A Lesson Learnt: 3 lessons of CID 2

So, throughout the 3 lessons of CID, we learnt pretty much...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Interesting Lesson 1:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The purpose of CID?

-CID aims to cultivate artificial thinkers who will be able to reflect and draw lessons from different experiences.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Amazing Lesson 2:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Activity: A picture speaks a thousand words (Beggar, Beggar)

 Draw out inferences in what can you depict from pictures the teacher shows to the class, and draw 

 out explanations to your inferences. How each picture depict a particular aspect of life, such as happiness or fear?

-Lesson Learnt:

 Do not judge a person by its appearence: It is important to look from different perspectives, and learn about their personal backgrounds before judging somebody. Do not draw conclusions too fast.

There is poverty in every part of the world and it can be due to factors such as health issues or family problems, where they struggle to survive without much education and financial support. They thrive each day, hoping that the next there will be someone helpful enough to share their empathy towards them. But most of the time, the wait will to be no avail. 

Yes, the world is full of the people from the poor. However, it is essential that we be wary of who we are helping. Some people might be out to con people, and those people are not at all worthy of our help. Some might be able-bodied, but they failed to find a job to provide themselves, hence they go out to the streets begging for help or money. These people may have their own personal reasons, such as their low education, so we should seek further for their personal backgrounds before we judge them as 'lazy' or give any negative comments about them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Educational Lesson 3:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-Activity: Observation Skills - School life in RV & Communication

-Leson learnt:

 Observation skills are important--by obeserving (by opening our ears and eyes bigger), we can know what the surroundings is and what is happening around us. We can also know a person's feelings by observing his/her body language. By observing, we can notice many other things, for example, what events are taking place in the near future by looking at the noticeboards, or, by following the news for worlds events that are currently or my take place now.

Year of the Horse!

AHOYY! Chinese New Year is rouund the corner! My friends and I are full of excitement about it, as we wonder how much money we will get for our red packets. But chinese new year is not just about receiving angpaus, complaining about how little money your relatives give you. It's about the bonding between our families and friends. So, for our blogwork today, we decide to share our thoughts for the upcomign Chinese New Year!

Of course, during chinese new year, everywhere, every corner you see will red. People wearing red, red decorations ect. Hence, we picked red colour as the colour that symbolises our thoughts for chinese new year.

Red colour symbolizes good fortune and joy to the Chinese, and is the colour of many, many chinese new year decorations. Red packets are also given to people during chinese new year, because red in this case represents good luck ( so wish you luck in having a hundred dollar note in your red packet ).

In addition, red symbolises a strong feeling of excitement, so we picked the colour red. 

As for a chinese new year symbol, we picked the word “吉". It represents LUCK and PROSPERITY.

Everyone (especially us) wants good luck for the Chinese New Year and their business to prosper and do well, right? So let's wish you 吉祥如意，万事如意！

Ever heard of the zodiac before? Yes, this year is the year of the HORSE! So, the image we chose is a Horse! Zodiac order: Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.

The twelve animals take turns each year, and in the year 2014, it is the year of the HORSE! 

The horse also symbolises freedom and endurance. We hope that everyone in the year 2014 has the power to endure every obstacle we face in our life, and lead a free but also funpacked year for us.

As shown, the colour of the horse is red, which symbolises luck and prosperity, a colour that we Chinese love. 

Here's the cool picture of the horse:

Lastly, we would want to wish everyone a very happy chinese new year, and may your life prosper with wealth and luck ( and strike lottery ).

祝你们马到成功，龙马精神，恭喜发财，万事如意！ 

Poverty in Singapore

The poor in Singapore...

    In Singapore, it is unlikely that you will find beggars lining the streets or see starving children walking along the pavements, begging for food. The poor and needy in our society struggle with “relative poverty”, meaning that their financial resources fall substantially below what is needed to pay for the necessities of living in Singapore.

We think that it is due to various factors like health issues and family circumstances, they struggle to survive on a day-to-day basis. Moreover, they are caught in a vicious poverty cycle, with little or no means to make a better life for themselves. Their children are often not able to do better than their parents due to lack of knowledge and educational support. For example, the child would quit school to work and earn some money to support his family.

Is it possible to break this cycle?

While the factors impacting the poor’s plight are complex and often involve systemic issues like housing and employment, and it may take many generations to overcome, some concrete things can be done. One way is to focus on our younger generation. Programmes like money-management workshops allow children to grasp the concept of money and how to use it wisely. Upgrading of work skills also allow adults to gain a more competitive edge in the job market, while better coping with economic challenges.

It is critical that the young remain in the education system, and that they receive the best support they can to gain the knowledge and skills for a better future. 

What can we do to help these poor people?

As stated, the poor usually suffer as they do not have any children, or their children abandoned them for unfilal reasons. To add on, they lack education and they may be too weak to take on jobs to feed themselves, hence they resort to begging on the streets.

The Singapore Government introduced the ''FAS'' campaign ( Fanancial Assistant Support ) for families with rather low income, such that their children are still able to attend school and other school related activities without worrying the price they must fork out, as the money they give will be subsidised by the Singapore government. 

These people are not considered that poor, because at least they can maintain life without any problem and lead a normal life like anybody else. But what about those poor, who spend their lives sleeping on streets and collecting cans from filthy dustbins?

Study shows that poverty in Singapore has increases vastly over the years, with 16% of the population to 28% in 2013.

In our opinion, the Government hasn't put in enough effort in helping the poor ( did help, but not much ). Perhaps, in the near future, with the help from us and the government, the population of the poor in Singapore may decrease.

We can at least help these poor people by giving them some food or daily neccesities to help maintain their life. Setting up charity events in schools or neighbourhoods may benefit the poor too.

We believe that as we put in enough effort to help these poor people, we will see lesser figures sleeping on the streets...

Lesson 3: What is school life like in RVHS?

It is the dismissal time on a Wednesday afternoon. The environment is bustling with activities. Everyone is ecstatic as school has finally ended. Most people has a weary look on their face as it has been a long day. Some people are eagerly packing their bags and the rest are preparing to put up the chinese new year decorations in the classroom. People are standing together with their cliques, talking. The noise level is slightly higher than usual as some people are laughing and giggling in their own conversation. One of our friend that we have talked to says that she is feeling happy as her teacher did not assign any homework for them to do today. Her face lit up when she mentioned that she has no homework to do. The classroom's windows, walls and noticeboard are beautifully decorated with angpows lanterns and other crafts. The decorations made the classroom "redder" than usual and creates a festive atmosphere. From the surrounding, what impresses me the most is that my classmates are cooperating well with each other to decorate the classroom for the upcoming CNY decoration competition and they are all having fun. All of us hope to win this competition and bring glory to our class and be proud of ourselves. I think school life in RV is busy yet lively at the same time for RVians. Everyone take pride in their work and try their best in everything including non-academic work.

This image shows the school spirit in River Valley. A boy is hanging the paper lanterns outside the window of his class made from the red packets by his friends. Everyone is assigned a task to do and with everyone doing their part, this speed up their work process. The boy who is hanging the paper lanterns seems to have encountered a little problem while hanging the lanterns as he does not have enough hands to do it by himself and he has to tip toe to be able to reach the top of the window. I feel that one of his friends should take initiative and help him with some of the work. Overall, the students in this class have team work and are able to cooperate well with each other to decorate their classroom.

This image shows Fear in River Valley. The boys in our class love "playing" a lot. Perhaps their definition of playing might unknowingly cause fear in other students.

This images shows Happiness in River Valley. Two girls are sitting on the swing and have fun riding back and forth. They are chatting animatedly while on the swing too. It is nice to take a ride on the swing with your best friend after a tiring day to destress and have a nice bonding time. Happiness is simplicity! 

This image shows the Life in River Valley. It is so lively on the day of RV 58th school anniversary celebration concert. Everyone has arrived early and gather in the school hall to watch the exciting performances. The hall was silent when the Concert Band started performing. Everyone are captivated by the melodic music played and are listening attentively. It seems that all the students are enjoying the music pieces. The hard work of RV concert band have been paid off. (photo credit to RV Photography Club)

Holiday Reflection - Leong Ruo Qing (8)

During the holidays, I went to many places with my family or close friends and did many things. Some of which I tried for the first time during the holidays.

Well, on 12Dec, my family went to Thailand. We stayed in Thailand for about 20 odd days as we went around. We first went to Chiangmai, then HuaHin, Bangkok and finally Koh Lipe. We then took a boat to Langkawi from Koh Lipe before taking a plane back to Singapore. I enjoyed every moment of the trip because at each place, everything was vastly different and it was all a new experience.

Which place was the most memorable to me? Chiangmai! In Chiangmai, we stayed in a place called "Spicy Villa" which was up in the mountains. There was no hot water, and they used a solar panel to generate the electricity which was to be used at night (the light was really dim D:). I did many activities I tried for the first time, such as bamboo rafting, water tubing, and riding an elephant. It was a really new experience as I was not always looking at my electronic device but rather, enjoying nature. The experience got me thinking, we are all living in bliss yet taking everything for granted. Even the most basic necessities to us, such as hot water and electricity, were they actually that important? To us, yes, but not to everyone. There are still people who are too poor to even buy the food they need in order to survive yet we are always taking what we have, such as food and electricity, for granted. Maybe we have always been showered with love since we were born and have never experienced any difficult or poor times, thus we never understand the plight of many poor people and take everything we have for granted. I only lived without electricity and hot water for a few days but it was already difficult for me to cope with, what about those people who have to live their lifes without any electricity? I suddenly felt empathy for them, and for the first time ever, I started thinking about hoe lucky I have always been. I promised myself to never take anything for granted anymore, and to think of all the unfortunate people who have little food on their plates every time I waste my food (I have a tendency to do that oops). I've learnt a lot from the few days and I guess, my mum actually arranged that trip in order for me and my brothers to see how fortunate we are and to learn how to enjoy life without being slaves of our electronic devices.

On a positive side, the sunrise was beautiful!

We got the chance to release lanterns as it was the Loy Krathong Festival and Yee Peng Festival of Lights! Not my first time experiencing the activity but it is still relatively unfamiliar to me. 

The night was really beautiful with all the lights from the lanterns lighting up the night sky! Too bad they don't look nice in pictures :(

But here's a picture of many people gathering to release the lanterns! It's a spectacular sight too :D

My favourite place is actually Koh Lipe because the beach was really beautiful and I tried snorkelling for the first time! Snorkelling was really fun and I got to see the many fishes in the water. It was a really new and interesting, and kind of magical, experience for me.

A picture of the beach

I tried a lot of new things in this holiday and I never regretted trying them. They were lots of fun!! I had a lot of fun during the holidays with my friends and family! I actually hope (as I always do) that the holidays were longer but it is impossible. I realise I didn't really treasure the first few weeks of the holidays (maybe to go out more or to do my homework) thus I made a mental note to myself to not waste any time slacking but should make good use of all the time during the next holiday! I am really looking forward for the holidays to come again and neither can I wait for OELP trip!(:

Holiday Reflection-Goh Qian Wei (5)

During the holidays, I went to many places and did many things. It was my first time going to Malacca in December 2013 and I enjoyed myself there. Here's a photo of the christmas tree in the hotel where I stayed in. 

I tried the chicken rice there, which was rolled into balls and not simply packed into packets like Singapore's. I also tried the Peranakan food, but unfortunately it wasn't the type of food that I am used to and I didn't know how to appreciate it. This is a photo of the Peranakan food. I learnt that different cultures have different types of food, and we should learn to enjoy the different types of food while on holiday in other countries.

When I came back from Malacca, I had a gathering with my primary school clique at the beach. It was really enjoyable and I learnt that true friends can make time for each other, and also, no matter how long you've never met each other after studying in different places, as long as the friendship is real, meeting up would never be awkward. I hope that I will have more time to arrange for more outings to meet up with them again soon.

We also watched the movie 'Frozen' and I felt that it was great. My favourite character in the movie is Anna! She is bright and cheerful, unlike her sister, Elsa, which everyone prefers. The movie taught me that your sibling(s) will be there for you when you need them, even though you have hurt them by ignoring them for a very long period of time, and avoiding them even though they took the initiative to ask for your company.

The day after that, my family and I went to River Safari. We saw the pandas, KaiKai and JiaJia and many other interesting animals. We should learn to appreciate wildlife more, and take good care of animals and not harm them. They are living things and have feelings as well.

It was a great holiday spent at the end of the year and I really enjoyed it. I have also did many interesting things like opening a blogshop with Yan Tong. I learnt many things from opening a blogshop, such as how to manage my time better, how to deal with some people and in a way, how to start a profitable business. I really can't wait for the holidays to come again, and neither can I wait for the OELP trip as I'm really excited about it!

Ng Jing Xue (29) - Holiday Reflection

H O L I D A Y       REFLECTION :

How do I spend my holidays? Well, there are some interesting events that happened during my holidays. But on the other hand, some events made me want to shed tears of boredom. But overall, I quite enjoyed my holidays.

It was almost the same throughout the holidays, where i wake up everyday and did my homework after breakfast. Homework includes: School work and self study. I make science notes such that i can absorb information easier in school when school reopens. Of course, like most people, I enjoy playing video games, but do that only after I had completed the tasks of the day. How do I keep track on what tasks I have to finish on that day? I made myself a to-do-list table, and tick the boxes for every task Ive done. For every task incomplete on that day, I forced myself to play lesser games and do more homework the next day.

Everyday was like that until my family and I went to a short trip to Costa Sands Resort for a family vacation. There, we explored new sport activities such as bowling, as we spent family time together. 

We stayed overnight for 2 days, days enough for me and my family to really enjoy this trip.

Bowling: there, it was my first time playing bowling. I learnt alot from this special experience. The first few rounds, I had the lead ahead of my family, but as my hands got more and more tired of carrying such a heavy ball, i began to lose out. I didnt scored any turkey, didnt scored any strike, but I've only scored Spare only twice. The competition was between my dad and brother. They were really great bowlers, I must say. What's the result? My dad won.

From this rare experience, I learnt that mastering something takes time. Look at the olympic athletes, look at how well they play bowling, look at how well they master the technique of it. It takes patience to learn something through hardwork, but not pure luck. Im the right example, for I played well early game but not up to standard in late game.

Swimming: We went swimming too. For more than 4 years, I hadn't swam. Honestly, I'm not a really good swimmer though. The weather was perfect for a relaxing swim on that day. We swam and played with water for about one and a half hour and got tired, so we went back to our chalet for a break before we left for dinner.

Swimming is a really tiring sport, perhaps one of the most intense sport so far. It requires huge stamina to swim so fast. Hm...I guess I need to train more often!

Cycling: The next day, we left for cycling in the Pasir Ris Park. Once again, the weather looks like it was in our favor! Rain fell the night before, but in the morning, filled with fresh and moist air, it was perfect for cycling. We cycled for very long. Probably cycled the whole park. The scenary was awestruck, with the sea breeze blowing onto our faces everytime we cycled near the seaside. We cycled until we stopped at the dead-end. Actually, we planned to go to the beach for a while to enjoy the cool sea and the sand. But to our disappointment, on that time, it was high tide. The beach was gone, swallowed completely by sea water. However, this didn't dampen our spirits. We continued to cycle back to our destination. It was all great until something happened. Because of the wet slippery floor, my bicycle collapsed sideways when I tried to make a turn. My bicycle fell, so I fell with it. Unfortunately, my skin on my knee got scratched, blood slowly oozed out. It hurts, obviously, but luckily, the cut wasn't so serious. I treated my wound with water and pasted a plaster on my knee. It was alright.

Once bitten twice shy. This idiom perhaps doesn't exists in my dictionary. I've fallen off a bike twice, but these will never affect my passion of cycling. Cycling is meant to be a sport, not an activity to 'show off' how fast you can ride, or what kind of cool tricks you can perform with your bicycle. Hence, I will still continue to cycle oftenly. However, I promised myself to be more careful in the future.

EXPO: on the last morning, we ate breakfast and decided to go to EXPO for shopping. We bid farewell to Costa Sands ( I was very sad to leave :( ) and left for EXPO. We bought some clothes and food, and they were fairly cheap especially with the sale going on. We had lunch in SUBWAY and went back home. Home Sweet Home!

Then, Chirstmas comes!

My family do not belong to the Christian religion, but we still celebrate Christmas!

I got a new earpiece for my christmas present, and that was all what I needed for my christmas present. For christmas dinner, we went to Jcube for dinner. It was in a restaurant called ' Manhatten Fish Market', a restaurant speciallised in serving fish. I must say, the fish was finger-licking good! My father ordered a small little cup of espresso, so small I though it was cute:

That's probably the smallest cup of coffee I've ever seen!

It was a full dinner, probably too full to even stand. We took a walk around the area and went shopping in shopping malls i.e.Jcube, WestGate. Together with the lights radiating from shops, and Christmas decorations, the scenary was very colourful and breathtaking.

Looking at those beautiful scenary, those delicious mouth-watering food, this just makes you think life couldn't be any better. Wrong. Perhaps, many miles away from us, there are poor children, poor people, struggling through their everyday life, fearing that one day they would die from starvation. They wouldn't have the chance to celebrate christmas, but they can only wish santa claus to send them gifts  from people who empathise them. We are really too fortunate to be living in such luxurious life to even think of the millions of poor that still exists on the world around us. Maybe, while we walk on the streets     on christmas night, you may have already passed by a few homeless people, envious of the life we have now. Maybe, one day, if we were to pass by one of them, we can at least give them a pleasing smile and treat him something out of empathy, not sympathy.

Soon in a blink of an eye, the holidays ended just when I thought it has just started.

I missed the times we have. Family time, Happy times, and even boring times.

I've even learnt some life lessons, those that are valuable to me, but,

I hope I could rewind back and enjoy every bit of it again. Sigh.

Daven Lim (27) CID 2 Reflections

How the holidays were spent: 

 
 
My holidays can be called boring or exciting. Firstly, I had to work on a prototype that had to be 

submitted for the Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors Award. Secondly, I had a busy CCA (volleyball) 

schedule, which was twice a week. Sometimes there were friendly matches, which took place once 

a week. Thirdly, and lastly, I went to Gold Coast, in Brisbane, Australia. These 3 things that took 

place during the December Holidays made my holidays busy. 

The Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors Award is a competition whereby pairs of students had to 

invent something to ease the lives of people. My partner was Kah Leong, my classmate. Despite 

our busy schedule of CCA, we had to squeeze in time to complete the prototype. Furthermore, his 

CCA, basketball, had many friendly matched and he could not come to help me with the prototype 

on many occasions. We were left about a week before the deadline when we started on the 

prototype. We went to the Design and Technology Workshop at during any free time to complete the 

prototype. Finally and luckily, we completed it. I learnt that even though we had a limited time to 

complete something, we must still complete it on time, no matter what. Therefore, I think that we

had to plan a target date to finish some parts of the prototype, so that we did not need to rush and 

thus lead to stress. Despite our CCA schedules, we must also try to squeeze in time to work on the 

prototype. Time management is therefore important in completing jobs assigned on time. 

My family went to Gold Coast in Brisbane, Australia from 7 to 14 December. We toured the city and

went to theme parks like Movie World, Sea World and Dream World. My family had a lot of fun. We 

also went to farms and the Australia Zoo. I managed to pat a kangaroo in the zoo and carry a koala

at a farm. It was a very enriching and exciting encounter. However, despite all these attractions,

I noticed many beggars begging on the streets. My father then explained to me that there is poverty

in almost every part of the world. I was shocked at first when I saw that. I did not know that there

were beggars in such a popular place. Maybe it is due to the factors like like health and financial 

issues whereby they were uneducated and unhealthy. However, instead of begging, why can't they 

find a job to provide for themselves, since they are able-bodied? At this thought, I hesitated about 

whether to donate some money to them. Maybe they are out to con people, or really in need of 

money. I learnt that some things may not look as straightforward as they might seem, they might 

have a different story behind them, where we should not 'judge a book by its cover'. 

Finally, it is down to the last two weeks of the holidays. I was quite shocked about that as it passed 

so quickly that I lost track of my time! I still had some homework left to do! I quickly did them as fast

and as efficient as I could and luckily I finished them on time. 

This holiday, it might look pure and boring... But it has a true meaning to me where I learnt valuable 

lessons. In just a month and a half, I learnt that time management is very important. Also, I had 

noticed some other situations that happen outside Singapore, like begging. Our world is not perfect.

What we want to do and have to do must be achieved through hard work and time planning. We 

cannot do things without a target date to complete, or even start doing something when the deadline

is coming soon. I am now 14 years old, a Year 2 student. I must be more independent and

responsible. This year, I hope that I can learn from my mistakes and strive for the best this year. 

Holiday Reflection- Lim Yan Tong (10)

During the school holiday, I did not go overseas. Instead I spent most of my time doing homework and hanging out with my close friends. I think it was a rather productive holiday. On the first week of the holiday, my friend and I went to another friend's house to bake cookies and muffins. It was the first time that I was baking something and I was really excited. We followed the steps accordingly on the recipe book. However, the cookies and muffins did not turn out the way we expected. Although the appearance of the cookies and muffins was not so presentable, it tasted quite nice. I had a fun time that day and I hope I would have more chance to bake again in the future.

 Also I went to places like bugis street, scape, iceskating at Jcube and even had a movie marathon with my frineds! It was a great bonding time. However, I have spent too much money and my piggy bank is currently starving.

Another memorable thing that I did during the holiday was to set a blogshop on instagram with my friend, Qian Wei. It was the first time I was earning my own money and I was really excited. Both of us were green horn in setting up blogshop and we had to learn many things by ourself along the way. For example, I have learnt how to deposit money via the bank and mail items out. Being totally clueless on how to these, I had to ask the adults. It was a thrilling yet frightening experience as I had not step into the bank and post office before that. Sadly, my friend and I have to put out business on hiatus when the school reopened as we would be busier and had to focus more on our studies. Setting up the blogshop was a great learning experience for me and I hope to continue when I have more time. Through this experience, I realise that money is really hard to earn and I regret spending so much money during the holiday. Next time, I will think twice before spending money.

Group Photo