fractions

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???

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.

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.

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.

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.

azraf at school

can't believe I totally forgot to write about another school-going kid -- azraf.

we weren't expecting him to have problems since he was going to go back to azzarif, but boy, were we wrong! we forgot most of his friends (especially his best friend) were no longer there since they've moved on to std 1, and this year, he's also separated from the returning kids since he's only 5 and the others are 6 now. So he has to deal with a new group of kids. And we had to deal with a crying boy who didn't want to go to school or to be left in school that first week of school!

but alhamdulillah, he's okay now, he's made friends with the newer kids. he's also excited about his ability to read.

new school year

school started again on 3 jan this year.

amjad and syazmi are now in the morning session, our 2 boys are now officially tahap 2 students. They're in the same class this year (the first time ever). And then they had to top that up with being in the same sports club (football -- what else?), same uniform body (boy scout), and same sports house (blue). But they did wise up a bit and did not sit next to each other. So that's our twin boys (the ones with different moms and dads). they're in 4 w (class #2).

Syakira is now a librarian. so she gets to wear the peach-tone uniform and black shoes & socks to school. She has also decided that this year she would wear the tudung to school. She's in 3 M (class #1).

Hania is not a Year 2 student. unfortunately for her, most of her friends in Year 1 are in 2M, there's only another girl from that class who's now in the same class with her, so she has to make a whole new set of friends. She's in 2Az (class #3).

Syakira and Hania are now spending their recess together. Hmm... talk about being 'blood' twins.

Syira is now a secondary schooler! time sure does fly. She didn't manage to get a spot in SBP, the MRSM results will only be out in february, so she's now enrolled in a program rancangan khas. Her classes only began this monday, and already she's doing tons of homework. This morning, she was still doing some homework. That, in spite of the fact that they already spent 1 1/2 hours after school everyday in prep time (supervised by teachers).

Yep, definitely time to go back to doing homework again! -- and all the battle of wills and all that schmazz.

school holidays again

the kids are enjoying their school holidays. No actual 'vacation' time with the parents but at the beginning of the holidays, I had to go to a workshop, and since it was my research group, it worked out that the whole gang could go. so that was 3 days in melaka.

the two boys went for a young elite camp for 2 days in subang jaya. then this week they have the fun english camp at azzarif. they were supposed to get circumsized this weekend, but tok nek got sick and wanted to go stay with tok ngah so atok and grandma drove her up there. it would've been pretty tiring for grandma to prepare for the doa selamat so we decided to postpone it (i think the boys were secretly relieved!)

nothing much scheduled for the rest of the break. ummm... I take that back. there's the family day next weekend, and there's the trip to kuantan during the christmas weekend, and the trip to kb for eiduladha that last weekend before school reopens.

school reopens -- agh!! school books and uniforms and materials are still not ready!!!!

PKBS 3

I really should start posting other thingns about their school than tests, but it sometimes it seems that is all they do.

They have finally received back all their grades and class positions and Amjad came back with position #41, out of 43.

AAAAGGHHHH!!!!!

He came back that day, shut and locked himself up in my room, and cried his heart out. So that was sufficient punishment. It would've been no use for us to punish him further as he himself knew did way too badly for his own standard. And it would be counter-productive anyway, we're just going to look ahead and see what we can do to improve his grades.

Amjad, I'm reminding you of your promise that day:
a. to do much better next time
b. to listen when Ibu or Mummy teach at home.

and the bonus would be to wow everyone with an upward surge to the top 10.

others: Hania #17, Syazmi #6, Syakira #8.

they haven't received the detailed class results yet though.

d-days

UPSR is here. 4-6 sep.

http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/nst/Tuesday/National/20060905074439/Article/local1_html

poor kids, sitting for their first major exam is anxiety-filled enough, to have to deal with this too...

Syira's school had a slight hitch in that one girl decided to literally follow the exam time table. instead of being in school at 7:30 as usual, she came in at 7:50, 10 minutes before the exam time. And since all the students were told to gather in the hall before going to the exam rooms, everybody was anxiously waiting for her. But nothing to make the national headlines, alhamdulillah.

oh, the teacher was saying to them, "cikgu tau awak takut, cikgu lagi takut..." hmm.... I'm not sure this is quite what you want to hear from your teacher as a last-minute pep-talk.

it's BM pemahaman and BM penulisan and Math Paper 2 on Monday, Math Paper 1 Tuesday (the other time slots are for the SRJK students sitting for their respective Tamil or Chinese papers), and English and Science Wednesday.

School holidays

school is off this week, but syira has no break, as year 6 people have extra classes in preparation for UPSR.

amjad and syazmi stayed back in segamat for another extra 3 days when we went back last weekend. not that the house is any quiet, since there are still the other 5.

no special projects this time around, but we're taking them out to see a children's theatre performance on friday.

Saya Reka Cerita: Syakira -- Murid Pintar

Pada suatu hari tinggal seorang murid perempuan. Nama dia Haikal. Dia seorang murid pandai dan peramah. Dia selalu berjaya dalam peperiksaan. Di sekolah dia selalu belajar dan tidak suka bercakap di dalam kelas. Tetapi dia tidak sombong dengan sikapnya. Ramai cikgu menyayangi Haikal. Dia selalu menolong kawan-kawannya.

Syakira, April 2006

Saya Reka Cerita: Syakira

(this was written earlier in the year)

Tajuk: Hantu

Pada suatu hari tinggal seorang raja yang paling kedekut. Dia suka keluar pada malam hari. Tiba-tiba dia ternampak seorang perempuan berbaju putih dan berambut panjang. Dia ingat itu ialah manusia. Dia pun terus pergi ke perempuan itu. Dia ternampak ada leher sahaja apabila sudah dekat dengan perempuan itu. Dia terus lari tetapi terlepas kerana hantu itu telah pun makan Raja. Selepas itu dia meninggal dunia. Orang lain dapat hartanya semula

Karangan: Syakira II

Syakira, 12 July 2006.

Tajuk: Tentang atuk saya

Atuk saya adalah seorang atuk yang baik. Saya sangat takut kerana dia garang. Tetapi baik hati. Dia adalah cikgu jasmani. Dia suka mengajar budak2. Dia ada seorang isteri. Namanya Ann. Dia pun cikgu. Dia suka mengaji dan jamak apabila datang ke rumah saya. Atuk saya pula tak tahulah. Saya suka mereka berdua datang ke rumah saya. Nenek saya tidak tahan panas. Mesti kena sejuk.

Karangan: Syakira I

Syakira, 10 July 2006.

Tentang adik saya: Najwan

Najwan ialah seorang budak yang comel. Dia suka bermain bola. Tetapi umurnya baru 1 tahun. Semua benda di masukkan ke mulutnya. Badannya cergas. Tetapi pada 9 Julai ini Najwan sakit kerana dia telah pergi ke Taman Tasik Perdana. Dia suka mengacau orang tengah buat kerja. kecil-kecil lagi dah degil si Najwan tu. Tetapi baik hati. Saya sangat menyayanginya.

******

budak yang nakal

Saiful budak yang nakal. Dia selalu mencuri makanan di kedai runcit.

Pada suatu hari Saiful berjalan tiba-tiba dia ternampak pokok rambutan yang subur dan berbuah di rumah Pak Abu. Dia melihat Pak Abu tiada di rumah. Dia mula memanjat pokok rambutan itu. tiba2 dia tersalah pijak ranting pokok dia terjatuh. Pak Abu pulang. Pak Abu terus menelefon ayah Saiful untuk mengambil Saiful, bapa Saiful datang lalu pergi ke hospital. Tulang Saiful patah dan Saiful menyesal keranan tabiat buruknya itu. Dia tidak akan mengulangi tabiat buruknya itu.

Karangan: Amjad I

Amjad, 11 July 2006.

Hobi saya ialah bermain bola dan bermain basikal. Saya bermain bola bersama rakan-rakan saya. Saya bermain basikal bersama adik saya. Saya mempunyai basikal BMX yang dibeli oleh ayah saya pada hari jadi saya. Bola yang saya main adalah bola sepupu saya, bola itu adalah bola fifa tetapi bukan betul.

(Ibu's note: lembu punya susu, sapi dapat nama; duit ibu, idea ibu tapi sebab papa yang pilihkan basikal...)

*********

Pada suatu hari seorang raja telah memerintah rakyatnya untuk membunuh manusia yang tidak mengikut perintahnya. Raja itu bernama Raja Sulaiman. Raja itu raja paling garang di dunia. Pada suatu hari seorang raja bernama Zahir yang paling baik. Raja Sulaiman amat marah kerana raja Zahir telah menjadi raja. Raja Sulaiman mengajak raja Zahir untuk berlawan bola sepak kerana raja Sulaiman mahu siapa raja paling mahir di dunia. Raja Sulaiman dan rakyatnya berlatih dengan tidak bersungguh-sungguh kerana raja Sulaiman ingat raja Zahir akan kalah dengan pemain-pemainnya itu, raja Zahir dan rakyatnya berlatih bersungguh-sungguh untuk menang dalam perlawanan itu. Pada esok harinya perlawanan bola sepak telah bermula. Raja Sulaiman dan raja Zahir menjadi jurulatih. Raja Sulaiman dan pemain-pemainnya bermain tipu akhirnya kumpulan raja Zahir telah menang dalam perlawanan itu dan raja Zahir telah menjadi raja yang paling mahir dan raja Sulaiman berasa menyesal dan bersalah.

Karangan: Syazmi I

This is Syazmi's.

Piala Dunia 2006

Piala Dunia yang lalu saya memilih Argentina dan Brasil tetapi mereka tidak juara kali in tetapi Italia ialah juara Piala Dunia 2006 ini. yang keduana France ketiga Jerman. Italia menang sepakan penelti, France 3 Italia 5 mula-mula mereka dapat 1 sama, tambah masa mereka tidak skor itulah ada sepakan penelti.

Jerman lawan Portugal. Jerman menang 3.1. Pertama Jerman gol, kedua gol sediri Protugal, ketiga Jerman gol dan akhir Prtugal gol juga.

Karangan: Hania I

last Monday, as the activity in our daily lesson at home, the kids have to write a composition. This is Hania's -- as exactly written by her.

Tajuk: taman tasik perdana

Pada suatu hari saya pergi taman tasik perdana. saya beli tecket untun tidak sesat jalan. lepas tu saya turun bukit yang panjang. lepas tu saya pergi macam-macam di taman tasik perdana. selepas itu saya pergi rumah tipu-tipu Johor. itu sahaja.

UPSR is looming

trial UPSR school level will be next week.
trial UPSR district level will be in three weeks' time.
UPSR will begin 4 Sept.

I'm not sure who is the most stressed at home right now.

• Syira who's taking the UPSR
• Mummy and Abah whose first baby is taking the UPSR
• Ibu whose tutee is taking the UPSR
• The other kids who are getting the 'tempias' from the above people

Report Card Day

last tuesday was Open Day at school.

a day when parents queue up for ages to talk for a few minutes with the teacher and receive their child's report card, when they had already known how the child did. but we do it anyway as another way to show we care.

(off my soap-box :))

Amjad's percentage actually went up a bit, at 86%. I guess I lost sight of that as we (him and I) were focussing on the fact that this is the first time since year 1 he didn't pull in 5As. He had a B for his Penulisan. When I talked to his teacher, she said they just had a new section introduced -- the "nilai murni" part. So hopefully with practise, he'll have a better idea on how to tackle this part.

Hania's class placement also suffered from 10 to 15. Poor girl, when her percentage went up from 94% to 97%. But just her luck, in the only year when class placement started out randomly, she got into a class where the teacher said "everyone is so clever." Actually, for her PKBS1, she pulled in 98.8% average, we were so sure she would be placed in the top5, but her class placement was 10th. And she was so looking forward to have her ears pierced (she made up a condition that if she placed first, she could get her ears pierced). So I've modified her own condition somewhat, I told her if she continued pulling in straight As until the end of the year, we'd go get her ears pierced.

Syakira slipped a tad from her previous first place, Maths being the culprit this time, particularly the word problems parts. But she should still be the first overall for now, Mummy should still be able to go to the prize-giving day, insya-Allah.

When I talked to the teachers, I also asked if the kids were outspoken in class. The teachers felt they were good kids, not naughty or noisy, and would answer when addressed. The teachers saw no problem in that, and given that they have 40+ kids in the class, I can see their perspective. But hmmm.... as a parent, I want the children to be engaged, inside outside, in their learning. They're spending so much of their time in school, that it seems a shame if they're not enjoying themselves, in and out of the classrooms. Hopefully they are, just that they're not showing it to the teachers.

Oh, and the teacher also said Hania wasn't given to 'berangan' in class :).