Our Term 1 Mid-term Break 2013

Only 1 week of break, which is totally not enough :P Most hobby classes are still in full swing.

姐姐 is going to have her Grade 2 RAD ballet exam in April so she spent 3 days training hard, one evening for 2.5 hours and another morning for 3 hours (extra which is usually school hours) and one weekend for 2 hours. Wow, her ballet teacher and principal really fully utilize the children's free time. Even school exam we don't drill like this, maybe due to new exam syllabus and less than 6 months training for the Grade 2 exam this year :P Luckily we manage to squeeze in a 2-days short trip for them.

Another class took up her time during the holiday, her English class did replacement for the missed lesson during school replacement on 16 March.

Iguanas and snakes, yikes!
弟弟 asked me to take his photo with the pets at the courtyard where he and 姐姐 goes for English class.

Other than lessons, we spent some time at the library i-Play when we went to get some BM story books for her NILAM homework. They were happy to play here. 弟弟 spent most of the time trying to build a wooden house. 姐姐 was running around bouncing a ball and knocked once into the wooden house and he was so annoyed about it even though she apologized fervently. Due to the hard work he put in, he asked me to take photos of him and specified the angles too :)

The little wooden house he built. He grabbed most of the diggers there, creating his own "play corner" with his favourite things.

Maybe with the trip and hot weather, 姐姐 did not get enough rest and run up a flu and cough :( To comfort myself, I just think of "小病是福" sigh. Her weight is now 25.5 kg as measured at the clinic (and 弟弟 is 24 kg, my goodness). Instead of syrup medicine, this time she got small pills and she's good in swallowing them.

After art class, we took some time to run around the nearby playground. I have always liked the yellow flowering trees here.

Yellow flowering Angsana trees at the playground

The food at the side are our lunch. Just want to show my favourite noodle soup and 爸爸's favourite pasembur at Batu Lanchang market.

Another visit to Sakae Sushi again :P

Their favourite sushi - tamago maki, fried hotate, potato salad

Salmon Don and Tamago Sushi. 姐姐 showing her incisor finally growing, 弟弟 suddenly sneezed when we took the photo.

The kids eat free set came very late and after several attempts to remind the servers. They didn't even bring them the Sakae froggie cap even after we requested.

Kids eat free set for one, they are just posing with the same set.

After this break, it'll be exams all the way until May, so posting will be limited :P

School update - Year 3 KSSR Dunia Seni Visual and 弟弟's growth development

They really have more mini projects than I imagined. This week their teacher asked them to prepare some toy shapes using sponges, mini clothes for the toys and the "eyes". 姐姐 designed the toy shapes, she chose to draw a bear and a rabbit. 弟弟 was so interested when she was drawing it out and was hovering around her.

Cutting became 爸爸's job since we didn't want her to accidentally cut herself. Then the clothes.. since I'm no tailor, guess who had to cut out the clothes? Hehe, it's not me. The bear didn't turn out like a bear, it looked more like a frog. So we suggested to her to make it a froggie instead.

Before assembly - blank faces :)

She brings everything to school to "assemble" - the eyes and put finishing touches to the faces using marker pen.

Her finished craft work - sponge toy

姐姐's previous homework this term. Before Chinese New Year, there were quite a few CNY themed work including Dunia Seni Visual. Hers was one of those displayed on her class notice board and she was happy about it.

Her moral studies work, see - more drawing needed. She told us it's copied out from her textbook.

Example of work done for moral studies

There are holiday homework that are like mini projects too. For English, they are required to search for Helen Kellar and share in the class about what they learnt. In addition, teacher assigned them to 3 NILAM summary for one BM, one English and one Mandarin story book.

Remember, frequently missing or not submitting projects means the child will be graded lower than what they could have achieved. However some schools are good that they supplied everything for the projects, maybe they collect funds from parents ahead?

See the little cactus in the bottle?

When I pick her up from school, she was showing me this little bottle which she "won". Well, from what she mentioned, there was a group of folks who visited her school and gave a talk about the environment. They had Q&A session with prizes for correct answer. She was picked to answer one of the questions (to her it's a big deal) and she got the prize for correct answer (think she answered to a question about tomato plant?). Kept telling me about the 6 months life of the little cactus :) And I googled about the company called WA Ecosystem, the plant is called My Little Darling.

What had 弟弟 been up to all this time? The usual school and homework routine. Mondays he will get a list of words/sentences for Mandarin 听写 and 默写. He is tested on Wednesdays. Wednesdays he will get a list of words/sentences for BM ejaan. Then he is tested on Fridays. Fridays he will get a list of words for English spelling. Tested on Mondays. And repeat the cycle every week. We saw the English reader book and the BM bacaan book. However this holiday they didn't let him take it back. So bad, why are they being so secretive about the materials?  

One of the days when  爸爸 was on business trip, I was late sending 弟弟 to school. He told us not much emphasis on lesson that day, phew. That's because the teacher took weight and height measurements of the children. He told us he is 118cm and 24kg. Not sure how accurate is this as he doesn't seem that tall (later at doctor's clinic he weighs 22kg). Anyway, glad that he was not punished for being late that day :) He did mention before kids who are late were caned by the teacher.

My birthday celebration :)

We went for Sakae Children's Day for the Nth time. But the kids still stick to their favourites only.

Didn't know she could use chopstick on her own to slurp up the ramen noodles

弟弟 trying the ramen soup

姐姐 helping 弟弟 to wipe his mouth clean since they sit together

We got some workbooks for 姐姐. Since she is the first batch under KSSR, it's difficult looking for Year 3 workbooks at the beginning of the year. Only Popular Gurney Plaza has more choices for SJKC workbooks. And that's after Chinese New Year. I only got those subjects she is not going for classes.

For my birthday celebration, I was treated to TGIF :) 弟弟 told me he is wearing black as he knows my idols like to wear black. Hm, he can really come up with many reasons to get his own way.

The mock aeroplane fascinates them

Appetizer - Fried Mozzarella

Keywest Fish (doesn't look like the photo in menu :P), Friday's Cheeseburger and the kids' free meal - fish and chips and chicken strips

Dessert - Brownie Obsession

After that, we saw a booth with Hello Kitty car so took a photo :)

The Hello Kitty car

As 爸爸 was always on business trip, we missed seeing the Kek Lok Si light up. Too crowded during CNY holidays but no time after that. He brought back many gifts from his trips, but we always prefer him to be at home. All the gifts in the world is not going to replace that :)