Tuesday 9 December 2008

Entry malam ni entry luahan hati so kalau ada sape2 nak pergi toilet dulu, ke nak buat kopi dulu and goreng keropok dulu sebelum baca my short story, dipersilakan ye :-).


The Little Misses went back to school today which means 3 more days before the end of term/ year. When they came back from school todayand I asked Miss 9 if ada homework today, she said, "Mummy, it's the final week of school already, we don't do anything much at school anymore." Rugi aje macam tu I bayar school fees for 9 weeks of school kalau cuma belajar for 8 weeks aje, hehehehe. I guess macam I dulu jugak lah masa at school, bila dah final week tu mana lah ada belajar sgt pun, cuma pergi skolah semata2 nak dpt kedatangan penuh aje! Pastu siap bawak mainan sorok2 sebab nak main dgn kawan2 kat skolah :-). At the Little Misses' school, slalunya the last day of term, they are allowed to bring board games and dvds for them to watch at school and usually it's free dress day. Miss 5's teacher dah bagi note kata they are going to have a fairytale day so the kids can come as any fairytale creature. I tanya Miss 5, "nak tak pergi school as dragon?". She said, " NO! I want to dress up as a butterfly fairy and I want to wear wings that can flap!" I've been meaning to fix their butterfly wings for ages but asik terlupa aje, tengok lah nanti kalau ingat before this Friday, hehehe....


Miss 9 pulaknya ada pot luck lunch this Thursday and she's already asked for cupcakes. Baru aje siap membakar cupcakes for her and siap buat icing. Takut tak sempat pulak tomorrow night nak membakar and nak mendecorate, tu yg bakar awal2 and tomorrow nite tinggal decorate aje. Alah, yang nak makan nya pun her classmates, just letak icing and sprinkle with 100s&1000s, it will be 'posh' enough for them :-). Bila dah masuk perut, bercampur gak nanti kan!


Speaking of school, hari tu we all pergi meeting with Miss 5's Year 1 class teachers for next year. They wanted to explain to us about 'team teaching' which basically means that there'll be 2 teachers teaching 1 big class of maximum 50 kids. The class room is really big to cope with the big number of students. The way they explained it DID NOT make the other half and I go, " YES, this is what we want for Miss 5!"


We can see some good points in team teaching but when they said that the kids will be divided into 2 groups, "higher ability" and "lower ability" and the kids will be taught according to which group they are in. Dalam hati I terdetik, takkan 2 groups aje, what about the ones yang memang dah pandai and what about the average students and what about the ones yang memang masih lagi tak kenal huruf! Because from the way some of the parents yang hadir tu tanya, they were concerned about their kids yang masih tak kenal huruf and tak reti membaca, will their kids be neglected. The other half and I were just rolling our eyes and whispering to each other, "WHAT!!!!! Your kids dah 2 tahun kat skolah, kindy and pre primary and masih lagi tak kenal huruf? Didn't you teach them at home?" Agggghhhhh, we don't want Miss 5 to be in the same class as this kids! I know a lot of the parents rely solely on the teachers at school to teach the kids, when the kids go home, sikit pun tak kisah pasal the homework or even help the kids to do their homework. I know there's a few in Miss 9's class yang memang tak pernah read story books or any book at home and I think the teacher dah tak larat nak komplen to the parents sebab the parents buat derk aje.


And we know that some of the kids in pre primary yang memang ada behavioural problems yang ganazz and rude to the teachers, biting and kicking them, surenya the teachers akan sibuk pay attention to these problematic kids that kids yang ok akan terbiar selalu. When I told the teachers yang Miss can already read, they looked like they didn't believe us. I can see from their faces that they were thinking, " The parents think that Miss 5 can 'read' but maybe Miss 5 can only 'recite' the story books by heart. Or maybe Miss 5 can 'read' only but can't understand what she's reading." Sebab after I've told them yang Miss 5 can read, they said to me yang some kids can read but we have to assess the kids to make sure yang they understand what they are reading. HELLLOOO!!!!! Excuse me, macam lah I tak tau wether my kids tau baca and paham or not the things she's reading. What do you think we are, dumb? Dia ingat we all ni uneducated ke like most of the parents there yang cuma ada primary school or high school diploma aje. Why don't they ask the pre-primary teachers about all the students kan, sape yang clever and sape yang tak pandai so they have a better understanding of the students before they enter Yr 1. Because I know for a fact that Miss 5's pre primary teacher is very impressed with Miss 5's reading and writing ability. She said, ' Miss 5 is the only one who can read and write/ spell the words. "


Then, when the Yr 1 teacher was explaining the system to us, she said, " Sorry, I'm talking to fast for you." We quickly said, " No, you are not!" Then she said, "Miss 5 might be the only one in her 'group' yang boleh baca." Dalam hati I, siannya lah the other kids tu still tak tau baca lagi. I thought Miss 5 ni average or slightly above average lah for her age. The other half said to me lepas tu, "If we show the teachers our degrees, they'll be so shocked to find out what they are for!" Tension aje lepas meeting tu, hehehehehe. The other half terus nak pull the kids out and ask me to home-school them. I told him, I am not patient at all especially with the Little Misses. Either I'll go bonkers after a month of home schooling or the Little Misses won't stop crying everyday! :-).

So, kesudahan nya, we'll still keep them there but only until Yr 7 anyway, once they go into high school, we are definitely sending them somewhere else. Miss 5 loves her kindy and pre primary teachers and she really blossoms at school. Hopefully she'll continue to love school when she goes into Yr 1. Our mission this summer holidays is to make sure Miss 5 can read all Dr. Seuss' books fluently. So far, she can read them but some words she still has trouble with which is normal especially sebab Dr. Seuss books have loads of made-up words :-).


Alright, panjang lebar dah short story I malam ni. I pun dah tak larat nak bukak mata so I better end the luahan hati kat sini aje. Thanks for reading :-).

8 comments:

VimmiYasmin said...

Kak
baca sambil makan kepek ubi pedas bijan!
Salam Aidil Adha!

Fiza Nordin said...

huh syoh syeh2x daku mmbaca luahan hati kak LG nih...nasib baik ade campo word melayu,klu idak maunye air liur daku tsembo kat skrin.ekekek...gurau je kak LG...syiok bace cite akak yg bbhasa rojak nih...sukernyeeeee

lemongrass said...

Hi Vimmiyasmin,
Sedapnya kepek ubi pedas tu,dulu masa kecik slalu beli kat makcik kantin :-). Salam Aidil Adha jugak.

Fizah,
Mcm baca short novel aje ye? Wahkahkah. Sekali sekala meluahkan perasaan, terus panjang gilerrss :-). Semlm baca my cerita sambil mkn popcorn tak? :P

saveme_zero said...

panjang lebor kak luahan hati ko..ekekekek. sian kids yg tak reti baca yg same age dgn miss 5 tu. maybe parents la x ajar kat rumah.

Flower said...

sian yuo. Nak ckp cikgu bengap tak de jugak. Kalau bengap tak kan jadi cikgu.

At least kalau dia nak tau samada anak you pandai baca, or just recite they can always test her with a new book. My Hana mmg dah tau baca. Whatever book pun dia dah baca. Thanks to Omar lah sbb ajar dia. Lagipun Hana tu tak mau kalau ngan abang. Apa abang buat, dia mesti nak buat sama.

FOr Omar masa kat sekolah, cikgu kelas selalu bagi dia extra works, tak kira lah maths, extra reading, extra apa2 sbb kkdg kalau dia dah reti n yg lain tak reti, dia akan jadi boring dan dlm kelas start buat perangai. So cikgu2 mintak permission kat I to give him extra. Cuma diaorg kata, bila Omar complaint or merungut, ckp ngan diaorg, they will stop the extra. I ckp bagi je. Merungut atau tidak, I will handle him. Kat rumah mmg dia buat extr4a exercise pun. One year in advance.

Intan said...

Sabar byk2 LG.. Kesian kat u & Zahra. Harap2 Zahra terus cemerlang next year, jgn pula dia terpengaruh dgn kawan2 yg kurang cerdik tu...huhu

:P

lemongrass said...

Hi Sue,
tu lah, sian the kids sbb the parents buat tak kisah kan. Semata2 mengharapkan cikgu aje nak ajar semua, mana boleh kan.

Mallan,
tu lah, maybe lah I ni bias sikit kut dgn cikgu tu, maybe next year I will grow to like the teachers, who knows kan. We all pun kat rumah buat extra homework for Alya n Zahra cos klu harap the teachers at school, mmng susah sikit lah.

Hi Intan,
Tu yg my hubby beria suruh I home school the kids aje sbb dia kata the kids will definitely learn more with me. But I yg tak patient langsung and sian pulak the kids takde kawan sebaya mcm kat skolah kan. Ntah lah, I'll see first how it goes next year...

e510 said...

Fantastic blog. I read your blog daily. My two sons are working in Perth. Harap dapat jumpa your family satu hari nanti. Cheers.

Mohammed Omar
(Spent a long time in Canberra - now terired in KL)
matomar@gmail.com