Only 2 more days to go before the school holidays. As usual we have grand plans. No, not to go anywhere but we have lots of activities planned for the kids. As usual, mummy will be more busy than ever during the school holidays, so I will take a blog break too.

I hope that the schools won’t dish out too many homework for them. It is only a week’s holiday after all. Minus the weekends, it is only 5 days. That is too little for all the things we want to do. I hope to…

• let them explore the computer more (on mommy approved games and sites only) Hehe. No shooting, racing or other mindless games. There are many educational games that are fun and equally challenging
• brush up their languages by letting them watch more Malay and Chinese cartoons
• let them read stories in 3 languages (learning 3 languages at the same time is tough.) and discuss with them afterwards
• do arts and crafts (which the children love)
• teach them a little bit of English because it has been neglected to make way for learning Chinese and Malay
• let them play ball and skipping and bean bags (we made two to play with this holidays)
• let them practise more piano (I am glad that the kids love the piano. I do not have to nag at them to practise. It is the other way around, they beg me to let them practise but usually there is not enough time, so piano practise is low in priority, unfortunately, unless there is a piano exam around the corner)

That is a tall order indeed. Crafts, Languages, Music and PC Skills plus a little bit of sports. That is our objective this school holidays. Only 5 days to do the things that they seldom get to do during regular school days due to lack of time. What a pity.

The kids love holidays even though we seldom go anywhere. They look forward to our own home school holiday program. We usually draw up a timetable together and they look forward to following the timetable of activities. During some school holidays, if there is a test pending afterwards, then we have to do more revision and practise in workbooks. However, this holidays, with the test just over, we can do more fun things.

This year for hubby’s birthday, he was on leave. His birthday is near Chinese New Year as it always is. However this year, something was different. This year, the kids were both at school in the morning. Hurrah!

So we had 2-3 hours to ourselves to “paktor” just like the old times. We went to “jalan-jalan” and held hands like we did in our 20s and 30s but here we are now both in our 40s.

Quite often when we are with the kids, we have no time to hold hands because either one of us would be holding one or two pairs of little hands.

We don’t have anyone we can rely on to babysit for a few hours so it is unrealistic for us to go for the suggested “date nights” that one is “supposed to go on” to keep your relationship with your spouse alive instead of concentrating on family and talk about babies and children all the time.

Now that the kids are old enough to be in school we can have stolen moments again. 

I often see my neighbours having stolen moments after their 3 kids are in school. They would walk out together for breakfast holding hands.

So, to parents of very young babies and toddlers who never seem to have the time, be patient, you will find time again for each other once the kids grow up and they grow up so very fast.

The bonds of matrimony are like any other bonds - they mature slowly.  ~Peter De Vries

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?

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.

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.

At first, I thought I am happy that at last the kids do not have to study the Maths and Science in two languages in school thus reducing their workload. To me, although I preferred the subjects to be taught in English, having it taught in just Mandarin was better than having it taught in two languages both at the same time and having to sit for two sets of tests. However, on hindsight, I think that it has been a good thing.

Although their workloads and bag loads were heavier with the two subjects being taught in two languages, it allowed me to teach my girl the two subjects easily. I taught her in English and then we translated the terms to Mandarin. It was good that way because she thinks in English. Some of the workbooks were bilingual too so it was useful.

I hope that now that the two subjects will no longer be taught in English, those bilingual books will not go too because I find them really useful. It is harder to learn the subjects directly in Mandarin. It was easier for us to learn the concepts in English and then translate the terms into Chinese. Now it will be harder for me to teach my kids.

My husband and I plus our maid and two children made our visit cost up to RM42. We were in and out of there in about 10 minutes. That is one of the fastest way my RM42 disappeared. The other fast way was playing those arcade or funfair games at Genting Highlands costing about RM1-RM3 per throw or try.

The toy musuem was small, crowded and a tad bit dusty. Personally, I feel that if you watch this Penang Toy Musuem Video tour you would have seen most of it. Anyway perceptions and individual tastes differ. So if you like to see little collectibles and poring over little figurines of your favourite toy characters in detail, then perhaps you may feel that it is worthwhile.

We got the boy to pose with Spiderman and Iron Man but it was hard given the little space. My girl liked the M&M toys and I liked the China dolls and that is about it. RM42 out the window.

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?

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.

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.