The school year is drawing to a close and summer is coming -- and this time of year brings with it school end-of-year shows and activities, extra-many birthday parties for 'summer' kids, and goodbye parties for other expats who are either returning back to their home country or heading onwards to a new assignment in another part of the world.
We had a birthday party for A. and his favorite friends from school.....9 boys for 4 hours. It was fun, and between water gun fights in the pool, playing tag, and, of course, lots of goodies and cake, the time went by quickly.....A. had a great time. I don't have any 'blog' pictures...too many faces :-)
The Art Show at the boys' school was inspiring and very well put together. Art by the students was displayed in one large show room and throughout the school as well...here's the main 'gallery':
A visiting artist from New York came in to work with grades 3, 4 and 5 to create tiles...each student created one, and they have now been hung as a permanent installation at the school....so cool...and fun to look at...
The colors, shapes, composition....I really enjoyed looking at these....
The boys have really enjoyed their art classes. The art, music, and PE programs were a big plus this year and an upgrade from our public school system experience in California, even given that we were in a good school there with decent facilities. The art facilities and teachers at the Singapore school are wondeful and I'm happy that we have this opportunity to enjoy them. Music has been very good, too; E. is playing the violin for the second year, and A. has discovered that he's got a pretty good voice for singing....
Anyhow, despite the challenges of getting up early to catch a 7am bus and not getting back home until 3:45pm in the afternoon, the school experience has been good and the boys are happy. They've made good friends, too, and the school has proven much more 'international' than I initially thought it would be --- and that's a good thing. Naturally, there are always rough patches and things to 'manage through' - but the boys are learning and are exposed to many ideas and ways of doing things that I hope will be useful in the future.
OK, that's it for now....