California sushi

 

# 346

Since my boy dismissed at 1.30 pm and the school was within walking distance from our house, he normally ate his lunch I prepared at home. Above is one of his bento box with California sushi, tamagoyaki and some Japanese cucumber sticks. We have been playing with flags of different countries which I bought from Tokyu Hands from Orchard Central.  These flag picks are 2 sided; iconic picture on one side and the country flag on the other.  I used black and white soccer ball flag pick to blend in with the white box.  The country that present it was England on the other side of the flag.

We craved for cold drinks everyday after school.  It has been scorching hot and sunny during the afternoons.  I literally have free sauna standing outside the school gate while waiting for my boy.  Nothing beats a cool honey avocado milkshake!

It was the end of second week of his Primary school days.  There was no pressure and he managed the lessons like a breeze.  He brought back his first spelling lists for English words.  A balance of some easy and difficult words which I thought was very encouraging to the children for a start.  I have started practicing spelling with him and would do the last round this Sunday before he would be tested on Monday the next day. 

The school also introduced a 15 minutes snack time on Mondays only starting at 11.00am on top of his early recess time at 8.30 am.  I have mistaken it was an everyday affairs.  Hence, I gave him a packet of oats biscuits on a Tuesday which he told me he "secretly ate under the table" in the classroom.  I bet the form teacher knew it since the latter reminded the class that snack was only allowed on Mondays ONLY although he said nobody saw him eating.

I hope I did not bore you with some snippets of this Primary school days and yeah, I would be writing more about it on my blog for a while.  Have a nice weekend ahead!

Fish and the day he starts his Primary School

# 345

This is my first bento for year 2015! And also my son's first lunchbox after school!! A 'fishy' business (onigiri) with a Japanese flag foodpick which I bought it from it Tokyu Hands at Orchard Central.  It contains some boiled broccoli, potato, carrot, hard boiled egg, Japanese cucumber, cherry tomatoes and char siew that Granny brought over yesterday. 

A brand new year means also the start of my boy's primary school education. A few days before the school opens, we talked about his new school and how did he feel about going to Primary school.  I was expecting he would say "excited".  Instead, he told us that he felt "nervous" about it.  Probably, we have over emphasized that he need to behave in school, pay attention in class, listen to instructions, adhere to the school's rules....etc.  We also explained it was entirely different from the carefree kindergarten environment.  One aspect of which, we did highlight was bringing homework back home. Whilst I was penning down my thoughts, I began to realise it really does not sound very fun in Primary school the way we put it across to him though.  Nevertheless,  he settled well on his first day of school last Friday, 2 January 2015.  Parents were allowed to stay behind and observe the kids during the recess time only for the first day.  Hubby and myself saw him munching his healthy lunch box quickly provided by the school (only on the first day) and could even showed his classmate where to wash hands after meal.  Afterwhich, both of us attended a 3 hours parenting workshop organised by the Parent Volunteer group.  When the school dismissed at 1.30pm, we saw him walking out together with his classmates led by his form teacher, smiling and happy!

It was interesting to note that given freedom to my son, he would come out something unexpected or rather something not approved by us.  The liberty to buy any kinds of food from the school canteen instead of packed bento from Mommy.  Yeah, speaking from a boy longing for independent - this was what he was looking forward.  We agreed but on the following days:-

Monday to Tuesday - buy lunch at school
Wednesday to Friday - Packed bento to school

On the second day of school, Papa gave him a $10 note pocket money for the whole week.  And it was a Monday which he could buy food on his own.  Shockingly, he bought a piece of fried seaweed chicken nuggets for 50cents and a packet of seaweed tibits for 30 cents!  Where's the healthy lunch box we saw him eating on the first day?  Next was even unbelievable! The canteen was too crowded that he and his Primary 4 buddy could not find seats to eat.  My son knew his choice of food was unacceptable and has asked us to give him another chance. Well, on the third day (today), he actually bought the healthy lunch box from the Chicken rice stall but still standing to eat his lunch.  At least, they found a table. Basically, a healthy lunch box has meat, vegetables and fruit.

Academic wise, he began his Hanyu Pinyin and English lessons.  He was amused during the Hanyu Pinyin lesson and discovered fun learning it.  I was pleased he enjoyed his lessons.

Walking to school

Recess time

In the classroom