The Letter

The important piece of paper from the ministry has arrived. Yeap this paper will determine where my child’s primary education will be. It is a little peculiar because the envelop noted the school address but the letter is from the Penang Education Minister. I believed that the minister must have send to the school for them to distribute. Therefore, if you don’t receive it next week, you can check with the school.

The letter is in Bahasa Malaysia, so I need dig up my BM from my old brain storage. Ooh, the BM is a little out or is it me? Hear this:

“Sehubungan dengan itu dimaklumkan anak tuan/puan yang telah menbuat permohonan penempatan ke Tahun Satu sesi persekolahan tahun 2009 di sekolah SEK ABC pada TAHUN 2009 adalah DILULUSKAN di sekolah SEK ABC”

Lots of repetitions of year, the school name and I think it should be “telah DILULUSKAN”

Anyway I have been instructed to go to the school to make a confirmation of the placement in the month of August. Add to next week’s chore.

By the way, it is good to tell your child about the new school so that he/she is prepared. I started telling Timothy and Emily wanted to join him. Hrmm….

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Posted in Parenting, Education | 8 Comments »

Open Day

I was rushing to finish up my work on Friday. Lately I had been overwhelmed with too many projects and I had a presentation at 11:30pm on Friday night. It seems work never ends. Anyway, back in the good old days, I was unhappy if I have to go to school on Saturday except if it is a sports day or non-study day. Malaysia has too many public holidays and teachers cannot finish the entire syllabus for the year which caused us to have additional classes on Saturday. It is a dragged.

Today was the first time after so many years I have to go to school on a Saturday. This time the role is different. It was an open day at Timothy’s school. Basically an open day is where the school invites parents to come visit the school. They will show all the crafts, school work and activities that the school children did. It is also a good time for me as a parent to get acquainted with the teachers.

Previously I wrote about Timothy refusing to talk in school because of anxiety. It is not that he does not want to speak but the word cannot get out of his mouth. I saw a documentary about selective mute that my BIL recorded for me. From the documentary I learn that there are ways to help Timothy overcome this problem.

I was glad that Timothy was reading out to me in school with a little help from Emily. Both were competing with one another to outsmart each other. It is a first step to help Timothy feel comfortable to speak in his school. I will do the sliding in method where by he will read with me in the presence of a teacher. Next week, the school principal that is also my church friend invited us for dinner. We will use that opportunity to help him feel comfortable with his school principal. I really praise God because he answers our prayer.

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Posted in Parenting, Timothy, Special Day Event, Education | 9 Comments »

Leap Frog DVD

I am being pressured to teach my son how to read and spell but I made it fun for Tim to learn. I don’t remember learning spelling during my kindy. What to do, the schools are getting competitive. However the current kindy that Timothy is attending definitely has less homework and spelling. Anyway, I read many online good reviews on Leap Frog DVD and most of them were very positive.

I decided to get a set of 5 DVD for my children. Thanks to Vien who help me to get it and ship it to me. It arrived yesterday and I was really excited.

In the evening, I turn it on for my children to watch. They were learning how each alphabets sound. I must say that the animations were excellent and fun for children to watch. By the way, each DVD comes with a game too. I played with Tim and Emily and they got 80% correct. I am surprised that Tim made an effort to learn how to spell, maybe because I motivated him by praising him after he gets it correct. He likes it. I can see him competing with Emily. I am not sure whether Emily knows it or she is guessing but she got a few correct and ahead of Tim.

Basically it uses phonics and animation to help children remember how each alphabet sound. It also builds words from joining the same last 2 letters like CAT, BAT, HAT, MAT, FAT …etc. Using this method will help the child remember how to spell the words. Tim’s school is also using the same concept and he has just learned to spell DAM, HAM, YAM, JAM and RAM.

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Posted in Parenting, Video, Education | 4 Comments »