2nd Semester Progress Report

At the Parent-Teacher's Day in CE's kindy, we discussed about his progress in the 2nd semester. His class teacher has just resigned so we spoke to her assistant, Ms V. She said he's good in class, no complaints. Gets along well with his friends and teachers. He did well in the 2nd semester exams. He scored full marks for English, BM and Mathematics. And got above 90% for Science and Mandarin.

Some of the things Ms V highlighted :

1) He likes to help his friends by giving them the answers. Although the teacher has specifically told the class not to help others, he'll still tell his classmate and show him the page (where the answer is). Sometimes when he's so "helpful", the teacher will ask him to teach his friends, but he'll just give them the answers directly, instead of telling them how to get it.

2) He sometimes daydreams during lessons. But surprisingly, he can catch up and respond to his teacher's questions.

3) Ms V noticed that recently he's always having a troubled look on his face, like he's very stressed. I've asked him before, but couldn't find out what's bothering him.

4) As the school concert is drawing near, Ms V is worried about his dance coz at times, he doesn't cooperate during practice. Earlier this week, he was punished by another teacher for not dancing properly when it was his turn but was dancing at the back when another class was doing theirs. Hope he won't be so playful on the actual day.

5) We agreed that his chattiness depends on his mood. If he's in a good mood, he'll talk a lot. But when he's not in the mood, he doesn't communicate much and it's like he's living in his own world.

6) He didn't seem to grow much in half a year. His height remained the same and his weight increased only by 1kg. Hope to see better growth next year as he's taking Pediasure now.

7) His coloring has improved a lot (not so much out of the lines) and the principal complimented on his handwriting. Yeah, he can write very nicely if he puts his heart into it.

~ This is part of his Science paper. Quite neat and
nice hor his handwriting? *hehehe syiok sendiri* ~

I also spoke to his Mandarin (extra class) teacher, Ms L.
* He's very quiet in class and doesn't mix much with his friends. He'll talk to them if they approach him but most of the time, he prefers to be alone. It's probably due to the language barrier as he's more comfortable conversing in English. At the beginning, he speaks to Ms L in English but now he tries to speak more in Mandarin.
* He sometimes doesn't want to read out loud together (as a group) although he knows how to read the passage/book. Yup, that's my stubborn boy.
* A bit slow in his work. He's quite fussy with his Chinese writing. When it's not very nice, he'll rub it off and write again.

The teacher's note in his Report Card :
CE interacts more with his peers now. He is a fast learner, catch up things fast, especially in phonics. With more practice and encouragement may help him to converse better in Mandarin!

Another Year Older Wiser

When the clock struck 12 midnight, we were at the Immigration check point at LCCT. We just came back from Singapore. The main intention was to bring the kids to USS. Will blog about it in a different post. But I'd like to write about an unpleasant incident of the trip here. Our 9:20pm flight was retimed to 11:20pm. That's TWO hours delay! Gosh, we were already so tired and can't wait to get home. Although our baggage has already been checked in, we managed to change to the next flight, which was slightly earlier at 11pm. Luckily everything went smoothly after that -- 11pm flight was on time, boarding was swift, our baggage didn't get lost and we didn't have to queue for a taxi. We reached home at 1am.

We all slept till 10 in the morning. Didi skipped school to get a good rest. The kids are more excited than me. They said they wanted to behave on my special day. Although they failed miserably (especially didi), I guess I should appreciate their effort. :-) PaPa surprised me with a bouquet of flowers. Actually it was jie jie's idea and PaPa executed the plan. In August, I made a new pair of spectacles and PaPa paid for them. So when he asked me what I wanted for my birthday, I said the spectacles are considered my present. I'm so kind to him hor?

~ a dozen gerberas ~

PaPa asked me to decide where to go for dinner. Since it's a weekday and we just got back from Singapore (have been eating a lot of "restaurant food"), I decided to just have a simple meal at home. We had pandan kaya cake for dessert. The kids love it. Less than a quarter of the 0.5kg cake is left for tomorrow's breakfast.

~ pandan kaya cake from Tong Kee -- nice! ~

Aaaah... I feel so blessed and loved. Received so many greetings via phonecall, sms and FB wall from family, relatives and friends. The greetings in FB were really overwhelming. Thank you so much for your warm wishes.

Passport Renewal

Woohoo! Exam's over! I mean my girl's exam. hehehe Today is the last day. So after sending her to school, I can breathe a sigh of relief. She's having a one-week (Deepavali) break next week and we'll be going for a short holiday. Will tell more after we're back, okay? :-)

While discussing about the flight tickets with PaPa, I realised my passport and didi's have less than 6 months validity. *ooops!* At first, we wanted to go to Immigration Department on Monday. But on Saturday night, while checking their website, I found out that the branch near us opens on weekends. We went on Sunday morning so that didi didn't have to skip school.

Reached Immigration Department at 8:10am. The queue was already very long, all the way to the staircase. Heard from the officer that the applicants that day were more than usual. I got my number at 9:30. Good thing we have a place to sit. Waited with didi while PaPa went for breakfast with jie jie. Kept him occupied with his Maths workbook (his choice). After jie jie came back, they kept each other company and made a lot of noise.

Documents were processed at 11:40. The officer checked to made sure the documents were complete. Thumb print was also taken. Next is payment. My number was called at 11:55. And at 12:30pm, our passports were ready for collection. Luckily we don't have to come back the next day as they close at 1pm. It took about 4.5 hours to get our passports done. Considered efficient, right? :D

For those who plan to go to Immigration Department to renew your passport, these are what you need :
1) Form - can be printed from their website (print on A4 paper, on both sides) or obtained from Immigration Department
2) IC - original and 1 copy (photocopy front and back of IC on the same side)
3) 2 passport-size photos
4) Current passport

And for applicants below 18 years old :
1) Form
2) Birth Certificate - original and 1 copy
3) 1 copy of guardian's IC (photocopy front and back of IC on the same side)
4) 2 passport-size photos
5) Current passport

I Went Too!

Went where? To the much talked-about book sale -- the Big Bad Wolf sale. Since Friday, I saw many posts about the sale in FB. I also ' beh tahan' already so I applied "leave" from hubby today. I brought XY along while CE stayed at home with PaPa. We went after lunch, reached the venue at 2+. It was very easy to find the place using GPS. Along the way, I saw many "wolf" signage too.

Good thing I've read about others' experience, so I knew we had to wait for the shuttle bus to bring us to Hall A (where the sale is) from the parking lot. When we reached Hall A, there was a queue but I think we waited for about 5 minutes only. We headed directly to the Children's section. We "systematically" covered the whole section. As expected, some of the tables were quite messy. I think we spent almost 2 hours at the Children's section. Then I wanted to look for my books. But they are quite difficult to find, unlike those advertised in their website and bestsellers. There are so many tables for General Fiction and they don't seem to be arranged by author. I didn't see any Dan Brown books and the John Grisham book I bought, I just picked it up from a non-related pile. :-)

After 3 hours in the hall, the damage to the pocket was only RM106. Felt quite out of place coz other people's boxes or trolleys were filled to the brim. hehehe

~ RM3 each ~

I like the toy clock coz it looks quite "durable". I've bought educational clocks made from paper and wood before. The paper one got torn very soon and the wood one, its minute and hour hands can be moved separately. This one, it's like a real clock. You wind the button behind, it'll move the minute hand and the hour hand will move accordingly. CE immediately "played" with it when he saw it. He has always been very fascinated with time. He likes to keep track of time. He moved the toy every 1 or 2 minutes, to be the same as the digital clock in our living room. The problem is, he finds it a bit tight to wind it from behind, so he moves both the hands on the face. Thus making the hour and minute hands go out of sync. :-|

~ top : RM5 each, bottom : for hubby (RM15) ~

~ RM8 each ~

This being my first time to the BBW book sale, the experience was very pleasant. The place is air-conditioned. It didn't feel hot at all although there was a big crowd. There are many payment counters so it didn't take long to pay. I've waited much longer in Tesco. :p And for a public place, the toilets are very clean. *thumbs up*

Note : I'll go MIA again (what's new eh? :p) as CE is having his exam starting tomorrow and XY's will start the following week. Here's wishing "All the best!" to the children who'll be having their year-end exam.

Malfunctioned

What malfunctioned? Not any electrical devices... but my brain. hahaha I was super blur today that I thought it's Wednesday. After calling SIL and made arrangements about fetching the boys back from kindy, I spoke to Kakak about changing bedsheets. Then XY corrected me that today's only Tuesday. Change-bedsheets-day is Wednesday. Ooops! Then I had to call SIL back to cancel what I've told her earlier. I'll fetch didi back myself coz CH has to stay back for Mandarin class.

Normally, I'll bring jie jie along, fetch didi from kindy and go straight to jie jie's school (she's in the afternoon session). But today, I forgot about didi and took the turn to jie jie's school. Ooops! I only realised it halfway through the journey. I didn't turn back as I was worried jie jie would be late for school. So I called the kindy and informed them that I'll be late. I was rushing like mad coz I've never been so late to pick him up. I was 20 minutes late but didi wasn't the last one. There were still some kids waiting for their transportation. Anyway, he didn't seem to be bothered that I was late.

Gosh... I can be quite absent-minded at times, but this is the first time I was late to pick didi up. Throughout jie jie's kindy years, I was never late (ermmm... I think :D). I'm sure you have your fair share of "blur" moments, but forgetting to fetch your kid? Sigh... Must be getting old, brain not functioning well. Or can I blame the mosquitoes? Didn't sleep well the night before because of mosquitoes attack. hehehe

Water Fun

The kids (especially jie jie) have been bugging us to bring them to Sunway Lagoon. PaPa suddenly became so 'hardworking' and decided to bring them this weekend. And the timing was considered good coz they are not sick or anything. Well, we tried to ignore didi's (occasional) sneezes and jie jie's (very) slight runny nose. :p We told them yesterday night that we'll be bringing them to some place fun in order to get them to fall asleep fast. Anyway, didn't want to disappoint them in case we cancel the plan if their condition got worse. But jie jie could already guess the destination after listening in to our conversations. :-)

Before going to Sunway Lagoon, we had lunch in Puchong, at our usual bak kut teh restaurant. By the time we're in the water park, it was already past 1pm. Although we only intended to play at the water park, we had to purchase the 3 Parks tickets (normal rate : Adult - RM80, Child - RM65) because there are only 2 types of tickets -- 3 Parks or 5 Parks. MyKad holders are entitled for 25% discount. You need to show a MyKad for EACH adult so we had to pay full amount for Kakak (coz obviously she doesn't have one).

After putting on sunblock (it was scorching hot), the kids are ready for some serious water fun at the water playground. Didi isn't the very adventurous type so jie jie (the daredevil) and I went on some of the 'chi kek' slides. She's tall enough (above 1.1m) and can slide on her own. I think she'd like to go for more rounds if not for the long queues. She doesn't want to waste time queuing coz she knows we won't be spending a very long time there. We went on the steep slide (lying belly-down on the mat) and the winding slide (sitting on the double tube). We also played at the wave pool. The kids love to sit on the rented double tube and be pushed by the wave. At 3+, the sky was getting gloomy. So we headed to the man-made beach for sand play. It looked like it was going to rain so they had their last round of sliding at the water playground till the guards shooed everyone out of the water when it started to rain.

We had an early dinner of pizzas and pasta. The kids fell asleep shortly after we left the car park. Reached home, bathed, read some story books and they slept early at 9+, which is quite rare nowadays. I bet they had a FUNtastic day and I'll be reminding them to be a good girl/boy next week (and for as long as it works) as a way to thank us. muahahaha

Their Favourite Toys

The kids love to draw on the drawing board. I think they use it (almost) everyday. This is the second Fisher-Price (FP) drawing board we bought as the first one was spoilt already -- the eraser got a bit stuck. Jie jie loves to draw on it while didi loves to write alphabets and numbers. Sometimes they take turns to give each other questions like maths and fill in the blanks. We've bought a non-branded one before but the FP one is definitely more durable.

~ setting and answering his own 'fill in the blanks' question ~

Another favourite toy is the alphabets from the alphabets mat. This is one of didi's favourite. He likes to build words with them. If I'm not mistaken, he started having this interest when Word World was first introduced on PHDC. He also likes to use the Jenga blocks (wood block game) to build words. They are just not interested to play Jenga the "right" way.

~ building words with foam alphabets and Jenga blocks ~

When he was still a crawling baby, I arranged them at one corner of the house as his play area. I even used the alphabets to decorate the wall during his birthday this year. 1 toy, so many usage. What a fantastic investment. :-)

~ didi at 13 months old, playing on the colourful mat ~

The push car is also a big favourite. Although they've outgrown it (their legs are too long for the small car), they still like to zoom around the house with it. I redeemed this with Anakku points before didi was born. It was in good condition when jie jie was using it. We kept it in the store room till didi was old enough to ride it. And the "buffalo" broke the steering wheel within days of playing. o.O So it can't control the wheels anymore.

~ so big already but still want to sit on the small car ~