JC's Year End Party Day

The Duckie costume

Before leaving the house

The duckie with his pretty lady bug, Ann

With Jonathan, the bee

With Samuel, the "rotten" apple

With class teacher, Teacher Siew Num

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I had promised to get Ian a Garden Theme costume suit for JC's Year End Party Day. I come to know about Costume World from this mommy. We went there a day before the party after picking up Ian from the kindie. Ian actually wanted a grasshopper suit but because of the limited collection available for children costumes (they cater more to adult costumes such as The Pirates of The Carribeans, Star Wars etc.) we ended up getting a duck costume and Ian was all excited about wearing the costume to his kindie the next day.

The next morning, I accompanied him to the hall where the party was held and the party spirit was already in full swing with parents snapping away photos of their kids dressing up as bees, flower, apples, carrots, lady bugs, etc. I took some photos of Ian with his class teacher and classmates.

JC's Graduation & Awards Night

Drama play in action. The one holding newspaper is Ian

The moment of Award Presentation

The Award

Last but not least, cheers.

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Ian's kindie had their Graduation and Awards Night for the 6 year olds' on a Sunday evening. He was chosen to play the role as a rich man and father of two sons, one obedient and the other rebellious, in a drama named “When there's Love”. I personally felt that my son's acting skill was just so-so and obviously not a born actor. Haha.... this bad mommy. On the other hand, I was amazed with the performance of his classmate who played the role of the rebellious son. He was so gifted in acting that he could carry his role so well and natural even in front of hundreds of audience! Guess he was sent to some drama classes or whatsoever.

I already knew beforehand that Ian was going to get an award on that night as he had told me earlier that he was made to stand in the front row on stage and those who sttood in that position would get some sort of awards. He also told me he would get an award for Best Reader in Bahasa Malaysia.

When Teacher Siew Num, his class teacher announced his name as the Best Reader in Bahasa Malaysia and his graduation photo being screened out, he walked out and received his plaque from his teacher. I wanted to take photos of him but all the pictures taken from my auto digital camera came out blurred. Luckily, we had the option to purchase the photos and VCD which for RM20. They were supposed to call me for the pick-up anytime now and I would post the photos once I get it.

Ian was very weak at this subject when he was five and on few occasions he got zeros in his Ejaan. Apart from guiding him on the basics of “sukukata” at home, credit must also be given to his ex-class teacher, Teacher Sukie for her patience and dedications towards teaching her students. She only served as Ian's class teacher for the 1st half of this year and their B.M. Teacher for the rest of the year. Kudos to her.

JC's Sports Day

Prizes for the winners

Ian'a class teacher tagging wristbands according to their individual team colour

6 yr olds' Marching Procession

Yeah, I won a medal!!

Ian with his teammate, Jonathan

Victory!!

Lastly, some don't know what "kung fu" act to wrap up the event.

We were hesitant to let Ian to participate in his kindy's Sports Day initially because from what we read from the newspaper, the confirmed cases of H1N1 was escalating and seemed running wild as the day drew nearer. He insisted of going as he was determined to get a medal (O.o.) and having had practised at kindy daily for the past 2 weeks that we finally gave in.

The sports day was held at SJK(C) Yuk Chai in Taman Mayang Jaya last Saturday. Upon reaching there, we were directed to a booth near the entrance to submit the portion of bookmark printed with chronicles of event given earlier to qualify us for the lucky draw and 3 guessing games. Despite not winning any prizes, it was fun guessing the total numbers of candies, chocolates and peanuts kept in individual jars.

I then walked Ian to the kids' tent to get ready for the event and I then snapped some photos before walking to the parents' tent. The attendance was unexpectedly good and not slightly hindered by the H1N1 pandemic with families seen tagging along the grandparents as well.

Hubby joined me not long before "Clig Clog Farmers" games played by Ian and his classmates started. Prior to that, there was speeches given by JC's principal, the director and the Chief Pastor before the marching procession performed by individual classes from 3 yr to 6 yr olds. The 6 yr olds then performed the Cheer performance.

Ian, who was in green team came up 2nd runner up in the game and everyone in the team brought home a bronze medal. Look at those happy faces in the photos, lol..

Hubby participated in the rope pulling game and eventhough his team lost, both the winning and losing team took home a small gift each. haha... Everyone is a winner and going home full handed.

It downpoured towards the last game and the event has to be delayed until the sky has cleared up but it still drizzled after a while and a decision was soon made to have the the prize presentation inside the tent instead.

To wrap up the event, each of the kids was presented with a goodie bag to take home and that put a big smile on everyone's face.

Beryl's Chocolate Factory Visit

Before leaving for the visit

Beryl's Chocolate Factory Entrance

Sign Post

Entrance to Chocolate Boutique

This is a very outdated post. JC, Ian's kindy organized an excursion trip to Beryl's Chocolate Factory last year. I decided to tag along as this was Ian's first trip in this kindy and having known that one of the mommies I knew would be going too.

We reached the kindy very early and the parents were seen chatting away and getting to know each other while waiting to board the bus. We boarded the bus at around 10am and left for our destination in four buses. The kids were sitting with their partners while accompanying parents were assigned seats at the back rows. The teachers occupied the kids with singing and games.

When we finally arrived at our destination, all of us were being guided to a mini theatre for a brief show on how chocolates were made. We then proceeded to the exhibition room with different types of chocolates on display. Photographs were strictly not allowed once we stepped into the premises. It took us less than 30 minutes to complete the whole visit. We were then directed to the Chocolate Boutique where I bought some chocolates for the family and Ian's class teacher.

I later found out the chocolates sold at the boutique of the factory were even more expensive than those sold at supermarkets but they did have more selections though.

JC'S NOAH'S ARK THEME PARTY

Ian in his trade mark cheeky pose.

Ian would be wearing this Reindeer costume to his kindy this morning. They had a Noah's Ark theme party where the children were to dress up in any animal character they like. This costume was actually a recycle from his last year's school concert. I had promised Ian to get him a Kangaroo costume but I could hardly get myself in the mood to do anything else after my sister from Sabah called yesterday and broke the news that our family doctor said chances of my mom diagnosing cancer was high but it was still early to confirm at this juncture. So far only an ultrasound scan was done after she complained of acute abdominal pain and went for a scan.

The doctor referred my mom to PPUM (Pusat Perubatan Universiti Malaya) and she is now scheduled to arrive in KL this Monday with my sister accompanying her. I will update more on this later.

Fungates System

I got to know about Fungates system through two of my ex-colleagues. The first one sent her son to Mighty Kids in USJ and the other, to Juara Cerdik in Section 13, PJ both kindy adopted Fungates System. I received a lot of positive feedbacks from them.

Ian started school when he was 3 yrs old. The first kindy we sent him to was a non franchised chinese medium kindy near our house. He was there one year before we switched him to a smart reader kindy near the grandparents' house. We observed that he did not learn much and could hardly read after half year then only we started to think about switching him to Fungates.

By then, I heard from my ex-colleague that Juara Cerdik (JC) was about to move to their own premise in Section 13, PJ (formerly situated in shophouses in Taman Mayang Jaya) and thought the location was just perfect for the grandparents to fetch him.

Ian has been there since last year when he was 5 and now that he is 6, I would say that I could see a lot of improvement in him especially his reading skills and the reading interests he has since picked up.

English is taught using phonic sounds, blends, long & short vowels, short & long sound blends and emphasizes a lot on hearing and pronounciation. A CD on blends reading is given to guide the parents and kids through the blend book.

Chinese is important to my son as he will be going to chinese primary school. I find that Fungates focuses a lot on strokes and their sequences and stroke counting which I think is very good and he can remember and understand the words more precisely. I used to send Ian to Chinese Enrichment classes using Flash Card Approach but after stopping for 6 months, he has forgotten most of the words when flashed to him. Well, perhaps this lazy mom's fault for not flashing those cards to him more often.

They have a science lab for 5 and 6 yrs old to carry out simple experiments. Most of the time Ian comes back and poses me questions excitedly, questions like... mommy mommy... how ice cubes are formed? why do volcanoes explode (erupt)? Why does this stuff float and not sink? When I say I have no idea, then he will proudly explain what he has learnt at school.

He has also overcomed the problems of reading in Bahasa. The system focuses on learning sukukata, once he mastered it, he has not much problems now in reading and his "Ejaan".

One thing I would like to stress here was that regardless of how good the system was, the quality and attitude of teachers played the most important role after all.