Self-Control

I volunteered with Fei Yue Community Services to conduct a program in one of the primary schools here. Selected students are to undergo this program which aims to tackle issues on their self-control. It's some kind of an "anger management" program, only this is for kids :)


You will be surprised at how angry this bunch of kids can be when they feel agitated, frustrated and anxious. And as the theme of the program goes, as trainers, we have to practice self-control as well and most of the time it wasn't so easy when dealing with these kids. ;)


Nevertheless, they were all very sweet and special in their own way. While some need extra attention and TLC, others will put up a controlled and a more gung-ho facade to mask their anima self. Yeah rite. As expected, most of them are boys. hehe.



More frequently, we will be doing indoor activities but today we did something more exciting which was fishing by the pond! :D Not exactly FISH-fishing but it was PRAWN-fishing hehe. If there's any such word as PRAWN-ing, then that would be a better description to it ;)


We went to the Pasir Ris pond and we were very glad that the weather was promising and it wasn't that hot as much as what we had anticipated :p We took a school bus... ( the wheels on the bus go round and round..round and round... - it's a nursery rhymes, in case some of you were so lost in adulthood..hehe )



Me with Sara
The boys



I've never gone fishing before and it never interests me at all. But these kids are really looking forward to this trip. They were always eagerly asking whether they could bring the prawns that they've caught back home ;)



It's all about preserverance




Unfortunately, most of them didn't catch anything at all. It was definitely not easy and depended most of the time on your luck to have the prawn hooked to the bait. Surprisingly, throughout the hour that we spent there, we saw a few pieces of dead prawns floating...probably cooked to death by the weather heat...?? euuewwww..!! :p



But I admired the kid's preserverance and patience. When one of them actually caught a prawn, the others felt motivated and hoped for 'success'. Therefore, it saddened me to see disappointment in their faces at the end of the allocated 1-hr; some did cry and felt like a failure. I thought it was normal for a child to react to failure in that manner; but I was surprised when some of them actually acted very maturely and would come up to the distraught friend to try to console and encourage him. They were the 'failures' too but they manage to potray such sincerity towards helping a friend to feel better and that were undisputably very commendable acts. ;)


Here are some shots of the kids who manage to get a prawn :)






Their prized prawns. They were huuge...hehe ;)

Surprisingly, the management of the prawn pond had decided o give away a big prawn each to the kids. Phew! :o We were so thankful that due to theri generosity, we were not bringing back sulking kids to the school as if we had just returned from a funeral ;)


~to cross the line might be the way across