Harvynna's progress at school

Its' almost the end of the 1st term and H is now sitting for her 1st mid term exams or know as PKSR. This is the most stressful time for me, trying to ensure that she is prepared for the exams. It has been a terribly hectic 2 months as she was part of her school's action song team. The school was all out to win and they had practises every afternoon till 5 and on certain weekends and public holidays. They had to be at school by 5.30am on competition days and had to miss quite a number of school for practices.The hard work paid off as they emerged Champion for the Zone Championships and Runner up for the State level. Although everyone was disappointed that they did not win the State level, but it was a great experience for her and she knows that victory does not come without hard work.

The State level Championship was last week (the week before her exams) - so the last 2 months, I have been rushing to pick her up from school after work and bringing her home to ensure homework is completed and some revision is done. I know at times, she comes back totally drained, thats why I started the preparations early. Immediately after the competition on Thursday, it was work, work, work, practice, practice, practice. I know she is only in Primary one but the competition is so great. Besides, I know she is a smart girl, thats why I push her to reach her maximum potential. The problem is the language coz everything is now in BM. She finds difficulty understanding some of the instructions and a lot of time was spent on it.

I prepared a note book for her where i wrote down the frequently used words  and their translation. THen the book expanded to include short notes and topics and areas to remember.

I told her that she has done her best, and done the revisions, so now just do her best. Its ok to make mistakes it she does not know the answer, as she will learn, but it is not ok to make careless mistakes. She knows that she must check and check again once she has finished each paper.

Wish her all the best. Today she has her Maths and Science paper, which I feel are the most important papers. Another 2 days more and she can be free to do what she wants. She has insisted that she wants to now go for dance classes, on top of her speech and drama, takwando, musical theatre and swimming. The life as a  child growing in KL is definitely not easy.........

2011

My first post for the year!! With the convenience of Facebook, blogging is such an effort.

2011 began as a new and exciting year. Harvynna started Primary One and Rowena is now a semi-senior at kindergarten.

Let's start with Harvynna:

Its been more than a month and she has settled in well at her school. Well, the first 3 weeks was more of an orientation programme. It was only after that that they started with lessons proper - of which, she is bored to tears. She wonders why she does the same work that Rowena does at kindergarten. Poor gal! She said that ' I know you sent me here because its the best government school, but it is still lousy'. Told her to keep that opinion to herself or she will be blacklisted!!

The only consolation is that they have watered down the BM syllabus, so its not as difficult as the KBSR syllabus. To overcome her boredom, Harvynna has increased her appetite for reading. Her favourites are Amelia Jane and Mr Meddle  series by Enid Blyton, The Magic Ballerina Series and Roahl Dahl books. She thinks Roahl Dahl's books are the greatest!
To maintain her sanity, she continues with her Taekwando classes at her previous kindergarten (together with Rowena), and also goes for Musical Theatre, Speech and Drama and will start swimming lessons this weekend. Hopefully, all these activities will tire her out and she will complain less!

Most of her front milk teeth have dropped and have been replaced by permanent teeth. Its quite funny to see that the permanent teeth are much bigger than the milk teeth.

As for Rowena, she is now in the 5 year old class. She still can't read and refuses to learn. I tried many tactics, but she still does not want to learn - so I decided not to push it. Eventually, she will learn. After all, her ambition is to be a 'tol counter'   - the person who collects toll money at the toll booth.

But her Maths skills is slowing improving.  I guess she is keen on picking up the necessary skills for that job!
She goes for Taekwando, Ballet and Speech & Drama and will also start swimming. She loves anything that has nothing to do with academic learning.(except for Taekwando as she gets lots of scolding from the teacher)

The year has only just begun and it is already madness. From waking up at 6am to prepare her breakfast and lunch, send her to school and head off to work myself and rushing around on weekends for enrichment classes. To think, there's just another 13 years more to go!!!

Upgraded to a school going mum

Yes, my status has been upgraded since Tuesday, 21 Dec, 2010!

Harvynna attended her Primary One Orientation at her big school in her new uniform. Initially, I was quite afraid as everything will be in BM and I dont know how she will be able to adapt to the switch. But, I dont think it will be a problem after I saw how she blended in during the orientation.

About a week before, she was already getting excited and asked me, 'Do i have to speak in Malay? Will everyone be speaking in Malay?' I told her that the teachers will probably speak in Malay but I am sure all the kids will be speaking in English as most of the children from that school come from English speaking homes.

When we reached the school, many parents and students were already there, some in the canteen, some in the Primary One classrooms. We went to the row of classes and saw that she had been placed in 1 Dinamik. We were also glad to see that another boy from her kindergarten was also placed there. That made her really happy too as they were chummy since kindergarten.

Once we were in the hall, the Principal requested that all the children be sent to the classrooms as they had to sit for a test!! I was a bit annoyed that we were not informed of the test. But, I knew Harvynna was quite well prepared for PRimary One.

From 2011 onwards, all students entering PRimary One will be following the KSSR syllabus. There have been some changes to the curriculum where a more holistic approach will be adopted. At stage One, there will be less emphasis on exams. Students will also be graded based on their involvement in co-curricular activities. So far so good........

Students will stay back once a week to do either CHinese, Arabic or Tamil.

Core subjects are English, Malay, Maths, music, Seni Visual. I did not see any Science but books on Science and Technology were included in the booklist.  The subjects will be taught in a thematic method. They claim that the teaching and learning methodologies will be more interactive and interesting. We will have to wait and see!

Since this school works very closely with the PIBG, the PIBG also arranges various other activities (at a cost, of course) to provide a more well rounded education.  The Principal mentioned that this school scored the second highest best results in the recent UPSR exam in klang Valley and many students have represented the country in various arenas. As one of the 'Sekolah Berprestasi Tinggi', the school has the autonomy to do additional programmes, if necesssary.
So , I hope everything works out well for her as we moved house just to be near this school.

The test was a Ujian Linus to test children's basic skills in literacy and numeracy. 2 papers were tested - Bahasa Malaysia and Mathematics. Harvynna and her friend found the paper easy peasy. (It was kindergarten level) The test is to identify these students and place them in a Linus class. The Linus class will help these students achieve the basic skills before they move on. This system would be very good in the rural schools, I guess. The other students will be placed in the normal stream class and there will be no streaming throughout. Students will be placed based on gender and race.(to have a good balance)

This weekend, my task is to wrap all her books (yawn!!) and get her ready for her big day.

Concert & Graduation 2010

                        Harvynna's graduation ceremony

                            Rowena's monkey dance

                          Harvynna's Tiki Tiki Dance

                            With my celebrities

Moving on....

Can't believe that my little girl has 'graduated' from preschool and is now moving on to Primary school. This is a big step for all of us as it affects our whole routine. Waking up at six to ensure she gets to school on time. Its different with kindergarten where everyone is late.

Harvynna will be attending her Primary school orientation on Dec 21, where she gets to wear her new uniform. She is very excited. My journey has only just begun.

Dug up some old pics of Harvynna at kindergarten.

                               5 year old

                               6 year old

                                      Now a senior at school - introducing Rowena to everyone

                        Last day of preschool with her dearest principal - all grown up, confident and ready to    
                       take on Primary school (November 30th, 2010)

Year End 2010

Its been a while. Making it a point to put something down as it is almost the end of the year and Harvynna starts a brand new era next year. What has been happenning since the last post?

 - family holiday to Cherating. We went on a short getaway to Cherating during the long Merdeka break. It was the first holiday in 2010. Pathetic, but somehow we managed to do it. The girls had a whale of a time swimming, lazing, eating and just spending time with us. Rowena was quite sick before we went. But once we reached Cherating, she immediately got well. The last day of our trip was cut short, as Rowena was summoned back to KL for a TVC shoot.

School Year End Concert & Graduation

The girl's had their annual concert at the end of October. The theme for this year was 'The Jungle Comes Alive'. Rowena's class performed a Monkey Coconut Dance and Harvynna's class performed the 'Tiki Tiki Dance'. Harvynna performed really well and was very confident. Guess her musical Theatre classes paid off. Rowena on the other hand, looked a little lost and looked like she was waiting for her performance to be over. It's her first performance on stage in front of a big audience. It was also Harvynna's graduation. This is her last year at her school and next year she will be moving to Primary One. My little girl is growing up too fast. I must say, her kindergarten has done well for her and she will definitely miss the school.

We moved....

We moved to our new place, finally. We moved because we wanted a bigger place, plus I wanted to live nearer to Harvynna's school. We now live 5 minutes away from her school and 15 minutes away from my work, which would save a lot of time next year. I can only imagine next year would be 100 times more hectic than this year with Harvynna in Primary school. I must say I am definitely a Supermum managing a full time job, 2 hyper active and demanding kids with NO maid.

Rowena's debut on tv!

Rowena's appearance in the Fernleaf ad recently.