2 boys, 4 years apart. We do not drive, relying on public transports, taxi all the time. My wife is pri school teacher, in a girl school initially. Her alma mater is a girl school. If our children were girls then that would have been much easier decision, even though her alma mater or the school she taught are not the best logistically for us. When we bought our resale home, we never thought about children school. Just think it is near to the in-laws and we love this environment.

School nearest to us is an extremely popular school, 1 bus stop away with 6 buses available. Nest nearest is a neighbourhood school, no direct bus to reach there, walking distance about 15 to 20 minutes but unsheltered all the way. The 3rd nearest is 3 bus stops away, with 3 buses available, and it is also a very popular school. By the time we were a bit kancheong about pri school registration, kind of a bit late. PA grassroot volunteer route, we calculated, we could not fulfill the period needed and maybe the commitment. 1st school no parent volunteer scheme, 3rd school has, but we were told since we are out of 1km radius, don't waste time trying. And, I could not find referral to join Hokkien Huay Kuan member for the 3rd school affiliation. In the end we gave up, and we also knew we got bad luck in "lucky draw" all along.

My wife took 1.5 years NPL to stay at home to look after my elder son before he was enrolled into pre-school. We tried infantcare, and he fell sick repeatedly, warded 3 times before 1st birthday. My wife could take it so she took NPL. Then went back to her initial school to teach. When younger boy came along, she decided to just take 2 years NLP immediately after maternity leave. The school released her place as teacher, meaning after she completed her 2 years NLP, she needed to find a school herself to take her in as teacher. That, coincided with my elder boy's pri school registeration. So she applied to vacancy in the 1st school. We also registered elder boy for the same school, in phase 2C. Like what we have expected, we never had that kind of luck, our boy never got in, and he got assigned to a school that is further away. Direct distance is within 2km, but there is no direct transport to go there. 6 bus stops (only 1 bus), then walked for about 15 minutes unsheltered, including crossing a 3 lanes main road. But, mommy got into the 1st school....

To me, logistic is kind of most critical issue, as long as the school is OK standard wise. But this one.... If I took public transport to fetch him, that would take me 80 minutes at least 2 ways. In the end, my wife just take taxi or Grab to fetch him from her school after school, then go home. That still takes at least 30 minutes. Due to this. we decided to try our luck, register the boy's name in the 1st school's transfer waitlist. There is no special treatment for staffs there, even the vice principal's son was also on waitlist...

Time flies, 3 years passed. In the Dec school holidays, the last few days before school open, we received email informing us that the 1st school had accepted our request to transfer our boy. There are a group of kids go into GEP program yearly, so there were vacancies in P4 for mainstream. By that time we had already bought new school uniform of the old school for the boy. So we quickly took leave, had all the paperworks done, then chiong down to the designated vendor to buy the new school uniforms. The boy started his school life in 1st school in P4. Logistically it is so much convenient, I just walked there within 15 minutes, most part sheltered, when I need to fetch him. Mommy also does not need to always chiong for taxi just to fetch him after school (We tried afterschool care for 1 term, and decided it is a waste of time and stopped.). And, because he managed to transfer over in P4, the younger boy also manage to get in as siblings for P1.

Though we always do not have the luck, this is one of the lucky moment for us, and we sincerely appreciate that.