The Vegetables School

Yes, that's what Sze Yi told Amah - we sent her to the vegetable's school! They only ate vegetables there :)

Now, Sze Yi would say her grace out loud before each meal, regardless of where she had her meals - at home, or while dining outside. And automatically Sze Juin would stop eating and follow suit. Sometimes I'm not sure if I should feel proud or embarassed - she's drawing too much unncessary attention!

Before we went to Russia, I left them at Amah's house for a week, because SJ got bronchitis while SY's having minor cold. So they actually missed school for quite a while - about 3 weeks. When we're back, naturally SJ didn't want to go back to her classroom - she joined her Jie Jie at 5-year old class. So I dropped them at SY's class  (her class teacher is ever so nice and could handle SJ too!) every morning for about 1 week. Then SJ's class teacher would come and bring SJ back to her class after she warmed up.

I was told that SY is a very good Jie Jie. She really takes great care of her Mei Mei, and I'm very proud of her. Even the teachers there praised her and asked Daddy if they ever fight at home. Because everytime when we came to pick them up, we always see SY either holding SJ's hand, or guiding her somewhere - to the toilet, or to take their shower, and even helped her take her school bag and stuffs. SJ would always said it's too heavy for her, and ran to me straightaway :) But too bad SY's only so caring in school. At home, she likes to bully Mei Mei, and they always fight! Mei Mei has very good defence system too, in fact I often heard Jie Jie crying and calling for help when Mei Mei went too wild!

One obvious improvement I saw in Sze Yi is that her character has improved a lot. She can understand a lot of things very well, I just need to explain to her and she would listen to me. She's also not as naughty as last time. Unfortunately, I also observed there's a switch of role between the girls - Jie Jie becoming more kuai while Mei Mei's becoming more cheeky and naughty. The worst thing is that she wouldn't listen, and it's hard to explain to her, unlike her Jie Jie. Maybe she's still small, but she's certainly showing a very bad Terrible Two behaviour. I have never beaten Sze Yi with cane when she's small. But with SJ, it became so uncontrollable and there's no way to make her calm down or listen to me unless I use the cane. That's the only thing that would make her stop for awhile before continuing to throw her tantrums. Sigh... and I'm losing my control very easily nowadays too.

Over all, I'm quite happy with their new school - the teachers were all very caring and helpful. However, most of the time, I couldn't help noticing that SJ would always be in somebody's arms. She would only let certain teachers carry her. And at times she wouldn't want to participate in the activities at all. I guess she's still a baby - the school didn't accept any 2 year old, the youngest is 3 year old. But they took SJ in because they are very understanding on our situation and for the first time I could feel that they were doing it out of love and not for profit at all. The only drawback is that this school is really a school, not so much like a day care where we can request the teachers to do additional things for them. But looking on another perspective, this environment would quickly train them to be more independant, which I see that SY has adapted to really nicely. As for SJ, if she's not so manja, maybe she'll adapt faster too, but because she's the youngest, and most of the teachers are extra lenient with her, that's why she has a lot of exception. Luckily she has a Jie Jie to keep an eye on her and help her adapt.