3rd week in school

Russell, my 4yo+ son who is in kindergarten 1 told me that he went to school yesterday, so he does not need to go to school today... in fact, he says these every morning when I asked him to get ready for school... it's lucky that the eldest does not has this problem.

Instead of just asking them to write words and learn from books, I decided to teach him more often day and night from surrounding things like in the bedroom, in the house, what are those things. My intention is to eliminate his fears of papers and books. I want to encourage him to learn and eventually will pick up his favourites book to ready willingly. I'm proud to say that I've had achieved this with my eldest.

Homework blues...

that's what they bring back from school everyday - homeworks...




endless writing of words...do you think they like and look forward towards this type of learning? I can say that even if you ask them to write the whole exercise book with the same words, they still cannot remember what have been written...why? because it's not effective and damn boring!!!

Kids now are exposed to tremendous type of multimedias such as computers, softwares, games, social activities where learning become alives. It's hard to make them sit and write tones and tones of words daily. It's a torture to them. It doesn't inspire creativity, thinking and problem solving, but to kill their interest towards learning. I don't encourage all these, frankly speaking. And I'm struggling to see all these. There are many other ways to teach that can excite our young learner.

For example, we can let them do exercises like these which I 'borrowed' others...


By doing these homework, my children will ask questions like:- "Mommy, how to do this?"; "Mommy, then?"; "Mommy, am I doing it right?"...

Being a dedicated parent/teacher is never been easy...

Dragonboat mishap sad to see this

As a hardcore Penangnite, my heart sank and tears dropped down... a great loss of 5 bright students and a teacher over this unfortunate incident. Hopefully with this experience, those authorities involved will be more wise in planning out this kind of outdoor activities and put more care to our people and children especially. Life is precious.

Yes, we're ambitious sometimes in conquering greater challenges. But, are we ready for that? Are we ready for any emergency if it happens? If not, we're simply just risk their life and 'throw them to hell' as in Chinese proverb. It is sad to see all these. A lot of things can be prevented if one really cares...

Don't just wait thing to happen then only take action, it might be too late.

Read more here...

Happy New Year 2010

Time flies... I can fondly remember the day 31st Dec 1999, people around the globe were panic of the so called 'Millennium Bug' right before we leap into year 2000. Now, we're at the end of a decade...

...year's end is neither an end nor a beginning but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can instill in us. Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right. For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!

Goodbye 2009

I would like to have a post on this last day of the year. Most of the time I missed it. But I don't again, to miss it. LOL!

Years back, usually I would prepared a well written new year resolutions. Then, come year end, I would examined if all the targets were met, if the resolutions are completed and if all the bad habits had changed?... I doubts if these method work for me?! What happen was, while you're preparing the resolution, it was still fresh and you had the aspiration. Come next month, I eventually started to forget what's in the paper... : P

So as I aged, instead of preparing new year resolution, I would recall what has been done for the past year, what are the things that need to be done in time to come... appreciate life and enjoying more beautiful things, perhaps...

Have a great year ahead.

Spending spree...

I'm a big spender actually, can't deny that... when it's time to add new things or replace old things, my true self unleash...

While on a working cum shopping trip, we found this frame on sale by exhibitor from China. The word is Jia means 'Home/Family'. I've been searching for this type of big calligraphy for quite some time, I can't resist it, thus immediately bought it back. To me, every home should have one that could bring everybody home and keep us together...


Also, we got some new electronic item added to our home - a new LCD tv. The searching ended yesterday after few visits to electronic store Harvey Norman to hunt for the right purchase. It's a 42" Toshiba. Hubby could uses it for display and presentation to client as well instead of an OHP projector.

Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion & Penang Hawker

Some family members from Ipoh came over to visit. Brought them to a few tourist spots, also not forget to bring them to savour some of local hawker food. My long time preference still pancake! It does comes in few 'version' of Penang pancakes. The picture above, Uncle Guan's pancake is located in Burmah Road. I bought because my kids would love to have something to munch on while going for a longer travel; not really my preference : P

Another discovery of Penang, it is Baba and Nyonya Peranakan Mansion located in the central of Georgetown. No doubt that I've been living here for more than 30 years, I haven't been to this place before. And again, it's the tourist that brought me here..lol...the entrance fee is RM10 per adult. Kids under the age of 6 is f.o.c. Sorry, no photo cos' no camera inside.

Kindergarten blues...who is right who is wrong?

This is the time that I will usually evaluate the performance of my sons after a schooling year.

Sadly, my eldest, Ryan keep throwing words like: I headache to see you... more headache, no good bla...bla... I believed I didn't use these words, same goes to his dad. and that make me wondering is he picking up these from his teacher?! Then I started asking, did your teacher says this to you: "headache, more headaches"? He said: "Yes, whenever I cough." Because just these few days, yes he is coughing... (sigh)

...unlike Russell, I can catch a few new words here and there in his progress and his teacher is a better one who is a more senior. So, not much to worry about.

For me, being a teacher, the personal trait is very important. It is not smile or not smile (b'cos this can be pretended), but the wisdom within that eventually will be shown indirectly to the children in the class is important. Children tend to pick up value / charactor shown by either their teacher or parent indirectly.

As for me, the values that we need to instil to our young children should come first than merely knowing ABC and 123. As the saying goes: if you want to shape the bamboo tree, start it from the shoot.

So, should or shouldn't change the school? : P

Weekend Visit To The Aquarium

After both my sons recovered from chicken pox, we still haven't really bring them out for activity. During the last weekend, we went to aquarium - Penang Aquarium and Marine Research Centre.


Daily Opening Hour: 10am-5pm
Closed on Wednesday
Notice: It is temporarily closed due to some upgrading work.

So, we only could see pool and koi fish pond nearby...

Chicken pox disease and more sewing

Both my sons were down with chicken pox few weeks ago and the mader stayed up throughout the nights to give them medication and to sooth their itchiness... gosh! finally it was all over. For the past few weeks, their everyday food were my home cook, and I can't go anywhere besides cooking! Kind of like 'you eat what you cook'... sigh!

According to some old people, they can't take food which could cause itchiness for 4 months, that's a long way to go... But, I start to give them food like egg, some fishes like garoupa fish fillet, shark fillet, no chicken yet. So they switch between rice, porridge, glass noodles, rice noodles and instant noodles - this definitely make my life more easier : P

And i managed to squeeze some time out of the blue to make a few items out of the sewing machine, these are my sons' handkerchieves in Japanese print...


and a sun hat...
I'm a person fansy of hats, but seldom wear them. So, there will be more to come.