It’s back-to-school and as usual, my boys prefer Pallas Jazz school shoes for the best fit and comfort. Start the new academic year right with your best foot forward. Poorly-fitted shoes can actually hinder a child’s normal growth and comfort. It is recommended to get lightweight and flexible shoes that ensures better growing feet. Both Ethan and Ayden’s shoes come with Arch Support. This is the most important factor as Ethan has flat foot. School […]

It has been a challenging 2021. While the boys are getting used to studying online, I also noticed that they are beginning to get bored interacting through screens. Humans in general need social interactions. Being reduced to only interacting virtually may have affected their mental health where lack of personal interaction is a concern. At such, both my boys welcome recommencing of physical school with joy. While I still have mixed feelings sending them back […]

Teachers’ Day is here but this year we can’t bake anything or present red pens or beauty sheet mask to our children’s teacher due to the pandemic. So how do they convey their heartfelt gratitude towards their dedicated and hardworking teacher? Virtually of coz.. Ayden and his classmates with all their parents came together to make this video possible. We presented it to his teacher as an early Teachers’ Day gift. Needless to say, she […]

I don’t remember at what age money first fascinated me. I do remember though that I was always on the lookout for coins on the ground. The joy of discovering them was just priceless; not that I could do much with them though. Kids these days have it better than us. They are often pampered with luxury but I try not to splurge on my kid. I want him to learn to appreciate money. As […]

With a blink of an eye, the boys are going back to school. They spent most of their schooling days studying online from home in 2020 but now it is time to face the inevitable and return to physical schooling. I must admit that it is a mixed feeling to allow the boys to get back to school. In one way, I am glad that they are going to be reunited with their friends. They […]

What is PYTHON? I am not computer savvy so I have no idea what PYTHON is until recently. We were all locked at home due to the pandemic, bored to tears and then I saw it – in my email, a promotion for e-learning on Python from 5T3M. I asked my boys if they are game to give it a try and they looked at me wide eyed, as clueless as myself. Since we have […]

How is the New Normal treating you? For me and the boys, we still spend most of our time at home with the only time we are out is to school and back. Spending endless time at home also means having in hand lots and lots of games to keep us occupied. When I say games, I don’t mean online games but physical games that we can play together as a family. These are some […]

After a month of staying home and about 2 weeks learning from home, the boys are getting comfortable with online learning. Big brother Ethan has to wake up early on certain days for online lessons but the rest of us sleep in till noon 😅 Lil’ Ayden has more homework and video assignments to do compared to Ethan. Today I’m sharing one of his assignment video. He learns Science in Mandarin as he is in […]

The only thing Ethan talks about these days are cubes, football and drums. So to break into his world, I made myself learn one of his language ie cubing. The other day,  I tried to solve the 3×3 while Ethan tries to solve as many cubes as possible before I am done. Did I manage to solve the 3×3? How many cubes did Ethan manage to solve while I was working on my 3×3? Let’s […]

I can’t believe I am saying this but WHITE canvas shoes will soon be a thing of the past in schools in Malaysia. I have been holding on to it for the longest time ever since our Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik announced that all students will wear black shoes in the near future. I have always loved white shoes. I mean we were not given a choice back then. Love it or hate it, […]

It is that time of the year again to start getting everything ready for the next academic year. It is wise to spend wisely as there will be a lot of stuffs to purchase. One of the first and most important things that comes to mind is school uniform. When we consider that school children spend at least 6 hours a day wearing their uniforms in our hot and humid weather, we know that this […]

You know that feeling when you think you’ve got it all planned out and then all out of sudden it’s like as if your world has been shaken like a snow globe and everything got messed up? That’s me at the moment.  And it is regarding Ethan’s secondary school journey. You see, he’ll be sitting for his UPSR this September. Last week, he brought home a form for us to select the secondary school to […]

How do you guide your child to master languages other than their mother tongue? For me, I expose my boys to stories as well as videos. I can’t help them with Mandarin so I send them to enrichment classes but I personally guide them to read, write and speak in Bahasa Malaysia. I instill the love of reading in the boys from the very beginning when they were young. I make bedtime stories interesting. I […]

Ethan’s school had recently held a briefing for parents whose children will be sitting for the UPSR exam this September. The aim of the talk is to brief parents on the latest UPSR format so we can guide our children better during revision time with them. While it is tougher today to sit for UPSR as the questions can be more challenging, with the right guidance and support, it is not impossible for our children […]

The kindergarten Ayden goes to has thematic learning whereby they focused on one particular theme for the entire month. The theme for February is All About Myself and the first thing he learned was how a person is ‘created’. His teacher told stories about how Daddies will eject many swimming champions that look like tadpoles yet are not really tadpoles and how they raced with all their might to reach the ‘egg’ from the Mommies. […]

Ayden experienced 3 days of kindy last week. It is his first time attending preschool. He is the only one in his class without a uniform as the rest of the children are existing students in that school since last year or maybe a couple of years before. I decided to send him to a year of kindergarten to let him experience sports day as well as graduation concert as he will be going to […]

It is the first day of school. Many young children are attending school for the very first time. To some of these children, it may be the first time they are separated from their parents. They may experience fear or anxiety when being parted from their parents or carers. I was a teacher before giving up my job to be a stay at home mom. Let me share with you my fair share of experience on […]

It’s the final day of 2018 academic calendar. Ethan bids farewell to some of his classmates as the school reshuffled their classes hence some of them won’t be in the same class next year.  Ethan did good, finishing in the Top 3 in his class as well as for the entire Primary 5.  He was also more active this year, competing and winning several Science and Art contests. Next year will be a tough one […]

STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines: Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. Rather than teach the four disciplines as separate and discrete subjects, STEM integrates them into a cohesive learning paradigm based on real-world applications. It is the end of the academic year for 2018 hence I took the advantage to sign Ethan up for a Parent-Kid Experimental Workshop with me at […]

Ayden has a little blue whale pouch that he brings everywhere he goes these days. In that cute little pouch is Möbi Kids number tiles and Möbi Activity Booklet. WHAT IS MÖBI KIDS? Möbi Kids is a fun, gentle and collaborative math game by the inventors of Mobi – The Numerical Tile Game in a Whale Pouch! Möbi Kids is the perfect introduction to math for the little ones – fun, simple and multi-coloured.  HOW TO PLAY? Each player […]

I dislike last-minute shopping. I always prepare stuffs early especially when it comes to special occasions such as festive celebrations and school related items. I prefer to shop early to avoid the massive crowd closer to school reopening. Would you believe it if I tell you that I’ve settled Ethan’s school uniform as well as school shoes for next year? We went shopping last weekend and I am so relieved that everything is already sorted […]

Ayden is into the 4th month of learning the drums and has shown vast improvements as he practices regularly at home. This is the best age to be learning music as he has all the time in the world. He is not burdened with school nor homeworks so he can enjoy playing the drums as and when he wishes. Ayden learned another song over the week. It is his favourite song – Uptown Funk. I […]

I homeschool Ayden. I think I have said that too many times. The benefit of homeschooling is we have the leisure of time in our hands. It is up to me to draw up a schedule for little Ayden and learning is not confined to home only. I bring him out on week days when there is lesser crowd in the mall. We go to the bookstore to read some books. Sometimes we’ll buy the […]

It’s been a week since I last updated my blog. Our entire nation is having ELECTION fever and now that we have created history and have a brand new government, all eyes are glued on our handphones for constant updates. I checked my Whatsapp and various news portals every 5 minutes till I have no time nor interest to blog as I doubt anyone is keen to read anything other than our country’s political updates […]

For parents with children going to Primary 1 in 2019 & 2020, it is time to register online for your child at https://public.moe.gov.my Online registration is only for schools in Peninsula Malaysia and only parents are allowed to do the registration on behalf of their children. I registered Ayden today. Here’s how you register ONLINE. Step 1 Go to https://public.moe.gov.my Step 2 Create an account if you are a new user or simply log-in if […]

I homeschool elder brother Ethan during his preschool years. I’m doing the same with little Ayden presently. I wonder how other young children aged 4-5 years old are able to learn in a classroom seating environment as from my observation, both my boys require tremendous individual attention during their formative years. What I love about homeschooling is they can learn at their own pace, anywhere and anytime of the day. This way, Ayden gets ample […]

Alright, where do I start? I was invited by Bernama to be one of their esteemed panelists for their LIVE, English language talk show, ‘The Nation’ on Monday, 12th February 2018, speaking about CHILDHOOD OBESITY IN MALAYSIA.  As I’ve mentioned in my previous blog posts, I wasn’t feeling well the past weeks with me and the boys down with some kind of bug going around but this is a topic I feel strongly about. I advocate outdoor playtime […]

The school term holidays and school festive holidays for year 2018 have been announced on the Ministry of Education Malaysia’ website. 2018 School Term and Holidays For schools in Kedah, Johor, Kelantan and Terengganu For schools in Perlis, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Pahang, Sabah, Sarawak, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya. 2018 School Festive Holidays Now that the cuti perayaan and cuti penggal 2018 dates are all out, hurry make your holiday […]

We visited the fire station at Sri Hartamas on Sunday. The excursion was arranged by Ayden’s Mandarin enrichment school. He had been looking forward to this for weeks since he first found out about it. It’s so cute to see they actually have uniforms for the little ones. This is even more awesome than Kidzania because everything here is REAL! Ayden brought his fire truck toy along to this excursion. He wanted his little fire […]

It rained the past couple of days so I had to find something interesting for the boys to do as they can’t go to the playground. Both Ethan and Ayden love colouring and painting. Usually I’ll print something out for them to colour or paint but today I tried something different with them.  Today, I introduced the boys to augmented reality colouring app for smartphones or tablets. It is not something entirely new as it […]

Ayden has been attending Mandarin enrichment class for over a month now. This has totally changed our routine and I am still trying to adjust having to go to bed earlier at night so that we can wake up early for his class. This also means I now have less time to work on my blog and it kind of driving me crazy a little but it’s okay. I’ll find my way to make this work […]

Being home-schooled, one of the activities I frequently do with Ayden at home is painting. Painting provides endless benefits to children. Even myself as an adult find painting therapeutic. Here are some of the benefits of painting for children: Hand-Eye Coordination – This is a very important skill at their age; to be able to coordinate their hand movements at par with their vision. It may sound easy to us but for young children, practice makes […]

This is the story Ayden and I have been reading last week – The Hare and the Tortoise in Bahasa Malaysia. He learned many new words through this story such as mengejek, mengajak, berlumba dan laju.  Here is the video of Ayden summarizing the story for us. Hope you’ll enjoy it. Ayden @ 3Y5M Let me also share this video of Ayden summarizing the story of The Grasshopper and Ants in Bahasa Malaysia (in case you missed […]

Ayden is 3 years 5 months. He is still not attending any preschool at the moment so it is entirely my responsibility to keep up with his total development. Children pick up a new language best below 6 years of age so I take this opportunity to teach Ayden an extra language besides English. I teach him to speak in Bahasa Malaysia. I wish I can teach him Mandarin but that is totally an alien language […]

Homeschooling Ayden has its ups and downs. There are days when he refused to touch any books and prefer to just play. On days like that, I’ll improvise and see how we can make it a learning session nevertheless. I saw that Ayden was engrossed playing with his PlayDoh so I suggested for us to make a stop motion animation out of it. This is the first time he is involved in the making of […]

It’s the school holidays and since I have a little more time to spare, I would like to share an insight of Ethan’s journey in improving his grasp on English. I don’t speak, write nor read Chinese so the only language I use at home with the kids is English with a mixture of Bahasa (as I am after all a Peranakan Nyonya). I thought he would not fare too well in the Chinese language […]

As you know, Ayden is home-schooled just like his elder brother Ethan during his preschool years. However, I intend to send Ayden to school earlier as I believe he may benefit socially in school. By school I meant those enrichment centres that is not classroom type of learning. We actually planned to send Ayden earlier this year but has been procrastinating as I’ve been busy. We finally made the effort to pay a visit to […]

As you may know, Ayden is home-schooled. I did the same with the elder brother until he is ready to go to Primary One in a public school. I intend to do the same with Ayden. I am thankful that I have the luxury of time to guide my kids during their formative years.  It requires a lot of discipline to homeschool a child. If I am lazy, my kid won’t be doing much hence […]

If you don’t already know, I am homeschooling Ayden. I intend to homeschool him throughout his preschool years. I did the same for big brother Ethan but I may send Ayden to a year of preschool for socialising before going to Primary One. I don’t know, let’s see how it goes.  Ayden learns a lot at home. We do many things together from art to Math, to reading and skill learning such as cooking and […]

It is the two weeks school holidays at the moment but we are not going anywhere just yet as big brother Ethan will be sitting for his piano exam tomorrow. Homeschooling activity carries on as usual for Ayden. Our focus this week is in the kitchen as I spend most of my time in here cooking both lunch and dinner during the holidays. Yeah, enough of outside food for a while. Let them have some […]

Today’s activity is more suitable for younger children than toddlers. We are going to learn about static electricity and how it can make a paper snake jump! First, we’ll need to draw a snake on a piece of paper. Next, cut the snake out. Before you know it, it will jump and bite you!  Watch this video to see how it actually happens: Check out also our other Science experiment:

Just like big brother Ethan during his preschool years, I am homeschooling Ayden too. Besides doing art & craft and learning music, Ayden loves Science. Today’s activity is discovering if certain objects FLOAT or SINK. I get Ayden to pick stuffs around the house and placed it in a container for the experiment. Not known to him, I added one extra stuff in there for the surprise element later. We talked about each items and […]

Today’s craft is inspired by the colourful rocks found in big brother Ethan’s school. Ayden follows Ethan on Saturdays for big brother’s Taekwondo class. He loves the colorful rocks in the school compound. That prompted me to let him paint his own rock. Materials needed are acrylic paints, paint brush, an empty egg carton for the paints and an empty Vitagen bottle to wash the paint brush. You can always use a paint palette but I […]

I remember Ethan coming home from school asking us money for a computer exam fee last year. I don’t remember if he did it in Primary One. I don’t keep track on all these. He explained that not all students are selected to sit for this exam. I remember just giving him the money. Early this year in March, Ethan told me there will be a Grade Exam Certificate Presentation at SJK C Yuk Chai and seek our […]

There was one morning when Ayden woke me up before 5am! Don’t know why, he refused to go back to bed. I left him there with the Daddy while I went down to prepare Ethan’s snack box. I went back into the room 20 minutes later to see him wide awake so I thought why not bring him along to send the kor-kor to school.  Ayden got so excited when we told him that he’ll be […]

It is the third week of school. I still havent been able to establish a routine of waking up early in the morning to prepare food for Ethan. The reason being I usually stay up till 2am for work and if I wake up at 5am, I’ll remain awake the entire day to care for the two boys. On days that I really can’t get my eyes to open, Ethan will purchase food from the canteen […]

A neighbour was googling for info on online registration for Standard One for 2017 and 2018 intake for schools in Selangor and landed in my page as I’ve blogged about the step-by-step on registering Ethan for Primary One back in 2012. She told me this evening that Sistem Pengurusan Murid Tahun 1 Online negeri Selangor (esppsel) is now closed and we are no longer able to register there.  The new site that will be of use is https://public.moe.gov.my/ […]

Most children are fascinated by animals and often have an animal that is a particular favorite of theirs. Animals are used widely in our daily education especially for younger children. A better way to introduce and educate animals to them is to let them see and experience these animals upclose which we did last month at Bukit Gambang Safari Park. The entire trip is all about animals, animals and more animals. One activity that the boys love besides riding […]

It is prize giving day today in Ethan’s school. He woke up really early to be there and will have to stay back for his afternoon class as usual. We were worried that he’ll be hungry or tired but thankfully the teacher informed us that parents are allowed to attend so the Daddy can bring Ethan out for lunch after he received his prize.  Darling decided to attend without Ayden and I as it was […]

It took the kids quite some time to collect this much coins: But it took us longer to find a coin-counting machine that works. We went to many banks, searching high and low only to be told that their coin-counting machines are out of order OR their cut out time is 11am. Who on Earth goes out to deposit coins so early? Okay maybe it is only ME who does not leave the house before […]

This is Part 2 to Ethan’s School Holiday Programme at The School, Jaya One. You can read about School Holiday Programme Part 1 where he participated in activities from Fantasia Music, Craft Space, The children’s house, Cross Muay Thai, The Academy of Rock, Science Bridge Academy and Dialogue in The Dark. The activities in Part 1 were for Day 1 and 2. Today, I shall continue with Ethan’s Day 3 and 4. Ethan missed the […]

My readers have been asking me how come I don’t write much about Ethan anymore. The truth is he is always at school while I am always at home with Ayden so obviously I have more to write about Ayden than Ethan right? Anyway, it is the school holidays now and we gave Ethan all the love and attention possible. So this post is all about him today :P Ethan actually has a hectic school […]

With a blink of an eye we are already half way through the two weeks of the school holidays. Our holidays started great with the 4D/3N trip up to Genting but immediately after we got home it was busy, busy and busy for Ethan as he has his Grade 2 Trinity Piano exam on the 4th and Grade 4 Trinity Drum exam on the 10th June! So while other children are playing and enjoying their […]

Last week Ethan came home with a simple instruction – to select a fruit to bring to school for a project in Pendidikan Moral this week. We told him to bring apples as we always have apples at home. I’m referring to the edible ones this time :P He informed his teacher he will be bringing apples and the teacher gave him another set of instructions – to peel and cut it into cubes and […]

With a blink of an eye, the long weekend is over. Can’t believe how tiring it is to spend time with two active boys these days. It is either age is catching up with me or the boys are getting tougher. Out of the four off days, we get to spend one day at home peacefully with no agenda planned as the daddy needed to attend to some matters with our new tenant. As I […]

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Even the longest and most difficult ventures have a starting point. I home-schooled Ethan when he was younger. I don’t believe in sending him to preschool but as he grows up, I know I will have to eventually expose him to the real world to learn not only on academics but survival skills as well. We decided to enrol him into a public school. […]

If your kids are studying in government school, it is that time to log into http://sapsnkra.moe.gov.my/ibubapa2/index.php to check your kids’ exam result and even position in class.  You’ll be directed to this page: 1) Key in their IC Number 2) Tick the relevant school (Sekolah Rendah for Primary and Sekolah Menengah for Secondary) 3) Select Year at TAHUN 4) Click ‘Semak Laporan’ Once you are in there, click on the relevant exam term that you want to […]

It’s 1st of April 2015. Things will never be the same again after today with the implementation of GST but I’m not going to talk about that as I am no expert in this issue. I shall wait and see how this will affect my family’s expenditure. In preparation for GST, I resumed teaching. I am now giving private tuition again at night in my house. I’m so thankful I still have students eventhough I’ve […]

Every where Ethan goes, people will be asking him, “Ethan, have you eaten?”. One fine day, Ethan told his Dad that when he was younger, he did not understand what that means. He thought people were always asking, “Ethan, have you Ethan?” and to him, that made no sense. Only recently did he finally get what people meant when they asked him, “Ethan, have you eaten?” His conversation with his Dad prompted him to start […]

OK here’s the deal. Ethan came home from school today telling me his English teacher taught him a new word. I said, “Great! Tell me what word is that?” He said, “Siu-wing”. Me: Suing? Ethan: No, ‘siu-wing’. Me: What’s ‘siu-wing’? Ethan: You know, thread and needles… sewing? Me: Ah! Soh-ing! Ethan: Yes. Soh-wing! Me: No… Soh-ing! Ethan: Yes. Soh-Wing! Ok ok. I don’t mind him pronouncing it as ‘soh-wing’ though the ‘w’ is supposed to […]