Climb climb up sunshine mountain...

The first Chinese character Zech knows and recognizes was 山. Ever since then, he has been fascinated with his mental image of a mountain. One day, he told me, 'Mummy, I want to climb up a mountain.' I agreed of course.

That was how on a Saturday morning, we ended up at Bukit Timah Hill. I'm a nature lover and deeply desire my boys to be like me. There's no better learning than outdoor education surrounded by God's wonderful creation.

Zech was raring to go up the hill. The first part was quite tedious as we walked up a steep slope. It became more gradual later. When I saw a resting spot, I asked Zech if he wanted to take a break. To my surprise, he didn't want to. So on we continued our ascent.

Climb climb up sunshine mountain
Heavenly breezes blow
Climb climb up sunshine mountain
Faces all aglow

That was our theme song and Zech enjoyed asking me to sing in both English and Mandarin. Thank God I attended Chinese Sunday School when I was little then taught in English Sunday School later! Along the way, I told him to look at the tall trees and even tried pointing out lichens to him. Not sure if he was interested. But he was definitely very keen to reach the summit. We met some friendly hikers on the way and some were really encouraging. One of them even told Zech that he was doing a good job and to keep it up. That kept my boy in high spirits I guess.

Once we reached the summit, it was snack time.

 



We had our little break before heading back down the hill.

This time, we took the summit path. Descending was much easier though the steps and dirt track were rather challenging for Zech. But we saw butterflies and monkeys as we descended. That perked Zech up. Although he complained a little as there were just too many steps and I had to distract him by counting steps with him, we made it to the end of the summit path. After that, walking was a breeze.

This is an easy trail for families with young children. We have taken route 1 red trail.  It was great to be out there enjoying the warm sun and shady trees while surrounded by the sounds of the cicadas and birds in the forest. To encourage Zech, a certificate was presented to him. Now he's very motivated and looking forward to our next hiking trail.

This was but a small first step to exploring God's creation and to prepare the boys for longer hikes and higher mountains. If anyone is keen, visit the Bukit Timah Reserve before it closes to the public from 15 Sept onwards for repairs and restoration works.