Archive for January, 2009

Have you started on the balik kampung exodus yet? My dad and brother are going back to hometown today. I will join them on the second day of Chinese New Year and coming back on the fourth day of Chinese New Year. Really much too short, I wish we could stay longer but hotel is expensive.

We will be travelling one day, then we only have one full day and the next day we have to check out and travel again. Usually we will travel very early in the morning, scooping the kids out from their beds, still in their pyjamas and straight into the car. They often wake up later, when its time for breakfast and a stop, surprised to find that they are in the car travelling. Hahaha. Its better this way because its not so hot and they get less fretty because they have slept through part of the journey so it doesn’t seem that long.

I wonder how mum and dad did it in our time. Travelling in the car with 5 noisy kids fighting with each other must really be terrific. lol. We used to travel for 10 to 12 hours straight on the trunk roads (back then before the highway was available). Second sister often got car sick.

Today, when the kids get back home from school, I will get them to pack their own drawers as part of the spring cleaning process. On Sunday, we will wash the porch and cars together. The kids love that. They also love to pack their own “luggage” for the trip stuffing in books and toys.

I have clipped together some angpows for hanging on our plants outside the house and made some fish made from angpow paper for decorations. I wanted to make angpow lanterns too but I have forgotten how. Haha. Each year I forget how. I had to jolt my memory by visiting this site. It has a good step by step pictorial guide on how to make the angpow fish. Its very nice and cheap decoration. We usually get one or two from the store to paste or hang as well but those are a bit more expensive and wasteful. They look colorful and nice but some of them depict a certain animal zodiac year and can’t be reused the next year.

Why bother to clean and decorate? Some people ask me. You are going away after all. Why not just pack up and go? Why all the trouble? Its for the kids. Its for the kids. Chinese New Year is not Chinese New Year without spring cleaning, decorations, mandarin oranges, f&n orange, peanuts, kuaci, cookies, open houses, new clothes, fireworks, etc etc. That is what Chinese New Year is all about.

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My Girl just got her school timetable. It is something like this. They have 5 hours of lessons per day making it a total of 25 hours of lessons per week. During one week of school, she has…..

• 5 hours for Chinese language
• 4 1/2 hours of Malay Language
• 1 hour of English Language
• 2 hours of Maths in English
• 3 hours of Maths in Chinese
• I 1/2 hours of Science in English
• 1 1/2 hours of Science in Chinese
• 2 hours of moral
• 1 hour of computer
• 1 hour of gym
• 1 hour of Music
• 1 hour of Art
• 1/2 hour of revision/overview

My thoughts when I saw the time table.

• Wuah. Only 1 hour for English? No wonder they say the kids English will deteriorate when enter Chinese School.
• Hmmm…. 4 1/2 hours for Malay. Perhaps that is a government requirement but not bad also lah so that they won’t have difficulty catching up in Bahasa Malaysia in secondary school if you intend to send them to Kebangsaan school then
• Aisay…. what for want to teach Maths and Science in two languages. Thats just overloading the kids. Just teach it in one language lah, whatever language, I don’t really mind.
• Got Art, Gym, Computer, Music. My girl will enjoy those but I heard that those classes have to make way for more academic ones later on from Std 3 onwards. During orientation, one of the parents complained that she never got to wash her kid’s gym clothes because the kid never got to run around and be kids, there was just work, work and more work and lessons…. of the academic kind.
• Wuah! Sure got a lot of homework like that.

Can you share with me your kid’s timetable and what you think when you see this timetable?

Here’s another timetable from a blogger who sends her child to a private church based school. You might want to check it out to see the difference.

Timetable for Primary 1 Private “Kebangsaan” School

I guess you can’t really compare the two as it is like comparing apples with oranges. One is a government school while the other is government aided and private sector funded. As a result, the Chinese school facilities is much better than the Kebangsaan school one.

When shopping for schools, I visited  a few, both Chinese as well as Kebangsaan school because I couldn’t make up my mind on which school to send my kid to. We had to list down 3 choices when registering our children for schools and most people would either have all 3 as Chinese Schools or all 3 as Kebangsaan School. I had a mix. Hahaha. That was how undecided I was. However the school my girl was eventually sent to was not in my 3 choices. lol.

Anyway, I visited many schools but some of them were more “memorable” than the others. For example, the Kebangsaan school nearest to my house (which I considered simply because of its proximity and convenience) was very small. It’s canteen doubled up as a hall if I am not mistaken. The canteen was very small and I didn’t see a field. When the bell rang and recess time (its good to visit during school hours to observe the actual situation), the kids ran out and some sat on the floor to have their meal.

I spoke to a Chinese teacher there and she looked at me and said “Why aren’t you sending your child to a Chinese school?” Imagine that, even the teacher there did not believe in the school she taught. So sad. I asked her about the school facilities and she simply said “Just look around you. We are very small.”

Another Kebangsaan school a little further from my home was better. They had a dedicated headmaster (Its important to speak to the heads of school when you visit). The school was clean and had reasonable facilities, a music room, a computer room a nice canteen with colorful chairs and benches almost like in a fast food restaurant, open air badminton courts, a big school field, an open air school hall. There were murals everwhere done by the school children, the garden was nice, the toilets were clean and new. I almost sent my kid there and in case Chinese school don’t turn out, I guess we will try this school out.

However, the Chinese School Facilities wins hands down, especially the newer ones (or rather the ones that I visited. It may perhaps be unfair to make this an overall and simplistic comparison because I do not have statistics nor did I visit that many schools? I probably visited 2 Kebangsaan schools and 5 Chinese Schools while school hunting)  But of course  you have to be prepared to pay in the form of donation (afterall you want your kid to use these facilities don’t you) and you have to pay higher school fees to maintain these facilities.

Classrooms are airconditioned. Every classroom has a projector. There is a big school hall with indoor badminton courts, an auditorium like the size of a cinema, a small music room, a small dance room, a computer room ( my girl’s class has 42 students and she says each kid has access to one computer and there were balance after that), a library, a big field, a basketball court, a medium sized canteen. Why, its almost like a private school accept you don’t pay so much. But the culture and medium of instruction is different of course. Facilities not so different from a private school (accept for the absence of a pool in the better ones) but if you can’t accept the culture and the way things are done in a Chinese school then its not for you. Besides, all the best facilities are useless if you are not going to use them.

How are the facilities in your child’s school? Care to share? Not comparing notes here but just for information’s sake, it’ll be good for everyone to know whats available.

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Networking With Other Parents

Have you ever met someone who is passionate in something? Whether its their work or a project of whatever. These people are truly inspiring. I’ve met a paeditrician who is passionate in breastfeeding, a gynae who is passionate in her work and a neurologist who is passionate in his work (Hey. How come they’re all doctors?) It is a joy to watch them at work. No matter how busy they are (and these are very busy people), they always still manage to have a smile, and time for you because they truly believe in their work or project. They believe in what they do and they love what they do and what they do often helps other people.

Speaking about passion for something,  I also had the chance to meet this lovely lady who is passionate in her work to create epilepsy awareness. She used to have a booth at Wisma Atria for almost 4 years promoting epilepsy awareness. She gave me her time and some answers when I was searching for one. One of the best gifts you can give to a person is the gift of time. Time to really listen, understand and help them. This is what she has done for many people in the 4 years that she had her booth.

She has to close her booth now but I believe that she will continue to do valuable work in creating Epilepsy Awareness on her blog and in other ways. Wellsphere.com (a renown health website in USA) had nominated her epilepsy blog to be part of its 1st Annual Health Blogger Awards competition.  The competition had started on 15th December 2008 and will end on 31st January 2009. 

Will you help someone who is compassionate and passionate about creating Epilepsy Awareness to further spread Epilepsy Awareness by voting for her blog? I hope that you will.

You can help to promote epilepsy awareness by voting for epilepsy awareness.  Please visit http://www.epilepsylegacy.blogspot.com/.  You will see on the top right hand corner of the blog a voting badge with her photo in it.  Click on the VOTE NOW below the photo.  You will be asked to fill in a small form to register yourself to be a member of Wellsphere.com.  Fill in your particulars.  Click SUBMIT VOTE.  Your vote has been cast for epilepsy awareness.

My husband enjoys martial arts movies, you know the kind where men fly on tree tops, sleep on ice beds and fall off cliffs and still lives. Oh, the hero usually has a few girls hankering after him too. I always complain to my husband about that. Why can’t it be the other way?

So this year, for his birthday, I decided to buy him some martial arts dvds. Being a martial arts movie fan, he has a lot in his collection by now but he does not have those really old Shaw Brothers Kungfu Classics. For the previous two years, I bought him comics online so they have ceased to become an element of surprise.

I didn’t know how to buy dvds online. Most of the suppliers came from US and had expensive shipping charges. Finally I found one from HongKong which offered free shipping. Then I had to figure out the regions. We have to buy Region 3 dvds. Region 2 is for Japan and Region 1 is for the US. If you buy the wrong region, it won’t play on your player. You also have to check the system whether NTSC or PAL whatever that means. Haha. If I am not mistaken we use the NTSC system here but most dvd players are smart enough to play both something like that.

Finally, I found my supplier. I decided to order just one first for Christmas to try it out ie check out the quality etc. It arrived one day after Christmas. Oh dearie me. Worse still, it arrived on Saturday when hubby was around. When we came home he saw a box on the porch and asked what was that. Cheh! Spoilt half the fun. I had to tell him that that was his belated Christmas present. Hahaha.

Since the Christmas dvd took so long to arrive, more than a month, I could not wait to test it so I went ahead and ordered more for his birthday. Unfortunately the Christmas one was in Mandarin whereas the description had been Mandarin or Cantonese for languages. Haiyah! It was too troublesome to return it so I just wrote to them about my disappointment and asked them to check to make sure that the next batch is in Cantonese as well.

The new batch just arrived yesterday in the mail. Hehe. All in good time for his birthday early next month. I’m so busy this month, I don’t have time to shop for his present. Besides we shop together most of the time so I can’t surprise him. Buying online is the best but online shopping is really a bit dangerous. Its too easy! If you have Paypal, its even easier. A few clicks and you have parted with your money without even feeling it. Oops! So far, I have only shopped for books and dvds online. Better stop there before all the money in my Paypal disappears. Hahaha.

I bought 5 dvds in all. Will wrap them up into 3 different packages and get the kids to present one to him each. Hahaha. So easy hor.

Well, got to run to do some more spring cleaning now. Today, I will clear our clothes cupboards. I enjoy clearning clothes cupboard. However, setting time aside to do it is the trouble.

What would you do if….

• the school guard has an eye on your maid, he leaves his duty at the guard post and tries to make conversation with you for 10 minutes to impress the maid (this one I really don’t know what to do)
• your son is down with a fever but he wants to go to school (Just tell him No!)
• your husband says you should not keep the kids school bag near the door where you keep them because he is afraid that cochcroaches may get in it and into his car, you tell him there is no better place to keep it and then when he gets into the car, a lizard jumps into his car? (You still think keeping the school bags by the door is the best thing because you don’t want to get dirt all over the house with the dirty rollers else  you will have worms and dirt in the bedroom rather than lizard and cochroaches in the bag but since he thinks its a lousy place let him think of a better place since he has said he will do so anyway)
• you go to the toilet to call your hubby to ask how’s everything because you don’t want to wake the boy with the fever but then he is busy and says he will call back and when he does you are still in the toilet and so you don’t hear the house phone and when you eventually pick it up he is upset that it took you so long to answer the phone and that makes you mad so you just shout something about the lizard and then you hang up the phone and both of you are still mad. You had actually called to give him some suggestions like opening all the windows and hopefully the lizard will run off but instead of saying that you are so mad you just tell him “I tell you ah, the lizard did not come from the school bag!” lol. Thats married life. (Hmmm… better apologise soon because you have to rely on him to fetch you to the doctor this evening. Hahaha. Must really lower pride to apologise one you know because when you apologise, the spouse will still merajuk and say something like “You everytime like that one, shout then only apologise and he will still sound very mad at you.)
• you are supposed to spring clean the house but you can’t decide whether to do so item by item (fans, floors etc) or room by room? (Decided to do it room by room this week and item by item next week.)
• the girl has a cough, the boy has a fever, you have a sore throat and Chinese New Year is just round the corner (Drink more water, get more sleep)
• your girlfriends arrange a get together in your hometown. You haven’t seen them in ages and it will be nice to catch up but you will be in your hometown for one full day at the most, the others are spent travelling and there will be lots of family commitments and relatives to visit and you also want to spend some time with the kids because its nice to see them having fun away from home (Still don’t know what to do. Feel torn.)
• you said that your new year resolution is to exercise daily but then the boy has fever and you have to get him back to bed because the husband made so much commotion in the morning it woke the boy and then the maid took everything out of the cupboard and drawers to wipe, EVERYTHING, and then she can’t remember what goes where and so you have to go and sit down and sort everything and you say you might as well clear the cupboards and you forget all about your exercise (Thank goodness for the maid to help out and clearing things is fun and don’t shoot yourself over loss of one day in not exercising.)

Ahh…. writing always helps. I had started out with all the what ifs but after reading, I gave myself some answers. Hahaha.

Its only 2 weeks to go before Chinese New Year. How quickly the time flies. Only 2 weeks to go, that means, only 2 more weekends left to buy whatever and only 10 days (minus the weekends) left to do whatever spring cleaning. Oh Gosh. Thats very little time!

We’ve got most of our shopping for clothes out of the way. Phew! Shopping for 5 (including the maid who also got new clothes) is a big task! Rush here. Rush there. And everyone try this try that. Now theres only cookies, decorations and food shopping left during the 2 weekends to go. I noticed that the malls which had gone all out to outdo each other in Christmas decorations is going easy on the Chinese New Year decorations. They look much simpler.

We’ll need to get a haircut too if time permits. I don’t feel like getting a haircut because I don’t like being fleeced ie having to pay double for a normal cut and wash.

As for cleaning tasks, we’ve done the bigger things like patch up holes in ceilings, painted the gate and some parts of the walls which has started to look black (in only 2 years), varnished some parts of the parquet floor which had started to look scratchy etc.

Now, in 10 days, I’ve got to….

• clean out all the drawers, shelves and other open spaces
• clean the doors and windows and grills
• clean the fans and airconds
• change and wash all the bedsheets
• blah blah blah

Theres lots and lots to do so I better get going then. How’s your Chinese New Year preparation coming along?

Other Posts I wrote today:

A healthy mom is a happy mom

First Week of School

We are ill prepared for Chinese School. With our indecisiveness, we had not prepared our girl to feel at ease in a Chinese School.

In her school, I would say around 70% of the children are from English speaking homes. However, most of the children can speak Mandarin. This is because the parents have prepared the kids well by sending the kids to at least 2-3 years of Chinese preschool. Meaning the kids attended a Chinese kindergarden where the main medium of instruction is Chinese. Even the little Indian boy in my girl’s class speaks Mandarin fluently by now at Standard One.

There are 2 special Std One classes in her school. In each of these classes, the number of students is lesser ie around 35 and 10% of them are muslims and non-chinese. This is to make sure that these students have a better chance of catching up, plus it makes it easier for them to attend Agama classes etc. I would have preferred my girl to be in one of these classes but…

Altogether there are 7 Std One Classes with about 40 students to a class with the exception of the 2 special classes I mentioned. I guess this is not too crowded a figure. Some Chinese schools have bigger numbers than these, more classes and with about 50 to a class I heard.

The environment in a Chinese school is really competitive. During orientation, we are handed a list of curriculum activities which the kids can attend after school (for a fee of course). After school activities (1.30-3.10/3.40pm) which start next week, are compulsory for kids from Standard 3 onwards. The younger ones have a choice. They can join Arts & Crafts, Badminton, Taekwando, Drama, Hanyu Pinyin classes, etc etc. Its a long list.  It makes it easier for the parents, I guess. Kids can stay back, have lunch, then join in a class, and you pick them up later. So you don’t have to ferry your kids from one place to another for activities.

It seems almost tempting to join some activities for various reasons….eg: for extra Chinese classes because I am afraid she is so lost, so that she can make more friends from school from doing shared activities because she says she has no friends, or simply because she likes some of those activities.

I have to remind myself to allow her to slowly settle in first and those other extras can wait although I am not sure whether they are allowed to join midterm. So I did not fill up any of those forms for extra activities. Parents have started to arrange tuition because, some of them, like me, found that they are ill prepared and the child is very lost. Some of them have even approached the class teacher to form a group for extra tuition for their kids. Its that competitive! Scary.

No matter how unkiausu you are, you’re going to be caught up and get lost in the whirlpool of competitiveness. First, you might have to send  your kid for extra Mandarin tuition to make sure she can follow the classes, then you may send him or her for some Arts and Drama classes etc to foster creativity to counter the rote learning methods so that they learn to think out of the box, then you may send them for English classes to make sure their standard of English do not drop etc. This is what I’ve heard. I haven’t experienced all this yet but I think I have one foot in now by trying to find ways to make sure my girl can follow whats going on in class because I cannot help her. And thats another sad thing because I so want to be able to help and guide her personally.

I realise that my mistake is not preparing my girl enough in conversational chinese. She may be able to read and write but she cannot speak or understand spoken Mandarin. She cannot make friends and she cannot understand what the teachers are saying and that makes her miserable. Even the Malay and English teachers give instructions in Mandarin so she is totally lost. We have asked her kindy teacher to come 2-3 times a week to help her out, sort of like giving her an intensive or crash course in spoken Mandarin for one or two months.

I have always maintained that I hate giving my kid extra tuition but only after the first week of school, I have resorted to this! Its madness. I am still full of reservations about sending my kid to Chinese school but lets wait and see. I will keep on updating our progress.

Although I have said that we did not prepare my girl enough by not sending her to a Chinese environment preschool, this is still something I do not want to do. I have sent my boy to a normal English speaking preschool. This is because I want them to be good in English first before Chinese. I want them to learn to think in English and want them to learn Chinese as a second language. I prefer it if they learn Chinese as a language rather than as the main medium of instruction but it would seem I have no choice. I feel that my girl’s English is quite ok for her age and so now she can start learning her Mandarin. If it were the other way, had I sent her to a Chinese medium preschool, then she would probably be poorer in English. You can’t have everything. The kids have to learn English, Chinese AND Malay. I feel that you have to choose which language you want your child to excel in or you’d be in a situation where they are the jack of trades and the master of none. They’d know every language but they would not be very good in any of them.

Shoppingmum, is this post cheong hei enough for you? I have more. Hahaha.

What a hectic start to the year I am having. With one kid going to Standard One for the first time and another going to kindy for the first time at two different locations at different times. Wow! Its just been really crazy.

I haven’t had time to even sit in front of the pc accept to have a cursory glance at my emails every now and then. Had to reject a good offer too. Sob. Sob. But children and family first. So no more sob.

I’m still really rather busy for the rest of the week. Maybe I will be more settled by next week, hopefully. And then, I will update my blog in my more usual “cheong hei” (long winded) manner to record down all those little details about the children going to school for the first time and my observations and the lessons I learned along the way. So many lessons. I’m talking about myself not the kids. Haha.

To me, a child entering school for the first time is really a big milestone for the parents. I’ll record this milestone down in my Parenting Times blog when I have more time next week.

Till then Happy Belated New Year to everyone.

Almost my default, my new year resolution is to increase my exercise from 2-3 times a week to daily because my new routine requires me to get up at 6.30am, prepare the girl for school, then I have half hour to exercise before I prepare the boy for kindy.