Salam my lovelies,
Please pardon my being away from this blog. As a family, we have been making an effort to stay offline to make time for our in person presence with The Grandparents. This long drawn pandemic is starting to feel a wee bit harder than it was as we now battle the raging Omicron. Luckily, Girl and Bean have received their first dose of vaccination and we cannot wait till the next dose. Whilst we understand vaccination is not 100% protection, we also understand that reduction in symptoms and complications from infection are key to their wellbeing. I know I would feel less anxious about letting them attend school in person if they have been fully vaccinated.
School has been most supportive with offering them online schooling option even when in person lessons are available. This hybrid mode has been key in our recent "circuit breaker" for 3 days and co-existence with the virus so far. Personally, we have 6 more weeks of this to contend with and we shall review our family coping strategy again in early April. April because it will be the second dose vaccination appointment for Girl and Bean. By then, Term 2 would have come to its tail end and we hope to start Term 3 with more confidence!
On the bright side, Girl and Bean have both attended 100% of all their online lessons and we are so proud of their resilience. Their discipline in being punctual with the attendance register, access to lessons, attention and diligence have surpassed all our expectations. They keep producing satisfactory, quality work and remain happy with the occasional healthy expression of "When is it safe to go out again?" or "Can we go swimming today?" Usually, we take them out to the park.
Bean is still getting 2 hours of extra help with his English language (he is a native speaker but can do better with structure and sequence). He also keeps a two online playdates per month with his friends from Early Autism Project Malaysia. Girl spends 3 hours weekly with her artistic gymnastics coach and fellow gymnasts. They both still take piano lessons once weekly. Looking at these detailed breakdown makes me realise that they do get sufficient outside world contact, albeit done online, for now. That is also why I have not signed them on to any extra activities on top of their school CCA. Down time is crucial too.
Like most families in our community, we take calculated risks during occasional outing to the quiet, clean and relatively safer local malls. These sporadic meals at a family café and window shopping allow us all some form of semblance to our pre-COVID19 lives. Strict compliance to SOPs have worked in our favour so far, Syukur Alhamdulillah. Daily park and play time allows us some much needed fresh air and sunshine, I cannot highlight this enough. There is no denying that we miss our aeroplane travels so that is definitely still in our bucket list. Something to look forward to!
Here is wishing everyone our very best belated wishes for 2022. Stay safe, my lovelies.
