Snippets: Ambition

During Maal Hijrah, Girl had to go to The Big School to participate in World Education Games (World Mathematics, Science and Literacy Day). While waiting for her to complete her turn, Mrs. L and I had a chat in the classroom.

Mrs. L teaches Girl History subject at The Big School and in one of their class discussion about life phases and timelines, each of the 16 students were asked about their respective ambitions.

Some said run-of-the-mill "lawyer", "doctor" and/or "engineer" whilst others mentioned whatever profession their parents are honing them for, in preparation of inheriting their respective business empires. "CEO", "CFO" and "COO" were also rolling off the tongues of these young guns!

When it came to Girl's turn, she said one word which rendered Mrs. L speechless, because it is her first time hearing such an earnest ambition never before heard at such a competitive school. 

Girl had said, "Mother". 

Mrs. L asked if Girl wanted to change her answer, and Girl was resolute in keeping her answer.

Mrs. L then complimented her on her original idea and explained that being a mother is tough work. One has to be very talented, strong (body, mind and soul) and loving at the same time. The payment is in kind and the benefits are also in kind. A mother has to be a leader, chef, teacher, nurse, friend, driver, singer, actress, painter, tailor etc. and the students had a lot of fun discovering the many hats a mother wears!

It is heart-warming to know that Mrs. L did not shoot down Girl's ambition. I am so thankful she believes in nurturing young minds and not just plainly forcing them into pigeon holes created by society at large.

Thank you, Mrs. L. May Girl grow up to be a great mother, and more! Amin.

Buzz Buzz Busy Bees

So much has happened since my last post and now when I try to post a summary, this comes out...please pardon my strangely unworthy and borderline ungrateful sounding bullet points:

• Packed weekends (it was and will always be awesome!)

• Topical Tests preparations for Girl (which tests my patience, until this week is over)

• Charity Bazaar at The Playschool (which we hope will be fun with a good cause like always)

• Holiday Programme decision to be made (Girl is unsure about spending RM600 for a 5-days programme versus spending it on whatever other activities  she likes, such as Petrosains and Kidzania with her good friend, Stonor Mummy's D)

• Thunderstorms and flash floods at home time with Girl (I need a Range Rover, although a motorboat may be a clever gift too)

• Jalan Tun Razak traffic dispersal system (which results in more congestion for me to sit on)

• ASEAN summit and related summits (which will result in even more road closures and diversions for me to experience)

• Sewing with Brother machine (I hope to learn a new skill every year so this is my 2016 bucket list item, inshaAllah. Paid for the basic beginners class, one stitch at a time, ok?)

• Resume cooking dinner at home (I declared the kitchen shut for dinner for a week during Deepavali, just because I was uninspired and tired)

• Baking (been itching to put together a no-bake strawberry cheesecake, have all necessary ingredients but no discipline to set aside 40 minutes of uninterrupted time to do so. I have unfollowed Tip Hero because the recipes all use too much sugar for my health)

• Juicing (I have been cheating on my juicer by going to juice bars, to save time)

• Running (my knees! I scare myself into thinking that I may have symptoms of osteoporosis, so I load up on my broccoli/celery green juice)

• Marie-France (too expensive at 12k that was quoted to me. Zumba classes are way more reasonable)

• Weaning Bean off the breasts (he wisely detests bottles and formula of any kind and I am hunting for straw cups featuring his favourite Disney characters to entice him to some UHT milk. He is 2 years and 5 months so, tick tock tick tock I have a few more months to work something out for us both, hopefully not traumatic or emotionally detrimental)

• Bean's own room + the new home office cum study + the new laundry room (if you know of a reliable and decently OCD interior designer, please drop me an email/comment. I am having "IKEA hackertitis" and "Pinterest fatigue syndrome". Thank you!)

• LaundryMonster (syukur alhamdulillah we have enough clothes to get by!)

• December get-away, birthdays and visits from overseas relatives (December is coming so soon?!)

Phew! That's a whole load off my chest.

Snippets: Single Ingle

Girl has been trying to rhyme, increasingly more frequent now.

Sometimes, she rearranges music scores of tunes she has already learnt at Yamaha JMC and tries to fit in her own lyrics/prose. Quite often, she changes the pace (every adagio becomes staccato) or worse, the loudness (piano becomes forte with a grand crescendo).

As her mum, I can only encourage her growth (confidence!) and secretly tell myself not to dream of her becoming the next Taylor Swift just yet. Join the performing arts company at The Bog School, maybe. Baby steps.

Coming back to rhymes, "Easy peasy lemon squeezey" is the most common mantra I get from her, whenever she is asked if she can manage some simple tasks on her own, like cleaning up her toys after playtime. She had learnt the phrase from one of the cleverest girls in her reception class, C.

Well, sometimes she says something original. "Single ingle" - I admit this took me by surprise because it does not make grammatical sense, just phonetically pleasant (to us).

I would give her 5/5 for being creative and original, and hope she keeps the spirit of learning up!

Snippets: Omega

"Mummy, we have been so busy at school. So much so that T2 and I have no time to play Omega. We just high-5 or smile at each other during break time."

Omega is a rhyming/clapping game the girls play at The Big School, passed down by T1 to T2, and now a few of them can play that game quite smoothly.

Do you remember "Assalamualaikum" and "Set Set Set Bom Bom Bom" games?

Omega is a notch up in complexity as the topics can be random, from names of capital cities to names of characters in My Little Ponies. The winner chooses the new topic, so I have been told by Mamapumpkin.

Perhaps T2 can teach Drama Queen's H so that they can all clap Omega while the mums sip juice and catch up?

Zoo Negara Malaysia

We spent our Deepavali this year with The Grandparents, at our national zoo. It was a bright and early start at 9 am; and it was just as well that we did.

The male panda was fast asleep when we were there. We hope to visit again when the female and cub pandas are out of confinement. InshaAllah. 

The little ones enjoyed the walk, ice-cream treats and tram ride on a gorgeously sunny and hot day on 10 November 2015. Actually, I was also prepared with extra set of clothes for the little ones which proved to be a smart move because Girl spilled Milo at the entrance. A Ziplock bag kept all our rubbish in during our walk until the next bin came to sight (we realized they were painted in camouflage and they were so well hidden!). Fold-up brollies shaded the young and old alike from the scorching sun.

This zoo visit ended with a heavy downpour. Fortunately, I was prepared with the fold-up brollies in my supplies' bag. During our previous visit, we were blessed with the same downpour just at noon; and it had also drizzled at the end of our day out at The London Zoo. What a coincidence!

Our family day ended with a quick lunch at Great Eastern Mall before we headed for home, exhausted but happy. Syukur alhamdulillah.

Spelling

Girl has trouble spelling the word "friends".

My solution? 

Find a way for her to memorise and connect easily. Using the traditional:

1. say

2. spell

3. say

steps work too but sometimes, a little extra effort goes a long way. Learning is not just a process, it is an experience akin to a journey (says me, the tutor with low patience threshold, ha!).

This Google image hopefully will help:

"Not Lego, dear. Friends. F R I E N D S. friends."

"Not Chandler Bing and Jennifer Aniston Friends, that was my era. This. Is yours."

All the best, Girl!

Out In The Yard

Lovely Sunday it was, our own grand welcome to November just by being able to potter around outside. Could not have asked for more. Syukur alhamdulillah.