Happy New Year 2009

Well.. the new year, the new beginning of kids/our life, the family in Asia. Umar started his K2 (Kindergarten 2) on Jan 7th. First 2 weeks was really a challenging time for him especially. The new school environment, new friends-to-be who he cannot understand well their English (Singlish!) and Malay and vice versa. And we did not know how is the school system here, early childhood school. Mum kinda worried when Umar seemed not happy at all at first. When asked, he's not telling what we would like to know. Luckily the communication book between parent/teacher been given few days after school started :P Management. Talking about it, on his 1st day, a parent should be with their child on the bus for the driver to know the exact place to pick up/drop off. And not to our knowledge we were on the wrong bus, following the information given on the orientation day! :P Another management issue and they really apologize to us, new comer that they thought have the same experience like the old students who are used to different buses! :P Sabar...

So Mummy started to write to teacher about what I see in Umar and so forth (including some incidents with him and friends-to-be that is worrying). After 2-3 times Mummy wrote in the book, with concerns, comments, suggestions etc. Umar's teacher called Mummy, and we basically discussed things out when I convinced her that I just want to make sure my child can learn alongside with other children, happily without the feelings of been left out in social circle. Yea..after a week and a half, eventualy he can name out one of his friends in class! (hey! they did not use name tags at all (can be just stickers as i suggested! :P) and most of them have been friends with each other since a yr or 2yrs ago! Umar is all new to everything here, the culture of the school, the children, even teacher said that the way I brought up my children is not the same like they do it here. I totally agree, which out of the conversation/discussion with Umar's teacher, we understand that Umar is in adaptation process to the whole situation, the culture and all, even the food at school! (I never thought school can give chocolate spread for bread, jammy/choc biscuits at snack time, token sweeties from teacher (doesn't matter if it's end of school), junkies from bus driver assistant, friends giving sweeties to friends, OMG. What happen to the fruits, healthy food for the children? Even parents allow sweeties/junkies to be brought to school. Umar is surprised, so is Mummy! :P So this is one of the culture. Are we suppose to adapt to this unhealthy habits?...We gotta choose wisely here, which culture for the children, for the family etc. But it's not easy for a 5+yr old to understand this whole culture thing.

Come to the 3rd week, his 1st spelling assessment. Alhamdulillah, as teacher said (after I asked in the communication book, coz i'm not taking Umar's every words yet! :P) "he did the spelling very well both in English and Malay!" I thank to his Ayah for the spelling at home. Yea..it's the parents homework; but we are used to teach Umar at home. Then his 2nd spelling, which i knew he would have done it well too. And that Umar said, "I did well Mummy" :-) At the end of the month, he brought back the book that proves he did very well indeed, with good writing, which Mummy thought he's a bit behind in that; as here, they enhanced the writing skills from age 4!

And Zaky at 2 1/2yrs old?... still home learning in playing. Yea..whenever we got the opportunity, not everyday as we got Umar & Aqil in need of attention too. Can't help not to send him yet to 2hr daily school (Nursery 1=3yrs old) as I don't want him to be culturized (yet!) with the too systematic early childhood school programme here and the 'local English'. I've read lotsa expat forums that they agree the early childhood school here is too systematic/rigid. But the advertisement of the school tells you the opposite! Probably the context of learning through play here is a bit different from the one in UK, US. And so far, at any playground, i can't see any 8yr old can ask politely (with a simple please and thank you that is..), teenagers considerate to younger children, let alone the younger ones, going towards the same path!? So what's going to happen to my kids?..We can't be there all the time with them, mmmm.... Shouldn't it early childhood education emphasize on civics, social behaviour, imaginative thinking skills, freedom of opinions/speech. This is where the politeness of the Malay culture become useful ;-)

Back to Zaky..Hey! He started recognizing words! His dad (again ;-)) discovered when they went out from the car park and he pointed to his dad saying ,"Exit". Yippee! We always wonder (may be Mummy! :P) when can he start reading, will it be like Umar a week shy of his 3rd b'day? We were not convinced at all with Zaky, esp when most of the time he plays with Umar of 5+ age games! But they do have fun, enhance his speech, vocab and thinking skills when playing with Umar. And just yesterday when his dad asked us to get any book that he likes to read, he took this book and said, "Shapes" and dad was surprised he can read the title of the book. May be he recognized the word itself through memory, including a few more others. But that's the start of the reading stage. We are happy for you Zaky, and we still gotta work with you more on reading or reading on Starfall.com! Yea, he prefers games on other children websites :P Unlike Umar he got more reading for himself (actually the daily bedtime story reading with Dad) until the age of 4+. When Zaky became a toddler, Dad gotta put 2 boys to bed, so ended up only with Surahs and doas (it takes a while for Umar to read 8-9 surahs and his own long! duas) , which Zaky is yet to pick up. He can now say 'Bismillah' that's when we sing to him, "Before we sleep we say (Bismillah)." And he can follow us reading Al-Fatihah. May Allah give us strength to teach our children to make the best out of them. InsyaAllah.

Excerpts from a newspaper recently,
Said one of the local politician "..a vast difference in the scale and depth of efforts in improving the primary education teaching force as compared to preschool teachers. When can we do the same for early childhood education?"
A new fastrack course in kindergarten education will be launched this year to attract quality preschool teachers and raise standards in the sector.

10th Anniversary

12-12-1998 -----> 12-12-2008
HAPPY 10TH ANNIVERSARY to us

10 years in marriage, now with them 3...Umar, Zaky & Aqil; 5,2,8mths, growing day by day, year by year..
Some conversations with them last few days.

While Mummy drink up her drink in front of tele with Umar who's watching Ben10 on CartoonNetwork (can say he only 'got in' to CartoonNetwork from weeks ago, we prefer other kids channel)
Umar, "This episode is not only about Ben10 fighting, it's about how Ben10 got his Ben10 alien watch and how to use it to go to the planets that got aliens; So Ayah is right that I can watch ben10" while looking into my eyes..
Mummy, (??) "Owh..really.." :-)
Umar is actually taking a defending mode to make sure Mummy is ok he's watching this Ben10. Hehehehe... (Mummy wouldn't like his kids to watch all the fighting stuffs, be it in cartoons at early ages, 2,3.. (but Zaky watch what Umar's watching? :P) :-)

Mummy said to Umar,"Come on Umar, finish up your drink if you want to follow us to Giant" Mummy just wanted to bring him, leaving Zaky & Aqil. Right after saying that, Zaky came in front of me and looked deeply into my eyes and said, "Can I fowow you Mummy, can I..can I..." It's so cute moment! :-)The 2 year old asking. Lately he's always aware of any conversations around him, and understand the language very well, to our surprise.

At one time while Mummy was holding Aqil, Zaky came to me and said, "Cuddle me, cuddle me, Mummy.."
Mummy, "I'm holding Aqil Zaky.."
Then Zaky hold my hand like dragging me somewhere and said, "Put Aqil on the bed..Put him on the bed.." (??)
because he wants Mummy! LOL He thinks so well on how to tackle the problem! hahahhaha..
He always use politics to ask for things..."Can I.." "How about..." "May be.." He's not even 2 1/2 yet, but he's ever so good at language. Sometimes he said long sentences clearly to our surprise, from his thoughts, to ask things etc. Cool Zaky! Keep it up!..

And Aqil can understand if we ask him to clap and wave his hand, or most of the time his hands will be in the actions of "Come here, come here, come here.." :-) So cute :-) He's inputting the language vocabulary to his head at the moment. He can respond when you talk to him, probably you can hear, "Ah, ah.." "Ba, ba.." or "Ahhhhh! Ahhhhhh! " when calling for somebody! LOL

Mother

A baby cried at night, Mum wanted to train her for sleeping through, so tried to ignore as much as she could (trying to follow few different ways on how to make baby sleep through by various child experts, from books etc!). Thinking of how much sleepless nights Mum have had since baby was born, and how it will affect her working day tomorrow.
While trying to ignore the crying baby, Mum thought.. Allah makes baby cries at night, when a mother wakes up to attend her baby or feed her, the reward is like going to the war of fisabilillah. SubhanaAllah..it's a huge reward that no other woman can gain except for a mother! How could we resist that?..How much the duniawi has ruled us, women, which mothers have to think more on other stuffs, eg work. Looking after your zuriat, bathe them, feed them, teach them 'Bismillah' and other foundations that will benefit them and us, mothers; as the rewards of ilmu yg diamalkan is rewarded everytime they use it, like "Bismillahirrahmanirrahim", imagine that word that you teach is used everyday in life! What more if the parents can teach their children more and more.. imagine the pahala from Allah, although we should be doing things sincerely because of Allah, but at least thinking of the pahala will make parents wanted to strive to teach their children, the duas, surahs and the akhlak.
A drop of mum's milk is a pahala for Mother, all from Allah. Imagine the most natural thing, the beautiful moment that Allah grant Mother and baby, is also rewarded pahala! SubhanaAllah.. So many things, natural motherhood that Allah designed for a woman that will gain back benefits to themselves, ourselves..Mothers.
After giving birth to a baby, Allah makes us, mothers like a new baby too, taking away all the dosa. Isn't that wonderful? The pain that we go through, gets the benefit of taking away our dosa. SubhanaAllah, how great is Allah, his creations and his way of designing every each things for everything, and for women, mothers. Yes..Allah put us to test, to gain his rewards in bringing up our zuriat, the patience, the tawakkal. May Allah give barakah to the Mothers.
"Who should we listen to..after Allah..and Rasullullah.."
"Who next?" "Your mother"
"Who next?" "Your mother"
"Who next?" "Your mother"
"And then your father.."
lyrics from a beautiful muslim children song. Again how high is the darjat of a mother that Allah has put us, from what we have been through, and will go through. SubhanaAllah. And that mother instinct that only mothers have for their children, when they are happy, sad, healthy, sick, hungry, thirsty etc etc, even what your child thinks, a mother knows! Isn't that amazing 6th sense, instinct that Allah granted to us, mothers.
MasyaAllah, SubhanaAllah...I'm so thankful to Allah for giving me the chance to be a mother.
*this is what i only know, may be others can add on more ilmu to be shared among us. thank you Allah.

Zaky..funny..

At breakfast this morning, we had murtabak or kids still call it canai..
When seeing a dot of curry spill on my plate, Zaky went..
"It's messy. on your plate Mummy" with his 'pelat' and still American :P
"Ok I'll wipe it" And after Mummy wiped it out,
"Are you sure?" ????? what do you mean Zaky?.. :P
Yea..he really takes it after his Mum! :P No mess, not a single dot :P And this actually makes it more work to look after him as he will call you to clean up when there's a tiny dot of spill or when he think his one finger is dirty! :P
"Wipe..wipe..wipe please... Mummy." :P
But with this, Zaky always create funny scenes to us :-)
After he finish his breakfast, then he asked Mummy,
"Where we go?" he meant where are we going today Mummy.
"We don't know yet Zaky"
"Go taxi" LOL Hahahahhahaha...He really is a fan of taxi in S'pore! since he came back for last year's trip, even when we went back to San Diego, he's still likes them, taxis of different colours, shapes etc.
"Yea of course, we haven't got a car yet :P :-) We will go on a taxi first to go anywhere.." :-)

Zaky..when he starts chatting with you, it's so interesting how this 2yr 4mths old toddler think and speak the language. He knows all alphabets and its phonics but doesn't know the abc song at all!
Now only Aqil got his toy that sing abc song, so Zaky started listening to it, sometimes :-) With less time spent on him individually (yea..with Umar and baby Aqil on the other hand! :P), it's amazing how much he has learnt in his 2 yrs of life. He knows to count and recognise 1-10, and 11, 12, then Mummy will say 13, 14, then to our surprise he said, "15!" so now he's in the level of learning 11-20. Well done Zaky.

Another funny thing, when he plays "knock-knock" game with you.
Zaky, "Knock, knock"
Mummy/Ayah/Umar/Others, "Who's there?"
Zaky, "Banana.."
Mummy/Ayah/Umar/Others, "Banana who?"
Zaky, "Ice-cream for you..." with his cute 'pelat' sounds like this "Ice-kim forr you.."
Anything he answers will be ended with "ice-kim for you.." LOL

Mummy only have a short time to write about them, my boys in this bloggy; lotsa other funny things with them, wish I can record them all. To be able to write this length of story, it took about 2 hours while doing other stuff at the same time, like giving bath to Aqil, Zaky!, shot a short video of Zaky playing on his own, with his imaginary stories etc, so cute... and macam2 lagi. On-off the computer to get things sorted with the kids :P

Now Zaky's coming to me and saying,
"I'm hungry..Soya, Soya" "I'm hungry, Soya, soya please.." LOL
He will say hungry for food and drink..
we r trying to teach him to use the word, "thirsty" :-)
.pause.

He has his own I-Spy game lines, a bit different from the usual I-Spy, this is what a 2 yr old I-Spy! :-)
"I spy a robot" zaky and expecting you to ask more! :P
"where?"
"In the tree" zaky
"What colour is it?"
"it's yellow" zaky
"And what is it?"
"It's Bumble Bee" zaky (from his transformers! :P) :-D
and this conversation will be on whenever he feels like asking it! Can be a number of times everyday! LOL :-)

20 days in Asia

It's 20 days today we've been living in Asia, SG. After 8 1/2yrs in UK and 3 yrs in the States.
Adjusting to;
1) weather
2) culture :P
3) food! Yum, yum.
4) bathroom! :P
5) circle of family&friends
6) night life!
7) less child friendly spaces :P
8) tight space for strollers! basically anywhere.. :P
9) supermarket is a no-no place for children :P we miss them wander around, learning things at supermarket :-(
10) less pedestrian priority in the urban design! :P
11) my kids cannot understand why adults like to tease them, kids :P (i can't understand either, totally different culture how society treat them kids..teach them, not tease them :P)
12) big, long grass at greens...not a place to look for bugs Umar! u might see a snake! :P
13) spider, lizard! Yikes! :P
14) rain! Big rains!
14) more laundry! :P
15) driving attitude! :P
ETC ETC ETC
However you cannot buy the time you can meet up your big family members more often than ever before! priceless.

Good Morning and Good Night

Today, when Umar was putting on his clothes, after Mummy helped him putting on some lotion; Zaky came to us still with his pyjamas and said,
"Mm-morning A-mar.."
"Mm-morning hair." Looking at Umar's hair.
"Mm-morning feet." Looking at Umar's feet.
"Mm-morning socks." Looking at Umar's socks.
"Mm-morning Mummy!"
hey..I'm the last one?... :P
That is Zaky who's 2 yrs and 1 mth old! He's a funny boy! with funny toddler's language! :-)
At night before he goes to sleep,
"A-night A-mar.."
"A-night train."
"A-night car."
"A-night truck."
"A-night Ayah."
"A-night bankie."
And whenever he accidentally bump into you, or things! when he's running or walking..
"Sowwy A-mar."
"Sowwy Mummy."
"Sowwy A-yah."
"Sowwy E-kel"
"Sowwy train."
"Sowwy car."
"Sowwy truck."
"Sowwy chair."
and many more...sometimes a few "sowwies" at one time.. Hahahaha... So funny Zaky is! :-)
If things go wrong to his cars, trains, trucks; he will come to you and said,
"O-o..'boken'.." "fix..fix.." LOL
And he's becoming more and more better in using sentences...3 word sentence. :-) Or sometimes you can just hear what's the first and last part of a sentence!
eg.."Look me Mummy.." (Look at me Mummy..)
"Where you A-mar..?.." (Where are you Umar..)
:-) Everyday Zaky will make us all smile and laugh. Thank you Zaky! :-)
Apart from learning to speak sentences, Zaky is also into writing. 2nd child always follow what the elder one does, therefore he actually can learn faster. Zaky loves to scribble, do colouring, all sorts. Sampai habis semua colouring book Umar habis di'colour'kannya, pasal Umar pun tak buat! :P I can tell that his motor skill is better compared to Umar at this age. This is all because he does lots of things by himself..pasal Mummy busy! :P With baby Aqil and everything in the house! :P

3 funny things today.

Mummy was using skype with Ayah who was at his office. Umar took over and Mummy went away from the computer. Suddenly, Umar shouting at me..
"Mummy! Mummy! Ayah is smoking!"
Yea Umar, he does smoke. But how do you know he is smoking at his office?
"He says he's smoking!"
So Mummy went to the computer then saw the 'person smoking' emoticon that Ayah typed responding to what Mummy just typed to him. Hahaha..LOL Umar..Umar
"It's just an emoticon Umar..doesn't mean he's smoking"

Then after like 5mins, again..
"Mummy, Ayah said there's a bandit at his office!"
Ha?...Really?.. (I thought Ayah surely did type the story to him, as he can read..)
So again I went to the computer, and asked Umar. "Where did Ayah typed it?" It was already a number of lines of words and emoticons (esp. Umar he used emoticons all the time, he only know typing his name, Zaky, go, bye and few simple ones! :P)
So eagerly Umar scrolled up, "It's here Mummy.." "Where is it Umar?.."
I never thought this time, it's a bandit emoticon! LOL LOL
It's just an emoticon Umar, it doesn't mean there's a bandit at Ayah's office. LOL

And the 3rd funny thing, at the end of the day. After Ayah came back fr work, talked to Umar, knowing he did nothing today except for computer, television and playing with toys. So Ayah decided to create a spelling game with him. He's not interested at all! :P So Ayah suggested to give him a quarter for every word he can spell. Still not interested! :P (even asking, "How about a dollar!?" :P) Although with Mummy's encouragement at the background (was busy in the kitchen! :P) Then Ayah said,
"U know what..four quarters will make a dollar that can buy you one hot wheel car! And you can choose whichever you like!" "If you do good, you can buy it every week!" Hhhmmm sounds like a good deal to him now.. :P Then know what he said?..
"But if they ask me for the credit card to pay, I don't have one!"
LOL LOL (then Ayah had to explain to him about credit card! :P)

The other day we were talking about him going to school from morning until 2pm, where Mummy or Ayah will pick him up after school. Then he said,
"I don't have a mobile phone that you can contact me to know where I am at school.." LOL probably at this age 4/5, the way they think is kinda funny to us, parents! .. Hahaha.. :-)