Maya's daily activities at school (edited )

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Maya is now in pre-school about 20 mins drive from our home. The school mini bus picks her every morning at 9 am and send her back at 4 pm. 

The school is not International school , but just a private local school with one class taught in bilingual ( English and Mandarin) for daily basis. The other class just have English for 2 hours per week. I think this is a great opportunity for her to learn Mandarin. Her classmates are mostly overseas Chinese, that happens to return to China for various reason, or some from mix parental families. Or foreigner who stays long time in Shanghai. 

Maya is the only one who come from the non Mandarin speaking family. For first week I think it was a bit hard for her. But never underestimate the children's ability to adapt.

Her class is huge. With many  parts . One part is the main learning center. Where it has the touch screen that the student can touch when they use the CD ROM program to do some learning. Yup the books are much more high tech , they use CD ROM, and a hard cover books and stickers to learn. I don't mind to have something more simpler, but then here, looks  like the school like to use the more " sophisticated" books and program to teach.

The daily routine is almost same like any school , I guess, eat breakfast, learning, story telling, lunch, nap, sometimes they have gym class.Tea break and another class in the afternoon.

On the top is the main class room. And Maya is doing the daily drill for new Chinese character ( nope she can't recognize yet :P )

 

And this is the art corner, which is so tidy and neat with the art supplies suitable for young kids












Montessori corner for Math which is a plus and I am please that they do that


The role play room. With babies cradles and kitchen .


The other play area with small games

This is the sleep area. The blanket and mattress is from school but we paid for it. There are 2 sets of bedding for hot months and cold months. The uniforms also come in seasonal style.

The tiny cute sink and toilet :)

Dining area

This was on the open day. Where the parents can see the activities. This is the indoor gym class. Very impressive ,it looks like fun place to do gym for kids.

And this is my lil gal who is growing up so fast. :)

Her English teacher is from the Philippines and told me that Maya's vocabularies level is the same like those 5 years old . Not surprising since her environment at home is English speaking and she listen to many of Indy's homeschool subject . She even can mentioned almost all of the South East Asian countries :) . Her Chinese teacher said that Maya is catching up wonderfully in her Mandarin class.

Many  other teachers and admin staffs told me in person, that Maya is a very delightful girl. She comes to school with her cheerful happy personality. Always polite to all the teachers, and they commented : but she is not a typical girl., she is fierce and can protect her self ( meaning she push back whoever pushed her :D ). And pretty mischievous too, on the school bus, the lady in the admin asked her : how do you stay bird in English ( Speaking in Mandarin). Maya replied : Wo Bu Gao Su Ni ( I will not tell you!!) and grinned....

Just a note : Yesterday Maya told me she got the blood test from school. I know the schools need the blood test and urine test prior entering the school. And now is the additional blood test she had. It is to check her hemoglobin level. To see the students is malnourished and the school can plan the meal. ( those who has lower level they will serve quail eggs and those who are fine they will serve tomatoes as afternoon snacks )

I think it is indeed a good move for any school!
Until then....
XOXO
S.R

Her feeling and her achievement

It's been an emotional roller coaster for our eldest daughter for the last 2 weeks. It is normal to feel sad, to say good bye to her friends. We do not deny it, and we do not think that her feeling is unimportant too. We do what parents need to do, to comfort her, to understand her feeling, but we also need to tell her that this is life, sometimes we don't like it, but we do not have a choice, and it is ok for her to feel sad. But it is important for her to know that she still can keep in touch with her friends, and she will make new friends, and that is is lucky to be able to make a lot more friends whenever we live.

I noticed the change in her. She lost her appetite 2 weeks ago, and she even wet her bed twice in a week ( when  she can read my blog, she will kill me to tell this in my blog !:D ) . I knew that , that was the sign of " children stress". Poor girl. But I do not want to deny that facts or just brush the issue aside. We can't do that to our children. Sometimes, we think : oh that is not important, or oh she will get over it, or naah..she will be ok , or no we dont need to tell her the truth.  The thing is, our children need to know the truth. Specially if that involving their life.

I do not tell them that we will come back to KK soon. I told my youngest that this time , we are moving and will not come back to this house again. This is not holiday. I don't want to lie to her and said ok we go ok?later we come back. For Indy, it is different, she knows what moving mean. And she knows that she will say good bye to her friends  , to her school and to her teachers. I told her, that I know she feel sad, and that is ok. She can talk to me anytime about her feeling. But , I told her, don't worry, you will make more friends there, and you will still be friends with your friends here . Just look at mamma, I have friends in Jakarta, Singapore, etc and I m still in touch with them . I also told her, that she is lucky to have all of this technology now, and she can chat with her friends with webcam, and when she can read and write better, I will let her to have her own facebook ( under my supervision of course) to keep in touch with her friends and our family.

Children will adapt well and faster in normal case. And I think both of them will be excited to live in a big city too. ( finger crossed) .

Indy also had her "school concert" last Friday. And on Thursday, her teacher announced to the class that Indiana will leave them and move to Shanghai. Every girls in the class hug her and said good luck and good bye to her, the boys shake her hands. I knew that must be hard for her to hold back her tears. Some of her friends gave her small gifts too. Her teacher told me that every students in the class love her and like her very much. She is a friendly and helpful girl. And Indy told me that she is the class clown :).

The teacher told me this a few months before when Indy came back from holiday, every one greeted her enthusiastically, so this time her teacher told me that her friends will sure miss her very much. I feel bad also for her best friends, some even told their moms that they are so sad that Indy will move . :(

Sadness aside, last Friday also a good day for her. On the " Awards Night" she got 3 awards! She got  " attendance award" , "reading readiness  award" ( for those who accomplish good progress in reading) and " Bible Scriptures memory award"( for those who can memorized the bible verses in a year).

Her school doesn't put the rank system. Instead they give awards. And this is great. And of course we are so proud of her no matter what. Less than a year ago, or when she was in the Kindy, she was consider the "blur" one. Not by the Kindergarten teachers though. They are quite supportive and said she is doing fine . ( I m not a fan of school who wants to push and force  the students). As we know, most people use the " reading skills" as the measurement to someone intelligent level. Some one that can read early will be consider as smart, and someone who read later on will be consider " slow". While I believe that is not true. And that is important to all parents to have faith in our children no matter what.

Indy shown a good progress and efforts to read. I didn't even force her at home, but I did intrigue her to certain books and stories. And this is what the school did for her. She got free time at school to borrow some books to read. So it was more to "dig out" her interest in reading rather than" forcing" her to read.

So to get the "reading readiness " award is a great milestone . She DID it! And for someone who has struggled to read to be able to memorized the bible scriptures is not easy at all. The principal even said, to memorized that many verses is not even easy for adult. So imagine what effort she did with her limited reading ability to be able to memorized that verses. ( shown on the photo's background)

In one sentence : We are very proud of you ,Indy! :) with our without award!

This is her painting being shown in the student exhibition. I think she did a great job!

My little stylist

Indy's progress is doing ok at school. She got the " A Privellege" receiver twice this week. That is for student who can reach the goal of doing the Pace books the most. And the rewards they can choose: to use computer for 15 minutes before school ends ( to play games ) or to bring something they like to school. Indy choose to bring art and craft supply and wants to make something at school. But she forgot that day. To use her " hard to earn" free time at school , she draw this instead. And surprise it was for me! :)

She is much more into creativity more than to academic. She's been making many arts things at home out of "garbage" ( like the tissue roll cardboard, jelly mould, napkin, paper plates etc). She is also into " fashion" lately and she has A LOT of comments on how I dressed , a lot of inputs for what shoes or bag I should use too. Especially if I go out just wiht her dad, she got so much idea of what I should wear for "date" with papa. HAH!

So this is what she draw for me:

the picture might not be clear but it is the drawing of many clothing items and she designed it for me. Notice the Heels? She said mamma must wear heels, it is so pretty. According to her ( clock wise from left) first picture is for Shopping ( blue top with jeans and heels) . Second one is a black dress with sequins and bling bling for dinner with papa. Then the bottom right : black top and blue trouser is for going to movie , she even put bracelet . The last one is a red top and flowly black skirt is for dinner also. She begged me to wear more skirt actually :), maybe I should consider her advice, don't you think?

My favorite is the last one, red top with black skirt and heels and bracelet! :) . She is a lot like me in this thing. I also like to draw a lot when I was small and mostly ( and only) I draw fashion and designing clothing.

Indy said she wants to be a fashion stylist when she is big . But being pet taker, dogs hotel owner is also on her list! :))


Here are more of her "designs"
Of course for a 7 years old , her taste still very child like with a lots of colors combo :) , but I don't give much critics at her designs. I want her to have her childish taste . And I just enjoy it ! I prefer her to still dress like a little girl :)

Since she begged me to use my clothes to find the styles. ( I told her she can only do this with me and can't let her friends to play with my clothes ).So here we go :

One of my favorite top ( ;-D) and a line skirt

Rocker style . :)

Jeans and yellow stripy tops

And of course the designer her self ( in my clothes) Indiana Rocco!! :-D

This is what I did!

Taken from here
I remember I did this in my primary school. Part of the "rainbow" theory in science subject.

Disappearing Color Science Experiment

This science experiment is a lot like magic. Watch the colors disappear right in front of your eyes!

Tools

Paper plate
Pencil
Ruler
Markers (purple, blue, green, yellow, orange, red)
String or yarn

Procedure

1. Divide your plate into six even sections using your pencil and ruler.

2. Use your markers to color each section one of the colors of the rainbow.

3. Use your pencil to punch two small holes in your plate, each about 1cm from the center. Cut off the excess plate to leave just your colored circle. Lace your string or yard through the holes as shown.

4. Hold one end of the string in each hand so that the color disk is in the middle. Wind up your your disk by turning while you hold the string. You may need the assistance of another person. When the string is wound up tight pull both hands away from each other so that your colored disk spins quickly.

What Happens?
The color will begin to blur together and will eventually appear to disappear or turn white.

Why Does This Happen?

The disk need to be spun quickly in order to create the disappearing effect. At the fast rate of speed your eyes are not able to differentiate each individual color, you create a blurring effect with each color overlapping. Therefore, your brain perceives this combination of color as white light.

Extension
Try this again, but use only two primary colors on your disk. What do you think will happen?

Another one that I did and love to do is:

The Secret Messages

Taken from here

I remember to did this after I read the "Famous Five " and "the Mysteries series"by Enyd Blyton.Where they need to send "secret" messages without letting the enemies of knowing it. So I pretend to be one of the detective and tried to pass the message to my brother. I even learn how to come out from a locked room! hahah... That time we didn't have Nintendo , PS2, PSP, PS3.PC, or many TV shows yet, so we must be pretty creative to entertain ourselves!

Do you have a budding detective at home? Does your curious first grader have a keen sense of observation? To develop a strong scientific thinking foundation, you'll want to provide opportunities for your child to explore scientific process skills such as using her senses to describe observations.

At school when your child learns about scientific concepts, she makes observations, she is encouraged to experiment with various materials and allow the materials to interact with other thing, and then make note of any changes. These are some of the fundamentals of scientific thinking and the basis for the scientific method, which she'll learn in the years ahead. Here’s an exciting experiment you can do with her at home that will continue to reinforce what she is learning at school, while dazzling her with mystery at the same time!

You Will Need:

• Lemon juice
• Cup
• Paintbrush
• White bond paper (This is white paper of 24 pound weight usually found at office supply stores.)
• Iron NOTE: Only an adult is allowed to use the iron!
• Newspaper

What to Do:

1. Allow your child to squeeze the juice of one lemon into a cup.
2. Tell your child to think of a secret message that she wants to write to a friend or family member.
3. Then have your child dip the paintbrush in the lemon juice and paint her message on the white bond paper.
4. Allow the paper to dry completely.
5. Once the paper is completely dry, your child will need to place the drawing between several sheets of newspaper. Then iron the paper until your brown design appears.
6. Allow your child to examine the secret message. Allow her to describe how the message looks different after it had been ironed, compared to how it looked before you ironed it. Then let your child deliver her secret message to her friend or family member.

Did You Know?

When the message is painted with lemon juice, it dries in an invisible design. Then when the iron heats the lemon juice markings, the natural sugar in the juice becomes activated and burns, turning into a brown carbon substance. The burned, browned juice then appears as the secret message.

So what do you think? do these experiment bring back your childhood memories ? And by the way I LOVE Enyd Blyton's book. The Famous Five, The mystery , The Secret Seven,St. Clare, The Mallory Towers! Oh how I love to buy those books to be pass on to my girls!

What is your favorite childhood books? And what is your favorite childhood activities?

School result and holiday

I saw others mom's blog about their children school reports. I normally don't blog about this. Her first term result was not bat either (Average of 98) , the same for the 2nd term, her average is 98,92. Which I think not bad at all. Her school system do not have rank. Like I mentioned before, it has a independent learning system. And I am glad I can see the result in her. She doesn't depends on me or teacher to do homework. She will try to read the instruction and read the whole page and do the questionnaire . When she is having difficulties then she will ask me. I think this attitude is great. Because learning is attitude. I am glad I don't have to ( or not yet ) to sit with her with a cane /rotan to force her to learn.

What to do this holiday? I am planning to do some experiments with her. Simple one. So far she made the homemade thermometer, the phone with string ( the one where Alexander Graham Bell's discovered that voice can transfer by "waves") , the next one will be a flying this with balloon ( the base theory of the flying hot balloon). I will need to google more experiment that is interesting for kids to do. I do believe that learning is no just try to memorize the text book. It is more into "life experiences".

If I could find the ant's farm set here ( you know where you put ants and soil in the jar and you cover the jar with black cardboard and after a while you open it you can see the "house" of the ants including the "Queen" room.) And too bad I couldn't find any caterpillar in my yard. I like to keep one and see how it metaphor into pretty butterfly. Or the tadpole that "change" into a frog.
Learning things by witnessing it with your own eyes is so much different that just to read from a text book.

I did this for many times during my childhood. Or the simple trap to catch flies. Yup that was some of my childhood self experiments at home. Will try to refresh my memory to find more simple yet interesting thing to do around our home.

Another interesting conversation between me and one Indy's classmate mom. We are talking about their BM and Mandarin's grade. Her dd got 70 for BM and 95 for Mandarin. But she can communicate in BM very fluently , on the other hand she can't speak Mandarin.
So there is the dilemma . Which one do you prefer? Grades? or the REAL skill?

I told her, that is fine. The important is that she can speak BM quiet well. The grades is just a number. And the grammar. Now about the Mandarin. Ok she got HIGH MARK, but she doesn't have the confident to speak it, it is either shy, or she doesn't have the confidence to speak ( they come from a non -mandarin speak family/environment).

Imagine to have a perfect mark of Mandarin in the report but then when she will be at the Mandarin speaking place only, if she can't communicate , the HIGH MARK wont be useful right?
The same with the BM, her mark is not that impressive but living in a country where most people speak BM, I think her speaking skills is more important than the MARK on the school report. So I told her mom that is ok. The important she can speak quite well and just need her to speak Mandarin more often.

Indy got 73 for BM and 72 for Mandarin, not that impressive either, that could been better, but at least I know if she is in the situation where she needs to speak that language she can manage it well ( think about emergency situation). My Niece and nephew were lost one time in the big mall in Jakarta. In situation like this, your school grade won't help. The important is your communicating skills ( BM or Bahasa Indonesia will HELP A LOT!) and the ability to stay calm and focus. Even that you are a straight A's students won't help much. Fortunately my nephew still can manage to spill out the " AKU HILANG" to the mall's guard. They were 10 and 9 years old by that time and he speaks a minimum B. Indonesia while my niece speak none ( English and Cantonese only) . That is why I want my children to speak Bahasa Indonesia and learn BM while we are living in Malaysia ( even that means they will speak wtih different accents and words and people will find it funny ). There is nothing to loose when you learn something new, you will never know when that comes in handy ( my dad's motto to me)

Have a great week a head!

The grass and the flowers, which one is your child?

This will just a blabbing post about children. I saw this articles from Learning beyond schooling
and surprised about how homeschooling in Indonesia has been so inspiring now days.

The man behind all this is Seto Mulyadi, and he is a man with passion towards children education. I know him since I was a little girl. He wrote children songs, he is support the anti children abuse association and now he is support home schooling too.

This quote, I really like :

'Children are not grass that they can be cut to the same height. Children are just like flowers, they are different from one another.'

Seto Mulyadi, Asah Pena

And it reminds me that I must not treat and expect my kids to be the "stereo typye" for that age /gender. Because every child is unique.

Speaking of unique, even our family is not the same from others. Being the " expat" in "other" people country sometimes might not be too much fun for the kids. They do not have their grandparents here, so they can't visit or spend the weekend over the grannies place. And they don't have their uncles, aunties, or cousin to play with. They can't attend their cousins birthday parties, can have sleep over with them too.

But I told my eldest , that the way our family is. We can visit and meet her grandparents once or twice a year. But doesn't mean that we are not family anymore. She understands and accepts it nicely :).

I also told her that some family maybe just consist of a mom and the children. Other might be just with their grandparents while the parents are working some where far. Or maybe other children only have their dad around without their mom. But that doesn't make them less than a family.

As for the young one, Maya, for her that is normal. She got Pho pho and kung kung in Jakarta, and the Nonna and Nonno in Italy. That is just so natural for her. I think it has something to do with how , us, as the adults see life , if we see that our life is sad because we do not have our families here, then our children will think like that as well.

We've been friends which mostly are Indonesian , or other "expat" families during our years back in China, and me and my friends kind of support each other. We were pretty close and spent a lot of good time together, because we want our kids to be exposed to other families as well , but since we do not have our own siblings there, we still want our children to have other "adult" figure that they can feel close too, we were like the other "pillars" their children can lay on to.

I think it is healthier for children to have other " grown up " figures that they can related too, like aunts, uncles, older cousins, or grandparents .

And then the other things is about their appearance as well. We never want to emphasized that they are different because they "looked" different or that because their father is"different" or we are "different".

So for them , they are NOT different at all. Which is exactly the way I see my husband and my children .

When someone , who also happened to have children with mixed background or race, told me that they are worry to send their kids to any local school because the other children might make fun of the child because the child came from a mixed race/culture, I was stunned. It never occurred at all in our mind. They want to send the children to the place where they are also other mixed children or white people there.

Children are mean, they said. And since our children are different, they will be the main target at school , so we want a special school for them.

But again, mean children are everywhere , Not just at school. They can opt for homeschooling of course if they want too, but then how about when the children go outside in the neighborhood? play with their cousins? will they be mean too?

Ok... but remember ADULTS are mean as well!! Or...should I said adults are meaner?

We can't protect our children all the time for the rest of their lives, or can we?

Even if I could, I won't choose that , what they called it " cotton wool parenting" or the over protected children.

The children need to deal with the crisis in their life, but not by avoiding them. If so, they will turn out to be a "denying" adult, instead of facing and solving the problem, they will only depends on other to solve their problem ( like their parents?) for the rest of their life? and denying the problem and run away from reality over and over again.

I'd like to be the supporting parents, by the meaning that I would like to see my children to try to solve the problem on their own, or asking me advice for some, they might fail as well, but I won't be the one who will solve the problem , until certain limit ( depend on the children age of course). I want them to know that their parents are there on their side no matter what, and when they "fell" we will be there to "catch" them, but we won't " carry" them all along the way.

I want them to be a responsible adults, who can take the consequences of their own acts. That is how my parents raised me and my siblings.

".....give them the baits and not the fish!"

Progress at school

Most of the parents now are busy with their children exam weeks I guess by now. But since Indy 's school system is different so she will not have any exams next week. I didn't even realized it that next week is exam's week because this is my first year also in primary :) haha I mean my first dd in her first year of primary in Malaysian education system.
Instead she just had a SPORT DAY today. Where she earned 3 medals . They sure did have fun!

But this doesn't mean the school is teaching kids to be lazy. Instead the system has a personal exam for every chapter in their pace book. If they can't pass the self exam , they can't move on to the next chapter. Thus they can't move to another PACE ( workbooks) . When a student finish a PACE book the teacher will issue a Congratulation Cards. So parents can follow up how is their children progress at school.

Congratulation cards

The teaching system, I might say , It's great. The teaching is more into "one on one" based instead of one vs 40 students. Her learning center has 18 students in total with one teacher and 2 supervisors to help the learning process. I can see that Indy 's reading skills has been improved, the most important is that she really love the process of learning. She keep saying that she can't wait to go back to the school the next day and she loves her school so much. I think, at least for me, if a kid loves the school that will help a lot of the learning process.

And if you think the school will cost a bomb, well it is not true. The fee is the same with other private school (or lesser than that) .

She also earned more merits from school ( from finishing the PACE book, tidy up her own locker, memorized bible verses etc) And she even redeemed a pencil from the merits that she has earn.
And she is proud.

Bottom line is that she is learning good. But the school wont give any rank for the students base on the test result, but instead the school will appreciate the students' efforts. She loves her teachers too which I think is important. A kid need a role model that she admire beside their parents, so when she asked me for opinion and has any doubt , it is always great to have another person that she can ask to. I think her teachers is just the right person for that.

Anyway, these are the photos from today sports day...

She is on the " green " team. The other teams are" Red, Blue, and Yellow
They don't stay according to the age. There are big gege and jie jie as well in the same group( age from 14 and above) . It is nice to see teenagers being kind and protective to the young ones instead of being bossy and bully.

Getting ready for 4 x 50 meter relay for under 11 years old group

Get set , ready and GO!!!

waiting for her turn

Listening to her teacher ( or not)

Indy with teacher Mary

Receiving her first medal

Showing of her medal that she won for 4 x 50 meter relay and she got another one for 3 legged running and another one ( not sure for what :D )

Lil intruder , Maya was there too! I forgot about sun block...so they got red faced after that! :-)

She is brave

Yes Indy is brave. Since I can't find a school bus that want to bring her to school , so I need to arrange other transportation for her.

First I arrange taxi to pick her, for the first 2 days I went to school with her.But on the 3rd day I just sent her to the taxi and then she go with the taxi driver alone to her school.
Of course I didn't just call a random taxi to bring her. The driver is some one I can trust.
Anyway, it is a big step for her to go to primary school and take a taxi ride alone :)
Also to pick her up, the taxi driver pick her from school and bring her home. I wait for her at home.
And she is ok with it. Isn't she brave? She can deal with the new school, new friends, new environment pretty well. And to ride on a taxi alone is a pretty big deal for a 6 years old :)

Thank God , now we have other alternative, since taxi fees are high here. Now Indy is going to school with a lady in our neighborhood, she pass the school every morning and she lives near us. So she can bring her to school. And the good news is she 's also a sunday school teacher at the Indy's school church. Isn't it great?
So Indy follow this kind lady to school. And she is ok with that too. She understand that mama doesnt have her driving license yet .

Indy first bento for her primary school day

Friday is the busy day for Indy, she got P.E at 7.30 then got a small break, she must change clothes and shoes and have a quick breakfast.
The school will end at 1 pm instead of 12.15 like any other days.
She will have recess for 20 mins at 10 a.m while the bigger kids will have recess on 10.20. Which I think is good thing to do. Otherwise it will be too crowded and the big kids can "squeeze" out the young kids. :)

So I thought today she should eat more proper during her recess , since the school will end at 1.

So here what I made for her. Super simple bento hahah...She wants fried egg, cheese sausage and I put a couple of grapes.

I did this is a few mins only as you can tell from the way the sausage been cut hehee..
need to cut more nice next time


This is her in the school canteen, which is very clean and tidy and the ladies behind the counter are very kind and helpful to the new and young students. And there are a few teachers and supervisors there as well to make sure that the new students get the food , and pay the right amount :)

Indy on the second day of school , did manage to bought her own food but instead of sausage and fried egg, she only got sausage as the lady didn't hear her that she also wanted the egg :).
On the second day, she forgot to bring down her wallet, so the teacher ended up paying for her food :)

So today, to save her time on queuing and paying, to bring her own bento is a good idea.
I should pack her bento everyday. Anyway I got plenty of the tools and boxes already ! :-D

now I m going to spy on other bento's mom blogs to search for some idea , what should I pack and prepare.

TA DA for now....