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