Friday, January 28, 2011
Brain Connections
If you are my Facebook friend, you have read about Zaria being our new English police.
In a carpool journey home from Zaria’s school, I overheard this conversation between Aidan, who’s my neighbour’s son, and Zaria.
Aidan : No lar. (forgot what prompted him to say that)
Zaria : There's no la in English.
Aidan : What are you saying lar?
Zaria : Hello Aidan, speak Harry Potter English please. There's no lar wor meh in English.
o.O”
~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~
On a different occasion, Zaria was being naughty, and I was scolding her; the more I scolded her the more funny stunts she carried out, and the more I scolded her. Zara gave me the solution. ”Mum, just stop scolding her.”
I replied, “But she’s naughty.”
Zara told me, “But if you keep scolding her, she’ll be naughtier, and you’ll get more stressed. If you stop scolding, she will also stop being naughty.”
There, my new parenting guru.
o.O”
I recently read somewhere that all humans are born with 100 billions brain cell. And for learning to happen, brain cells need to connect. In other words, if I want your children to be smarter, they have to have more brain cells connections. Next time if you want to scold someone chi-sin (痴线), think twice, it might actually be a compliment. :P
Children’s brains are like a sponge, they are hungry for information and knowledge, given the right exposure or stimulus, more brain cells will be connected, and they will be connected tots.
I’m happy to know that breast feeding has a part to play in assisting with this as well. Breast milk is found to have gangliosides, which help brain cells to connect for smarter learning. The girls being both breastfed for 18months, would have been taken lots of gangliosides.
I won’t say my two girls are smart, but I think they are very good in applying what they have learnt (consciously or unconsciously).This in fact indicates, their brain cells are connected, see how they can teach others what they have learnt from their daily lives?
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Girls' Chitter Chatter Jan 2011
One day, on our way home from school, Zara was exceptionally quiet while her car pool friends were shouting chatting away.
I asked her if everything was alright or if anything happened in school.
She sighed a big sigh, "I'm so bored in being me."
I asked her why did she say that? Why is she feeling bored.
She replied, "Just because every day I have to repeat everything I do."
o.O"
I have to explain to her life is full of routines, just like us, we have to wake up daily to work, pick the children up from school, etc.
She continued to keep quiet. Then after a few moments she told me, "But.. I'm best at being me. So, I'll continue to be me." And the smiles and chatter box returned. o.O"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zaria was dancing ballet in the house. I had to warn her that she cannot try to walk with her toe pointed (Zara used to do that when she 'danced' the ballet).
Zaria replied, "Ya, only in cartoon you can do that right? Because in cartoon you can do anything."
o.O" Well said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zara attended a friend's birthday party, and she wanted to wear her nicest dress, with lace, ribbons and sewn on sequins.
When she was there, she was playing and doing all kinds of funny stunts. She didn't ruin the dress, but she was drenched in sweat at the end of the party. I told her in the car she shouldn't have worn the beautiful dress, because she was playing likea troll crazy in the party.
She replied, "In a party, you are supposed to have fun and play right? Not sit around and do nothing!"
o.O"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was writing this blog post, and reading aloud the content.
Zaria asked, "Are you telling your invisible friend about me?"
o.O"
Indeed, my blog readers are my invisible friends.
I asked her if everything was alright or if anything happened in school.
She sighed a big sigh, "I'm so bored in being me."
I asked her why did she say that? Why is she feeling bored.
She replied, "Just because every day I have to repeat everything I do."
o.O"
I have to explain to her life is full of routines, just like us, we have to wake up daily to work, pick the children up from school, etc.
She continued to keep quiet. Then after a few moments she told me, "But.. I'm best at being me. So, I'll continue to be me." And the smiles and chatter box returned. o.O"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zaria was dancing ballet in the house. I had to warn her that she cannot try to walk with her toe pointed (Zara used to do that when she 'danced' the ballet).
Zaria replied, "Ya, only in cartoon you can do that right? Because in cartoon you can do anything."
o.O" Well said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Zara attended a friend's birthday party, and she wanted to wear her nicest dress, with lace, ribbons and sewn on sequins.
When she was there, she was playing and doing all kinds of funny stunts. She didn't ruin the dress, but she was drenched in sweat at the end of the party. I told her in the car she shouldn't have worn the beautiful dress, because she was playing like
She replied, "In a party, you are supposed to have fun and play right? Not sit around and do nothing!"
o.O"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I was writing this blog post, and reading aloud the content.
Zaria asked, "Are you telling your invisible friend about me?"
o.O"
Indeed, my blog readers are my invisible friends.
Friday, January 21, 2011
December Bakes
It's almost end of January now, life is getting slightly busier because my eldest has started Standard 1, and there are more activities and classes that both the children have to attend (and I have to chauffer them to class, and accompanied them in some of their classes).
These were orders that I took in December last year, I was supposed to post these earlier, but....
Anyway, this is just for the record.
Ping Yee who reads my blog, asked if I could bake her daughter's 4th birthday cupcakes and biscuits as party favours.
The Theme of the party is flower, and she wanted something simple.
These decorated flower biscuits are for the party favours.
And this is Xin Ning's flower theme birthday cupcakes.
Then there's Ju, the very first person who ordered cupcake for me, asked for simple cupcakes topped with M&Ms.
The Principal from the children's kindergarten, likes the taste of their birthday cupcakes; so she ordered 50 simple ones (just butter cream with sprinkles) from me for the teachers on last day of school, as a token of appreciation for the hard work the teachers have put in for the school concert.
And for the neighbours, I baked more Christmas tree cookies to be distributed on Christmas eve, while the children happily exchanged presents.
These were orders that I took in December last year, I was supposed to post these earlier, but....
Anyway, this is just for the record.
Ping Yee who reads my blog, asked if I could bake her daughter's 4th birthday cupcakes and biscuits as party favours.
The Theme of the party is flower, and she wanted something simple.
These decorated flower biscuits are for the party favours.
And this is Xin Ning's flower theme birthday cupcakes.
Then there's Ju, the very first person who ordered cupcake for me, asked for simple cupcakes topped with M&Ms.
The Principal from the children's kindergarten, likes the taste of their birthday cupcakes; so she ordered 50 simple ones (just butter cream with sprinkles) from me for the teachers on last day of school, as a token of appreciation for the hard work the teachers have put in for the school concert.
And for the neighbours, I baked more Christmas tree cookies to be distributed on Christmas eve, while the children happily exchanged presents.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
School And Others
It's the 3rd week of school, so far, everybody is doing fine.
Lucky for me, there is another child, who lives nearby attending the same kindergarten as Zaria, so we have arranged to carpool, taking turns to either send or pick up the children.
And there are 2 other children across the street attending the same primary school as Zara, so again, we arranged to carpool.
I only have to make a trip to the kindergarten daily, and 3 trips a week to the primary school.
I'd also signed Zara up for extra curicular activities in school. Her Saturdays will be full. Starting the day at 8:30am to 4pm, Arts & Craft, Han Yu Pin Yin, Gymrama and Maths one after another. I only insisted she took Han Yu Pin Yin, the rest, it was her choice. And because the fee is cheap, I told her she can just join in, and if any time she found it stressing, she can drop off.
Last Saturday was the first time she went through a jam packed day, and when I asked her if things were ok at the end of the day, she said it was, and all the classes were fun. Which is a good sign. I think the mommy couldn't take the stress from driving as much as she did. I was going to the school 3 times that day, to bring her to the next class and pay fee for that class etc. TIRED!
Just more than 2 weeks in school, she seems to have improved in Chinese. At least now, I can give her full instructinos in Chinese, and she can 'translate' the instruction back to me in English (I made her do it just to gauge her understanding). But she herself admitted she couldn't do it the other way (translate English instructions to Chinese), not yet anyway.
As for Zaria, she's doing fine in kindergarten without her jiejie, and she's rather proud to be in 5 year old class now, holding her big homework pouch to school, and then back home. She's started having homework, and so far, she only threw tantrum once, preferring to spend time on iPad instead of getting her homework done. One threat that I will send her back to 4yr old class, and she quickly picked up the pen, and did her homework (albeit sobbing).
I'd also started her on Yamaha JMC. She's enjoying her class very much, she thinks her teacher is better than Zara's (she follows me to Zara's class sometimes), and always boasts about it. If you have children attending JMC, you'll realise the first song they teach the children is the Happy Fingers song, and the children are supposed to stick each of their fingers out, thumb, pointer, middle, index and pinky. Here is what Zaria said about finger number 4 (ring man), "Finger number 4 is so stupid and stubborn, don't know how to stand up."
These girls, they keep me busy, they keep me entertained.
Lucky for me, there is another child, who lives nearby attending the same kindergarten as Zaria, so we have arranged to carpool, taking turns to either send or pick up the children.
And there are 2 other children across the street attending the same primary school as Zara, so again, we arranged to carpool.
I only have to make a trip to the kindergarten daily, and 3 trips a week to the primary school.
I'd also signed Zara up for extra curicular activities in school. Her Saturdays will be full. Starting the day at 8:30am to 4pm, Arts & Craft, Han Yu Pin Yin, Gymrama and Maths one after another. I only insisted she took Han Yu Pin Yin, the rest, it was her choice. And because the fee is cheap, I told her she can just join in, and if any time she found it stressing, she can drop off.
Last Saturday was the first time she went through a jam packed day, and when I asked her if things were ok at the end of the day, she said it was, and all the classes were fun. Which is a good sign. I think the mommy couldn't take the stress from driving as much as she did. I was going to the school 3 times that day, to bring her to the next class and pay fee for that class etc. TIRED!
Just more than 2 weeks in school, she seems to have improved in Chinese. At least now, I can give her full instructinos in Chinese, and she can 'translate' the instruction back to me in English (I made her do it just to gauge her understanding). But she herself admitted she couldn't do it the other way (translate English instructions to Chinese), not yet anyway.
As for Zaria, she's doing fine in kindergarten without her jiejie, and she's rather proud to be in 5 year old class now, holding her big homework pouch to school, and then back home. She's started having homework, and so far, she only threw tantrum once, preferring to spend time on iPad instead of getting her homework done. One threat that I will send her back to 4yr old class, and she quickly picked up the pen, and did her homework (albeit sobbing).
I'd also started her on Yamaha JMC. She's enjoying her class very much, she thinks her teacher is better than Zara's (she follows me to Zara's class sometimes), and always boasts about it. If you have children attending JMC, you'll realise the first song they teach the children is the Happy Fingers song, and the children are supposed to stick each of their fingers out, thumb, pointer, middle, index and pinky. Here is what Zaria said about finger number 4 (ring man), "Finger number 4 is so stupid and stubborn, don't know how to stand up."
These girls, they keep me busy, they keep me entertained.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
If you are my facebook friend, you'll see some of the updates about the girls' conversation there. Here are some of them, and some additional ones.
Carpool journey home from school.
Aidan : No lar. (forgot what prompted him to say that)
Zaria : There's no la in English.
Aidan : What are you saying lar?
Zaria : Hello Aidan, speak Harry Potter English please. There's no lar wor meh in English.
o.O"
~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~
A few days after school reopens
Me : Who's your English teacher?
Zara : The principal. (whose English isn't something to shout about).
Me : How is her English?
Zara : Well, not really that good.
Me : Then what's going to happen to your English?
Zara : Well, I know how to translate bad English to good English.
o.O"
~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~
Carpool journey home from school.
Aidan : No lar. (forgot what prompted him to say that)
Zaria : There's no la in English.
Aidan : What are you saying lar?
Zaria : Hello Aidan, speak Harry Potter English please. There's no lar wor meh in English.
o.O"
~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~
A few days after school reopens
Me : Who's your English teacher?
Zara : The principal. (whose English isn't something to shout about).
Me : How is her English?
Zara : Well, not really that good.
Me : Then what's going to happen to your English?
Zara : Well, I know how to translate bad English to good English.
o.O"
~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~
Monday, January 17, 2011
Black Sesame Sauce For Pasta
If we eat in on Sundays, dinner is always something simple.
I'd always liked the Pasta that is served in Pasta Zanmai, which has strong Japanese flavour, so I was very happy when I saw this recipe of black sesame sauce for pasta, which was written by a Japanese author.
Here is something which you can try making at home, and it's rather easy too.
♥Recipe for Black Sesame Sauce For Pasta♥
Adapted from Black Vegetable (幸福黑蔬菜 by 館野鏡子)
Make sauce enough for 2 portion of pasta
You'll need
2 tbs of ground black sesame
1 pack of Maitake Mushroom (舞菇) - I couldn't find this, so I just used Shitake instead
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
4 tbs of cream - For health reason, I used only 2 tbs
3 tbs of milk
2 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Method
1) Slice the mushroom (if you are using Maitake, cut off the roots, and cut them into bite size)
2) Prepare the pasta (here I'd used spagetti) according to the instructions on the package
3) Heat the olive oil in a small sauce pan, fry garlic until fragrant. Add in the mushroom and stir fry until mushroom is cooked. Add in milk, cream, sesame powder, stir for a while, and then add in salt and pepper to taste.
4) Stir sauce into cooked pasta, and served
Although it's on the dry side (probably because I used less cream and the mushroom is not juicy), I love it. I'll try to use Maitake mushroom the next time.
I'd always liked the Pasta that is served in Pasta Zanmai, which has strong Japanese flavour, so I was very happy when I saw this recipe of black sesame sauce for pasta, which was written by a Japanese author.
Here is something which you can try making at home, and it's rather easy too.
♥Recipe for Black Sesame Sauce For Pasta♥
Adapted from Black Vegetable (幸福黑蔬菜 by 館野鏡子)
Make sauce enough for 2 portion of pasta
You'll need
2 tbs of ground black sesame
1 pack of Maitake Mushroom (舞菇) - I couldn't find this, so I just used Shitake instead
1 clove of garlic finely chopped
4 tbs of cream - For health reason, I used only 2 tbs
3 tbs of milk
2 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Method
1) Slice the mushroom (if you are using Maitake, cut off the roots, and cut them into bite size)
2) Prepare the pasta (here I'd used spagetti) according to the instructions on the package
3) Heat the olive oil in a small sauce pan, fry garlic until fragrant. Add in the mushroom and stir fry until mushroom is cooked. Add in milk, cream, sesame powder, stir for a while, and then add in salt and pepper to taste.
4) Stir sauce into cooked pasta, and served
Although it's on the dry side (probably because I used less cream and the mushroom is not juicy), I love it. I'll try to use Maitake mushroom the next time.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Dried Shrimp Sambal / Sambal Hae Bee
I remember my maternal grandma used to make really good Sambal Hae Bee or Sambal dried shrimp. It's a sambal that goes well with almost anything, fish, chicken, vegetables either as a condiment or used it as an ingredient for cooking the dish. Served with plain rice or sprinkled on a bowl of instant noodle, it immediately adds a kick.
My maternal grandma passed away before I could learn how to make the dish from her. My mother in law makes this as well, but she being Cantonese, it tastes a little different from my maternal grandma's, her version is wetter, and less spicy.
I learn from my mother-in-law the main ingredients, and the process, and came out with my own version which is closer to my maternal grandma's.
♥Recipe for Dried Prawn Sambal / Sambal Hae Bee♥
Serves 8 for a meal, or produce enough to fill up two (jam) bottles
You'll need
250g shallot pounded or minced (I actually bought the pounded fresh shallots from the spice shop)
250g chilli pounded or minced (again, I got the pounded fresh chilli from the spice shop)
150g dried prawns
1 pc belacan or prawn paste (optional)
2 tbs sugar (or more depending on your taste)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (if you are health concious, you can reduce the oil, but the frying may get a little more difficult)
Method
1) Rinse dried shrimp under running water to clean, then soak for 30mins. After that, pound them using mortal and pestle. The sambal taste better when the shrimp is pounded. You can still use a blender, but mincing them in a blender, the shrimps are slice to small pieces so the texture is a little different.
2) Toast the piece of belacan/shrimp paste over the stove or pan until fragrant, then crush them into powder.
3) Heat oil in wok. Pour in minced shallot and chilli and fry (stirring frequently) until fragrant. Add in belacan/shrimp paste and the dried shrimp and fry some more.
4) If you are like me, who prefers the sambal to be dryer, hence keeps better, you'll need to stir and fry the mixture for about 30minutes (you can stop earlier, but the sambal will be on the wetter side). This is the toughest part. After 10 mintutes, I find my right arm began to shake, and by 20 minutes, it feels as though my arm is no longer mine. :( I normally take turns with my helper to do this bit.
5) Add in sugar and stir fry until well mixed. Add in salt or more sugar if you want.
6) Scoop out sambal to a plate. If you are bottling them (which I did with mine), wait till it's fully cooled before puting them in the sterilised bottle. It will keep for a month refrigerated.
Serves as condiment, a main dish, or as 'spice' to add into any cooking.
Monday, January 10, 2011
The National Science Centre & The KL Birdpark - 2010
While the children are settling down to the school routine, I thought I'd better start posting this back dated post or it'll be stale news soon.
Zaria, who celebrated her birthday at the end of the year, wanted a birthday celebration at Jungle Gym too, but she only wanted to invite Tasha (my niece). Being a work day for my sis, we had to postponed the Jungle Gym play date to the weekend, so on her actual day, Daddy arranged these for her.
A visit to The National Science Centre. It's free, don't expect it to be as nice as Petrosains, but it has lots of things for children to play with.
There's some dinosaur exibition going on (admission is RM25 for whole family) which we brought the girls as well.
(Obivously, they don't know how to read signage yet)
For lunch, I suggested Japanese. Zaria asked, "Is it your birthday or my birthday? It's mine right? So I get to choose where to have lunch." And she chose Wendy's.
After lunch, I was feeling tired and wanted to nap, but Daddy and the girls were all eager for more activities. What came after next? KL Bird Park.
(I looked after the girls, and Daddy had a jolly good time taking all these shots.)
This girl obviously is not afraid of going near animals.
Their favourite...... Petting Chicks at the hatchling.
It's rare to see her smiling so happily for the camera. She had a great time picking up one chick after another and didn't want to leave.
She really enjoyed herself that day.
For her cake, I did a boo boo. I used a new recipe, and the recipe specified a cake pan too small. The cake overspilled midway, and cannot be used as a birthday cake.
Luckily, Aunty C, sent a set of 4 cupcakes over after she saw my FB status.
And for the last day of the week day, we brought them to Bukit Cherakah, just to wrap up the school holidays. It's a really nice place, but not well managed and maintained. We like the Four Season House the best, where the season is constantly set at Winter.
The thing is we were not properly dressed since we didn't know there's such a place in there.
We could only stay inside for a while, but the girls love it, and claimed they have now seen snow.
Zaria, who celebrated her birthday at the end of the year, wanted a birthday celebration at Jungle Gym too, but she only wanted to invite Tasha (my niece). Being a work day for my sis, we had to postponed the Jungle Gym play date to the weekend, so on her actual day, Daddy arranged these for her.
A visit to The National Science Centre. It's free, don't expect it to be as nice as Petrosains, but it has lots of things for children to play with.
There's some dinosaur exibition going on (admission is RM25 for whole family) which we brought the girls as well.
(Obivously, they don't know how to read signage yet)
For lunch, I suggested Japanese. Zaria asked, "Is it your birthday or my birthday? It's mine right? So I get to choose where to have lunch." And she chose Wendy's.
After lunch, I was feeling tired and wanted to nap, but Daddy and the girls were all eager for more activities. What came after next? KL Bird Park.
(I looked after the girls, and Daddy had a jolly good time taking all these shots.)
This girl obviously is not afraid of going near animals.
Their favourite...... Petting Chicks at the hatchling.
It's rare to see her smiling so happily for the camera. She had a great time picking up one chick after another and didn't want to leave.
She really enjoyed herself that day.
For her cake, I did a boo boo. I used a new recipe, and the recipe specified a cake pan too small. The cake overspilled midway, and cannot be used as a birthday cake.
Luckily, Aunty C, sent a set of 4 cupcakes over after she saw my FB status.
And for the last day of the week day, we brought them to Bukit Cherakah, just to wrap up the school holidays. It's a really nice place, but not well managed and maintained. We like the Four Season House the best, where the season is constantly set at Winter.
The thing is we were not properly dressed since we didn't know there's such a place in there.
We could only stay inside for a while, but the girls love it, and claimed they have now seen snow.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Cupcakes for My Daughters
My eldest and youngest daughters celebrated their birthdays respectively in November and December.
I made some cupcakes for a joint celebration in their school. I had the cupcake deisgn drawn up, and got approval from both of them. They wanted some kind of 'lollipop' toppers. Initially, they wanted lollipop biscuit as toppers, but that will be too time consuming for me to make, so instead, I use fondant.
Here are the cupcakes I made for their joint birthday celebration.
On my eldest actual birthday, more cupcakes were made. I was too lazy to think of a new design so I copied the butterfly theme instead.
And for my youngest actual birthday, I wanted to make her a green tea pound cake as she absolutely loves green tea. However, I was using a new recipe, and the recipe had suggested a pan too small. The batter overfilled mid way baking, and the end product was too ugly to be made into a birthday cake (taste wise it was fabulous).
Thanks to Cini, I had 4 cupcakes sent over after she heard about my baking disaster.
Happy Birthday to My Sugar and Spice.
I made some cupcakes for a joint celebration in their school. I had the cupcake deisgn drawn up, and got approval from both of them. They wanted some kind of 'lollipop' toppers. Initially, they wanted lollipop biscuit as toppers, but that will be too time consuming for me to make, so instead, I use fondant.
Here are the cupcakes I made for their joint birthday celebration.
On my eldest actual birthday, more cupcakes were made. I was too lazy to think of a new design so I copied the butterfly theme instead.
And for my youngest actual birthday, I wanted to make her a green tea pound cake as she absolutely loves green tea. However, I was using a new recipe, and the recipe had suggested a pan too small. The batter overfilled mid way baking, and the end product was too ugly to be made into a birthday cake (taste wise it was fabulous).
Thanks to Cini, I had 4 cupcakes sent over after she heard about my baking disaster.
Happy Birthday to My Sugar and Spice.
Monday, January 3, 2011
上学记
It's back to school.. after a month's off.
Zara to Standard One in a Chinese school and Zaria back to her kindergarten alone.
♥Zara♥
We went to school for orientation last Friday, to pay for her fees, collect her text books (from government) as well as to buy her work books.
The headmaster then had a communication session with the parents, while the kids got familiarised with the teachers.
The school is not too huge in size, there are 320 children in Standard One, out of which 80 are Malays (and our goverment is still in denial, not building enough Chinese schools).
She's in a class with 38 others.
The amount of books she has is A LOT, so we had to get her a huge trolley bag (those of you with Trunkie, you can consider using that too. :P).
After orientation, I asked her, "So how? Are you ready for Standard 1?"
Zara replied, "I don't think I'm ready yet."
I asked her again, "Then how?"
She replied, "Well, I don't think I can go back to kindergarten, so I'll just have to handle."
Big girl in deed.
(And no, her school doesn't have the horrendous toilet mentioned here, they have squatting toilets which are pretty clean)
She doesn't know anyone in her class, although some close friends of hers are in other classes (Standard 1 and 2); but this girl is sociable and she makes friends easily. I'm more worried about her Chinese than her ability to mix around.
1st day of school, she's fine, even started swapping snacks with a friend she just got to know during recess. :)
♥Zaria♥
Seing how much there is to Standard 1 (the big bag, the books, the coaching that Daddy is giving Zara on her BM), she said, "I don't want to go to Standard 1, I want to be four years old forever!" o.O"
Asked if she wanted to go back to school, she said, "Go to school go to school, how many times more do I have to go to school? I like holidays more!" o.O"
But no fuss for her when she went to school, happy to meet her BFFs.
♥Daddy♥
Worried.
He only realised on the day of the orientation that there is no more English maths nor science, and Zara will be doing both subjects in Chinese.
How is Zara going to know the English terminologies? When all Chinese in China are trying to learn English, here we are sending our kids to learn Chinese.
These are his comments.
Do we have any alternatives? Malay school? Private school? But still these subjects are taught in Malay.
International school? Can we afford it?
♥Me♥
Tired and Worried.
I have 1 attending school in morning, and another in the afternoon.
And a lot of people think working from home means you have all the time in the world to do all these chauffering, or homework coaching etc etc. As if.
Anyway, I'm doing some car pooling with neighbours.
I'm not trying to be kiasu, but the pressure is there; and because Chinese is not a language she's comfortable with, am worried if she's going to be held back due to the language.
Anyway, we shall see.
Zara to Standard One in a Chinese school and Zaria back to her kindergarten alone.
♥Zara♥
We went to school for orientation last Friday, to pay for her fees, collect her text books (from government) as well as to buy her work books.
The headmaster then had a communication session with the parents, while the kids got familiarised with the teachers.
The school is not too huge in size, there are 320 children in Standard One, out of which 80 are Malays (and our goverment is still in denial, not building enough Chinese schools).
She's in a class with 38 others.
The amount of books she has is A LOT, so we had to get her a huge trolley bag (those of you with Trunkie, you can consider using that too. :P).
After orientation, I asked her, "So how? Are you ready for Standard 1?"
Zara replied, "I don't think I'm ready yet."
I asked her again, "Then how?"
She replied, "Well, I don't think I can go back to kindergarten, so I'll just have to handle."
Big girl in deed.
(And no, her school doesn't have the horrendous toilet mentioned here, they have squatting toilets which are pretty clean)
She doesn't know anyone in her class, although some close friends of hers are in other classes (Standard 1 and 2); but this girl is sociable and she makes friends easily. I'm more worried about her Chinese than her ability to mix around.
1st day of school, she's fine, even started swapping snacks with a friend she just got to know during recess. :)
♥Zaria♥
Seing how much there is to Standard 1 (the big bag, the books, the coaching that Daddy is giving Zara on her BM), she said, "I don't want to go to Standard 1, I want to be four years old forever!" o.O"
Asked if she wanted to go back to school, she said, "Go to school go to school, how many times more do I have to go to school? I like holidays more!" o.O"
But no fuss for her when she went to school, happy to meet her BFFs.
♥Daddy♥
Worried.
He only realised on the day of the orientation that there is no more English maths nor science, and Zara will be doing both subjects in Chinese.
How is Zara going to know the English terminologies? When all Chinese in China are trying to learn English, here we are sending our kids to learn Chinese.
These are his comments.
Do we have any alternatives? Malay school? Private school? But still these subjects are taught in Malay.
International school? Can we afford it?
♥Me♥
Tired and Worried.
I have 1 attending school in morning, and another in the afternoon.
And a lot of people think working from home means you have all the time in the world to do all these chauffering, or homework coaching etc etc. As if.
Anyway, I'm doing some car pooling with neighbours.
I'm not trying to be kiasu, but the pressure is there; and because Chinese is not a language she's comfortable with, am worried if she's going to be held back due to the language.
Anyway, we shall see.
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