Describe your child in one word

If I had to describe my child in one word, it would be "inquisitive" for the girl and "affectionate" for the boy.

The girl seems to thirst for knowledge and asks questions non-stop. She would ask questions of anything and everything non-stop till she thinks she finally understands what it is that she wants to know. It can be rather tiring but it also means that she is a joy to teach. She loves to learn and is a fast learner, absorbing knowledge and information like a sponge. She has an almost photographic memory and remembers little details of pictures she sees long after she has seen it. It is quite amazing. She doesn't like dolls because she says "but you can't do anything with that". She likes things or toys that challenges her. She likes to read, write and draw.

As for the boy, he is very affectionate and loving. When I have a headache, he would come to rub my head. When my stomach feels upset, he would rub my tummy, look at me with concern and say "Its okay, mummy. Its okay." When I thank him for looking after me so well, he'd say "We take care of each other, mummy." He is generous with his kisses, hugs and "I love you"s. If he continues like this into adulthood, all the girls will swoon. Its no wonder that all his friends in kindy are mostly girls because he is such a little gentleman. lol. He loves cars. Especially small hand held ones that he can put in a row like in a traffic jam.

If there is only one word that you can use to describe your child, what word would that be?

Revising for the first school term examinations

I found the right button to push to help my girl revise for her upcoming first term exams.

If I tell her "Its time to do some revision" she would pull a long face and say she hates revision etc etc.

However, if I tell her to "Get your dictionary out. We'll have a challenge to see who finds the meaning of the words first", she'll go "Yippee!"


So thats what I do, to get her to revise her school work. Only,...... its....... painfully..... slow. Its extremely hard to help your child to revise their school work when you don't understand the language and you'll have to learn it yourself in order to help.

Its also extremely hard to explain to a young child, the concept of tests, studying for tests etc. When I first asked her to revise her school work, she'd ask me "Mummy, what is revision?" "Why do we have to revise?" "What is a test?"


It is also hard for me to know how well she is doing at school because although she comes home with mostly Bs and mostly correct answers in her school work, sometimes, when I ask her, she doesn't know. She says she got it correct because "Teacher gave the answers." This is especially so for her Bahasa Malaysia lessons. She seems ok in her written chinese though she can't understand what the teacher says some of the time, probably because the teacher speaks rather fast. At least thats a relief since every subject is in Chinese.

Apart from languages, she has to learn Science now as well. At least Science is more interesting since she can learn facts about the human body like in the image above.

So, hows your revision coming along, for those whose kids will be sitting for their first term examinations in May? Do you have any tips to share? How do you teach a young child how to study for a test?

Supermummy Amazing Blogger Award - Vote for me!

I'm amazed to have been nominated for the Supermummy Amazing Blogger Award. Yes, its simply amazing! I'm no supermummy, just a mummy. I'm no amazing blogger but I'm one amazed blogger right now for being nominated.

Yes, I'm an Amazed Mummy Blogger so I hope you all will vote for me. Hehe. Judging ends on Tuesday, 30th April 2009.

So what is this amazed mummy blogger up to right now?

As a mummy.......

Well, lets see, I just got the syllabus and schedule for my very first term exam for my first kid. Notice that I said my very first term exam, not her very first term exam because I feel like I am being tested. I was told to prepare her well because the kids go into streaming next year in Std 2 and this May exam results will be pro rated with the end of the year one to decide which class the kids go to. So this mummy is going to be very busy studying.... studying how to prepare her kid for her first test. When I look at the syllabus, I want to pengsan. Not only text books but activity books (2 or 3 for each subject). Fuiyoh! We really had it easy in our days.

As for the second boy, his 5th birthday is next week. Daddy has taken some time off. Yippee! But the poor boy has the sniffles and cough! I hope he will recover soon in time for his birthday which I haven't planned yet!

As a blogger.....

Well, I just blogged all the above down, didn't I? Thats what we crazy bloggers do. Blog blog blog about everything but we love it!

To vote for me, please click on the above banner or the one on my sidebar. Thank you for voting and have a good weekend everyone!

Ran out of birthday gift ideas for 5 year old boy and 7 year old girl

We've always wanted to make every birthday gift extra special and memorable for the kids because usually we don't do have a party for them. So the main gift comes from us. I think so far we have because they remember each of their birthday gifts quite well (because we constantly remind them). lol. However, we're beggining to run out of ideas! The going to be 5 year old boy's birthday is next week and the going to be 7 year old girl's birthday is next month.

So far for each of their birthdays we have got them the following gifts.

For the boy

1st birthday - A rocking horse (I remember looking really hard for this one. We had seen it earlier and really like it but then we waited and when it was close to his birthday, it ran out of stock! So we went all over to search for it.)
2nd birthday - A stuffed toy dog (He really liked this one too but then later on he had rashes and the paeditrician told us to keep away any stuffed toys and so the poor toy door sits in an empty drawer till now. I guess thats why the kids still love it so much.... because of the fact that its forbidden.)
3rd birthday - A motorized bike. (He loves this one very very much till now.)
4th birthday - A lego duplo toy set (He didn't seem to like this one very much but last night he took it out and fixed everything himself by looking at the pictures and he seemed to have a good time playing with it. Maybe it wasn't age appropriate for him then but it is now.)

For the girl

1st birthday - A push toy that can be converted into a car that is "driven" by pushing the legs on the floor. (The kids still like to sit on this "Car" and "drive" it around once in a while.)
2nd birthday - A toy laptop (This is the lousiest gift of all. It didn't work very well after a while. She still asks for a toy laptop every now and then at the toy shop but each time we would remind her of this lousy one she had.)
3rd birthday - A musical keyboard (This is lovely and a good start for introducing music in a child's life. I still remember on her birthday she wore a cute denim shorts with sunglasses and she rocked by singing on the mike that came with the keyboard and dancing to the preset music. She looked so cute then. Oh, how fast the time has flown.)
4th birthday - A pop up house (Definitely a hit with the kids. They still pester me to open up their pop up house once in a while to play with it.)
5th birthday - A tv console game (She didn't like this at first but liked it later on after she learned how to play. We have since added on some new games for them which they enjoy occassionally eg on a Saturday morning when mummy wants to sleep in and daddy wants to play his pc game.)
6th birthday - A white board on an easel (This is a wonderful tool which we use now to teach the kids their school lessons. The kids love to write on it too. I guess it makes them feel like a teacher.)

Every gift has been special with its own set of memories and we hope to continue the tradition.

Every child is special and has different preferences but feel free to borrow my birthday gift ideas above if you like.

Does anyone have any good birthday gift ideas for a 5 year old boy and a 7 year old girl?

How much homework does your child have at school?

So far the both the children's homework are manageable.

The boy is 5 and attending an English based kindy. Usually he comes home with 2 pages of writing (words or numbers), 1 or 2 pages of coloring, 1 or 2 pages of chinese character writing. (Usually he does not know the chinese word he is writing. He does not know how to pronounce the word nor does he know what it means. He only knows how to do copy writing ie write what is given, that is all but he's only 5 so I don't push him. For now, he can learn the basics and how to write simple chinese characters, he can learn the meaning of the words later on.)

The girl is 7 and attending Chinese Primary School. She usually comes home with 2-4 pages of chinese character writing and occassionally 1 or 2 pages of Maths. There is usually no English or Malay homework. She has ting seah or chinese spelling once a week, BM Ejaan twice a week now (previously it was once a week) and English spelling once a week (if the teacher turns up). So far from the begginning of the year till now, they have only spelled 8 words. That shows how often the English teacher turns up. English is given very low priority or importance at her school.

Some people mentioned that their children at chinese school has 7 subjects a day and about 3-4 pages of homework for each subject making it up to 30 pages of homework each day. Wow! Is that true? How much homework does your child have at school?

Meanwhile, here is an article that may interest you: Helping Your Child With Homework

Caning is normal in school

When I read this news, this sentence jumped up at me....

"I was told that the teacher caned the boy for failing to do his homework. That is a normal thing to do."

I do not wish to speculate about the case. It is just this sentence that I am uncomfortable and feel sad about. I wonder why it has to be this way. Why do kids get caned for forgetting to bring their work books or for not completing their homework. I do not support caning in schools for these reasons. If caning is for stealing, cheating or more serious misbehaviour than perhaps it could be more justified.

I never understand why teachers have to strike fear in the hearts of the young in order to control them. Quite often I've been told, there is no choice, it is the only way to control them. The class is so big. It is a sad situation. Why do they work on the premise of punishment rather than reward?

My girl dislikes school because of the fierce teachers but when the same fierce teachers praise her work, she would be so delighted and motivated to work so much harder. Reward is the way to go, not punishment. Sigh.