I lost my cool with Amjad helping him out with his fraction homework last night.
it didn't help that Syazmi seemed to get the concept when we worked it out, and Amjad would ge 'ya, now baru abang faham' and then proceeded to show how much he didn't understand when he did the questions.
fortunately papa came home early, he said concepts and fraction sheets don't help, just give amjad the 'jalan kerja'. or unfortunate? coz now amjad can do the questions using the jalan kerja papa showed but he's still a bit blur with the fraction concept.
but anyway, papa took over and showed amjad how to derive that 2/5+ 1/5 is 3/5 and not 3/10. or that 2/5 + 3/10 is 7/10 and not 5/15.
we'll try and tackle the concept part slowly -- along???? help???
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
when the takwim sekolah is useless...
alright, so this is one upset parent.
the kids get the takwim sekolah in the beginning of the year for the activities throughout the year. and so, me trying to be a supportive parent and trying to get more organized this year, dutifully jotted out the activities in my diary so that I can work out my schedule around those activities.
this weekend, they were supposed to have their annual sports' day. I arranged a meeting to start in the afternoon so that I could go in the morning to cheer the boys who will be participating. what did I learn when I went to send them to school for house practise yesterday?
boys: no house practise.
me: huh, why not? isn't your sports day this saturday?
syazmi: oh, they cancelled it, teacher said it will be later.
me: huh? how come there's no letter? (sometimes amjad forgets to give them to me)
boys: no letter.
amjad: but abang tak dengar pun cikgu cakap.
syazmi: ada, cikgu cakap masa practise hari tu.
amjad: ya ke? masa bila?
syazmi: alah, hari tu, bila ntah, angah pun tak ingat.
me: habis tu, tukar bila?
amjad: 21 mac.
syazmi: 31 mac.
boys: eh, ntahlah.
arghh!!! this is why teachers cannot just expect the students to convey the changes to the parents -- tahap 2 or not. these boys go to the same activities, are in the same class, are smart enough to understand stuff, but yet there is still disagreement about whether they actually got the information or not.
the kids get the takwim sekolah in the beginning of the year for the activities throughout the year. and so, me trying to be a supportive parent and trying to get more organized this year, dutifully jotted out the activities in my diary so that I can work out my schedule around those activities.
this weekend, they were supposed to have their annual sports' day. I arranged a meeting to start in the afternoon so that I could go in the morning to cheer the boys who will be participating. what did I learn when I went to send them to school for house practise yesterday?
boys: no house practise.
me: huh, why not? isn't your sports day this saturday?
syazmi: oh, they cancelled it, teacher said it will be later.
me: huh? how come there's no letter? (sometimes amjad forgets to give them to me)
boys: no letter.
amjad: but abang tak dengar pun cikgu cakap.
syazmi: ada, cikgu cakap masa practise hari tu.
amjad: ya ke? masa bila?
syazmi: alah, hari tu, bila ntah, angah pun tak ingat.
me: habis tu, tukar bila?
amjad: 21 mac.
syazmi: 31 mac.
boys: eh, ntahlah.
arghh!!! this is why teachers cannot just expect the students to convey the changes to the parents -- tahap 2 or not. these boys go to the same activities, are in the same class, are smart enough to understand stuff, but yet there is still disagreement about whether they actually got the information or not.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
hania and homework ...
... are simply like oil and water -- they don't get along well together!
getting her to actually start working on her homework is an achievement by itself, sitting through the whole enchilada with her should get anyone a citation for patience!
amjad would try and finish all his homework in school so that he'll have more free time at home.
syakira will get down and work on her homework the first opportunity she gets when she gets home from school.
syazmi, this year, has to be more alert as he's now in the same class as amjad, so we don't really need to go through any of the boys' bags -- just check with the other one.
back to hania. her method in tackling her homework is easy -- if it's not due tomorrow, it's okay if you do it at a snail's pace. if it's due and you don't know how to do it, just leave it blank -- agh!!!
we did maths last night. the girl's confused when there's a zero -- nine hundred forty will be written as 904 etc., but if she sees 940, she can tell you it's 'nine hundred and forty.'
and when it's deciding say 456 -- which is 100's, 10's and 1's -- more confusion, she'll go the largest number is the 100's, and the smallest the 1's.
but at least we know what to work on with her.
but oh, the pace -- 3 pages in half an hour -- and we're talking only about the maths activity book, which has big font size and lots of pictures.
patience....... insya-Allah.
getting her to actually start working on her homework is an achievement by itself, sitting through the whole enchilada with her should get anyone a citation for patience!
amjad would try and finish all his homework in school so that he'll have more free time at home.
syakira will get down and work on her homework the first opportunity she gets when she gets home from school.
syazmi, this year, has to be more alert as he's now in the same class as amjad, so we don't really need to go through any of the boys' bags -- just check with the other one.
back to hania. her method in tackling her homework is easy -- if it's not due tomorrow, it's okay if you do it at a snail's pace. if it's due and you don't know how to do it, just leave it blank -- agh!!!
we did maths last night. the girl's confused when there's a zero -- nine hundred forty will be written as 904 etc., but if she sees 940, she can tell you it's 'nine hundred and forty.'
and when it's deciding say 456 -- which is 100's, 10's and 1's -- more confusion, she'll go the largest number is the 100's, and the smallest the 1's.
but at least we know what to work on with her.
but oh, the pace -- 3 pages in half an hour -- and we're talking only about the maths activity book, which has big font size and lots of pictures.
patience....... insya-Allah.
Look Ibu, I'm reading!
this year, Azraf gets to take home the book he's currently working on for the reading programme in school.
the first day, he was so excited and insisted we went through the whole book 1 of read easy and also buku 1 of bacalah anakku -- ibu yang tak larat!
then, as expected, the enthusiasm went up and down according to his mood for the day, but so far, he hasn't really made an issue trying to get out of practising at home, not that we do it every night.
I know that with buku 1 & 2, he was 'cheating' a bit, rather than figuring out the suku kata, he was really doing a whole word kind-of thing. but it was important that he felt he was making progress, so I just let it go.
last night, we started with bacalah anakku buku 3. according to teacher su's note, they've been working on the book for 3 days and he has only gotten as far as page 3. we started with page 1, then after page 3, he decided he wanted to go ahead to page 4.
and the light bulb was switched on. as he was doing it, he realized he was actually figuring the words out on his own, and he could really read! he stumbled a bit on the the new suku kata, but otherwise it has started to dawn on him that hey, I can actually really do this!
and he was so enjoying this -- he insisted on working throguh the whole book!
oh, and abang amjad sagely gave him this advise -- abang de practise sampai 20 kali, mesti abang de boleh buat punya.
the first day, he was so excited and insisted we went through the whole book 1 of read easy and also buku 1 of bacalah anakku -- ibu yang tak larat!
then, as expected, the enthusiasm went up and down according to his mood for the day, but so far, he hasn't really made an issue trying to get out of practising at home, not that we do it every night.
I know that with buku 1 & 2, he was 'cheating' a bit, rather than figuring out the suku kata, he was really doing a whole word kind-of thing. but it was important that he felt he was making progress, so I just let it go.
last night, we started with bacalah anakku buku 3. according to teacher su's note, they've been working on the book for 3 days and he has only gotten as far as page 3. we started with page 1, then after page 3, he decided he wanted to go ahead to page 4.
and the light bulb was switched on. as he was doing it, he realized he was actually figuring the words out on his own, and he could really read! he stumbled a bit on the the new suku kata, but otherwise it has started to dawn on him that hey, I can actually really do this!
and he was so enjoying this -- he insisted on working throguh the whole book!
oh, and abang amjad sagely gave him this advise -- abang de practise sampai 20 kali, mesti abang de boleh buat punya.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
Rentas Desa
2 Feb 2007.
Amjad and Syazmi participated in their first ever rentas desa competition in school. Ibu, Abah and Mummy went, we probably made up half of the parents who came, excluding the YDP PIBG.
Not everybody get to participate. Only 20 students from each level, by gender, could enter and represent their house colour. They let the students off by age and gender, and the Year 4 boys got to go first. So they were very excited. There were two traffic police officers to help with the traffic (the term cross country is really just a term -- they kids negotiate vehicles and town roads!).
They finished the course without any incidents, alhamdulillah. We were waiting for kids in blue to arrive, but we kept seeing the other colours, and finally we saw one boy in blue, and then another, Syazmi was among the top 5, I think number 3 for blue, but overall not quite in the top 20. Amjad came a few minutes later, looking somewhat exhausted while Syazmi actually sprinted a little bit at the end. And people thought Amjad is the more athletic one!
Next they'll be gearing up for their sports' day.
Amjad and Syazmi participated in their first ever rentas desa competition in school. Ibu, Abah and Mummy went, we probably made up half of the parents who came, excluding the YDP PIBG.
Not everybody get to participate. Only 20 students from each level, by gender, could enter and represent their house colour. They let the students off by age and gender, and the Year 4 boys got to go first. So they were very excited. There were two traffic police officers to help with the traffic (the term cross country is really just a term -- they kids negotiate vehicles and town roads!).
They finished the course without any incidents, alhamdulillah. We were waiting for kids in blue to arrive, but we kept seeing the other colours, and finally we saw one boy in blue, and then another, Syazmi was among the top 5, I think number 3 for blue, but overall not quite in the top 20. Amjad came a few minutes later, looking somewhat exhausted while Syazmi actually sprinted a little bit at the end. And people thought Amjad is the more athletic one!
Next they'll be gearing up for their sports' day.
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