Guohao squirmed in his seat as he racked his brain, trying to solve the lengthy math question which turned him off. The house was quiet except

for the loud music

coming from the

laptop and

occasion cheers

and groans. 

His younger brother, Guohan, was playing his favourite online games. No matter how much Guohao tried to focus, the temptation was too much for him to resist. He had been looking forward to meeting his friends online. 

I'm not going to back off!

He gave his brother a hard shove and took over the game. Feeling indignant, Guohan called out, “HEY! It’s my game, not yours! I'm not going to back off! Give it back to me NOW! MUM!”  

“But you’ve been playing for two hours and it should be MY TURN!” scowled Guohao as he tried to come up with a legitimate reason.

Some verbal exchange and a fight broke out between the two brothers before their mother came into the room to break the two of them up. 

After hearing what the two boys had to say, Mother glowered at Guohao and gave him an earful.  A grumble began to grow.

Mother was not going to put up with such behaviour and sent Guohao off to work on another set of math practice paper. The grumble grew even bigger. The situation got worse when his brother made a face at him. Unable to contain his anger, Guohao exploded in rage,

“IT’S UNFAIR! Why can’t I play? 

He has been playing the

whole morning and I haven’t

had a chance.”

Father called Guohao over to the dining table where he was working. He raised his voice at Guohao, “It’s YOU we’re talking about here! You have been falling behind your

schoolwork since

you were on sick

leave for two

weeks.  Shouldn’t

you be making up

for the time lost?” 

Knowing it was futile to talk back, Guohao returned to his study table reluctantly with his eyes brimming with tears. He stared at the math question with a blank mind and tried to talk

himself out of doing something silly. He had to let the boiling lava in him out. Summoning all his strength to his clenched fist, he punched the stacks of test papers relentlessly

before tearing them into

pieces.

Hearing the commotion in Guohao's room, a tensed silence fell across the living room! 

Father shut his thick

file hard and stood up.

“Drop everything you’re doing now! We’re going to figure out what we can do in this CIRCUIT BREAKER,” he commanded.  Everyone was puzzled. Even Snowball, their pet dog, stirred from its sleep when it heard the two words.  

“This means that we’ll be doing some activities together.  Count Snowball in too. No one is allowed to pull out of this. There’s also ME Time. We need to draw up a timetable. We must count on one another to come up with ideas,” Father announced as he picked up a pen and a piece of paper ready to take down some notes. 

What can I do? I'm just a dog. I'm only good when some

burglar tries to break into our house.

Laughter filled the house as the family discussed what they could do together. HA! HAHA!

HA!

HA!

WOOF! HA!

HA

Mother suggested they make their own big breakfast, burgers and French fries since MacDonald’s had suspended its services.  She had come across

some recipes on the internet.  Guohan

proposed weekly sing-a-long sessions using their home sound system while Guohao recommended that they do some craft work. As for Father, he

picked out some in-house exercises from the internet.

Woof! Woof! Woof!

“What does ME Time mean?” asked Guohan. 

“It simply means we focus on our own things and not bother one another,” explained Father.

Guohao put his arm round his brother’s shoulders and apologised, “Sorry, I should have respected your ME Time just now. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you just because of my own frustration.”

“I should have played quietly so as not to disturb your ME Time too,” Guohan responded, “You could have turned to

Mother for help with that math problem,” he continued. 

Father and Mother nodded in approval to see that the boys had made up with each other.

Circuit Breaker Challenge 1

Design a healthy and delicious meal.

In conjunction with 2020 Stay Home and Read Challenge, you and your family may like to take part in the following activities:

Circuit Breaker Challenge 2

Compose a song and sing it with your family.

Circuit Breaker Challenge 3

Come up with a series of exercises that you and your family can do together.

Circuit Breaker Challenge 4

Share what you and your family do to practise hygiene at home.