5 years old – Dec
I was pretty worried for Tim because he was slow in reading or spelling. He couldn’t remember the letters even if I asked him to repeat more than 10 times. Maybe he just does it to satisfy me but not consciously saying it. I believed he is more visual person, learning by seeing.

He also does not know his suku kata for BM. I had to sit with him to go through it every day during the Dec holidays. He sort of getting it but I suspected he is trying hard to memorize which he is not good at. Ended up, next few days he will forget. He still was not able to read BM or English word. He can read Peter and Jane very well. You know why? Because he does it every day in school. It is not that he recognizes the words.

6 years old
Amazingly, he reads both English and BM. Words that he doesn’t know, he could pronounce. After he pronounces it, if he does not understand, he asked us. I wonder how he does it. I really don’t know.

Maybe it is the papa, who reads with him every night. Tim reads the Bible every night with his papa and sometimes me. Maybe it is the Tadika that drilled the 6 years old student every day.

However still pretty week in his spelling or ejaan.

7 years old
Now he can read any books, I am buying lots of interesting books for him. He reads the Bible by himself. I tried to get more BM books for him to improve his BM. I would want to cultivate reading in both my children. Should I invest in Encyclopedias?

Sometimes he is a busy body, reads my letters or look over my computer to read my email. :rolleyes:

He is also progressing in his spelling and ejaan but lots of room for improvement. I used to tear my hair out, teaching him spelling. At that time, I had so little faith that he will pick up spelling. Now look at him, he put my thoughts to shame. By the way, I didn’t drilled him on his spelling because I gave up. I let him learn it by himself in school.

Bottom Line

All those worry was unnecessary. If your child is slow like Tim, try to read together with them. The more they read with you, they more they will learn. I started Tim with simple words. For BM, start with the basic suku kata. Now Popular Bookstore has a lot of books on suku kata.

Another tip from another parent, allow your child to watch cartoon in different language. Some DVD allows you to choose the language.

I must say that Timothy’s school is a very cool school. Why do I say that? Yesterday I was early in picking him up like 20 minutes early, thanks to my hubby. I hang around the gate and there were some seats. I took out my iPhone as it was vibrating. I looked and it actually was receiving email. Nope I do not turn on my Edge.

Yes, you guess it. The school is WIFI-ed. I could read blogs while waiting. I discovered that I could not enter into some blogs. Mind you they are parenting blogs. Guess what happen when I access those blogs, it brings me to an education government page and state that it is blocked. Hehehe..mybabybay.com is fine and not blocked. Phew!

Don’t ask me why or how or what that makes the blog blocked. I have no clue. If you want to check yours, let me know. I shall hang around the school more often.

5 minutes before the bell rang, the router is switched off. It ends my free WIFI access. It’s time to go, anyway.

Ever since govt announced that all back seat passengers are required to wear seat belt, I have been asking my children to buckle up. In fact, my hubby and I were training them last year and reminding them occasionally. At times, I was the lazy one and they remind me to do so.

Here is what Emily did:

Yeap, everyone including soft toys is required to buckle up. Emily preferred the middle seat belt but that is the most dangerous seat.

I remembered when I was young, my bro, my sis and I used to fight for the front seat. We call it the superior seat and of coz you get a good view. Being the youngest, the chance for me to sit in front is very small.

For my children, no one likes the front seat. Everyone wants to sit with mummy. Sigh. When Tim and Emily are in good terms, they put mummy in front. Oh well, I guess it is a different generation.

Tim started to have homework on the 2nd day of school with basic writing. I supposed his homework is pretty light compare to his cousin. Yeah, his cousin is from Chinese school. Yesterday, he came back with a moral book with 1 ½ sentences. Hrm…he must have been too slow copying. He told me that the teacher told him to continue next day. I left it at that.

At night, I received a SMS from one of the parents asking me about moral and BM homework. I told her about BM but no idea about moral. Next day, she SMS about moral homework.

Tips to all parents, very important to get other parents phone numbers. You will need it to ask about your child’s homework.

Timothy’s memory is not very good especially when it comes to school work and other unimportant things. I remembered once I handed him the hotel room key and he misplaced it. I had to search the room to find it. I was really frustrated.

Today when he was doing his home work, he remembered the things he was suppose to write in his BM book. I am glad although I am not sure whether it was the complete list or not. He is sure developing fast and I missed his baby moments! I still remember his first “mummy” and first kiss.

How many of you parents check with the kindy management about Emergency Procedures? If you didn’t, please do. It can save lives if they have emergency procedures.

I heard from a kindy principal that a child just fainted because of breathlessness in the school. Worst, it happens on the first day of school. She called the ambulance but the ambulance called back a few times to ask for direction. Immediately she drove the child to a nearby clinic. Thank goodness, the doctor was able to help her and monitor her. The doctor said, it could be due to allergic reaction but advise the parents to do a full checkup for her. Amazingly the child walked into school normal the next day.

Imagine if the principal didn’t act quickly, death may occur. I remembered when Emily had febrile fit in her kindy, the first thing the principal did was to send her to the nearby hospital. Although she was frightened by what she saw, she made the correct decision.

Therefore my advice to you parent, if you are sending your kids to nursery or kindy, be sure you ask about their emergency procedures. Does the management know the nearest hospital? Does the management know the nearest clinic? Does anyone in the school know CPR? Some teachers are trained to tell whether a child is pale, difficulty in breathing and can sense the child is not well.

On another note, Tim and Emily did very well in school and I am so proud of them. Emily was complimented by the teacher that she was very cheerful in class. By the way, her principal told me that one of her friend wanted to change class but when she heard Emily was in her class, the girl changed her mind. Emily saves the day!

As for Tim, he was on his own on the second day of school. We dropped him in the canteen and left. He managed to get around, go to class and eat in the canteen during recess. Somehow he also able to understand the teacher although she spoke in Bahasa Malaysia. The best thing is he remembers his homework which he didn’t bother last year. I am so happy that I received news that he is going to have a whole week off for CNY!

Mummy first day at school, actually it was Tim. It was a tiring day for me. I went to work early in the morning to clear some stuff.

I rushed back during lunch time to prepare a quick snack for Tim to bring to school. I made him fish balls and some fruit salad in a Ben 10 lunch box. I prepared soup in the crock pot for dinner. My babysitter dressed him smartly with a tie ready for school.

In school, it was a mess because Tim’s class was occupied by the morning students. We had to wait in the canteen for instruction. Imagine parents and children all stuffed up in the school canteen and hall like pack sardine. It took a while before we got to the class. The students were very good, everyone was seated and no one actually made a lot of noise. No noise control required. I noticed that girls sat one side and boys sat the other side. I wonder why.

Parents were waiting outside the classroom. The most important thing for me is to get to know some of the parents. Many of them were very friendly. We exchanged phone numbers. We can call one another in the future in case our children missed out anything. The class teacher started briefing the students. The teacher called all the boys out. She spoke in Bahasa Malaysia but some students including Tim didn’t understand. Tim just followed what the rest is doing. Here is the funny thing I heard:

Teacher: Murid-murid lelaki bangun dan mari ke hadapan.

Boy: Cikgu, saya? *He wasn’t sure*

Teacher: Kalau awak rasa awak lelaki, mari ke depan. :giggles:

I kind of like the teacher. She has humor cells and not the fierce type.

During recess, I waited in the canteen to see whether Tim know his way to meet me. He did find his way together with a friend. He ate the snacks I packed for him and was satisfied. I don’t think I want him to buy anything in the canteen yet. The canteen is very packed. There were a lot of students queuing and they got the food pretty late. They only have 20 minutes break.

I went back home after recess. Tim did very well on his first day. By the way, no students cried today. Aren’t they a good lot? I will drop Tim to school tomorrow and see how he does it on his own.

Emily greeted me with a New Year Fever. I meant the real fever with 38.5°C. All her usual go-to clinics were closed. Fortunately one of the branches was opened and there was a paed on duty. Apparently Emily has a very red or sore throat. The paed prescribe Emily’s usual antibiotic called “Zithromax”. Zithromax works wonders for her. Every time she has a sore throat, she will be back to normal after 1 doze of it. Of coz, she had to finish the entire course of the antibiotic to be effective.

That’s how I started 2009. Not a good year right?

Have a blessed year ahead!! Happy New Year.

Thanks to Cartoon Network, now most children are crazy over Ben 10. I am not sure who influence Timothy, maybe his cousin brother or his school friends. He knew so much about Ben 10. By now, he can quote you the 10 super heroes of Ben 10 from four arms, heat blast, XLR8, upgrade, …etc

By the way, I don’t even subscribe to Astro and do not have Cartoon network. Now he likes Transformers and Ben 10. Ben 10 has a special watch and the original is selling like over RM100. One day I was in the market and found one that cost RM7.00. Yeap, I got it for him and he was so happy with it, grinning from ear to ear. I will need to look for another one for my nephew.

In Penang, there aren’t many Ben 10 stuff but in KL, everywhere is Ben 10 stuff. Look what I got from my KL shopping trip. I even got 2 Ben 10 shirts for RM15 each. I wonder what my son likes next.

I had to rush back from KL shopping trip for today. Today is Tim first orientation for primary 1. The program started at 8am ended by 11am. We gathered at the hall and anxiously waiting for what will happen next.

A teacher came on stage to give us the program briefing and next the children names were called to enter the classroom. Classes were named after the planets. How cool is that? No prize but guess what planet my son felt on?

There were 290 students for standard 1. The teacher told us that it is one of the biggest primary school in Penang island. Students were seated in the classroom but parents were Q-ing for forms submission. I totally forgot that I had to buy the report books for submission. I asked my hubby to go to the Q at the bookstore to purchase that and Tim’s school books. It was slow process.

I had to fill up forms after forms, writing my child’s name, his details, my name, my detail, my hubby’s name and his details more than 10 times. This is like a punishment for me, sort off. After sorting out the forms, I took my son to the PE teacher to measure his size for PE shirt and trousers.

Next, the children were instructed to line up to follow the class teacher. Tim’s class teacher is a very pleasant lady which has been teaching for 13 years. I had a casual chat with her. A very nice lady indeed. Ooh, I am so glad to see a few Chinese students in the same class with Tim too, along with a few Indians and lots of Malay students.

The children were given loan textbooks and most of them were brand new. They even give out new activity books. I was surprised the books I had to buy for him were a few. As compare to my time, I remembered I had to buy lots of books.

One thing I like about this school is that they provide language learning as one of the subject. For Chinese, the student needs to take Chinese. For Malay, they take Arab language. For Indian, they take Tamil. An extra class will be conducted for additional Chinese or Tamil. I will certainly sign Tim up for the additional class.

The day ended with school rules briefing. The afternoon lead teacher was very kind and he approached us for a chat too. I really had a pleasant experience for the first day of school. Now it makes me want to become a student there.

As for Timothy, he was excited to go to his new school. Why? 2 things, one is the karipap and second is the football field. Let’s hope he will enjoyed school next year.

Books On Loan:

Books I Bought:

It is not hard to get your child to brush his/her teeth. What I discover with Emily is strawberry toothpaste. Every morning or night, I would tell her that I want strawberry kiss. She will gladly go to the bathroom and brush her teeth. After that, she will give me a strawberry kiss. She will be very happy after she does that and the best is her breath smells like strawberry.

I got my children the Colgate for kid’s toothpaste, now it comes in strawberry, orange and bubble fruit taste. Try it, it will be fun for your children.