He is Dunmanite!

At 11:00am today, the nationwide results of Secondary One Posting for 2008 was announced in the Ministry Of Education or MOE website, after parents and student chose and "bid" for the school of choice base on their aggregate scores of their Primary School Leaving Examination or PSLE results.

We chose Dunman Secondary School and Temasek Secondary School as first and second of the six choices given respectively.

We are fortunate to learn today that our son got his first choice school!

He is going to be a Dunmanite next year to start his secondary school years towards his GCE "O" Level exams when he reaches 16, after his 4 years there.

The first 4 choices being the best and famous schools in the east, Dunman is also convenient for our son to commute to and from our home.


He needs only to get on one of several direct bus services available from our home for a 20 minutes ride that saves a lot of journey time and his personal time too, now that he has 8 subjects in secondary school than the 4 in his primary school days, plus lots of extra-curricular activities and clubs that he needs to join for the extra credits.

The emphasis by MOE is the all roundedness of students from academics to sports, creativity to computer-based knowledge. Independence and filial piety... make for a responsible and successful adult.

So, apart from the many new subjects he is being exposed too, the activities and the expectations from secondary school students, our Son, like many other children of his age will undergo his culture shock next year.

Nonetheless, we will be with him to give moral and academic support whenever we can without suffocating him... a first time teenage parents, we have a lot to learn about parenting a teenager as he has with his all those subjects.

In secondary school, friends will be the strongest bond that he will forge and the lesser dependence he will be on us.


Our little chick will start to practice flapping his wings in the nest to prepare himself for flight. While doing that he will ruffle a few of his parents' feathers in the process as he practices his opinions and new-formed principles.

Whatever happens, the only thing we cannot break is the communication with each other. I believe that good communication strengthens the family bond between us as we learn from each other.

Family time is important. I will get those bikes for all 3 of us as a start, to ride our way into 2008 realm of our lives' journey.