When There’s No Internet Access…..

The only good thing when there’s no interent access at home was that I actually spent less time in front of the pc and more time with the kids.

Here are some of the activities we have done among the many others.

 WH doing spooning activity of transferring peanut from one container to another while JS doing some writing work.

 JS’s turn to do spooning activity of transferring peanuts to 2 equal containers.

 Transfering of water from one container to another using sponge

 Transfering of water from one container to another using syringe

 Transferring of sago to 2 equals container.  (it wasn’t easy for WH to do that without spillage). Look at WH carry out the work with full concentration.

WH having his turn with the sponge

 Tranferring of nut with tongs

 Pegging activity.  Seems a easy task for the kids and they cant wait to have their turn, but my presentation to them was that I peg it in a certain colour sequence. I actually want them to observe and copy what I did.  Initially WH just pegged the way he likes, but the following time , he can actually get what I have done earlier.

 Tumbling tower. JS favourite family game. She’s actually quite good at that.

My kids actually treat this activity as fun thing.  After the first day of doing, the next day JS would asked ” mummy, what fun thing we doing today”

I like to observe them when the doing it. It’s fun , kids being kids they really explore around and when they discover something, they become excited. Like WH would say “Cold , mummy” when he touches the water. They were amazed by the sound made by the dropping peanuts and sago when they spoon over to another container and also JS would go “mummy, do this way can get bubbles!”

WH is able to choose the activity he wants to do the next day by going to the place I keep the things. Of course they love the activity involved with water the most.

OK…now have to thing of more activities for them and prepare more materials…

N2 or Exilim

Almost time for our 5 years old sony cybershot 2.0 to retired.  Currently looking in Sony N2 and Casio Exilim but undecided…. canon is good but a little pricey

 

Like the features of sony, but not so much of the shape. 

Exilim card the highest is 7.2 megapixel but nicer shape…..

Yet another decison to be made….

Refreshing

sunflower in my garden

Why There’s No Full Montessori School In M’sia?

The other day after I got home from the open house of the new kindy and told hubby about it, he asked if I’ve planned to enrol JS there ( he didn’t know that I’m actually surving it for WH instead of JS) I told him No. As much as I have strong believes on the montessori method of teaching, I know it wont work for kids age 5 and above in M’sia. JS will have to go to a conventional school with chinese medium to prepare her for primary one.

Many people who have no knowledge of Malaysia education system and also my hubby will have the misconception of my remark. “Huh? You mean montessori is only for 2 1/2 to 3?” and my hubby will think that after spending so much money on sponsoring my course, it’s a waste  as I can only apply the method on a 2 – 3 yrs old.

Many people have this misconception about Montessori method always end up thinking that it’s  lousy because there are parents remark that the kids who attended montessori are not able to pick up when they enter public primary school in malaysia. Parents only see the result and never really look into the root cause and parents who make that remarks surely do not have the appreciation and understanding of the method and philosophy. (By the way it’s almost impossible to find a full montessori school that caters to K1 & K2 in Malaysia, the school cleary understand our public education system and that a full montessori will not prepare the kids to meet the standard due to many factors and restriction of our education system)

In the US, a Montessori school can go up till the kids in 15 yrs old. There’s where the teachers go for advanced diploma or degree in the montessori method of teaching. So it’s not just limeted to toddlers. 

Before hand, I naively thought that I can find a full montessori school in M’sia, but as I know more, I know they are basically non existent.

There might be school that applys the montessori method of teaching maths and languange in K1 and K2, but it will not be full Montessori. Why is that so?  The rules and regulations stated that all kindy have to strictly follows the NPC ( national pre-school curriculum) and K1 and K2 is the vital prepatory years for the kids to enter to primary one. The KBSR is still a very conventional way of learning and it’s very much teacher’s oriented. If a kids is attending a full montessori pre-school, it’s very likely he will be left behind when enters Primary one.

This does not show that Montessori method is slow, but because majority of parents in malaysia only start to sent their kids to school at age 5.  Many M’sia parents will think that by sending a kids to a playschool at the age of 2 1/2 is too early and a waste of money. I use to have a mindset like that. Why take away their childhood by sending them to school so early. Even some parents think that by sending their kids to school at age 4 is early.  I will agree so if the kids is sent to a conventional school which is so stressful, but if there is a chance to be in a true montessori school, it’s best to start as early as possible.

There are so many didantic materials in a montessori curriculum. If parent only start to sent the child to a montessori school at age 5, the child wont be possibiliy having enough time to go through all the materials.  Take for example language, if sanndpaper letters is only introduced to a kids of age 5,  it might take half a year for the child to master all the phonetic sound of the letters before the child is ready for word building activities with LMA.  There are so many levels in the pink series and then later the blue, grammers and the green. That’s why it’s impossible to finish off till the green series in just a mere 2 years time of education. If a child is only reaching a basic level in pink series at age 6 , certainly he will be left out when he enters primary one.

Montessori method emphasized alot of individual development and according to the kids own development phase. There is no pushing and rushing. The child is given a chance to master an activity before moving on to the next higher level at their own phase.  If a kids only start school at age 5, there is certainly no time for the kids to master and work with all the materials in all area. With the short period of time frame (2 years), it’s impossible for a kids to developed to a phase in a montessori way that he’s able to cope with the Malaysia education system in year one.  ( of course if given a chance of exposure at age 2 1/2 and consitent teaching of montessori method till age 6, the kids will go beyond the level of our primary one standard)

Pre-school time in M’sia is short. Only 3 hours per day and 5 days a week. Each day minus off 1/2 snack time. And there are so much other things in the NPC to be added in like moral, islam studies, computer, art & craft , music, mandarin, malays, physical activity, circle time …there seems to be not much time left for montessori materials (which consists of 5 areas and many levels and activities) . Not to forget about concert and sports day preparation…. 4 times a year of exam (yes, even in pre-school there’s exam and that lasted almost 4 days each time). Class size in M’sia is usually big. Added on with the limited hours it’s almost impossible for the teacher to have individual focus on the kids and to give the kids time to progress on their own phase.  That’s why conventional teaching is applied in K1 & K2, which is like a crash prepatory for the kids to enter primary one.

During the training, the materials at the training centers and that we have learned is actually caters for children from age 2 1/2 to 6. When we reach the almost last stage of the materials, the lecture would say ” by the time the child reach this stage, they would have left school already” It clearly shows that our school system just wont allow and dont have the time to go through with all the materials.

I have a kindy teacher friend that told me , if the kindy has a kid that enter K2 in a new school year and prior to that has never attended any pre-school before, the kindy teacher will start to worry for the child. They worry that the child not able to catch up in primary one and crash course and alot of drilling and pushing is given in that K2 year. Isn’t that more stressful for a kid?

Sadly this is the fact of our education system where it’s like a rat race , the kids is expected to be on a certain level and perform accordingly. What a stressful life to have schooling in M’sia that we are not developing a wholistic individual of the next generation.

With that I give up hope on JS ever to have a chance to be in a Montessori school.

Send WH To Playschool?

Another mind boggling question. Shall I or shall I not.

There’s one new kindy opening up in our taman. At phase 2 which is a upper middle income area. The kindy itselft is a double storey bungalow with large compound and to my joy it’s MONTESSORI!!! ( Montessori seems to be everywhere now. I heard that in S2 there were 3 and another one at Oackland… but how authentic they are, I haven’t go check it out as it’s too far from home)

Montessori kindies are blooming in my area. At least so far I have found three near my area but sadly the area I’m staying is highly Malay populated and these montessori kindies cater more for the malay. Tadika Montessori at Ampangan is abit run down and not very attractive but still they have montessori materials (this one I visited a year ago). There’s another one called Tadika Sri Mayang ( didn’t go inside, but the taman opposite ours is very malayish and for middle to lower middle income group) …. the new one posh one is the one in our taman.

Ria Karisma had an open day last weekend, which of course I wont let go the opportunity to bring my kids over. The principle is more a upper class malay, lives in US for 13 years, speak good english, open minded and has exposed to Montessori education and system in the US ( her son was raised in a montessori school and in US school usually has a lot of parental involvement)

The kindy is nicely set up with special build swimming pool, a sand pit , play ground, doll house and a small basket ball court at the compound. Inside , the material are almost complete. When I stepped into it, it gave me the impression of me in my training center.

One of the teacher/partner that attended to me is very knowledgable in the montessori method. She was trained in Summit many years ago. 

As much as I want to teach my kids the montessori way at home, I know there are limitation as I can’t really have a prepared environment.  It’s vital to start early and I want WH to be benefited from it.  My only concern is there’s no other chinese in that school. (Typical chinese thinking!!)  Usually when I go school hunting with my kids, I would also asked WH for fun if he wants to go to the school together with JS. Most time he would say NO. But this time I asked if he likes this montessori kindy, he said YES.  I have repeated that few times over few days, I get the same answer… and he can remember and said ” got train!” ( a set of wooden puzzle train toy)

At the same time hubby also asked when I told him about the new school. He said “why not you go teach there?” ( since he’s sponsoring my course, he wants to see his “investment” returned. ) I really wish I could… I really like that school and their set up.

It will be perfect if WH & me can go to the same school.  

Shall I Go Dot Com?

“Shall I go dot com?” “Shall I go dot com?”

This question has been frequently flicking in my mind since last week after I know off that my moomies has gone dot com and started to earn BIG money. (When I wanted to learn and find out more…my pc died on me for one week….cilaka) I’m very tempted to try ( I even have my domain name ready liao. ) . Since I can yak a few posts a day, I am sure I will be able to make up story for PPP. Really dont want to let the chances go…. but again I have worries whether if what I make will be able to cover the cost of hosting……

Shall I or shall I not???

I know I can put on all the ads using blogger free service….but it’s too troublesome for me to move my current blog back there (and I’m not sure if it’s possible) I started off blogging with bloggers and later migrate to WP and in love with WP features …. what shall I do?? Shall I even give up the chance of earning a little pocket money??? (very $$$ face now!!)

Paper Tearing

It has never occured to me that such simple activity can be a fun activity for kids. For a kid to tear a paper into unison size strips isn’t an easy task as one think. (And if you lift up a sheet of paper horizontly , one wont be able to even tear it into strips)

Recently we have done this activity at home.  WH wasn’t really insterested ( I suppose he’s not ready) , JS initially found it hard and said “mummy, cannot la… I don’t know how” but after a few tries and practice on sheets of paper, she managed.  The fun part to her was not much of the tearing, but the later sorting and glueing part. She loves playing with glues, sticking things,  the activity seems challenging to her on the part that she needs to arrange back the strip of papers. The aim of this activity is merely to strenghten the wrist muscles.

 An example that I’ve shown JS. Just tear any page from the old magazine ( I think pages with pictures of kids, cartoon and scenary will be more appealing to the kids)

 JS’s work.

Grading

I personally disapproved of grading kids at the very young age. It’s so discouraging to the kids.

Recently JS was given some writing homework from the Mandarin class and at the end of the day , she got a C.

She was asking “mummy, why I write so nice, lao shi still give me C”

It was a tough question to answer and I can only tell her to do better the next time.

To her she has put in the best effort and the end result to her was good enough. In fact I actually sat beside her while she was doing that writing and ensure that she has all the stroke sequence correct.  She had tried her best and there’s nothing I can asked for as long as the key strokes are right and it’s in the box.

Teachers these days tend to impose their own standards and expectation on the kids. We as adults have written the words for so many years , there’s why we can write it correctly, but for a kids to write it the first time, we really cannot expect them to write as propotionate as what we adult do.

Another thing that is so unfair for my girl is that, the chinese words given are not simple word and before hand the teacher has not taught and reinforce the basic strokes to her. The teacher very well know that we dont speak mandarin at home and JS is not attending a chinese school yet, and heck where can she know about strokes. (Maybe the teacher expected the mummy has done the job)  Yes.. I have taught her about strokes and she just merely write it without understanding that the strokes are the foundation to form words. It’s something very abstract for a kids to understand. I didn’t push because I know once she is ready she will be able to do so.

What I dislike and realize is that most teacher always jump into conclusion and sentenced the kids as lazy, slow, stupid , never do the work properly and stamped with low grading. The teacher failed to look into the root cause and find solution on it. The failed to observe the kids development, ability and most importantly READINESS. A “C” is given because the child has not do it correctly. It’s very discouraging for the child. Why cant the teacher just put a tick as indication that the child’s work has been checked without negative comment?

I have lost track on what’s the standard in primary one class in chinese school. What do the teacher teach? If difficult words are taught to kids at age 5, what about age 7? I remembered when I was in K2, the chinese words that I write were merely some simple stroke words like 人，天，花，口，月, then only we proceed with more strokes words in primary one.

This is the price I’m paying for upon my decision of sending my kids to a chinese primary school. K1 & K2 are the prepatory years for that and I have no choice of discontinuing her mandarin class. (She needs consistent exposure to the language as none of us speak mandarin at home).  I dont really have a choice…. private school too expensive…public gomen school standard too low…..I can see that my girl is embarking into a very stressful study journey. My heart aches but it’s also for her own good.