at 11 am.
(Below) After our zoo visit, we went to the Oasis at Toa Payoh for lunch. Faidu loved this scenery very much and we just had to show it ....

Short Trip To Singapore

We are in Singapore for a short trip to run errands. To Singapore's credit, things went very smoothly on all fronts (read: no queue) and we managed to sort out most of our stuff by Saturday morning.

The children are having a lovely time, as usual. Their primary purpose for coming to Singapore is "to play with Faidu". That meant, playing computer games (see left) and a game called "day and night" in Faidu's bedroom. When asked what else would they like to do, it is going swimming and going to the playground at the condominium, in that order. If pressed further, it would be a trip to the Singapore Zoo.

We, the whole family, are creatures of habit and we are not too adventurous about going to new places in Singapore. We like to go to familiar places, like Por Kee Restaurant at Outram and our favourite shopping center, Junction 8. We also like to feel at home and that's why we made a beeline to Best Denki to buy a wireless router for the apartment so that we can all remain connected on-line (we brought 3 laptops from home!). As you can see, I am thus able to continue blogging and surfing.

This morning, we went to Chinatown, a relatively "new" place for the children. We had porridge for breakfast at the Chinatown Complex.

Chinatown has changed quite a bit. We saw the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple (above) which was impressive in its gleaming and somewhat modern facade. But I can't help thinking that it would be better if there was less of the synthetic and gimmicky feel to it.

Son No 2 was in his element. Eagerly practising his mandarin, he impressed his grandma by reading almost every signboard in Chinese.

The morning stroll in Chinatown was pleasant. I am sure if we had more time, it would be a truly educational visit.

Book Fair And Cheow Yang

This morning, we braced the heavy morning traffic to reach the MPH warehouse sale before 9 am. The sale was to start at 9am. I thought I've got it figured out - to reach there early to get a parking lot. But it was a shocker - both sides of the road were already fully double-parked by the time we reached there. I suspect it's the normal working crowd - it just goes to show that there are too many cars on the roads, but what to do? There's no alternative transportation.

To cut a long story short, by luck and gumption, I managed to get a decent illegal parking lot right in front of the warehouse. Son No 2 and I spent a fruitful 1.5 hours there and got 12 books for RM156. What a steal! Mind you, these are quality books, some hardcover, some by Usborne. Son No 2 got 4 books about predators, big cats and volcanoes. I chose a colourful coffee-table hard cover "Lord Of The Rings" book for Son No 1 and an illustrated children's atlas for Son No 3. I also got a few story books for the children.

For myself, I got 2 autobiography by people that I admire: Hillary Clinton and Vikram Seth, the author of "A Suitable Boy". I am gleefully waiting for the chance to bury myself in between the pages - umm, I should be well-prepared for my forthcoming holidays.

Later, we had lunch at the legendary Cheow Yang in SS2. Those of us familiar with the place already know it's no longer owned by Cheow Yang, but the name stuck. As a blogger, I tend to carry my camera with me most of the time and in the spur of the moment, I thought it would be a good idea to capture this significant place in digital history. So, in spite of the curious crowd there, I gamely took a few shots of the place and am posting them in this blog (see below). Ya, they all probably thought I was a tourist, or heaven forbid, an undercover agent from MBPJ, the town council!

In time to come, we can all look back and explain to our grandchildren this place called Cheow Yang (like it or hate it) and the delicious "you tiao" stall in front of it. If your grandchildren were to ask you, in a foreign accent (ya, my imagination is rather fertile at the moment), "Mama and gonggong, what is you tiao?", it's actually dough fritters. I have also taken a picture of this street-side cuisine for your "show and tell"!

Building A Volcano

Son No 2's exams were over last week. For putting in all the hard work, I gave him this volcano-building kit.

The completion took several days and finally we got the volcano working yesterday. For those who want to try, the eruption is just a simple reaction of baking soda with vinegar.

Voila!

Best Of Pals

Sons No 2 and No 3 have become the best of pals. It has not always been the case. Suffice to say, Son No 3 has finally caught up with Son No 2 in terms of speech and social development. The two boys, now at 5 and 7, have reached a stage whereby they can play, fight and quarrel well together :)

Son No 3 has blossomed considerably this past year. He has become much, much more chatty (help!) and more aware of the world. He has picked up sufficient vocabulary to express his ideas and can engage in delightfully nonsensical debates with Son No 2. It is really quite amusing to hear their quarrels or their constant attempts of one-upmanship.

Frequently, in the midst of a quarrel, one of them may yell one of the following:

• "Maaa-meee, he is telling a web of lies!"
• "Maaa-meee, he called me a lousy boy!"
• "Maaa-meee, he beat me for no reason!"
• "Maaa-meee, he is so evil!"

... but they will continue their verbal sparring without missing a beat. They do not really want me to intervene - they just want to score a point with the other party. Well, this wise mom will not interfere, unless absolutely necessary - I know they are not really seriously quarrelling - they just enjoy socializing in that manner!

When the two boys are good friends, they are very good together. Some Saturday or Sunday mornings, they wake up and remain in their bedroom, playing their Lego set in bed or using their pillows/bolsters to build homes for their toy animals. At other times, they play their respective Game boy quietly together. That must be their idea of a perfect lie-in on a weekend. Ah, couldn't agree more. Peace for all.

And when they are up to their pranks.....! I will never forget this - and neither will Son No 1, I suspect.

One fine day, the two younger boys decided to play a trick on Big Brother. The plan was to switch off the bathroom light when Big Brother was bathing to give him a fright. The idea came from Son No 2. But he was not tall enough to reach the light switch. So he convinced his younger but taller brother to commit the crime. This is what you might call teamwork - one providing the brainwave, the other the brawn.

You can guess what happened next. Big Brother indeed got a fright of his life. He dashed out of the bathroom, dripping wet and hopping mad, furiously demanding to know who switched off his light. But the partners in crime kept quiet - nobody owned up - and we were left wondering who was the culprit? It was much later, after much probing, that we got the whole story out. It never crossed my mind that the two younger boys were in cahoots!

Below are some moments captured when they are playing together:

Playing their own brand of chess. I cannot imagine how they can spend hours just moving the chess pieces around. They do not know how to play chess, but they have devised their own set of rules - beats me how it works - but it works well enough to keep them both engrossed in the game for long periods of time.

Playing a game of Wii. Their favourite game is Star Wars, of course. Both of them can play at the same time but in this dual mode, one takes the lead and the other must be the follower. That's when the trouble starts. These two will quarrel like who should follow whom and if the other guy is not following well, they will come to mommy to mediate.

Playing in the bath tub. The bath tub used to be able to accommodate all three boys at once. But not any more. Here, they are doing "experiments". Which object floats and which sinks? Now, don't think it's my idea - no, not at all. To them, it's just another game. This is the reason why people say kids should learn through play!

My Jem & Scout

Jem & Scout are the two child protagonists from the novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird." The story is told through the eyes of Scout. At the start of the novel, Jem was 11 and Scout, his sister, was 6.

Notice the age difference? It is exactly the same age difference between Sons No 1 and No 2. What prompted this post is that I can see the striking similarity in the personal development of the two characters in the novel and my two boys.

Early in the novel, we see Jem and Scout spending a lot of carefree time together, constantly playing pranks on their neighbours, with Jem taking the lead and Scout not always a willing follower. As the novel progressed, their relationship began to undergo a subtle change. Jem began to wander off into his own world and Scout had no choice but to seek companionship from their maid, Calpurnia. When Scout complained to their father, Atticus, about Jem, she was advised to "mind" Jem. All this was very confusing to young Scout, precocious though she was.

By the end of the novel, having gone through a court room experience as well as various other significant incidences, Jem at 13 had clearly grown in maturity and adopted a more "elder brother" role towards Scout. But thank goodness, the strong bond between the siblings was intact as can be seen from the last scene in the novel (shan't spoil the ending for those who have yet to read the novel).

The relationship between my Sons No 1 and No 2 seems to be undergoing such a transformation now. Not too long ago, they were the best of playmates. Nowadays, Son No 1 has other interests that tend to exclude his younger brother - nothing wrong with that - I know it is an inevitable progression in life.

For Son No 2, he is learning how to adapt. I notice that No 2 sometimes tries to initiate play by "disturbing" No 1 but his effort would meet with a sharp rebuke from No 1. I am not sure if it is hurt that I see flashing across No 2's face. Much like Scout, he is adjusting. The beneficiary to this development is No 3 to whom No 2 has turned for companionship. No 3 is now chief playmate. The two younger boys, now at 5 and 7, are closer in age and play as equals. But that is another story.

There are still moments now when Son No 1 would play with both his younger brothers and yes, they still have a rolling raucous good time together. Ya, these moments will be stored in the mind for a long, long time.

Pyjamas Party Every Night

First, it was the broadband to go. Now, it's the air-conditioner.

The air-conditioner in the two younger boys' bedroom has been groaning for a while, but we chose to ignore it. However, now it has started making these loud rattling noises that demand attention. There was no way that the two boys could sleep with that type of racket.

There were only two temporary solutions for the boys:

A) To sleep in their bedroom without the air-cond or

B) To camp in mummy's and daddy's bedroom for a while.

It was a no-brainer. A pyjamas party every night?!! Another dream came true!

Well, they will be camping in our room for the next few nights until the repairman fixes the air-cond. The two boys love the idea of sleeping in our room so much that they asked if we could make it a permanent fixture. Hmm...

What's Up?

Our broadband has been down for the past 2 days. The cause is being investigated, pending which our whole family is left high and dry. How dependent we have grown to be on the internet! That feeling of disconnectedness and loss .... I am sure you know what I mean.

Who will feed the pets? How to return emails? What's happening in the world? How to complete my mission?

So here I am, together with Son No 1, crouched in a little corner in his room, hijacking bandwidth from my unsuspecting neighbour...

So what's up? Son No 2's final exam has taken up most of my free time. When I am not coaching him, I am preparing papers for him to try. Son No 2 is a cooperative student. He has worked really hard. Tomorrow is the last day of his long-drawn exam and we will do something together to celebrate. We deserve it.

As for Son No 1, he has met with one of the biggest trials of his life. How he handles it will help shape his character, I hope.

Yesterday, I brought Son No 1 for his haircut and the hairstylist has cut it somewhat significantly shorter than normal. OK, it's almost a crew cut. Well, it's not really a disaster, but in his eyes, it's close enough. He is even thinking of changing schools. When mom says no, he is now resorting to eating more proteins (of which hair is made) so that his hair will grow faster. I told him the best way out really is to find the gene that determines hair growth and seeks to manipulate it so that hair doesn't grow - static - then we all need not be at the mercy of hairstylists. Wonderful idea, isn't it? The rest of mankind, who all have hair problems, will thank him for it. Maybe except David Beckham.

The happiest child is still Son No 3. He attended a schoolmate's birthday party last Sunday and laughed loudly at the clown's jokes. The jokes were really lame, believe me, but the 5- and 6-year-olds thought the clown was the funniest man on earth. Son No 2 who tagged along won a prize for one of the games and declared "My dream came true!" because his prize was a box filled with all types of candies and chocolates (see picture).

Ah, to be young again...

A Day At Genting

Before the flu bug hit last week, we were at Genting Highlands for a day-trip. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. The weather was good - unexpectedly cool (about 18 degrees C) which made it more fun.

What was significant about it? For one, Son No 1 is now tall enough (1.55m) to take all the rides. I remember not too long ago when he was about 1.2m and he was quite upset that he could not take some rides. It became a motivation for him to grow. Now it is the two younger boys' turn to wait patiently to grow...

That day at Genting also marked the first time Son No 1 took a roller-coaster ride all by himself.

We did a couple of family rides (see pictures below) and ended the day at the indoor arcade where the boys lived their dreams of being F1 race car drivers (more pictures below). Beats me every time why the male species love to drive!

Yen's Studio Wedding

It was a family bonding time last week as Popo, Ping Yee, Uncle Ronny, Cousins Yen and Jack came to KL from Singapore and Faidu flew in from Bali. The occasion was Cousin Yen's "studio wedding" - to coin a new term!

Unfortunately, there was a flu virus hanging around and most of us were down with flu towards the end of the one-week break. That explains the silence on this blog.