Yamaha JMC assessment Fundamental Skills Survey (FSS) for 弟弟

弟弟 finally made it to the first big milestone for his music class, the Fundamental Skills Survey assessment for Yamaha JMC graduates :) It's his first external exam outside of kindy. I keep forgetting what does FSS stands for and had to search back for 姐姐's certificate :P

We are the first to reach the school and he's also the first on the attendee list. The examiner is a pretty, nice lady. When we went into the room, he greeted his teacher and the examiner. First he sang his chosen song "Lullaby of Stars". I can tell he tried his best, but I wish he could have sang louder though. Then it was solfege singing, teacher played 2 phrases, he listens and sings them. Then it's listening for the chords. After that only it's playing his chosen pieces, Little Red Shoes and Falling Leaves from Primary Book 4. Next, it's listening to teacher play melody of The Dove, then he plays them with accompaniment. Lastly, it's meeting up with examiner, and singing the notes examiner pointed out. Finally, the examiner congratulated him for a good try at singing and playing. Phew! Everything done in less than 15 minutes I think. When we're out, most of his music class friends are already here.

弟弟 and his friends from music class

He's been practising throughout the 6 months for JMC Primary 4, even though it just seems like 5 minutes during the weekdays. About 1 month or so from the date we sign-up for the assessment, teacher had given them chance to perform their chosen songs to the class and other parents. They also sing their chosen song, first in group and then gradually they sing individually for the class. At the same time, teacher let them sing lots of solfege exercises and learn to listen to the chords they learnt. This was taught throughout the 2 years they are in JMC but got more intensive near to FSS :)

Here is a video I took during his class for singing Lullaby of Stars. Actually it's quite a difficult song for boys to sing, but he insisted on it.

And here is 弟弟 playing Little Red Shoes, Falling Leaves and The Dove. Usually teacher will let him play on piano, but on this day, it was a clavinova which has a harder touch. When he played The Dove here, he was a little rough, so teacher corrected his handling of this song :P And his variation for The Dove during FSS is slightly different after teacher taught them a little pattern for it.


During lessons, teacher will slot in some fun time for them, such as singing this lively song "Feeling Great Yeah". I think with a video the memory lives on for them :) He also enjoyed another song called "Treasure Hunting" but I didn't video it as parents are to sing along.

I'm just so relieved he completed his FSS assessment! :) Teacher had started to introduce them to JXC Book 1 songs, so he would be starting JXC completely from next week. At the same time, I think teacher will start preparing them for the JMC graduation concert too! 弟弟 will be kept busy :P

As a parent with children going for Yamaha's Junior Music Course, we have to be very patient. Skills are learnt a little by little, starting from single notes, to chords, from listening, singing solfege etc. Of course, when they first started there is no "song" to play for adults to enjoy. They start by playing accompaniment to the CDs. Some of our relatives even commented, "what, this is playing piano?" when they asked the children to play at the beginning stage. There is no need to rush it at this point in "playing a song". I'd rather them go slow and steady with teacher's guidance than to rush into playing at wrong tempo and lack of musicality, you know how some kids go fast when they are at a familiar part and go slow when they are not when they start playing pieces. This is so wrong as they should hear and feel the music and not just simply play notes. I can see tremendous progress with 姐姐 as she moves into JXC and I'm sure 弟弟 will too.

The 2nd Mid-Autumn FestoRama 2013 月圆花好 at Beach Street, Penang

First time we pay a visit to the Mid-Autumn FestoRama at Beach Street. On our way to the venue, we saw the classic Mini cars being driven to a side street :) 弟弟 was quite amazed these classic cars were vroom-vrooming away like how he drove the antique car at Genting theme-park :P

Decorations at Mid-Autumn FestoRama 2013

We thought they have a traditional children's games portion but we couldn't find it, it's not even listed in the program detail given out on the site. So the children just kind of hang around this lantern riddle 猜灯迷 games booth operated by Sin Chew Daily. We can check for the correct answer with the organizer, so it's quite fun seeing 姐姐 enthusiastically going back and forth to check if she got a correct answer. If you guessed the riddle  correctly, they will give you a little set of earrings and the lantern you "hit" or 采到了. We manage to get 4 lanterns, some were contribution from 姐姐 and some from 爸爸. Her school Mandarin teachers will be proud to know it's the knowledge they part on her. We spent more than 1 hour there since 姐姐 is so determined to get lanterns for herself and 弟弟! The lanterns are now hanging prettily in our home :)

This photo of 姐姐 and 弟弟 from Sin Chew Event facebook page

My dear children keep showing off their lanterns from lantern riddle booth

This Ah Huat mascot is really funny walking around. The children said the mascot stepped on their feet so they stepped back on him :P Ooh, children, he couldn't see with the big head-piece you know, it's not intentional. 姐姐 really pantang people stepping on her precious hello kitty slippers.

Me was lugging around their water bottles and umbrellas :( We didn't really watch the stage performances much, at the time we passed a cheer leading group was performing and then some talk time with a celebrity.
Too bad there was not much other activities that interested the children. Most of the stalls are either selling food/drinks or selling art and craft. There's a similar booth doing lino painting but we didn't want the children to get dirty so we didn't try it this time (we already spent a lot of time there during George Town Festival). Another stall had lantern riddles too but one must get 8 answers correct to get a prize, too challenging for us :P The other booth that the children get to play something is Magnum, if you get a ball while rolling a Magnum device then you get a little gift. There were a lot of folks pushing Celcom packages, ok so they are one of the main sponsors but who would go there to sign up phone/date package since it's a cultural event?

Wish there was more games :P

Spade's Burger at Bangunan Lip Sin, next to Maxim Dim Sum

We went for dinner later at Spade's Burger at Bangunan Lip Sin (next to Maxim Dim Sum, in fact I think they just use a portion of Maxim) to try their hand-crafted charcoal burgers. They did not open on time at 6:30pm as stated in their faceboook page. We were there at 6:30pm and the staff were just arranging tables, not only that, the tables were stained with chilli sauce from the day-time dimsum place. I mean, if you say open at 6:30pm means you clean-up and arrange everything and greet your customers at 6:30pm isn't it, and not just arranging tables/chairs at 6:30pm. They didn't have enough staff and didn't serve us the drinks we ordered, we had to take it ourselves from the counter after waiting for some time as the children got thirsty (smelling smoke from their grill). Why couldn't the guy just pass the drinks to us after we ordered and paid?

Let's just say the charcoal bun they use is not toasted or warmed, and I prefer a lightly toasted bun. Their beef burger was not bad, the chicken burger was nice according to 弟弟 and 姐姐 ate all the oink-oink burger. However not sure if it's because we're the first to order, the pork burger seem like just barely cooked and tasted really porky. We felt that Ric's Burger definitely beat this one hands down even though they don't have as much variety, for food taste and price and not only because of the ambiance. Ok enough complaints, we will not go back to Spade's Burger anymore, no thanks for burger buns which are not toasted/warmed. I don't care if charcoal buns are not supposed to be warm :P

It's Mid-Autumn Festival, so what is celebration without the essential mooncakes? This year, we enjoyed many varieties of mooncakes including the box 爸爸 bought from Taiwan (sorry, even though it's expensive but the local ones actually taste better, so no need to buy next time :P) We got the yummy snow-skin mooncakes from Thung's mommy this year too, and finished in no time :) The other cute cartoon mooncake is a Doraemon mooncake redeemed from Queensbay Mall.

Snow skin mooncake with Hello Kitty and Mickey Mouse from Thung's mom, they are yummy!

Doraemon mooncake with lotus paste

弟弟's first permanent tooth!

This calls for an individual post for 弟弟. For getting his first permanent tooth and losing his first baby tooth at about 6 years 8 months of age :) Just a week after he told us of his shaky tooth, 爸爸 helped him remove that shaky tooth easily, right after he came back from business trip.

弟弟 after his first baby tooth removal. The new permanent tooth is already visible from this photo :)

There was no tears nor screams, what a brave boy! 爸爸 is already experienced in handling children's loose teeth, so it was handled promptly. 弟弟 was very cheeky after getting the annoying loose tooth removed. Hopefully the permanent tooth will grow properly in the location it's supposed to. Otherwise it's another child visiting the orthodontist in the family :P

At night, we went to Ric's Burger again. This time 爸爸 get to try the rice burger. The rest of us still preferred their cheeseburger :)

Rice burger at Ric's Burger, only available dinner time.

弟弟‘s kindy recently passed a memo to the kids about their year-end concert. Parents have to pay RM100 for the costume and event, which is fine with us. However the next part about serving buffet at the ballroom after the concert, paying RM90 per adult and RM50 for additional child attending is a real turn-off. This kindy is really all about money-making and sucks parents' blood dry. Previously the other kindy both kids attend only charge for costumes and event. In the end, we decided only 爸爸 will attend his graduation concert, 姐姐 might be having her Yamaha Grade 9 exam around the same time, so it's no use paying now and not get to attend later.

Oh this reminds me, they also had a memo saying they now have pre-standard 1 preparation for the kids. If they can't even teach 6 years old syllabus properly, why should we send our child to them for pre-standard 1. That's why I just added a ticker to the sidebar to celebrate 弟弟 finishing kindy. We'll be glad for him to leave this kindy behind!