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!....