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Despite my recent laments about the workload and bagload for the kids, I do not regret sending my child to a Chinese School. I know some parents who do though. When my child was about to enter Std 1 in the school last year, I ran into a friend who was planning to take his Std 2 kid out.

If you had read my earlier posts, you would know about how hard I struggled over the decision on which type of school to send my child. I think many other parents struggle over this decision too.

My girl is in Std 2 in a Chinese School now and we are overall happy with the school.

1. My girl loves to study Chinese. She tells me it is very interesting. She likes the way there is a story behind each Chinese Character. She likes to make words and sentences in Chinese. Of all the 3 languages she studies, she likes Chinese best, English second and Malay third. She has a good command of English since we have been reading lots of books in English from young. Perhaps that is why she does not find it that challenging. Her library at home is more extensive than mine so her English vocabulary and spelling comes naturally. She likes to challenge herself and when I praise her for her sentence making in Chinese or Malay, she is delighted. She is happy that her Chinese is improving and getting better than mummy’s each day.
2. We find the teachers at the school motivated and hardworking. It is not their fault that they dish out a lot of homework etc. They too are under pressure to complete the syllabus. It is the whole system that needs to be reviewed. More work from more workbooks does not necessarily create smarter children. Children need play and rest too. Quite often physical education classes and art classes are taken away and replaced by more academic lessons. That is not the way. They are equally important.
3. Discipline in school is good, not excessive as we had initially feared. She grumbles about school like any kid would and not anymore than that. She does not hate or fear school that much, only enough to get things done. We were initially afraid that punishment in a Chinese School would be excessive and she would fear and hate school but so far it has not been the case. My girl does all her work and likes to study for her spelling etc diligently so in that area she is fine, she gets scolded by the teacher for talking in class which she likes to do. That is very normal. Also, from my conversations with her, I have not heard of any excessive punishments even for the very naughty boys in class.
4. The school’s facilities are very good and it is progressive. Every now and then there are new developments and improvements. New walkways, new shelters, new plants etc. We do our part and donate to the school to keep these improvements coming.

That is it. So far we are happy. I don’t know about later on when the pressure heats up for UPSR. From next year she may have to stay back in school till up to 4pm for most days for extra UPSR lessons as well as extra curricular activities. At the moment we do not attend any.

My only wish is that there will be a little less homework. My children are very disciplined. They have homework time and they do it without complain although like most children they play, chat, day dream etc if left unsupervised. I find that even with their correct attitude towards homework, there is often not enough time for them to rest and play.

Their day mostly consist entirely of school, meals, sleep (not enough of it, we struggle to find the time) and homework (which takes up sleep time not to mention play time). That is it. It is not a very healthy lifestyle. Fortunately, not all days are like this. We have taught our girl to try to do her work in school. (This is a “trick” a friend taught us). She does this at times, competing with her friends to see who finishes first. On those days, her load is lighter, then she has more time for sleep, but still not enough time to play.

What about you? Are you happy with the decision you made about your child’s school so far? Will you share please?

Continued from previous post.

Talking about simple, my girl often gets scolded during computer class because she is slow to understand. When she tries to ask her friend for help the teacher admonishes her and tells them not to help her. “Let her do it herself” she says. Maybe she has good intentions in wanting her to learn but isn’t asking for help when you don’t know a way of learning too?

When I look at the book, I get angry. The terms used etc and the way in which it has been written looks like a book for an adult! Even an adult who has no computer knowledge would have difficulty understanding it let alone a 7-8 year old kid! Why can’t they simplify it? They syllabus and content looks very hard.

For example, the first chapter talks about The Internet. It goes on to say that “First, you must have a computer. Second, you must apply for an Internet account from an Internet Service Provider (ISP). You must also have a modem.” Once you have all of the above, you have to install a special software in your computer system to go on to the internet. The special software is called a browser. Examples of a browser are “Internet Explorer” and “Moxilla Firefox”

Try explaining that to a 7 year old? Computer class which should be a fun and exciting class has turned out to be a hateful subject for my girl and I don’t blame her.

My girl has 5 reference books (Tatabahasa, Pemahaman, Text Book, Activity Book, Workbook) and 5 exercise books (Ejaan, Tulisan, Latihan 1, Latihan 2, Bina Ayat) for her Malay lesson. This is just an example. It is similar for other subjects.

Fortunately, her Malay teacher has informed her which reference book and which exercise book to bring for each day of the week. She writes this down and each time she packs her school bag she has to refer to it in order to remember which books to bring.

Yesterday, she brought the Tuesday books as usual. However, the teacher asked them to use an exercise book not designated for Tuesday because tests are near. So the poor girl copied everything on a piece of paper. It was 1 1/2 pages altogether. 1 1/2 pages may sound little but I realise that for a child that is quite a lot. Especially since, she also has 3 pages of Maths, another 1 page of BM plus the need to study for Spelling, Dictation and Ting Seah for today. Forget about revising for tests next week. There is no time left.

I wanted to paste her work on the correct exercise book for her but she was too frightened so she copied the whole 1 1/2 pages of work onto the correct exercise book again.

Eventually, I had to resort to packing her school bags for her just to make sure she has enough time for rest and sleep. I hate doing that because I do not want to teach her the wrong things but I have no choice. Sleep is very important for her.

It is crazy that the kids have up to 10 books for just one subject. However, I do know that the teachers are trying their best. They each have their own method. The BM teacher, as I mentioned, asks them to bring different books on different days. The English teacher requests that they leave their books in their drawers when tests are near so that they do not have to bring them to and fro. The Chinese teacher who is also their class teacher and teaches them other subjects often manages it by keeping most workbooks in school returning it to them only as and when required.

Even though the teachers do try their best, quite often the kids do get confused by either forgetting to bring their books or bringing unnecessary books because they are afraid. I question the need for so many workbooks. Why can’t they keep it simple?

More about school work in the next post.

I do not travel balik kampung during the peak period just before Chinese New Year. I often travel home in the wee hours of the morning during CNY and we do not get caught in any traffic jam.

However, we usually travel back home to KL during peak traffic periods and we do get caught in a bad traffic crawl or a traffic jam.

Every year it is the same. And every year the drivers behave the same. There will always be irresponsible, selfish drivers who weave through the traffic from left to right and back to left again right up to the emergency lane where they would speed up above the speed limit on the emergency lanes because there are less cars in the way. These drivers also love to tail ambulances etc. They are such a nuisance and such a pain. They are reckless and do not care for the safety of themselves or other road users.

Every year we read about road deaths and bad car accidents and bus or lorry accidents. Yet, every year, I do not see any improvements in the drivers’ behaviour. When will our drivers learn?

This year on Valentine’s Day, we woke up early and dressed in our best. Then we drove to the place where we got married. There was a girl selling roses at the gate so my Valentine date got me some. We saw a few other love birds there. They were dressed in their best carrying bouquets of flowers.

Our hearts were beating like loud drums….. no, it was loud drums beating! Haha. The loud drums of the lion dancers. The other love birds we saw were two other couples getting married on that day.

We were amused to see the bride rushing to the lion’s side to have her photo taken. Mind you, that was no easy task. There were two lions there that day but they were almost molested by the crowd rushing towards them to stroke and pat the lion’s mane. Each time the lion took a few mandarin oranges from the box laid before them, the crowd rush forward. It is considered good luck to get “gold” (mandarin oranges) from the lions and to pat the lions. The poor lion dancers almost had no chance to dance. All they could manage to do was walk around and the crowd went wild. Everyone was in a jovial and happy mood.

I must say that I enjoyed my Valentine’s Day very much this year. It was very meaningful for us to be at the place where we were married and we had our two lovelies along with us too. The two lovelies that we made with love and whom are very much a part of us. That made it all the more meaningful and a day filled with love.

Some folks would have started their balik kampung journey starting tomorrow so let me leave you with this Chinese New Year message before you do.

This is a cute Happy Chinese New Year 2010 song (in English) since I don’t know Chinese very well. It is a greeting for the Year of the Tiger 2010 and has some Valentine’s Day elements in the song as well so you are wished a Happy Valentine’s Day 2010 at the same time. Just nice.

Instead of going around jumping from blog to blog and friend to friend on facebook etc wishing everyone and going crazy in the process because there is so many to wish, I would like to take an opportunity to wish everyone a Happy Chinese New Year, Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Holidays to everyone.

Remember to be extra vigilant during this period. My kid’s kindy just got broken into. Thieves came in from the rooftop during the night and even had time to shower and partake of all the CNY goodie hampers before making off with some cash and other valuables.

We bought some decorative Chinese New Year Lime trees this year. When the man from the nursery put the pots in the car and we drove back with them, the car was filled with the most lovely citrus aroma.

The kids wanted to know if we could eat the fruits. The man at the nursery had told them that it was poison. Thinking that he was just kidding them, I told them that it should be fine but it is very sour, not nice at all. It is only nice for making a drink with. They thought it was mini mandarin oranges because they look very much like that to them.

My husband said we should err on the cautious side and not take them. I was not convinced so he drove back to the plant nursery to ask the lady. The lady said “No, the fruits are not edible because it contains a lot of chemicals and pesticides. You should wait for another round of fruiting first.”

I found an article which confirmed what she said. Here is the article “Deadly fruits of decorative lime trees” You should read it too. It is very interesting. It says that the fruits are so laden with plant growth hormones or enhancers, chemical inducers, insecticides and fungicides etc (just so to make sure the plant would fruit around the Chinese New Year period)  that if could be fatal to eat them and they should not be consummed in any form! You should also watch out for unscrupulous traders who put this fruit for sale at the supermarkets at the end of the Chinese New Year period.

If you want to know what the lime tree or “kumquat” represent, you can read this “Auspicious plants for Chinese New Year”. In short, it symbolizes prosperity and abundance. Here is another post from the same blog on the many uses of calamansi, limau kastari or “kat chai”. However, in using them in foods or drinks, be sure to use them not during the Chinese New Year season unless they are from your own garden and free of pesticides.

The other day it rained the first heavy rain after my roof was “fixed”. Yes, eventually, the third ( was it the 3rd, I lost count) contractor came in. The one who said for only RM300 I will give you a guarantee. If your roof continues to leak, call me anytime. I will come to fix it again.

Well, it rained. Parts of the roof continued to leak. Some parts were ok just to give “credit” where it’s due. When I told him about the continued leak, he said. “Oh, that part of your roof is very dirty. It requires a lot more work.”

“But you said you will guarantee??!!!!” was met with “No, no, I only guarantee small leaks. Not big work like that.”

When I asked him what he suggested next, he said “I will have to come and look at your roof again before giving you a quotation. I can’t come now. I have too much work. Chinese New Year is approaching.”

Imagined that! Whatever happened to guarantee!!!! I thought he had had a look at my roof the other day and had fixed it with a promise to come back if it leaks again! What a liar! Whatever little faith I have left in contractors has vanished POOF! into thin air. I will never trust another contractor EVER again! GRRRRRRR! *Grumble grumble grumble*

Yesterday we had water disruption so we could not cook dinner. We had received the McD brochure earlier on about its Prosperity Family Feast. We thought the size of the meal was just right for us so we decided to call for Delivery.

In the brochure it said Only 38.80. Regular Price 47.81. That sounds like a bargain right? Well, not actually. In the fine fine print it says prices subject to 5% goverment tax. Oh, and we must not forget about the 3.00 delivery charge must we. (which is also in very fine print in another part of the leaflet). At the end of the day, the price (plus rounding up) came up to 43.75. Hmm….

Oh well, one should always read the fine fine print. Anyway, the meal included a Chicken Burger. I wanted to cut that up into 2 for the kids to share. However when I tried to cut, the knife could not slice through the meat pattie. I had to rip it apart with my hands. It was so thin and hard! Definitely unedible. The nuggets and curly fries look a little fried too but at least those were edible.

I called up this morning to make a complaint. I think the outlet manager of the outlet concerned should be made aware. I felt anything but “prospering” after that meal. Thumbs down. Anyway this is our first bad experience. We’ve taken McD for years with no bad feelings accept to our pocket and guilt for taking food less healthy.

I don’t watch much TV. Firstly, it is because I don’t have very much time. However, another reason is because I am not really happy about the limited selection we have for Direct TV.

It is not like Direct TV in New York. I feel that the options they have are much better. You can have more selections for about $1 a day. You can choose your preference, whether its HD TV, Sports, Movies, Local or Global. For me, I’d probably choose Movies and International. I’ve got to have my Movies.

Just looking at their Directv Movies Selection makes me drool. You can choose to watch only classics, or action, mystery or love. There is even a section for just teens. Tell you a secret. I still watch teen flicks even though I am middle aged now. The Movie Lovers Packages are very specific to your individual taste. I would probably go for love and drama. What about you?

Another thing, did you know that if you are moving house, you can go to this site to look for your Direct TV Service Options. The site lists down all the local channels in your area that is available through Directv via zipcode links. All you have to do is look for your zipcode and click on the link.