Our trip to Bintan(Indonesia)

Last week, My family and I went to Bintan for a holiday. We boarded the ferry called Aria Bupala ". During the ride, I felt very seasick. I guessed the waves were a little more choppy this time.

This is a picture of my brothers and I seating at the top deck of the ferry.

When we reached the hotel, daddy went to the reception to check in. Our room numbers were 1037 and 1035. In the room, my brothers and I quickly changed into my swimming shorts so that I could go and swim in the pool immediately! But when we reached the pool, I found out that the pool was not what I had expected because there were no slides, only a basketball net. I felt disappointed. A while later, we decided to head to the beach. The beach was my favourite place because there were so many black-striped fish, mudskippers and lots of crabs swimming in the stream that led out to the sea. After playing at the beach and climbing large boulders for a while, I decided to explore the stream further. We were so surprised when we spotted a Monitor Lizard!!! Below are some pictures of what we saw at the stream.

The monitor lizard

Mudskippers

The next day, we went to the beach again after breakfast. This time I saw more fish than yesterday. But they were swimming very fast. So, I could not catch any at all. In tthe afternoon, we went to another swimming pool which had a slide, but was not slippery. We ended up walking down the slide instead of sliding down. Daddy, Jabez and I also played table tennis which was fun, but difficult to play. In the evening, we went to the beach again. But this time I managed to catch a small black fish in a rock pool! I was so excited and went to show daddy and mummy my catch. After that, I released the fish back to the sea. I also saw a school of big fish. But they were too big and fast for me to catch. Later, my brothers and I built a dam to try and block the water current. We used rocks and sand to build it.

Our brother Nat wanted to help too! But he ended up destroying our dam.

After building the dam which did not really work, the 3 of us climbed the large boulders again. Jabez and I found some rocks that we thought might be a granite and a geodeo!! As it was low tide , so we could make our way down to a big rock pool where we found more fish and some BIg crabs!

The black spot under the rock is a black crab hiding under a rock.

This is a picture of the 4 of us in the big rock pool

After dinner, we went to take a stroll at the beach. The sky was filled with many stars as the beach was very dark. It was a breath-taking night scene! We spotted 'The Orion' . Actually it was daddy who saw it because I did not know much about star constellations. I enjoyed the night stroll at the beach and listening to the waves splashing.

On the last day, right after breakfast, we went to check our dam. Although it was low-tide, but the water actually covered the whole dam!! We decided to move to the beach and enjoy the gentle waves and swim in the cooling water for a while. By about noon time, we had to return back to our room and get ready to check out. I was sad to leave Bintan, but happy to return home to Singapore. I had a memorable vacation.

Making my first Crossbow

Yesterday, I decided to make a Crossbow. I got the idea from a T.V programme called the Mythbusters on Discovery Channel. The programme is about people who heard of stories and try to make them true. For example Archimedes built a big shield with lots of glass pieces to reflect sun rays to burn down the Roman ships. So, the Mythbusters would try to build what Archimedes built to destroy a ship. This time, the Mythbusters tried to make a Crossbow out of paper and homemade glue and this project worked! I was fascinated by this creation; that they could make actually such a strong crossbow out of flimsy paper! That was why I decided to try and make a Crossbow. These are the steps:

How to make a Crossbow

Things you need:

1. two rubberbands
2. string

3. double sided tape

4. a pair of scissors

5. musking tape

6.wooden chopsticks

7. ice cream sticks.

8. paint(any colour you like)

Steps

1. First, tie two wooden chopsticks together.


2. Then, using a double sided tape and string, attach a ice cream stick to the middle of the pair of wooden chopsticks.


3. Next, use the musking tape to join four ice cream sticks to the first ice cream stick. It should look like a long house.


4. Then, tie one rubberband to each end side of the crossbow. (you might want to use the musking tape to secure the rubberbands)


5. Lastly tie a string to each end of the rubberband with a short piece of string. The string should be about 20 to 30cm.

Optional: You can use the rest of the ice-cream sticks to extend the length of where the arrow would be before fired.

Caution!

do not shoot the arrow at someone. Or Else!

Your Crossbow should look like this

My busy March holidays

During the March holidays, I did lots of things. On Tuesday, I went for my second chess competition. I won four rounds! Although it was better than the last time, I still could not get into the chess junior squad. I was very disappointed, but I enjoyed playing with other players. I also realised my weakness, when I play white.

On Wednesday, my brothers and I went to a road safety park. My friends, Bailey, Dominic, Christian, and John were there too. When we reached the place, I quickly grabbed a cart as cannot wait to start driving it around the course. I felt like driving a fomular 1. After having fun at the road safety park, we headed home to rest before going to Farrer Park swimming complex for my swim meet. When we reached Farrer park, I started to feel nervous. Soon, it was my turn to swim. I chose the 50m Freestyle event because I was most comfortable with that stroke. When I finished the race, I realised that I was in second place!! I was very happy. In the end, I came in third overall amongst 17 swimmers. I won my first my trophy!!! I had a great day.

Read about our trip to Sentosa in Jabez's Jet Plane Our trip to Sentosa(Thursday)

On Friday, my brothers and I went to Bailey and Dominic's 8th birthday party. The theme was on medieval times so when we reached the place (Jurong West) we got to wear knight costumes. When everybody had arrived, we started playing games. The game that I liked very much was "the dragon hunt." We went round the estated looking for clues that would lead us to the dragon. The clues were not easy to understand and find. Our team, found the first clue which was stuck to the extinguisher. In the end, it was a draw. After we finished the game we sang a birthday song to Bailey and Dominic before eating their cake which was an apple pie! The pie was delicious!! Then, we practiced shooting arrows at the dragon. I enjoyed this party.

On Saturday, my brothers and I went to Sungei Buloh for the young naturalist day camp. After we were divided into groups, we went to the boardwalk with our guides to look at animals, mangroves, crabs, and many other interesting things. I saw a Torchginger plant which is used for making the fragrent taste in Rojak. We also saw a very big mud skipper, some tree climbing crabs, a cicada, and mangrove roots that are called"pencil roots" After that, we went to look at birds at the bird watch shelter. Along the way I saw a few Monitor Lizards, Archerfish, Strippednose half backs, and a poisonous black viper with red eyes!! It looked very scary. When we reached the bird watch area, I did not see many birds except a few Little Egrets. I think this is not the migration period. Soon it started to rain and we headed back to do craft and draw. We made a clay mud skipper, weaved a leave to form a Tailor bird's nest, cut out a picture of a purple Heron for a mask, and, cut out a picture of a snake as a wristband. This is my first time seeing so many interesting things in Sungei Buloh. This is my most exciting trip to this place.

My First TRYthalon

I just finished my Trythalon. The day before, I felt excited and nervous. We had to wake up very early, at about 6:30am so that we could reach the venue by 7.30am. Halfway along the journey, it started to pour heavily. However, when we finally reached Sentosa, the rain subsided. I saw many children riding their bicycles to Tanjong Beach. After checking in our bicycles, we played at the beach, while waiting for the senior and intermediate group to start first. Meanwhile, my brothers and I dug moats on the beach, swam in the sea and watched the older children taking the race. They looked pretty funny when they ran to the transition area to ride their bikes. When it was our turn, daddy brought Jabez and I to the starting point to start our first event; swimming. The water was so shallow that I walked most of the time instead of swimming. There were also too many children in the water and made it difficult to swim. After getting on to our bikes, we started to cycle the 4km distance. This was my favourite part because I liked cycling best. Sometimes I moved slower so as to save my enery. Other times, I tried to OVERTAKE other children! Next, I parked my bike back at the transition area and began my run. The run was the hardest of all as I was a little tired by then. Near the finishing line, I gave all my best and ran as fast as I could. When I crossed the line, I felt so happy to have completed my first TRYthalon. Mummy who was waiting at the end, gave me a cup of water to drink. Then I went to collect my prize and guess what was my prize? It was a big tin of MILO!! I was a bit disappointed though as it was not a real trophy. But this race was a good experience for me. I enjoyed myself.

My trip to the Zoo

My highlight at the Zoo today was the Kids World and Fragile Forest which I am going to tell you about in this post.

At the Kids World, the slides were very fun. There were two slides; one of them was very steep and the other one was slow but spiral in shape. I prefer the steep one because I could slide down very fast in it. There also was a big bucket hanging on top of the playground. When the bell rang, everyone would rush under the bucket and wait for the water in the bucket to fall on them! I enjoyed the water splashing down on me and felt very cooling. Later we went to another section at the kids world, the river raft. There were two rafts in the muddy water. We went to the raft with fewer children. It was absolutely thrilling racing with the other raft up and down the river!

At the Fragile Forest it was a nice experience strolling through. We saw butterflies that were flying around, lemurs swinging from branch to branch and Malayan Flying Foxes hanging from the trees. My friend, Bailey, told me to put some nectar on my fingers to attract the butterflies. Wow! it really DID!! I felt ticklish when the butterfly moved around my fingers trying to find the nectar. Later we walked back towards the entrance feeling exhausted after a long day at the zoo. I am looking forward to another visit to the Zoo again.

A Beautiful Rainbow

Just now after cycling downstairs, I saw a rainbow! I was so EXCITED because this was my first encounter with a rainbow in Singapore. My first time seeing a rainbow was in Perth! At that time I was only about 7+ and do did not remember much. I quickly took out the camera and took a photo of it. I could only see three colours red, orange and yellow. What was interesting was that, the rainbow started in the middle of the KJE. I thought that the cars would crash into it. We went to check out more from the Internet and found out that rainbows are made when light is refracted through millions of droplets in the air. Rainbows usually occur when there is moisture in the air such as after a rain, when the sun is out. Sunlight is a combination of the visible spectrum, infrared and ultraviolet. Infrared makes the sunlight hot while ultraviolet makes you sunburn or sun tan. However we humans cannot see ultraviolet and infrared except some creatures like the bees! I had a very exciting day.

This a picture of the rainbow

The bright light in this picture is the sun

Wisdom and the Millers (The Multitude of Words)

Proverbs 10:19

When words are many, sin is not absent,

but he who holds his tongue is wise.

This story is about Sharon who has a habit of not talking wisely. One day, after school, Sharon shuffled home feeling very miserable. When she reached home, Mrs Miller saw Sharon and knew that there was something strange about her. She decided to talk to Sharon alone. Sharon told her about what happened in school......

Sharon did not talk very wisely to her friends and hurt their feelings. As a result her friends barely talked to her for the rest of the day. Another occasion was when Sharon and her friends were walking to the ball field, she told a silly and loud joke. All her friends stared at her because they was a group of first graders who were sitting on the grass praying. Sharon felt embarassed for being inconsiderate. And at the last recess, she also teased one of the older girls about a boy. Brother Ken sent her to the classroom until recess was over.

So Mrs Miller told her that she was already a very talkative child when she was young. Mrs Miller taught Sharon a rule that "it is always wiser to say nothing when you don't know what to say."