So if you are a two year, strapped in your car seat for 2 hours on a trip to Malaysia, what would you do?



To ease his boredom, that strap has been used as many things. I've seen him pretending that it was a fishing rod.."Ibu, Irfan fish...WAhh..many fish!!" Looking down and pointing below.
And now, after getting sick of fishing, apparently the rod has turned into an elephant's nose.

The other day, he found a long flattened box, stood on it and said he was skateboarding...another time, he took a piece of tissue, clumsily stuck it behind his neck and T-shrt, stretched his right arm, slided across the room and screamed, "Supermaaan !"

That reminds me...Kids are all imaginative and creative, one reason I enjoy teaching primary school is precisely because of that..they are just so refreshing and genuine.They see things which I can't.

sometimes I wonder how it can be further strengthened and developed. Does the classroom environment in our schools allow their creativity to grow or force it to come to a complete halt? Lower primary education has definitely changed a lot here, to encourage creativity and experiential learning. But what about upper primary, especially when PSLE looms closer? And for me, how do I encourage creativity in my classroom without compromising their exam results?

Definitely, the education landscape here is placing greater importance on creativity and problem solving skills as opposed to route learning, memory work and a one size fits all method. We are beginning to realize that these are important traits for the newer generation who will make up the future workforce and the changing demands of the economy.

For Irfan, allowing his creativity and imagination to run free, would sometimes mean having the house turned upside down as we give him space to experiment. Most times, im always tempted to blow up and ask him to 'put back the cushion', 'stop messing up the tissue' and 'sit down and be quiet' or even hand him his favourite DVD so that he would sit still, glued to the DVD for hours... Especially when it is 10pm and my eyes just can't open anymore. Teaching him to clean up after making all the mess, does help a lot but that depends on his mood and most times it takes him forver to clean up..and at 10pm weekday, I really have no patience to wait. Whenever alim and I are doing our work at night, we hand him a colouring book and some crayons, envisioning him sitting down quietly and colouring the picture quietly and carefully. But that never happens, of course.
Instead, he would pour out all his crayons all over the floor, take one crayon, make some markings here and there, scribble a little and barely 30 seconds, "Finish!" Either he runs off, leaving all the mess on the floor or pull our hands and gives us a set of instructions to follow, "Ayah, come. Sit here, play car. Ayah nyer(hands him one car), Irfan nyer (takes one car)..plaY NOW!"

I'm still waiting for the time when he can sit down quietly to colour. Take one colour pencil from the box, colour, put it back and take another. Im still waiting for that day. Im also waiting for the day when he can clean up all his toys without being asked a zillion times...clean up all at one shot instead of pausing in between to play with his car a while..to lie down and play with his hands lah....this and that. Basically Im waiting for the day when he can sit still for a longer period and not be ALL OVER, darting around...here and there, everywhere...u know what I mean?...bila agaknyer eh? 5 years old maybe?

Or maybe...the makcik makcik are right after all...Irfan really needs a "friend".

Short break

We didnt do much at Desaru over the March break. It was raining most of the time, coupled with some hot sun in between. It was just perfect to stay in bed and sleep all day, with the sound of the waves lulling you to zzzland. But having a two year old full of energy, makes that a lil harder to do...

so whenever we spot Mr Sun coming out, we went downstairs so that irfan could burn all that energy without turning the hotel room upside down...

As usual some pictures of us...what else...


He played with sand...berejam rejam..batang hidung castle pun tak nampak...


playground...

When it rained, he'd be in the kids playroom...luckily it was spacious..

I dunno why he'd always end up meeting girls instead of boys his age...

But boys will be boys...these are really the highlights of his trip...

Watching some abang play PSP..."Irfan play? ...can?can?..." I doubt he knows how to manipulate the buttons...and anyway, the abang didnt even budge from his seat like forever...


Kicking the ball up and down, up and down the area...goood..at least I can rest and enjoy the waves...

But the real highlight of the whole trip for him was....riding on THOMAS the train!!!!



Of course, he didnt care that this THOMAS wasnt even a train in the first place..it had wheels..and it goes on sand...and plus his face was a bit disfigured...
He didnt mind a bit.

Unfortunately, it was raining heavily and apparently Thomas doesnt go when it rains...
"Wait! Rain stop" he insisted we wait beside Thomas till the rain stops...but alim n I would rather wait in our room, on the comfy bed, with the nice rain sumoree...so we dragged him up...

and that explains this face...

Merajuk...

But soon, the SUN came out and we finally managed to ride on Thomas...

Muka ada senyum...

All the way muka dia macam gini...

haiz..posing lain tada ka??

back to school on monday for all three of us...HAIZZZZ......

Puncak, December 2007





Basi pictures of last year's trip to Jakarta and Puncak.
Sigh, I really need to get away for a short trip somewhere.....
More pics here..

Irfan's first school excursion to Kampong Glam

One thing I like about Irfan's school is that they have a monthly school outing based on the theme. So for february, their theme was culture. And for his first ever school excursion, he went to Kampong Glam. Unfortunately, due to work I could not be there with him. Im still very sore about it and the best I could do was to send my mum with him, armed with her new digital camera.

At first, i was thinking how weird it will be to bring lil kids to kampong glam of all places. I mean, would they really enjoy it? Isnt it a bit too 'cultured' for lil squirming, hyper kids?!
But by looking at the pics and my mum's feedback, the kids seemed to have enjoyed the trip and there were some activities lined up for them.

Irfan and I viewed the pics together at my computer and he narrated to me some parts of his trip. of course not in complete sentences but enough for me to have an idea of what he went through. When asked where he went, he answered "kampong". Good enough, I thought. At least he understood something!

Some pics from the trip:) Wish I was there!!! But I suppose, if I was there, it won't be an authentic school excursion for him. (futile attempt at trying to make myself feel better)

The pics, as narrated by Irfan


"irfan take bus, abang hold hand"
(I think they are still in school, lining up to board the bus)



"Throw, catch, then throw, catch"
(Irfan's version of how to play batu selembat)


"Kick!"
(Irfan's version of chapteh)


"Put in"
(Irfan's version of congkak)

For this, he had no words to describe, instead he started doing his version of Tarian Melayu moves(which is nothing like tarian Melayu at all!) in front of me.


More tarian melayu moves





"Irfan fren"


"kakak"



His current favourite pose. At last, he could manipulate these 2 fingers to form the peace sign.

So next month, the theme would be Nature and Irfan will be going to Sungei Buloh.
MC for me?