“Sweets and chocolate are junk food, I don’t like junk food” Emily & Tim said.

Today I was at popular bookstore paying for the items I am buying. As you know the counter is filled with sweets, chocolate and junk food. I asked Emily whether she wanted Ribena jelly. She said out loud that “Sweets are junk food, I don’t want junk food”. The cashier gal laughed and told me that this is the first time she hear a child say that. It makes me very proud of them.

How did Emily and Timothy get there? It is influenced by my nephew whose parents were very strict on junk food. They don’t allow him to eat any and brain washed told him junk food is not good. There goes the fun! In turn, he influenced my children. You see having their cousin tells them that junk food is no good is better than their parents saying it hundredth times.

You know how grandma or grandpa pampered them with things they like. At one time my mom secretly gave my children chocolate. The funny thing is that when my children were at my parents place during CNY, my parents offered my children soft drink. Emily and Timothy told grandma, “This is junk drink and I don’t like”. All my relatives laughed.

Anyway, they are not perfect as there are times when I eat junk food, they too want a little bit. They tell me a little bit is ok.

I must say bravo to Timothy’s teachers. Yesterday I received the first “jumpa cikgu” letter from the school. I told myself “oh oh”. I already predicted what will happened.

As some of you know that Timothy had a problem with Selective Mutism meaning doesn’t want to speak in certain environment namely school. He overcame it when he was in kindy last year as the teacher reported his progress in reading. Today he is in a different school, which means he has to do it all over again.

I blog about the KIA2M assessment and Timothy didn’t do any of it. The counselor teacher met with my hubby and I to discuss his problem. As many of Timothy’s class teachers’ feedback to her telling her that Timothy doesn’t want to talk or read. They have a concern. She called Timothy to her office and did a psychology test (whatever that is) with him. He could do it all. Timothy has no problem understanding instructions, learning new BM vocabulary and doing his homework correctly.

I told her about “Selective Mutism”, printed some info for her and explain to her about Timothy’s problem. I should have done this earlier. She was very surprised that this even existed. I am glad that the teachers brought up the issue and they were willing to help him.

She sat with us and Timothy to do the KIA2M test. Timothy did most of the questions right and trying very hard to read to her in his small voice, almost whispering. It is a small step for him to learn to talk in school.

I must thank the teachers for asking us to meet them and giving Timothy a second chance. It is great to know that even in Kebangsaan school there are caring, dedicated and helpful teachers. Bravo to them in highlighting their concerns to us upfront. Now they are in the light of Timothy’s problem and willing to help us. We parents need to work a good relationship with the teachers to understand the progress of our children.

A step for me is to encourage and motivate Timothy to talk in school. One thing I may do is to spend 15-30 minutes in school ground, asking Tim to read to me. With selective mutism, we must consistently take small step to help the child to progress. Please pray for Timothy to overcome this problem.

P/S: He talks like a normal boy outside of school compound. I have a hard time keeping him quiet at times.

Last week, I met with an incident and learned something from it, probably some tips for you, parents. I was at the gift wrapping counter in Jaya Jusco at Mid Valley. Mid Valley is always crowded and we have to be careful with our children.

At the gift counter which was also a service counter, I saw a gal in tears. She was very frightened. She is about 10-11 years of age. Yeap, you guess it, she lost her parents. She was smart to approach a Jusco staff saying that she lost her parents. The staff bought her up to the service counter, hoping for more staffs to help her out. They called the security guard who was communicating to other security guards to look for any parents who lost their kid. Probably her parents were still shopping and didn’t notice they lost their child. Hey it happen to me when I was 11-12 years old in Japan, read the later part for my story.

Being a mother, I kepoh with the service counter staff to ask them to make a public paging. The staff told me she was afraid of public paging and waiting for her supervisor to page. She can only do it in BM as she is not well versed with English. If they allowed me, I can do it for her. It is all scripted anyway.

She asked me and the guard whether she can do it in BM. Hrmm…I told her if the parents is a foreigner which I suspect because the gal look a little mix, the parents would not understand BM. By the way, the gal gave the staff a phone number but it has 10 digits. We suspect it is an overseas number. It starts with 04xxxxxxxx. Not Penang number ok! Penang only has 7 digits after area code. Hers have 8 digits.

Anyway after a long time, finally I heard them paged for the parents twice. I could not stay any longer to see the happy ending.

Note to all parents and myself, next time you go shopping, make sure your child carries your handphone numbers in paper. Teach the child to pass the phone number to security guards or staff with tags. Otherwise hold on to your child like precious diamonds!

For my story in Japan when I was 11+, yes I wondered away with other tourists on my own. My parents, bro, sis, uncle, aunt and cousins didn’t realize that I was on my own. I was walking on my own but not afraid. I think I knew my way back to the hotel. This is in the street of Toyko which I never set foot before. Imagine if I didn’t know my way back, I will be a lost child in Japan. Now thinking back, I felt I was protected.

Guess what, I met my family on the street and they were lost. I had to bring them back to the hotel. They claim it is very far to walk back and wanted to take a cab. I remember telling them that it is just across the street. 😛

I really have silly neighbor who does drilling at 11pm. Can’t they be more sensible or considerate? My children are asleep and Emily needs to wake up for school early in the morning.

After telling them nicely, still they want to do it for 1 more minute. Giving me a silly reason that they can only have the drill at this hour. I wonder how much a drill would cost. If they want, I can even borrow them my drill. Some people just have no sense or only care for themselves.

Chinese New Year started with a reunion dinner at my in laws place. After that, we went driving down town and took a look at Penang Times Square. It is another new mall in Penang Island. It will be opening soon as OC just had been given a few days before CNY. My children have fun with the mall’s water fountain.

On the second day, we went back to my hometown KL for a short break and a CNY reunion with my family. Some of my mom’s relatives return home from abroad and we had a good time catching up with one another.

I also took my children to Ikea, MidValley and Petrosains during the day and night is mostly having dinner with relatives. It was a busy trip and I didn’t get to meet any of my close friends down in KL. I wanted to go to Ara Damansara NZX but I do not know my way there. Oh well, maybe next trip.

Petrosains has change a lot and very well maintained. It has a lot more science exhibits for the children. We spent the whole morning there. It cost us RM24 for the family of 2 adult and 2 children. It has a section on space, formula racing, helicopter ride, lots of computer to play with and a small playground for the younger children. I like the shadow display where there are butterflies that can rest on your shadow. It is so cool. Timothy and Emily enjoyed it very much and asked me to bring them back again.

Believe it a not, I had Yew Sang almost every night. Hrmm…I probably will stay away from it until the last day of CNY. Sad to say that tomorrow I am back to work.

Timothy will start his first assessment called KIA2M (Kemahiran Kelas Intervensi Awal Membaca dan Menulis). I got some reference book to find out what this it. I believed for those who cannot pass this assessment will need to go to a special class so that the teacher can help the students to progress to the same level as others. I am praying that Tim will not have phobia and too afraid to read to the teacher.