Rayhana Bertudung

I was sooo busy with the KL International Book Fair at PWTC that I hardly spent any time with Rayhana.

Rayyan was there at the fair twice. Brought him to see my friends' booth and got some books for him. I just bought more of the Peter & Jane books required by Genius Aulad at 30% off! Bought 11 more books up to Level 6a, 6b, 6c. I figured that after Level 6, he could easily read any English materials already... so takyah la nak beli moe Peter & Jane stuff... he's now going on to Level 2a.

Anyways... masa tengah-tengah sebok jaga booth kat book fair tu I got an MMS from my mom. My MOM???! Hantar MMS?? wah canggih gila.. hahaha..

She sent this...


Will blog more on Rayhana... and maybe a bit about the KL Book Fair later..

Mandarin at home

Finally! After a looooong search for people capable to suit my schedule, I found someone who could teach Mandarin at home... me and Rayyan. It's gonna be on Sundays... 10am - 11.30/12pm. But it can only start in May, after the KL International Book Fair and the follow-up exercise is over.

Where did I find this teacher? hehehe at the Bologna post-mortem meeting at the National Book Council office in Putrajaya this afternoon.

I actually told a publisher friend while we were on the same flight back to KL that I was searching high and low for someone to teach me and Rayyan Mandarin. She said her colleague who was with us in Bologna (and was still traveling around Italy at that time), has been giving Mandarin home tuition since she was in college. And she stays in Damansara Jaya! I said GREAT!

So me and our future sifoo met up at the Bologna post-mortem meeting and the girl asked me if I'm serious in getting somebody to teach my son.. I said yeah! And I want to be learning as well at the same table.. I'll learn what Rayyan learns. So that at least there is one other person who can talk to him in Mandarin at home (hehe and maybe we can talk in our secret "code" that only two of us understand hehe). She said okay! No problem!

So it's gonna be RM200 per month roughly, excluding books. Very reasonable, considering there will actually be 2 persons taking the class. Told Ja I already made the arrangement.. dia pulak nak menyebok join.. hahaha.. even told my dad... he asked me tape the session so he could also learn something from it hahaha

I asked Rayyan just now if he wanna try learn how to speak Chinese.. he said YEAH! With somewhat "pleasantly surprised/shocked" look... hehe.. I know from that look he's interested. It's gonna be fun!

aaaaaaaahhh, I'm happy.... at last.... have been longing to learn Mandarin since I was a kid but never got the opportunity...

:))))))

Spooky office

I've heard people talking about it. I've sensed something before. But last night (no I didn't see anything, thank God!) almost made me pack my stuff and go home right away... hehe

I was at work late night starting from 9.15pm.. busy la this whole month with the KL Book Fair, and planning to market my products, etc...

Anyway, things were okay till about after midnight... I hear some sheets of paper falling, clips/pins dropping, some plates/saucers as if cicak tengah racing through them... doors squeeking, etc...

I was too busy and tired and sleepy to actually investigate what those actually were and what caused those noises... so sambungla kerja...

I sorta finished what I wanted to do for the night by 3am. Packed my stuff, walked out.. tengok takde benda pun yang jatuh-jatuh... locked up and went to the lift.

Kat office ni bila malam, only 1 out of the 4 lifts is working. So had to wait for the lift to go up from B3 all the way to 5. When the door opened, I went in, pressed G, and the door tak tutup, as if there were more people coming in together with me... hehe.. scary pun ada jugak.. but then again.. was too tired and sleepy to be scared.. haha

Had to do my stuff at the office 'coz I can't really focus at home. Lots of stuff to do... and when I'm at home, I'll just sleep my way through...

Animal Farm Morning

Ja just sent Rayyan to school this morning at 7.30am. The bus leaves at 8am.

The preparation for the trip started yesterday. Right after picking him up from school, I searched for his white t-shirts, track pants, and socks to put inside his bag pack. Seksa jugak nak mencari white t-shirts... last-last the trusty t-shirts and track pants bought from Tesco last year were the obvious choice.

Rayyan remembered specifically what his teacher asked him to bring. "Teacher said to bring 2 white shirts, pants, water for me to drink, and 2 plastics for me to muntah. And teacher asked me to have my breakfast before I come to school."

Leaving the house at 7.30am meant that he had to sleep early last night. But no... he couldn't sleep. He kept saying he didn't want to sleep takut nanti he dreams. He used to mention to me before that the reason he wakes up late at times was because he dreams in his sleep. Pasaltu dia takut nak tido and mimpi kot.. so he wanted to stay up till the next morning.

Of course, I said no. I turned off the TV and DVD player in the room and forced him to sleep. By then it was already midnight.

This morning, surprisingly, it was easy to wake him up. He was all psyched up for his trip. It was all he has been talking about this past week. Me too, had him count down the days to build up the excitement. He was excited that he gets the chance to milk the cow.

"You hold the cow's breast and you do like this so the milk comes out, and then you drink it!" he said yesterday when I picked him up from school. I said NO! You have to cook the milk first, so that all the germs will die. Then, it's safe for you to drink it.

"Ok, after we cook the milk and the WORMS die, then we can drink the milk." hahaha.. then I corrected him.. not WORMS but GERMS... they are tiny, you can't see it. He said "we can use the magnifying glass". I said no, it's soo tiny you can't even see them with the magnifying glass. You need a microscope. He said... "Microscope? Where can I get that?" (hmmm is it time for me to get to Toys R Us and get one for him? hmm....). then I said, microscope is not for kids. It's expensive, only adults can use it. He said, "Only adults? Kids can't use it?".. I confirmed.. YEAH! :)

So that's a brief scientific knowledge he got yesterday in the car coming home from school... haha masa kat rumah.. he remembered what I said. This morning pun he remembered that we need to cook the cow's milk first to kill the germs before it is safe for us to drink it.

Not only he remembered that. He also reminded us while we were preparing last minute stuff for his bag pack: "white shirts, water, and 2 plastics". Got him a hat to wear.. too sayang to have him wear the San Marino cap I bought him, so got him some old cap from the laundry basket.

Of course, nenek dia pesan suruh jumpa dia dulu before going....so he went to her room. Nenek baru habis sembahyang... as usual Nenek would recite some doa together with him.. this time he says.. "FASTER!" hahaha...

So off he went with Ja to school. Gave Ja the camera to take pictures of him going on the bus. (2 buses for the whole school!). I asked him to get his teachers snap lots of pics and give them to me.

I'll pick him up at 12 later today.

Rayyan Milking Cows

...well... not yet.

Genius Aulad is organizing trips to the Animal Farm at UPM since April's theme is animals. So each Genius Aulad center will be bringing their kids and teachers there in batches. The Kelana Jaya center will be going on April 9th... next Thursday, at 8.00am... taking the bus and will be back by noon. So no class on that day.

Among the agenda is going to the cow and milk them.. hehe that was what I was told by Rayyan... the way he explained how he would milk the cow.. must have learned it from his teacher...

Went to Genius Aulad to pay his April fees just now plus the extra RM35 for the UPM trip. Had a chat with his English teacher... Teacher Ruby. Nice teacher. In fact, realizing the fact that not many Malaysian kindie teachers are good in English, what this center does is that they hire a good one like Teacher Ruby, and make her specialize in that subject and teach ONLY English in all classes at Genius Aulad.

Subject lain pun diorang teach in English.. by other teachers.. but for English Language subject, a specialized teacher takes over. Good move.

Teacher Ruby said that Rayyan is VERY talkative in class. He would talk and respond about anything because his command of English is better compared to the rest of his class... yang lain senyap sikit 'coz they can't communicate as well as him. Good for Rayyan.

Rayyan's weakness - his writing. Still tak cantik lagi. So need to practice on that. She mentioned that si Rayyan ni nak cepat habiskan kerja.. so his writing tunggang langgang.

Genius Aulad has their own Report Card day sometime in May so parents can get a better understanding of their kid's progress with all the teachers there.

Looking forward to that!