Harvynna's Parent Teachers Meet

Harvynna's school has really been keeping me on my toes the last few weeks. 2 weekends ago, it was her Sports day, then last Saturday was their Open Day and they had some activities for the 5 year olds (only to find out that me and another parent were the only ones that went!!) and today was the Parent-Teacher meet.

I went in early, so I did not have to take too much time off work. Her Principal had also arranged for 3 parents to be interviewed by NST and as they wanted one from each race, so Harvynna and me were selected!! The topic was on sending kids for extra classes at a young age!

Anyway, Harvynna had good reviews from all her teachers. But then again, I dont think any kindergarten teacher would actually put down any child. Children at this age tend to develop at different paces and all they need is encouragement and support.

However, I did see Harvynna's work and I know that she is a very responsible and diligent student. Her school is not one of those extreme academic ones with exams and stuff - they follow the format of those international preschools which gears children for the International Primary Curriculum. Her teacher gives her extra work as she finishes her work very fast, hence she has an extra exercise book where she does Primary One work.

Her reading in all 3 languages is good, even Mandarin! I checked with the Mandarin teacher and she says that Harvynna has grasped the language well and even corrects her when she makes mistakes! I then heard Harvynna having a short conversation in Mandarin with her teacher. The teacher had always thought that Harvynna's dad was Chinese!! However, she does not have anyone to practise speaking Mandarin to, so she might probably forget it once she goes to Primary school. What a waste!

As for Bahasa Malaysia, she also needs to practise speaking. All the kids in her class come from English Speaking homes, and hardly speak any Malay. I must say that the school's Bahasa teacher is very good as Harvynna went in with Zero BM and has now improved tremendously.

Then I spoke to the music teacher that teaches the 'Off Schulwerk' programme in her school. Harvynna is quite musically inclined but she likes things that are fast moving as she is more boisterous in nature. As such, she wont really like activities like piano lessons or ballet as she will find it too regimented. Something like modern dance will be better for her and she will love it.

Overall, I am happy with Harvynna's school as I like the way they teach and manage the children. I did have my reservations as they are not academically inclined and it may be a problem when she goes to Primary school. But I think that with some guidance, she will be able to cope well as she has the basic knowledge. It is also very important for the parents to play a role in helping their children and not totally depend on the school. I do a lot of activities with her at home to spark her interest. Think I should start sparking Rowena's interest now!

Harvynna and her favourite baby!

Harvynna's school sports

Harvynna's kindergarten had their school sports last Saturday. It was a joint event between all 4 branches. The theme of the sports day was 'Modus Magus'

As the Bangsar branch was chosen to lead the red house fairy parade (march past), Harvynna and another 3 year old was selected to be the house mascots. Each school had to prepare the march past of different houses and there was a competition. Thanks to Barbara who introduced me to this shop in Kuchai Lama that sold fairy stuff at such a steal. I got Harvynna a set of wings, a wand and a matching hairband for RM6.90. I found the exact same pair in Bangsar Village for RM25 and something similar at toys r us for RM30!! They even had fairy dresses . As I had bought another pair for Rowena, the school borrowed that as well for the other girl.

All the schools had put in a lot of effort. The green team were the nature fairies and all of them had skirts on (made by plastic bags - very creative). I think they were from the Gasing branch.

Harvynna was very excited to be selected as the mascot. I took Rowena downstairs to see Harvynna and also to take some pictures. Rowena being herself, took the opportunity to pull out the flowers that were attached to Harvynna's skirt. Luckily, Harvynna's teacher was able to fix it in time.

It was a long, long day as the kids had to be there by 8.30 and it ended about 12.30pm. As it was a combined event, the whole event kind of dragged on. Each child only takes part in one game as there are 4 schools to consider. So we had to watch match by match and Harvynna's item was towards the end. Luckily her fairy parade was at the beginning of the event. Medals were only given out to those that came in 1st, so the others did not win anything. Unfortunately, the red house did not do very well in the telematch and did not win any prizes. They came out second in the fairy parade. They lost to the yellow house (sun fairies) that did a cheerleading routine!

As expected, Harvynna was very disappointed that she did not win a medal. She said that most of her friends received the 'gold chain' and she also wanted one. So now, I have to find a medal for her as I promised her one.

Rowena's BIG 3

Late again for this one. My baby Rowena turned 3 on the 25th of April. No longer a baby I guess, but she still acts like one and I am not complaining. She wanted a teddy bear cake as she claims that she is a teddy bear, so we got her one and it was was really nice.

Rowena is very different from Harvynna in most aspects, although she does copy everything Harvynna says and does. Now, she has started picking books and pretending to read them. She also wants to do activity books, but all she does is scribble on them. I dont mind as it makes her feel all grown up. She is not into princesses and stuff - she does not mind wearing anything as long as it looks presentable. She knows her colours now, but is not into learning alphabets and numbers, although she can count from 1-11. She would probably pick this up in school. Like Harvynna, she does not like to watch tv. She somehow knows how to occupy herself.

There is just something about Rowena that has a very soothing effect on me. She is extremely naughty, but the moment I look at her, everything seems ok. Cant pin point on what exactly, but it is just there. I think Harvynna has noticed that too, and feels hurt. There have been numerous occasions, when she says, 'Nobody cares about me' or 'You dont care about me'

My inlaws came down from KK to celebrate Rowena's birthday and lavished them with more gifts. We celebrated and cut the cake at Chillis. Rowena was very happy, as she got to cut her cake and everyone sang for her. So easy to please a 3 year old.

The photos I took came out really bad, need to steal some from my SIL camera.

Harvynna's Big 5

-very belated post-

Harvynna turned 5 on April 9th. She looks like she is 8, has the height of an 8 year old and wears shoes for a 9 year old!! Academically, I am very happy with her progress as she is doing really well at school. She is also picking up languages really fast. I cant believe that she is 5 and getting all independant. She spends a lot of time in her room reading or doing her work. What is she into now? Princesses, of course.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PRINCESS! - She is truly our talented, precious princess

Some pictures of her birthday celebration.

Note: The girl next to Harvynna is her best friend, Imani (a really lovely girl) and the boy next to Imani is her boyfriend. Caught her holding his hand and walking many times!!

On her actual birthday, we went out for lunch, took them for a pedicure at Chic Spa, Bangsar Village, then went to Marmalade Cafe to cake. Her main celebration was in her school, where she cut her cake with her friends. I was quite dissapointed with the outcome of the cake, but I had no choice as I had ordered it at the last minute and not many people could do it, being Easter weekend as well. It tasted good, though. Luckily, I managed to order Rowena's cake from the usual person and as usual, it was great - taste and design!

Crazy April

I looked at my last post and it was almost a month ago. April has been such a busy month with work and birthdays and I am glad it is almost over. Let's see what happenned in April...

April 9 - my hubby's bday

April 9 - David Archuleta's visit to my school

April 11 - My school sports day

April 11 - Small dinner in the house for hubby's birthday

April 12 -Harvynna's birthday

April 13 - Harvynna's birthday party at school

April 18 - My school's Open Day

So there, I have been so busy with all these happening at the same time. And now that it is over, I have finally fallen sick and Rowena's birthday is this saturday.

Since it was such a busy time, I did not do anything for the girls birthday. Since Harvynna's actual birthday was on a Sunday, we went out for lunch and I took the girls for a manicure at Bangsar Village. It was called 'Little Princess'. The girls loved it but of course, it didnt last for more than half a day!!

Then the next day, we cut Harvynna's cake in her kindergarten. Just got a cake organised and some party packs and it was done. She had been looking forward to this all year long.

Dont know what we will do for Rowena's birthday. This year I dont have the energy to organise a party. Will keep that for next year.

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My school had David Archuleta over as we had won the Hitz FM's 'Bring David Archuleta' to the school contest. We had to lobby real hard for it as well, as we were not shortlisted from the initial list. So, with one whole week of planning - we convinced the organisers to come to our school as we know we had the facilities to impress them and we had a school wide campaign to bring in the votes. So, we did win the contest in the end, but we were not given the official letter, and we running around to get things organised, without confirmation and we had to keep it a secret as it was supposed to be a suprise visit. At the end, the students put 2 and 2 together and knew he was coming. How could we hide it with Digi coming to set up their booths in the school, and the event management company came in with all the gigantic speakers.

On the actual day, the Hitz Fm crew came in did a GOTCHA on our students. They told them that we had done really well, but came in 2nd, and they had set up the equipment at the other school as well. The winning school got David Archuleta, and we got the morning crew instead. This was received with a lot of booing. haha. Then they finally did a GOTCHA and David came up stage.

I missed this part in the hall as we were in the function room for the photography and autograph session. I must admit he has a really good voice and looks better in person. Our students really went wild. I have never been a big fan, but he kind of grows on you. Now Harvynna and Rowena are hooked on him. They tell me' I know who is david archuleta - he is the american idol runner up', but he is very naughty - gave mummy a lot of work.

Disney on Ice - Princess Wishes

As an early birthday present, my parents got Harvynna a ticket for the show which was held over the weekend at Stadium Putra. Right until yesterday, I was still debating if I should bring Rowena along (her ticket would be free, anyway), but I dont think she would have stayed for 90 minutes. Not wanting to spoil Harvynna's show, I decided not to bring her. She did not seem interested anyway, and was happy for Harvynna to go. Of course, Harvynna kept showing off and boasting to her about it the last 2 weeks as I told her that we got front row, rinkside tickets which is just infront of the stage. That made her really excited and big headed at the same time. We were really lucky as by the time I went to purchase the tickets, there were only 2 front row seats left.She was looking around the stadium and commenting that everyone else was sitting so far away and probably cant see so well!! Show off!

There were many girls dressed up in their best princess costume, so of course, I got a good telling off from her as I told her that the princess costume would not keep her warm as the place is cold.

The show was really nice, with the props, lighting and music and of course - the beautiful costumes. Harvynna knew all the princesses and was really excited. I bought her a box of popcorn which she happily stuffed her face with throughout the show and refused to share even one with me :( There were many stalls selling all kinds of DOI merchandise at ridiculous prices. I bought the girls a penchant each and a colouring book. I think Harvynna didnt expect everything so colourful and exciting that she was very quiet when we first arrived. She totally enjoyed the show and requested to go again.

I promised Rowena that I would definitely take her if Barney comes to town. So every 5 minutes, she will ask, 'Is Barney here?' Hopefully, by the time the next show comes to town, she will be able to sit still.

Harvynna's Primary school

Registrations for children born in 2011 into Primary schools started in March. I called up the school we intend to send her to at the end of Feb, and they mentioned that the instruction had already been sent out to the schools. So, I quickly got all the documents needed and wanted to register her as early as possible since the school is one of the few good surviving government schools left, as the teachers are very dedicated since the PTA consists of influential and aggresive parents that are very demanding!!

So, she has now been officially registered and they stamped the back of her birth certificate with the name of the school and she is the 10th student to register. After all the rushing, they told us that the forms are only submitted to the Ministry next year and the acceptance letter will only be sent in July next year!!

I still dont know if sending her to a government school is the right choice with all the complaints and grouses of parents that send their children to government schools. But it is much easier to pull your child out of a government school to a private school than the other way around. I am not so worried with Harvynna as she is quite an independant learner and will survive anywhere. I dont think the large class size and undedicated teachers will work well with Rowena, though. At least, we still have time to consider Rowena's options.

I spoke to Harvynna's class teacher today and she mentioned that I dont have to worry about Harvynna as she is a fast learner and has no problem with all her subjects. she now sings a lot of Mandarin songs as well and tries to teach Rowena how to pronounce some Mandarin words with the different intonations. The only problem is she does not complete her homework. By the time, we get home each day, it is 8 plus, and the last thing she wants to do is her homework. So, on weekends, she has to make up for the whole week's work. She gives all kinds of excuses not to complete them at the babysitter's house like she has to eat, bathe, sleep, play and anything she can think of.