THESE days, Madam Annie Ong sees her four-year-old son, Oh Ziqian, offering to help her fry an egg or mop the floor.

These changes, she said, are due to the lessons he learnt from a Life Skills camp organised by his PAP Community Foundation (PCF) kindergarten.

Parents paid between $50 and $80 for each child to attend.

The camp, held earlier this month at the MOE Labrador Adventure Centre, was the first time Madam Ong, 37, a customer service officer, and her husband, 45, a software engineer, had been separated from their only child for three days and two nights.

She said: “As he is the only child, things are done for him at home. He also wants me to feed him during meals.”

But at the camp, children in K1 and K2 are made to wash their own utensils, cook their own food and make their own beds.

Ziqian was one of 104 children from six PCF kindergartens in Punggol Central who participated.

This cluster is the only one among PCF kindergartens running such a Life Skills camp which they have been organising yearly since 2008. Attendance has tripled since, said kindergarten principal Ms Alicia Lim.

Ms Lim, who is in charge of all six kindergartens in Punggol Central, started the camp as she felt that children in Singapore were not as independent and confident as they should be.

A foreign exchange trip she attended with other pre-school principals in New Zealand last year confirmed her hunch.

Said Ms Lim, who has been in PCF for 18 years: “I saw four-year-olds taking on tasks such as planting trees and doing some carpentry.”

So why do parents in Singapore resort to paying for such camps, instead of teaching them on their own?

Ms Lim said: “Parents here tend to be more protective as we have one or two children and they are seen as precious.”

She cites the increasing prevalence of maids here as another factor.

Overnight camps have more impact than teaching such skills within the classroom, said Ms Lim.

Two of her 34 teachers involved told The New Paper that the children gained from positive peer pressure.

In one activity, they were taken on a field trip to the supermarket.

Each child was given $2 by their parents and had to learn to buy snacks using only this amount.

Teacher Ms Sharon Heng, 39, said: “Some of them decided to pool their money to get bigger snacks.”

They were also taught to pack their own bags and fold their clothes.

Another teacher, Ms Janice Goon, 23, noticed how the children even helped each other make their bunk beds.

The camp has worked for Ziqian.

Said Madam Ong: “When he sees me mopping, he takes out his toy mop and offers to help. The other day, he asked me if he could help wipe the dusty walls behind a sofa I moved.”

Why bother with life skills when you have maids?

PARENTS, if your children need a place to pick up life skills, drop them off at my home.
I swear I’m cheap, in every sense of the word.

For $5 each, they can sweep, mop, change light bulbs and cook every week.

For me.

I also conduct creativity courses. It’s a structured and organised programme that teaches them the value of creativity out of chaos. But I digress.

Honestly, why bother with life skills with the abundance of domestic helpers here? There are close to 200,000.

Last weekend, I was at a mall in Pasir Ris where many national servicemen gather before hopping on buses which take them to the Changi ferry terminal.

Sure, on Pulau Tekong they may lug their duffel bags but at the mall, it was an army of domestic helpers marching with the bags.

Are my three boys – aged nine, five and three – any better? Oh please.

Initially, when my wife and I decided against hiring a domestic helper, we thought our children could be raised to do things on their own.

My eldest was then four and would help me with the housework, even doing the dishes every day.

We hired a helper for about six months when number two arrived, and she did everything.

We moved to Australia for a year in 2008 with all three boys in tow when I was pursuing my postgraduate studies.

My eldest was rehabilitated while in Australia. He was back to swiping butter on his own bread.

But reality hit me soon enough.

The Brisbane state school he was in got some children involved in a statewide academic test.

Participants were awarded Platinum, Gold and Silver certificates.

He scored Platinum for mathematics and English, and a Silver for life skills.

He didn’t know how to handle money (we packed him his meals) and couldn’t do his own laces (velcro shoes).

Speaking to his teachers later, I learnt that most Asian students in the school did not excel at life skills.

So I applaud the kindergartens for camps like this.

So my boys, Life Skills lesson 1 at home starts today.

Get Aunty Remy to show you how to toast your bread.

This article was first published in The New Paper.