2014 academic year

Erm... yeah... I am aware that it is now February 2015! Heh.

On top of family duties, I have been inundated with Zumba activities of all kinds and am usually so physically tired afterwards that all I do is eat and sleep!! Lol

So let's get things up to date shall we?

2014 was another good academic year. All the kids performed well and Mummy and Daddy are as proud as always!

First off, Solomon has graduated from kindergarten! He was a very proud and happy little boy when he walked on stage to accept his certificate!

His graduation portrait is now hanging on the wall at Kung Kung's house with the rest!

The kids also received their Kumon achievement medals. This was Solomon's first Kumon medal so he was ecstatic! It is Annie's last medal as she has stopped Kumon. Claire also received a book, the classic; "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory". She has followed the program for many years and has learnt so much. It is now time for her to focus on other subjects and continue self-learning for her mathematics.

This year Eva came in first in her class again!

Annie and Claire also did amazingly well by getting second position in class.

Well done all of you! Your hard work has paid off!

Now they're all into the new school year of 2015! Solomon has joined his sisters in "big children school"! No more kindy in my bus route!

Solomon has settled well into his new school and in the first week was delightfully overwhelmed by the selection of food at the canteen and wanted to buy everything! Lol!

Solomon getting his new 'big boy uniform' at the tailor.

School was meant to start at the first week of the year, but due to bad flooding in West Malaysia, some schools started a week later.

Here are all the first-day-of-school pics. Let's hope for another great year ahead!

Rise and shine!!

Waking up early for first day of school after sleeping in for 2 glorious months!

Consequences of waking up early!

First day at school! :(

Up before the sun!

Also first day at primary school for cousin Asa

First day at secondary!

Prefect this year! ;)

School 2014

First day of school for the year 2014 went well! I was half-expecting Solomon to cry, but he didn't! He was happy to see his best friend Ezzad!

Annie, Claire and Eva were also fine, since they are pretty much veterans at this schooling gig! Lol!

Meanwhile, I've started my part-time job at a veterinary supplies company. Going in two mornings a week.

So everything is still pretty new and the daily schedules and school runs are not working like clock-work yet. Give me another week or two and I think we will be back to working like clockwork!

Right now it's a bit hectic, so will write about the year-end holidays some other time. 

Happy schooling kids!

2013 academic achievements

Everyone did really well this year in school. Mum and dad are beaming with pride. They all studied hard for their exams, with the exception of Solomon, as he is only still in kindy and I don't want to push him. I didn't even know when he was having his exams. His school keeps it simple and does not pressure the kids.

Annie came in second in her class, while Eva came in first!

Claire was initially placed 3rd and did not receive a prize on prize-giving day. However, after the ceremony, the teachers gave them their report cards before leaving for home. In the car, Claire noticed that her history mark was wrong. She remembered scoring 99%, but her teacher wrote 85%! So after informing the teacher, and recalculating the scores, it was discovered that Claire was actually first in her class! Luckily she realized the mistake all by herself. The poor thing was left out of the prize giving ceremony, but at least everything was rectified in the end. They printed the first place certificate for her and gave her the MPH book store gift voucher.

Even Solomon did surprisingly well in his test papers!

Cousin Amanda also came in second in her class

Well done!

Square

So the other morning, this mummy just realized kid no.4 was having his first Chinese spelling test later at school!

With no time to learn, I figured getting one out of four correct would be good enough; better than a big fat zero! :)

So one of the words was "kou", meaning mouth. "Kou" is the simplest to write, as it is basically just a square.


So in the car on the way to school;

Mummy: When teacher say "kou" you just draw a square okay??

Solomon: Okay.

Mummy: Remember, "kou" is a square okay?

Solomon: Okay.

Mummy: If you don't know the rest, just leave it blank.

Solomon: Okay.


Then, after school;

Mummy: So how was the spelling test?

Solomon: Okay.

Mummy: Did you draw a square for "kou"?

Solomon: I don't know where is the square.

!!!

I think I should've just told him to draw four squares! Guaranteed one correct at least! Lol!

Kindy sports day 2012

So the next day, on Eva's actual birthday, 4th of August, was the Kindy Sports day (more like telematch). Eva and Solomon had been practicing for their event in school for ages.

After the final rehearsal held at the main hall, Solomon told me that the teacher said they would get prizes but the teacher forgot to give it to them! Apparently he thought it was the real thing and was expecting to get his medal. Teacher obviously did not explain to them properly that it was only a rehearsal!

Well, on the actual day, many proud and eager parents crowded the hall to witness their precious little ones in action! Everyone came armed with cameras and camcorders!

Marching in..

Solomon performing to a song about colours

Solomon's bouncing event

Eva performed a robot dance...

Eva was a farmer planting carrots!

 Everyone received a medal for their excellent job! Solomon and Eva loved their very first medal and wore it the whole day!

The support team!

The kids all did a great job and were very proud of their well-deserved medals! I think the teachers were also amazing, as I could see a lot of effort was put into all the elaborate props used. Well, anyone who handles dozens of kids for a living is to be commended everyday anyway! :)

School starts

So school started on Wednesday. It was hard to wake up at 6am again, after more than a month of waking up at 9am!!

Actually, I had to wake up at 5:30 am to send Hubby to the airport!

Kids no.1, 2 and 3 did not have much problem waking up as they were excited to get to school and see their friends! Claire is no longer in kindy and was going over to Annie's school so it was a bigger change for her. Annie and Eva were still with their last year's classmates, so it was just back to business as usual.

Solomon however woke up with a mysterious pain in his ankle! It was a little suspicious, the convenient timing and all... Solomon was to go to Eva's school and start kindy, so it was a major change for him. I thought he might have been faking the limp to escape school!

But after some inspection, the ankle did indeed seem to be slightly swollen. So I let him stay home on the first day of school. Later that day at home, when he said he wanted to play the iPad, I tested him by asking him to come over to my room, and he crawled over! Hahaha! That confirmed that he was not faking! The poor boy...

So anyway, Claire settled in really well in her new class and I've been going over during their lunch break to make sure she's okay. Annie is being a good big sis and takes good care of Claire at school.

Solomon went to school the next day. It was the second day for most of the kids, but the first for Solomon. I was a bit worried that he would cry and cling, like Claire and Eva did, but he just sat down and waved me goodbye!!

I was a bundle of emotions! Happy that he did not cry and I did not have to attend kindergarten! Proud that my little boy was so independent! And sad at the same time, knowing that my baby had grown up and doesn't need Mommy anymore!! *sniff*

Oh yes, that day was also the day that Kuching flooded! There were many areas inundated by flash floods and Kuching practically came to a standstill that morning.There was also a tragedy  where a schoolgirl, on the way to school, fell into a storm drain and a man jumped in after her! He was just working at a petrol station nearby and didn't even know how to swim! Both of them were swept away. I do not know if they have found their bodies yet. It's really sad.

It was pouring bucket the night before and the rain just kept coming down relentlessly! By the time we set out for school, parts of the road we had to use were submerged.

Luckily I drive an Avanza, because it's quite elevated and safe from the waters. There were many cars parked by the roadside after breaking down. Many more were turning back! It was getting a bit scary, but we made it to school safely, albeit rather late!

Some schools had to close and it wasn't even king tide yet. I sure hope there isn't any more watery drama to come!!

Anyway, I'm pooped from playing school bus driver. It's a new schedule with more time on the road this year, so I hope I'll get used to it soon!

Happy schooling everyone! :)

End of school year 2010

Yesterday, was the last day of school for Annie. Claire and Eva's school let out a day earlier, so we all went to Annie's last school assembly for the year to see jie jie get her certificate during the prize giving and also perform in the mini concert afterwards. Mummy and Daddy are very proud that she got 2nd place in her class this year. Now to beat the no.1 boy next year!! Hahahahah!

Anyway, we got there a little late and missed the prize giving. But we did get to see Annie play the recorder during the performance which followed. The school was abuzz with energy, as everyone was in great spirits since the holidays had officially begun! One and a half  months of "NO SCHOOL"! Annie was also happy when she got her straight A report card and of course over the moon that school was over for the year!

Nothing spells HOLIDAY like ice-cream!

Yay! We did get the photo of Annie receiving her award in the end. Her friend's dad so kindly emailed it to me! Thank you so much!

Kindy open day

While Hubby was busy with his buddy's wedding activities on Saturday, I was preoccupied with kids 1 through 4. Solomon was running a high temperature, Annie had Taekwondo and music classes which she had to be ferried to and fro from, and Claire and Eva were participating in their kindergarten's Open Day.

At their kindy open day, there were various activities going on in the individual classrooms:

stamping with banana stems and carved potatoes...

learning about magnets via 'fishing'...

instilling environmental awareness by recycling paper...

computer aided learning... Annie hung around awhile because her Taekwondo class started later and was being held just around the corner in an adjoining block. Solomon was left at home with Sidekick to get some rest.

Here they volunteered to be interviewed! They'd do anything for candy! :)

A wee little 4 year old boy sang while playing the ukulele! If I am not mistaken, he has two older brothers who are also super talented with the guitar. He couldn't even pronounce his 'L' sound yet, so he was going,"Yu ya ya yu ya ya yu ya yu ya yay..." Too cute...

Then Eva participated in a telematch game where she had to run to a toy house and pick out her name from a bunch of paper gingerbread men cut-outs and run back and tag her teammate.

Claire's year did a dance to the 'Shalalalala' song.

They have all been practicing for months for this special occasion and everyone of them did extremely well! That day, the school was full of parents with cameras snapping away and you could see their faces beaming with pride!