Inspired Momx1

Friday, May 25, 2012

It's School Holidays!!

Well, not yet, at least for my boy... another 4 hours to go!
 ;)



I left a sticky note on my desktop screen before going up for a shower last evening.  I saw a reply beside mine when I came down. ;)

We worked on his timetable for the coming school holidays together last evening.    Other than revision time, we put in play time, activities time, sports and reading time and the boy seems happy with his timetable. 

On another note, hubby suggests that I let the boy to remain in his position for another term and we will see how things go from there.  I agreed with him this time as "taking easy way out when things don't work out the way you want it" is the last thing I want to instill in our boy.  We have to set a plan to cater for this.

Our plan is to go through his school syllabus way ahead the teachers during the holidays to create a comfortable room for revision when the 'amazing race' begins when exam draws near.  I will not turn into a monster mom and him, all drained.  His teachers tend to push through the syllabus when exam is like days away, even into the exam week! The worst planning I have seen so far, I tell ya!  Since we cannot afford to send him to a private school nor homeschool him and no intention yet...  to send him for tuition... not yet, I know I have to take this matter into my own hands, to self-help..  Well, he still fares pretty well in other papers, just that I am naturally a very "gan jeong" (anxious) person,  I will take action when I smell a slight hint of trouble.  :)

The boy's birthday is next month and we already have something in store for him, can't wait for the day to come.  This school holidays, we plan to visit the cinema at least twice and a visit to Kidzania with his good friend!  As the saying goes, 'All work and no play makes Jack a Dull Boy' but it can also be rephrased as such: 'All play and no work makes Jack a Dumb Boy'.. I think we just have to find a balance..


HAPPY SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

TO

ALL SCHOOL GOING KIDS!


Wednesday, May 23, 2012

So Long, Class Monitor..

It looked as if he had a tough day in school when he walked out from the school compound after dismissal this evening.  While walking to the car, he could not hold back his tears and started sobbing uncontrollably as soon as he got into the car.  He got a near miss of 2 marks to a marginal A for his Chinese Penulisan paper, his first 'B' so far.

We did an 'autopsy' on the test paper together just now and I reckoned that apart from the toughest section, ie. the essay section which he lost almost 10 out of 30 marks, he also made lots of careless mistakes on other sections which he himself agreed wasn't too hard after all.  The essay part required him to write an essay with almost no keywords to guide him through the process, a big jump from the previous exam where more than sufficient keywords were given for them to form an essay.

What disappoints me most was he could easily get a marginal A if only he had checked his work thoroughly.  He was so careless to the extent he copied the wrong answers to the questions though he had numbered them correctly beforehand!  He later told me he suffered from "brain freeze" at that point in time! O.o.

On another note, I have been observing him very closely ever since he took up the post as class monitor more than a month ago.  Ever since then, he comes home after school everyday looking like a deflated balloon, energy all drained up.  I did confront him and advise him to quit if he really can't cope but he insisted he enjoyed being a class monitor.

When the recent exam was near, things got  a little bit out of hand when teachers kept piling up on homework to cover the exam syllabus.  The boy would start to yawn, his eyes turned red as though he could doze off  at an instant and it's not even 9pm yet!(he is in afternoon school)  The homework craze never stopped even during the exam week with the teachers still pushing through the syllabus until we almost went bonkers, I tell ya!

He does confess that he feels very tired having to run all kinds of errands for his teachers but still insists he is happy to be a class monitor.  And mind you, he not only wears one hat but two if not three.  Did I mention that he is also the cleanliness member aka leader on every Friday?  *sweat*

I wrote a blog post "Of Being A Class Monitor" earlier today as a reminder post to myself to guide him through as he walks his new journey, no pain no gain though my heart aches everytime I see him all drained up before we can call it a day. 

The autopsy result: He did pretty well in his Chinese Pemahaman paper which he sat on the same day as the Penulisan Paper but he sat for the former paper first when he was not too tired, both physically and mentally compared to the latter paper taken after recess. 

Conclusion: We had a heart to heart talk just now, and it's agreed that he will quit as a class monitor after the coming school holidays.  Guess he is not ready... yet to wear so many hats in a crazy school environment (which SJKCs don't).  I know the experience he gets from being a leader in any form might benefit him in the future but for now, our sanity outweighs anything else. 

So long, Class Monitor....





Of Being A Class Monitor.....



To my boy, being a class monitor means.....


1. He can't talk in the class as he has to lead his peers by example.

2. When no teachers are around, he has to take over and ensure the class is not too noisy. He must walk around the class to make sure no one talks, not even whispers. He ends up with lotsa homework as he has no time to finish some at school having to maintain the order of class. *slap forehead*

3. He has to carry all submitted work/exercise books from his classroom to the teacher's office, several times a day, all by himself. At one time, he carried 49 x 2 books at one go!

4. He has to run errands for teachers even if the exam is ongoing though he told me he had finished his paper and there was 15 minutes left before the exam's over. His teacher asked him to go to other 5 classes to notify all teachers of the mistakes spotted in the paper they were sitting at the time.

5. He gets exhausted and all stressed up by the end of the day!


However, the mommy thinks that being a class monitor means....

1. F.L.E.X.I.B.I.L.I.T.Y. He can talk 'a little' in class, how not to talk at all when he is a chatterbox by nature. He can be a bit mischievous too as long as he doesn't go overboard.

2. M.U.L.T.I.T.A.S.K.I.N.G.  /  S.O.F.T.S.K.I.L.L.  He can still do his homework while maintaining order of the class.  Give several friendly reminders before writing down their names.

3. D.E.L.E.G.A.T.E. / L.E.A.D.E.R.S.H.I.P. He can always ask for help from the assistant class monitor or whoever willing to help.
 
4. P.R.I.OR.I.T.I.Z.E. / S.A.Y.  N.O. at appropriate time. He should make use of the remaining 15 minutes to check and go through his test paper before passing it up.

5. L.E.A.R.N.I.N.G.  P.A.T.H.  to develop good discipline, responsibility and leadership skills.

Friday, May 18, 2012

On Teacher's Day....


It was Teacher's Day last Wednesday, 16 May 2012.  We gave apples and chocolates to my boy's teachers this year.  It was a last minute decision as my boy came back the day before and told me Teacher's Day would be the next day.  The school did not celebrate the occasion in a big way this year like what his previous school did every year.  

On that morning, we went to a supermarket near our house and grabbed two packs of big apples, 2 packets of Cloud 9 chocolates and two rolls of gift wrappers.  My boy wanted a small gift for all his teachers that teaches him and after doing a quick counting, there are 9 of them!  So, this is the best we can do, rushing home and wrapped all 9 sets of gifts while the boy helped out in writing those messages for each teacher.  


It took us more than an hour to get everything done up.  Phew!

Oppsiee... I Ripped My Pants!!!!

One evening, after fetching the boy back from school, when I was busy preparing the last dish for dinner, my boy came and showed me his backside.

Apparently,  he was playing with his good friend, an Indian boy one year older than him who lived across the street. Both of them were 'showing off' their kung fu moves in front of our house when he heard a ripping sound..... Bliak......  He quickly rushed into the kitchen, posed like what Sponge Bob did in the picture below and asked me to check for him the damage he did to his school uniform pants.  It was hilarious, I tell ya! Wuakakaka....




Oh, No!!!  Mommy, I ripped my pants!!  Please tell me how big the hole is, I am sure it's very big as I heard a longggg and loud Bliakk... sound!!!




And this is the damage done...


A note to my chubby boy:  Boy, it's time for you to shed some weight jor lo.. 


Wednesday, May 16, 2012

What We Did On Mother's Day..

On Mother's Day, we kicked start our day by having breakfast at this coffeeshop in PJ State while waiting for the boy to finish his Aikido lesson nearby.

Kam Heong Coffeeshop

My bowl of curry mee..  

Forgot to snap picture of hubby's wanton noodles though.  My bowl of curry mee tastes so-so only to me though hubby says this coffeeshop has been around for many years and each stall in the shop has its own specialty and reputation.

After breakfast, we strolled along the streets as it wasn't time yet to fetch the boy.  It felt like yesteryears again when hubby threw his arm around my shoulder and we leisurely strolled across the streets like a dating couple, a simple gesture of affection that we 'can't find time' to do ever since the boy came along.   When the boy is present, it will always be hubby leading in front with the boy and I trailing and my arm wraps around the boy's shoulder. ;P

After fetching the boy from his Aikido class, we sent the car for servicing before heading to Sunway Pyramid   and we were stuck in there for 6 hours!  I promised the boy earlier before his first semester exam to take him out for "The Avengers" movie as soon as his exam is over.  

His exam ended last Friday and it's time to party! Things get a lot more tougher when you have teachers who stll try hard to push through those topics in order to cover syllabus within the scope for the exam TODAY when you have to sit for the said exam paper TOMORROW! Not to mention the homework that kept pouring in like a leaking pipe throughout the exam week!  *breathe in, breathe out*  Some teachers, the BM teacher in particular, kept their activity books for so long that they were only returned to them 2 days before the exam. *roll eyes*  Enough said, the boy and I have done our best in doing revision prior to the exam.  His teachers have shown them the marks of three papers, so far so good, not bad at all.. still managed to secure solid As.  Hahaha...

Back to our day-out, we planned to catch the 3pm movie initially but the tickets were all sold out.  I did not purchase the tickets online this time as I thought it had been quite some time since the showing of "The Avengers" on cinemas and getting the tickets over the counter shouldn't be too hard, how wrong I was!   We went on and bought the 6pm premium tickets, more leg space and roomy seats.  




A 3-D Mother's Day Card he did for me at school.


It was already over 9pm when we got home after dinner and we all hit the sack after a quick shower.  Though tiring, we all enjoyed our day-out together thoroughly as a family.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Am I Too Rigid To My Boy??

One evening, my boy came running down from the bathroom upstairs, naked.  He was in tears and blood was oozing from one of his fingers.  Apparently, he was in shower when he accidentally knocked my bottle of foundation, it fell on the floor and broke.  He cut his finger when trying to clear the glass on the bathroom floor. The first thing that blurted out from his mouth when he saw me was:  Mommy, I broke your make-up bottle, are you sad with me,  looking at me with a terribly sorry expression on his face,  his hands still holding the other hand with the cut finger still oozing out blood...  He sighed a big relief when I told him it didn't matter at all.  He then told me how worried he was when he broke the bottle, fearing I would get upset with him.  He only felt the  sting of pain on his finger when I asked him.  My eyes teared to see him like this.

What saddened me the most, he cares so much for my feeling when he makes a mistake and that includes when he is in pain.  I should be happy that I raise a loving son but I AM NOT.   Why can't he react like what most kids do, to cry his lungs out first when he is in pain and not to bother about clearing the mess and others' feelings, at least that should come later..  

Am I raising a kid who on earth only cares how others feel and not himself?  Am I raising a kid who doesn't have a mind of his own and only cares to please others?  Am I too inflexible in parenting my boy and thus raising a boy with 'easily give-in' character?  How can he survive in this cruel world when he gives in so easily without even putting up a fight?  I know I think too much........

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Grading System in Chinese Primary Schools

It has been almost 9 months since my boy's transfer to his present school. Other than missing some of his ex-classmates, a few of them who used to be close to him, we kind of settle ourselves into our new routine comfortably. Recently, his ex-classmate, a boy called me on my mobile and asked to speak to my boy. That boy called to say hi and checked on how my boy had been doing. How sweet... My boy still misses a few of his ex-classmates as they have so much in common but this will be a post entry for another day.

Back to today's post, I didn't realize until I went through one SJKC and now another that grading system for each and every school might differ. The previous school takes 6 subjects (i.e. BM & Chinese Pemahaman papers only), English, Science Chinese, Maths Chinese and Moral papers) as its core subjects to determine the pupils' positions in class and the whole standard. However, his present school adopts the UPSR grading system of 7 core subjects i.e.BM & Chinese, both Pemahaman & Penulisan papers, English, Science Chinese and Maths Chinese. When I got my boy's report card for the first time from his previous school, I was surprised that both BM and Chinese Penulisan papers were excluded from the calculation of overall performance and his then class teacher confirmed that it would stay that way until standard 5, she wasn't sure though if it would stay the same for standard 6.
 
Personally speaking, I like the grading system of the boy's present school which is to adopt the UPSR system though it can be a risky one as if one slacks the Penulisan papers, expect your overall performance to nosedive and the kids' self-confidence to be badly affected. 

 Mommies with primary school going children, do the schools that your children go to adopt my boy's previous or present school's grading system?