Baju sekolah tinggal 1

We bought 3 pairs of school uniform for Rayyan, and last night Ja was furious sebab dok rotate satu pasang je for the past 2 weeks. Nasib baik he only wears the uniform on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Tuesdays and Fridays the school allows him to wear the PE attire the whole day.

Nak kena gi cari kat sekolah dia at Lost & Found area.. we suspect dia tertinggal baju dia kat sekolah when he change into his Taekwondo attire... pastu I pun tak perasan masa nak jemput dia balik coz I told him to always put the baju sekolah back into the bag.. and he did that everytime, even when I didn't check on him. So now tetiba baju tinggal sepasang... nak kena beli lagi la ni.... pastu nak jahit badge dia, name tag dia.... Papa diala kena jahit! takpe.. suruh mama dia yang beli baju.. hehehe

KSSR

Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah (KSSR) is replacing the age-old, heavily scrutinised KBSR starting this year. Rayyan is in the first batch of students under the KSSR. Lucky? I hope...

Didn't get to go to Rayyan's school on "Report Card" day since I was sick.. and still am... they had this taklimat on KSSR.. they now do not rank students from #1 to #40 in class, nor do they grade the exam papers. They just mark the papers... and since each exam question is labelled with either Band 1, Band 2, up to Band 6 that signifies which level of competency they are testing the kids on, they just look at that.. and see at which Band the kids are fully competent and which one they are not.

More info on the KSSR here....

The underlying purpose is basically now, they are encouraging kids to talk and express themselves more on whatever they are learning in class.

Up to midterm, the Year 1 kids were tested up to Band 3. Alhamdulillah Rayyan achieved Band 3 for all his core subjects.. BM, English, Sains, and Matematik.

Those kids who only achieved Band 2 and below, they will be taken to another class as a group during that class period where another teacher will be there to teach them attentively..

A marked improvement to Malaysia's education system, the way I see it. Hopefully Rayyan excels in this KSSR environment :)

JB wedding trip 17-19 June

Ayla (3+), Reza (1+), Rayhana (2+)
(2nd cousins from 3 different grandparents who are brother and sisters)

Just came back from JB yesterday. A cousin of mine got married. Would love to see how his child gonna look like hehehe check this out... the baby would have Burmese, Malay, Indian, Arabic, Kadazandusun, etc blood... hehe cool..

Went to JB right after Rayyan got back from school last Friday. Ja took the day off. The nikah ceremony was held at a mosque near Pasir Gudang on Saturday morning. Left our hotel, M Suites, JB right after breakfast at 830am.

4 couples got married at the mosque that day.. so had to do sort of a "mass" nikah ceremony.. 1 khutbah, 1 doa, etc, but of course 4 akads :) It was an interesting sight as while the three couples wore white, the other couple wore red... hahaha probably ada cerita di sebalik baju merah tu.. we got bored waiting that we made our own stories.. why one of the couples the bride takde dalam masjid.... why the other couple ni wore red and not many family members were there to witness their ceremony lol!

Out of the 4 tu only our familylah yang nampak macam serious nak witness akad nikah ni..

Right after nikah, we adjourned to the bride's uncle's house for a lite snack while waiting for the bersanding ceremony (lunch) at the bride's house. Food was nice. Live kompang singing has an Indian-Islamic theme... so the beat macam bhangra pulak.. seronok si Rayhana berjoget dengan Ayla, her 2nd cousin.. tetiba je jadi best friends.. hehe dulu dok jumpa tak rapat pulak... hehe

After sanding, balik hotel.. was too tired to do anything else, so we slept... and slept somemore while Rayyan hit the pool with his "nenek kuih" haha - our aunty who makes kuih raya :)

That night ada final reception which was held at our hotel itself. The hotel could only accommodate about 260-280 pax camtu, so all kids kena pangku. Food was not so bad, entertainment was great.. live singing, family dance... they had the Jambatan Tamparuli (Kadazan song) where their whole family went to the front and danced.. pastu ada poco-poco jugak hahaha.. cool..

The next morning, we had a late breakfast, pastu, checked out, terus balik at around 11am camtu... sampai rumah around 3 something after having lunch at Seri Murni "Discovery" restaurant at Taipan USJ... food dia delicious!!! and cheap!!!

Didn't get the chance to ronda2 JB... maybe next time :)

Nak bagi duit kat orang...

Ja was picking up Rayhana from nursery when one of the teachers returned the change Ja paid for the fees the day before. Rayhana took the money and said that "Nana nak bagi orang!"

Nak bagi orang? Bagi sapa?

"Nana nak tengok tv besar, ada Kungfu Panda, and pop corn, pastu bagi duit kat orang.."

I guess now's the time to introduce the word "beli" and "buy" to her.. and oh.. "wayang" and "cinema" ..

:)

Primary school reunion after 25 years!!

May 28th, 2011 was the date where me and few of my primary schoolmates got together at Bora Asmara for a reunion after 25 years! We have had meetings before, but this time our some of our friends and teachers flew from every corner of the world just to meet up after 25 years!

That's Mrs Anne who came earlier than the rest.. my dearest teacher who was responsible for each of 52 students in her class to get 5A's in the Std 5 peniliaian exam. She flew in from Perth, with her own collection of photos.

I was one of the members of the committee who organized the event. It was a great success. It's not so much about the food, venue, etc... meething these people back after 25 years was awesome!

I had a really great 6 years of primary school. Lots of things I learned, joined, and played, but at the same time we excelled in our studies!

Just for the record, I played badminton, ping-pong, handball, netball.. hehe, batu seremban, lompat getah, bottle caps, blowing (and decorating) ice-cream sticks, paper race cars (similar concept to the ice-cream sticks), chopping, etc.

It was also there that I was introduced to Happy Family, Snap, Old Maid, Chinese Chess (which I was really good at), Cluedo, Risk, Scrabble, those "eight jet engines with afterburner" playcards, Figurine Panini sticker books, Kalkitos..

I also joined the tarian group, masuk tilawah competition, pertandingan bercerita (which I won for the whole of Std 6 in my session), was picked by the teacher to be the person who recited the Rukunegara for 2 years (std 5 & 6) instead of the head prefect doing it, etc.

I actively participating in school sports day, representing my Serigala (red) house in 100m, 200m, 4x100m (which we won gold!) and long jump (hehe macam Carl Lewis pulak.. hehe), etc..

Didn't get to become prefect (although I always wanted to), but finally became class monitor in Std 6. I was a librarian as well, the pioneer batch, where I had to act reading a book when the late Tunku Abdul Rahman came to officiate the library.

And I still remember clearly how I got 494/500 for the total score of all 5 subjects in Std 2 and still got number 8 in class, hence 3 strokes of rotan from my dad (for getting 3 numbers above the agreed benchmark).

We had fun in SRK Kampung Tunku :)

My current obsession...

Playing this Trade Nations game on the iPad. Also available on iPhone and Facebook :)

What do you do? Build your village, give jobs to your people, make money, build shops, trade your products at the market, trade with other players all over the world, collect points that can be exchanged for really cool stuff for your village and also go up to the next level... cool!

One of the cool things is that each of your people have their own name! I've got Colin Thomas who works at the "Quarry" getting the rocks to be cut by Eric Scott at the "Stone Cutter", and Avery Martin that brings the cut stones to the storage before it gets picked up by "Sculptor Shop" to make beautiful sculptures to be exchanged for points and gold coins. :)

I've also got Elizabeth Green who weaves wool into clothes at one of my "Looms" and Owen Hall who hauls the clothes to the stockpile. I chose to just buy the wool from the market now, instead of having your own pens of sheep where you get the wool from :)

I'm at level 39 at 427, 950 points now, out of 592,000 points to get to level 40. That should take another day or so :)

Langkawi Trip May 15th - May 17th, 2011

Just got back from Langkawi yesterday... photos with story-like captions on FB :)

Now semuorang sakit kaki.. lots of panjat tangga and turun tangga, from Tasik Dayang Bunting, to up on the Cable Car platforms... but it was fun!

We LOVE Langkawi!

Blasted from the Past!!

Someone posted this photo in my primary school batch FB group just recently. 1984, when I was in std 4 at SRK Kampung Tunku I was involved in "tarian".. the school tradsitional dance team. We made it quite big, really, was selected by the panel of judges who came to our school to perform at Dewan Sivik PJ (now known as the Dewan MBPJ - tempat AF concert dulu). So sebelum budak2 AF tu perform kat situ, I have already stamped my mark on that stage ages ago.. lol!

The tarian group selection process started when I was in Std 3. I still remember gawking at the Std 5 and Std 6 girls dancing to "Hey Mickey" during their practice breaks :) And how I was assisted by Chinese seniors who taught me how to work on my Malay tarian steps. It was soo 1Malaysia then :)

I still have the certificate of participation at the Pesta Muzik Selangor in 1984 where that photo was taken. I would have never thought of seeing this photo ever in my life since I don't have any, and have not known anyone who had taken the photos then... my parents were not there to see me dance, so when this photo came up, it was really a pleasant surprise.. hehe

I'm the smallest in the photo. I also remember that I was kidnapped by either the Sri Aman or the Assunta school's dance team to take a photo with them... so if anyone who knows anyone from these school who had photos of the Pesta Muzik Selangor 1984 with a tiny cute kid, let me know lol!

There was quite a drama put up by my dad when we were in the final stages of preparation for the Pesta Muzik Selangor. As soon that he got to know I was involved in it, he went straight to the headmistress asking her to drop me from the team. Hjh Jessimah, the HM actually consulted the dance teacher and had actually came back to my dad saying it was almost impossible to drop me from the team. Aku ni terror kot... hahaha probably because it was too late to find a replacement for my spot (actually I remember they had 2 standbys to replace anyone of us).

The tarian activity was put to a halt when we were in Std 5, and somehow revived again when we were in Std 6, but I had by then lost interest in it. It's a pity 'coz that was the year when the dance team made it to the "Selamat Hari Raya" morning program where tons of people watch as they come back from the sembahyang raya and enjoying their ketupat and rendang breakfast. The new dance teacher went all the way to convince me to join them, but ntah.. dah tak minat... and obviously with no support from my parents to send and pick me up from after school practices, the interest died.

The dance we did was Wau Bulan. Great response from the audience as soon as we finished our routine. Great memories.

Birth of a new family member

April 29th, 2011, at about 9pm, the four of us welcomed the birth of a new family member.

At the same time we had to say goodbye to an old family member as well... the white replaced the black, so hopefully all is well with the new member of the family...

Sharing is Caring :)

Tgh sebok2 pasal bookfair ni saje nak bercerita... hehe pasal how we share our finances laki bini... nak kata pelik, memang, bin ajaib! hahaha..

Rumah:
Nama atas laki bini, so senang masing2 nak keluarkan duit EPF :), but yang membayar bank bulan2 tu, sayalah sebagai pemberi nafkah tempat tinggal chewah.... tapi, bab maintenance nak bagi kat management condo ni, terpaksalah diserahkan kepada isteri saya yang membayarnya... SEBAB? Company dia sponsor half of the interest loan rumah tu tiap2 bulan.... so tiap2 bulan duit free je dia dapat... so kena la share the burden bila dah dapat duit free tu kan... hehe

Kereta:
Kereta saya Kelisa je... itu saya bayar, termasuklah roadtax and insuran. Tapi saya tak pakai kereta tu. Isteri yang pakai. And disebabkan dia yang pakai, segala kos maintenance, nak tukar tayar, keta rosak ke apa ke, semuanya si tukang pakailah kena bayar...

Saya pakai kereta Wira. Isteri saya bayar kereta tu. Tapi rosak ke apa ke semua seperti biasa si tukang pakailah kena bayar...

Insuran:
Sayalah tanggung untuk diri saya dan anak2. Isteri saya punya insuran dia bayar sendiri. Dia pun memang dah ada insuran company dia cover untuk dia and anak2... company tak cover suami, so suami boycott la, bayar utk diri sendiri and anak2 je...

Groceries:
Ini di luar bidang scope saya, sebab mak saya ni memang best friend isteri saya bab2 membeli groceries (since kita makan benda yang sama most of the time - dah rumah sebelah menyebelah). Saya tak terlayan.. so bagilah orang perempuan yang melayan kehendak masing2... kalau setakat tiap2 kali gi Giant kena beli Glo 3 botol, Softlan 3 botol... aku surrender!! Bab makanan, belila apa je... masak la apa je.. apa ada atas meja, saya makan... kalau takde benda atas meja, saya cari dalam peti ais... kalau takde benda, McD ada... hehe biskut cicah air teh pun ok..

Tapi kalau selalu family makan luar, saya yang bayar... kengkadang je kalau fulus tak cukup helai, kena mintakla si isteri tanggung sikit...

Credit card:
Sapa belanja pakai credit card masing2, masing2la bayar. Dah sendiri pandai cari hutang, sendiri tanggungla! Hehehe... Kalau sesapa nak beli barang2 yang dia suka, pakai duit sendirila... tak payah mintak permission.. tapi kitorang sebelum beli benda mahal2, memang bagi hint2 dulu sebelum beli... so ada chan la masing2 nak bagi kata dua masing2 kot.. tapi basically, duit sendiri, apa salah, ye tak? beli je la... janji tak kacau commitment yang nak kena bayar bulan2 tu...

Utility bills:
Semua utility bill rumah (letrik, internet, phone), saya yang bayar... except bil air sebab dia cover sekali dgn maintenance rumah yang isteri saya bayar...

Handphone bill:
Sukacitanya saya ingin beritahu semua bill handphone saya, isteri saya yang bayarkan... hehe sebab lagi ekonomikal... dia pakai banyak for her work, so plan Maxis tu menguntungkan kalau mobile phone saya tu jadi supplementary kepada dia punya... so dia bayarlah, sikit je pun, unless saya ke luar negara yang mana bill boleh mencecah nak dekat seribu ringgit pasal roaming and what not... itu saya bayarla.. kesianla kat dia... :)

Maid:
Dah rumah saya bagi, bill- bill rumah semua saya bayar, si isteri kenala jaga rumah supaya keadaan sempurna. So kalau tak larat, diala kena bayar part-time maid untuk tolong dia.. hehehe

Kid's Education/Nursery/Susu/Pampers, etc:
Rayyan, saya tanggung. Rayhana, isteri saya tanggung. Itulah sebabnya 2 anak je.. kalau lagi satu nak tambah, hmmm... garu kepala jugak nak pikir sapa nak tanggung.. hehe

Dulu semangat baru2 kawin bukak joint account... ingat nak share duit semua... tapi for us, with the way we spend, not practicallah... biarla duit yang sendiri cari tu, sendiri punya. Ada jugak kengkadang tak cukup, so masing2 pinjam antara satu sama lain, and dibayar balik duit yang dipinjam tu dalam masa terdekat. Alhamdulillah, dah nak masuk 8 tahun kawin, tiada hutang tertunggak... hehe.. yela kalau pinjam pun setakat RM50, RM100, camtu je... senang nak cover balik..

Okay, sambung kerja.. besok big day at the KL Book Fair. The writers for the book I published is going to be interviewed on stage at the book fair, courtesy of Utusan Publications & Distributors, who distributes my books during the fair.

Luck Lucky Lucky!

Alhamdulillah...

Went to Malaysia Book Publishers Association (MABOPA) dinner last Saturday night and guess what? I won a lucky draw prize. Although it's the 19th prize out of 20, it's still something, ye tak? hehe

The 20th prize was won by A. Samad Said, Sasterawan Negara tu.. who would've thought? His number was announced first, then, it was #361, my lucky ticket number :)

I won a Pioneer DVD player. This one is kinda cool coz it has a USB port so I could actually connect my external hard disk to it and watch all the stuff I downloaded on TV yang kat bilik tu.. since the TV does not have a USB port, susah gila, coz I had to always pasang laptop kat sebelah and connect the external disk to it and from the laptop, guna HDMI cable to the TV. Kelakar TV ni.. HDMI slot ada 2, USB port takde.. I actually just bought on ebay a small media adapter/player that cost me about RM100, which is still making its way to my house from the UK.

The device is smaller than the size of tapak tangan, tiny gadget that allows a "USB device" to connect to a HDMI slot, and plays all kinds of video formats.

The lucky DVD player tu can only play certain formats.. so banyak movie yang tak appear when you browse on the TV screen..

Oklah.. citer takat ni je.. break kejap.. now super duper busy coz the KL International Book Fair starts Friday, and I've got lots to prepare.

Lamanya tak update...

Hahaha... rasa lama pulak tak update.. it has been quite some time... lots happened, among others..

1. Rayyan demam panas sampai 5 hari. Tested -ve for dengue and H1N1. Kesian dia, dah lama tak kena demam... 4 days out of school, came back to school just in time for his 1st monthly exams... just got back some of the results.. nice to see he is piling up the hundreds in his exams... altho ada some yang tak hundred hehe (will reserve that for another entry, as I felt that he should have gotten hundreds based on what he knows and not from what he understands from the questions.. hehe)

2. Rayhana got HFM disease... seminggu tak gi nursery... sapa lagi jaga dia kat rumah? Bapak dia la.. hehe.. Her mouth was full of blisters on her palate.. habih lelangit dia berbijik2, her tongue was full of blisters.. tu je truk.. tangan dengan kaki takde sangat blister dia.. sikit2 je... but her thigh was like measles here and there, almost like the early stages of chicken pox.. kesian dia.. nak makan pun sakit.. got to know from my cousin that he tried gamat "gamogen" on his son who got HFM and it worked well.. so we tried on Rayhana... within 2 days, all the blisters in the mouth disappeared!! Almost like a miracle! Alhamdulillah...

3. Optimized Unifi to the max! Lol! I was one of the few who NEVER watched an episode of "Lost". Downloaded the whole 6 seasons, within a couple of days and in 1 week managed to watch all 5 seasons and now am on my 6th. How I managed it? Slept at 4am every night, and send Rayhana late to the nursery to catch at least 1 or 2 episodes first thing in the morning.. hehe with the new TV Ja bought, it's very convenient as I just need to plug the USB cable on my external hard disk to the TV and I get full HD view of the series... bila nak tido, cabut yang kat TV tu, bawak masuk bilik, sambung kat laptop, and then from laptop sambung kat TV pakai HDMI cable.. hehe every night the laptop was on till tetiba je whenever I woke up in the morning TV and laptop tu dah sentiasa tertutup dek Ja who goes out early in the morning to send Rayyan to school. Another thing, since with Unifi, all phone calls to TM land lines are free nationwide, I've decided that it is high time to do "fax" marketing for all my products and services.. hehe free fax maaa.... so lagi selalula I would just work from home.. :)

4. Published 2 books this month. The first two books for this year. Am looking forward to produce at least about 10 more this year, so I can look forward to this year's Frankfurt Book Fair in October.

5. Organizing the primary school reunion. Had two meetings so far, and another one this weekend. Great stuff planned, it's gonna be featured in the local papers too... :)

6. Went to Matta Fair and bought tickets to Langkawi, 3D/2N hotel stay and return flights at RM1100 total for 5 pax. Ja sampai amik cuti to go to the fair on Friday. Went there with Felishia & Afnan who bought a Singapore package.

7. Toying the idea with Ja nak gi USA probably end of next year... even surveyed accommodations and the factory outlets.... hehe banyaknya duit nak pakai.. seronok rasa tak terhingga for both of us, but memandangkan beribu riban duit nak pakai, camnala nak pergi... the cost is definitely reduced kalau gi reramai.. so tengah meracuni kengkawan and sedara mara to plan along.. nak gi USA ni kena gi reramai baru enjoy :). The place we plan to go.. ORLANDO.. 10 days should be perfect. Boleh gi Disney World, Universal Studios, Sea World, and probably can make a short trip to NASA Space center, and the Miami beach.. hehe been there done that, well except for Sea World I didn't manage to visit while I was studying in the states dulu... but imagine what fun the kids will have... especially for Rayyan.. which makes us rethink.. lagi seronok bila Rayhana dah besar macam Rayyan now, and Rayyan is 4 years older than her... lagi enjoy! Aaaah... one can only dream for now... at this stage, kita memain jela dengan idea ni :)

Me in 1986

That's the class photo of the boys in my class. We had about 50 of us in the class so kena ambik gambar asing2 for the boys and girls. This was I believe the last day of Std 6. I have not been in touch with most of them until just recently, again, thanks to FACEBOOK!

Many have migrated to Australia, while some have just went on to different schools, went separate ways, living in other countries, and jumpa balik kat FB. In fact, yesterday, we managed to track our class teacher (the lady in pink in the background) in FB. Thanks, to one of our classmates.

We are planning to have a really big alumni reunion bash just our Std 6 in '86 batch as it's gonna be 25 years since we left SRK Kampung Tunku.

Looking forward to that!

MISC Walkathon 2011 @ Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside

Last Saturday was the day MISC and its subsidiaries held their Walkathon at Pullman Putrajaya Lakeside. We woke up as early as 5.30am, got ready, and by 6.45am camtu we were already on the road...

The weather was perfect. Ada banyak category walkathon tu.. we joined the "Family Fun" category where 15 winners were chosen based on how creative their family members were..

We were not creative enough... in fact we did not even get to the finish line.. hehe nak tau kenapa? Sapa la suruh letak cotton candy and pop corn stalls on the way to the finish line? Ja and Rayhana stopped to queue for the free cotton candy while me & Rayyan was queueing at the face painting tent... hehehe so tak dapatla sijil penyertaan... hehe but kudos to Rayyan for completing the walk up to that point without a single stop! That's close to 2km of walking! Rayhana ada 2 occasions asked Ja to dukung dia,, mengada-ngada.. hehe taknak pulak duduk dalam stroller dia..

There were lots of activities and lots of food! We were given 4 coupons for Ramly Burger, 4 coupons for Kenny Rogers lunch set, free flow of nasi lemak and teh tarik for breakfast, free flow of cotton candy, pop corn, 100 Plus, mineral water, and durian! We didn't get to the durian sebab dah tengahari.. we just waited for the Kenny Rogers at 11.30am and then balik...

But guess who we met there?

Hanin!!! Haritula baru kitorang tau Hanin's father is actually the VP of HR at MISC, the parent company.. hehe



Yang gambar atas ni, Ja onm the right, and Hanin's parents on the left.. at the "beach" kat lake tu..

The kids had fun.. running and jumping around... Rayhana pun..

Rayhana slept while Ja was queing for the Kenny Rogers and me and Rayyan was getting the car. Balik rumah semuorang terbongkang sampai pukul 6 petang, and quickly had to get ready for Felishia's sister-in-law's engagement/ Maulud Nabi kenduri.

And oh, my Unifi just got fixed today. It was hardware punya masalah. If you black modem's serial number starts with letters instead of numbers, you gotta have that changed. They've replaced that, and I'm on Unifi now.. uploading the above videos took me seconds :)

Unifi-ed! (Part Deux)

Hatin' it! Hatin'it! Hatin' it!

;(

Unifi-ed!!

Lovin' it! Lovin' it! Lovin' it!

:)

Kisah Satu Ringgit

Last Monday, when I went to pick up Rayyan from school, I noticed he was holding and eating a small packet of french fries that costs RM1 from the school canteen.

I wondered where he got the money to buy the fries since we never gave him duit belanja for school at all. He said that his friend, Hanin gave the money to him so he could buy the fries.

Dah berkali2 dah we told him not to accept any money from people. Apparently this was not the first time that it happened. Ada sekali tu ada this one girl gave him RM1 to buy the "Ice Cool" drink. Pas tu ada lagi orang bagi duit suruh beli benda lain for Rayyan. Muka anak aku ni muka mintak sedekah ke or memang muka murah rezeki? hehehe

Anyways, I bombarded him with questions at school trying to get to the bottom of things. He said that tetiba je Hanin gave him the money to buy the fries.

I just told Ja about it today, asking her to contact Faridah (Hanin's mom). Ja apologized to Faridah that Rayyan used Hanin's money for the fries. Faridah also terkejut. Where did Hanin get the money from? Mak bapak dia pun memang tak bagi duit belanja! Hehehe.. I just got to know that many parents of the Year 1 kids at that school yang memang tak bagi duit belanja kat anak2 diorang... hehe so we are not the only one... hehe

So Faridah went to do her own investigation by asking Hanin. Then she messaged Ja and told her about the money was actually belong to someone else. That girl had 2 50 sen coins and gave it to Hanin. Hanin shared the coins with Rayyan so they can buy something from the canteen. Each of them gets 50 sen. Hanin went to the canteen with her 50 sen to see what she could buy with it... nothing! So she gave the 50 sen to Rayyan so Rayyan gets RM1 just enough to buy the fries...

Ni malam ni, baru je tadi dok tanya Rayyan whose money actually was it. He said it was their classmate, Sofea. So now tomorrow Faridah will give Hanin 50 sen, Ja will give Rayyan 50 sen, and both of the kids will go to Sofea and return her money... hehehe

Itulah ceritanya kisah satu ringgit...... now back to my editing work! Embracing yet another all-nighter :(

February Madness

After all this chaos with the workload etc, we're still in February??!! This must have been the most hectic month I ever experienced since working in my own "Sendirian Sdn Bhd" hehe..

Early next month, I'll be publishing 4 books, each of them has 224 pages. 2 books in Malay, and another 2 books which are the translated version in English. The 2 books in Malay tu pun, it's the same book... one in hardcover, another in soft cover. In the publishing world, they are treated as 2 separated books, each with its own ISBN. The total publishing and printing cost = RM90,000! Of course, none of that is my money.. hehe, that's the reason I've agreed to take up this task, and that is also the reason why February is as hectic as it has been...

So far this February, there were at least 5-6 days where I was working 24 hours without sleep, some of the days at home, some at my friend's place, and some at the office.

And since it's a Sdn Sdn Bhd, I work with a lot of freelancers and dealing with so many people, involving other people's money is not fun. So far I've only published books I wrote myself, produced, myself, and even did the whole publishing process myself, trying to save cost as much as possible, leaving no room for my freelance DTP guys to charge lebih2, coz most of the work is already been done for them. I could have gone all the way doing it myself, but some things can be done at a much faster pace by others.

So, with all these pressure, screaming pun terlebih2 kat rumah.. hehe kesianla kat bebudak.. but alhamdulillah, masa mengajikan Rayyan, I don't scream as much as he has picked up the skills faster than I expected. Just yesterday we have already started Book 4 of the Iqra' book, where they introduce the baris dua atas, bawah, and depan. So now, Rayyan can actually read any ayat Quran yang ada baris atas, bawah, depan, the tanwins, and he knows where to make it panjang, and where to make it pendek.. proud of him! (and proud of myself too... hehe)

It has been a productive 2 months since we started the Iqra' book in January, althogh there were days where we skipped mengaji sessions...

Rayyan's writing has already improved by leaps and bounds. I think with the practice at Kumon, and at school, his writing, although in his MALAS mode, is still readable! lol!

Rayhana is great. Bila abang nak ngaji, dia pun nak menyebok. Nak join sembahyang jugak... bila abang dia baca doa before nak start mengaji, to my surprise, she knows the doas (Allahummaftah.. and Rabbishrahli...) and recites together with Rayyan!! Wow, her nursery is really doing a good job! Very pleased with that! Tak sia2 Ja spend bayar so much kat tempat tu.

This month also me and Ja became "grandparents" for the second time, as my eldest sister in-law's son got his second child. And yesterday we received news that Ja's brother got his first child.

Because of all these "hecticness" I tend to splurge on stuff, especially food.. hahaha saja nak lepas tension... nak hilangkan stress pi makan banyak2.. haha sungguh tak betul... org kalau nak hilang stress pergi gym... well at least this month I went swimming 3 times.. so oklah kot.. haha

Can't wait for the last stretch of the month to just wait for another hectic month of promoting and selling the books pulak... oh yeah, I need to write another two books by June.. hmmm... one step at a time...

1st Ujian Bulanan

Rayyan will be having his first ujian bulanan next week. Am I excited? Yes. Am I gonna prep him up? No! I just wanna see how he stands among his peers in the class. Based on the results nanti then we'll consider if we should prep him up before any exams. He has enough work in his hands at the moment that he hardly watches tv now... Well compared to 10 hours a day of tv previously :)

I'm quite anxious to see actually how he'll fare in his Agama exam, and also his Arabic exam...

We'll soon find out in a month, I guess..

Math Homework

I was just assisting Rayyan with his Taman Megah math homework just now. The Math homework is from the Math Activity book provided free by the Ministry of Education, published by Dewan Bahasa.

Without assistance, I doubt Year 1 kids can complete it alone without any mistakes. The writers seem to be plucking questions out of thin air and clearly not enough thought was put in place to come up with the questions. Bengong!

"5 kurang 4 daripada _____" - That's the whole question. Expecting a kid to understand. Although grammatically correct, the sentence could be at least rewritten so kids could understand just by reading it. Aku nak menjawab pun pikir 2-3 kali jugak. Dahle anak aku ni mat salleh celup, nak baca bahasa macam tu.

That's the problem with the school academic books nowadays. They are written from a writer's perspective, trying to follow what the curriculum wants, not from a learner's perspective, who is trying to learn a new skill of working with numbers, and not a skill to decipher questions like that.

And that's why my "local" book sells well overseas... hehehe. The trick is... assume everyone is stupid. Be stupid yourselves, and then everyone who works your activity book will be smart. If they are too smart to do it, they can easily skim through it and finish the work quickly.

Another thing about the question is that... the kids were only thought 1 less and 1 more than a number.. suddenly, there is this one question "5 kurang 4 daripada ___" asked just so the word "sembilan" can be written on the cross-word puzzle. There are many ways you can get the word "sembilan" to come out from a kid that age, and not by asking that "5 kurang 4 daripada ______" question. Takde pulak nak ajar kurang 2 drp, kurang 3 drp, etc sebelum tu... just to get the number "9" for the puzzle.. tu je...

Rayyan Speaks About Friday

Just now as I was heading home with Rayyan from his taekwondo class, he said:

"I have lots of stuff to do tomorrow... I have Taman Megah, hospital, and piano class!"

Tomorrow we're seeing Dr Azizi to check on Rayyan's pee again. To see if it was really just bacterial infection that caused the "bleeding". Had Ja call Dr Azizi's clinic just now to make sure he can see us earliest after Friday prayers so we could rush to Yamaha music school by 5pm for Rayyan's piano class.

Are we pushing him too hard? With Kumon, taekwondo, speech & drama, piano, and mengaji... Well, he really enjoys Speech & Drama, Taekwondo and Piano.... In that order... Kumon not so.. I don't think normal kids would love Kumon anyways hehe but the drilling is good practice not so much of the actual Kumon work, but in developing his attitude on being responsible, and of course he needs the writing practice... His writing was horrible, but looking at his Kumon sheets, it has improved :)

Mengaji tu takleh nak elakla... He's getting pretty good at it. I was amazed at how good he is that we high-fived on many occasions during mengaji time :)

I'm about to enroll him into that RM100 per year weekly Mandarin class. We'll see how it goes.

Aaaarrgghhh!

Wanna sleep but I can't. Wanna read, but not the one I'm reading. Wanna write, but not the kind I'm writing...

This week has been so very taxing and its only Wednesday??!! Sunday started at 9 am and ended at 6 am the next day, came home just in time to wake Ja and Rayyan up for work/school. Was supposed to send Rayhana to nursery like always, but can't really bring myself up from the bed.. so Ja had to send her too... mengendong Rayhana while sending Rayyan to school, and then send Rayhana before going to work...

Tuesday started a bit late.. but early enough to pick Rayyan up from school, get him fed, changed clothes, and send to Kumon, but not free enough to pick him up from Kumon as I had to go to Klang to continue what I have left off Monday morning... arrived in Klang at 5.30pm and that went all the way to almost 3am.

Then came today... eh jap.. today wednesday kan? yeah.. ook.. was supposed to go to Klang again tonight but waaaay too tired. I still have to do some stuff before it can be passed on to my friend who does the other part of the job.

Oh wait.. I didn't go to Klang on Tuesday... that was the Monday night... yeah.. that's right. Monday night was the time I came back at 3am. hahaha I'm lost.

aaaarggghhh!!! Hantar Rayhana, post office, Seri Kembangan, Jalan Ampang, Rayyan's Taekwondo, Rayyan's Kumon, Klang again... all these to be done tomorrow! and I'm still with this book, and this red pen, reviewing a book draft that is soon to be sent for printing by this Friday... lots more to be done...

aaaarrrrgghhhh!

Weekly Mandarin Class @ RM100 per year

That is just insane! SK Taman Megah has been offering after-school weekly Mandarin classes to their students for only RM100 per year, taught by an outsider. How great is that??!

Now the problem is, most probably that class will clash with Rayyan's Speech & Drama class on Tuesdays. Just picked him from the Speech & Drama class just now and he was happy with what he is experiencing. Only 3 boys in that class, and maybe about 10 girls (maybe more). So far, Rayyan has made lots of new from this class.. friends from Year 1 all the way to Year 6!

On my way to the car just now, a school prefect who walked by us said "Bye, Rayyan!"... that's cool! I asked Rayyan who that was, he said that's Crystal, someone from his Speech & Drama class. Rayyan has been Hi-ing and Bye-ing and has been Hi-ed and Bye-d to by lots of strangers to me in that school. Siap tadi dia suruh I stayed put at the corridor near the canteen so he could just sit around the members of the S&D class, waiting for the school hall to be unlocked.

That's just cool! The older kids there were so helpful and caring.. macam kakak dengan adik... love it!

Bloody Murky Urine

Rasa bersalahla pulak after last night. He went to bed close to 1am still with about 4 more Math booklets to complete. This morning, from the moment he woke up to noon, he must have been going to the toilet like 10 times or more to urinate.

He was continuing with his Math homework when he suddenly started going to the toilet like every 3 minutes. The last couple of times I followed him and saw a tiny pinkish red/ white strand came out while he was trying to pee. He said his pee has been red since this morning and that he had a pain every time he peed in his lower tummy and his penis. His urine couple of minutes after that turned out to be murky brown/ red color.

Apa lagi, terus siap pergi Damansara Specialist Hospital... Punyala ramai... They had a full staff at the A & E trying to entertain each one of us... The waiting area was full. Sampai je kat hospital Rayyan had to go pee again. Just in case, I asked Ja to put on an XXL pull ups for Rayyan, takut tak tahan nak terkencing dalam kereta.

Got the urine test done and found bacteria, protein, and blood in his his urine. His red and white blood cell count was more than 500 units when it should have been 0 to 10. The doctor is also getting the bacteria cultured, to see what bacteria is causing this bleeding. The result of that would probably be ready within a week.

The doctor even called Dr Azizi, Rayyan's paedetrician, to see if the medication she prescribed is suitable. Dr Azizi requested the antibiotic to be Zinnat, instead of Augmentin which was initially prescribed. So it's 200mg or 8 mL of that twice a day.. And PCM syrup for the pain while peeing... Try that for 7 days, come back, test for urine again and see Dr Azizi. That's what we'll do.

Where is Rayyan now? With Ja at BookXcess... Buying more books. Besok ada birthday party for a 2-yo. Great place to buy books as gifts.

Balk je from hospital tadi Rayyan no longer needs to go pee every few minutes. I guess most of the bacteria has been flushed out. Just needs to drink more water.

Telinga Merah

Just punished Rayyan for 1-Not finishing his Kumon homework and 2-Lying to me straight in my face face everyday for the past 3 days about completing his homework.

Kumon gave him 6 Math booklets and 5 English booklets of homework that need to be spread out throughout 6 days during this CNY holidays. Kumon breaks for a week... so about 1 Math and 1 English booklets to do everyday. Each booklet theoretically should be completed within 10 minutes.

Knowing that he's not gonna be doing it everyday, I've spread the homework into 3 days for him to do. At the end of each day, I would ask him if he had finished the work I have assigned him to do. He said yes. And even asked me "you're not going to check my homework?". I said no every time. I thought, let him do the mistakes, and get the teacher to point the mistakes to him and let him correct himself. In fact, that's what Kumon is asking the parents to do.

This morning he was supposed to finish all his his homework. I asked him again this morning before we went for swimming. He said he has finished his work. Again, tonight, I asked him, and he said he has finished them.

Then, just now, I asked him to show me his Kumon bag. I checked, out of 11 booklets of homework, he only completed 2. The rest, he only did the first few pages, and the back page. In the middle semua kosong!

As I was checking each of the homework, I would jentik telinga 2-3 kali and asked to finish the homework straight away. Jumpa lagi homework yang tak siap, I called him again, jentik telinga few times, asked him to buat... jumpa lagi homework tak siap, jentik telinga lagi, suruh dia buat.... jumpa lagi homework tak siap, jentik telinga lagi, suruh dia buat... each and every time I jentik telinga dia, I told him that that was not for the homework yang tak habis, but for the lies he told me about finishing his homework.

Habis merah sebelah telinga, I jentik telinga sebelah lagi. Now both ears are red as he's currently trying to finish all his homework by tonight, or else he can't go to bed.

Cruel? Yes, if the reason is solely for not doing his homework. But for lying - No!

Breastfeeding

I always wanted all my kids to breastfeed as long as possible and wasn't quite successful with Rayyan when he was a baby... Ja only managed to breastfeed him for up to 4 months kot... itu pun campur dengan formula since day 1 since demand overpowers supply :)

Now, with Rayhana, I made sure that Ja breastfeeds her from Day 1.... and guess what... now it's almost Day 800 and she still breastfeeds! Although not exclusively, but maaan... I'm proud but sometimes worried that she may not wanna stop! hehe

World Health Organization (WHO) states that the average breastfeeding around the world is 4.2 years (wow.. which country breastfeeds their kids more than 4 years?) and that they encourage every baby to be breastfed up to 2 years.

Thankfully, for Rayhana, she only requests for the boobs when both she and Ja are on the bed...

Sometimes, I would ask Rayhana.. ada susu ke? you minum air apa? air apa ada dalam t*t*k tu? She would answer... Air Ribena! hahaha and sometimes.. Air Suam!....

CNY Break

Rayyan dah start cuti CNY for 9 days... many schools only starts cuti this Wednesday... Reason? Rayyan's school has about 40-50% Chinese (3-4 years ago Malay students only made up 20% of the whole school).

Rayhana is still going to the nursery.. cuti dia start Thursday.

Rayyan still has Kumon today.. so now sebok tengah nak siapkan homework dia..

What to do during CNY break? Unfortunately I have loads of work to do... kalau nak plan apa2 pun during weekends je la.. had a swimming session last Saturday at our pool and Rayhana has managed to get on the water slide! Dah tak takut.. siap kata "Nak lagi" as soon as she got into the water.. hehe tu tengah2 wheezing tu.. hehe.. nebbed twice last week, just finished her prednisolone course, just started on the antibiotics...

Wanted to go to the pool again yesterday but it rained like almost 24 hours yesterday.. so the next plan is to have another pool session this Thursday, on the CNY day itself.

"Homeschooling" Rayyan

When I was in primary school zaman tok kadok dulu we have never heard such thing as going to sekolah agama after the sekolah kebangsaan, or sekolah agama dulu and sekolah kebangsaan in the afternoon, etc.. Only few years later that the concept was beginning to be popular among the Muslims in Malaysia ni..

Ada gak family members yang pressured us to send Rayyan to sekolah agama. Rayyan already has Kumon on Mondays and Thursdays. Taekwondo on Thursdays, Drama & Speech class on Tuesdays, Piano on Fridays.. and clearly sekolah agama is definitely gonna be taxing to this little kid. Then, I looked into these family members' reasons why would someone send the kids to sekolah agama.. they gave the reason senang.. nak belajar mengaji and belajar sembahyang...

Of course sekolah agama goes beyond just ajar mengaji and sembahyang.. but these two are the most basic that one needs to take care of.

So, one alternative way I thought.. well.. baik aku ajar sendiri hehe..

Since the first day of school on January 3, 2011, maka bermulalah sesi "homeschooling" untuk mengajar sembahyang and mengaji by yours truly.. hehe.. session starts with sembahyang Maghrib together (not berjemaah, just side by side for now), then mengaji for about 30-60 mins, pastu terus sembahyang Isyak.

Bila time sembahyang, every single bacaan I'll make it loud and clear for him to follow.. and alhamdulillah, over time, I can see his articulations have improved tremendously by just listening and self-correcting..

I use the Iqra' book he used at Genius Aulad for mengaji. Masa kat Genius Aulad, the whole two years he was there, the teachers could only get him up to book 2.. few pages shy of completing book 2 for him to proceed to book 3.

With me, Rayyan now has progressed well that it only took him 3 weeks to cover all that he learned over the 2 years at Genius Aulad. Probably by tomorrow he's going to Book 3 of the 6 Iqra' books.

Of coursela.. perangai dia has to be tolerated dengan kesabaran yang mendalam... I now know why he could not progress faster than the rest of the kids in his class at Genius Aulad (some had already went up to book 5, book 6, etc...).

So, I put on the "Cikgu Singa" cap.. haha you mess with me, you're gonna get it!

Alhamdulillah, despite the growls, roars, sebatan2 manja dengan kayu lidi kat tangan dia, he is still interested to spend an hour with me every night, fully motivated to learn. And of course at the end of the sessions I get to kiss both his cheeks after dia salam my tangan (when was the last time you ever did that to your eldest kid? especially from a dad to his son? hmm....) So I'm cherishing that moment every single night.

My initial target was for him to start the Quran by next year (coz that's when I started with the Quran). But looking at the rate he's going now, insyaAllah that could be realized as early as June this year. It would be great of he could start the Quran on his 7th birthday.. :)

Saturday School

Today is the first of many Saturdays to come that Rayyan has to go to school, to replace the holidays the school is goingto give later. Today's schoolday is replacing the Monday of the week where school is going to be off for the whole week during Chinese New Year.

I remember clearly how when I was in Form 2 that I didn't go to ANY Saturday classes at all.... Hehehe ponteng memanjang.... I didn't see the purpose of going to school on Saturdays.... Kalau nak bagi cuti tu cuti jelaaa... :)

Harini ada my cousin's wedding (bertandang) pulak tengahari nanti kat Sg Buloh.... terpaksa pergi lambatla sikit sebab budak ni kena sekolah... Terlepas nak ikut convoy reramai... takpe... will trust my Google Maps punya GPS..

Since today's class will follow Monday's schedule, so for Monday nanti takyah nak repack beg sekolah Rayyan lagi... Hehe... Still can't trust Rayyan packing his own bag yet.. Dah ajar, and because of that, the trust will not be given yet..

Rayyan & 1Malaysia

Rayyan has so far made friends with the following people.. Hanin, Amira, Batrisya, Ivan, Isaac, Jewel, Kitty, Darshan, just to name a few.. and that's just within the first two weeks of school...

I think that's pretty cool.. kudos to the class teacher too, for switching the kids around to sit with different people every once in a while.

I remembered when he was at Genius Aulad.. punyalah liat dia nak berkawan... lepas seminggu baru dapat 1 kawan baru.. now alhamdulillah he makes friends easily..

There are 40 kids in his class.. 14 Malays, 13 Chinese, 10 Indians and 3 Others... pretty well-balanced distribution of races in his class.. I love it!

Rayhana pun sekolah baru jugak!

Hehe.. asyik2 cerita pasal si Rayyan, Rayhana pun actually started her class in her new school too on the first schooling day of 2011 :)

Nursery dia rented another bungalow nearby to accommodate only those who are going to be 3 years old this year. So takdela campur the babies, and also bebudak besar.. this is strictly for 3 years old jer.. ada la dalam 20 budak. I thought it was a good move on their part.. at least they are just with their peers.. although Rayhana just turned 2 like 2-3 months ago.. still one of the babies in the group..

Rayhana LOVES the new school. Takde perasaan takut langsung... not afraid of being in a new place at all.. of course a few "old" faces from the previous school do help in welcoming her on her first day when we were rushing to send both her and Rayyan to their first day of school...

Decided to send Rayhana first before me & Ja sent Rayhana and stayed in his school for the rest of the morning.. so Rayhana had to be at her new nursery as early as 7.15am.. selalunya I hantar around 9 or 10.. kengkadang nak dekat 12 pun ada.. hehe

Yang kelakarnya, the next morning, bangun je dari tido, tengah mamai2 tu dia siap kata "Nak pergi sekolah baru.. nak pergi sekolah baru..."

She really enjoys her new school probably because she has started learning serious stuff.. Mengaji starts at 8am, the rest/mandi, then lots of fun things like playing with bubbles, sand, paints, etc.. then storytellingla, solat, math, storytelling in BM, etc.. cool jugak tengok dia punya timetable..

First Friday of Primary School

Friday:

On Fridays, Rayyan has Math, PE, Art, BM, and Arabic... no English, which means his class teacher does not come to class at all on Fridays... but I did check that she actually went last Friday... probably to check on attendance, etc..

So that Friday Rayyan was already prepared for PE from home, although his PE is during 3rd period, and he wore that PE attire the whole time on Friday... takyah bawak baju uniform sekolah langsung....

Friday was kinda tight for me... kul 12.05 nak amik dia, then nak ready gi Friday prayers, lunch, then nak gi office, pastu nak kena amik Rayyan balik to send him to Yamaha for piano at 5.00pm and I have to spend half an hour together with him in his piano class...

Pastu it's natural for me to pick up Rayhana sebab Rayhana's nursery dah dekat sangat... just beberapa kangkang kera from Yamaha.. well.. takle dekat sangat pun.. kera tu pun mungkin penat kut dok mengangkang all the way to Rayhana's school... hehe but less than 5 mins away...

By today, Rayyan received lots of forms for various clubs that are open for registration at school... Taekwondo has started, then they have...

1. Speech and Drama

2. Wushu/Kung-fu (interesting but it's right after school on Fridays.. no-no..)

3. Chinese Drums & Dragon Dance (Rayyan so wanted to join but clashes with Speech & Drama.. murah je.. RM20/mth, 1.5 hrs a week.. sayang.. probably try next yearlah..)

4. Art club (nak join but it's right after school on Fridays, clashes with Kungfu.. again, no-no...)

5. Mental Arithmetic class

hmm.. probably ada lagi kot.. lupa pulak... from the list, only Art Club is run in-house by the school teachers... yang lain tu semua run by private companies...

Taekwondo Thursday... first week of primary school

Thursday:

So every Thursday is Taekwondo day.. starts at 1.15pm ends at 2.15pm at the school hall. Last Thursday, Ja sent him to school as always and told Rayyan again that I wouldn't be at the school during recess, and that I would only see him when school ended.

Yup.. I wasn't at the school during recess, nor was I spying.. hehe in fact even Hanin's mom was not around during recess...

But I told Rayyan to wait for me at the canteen when the school is over for the day... I came about 10 minutes early and waited at the canteen. Bila kelas dah habis je and the kids rushed to the canteen to meet their parents I was trying to locate Rayyan... I saw him.. pulling his Ben 10 roller school bag all the way, passed the canteen without looking left and right.. walking straight to the fish pond....

I asked him why didn't he wait for me at the canteen... dia kata he already promised Hanin to meet her at the fish pond.. where was Hanin? He said Hanin was still packing her bag and will be at the fish pond soon... Hanin is the one behind him with the pink bag in this photo..

I came prepared with Chinese Fried Rice for him to get a quick meal before his Taekwondo class started about half an hour later. Lepas makan at the fish pond, brought him to the toilet and tukar baju sukan.. then went to the school hall to register for the Taekwondo club.. they were out of Taekwondo uniform for Rayyan's size.. so Rayyan has to wait till after Chinese New Year before he could wear one...

At the Taekwondo class, I met my primary school friend Shazrin, who also has a Year 1 kid there joining the club. She has another son in Year 4. The elder brother had to quit Taekwondo because of asthma... everytime ada Taekwondo, next day MC. So the uniform dapatla kat adik dia... Chatted with Shazrin throughout the Taekwondo class as parents were allowed to sit at the back of the hall throughout the class...

The Taekwondo club is run by a husband and wife team.. Mr & Mrs Leong.. the first half of the class Mr Leong laid down the ground rules of the sport... it's only meant for self defense and not for fighting... and self defense mean defending ourselves from being hurt by others.. BUT NOT defending ourselves from being caned by our parents!! hahaha so bila mak bapak nak rotan, tak boleh guna Taekwondo to defend yourselves! hehehe..

Then Mrs Leong took over with the warm ups and the intro moves of Taekwondo... Mrs Leong was strict but very fun...

Rayyan really enjoyed himself and actively participated in it... cool! :)

The day I became a spy... Rayyan's 3rd day of school

Wednesday:

Told Rayyan Tuesday night that I won't be around to accompany him during recess the next day.. asked Ja to play along, just so that I could spy on him to see if he's okay... hey the school gave the Year 1 parents the whole of first week to stay during school hours to check on the kids.. might as well have some fun :)

When Ja sent him to school the next day, she reminded Rayyan that I won't be around during recess, and he had to tag along with Hanin or other friends later... one mother overheard and said "Don't worry, aunty will take care of you...".. such great friends we've gained in these past few days...

I cam to the school about 10-15 minutes before recess and found my way to the canteen. Then as recess was about to commence, I hid behind the canteen wall, next to the fish pond to spy on him. Hanin's mom was in the canteen fully aware that I was about to spy on my kid... she played along too.. hehe coming to me to report every once awhile while the kids were busy eating..

Almost blew my cover as I was about to snap this photo.. hehe.. Rayyan behaved well, remembering what I told him to do... wash hands, making sure that he takes care of the tupperware (he asked Hanin to take care of the stuff while he went to wash his hands), etc..

Recess ends at 10.35am. By 10.25 they had already found their way back into the classroom.. at 10.30 I surprised Rayyan in his class.. muka terkejut habis mamat tu.. pleasantly surprised I was there... hehe I checked on his books in his bag to see what other books the teacher had kept for them in class instead of them having to bring all the books to school...

Then I balik office... told Rayyan to wait for me at the canteen after school ends..

Nothing much extrordinary happened the rest of the day... oh.. Rayyan did go to Agama class this time! hehe

How Rayyan's First TUESDAY at primary school went...

Tuesday:

This day was funny.. It started okay, Ja sent Rayyan to school, while I prepared and sent Rayhana to her nursery and after that straight to Rayyan's school to see how he was doing since there were 2 things that I wanted to see how Rayyan would react to - Agama class, and PJ (Phys. Ed.) class.

He had (or was supposed to have) 2 periods of agama first, then the PJ. I arrived at the school in the middle of 2nd period of Agama... tried to locate him in his class but couldn't find him. I saw students from another Year 1 class joined in his class for the Agama periods but somehow Rayyan was not there... I didn't try to look at the other classes.. I assumed some kids may follow some teacher/ustaz to the surau or something....

Alih2 je.. bila agama class ends, I saw him carrying an exercise book, and a pencil walking from another class towards his class.. ASTAGA... mamat ni pergi kelas Moral ke?? Lawak gila.. and the teacher pun takkanla tak perasan.. well actually susah gak nak perasan since muka budak2 kat dalam kelas tu susah nak tau yang mana Melayu, Cina, India.. let alone their religion...

Only a couple of days ago I found out from Faridah, Hanin's mom that when the teacher called out to change class for non Muslims, I think Hanin asked Rayyan, you're Malay right? we'll stay here for Agama... Rayyan pi cakap.. no I'm English.. my father's English, so I follow my father... hahahaha

Masa bila pulakla aku ni mat salleh... hehe me and Faridah ketawa and we chatted about the fact that we never taught the kids that they are Malay ke orang tu Chinese ke, orang tu Indian ke.. even the other day when I asked who is your new friend at Kumon? Is she Chinese? No.. she's English... because she speaks English... hehe Faridah also cerita pasal anak dia lagi satu who is in Year 4 (Hanin's brother).. dulu cikgu buat announcement.. pelajar-pelajar Melayu semua pergi ke... (somewhere).. he sat there doing nothing... dia pun tak tau dia Melayu ke apa... and lagila muka dia memang Chinese face habis.. haha..

So tula cerita camana he ended in Moral class instead of Agama... next came the PJ class.. we made him wear the PJ tshirt under the uniform, and brought the track bottom in his bag.. since PJ was only during the 3rd period.. bebudak lain dah memang pakai baju PJ lengkap all the way from home... rupa2nya the day after, Gurubesar announced, on days yang ada PJ, the kids can wear the PJ attire throughout the whole day...

bagus gila... so boleh save tak pakai uniform for 2 days... the 3 sets of uniform I bought for him were just nicelah.. seminggu pakai takyah nak basuh2 balik to be worn in the same week... boleh longgok seminggu baru basuh... but since Ropi the part-time maid dah ada.. hari2 gak dia basuh...

The recess and time lain macam biasa.. nothing much different...

So that was TUESDAY...

Rayyan's 1st week of Primary School - How MONDAY went.....

Monday:

We woke up early morning.. Rayyan woke up easily.. and so was Rayhana.. by 6.30 everyone was fully clothed, ready to go.. just had to get some breakfast and off we went... the challenge then was to send Rayhana to nursery latest by 7.15am before the cars started to pile up on the LDP to get to Rayyan's school by 7.30am. Making long story short, task 1 (sending Rayhana) settled, and we got to Rayyan's school just before 7.30am and his class has been filled up up to the third row from the blackboard.. so Rayyan terpaksala take up the 3rd row... I wished we had come so much earlier..

Anyway, Rayyan got to sit with the sweet Hanin, whose mom is very resourceful, knows the teachers well (she has another child in Year 4), and very well networked with ither moms in the school. Hanin and Rayyan has since become very good friend..

His class teacher, Pn. Siti Hajar who teaches English is very energetic.. love the way she teaches.. first question she asked the class "Who wants the parents to stay outside the class?"... hehe ada ramai gak bebudak angkat tangan.. nak menghalau mak bapak yang penuh kat dalam kelas tu.. nak start kelas pun susah.. hehe

So we were forced to wait at the canteen.. sambil2 tu Ja and the mommies exchange phone numbers... I don't think during my time parents ever do that... occasionally ramaila gak parents dok menjengok kat tingkap kelas tu the whole corridor outside the class tu penuh dgn parents, sampai Gurubesar kena buat announcement halau all the parents so they stay put in the canteen... hehe..

Recess came and went smoothly as we got Rayyan to sit together with Hanin, and they ate food together.. after basuh tangan they quickly got back into the class way before the bell rang to end the 20 mins of recess..

I spied Rayyan during his Math class and saw him participating actively.. he just loves Math, I think... I'm happy that he didn't feel sad or whiny etc. probably 2 years of preschool helps a great deal..

So all in all, Monday was great! An excellent start for Rayyan in the big school.

Taekwondo and such...

So just now Rayyan had his first Taekwondo class at school.. not too bad.. he enjoyed it so much..

Then, there's this Drama and Speech Class that he wants to join too... it's a privately run club.. to be held at the school every week right after school hours.. kinda cool coz this club is run by Blubricks.. http://www.blubricks.com

There is also the Wushu/Kungfu Club.. and the Pendidikan Seni Club that is opening for registration.. but these 2 clubs are on Fridays during just before the Friday prayer starts.. so maybe next time..

Still waiting for the Robotics club to open for Year 1 kids.. that should be fun!

So with all these interesting clubs come into action, I may have to relook at Rayyan's overall schedule.. He already has Kumon for Math & English, Piano at Yamaha, Taekwondo at school, and soon to be Speech & Drama class... hmm... ada banyak lagi club tak bagi form lagi ni...

Since he wants to join the speech & drama class, I may have to stop the English class at Kumon.. Math class maintain... another reason for it is that he lacks the enthusiasm in doing the Kumon English homework... tulisan macam cakar ayam, ejaan pun tulis ayat tak complete... because he knows (he confessed) that the teacher will point to those mistakes and he will do the "corrections" then...

It has been a busy week for me with Rayyan starting Year 1... penat sampai kita pun tido macam budak nak gi sekolah besok pagi.. hehe