Are we parents being too competitive? Some of us are stress up because our children are having their exams. Some wanting their children to get high marks, I mean high like 100. Below 95 is unacceptable to them. Really, I just want Tim to pass, getting above 90 is a bonus. He surprises me a few times. I don’t send him to any tuition and I helped him with revision one week before exams.

The other day, I was talking to a mother whose child is in the same school with Tim. She was telling us with other mothers that his child scored 100 for 3 paper and 97 for the last paper. Yet, he only got number 7 and she mentioned that her son’s friends were calling him stupid. Suddenly I turned very small, hoping she doesn’t ask what my son got. Moment like this will make some mothers to be competitive so that they can brag.

Oh, I also have a friend who takes leaves to tutor her kids one week before her exams. She wants her kids to score above 98. Anything below 95, her child will receive light punishment and scolding.

By the way, whether the child scored 85 or 90 or 95 or 100 in primary school, it doesn’t make a different because in UPSR, it will be A. Give your child a break! For primary stage, I rather my child scores 85 and have more time for other things like sports or hobby.

Anyway, parents try to relax a little and not to pressurize your child. Most important is let the child have fun in learning. Learning is not about scoring high marks, it is applying what they have learned. That is why I liked the western education system where they put more emphasis on practical assignments. Innovation does not come from head knowledge but how to convert knowledge into creation.

Hooray!! Exams are over. At least for Tim and mom!

Emily’s new teeth cannot wait to come out. Last week, she told me another tooth is loose. As usual, she doesn’t want me to touch it. She showed me by moving it. Well, I cannot do anything and let it be until it falls off.

Last Friday, she even has difficulty eating jelly. She accidentally bite on to it, it bleed a little. We were at the church enjoying supper after service. She continued to play on the slide. Later she came to me with the tooth on her hand and with a little bit of blood on her mouth. After I wipe off the blood, I saw the surface of the new tooth. At first, I thought the old tooth chipped.

Later I realized, it is her new tooth sprouting out and pushing the old tooth away. The new tooth cannot wait to come out, a little impatient just like her.

My hubby and I have been teaching our kids that smoking can bring cancer. They know cancer is a kind of illness. How? One time at Borders, they picked up a book about our body. The book is title “Inside You”. It talks about how our body makes it through a very bad day. A video CD comes with book that shows the inside of our body. It is a nanocam, a very tiny camera traveling through the body system.

Now I have 2 smoker alarms with me. Everywhere we go, when a smoker is around, my 2 little smoker alarms will sound an alert, calling “smoker smoker” and “smoking can caused cancer”. Well, after a few reprimanding from me, asking them not to be too loud, they resort to coming near me and whispering in my ear. Sometimes they literally do not want to sit near smokers and asked to move to another table.

I really hope the government or the community do something about smoking in air condition places. Build a room for the smoker to smoke all they want and keep the rest of the air clean. For those smokers out there, please do not smoke in front of children. I really dislike those people who are so insensitive.

My children love playing with water since young. I remembered when they were a baby, every time I bathed them, they are very happy. They kicked the water and have fun.

I never had any problem asking them to take a bath. They will be all excited. The problem is getting them to come out.

My children’s bathroom does not have a bathtub. Guess what? We used the portable swimming pool to be their bathtub. They have hours of fun in there. Sometimes if I want a dip in my stress free lavender bubble bath, I can use it too. The good thing with this swimming pool, I do not need to inflate it. I can just roll it and put it away easily. It is cheap too!

By the way, I just learn how to play Mr. Bean theme song. It is good to have a kid learning music, I can learn from her. Enjoy my short piece of music.

Keys are: DDFGA D’D’CAGFDFGA D’D’C

That is what I look forward to at the end of the day after work. I always look in the mail box to see what is in the mail for me. Sometimes I get surprises.

Remember when Tim and Emily got their own room. Tim decided to build a mail box for it. He even put a number in his room, pretending it to be his house. His number is 84. Emily followed his footstep, she asked me to build a mail box and she numbered her house 85.

Well to make the children happy, I wrote little notes to put in their mail box. They were happy to see letters in their mail box. Yeah both of them were grinning ear to ear. It just showed that they have my gens.

Today I bought a little gift and inserted it into their little mail box. I didn’t make any sound. When Emily saw something in her mail box, she screamed and shouted for joy. Moments like these makes me happy. Similar reaction with Timothy. The gift was only RM3. From this day forward, I will put more letters and gift in their little mail box.

First we indulge in Haagen Dazs, I got a free RM60 voucher, thanks to Abbot after collecting many milk scoops. We ordered a Haagen Dazs fondue and my children love it at first sight. Maybe because they can play with the melted chocolate.

On Sunday, we had dinner at my church friend’s house. One of my friend brought durian from the Orang Asli plantation where she helped out. It was delicious! Next, we had rich chocolate cake to celebrate the October’s babies.

Now I need some leong char to get rid of the heatiness. Some say if you drink water from the durian shell, it can cool you down. And if you wash your hands by scooping water with the durian shell, it can get rid of the strong smell. Don’t believe me, try it.

Last, my church friend threw in a whole bunch of keropok (aka potatoes chips) which he bought from the handicap lady. My hubby, Emily and I had all the above. Timothy had all the above except durian. Guess who is down with cough?

I strongly believed that she had a bad wheezing cough because she ate M&M chocolate. Somehow she is allergic to it and Japanese biscuit. Any of your children is allergic to these? Poor gal cannot enjoy M&M with me.

Many of you will have to decide how much to give your child when he goes to primary school. I gave Tim RM1 first day of school and that’s it. The RM1 is still in his wallet until today. I never give him after that. Every day I packed him something to eat during recess time. However he never wants to spend any money in school.

The main place to spend money is not in the canteen but the book shop. They sell all kind of things even games in the book shop. A few times when I visit the book shop, I see children’s spending their parent’s hard earned money on unnecessary things. I see some of the children even carried RM10.

Next are the illegal stalls outside the school. Fortunately there are not many, less than 3 and 2 of them only sells food. Hehehe…I used to eat from one of the stalls when I picked Timothy. Who can resist the delicious fish balls, right? Well after hearing the headmaster telling the students not to buy from those stall, I had to set a good example. No more fish ball for me.

One time I heard from the Tim that many children buy “spray mulut”. He told me that the headmaster warned the children, the “spray mulut” is not good for their health. Tim said it can cause cancer. Yes, he knows what cancer is.

By the way, if I do my calculation correctly, Tim has saved up enough to buy a big size transformer. Shhh shh…don’t tell him yeah. I will save it for him in his bank account.

Emily has started going to the new music school for over a month. I have seen so much improvement in her. Previously when she was with Yamaha JMC:

• I have to nag her to practice her music
• I have to reward her with stickers every time she does it correctly
• At times in class, she reluctantly plays or participates. She is moody all the time and stuck close to me. Maybe because it is after her nap, wrong timing.
• She refused to play with both hands. She only played with both hands when she is very sure of the piece.

Now I see a big change:

• She will practice her music and happily show me what she has learned.
• She can read notes.
• She can play with 2 hands.
• After music, class she will be very cheerful. I suspect the teacher must have praise her a lot.

With this music school, I can free up my Saturday to have a family time together. Her class is now in the evening on a weekday. It is also not after her nap time and I don’t have to accompany her in the class. She does better without mummy. By the way, currently the teacher is giving her 1-1 lessons for a price much lower than Yamaha. I don’t have to buy any CD or DVD. The books are much cheaper and written by a local musician.

The teacher teaches her finger drill and let her play according to her pace. I hope to see her play a whole song beautifully with both hands. My nephew who is with this music school and never practices his music was able to play excellently. He passed his level 1 exam with flying colors. How? I think it is the way the teacher teaches.

After learning the longest word from mummy, Emily picked up Greek alphabets from daddy. Daddy is learning Greek because he wants to understand the Bible better. New Testament was written in Greek. Emily remembers all the Greek alphabets. Amazing to see how children mind can absorb and memorized things.

Some of you may already know some Greek alphabets when you learned Maths like alpha, beta, gamma, delta, pi, micron or omega. So it is not foreign to you.

Here goes:

Greek Chart: