Sticking this here for my own reference. Start planning for next year vacation.

I have been searching for education magazine for Tim. I used to read Dewan Pelajar when I was young. I like the comics and puzzle in the magazine. I picked up new BM vocabulary from it too. However I don’t seem to find it anywhere.

I was glad I read this post by InspiredMomx1 titled Magazine For Primary School. I surf the comic online store and found a couple of comics I liked for my children.

I ordered Young Scientist, English Garden and Mingguan Didikku for Std1-3. The package arrived yesterday. My children were thrilled seeing those comics. The online shop is www.leebook.com.my. It has Chinese educational comics too.

What so good about this comic? It is written according to the school syllabus. At the end of the comic, there are some simple exercises for the children. It is a great way for the children to get interested in learning. My boy is a visual learner, he learns as he sees. He loves the comics and so does Emily.

They sat quietly for 1 hour just reading these comics. Thanks to InspiredMomx1 for her post!

Young Scientist – RM5 per copy
Mingguan Didiku – 60 sen per copy
English Garden – 60 sen per copy.

It is a pretty long title but some recommendation for your kids at school. I got these few books and it is helping Timothy with his Bahasa Malaysia. It is difficult for any of us to teach a language to a child unless we are using it at home or in school.

Well, I got a dual language dictionary for him. At first it was hard for him to search for the word but now he is getting better. This dictionary is good because the BM word is explained in English and vice versa. It has more than 45 000 words in there. It is a good dictionary for school children. Cost RM38.00

Next simpulan bahasa or peribahasa (idiom) book because it is taught in standard 2. This book explains most of the simpulan bahasa and also gives sample of a sentence using it. Yesterday, I saw Tim flipping the book to find answers on his own. It is good to see him use reference book to find answer rather than getting answers from us. The book cost RM11.90 from Pernerbit Ilmu Bukti Sdn. Bhd.

Last it is the Sinonim & Antonim (Synonyms & Opposites) book. In Kefahaman/Composition, the student gets asked a lot about similar meaning. This book gives several words to the word, examples in sentence and also the opposites to the word. It is very nicely arranged for the child to read or understand. The book cost RM10.90 from Pernerbit Ilmu Bukti Sdn. Bhd.

Just like many who used to rush, run and pick their seats in AA flights, it brings out the Malaysian identity in us. I am glad AA now assign seating arrangement, I believed it is for safety purposes. It is not very safe for people to rush and run on an airport runway.

Back to school, I overheard parents telling their children to choose the best seats in the classroom. I remembered my mom asked me to sit in the front because of a better view. I never like the front seat because teacher always like to pick on students in the front.

Today, parents are asking their children to pick seats near or below the fan. What to do? The weather is really hot here. When Tim returned from school, I asked him where he sits. He said he sat at the back. He also told me that all the seats near or below the fan were taken up very quickly.

By the way, I saw 3 tall students in his class. 2 were same height as him and 1 was taller. I believed it is a class for the tall. :giggles:

For those of you whose child is going to primary 1 next year, have you received any letter from the school or the ministry? I have registered Tim but didn’t receive any letter yet. Should I be worried?

For those whose have children in primary, when does the letter come?

What else could it be? Of coz, none other than the Transformers cake. mama’sof 2littlefellas, there is transformers cartoon. You can view the cartoon series in YouTube.

By the way, in Penang we do not have that many cake stores. We cannot get any 3D cakes easily too. I went to Eden cake store and look at their available cartoons. No Transformers. I have to search in the Internet for Bumble Bee, photoshoped it with the 2 Transformer logos. One logo is for the good transformers and the other is the bad called “decepticons”. Can you guess which is which? If you cannot, ask your son. :giggles:

Here is what I gave to the cake store:

This is what I got:

Aren’t they amazing? I really salute the one who drew it on the cake or maybe shake his hand. What did the cake taste like? I have no idea. Timothy had the celebration in his school and the children ate it all up. Imagine it was a 2kg cake. Nothing left for mummy and papa. Not even the candles.

Tomorrow will be the first day of school for Emily again. Yes again. Why again? I did send her to school when she was 2+ but due to her constant sickness (fever and runny nose). The preschool was small and had lots of children. Every day 1 or 2 child is sick. I decided to defer. Now she is ready.

She will be joining her brother in the new Tadika, half day school. My hubby and I prepared her for school. We took her to buy her favorite bag, her white school, socks, pencil case and color pencils. She got all excited and now everyday she been asking when will school start.

Last year, we took her to the Tim’s Tadika for parents’ teachers’ day. She went into the computer class and she likes the class. She also liked the school principal who is my church friend. The Tadika is run on church ground with fewer children. It has plenty of space for activities. It has a hall for assembly too.

Emily: Mummy today school day?
Mummy: No next Thursday
Emily: Mummy I want to go to school with kor kor and bring my Cinderella bag.
Mummy: Ok
Emily: Where is my school uniform?
Mummy: Later I iron the school uniform for you.
Emily: 😀

Tell me, are they growing up fast? It was like yesterday I gave birth to her and now she is preparing herself to school. Sigh.

Another ex-BBGS school friend found me in Facebook. We were good friends back in school days and attend the same church. As we were messaging one another, she gave me this site http://back2bbgs.blogspot.com. Wow there is so much memory in there about BBGS.

As the writer of the blog is in the same year/class as me, she kept in touch with many of those I know in school. It is so great to read about them, their well being, where they are at and how they are doing. More so, the blog has lots of memories of my school.

It is really sad that the big shopping mall called Pavilion took away many years of BBGS history. No doubt BBGS is one of the strictest schools but it moulds us to what we are today.

I remembered the food sales, the choral speaking competition, the cheerleading competition, toilet cleaning and the strict school rules. We have a book of rules given to us on the first day of school. Some rules were:

• Speak only English on Monday. Speak only Bahasa Malaysia on Wednesday. Other language beside BM and English are not allowed.
• No rocking your chair, you will be fine.
• No throwing any rubbish on the ground.
• Toilet cleaning duty at least once a month.
• Hair over the shoulder must be neatly tie up.
• No long finger nails.
• Certain things are not allowed to bring to school like celebrity magazine, love story books, music tapes..etc.
• Skirt cannot be shorter than certain length above the knee.
• Many Others…

However I still proud that I am from BBGS.

School Holidays started on last Monday. I am at the stage of tracking when the school holidays are because Tim is attending Tadika (Kindy) which follows the normal school holidays schedule. Previously I have no clue when the dates of the school holidays are.

I need to get use to it too because I have to include his school holidays schedule into yearly vacation plan, occasional fun trip and my business travel. This means I cannot take the family to go whatever and whenever I liked. I don’t want Tim to miss school for the wrong reason. I guess next year it is still alright because he is still in Tadika. I guess one more year for me to work it out.

Another down side for me, whenever school holidays, any vacation package will be expensive as it is peek period for all. Sigh. :think:

Anyway here is the 2008 school holiday schedule:

Saturday 8 March – Sunday 16 March 2008
Saturday 24 May – Sunday 6 June 2008
Saturday 16 August – Sunday 24 August 2008
Saturday 15 November 2007 – Sunday 4 January 2008

Today I am so happy. First my son told me to put a new “Peter And Jane” book in his bag. I asked him why. He kept quiet. I ask him whether he read to his teacher. He said he did softly.

I took out the “Peter And Jane” book. He read it to me. Actually I had been doing the reading with him once or twice each week. He can recognize some words but not all of them. Today he can read the whole book. :clap: I am so proud of him.

His reward to encourage him: Two Ultraman Model. If you notice, he read to the teacher too. I guess he some how conquer his fear and anxiety. Thank God and the teachers for having so much patience with him.

Parents, do be careful when picking out a nursery or kindy for your child and I wouldn’t advice you to send your child too young (below 3) to nursery. Some timid children like my son may bury the fear inside if face with tough situation like fierce teachers.