Their parents, Adrian Lim and Fiona Ng, were both born and raised in Singapore and migrated to Australia as university students before becoming health-care professionals. Recognising their children’s love for skiing, they decided to buy a property on the mountain so that they could enrol their children full-time in ski school while juggling their clinical jobs.
When the kids are up at Mt Buller full-time, both Fiona and Adrian take turns looking after them and attending to the children’s needs. Fiona will stay on the mountain for one week while Adrian is in Melbourne working and then they swap roles. This goes on for the whole of term 3 each year.
Part of their motivation for allowing Isabella and Matilda take part in the ski program is Adrian and Fiona’s commitment to never letting their children slide academically.
Jo Dee Yeoh is the children’s on-mountain teacher for term 3. Isabella and Matilda go to their ski training program on-mountain on weekday mornings and then attend school with Jo Dee on weekday afternoons. They get a day off each week to rest and “muck around” or be with their friends. On the weekends, they are in training full-time.
Jo Dee teaches them all school subjects including literacy and numeracy plus piano and cello. They also have a German tutor on-mountain to continue with their LOTE language development.
Naturally, Adrian and Fiona say they both want to do their best for their children. They say they’re dedicated to giving their children everything they had growing up in Singapore, but in a more balanced and well-rounded way.
The flipside of their devotion is that they don’t have a lot of time to themselves. It’s a case of either working or time spent doing “kids’ stuff”, they say.
We follow the Lim family as they get ready for the winter season on the slopes.
