Student-Led Conferences@ SAS

This is one of the music classrooms...it is full of Gamalan music instruments from India. The children spend time learning how to play them.

Elementary art show...Carington made a paper-mache hand mirror to display.

Brother had fun in the gym playing with the balls!!!!

There are 4 primary school gyms and the students rotate through each one...this one is a favorite...it contains a rock climbing wall...how cool!!!

Somewhere in this aquarium is a lizzard called Mr. Grump. He bit the science lab teacher's finger Carington said...guess that's why he's called Mr. Grump.

The science lab is filled with aquariums.

The Wonderful science lab!! Each class gets to visit 4 times a quarter. Mrs. Liddell is the teacher and she's from New Zealand.

There were lots of experiments for the kids to show the parents.

Baby Brother came along for the ride, too!

This is from Carington's Mandarin Chinese class...it says...I like swimming and I don't music. Her Mandarin teacher was very impressed with how quickly she's picking it up for someone who has never been exposed to it before...Way to Go!!!!!!

A dinosaur puzzle we had to put together. Carington's class has been studying dinosaur's and fossil's the past few weeks.

Reading a story she wrote, illustrated and published on the computer!!

Carington's teacher...Mrs. Morris...any guesses on what her husbands name is...yep- Robert...isn't that funny. She's from Canada and been in Singapore for 6 years.

Carington's classroom

Friday, May 23 were student-led conferences @ SAS...it was a wonderful opportunity for us to take a peak into Carington's life at school and all of the amazing work she has done this semester!!

First Sentence!!

Brady can say his first 2 word sentence!!!
He says... " Hi- Dada"
" Hi - Mama"

Mr. Larry!!

Meet Mr. Larry!!! Mr. Larry works for a Mercedes taxi company and is our "driver". We first met him on our "look-see" trip last year and he was quickly become a friend. He's always there when we need him and willing to give a helping hand to me and the kids. Brady and Carington love Mr. Larry, as you can see by the picture...Brady is running into Mr. Larry's arms!! The Lord has definitely gone before us and put caring people into our path!

Daddy's shoes

In the blink of an eye he will fill these shoes! But for now I'll treasure it!!

More New Words

apple- "a-pa"
sky- "ki"
light- "ga-li"

PRECIOUS!!!

This is one of my little man's favorite things to do...he loves to stand in the window and watch the world go by.

Singapore American School

More pics from around the school. This area separates the Primary and Intermediate school from the Middle and High school.

And this is Lissette...one of Carington's best friends here in Singapore. Her family is originally from New Jersey. Lissette road home from school with us and Carington had a sleepover at her house.

This is Carington's year end reflection...she designed it on the computer HERSELF!!!!

This is the bulletin board outside Carington's class.






On Friday I had the opportunity to go to Carington's school and be a guest reader in her 2nd grade class. Here are some pictures from around the school. Because of the tropical climate all of the classrooms are in an open air setting where the hallways are unconditionally...all classrooms have airconditioning...very different from what we are used to back in the States. There are 3 stories to the school. In the primary wing K is on the bottom level and 2nd on the 3rd level. All students K-12 are on one campus but the school is divided up into different wings that are all color coded to help the students. The primary is color coded orange, thus the orange doors...all signs are in orange etc. The campus is soooo large I remember being overwhelmed when we first arrived and wondered how we'd ever know how to get around but it has become quite familiar now. 3rd-5th are in the Intermediate school, 6th-8th Middle school and 9th-12th High school. According to a friend of mine who has kids in high school the curriculum is so intense that a 3.75 grade point is considered average-whew!!! That's pretty good in my book. We go back to the school next Friday for student-led conferences so I'll try to take more pictures...it's an amazing campus.

Mommy's Helper

Brady was helping mommy clean...he loves to get a washcloth and "clean" and if you tell him to wash his face...he'll take the wash cloth way behind his ear and wipe. OOOO, he's just at the age where he's doing new and funny things everyday!!

His little vocabulary is starting to explode of course it's toddler version but mommy knows what he's saying!!

* shoes- "ooes"

* trees- "ees"

*keys- "kees"

*this- "dis"

*daddy- "da-da"

*mommy- "ma-ma"

* kitty cat- can't write it down yet but it sounds like it.

* ice cream- can't put it into words either but it sounds like it also!!

Brady's New Shoes

OOes- OOes (shoes, shoes) as Brady calls them!!!! Brady got new shoes and he has been so proud of them. I put them on him Sunday for the first time and it was so cute to watch him walk around. He bends down to look at them. Oh, he felt so big! He looks so big in them, too!

Life on the Streets

City buses are another form of transportation that MANY people use. Public transportation is clean and safe here in Singapore.

This big yellow bus zooming by is a SAS (Singapore American School) bus. SAS has a fleet of 100 buses that travel the island in the morning and afternoon dropping kids off. Each bus has a driver and "bus lady" that helps the kids. And the kids have seat belts to wear!!!

There are 24,000 taxi's in the city of Singapore.


This is about the biggest truck you will see on the roads. There are no semi's like you see at home. No big, gas guzzling SUV's either...only small ones.

This is a picture of Steven's Road. It is the main road in front of our street. We live on Walshe Road. Most taxi drivers are not familiar with it because it is such a small street but if you tell them its off of Stevens Road they can get you there! If you notice the traffic is all coming in one direction...most of the streets are divided this way...you pull out and are forced to go one direction or the other...in order to go another direction you have to drive a ways and U-turn which is legal here...in fact they have specific marked U-turn spots for you to use.

Arab Street

This is Arab street in Singapore. It is a landmark and a must see among tourist destinations. It is lined with fabric stores...some of the most beautiful fabrics...very bright and vibrant colors. I was only able to make to one store, it was past Brady's naptime and very hot. I went specifically to go to Dillip's (it's the top picture above). It is a famous store that has beautiful table cloths, napkins and place mats. I bought several place mat and napkin sets for $20 USD. He carries a line of french country fabrics...probably the only person in Singapore that does and that's what I was after!!! They are all handmade in India.

A Break From the Heat

It has been soooo hot and sticky here for the past week or so...the kind of hot where the minute you step out the door sweat rolls down your back and you can cut the air with a knife. July and August heat back home!! We had some storms roll thru early this morning and cool the temperatures down...today has been bearable outside. We've had a nice cool breeze and cloud cover. So nice that we ate lunch outside at a new pizza place down the street called Spizza.

Festival of Stories Week

Dressed up as Molly from American Girl.
PJ day

This past week was Festival of Stories Week in 2nd grade.
* Monday was Teachers' Reading Rainbow- the students traveled to different classrooms to hear other teachers read.

*Tuesday- PJ day.

*Wednesday- Story Teller day- a humorist Roger Jenkins came to tell stories.

*Thursday- Poem in Your Pocket Day- students shared their favoite poems. Carington shared from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein.

*Friday- Character Day- Carington chose to dress up as Molly from the American Girl series.

Provisioner

PROVISION ER...one of the best things since sliced bread!!!! A provisioner is someone who does your grocery shopping for you...yes, you read it right ladies...does your grocery shopping for you!!!! The one I use is called Kenny Grocery. A man calls me every morning to see what items I need and then someone delivers them to my door around 4pm. They will bring you ANYTHING you need. From lightbulbs to apples... The guy that delivers my groceries name is Ray and I have him "trained" to take the items to my kitchen and unpack them for me!!!! Using the provisioner has been a lifesaver here since making the daily trek to the store is not as convenient as back in the states. This expat life may not be so bad after all!!!

Every Day is a New Day!!!!

Every day is an exciting in the life of my little boy. He discovers something new each day. A couple of days ago he discovered that he could walk in between my legs. He had run up and threw his arms around my legs to give me a hug...which he often does...and in doing so his momentum carried him through my legs. Well that was all it took for a new game. We spent a long time in the kitchen with him walking through my legs, around my legs, doing figure 8's between my two legs.

2nd Grade Walk-a-thon

Singapore American School track and high school.

Brady participated in the walk-a-thon, too!!!

Taking a break for oranges!

Carington's friends...Gabriella and Suneta.

All ready to raise money.

On April 25th the 2nd grade held a walk-a-thon to raise money for a school in Indonesia and an elephant sanctuary. We made it a family affair and spent the morning at the school. It was a lot of fun.

Notice all of the beautiful flower arrangements...it is typical to see this at the grand opening of a restaurant. This place is called Jumbo Seafood...Asian style seafood...looked at the menu and it's a far cry from Red Lobster! According to my friend Ashley whose lived here for 8 years you can't find our American style seafood here...oh, well...we'll add Red Lobster to our list of restaurants to eat at this summer!

A Night for Celebrating!!!

We took Carington out to eat at her 2 favorite places...Korean BBQ and Ben & Jerry's in celebration of her successful science experiment and class presentation. Her 2nd grade class had been studying how matter can change and were to choose an experiment that would show it and then do a 2-3 minute presentation in front of the class! Pretty serious stuff for a 2nd grader! Carington choose turning a liquid to solid...a scrambled egg. This was a daddy/daughter project. Robert and Carington conducted the experiment on a Saturday morning. They carefully timed and took pictures each minute to show how long it took for the egg to scramble, then put the pictures on poster board and labeled each exhibit. Carington then presented it to the class on Monday. The students were evaluated in 6 different categories and Carington received an excellent in ALL of them!!! We are sosoooo PROUD of her!!!!!

Check out the spread of food on the table!! Carington LOVES to eat at this restaurant. From the menu you choose the type of meat you want and someone cooks it at your table. Her favorite dish is a marinated squash and zucchini...she will eat several helpings of it. Her 2nd favorite thing to do is eat ice cream at Ben & Jerry's. We discovered both of these restaurants when we first moved here and they have been favorites ever since.