Summer Holidays

This title, in itself, is confusing to me. Here in Singapore it is always summer... In Australia it is currently winter... But because I teach at an American School the holiday break that we enjoy every June & July is known as the 'Summer' break as it is summer in the US where many of my teaching colleagues head at this time of year. But I am not complaining...8 weeks of holiday is my idea of bliss so I really don't care what it is called!!

We opted to spend most of this break in Singapore. I think some people felt a little sorry for us that we weren't going away for the whole break but we love staying here in Singapore. We love our house, we love Singapore and all it has to offer, and we have time as a family to just relax and enjoy each other's company. Our first week was basically spent either being incredibly lazy at home, or very busy with appointments and odd jobs that we never seem to have time for during term time.

The following 3 weeks were spent at summer school run by the Singapore American School (SAS) where we work. This was my third year teaching at summer school and the third year for Lachlan and Caleb to attend, but for the first time Darrell taught a class as well. My job for the past 3 years has been as an early childhood teacher, working with 3 and 4 year-olds. I love it...I have a teacher aide, 2 high school students assisting, and a maximum class-size of 20 although most of the time the numbers are in the mid-teens. Darrell taught a strings class for intermediate to advanced students and ended up with around 7 students for the first 2 weeks but not enough for the third week so he got a free week at home to work on his doctorate. He was quite happy about this to say the least :-)

Lachlan opted to take a sports class for the entire 3 weeks so was exposed to tennis, badminton, soccer, ultimate frisbee, water polo, basketball, and volleyball. He loved it and enjoyed learning new skills and being active every day. Caleb had a rotating schedule of 8 different subjects including math, science, sports, computing, cooking, language-arts, swimming and art but all with a non-academic approach and a fun slant on learning. Both boys were sad to see the end of summer school and are already anticipating next year!

During our summer school weeks we were lucky enough to have a visit from our friends, the Dotulong family, whom we knew in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Jefry, Emily, Alex and Sarah (L-R above) came and stayed with us for a week and had a busy time exploring Singapore while we were at summer school each day. Alex and Lachlan used to be good friends at school in Jakarta but hadn't really kept in touch so it was great to see how well they got on when they met up again. In fact, all four children really connected and had a wonderful time together during the week. It was great, too, for Darrell and I to be able to catch up with Sarah and Jefry.

Once summer school finished we had another week at home where Darrell tackled his doctorate every morning and the boys and I ventured out to explore Singapore.

Caleb has decided that mini-golf is his favorite sport...

...and both boys love Sentosa Island at the southern end of Singapore so we visited the giant Merlion there and the boys swam at the beach. Not a bad way to spend a few days.

Another reason for staying home during the break is to enjoy our dogs, Muffin and Cookie. Caleb is still in love with dogs in general, but these two in particular, and he decided to take some photos of them one day when they were having an identity crisis.

Cookie - our female - has a pink kennel and Muffin - the male - has a blue kennel, but on this particular day they had chosen to swap kennels and enjoy each other's space for a while...

The next week of our holiday requires a post all of its own...Beijing, China!