Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Unit 11 Bahasa Melayu Lesson - Di Sekolah Saya

This lesson may be a bit complicated as it contained quite a number of new vocabulary. Try to split the role play in 2 or 3 stages. One at a time. Take it slowly.

You will notice that I had introduced a few verbs with Imbuhan (prefix) "me" ie. "menunggu", "meminjam", "menyanyi" etc. I would like them to accept the word and its meaning as it is. In the next few lessons, I will introduce them more in depth into root words (kata dasar) and the rules of Imbuhan "me". But at this stage, the focus is merely to make them understand the meaning of the words and the sentences.

Click here to download this Unit. 

To download the rest of the Units, go to "Quick Download". 

Unit 10 Bahasa Melayu Lesson - Buah-buahan

I have created the quick download link (on top right panel of my blog) for easy downloading of the Bahasa Melayu Lesson. I have uploaded so far Unit 1 - Unit 9. Today, I will be uploading Unit 10, about fruits (Buah-buahan).

Just a quick overview of this lesson. I tried to use simple sentences in the role play so we can focus on the learning of fruit names. Try to do the role play with your children several times throughout the week.

If need be, ask your children to draw the fruits next to the "bold" words. This helps them remember. 

Up until this stage of learning, you will notice that I still have not touch any topic on grammar. The focos now is for children to understand the usage of keywords, build up their vocabularies and let them familiarize with the simple sentence formats. It will make more sense when we introduce grammar later. 


Click here to download this unit. 


Go to "Quick Download" page if you want to view or download the rest of the Units. 




Monday, June 7, 2010

Amazing Onions and Bananas

Some facts about the amazing onions and bananas.

1. cut onions are POISONOUS, particularly the uncooked ones.
2. onions can combat flu.
3. bananas quiet a cough.

I had tried them out, and the result is amazing!
Our family doesn't eat a lot of onions. Sometimes, I will use it to stir fry with eggs but one onion plus 2 - 3 eggs is just too much. So, I usually use half for stir fry and wrap the other half with fresh wrap, keep in refrigerator for the next meal. 

When I need to use them, they usually turn really ugly that I had to throw them away.

But now I don't have to do that anymore. I slice out whatever amount of onion I need for cooking,. Then, I will place the remaining cut onion in a bowl and put it in the living room. 



Onion is a strong magnet to bacteria. Hence, when placed in open air, it absorbs the bacteria away.



I have been doing this for six months now.  We seldom down by flu. Even we had, it was very mild and would recover within the next day. Our body immune system seem to improve too. We don't get infected so easily despite our influenza jab has expired.

My girl used to catch cold and flu very easily. Now, it has reduced a lot. 

Last Friday, she had fever. I fed her with a dose of paracetamol in the afternoon. At night, I put 2 pieces of cut onion on the table next to her bed. The next day, she recovered totally. I  didn't need to follow-up with more paracetamol nor visiting doctor. 

I Also didn't give her any cough syrup.  Instead she took bananas . The fact is bananas is the better medicine to quiet a cough. She took a few pieces of bananas on Saturday and she was fine after that.

I usually change the cut onions 2 - 3 times a week depends on the condition (ie. the extent of bacteria absorbed). You will notice that on days when someone in your family have cough or running nose, some black powder-look spots (like fungus) may appear on the surface of the onion. Just replace them with new ones. It is as simple as that .




These are 3 days old cut onions. Notice the front two pieces  with darker shades than the back two? The dark ones were in my daughter's room last Friday when she was not feeling well.


Simply amazing onions and bananas!

Easy, cheap and effective way to keep our family healthy.  

So, start putting onions in your living room and bedroom today to see the result. 

Natural healing is the best cure! 

p/s. the above suggestion is good to combat flu however if symtoms persist, please visit your nearest clinic for more advice. It may not be just flu. 

Moment of laughters... I mean a real laugh!

I went to bookstore the other day. My eyes wandered around as usual looking for interesting covers. This particular novel caught my attention. Out of curiosity I pick up the book. Not any latest release, in fact it was major motion picture a few years ago. Haha!! Well, I must admit I am not those who are very up-to-date type!

The book is written by John Grisham. That is y i was curious! As far as I could  recall, John Grisham writes stories related to criminals, accused and defendant and all the related blah blah blah. ... I am not particularly a fan of his. But somehow, this book "Skipping Christmas" ~~ as I interpreted from its cover, it is a comedy definitely.

I decided to buy the book anyway. To my surprise, this book is really hilarious.

The part I enjoyed most about this book was the laughter it had brought to me and my daughter. One night I retold the story to my Lv, we laughed and laughed until it was way beyond her sleeping time. My husband was giving warning signal... its 10 o'clock already... its 11 o'clock already... usually I am quite particularly having Lv sleep on time. But, for that particular night, we just had too much fun and laughter, that I thought to myself ..... "well... to hell with it! [ophs..] lets have fun!!"


I could see her face expression with eye widely opened, from surprise turn into oh my god! At one point she hid her head under the pillow knowing that something really bad gonna happened! We both laughed our heads off. Uh... it is one of those best moments of laughter.....

Also try out this DVD. Hilarious!


So, if you are in search of a real laugh, trust me, it is really fun when you retold the story to your little ones!


Skipping Christmas by John Grisham

Friday, June 4, 2010

Piano ABRSM Exam - A Dilemma

I was chatting with my sister about registering my girl for ABRSM exam next year. Considering her standard now, I believe she is ready for Grade 2 ABRSM next year if she works hard on it.

Well, I must admit that this is the mother-kiasu thing again (kiasu in Chinese dialect means scare of losing).... :( 

Recently, I was chatting with a friend. Her daughter is 7 and she is going for Grade 1 ABRSM this month. She told me how nervous she had been these few weeks worrying for the exam. She regretted registering her daughter because it gave her so much stress. She worried about her sight reading, scales and out of sudden, she realised that her daughter's tutor had not been teaching her the aural skills blah blah blah...

So, I thought well... her girl is 7 and going for Grade 1. Mine is 8, so rightfully, she should go to Grade 2 next year... That was what I thought.

I tried her with some scales, sight reading... It was really upsetting for her and learning became so stressful and boring. She used to enjoy the song she played. If the song comes with lyrics, she will ask me to play and she sings along until she is able to play the song herself.

When she is ready, she will try to sing along as she plays.

But now, she hates piano time now!

It makes me "pull my hand break" and start to reconsider my decision.

Should I continue to push harder? because like those who made it to Diploma would say :

"I was so thankful to my mom for pushing me hard enough, otherwise I won't be here."

Or should I leave it to her free hand? Let's see how far she can go?I recalled a friend who was a piano tutor, once told me that don't push your child to take ABRSM too early because learning music is to enjoy it, not for the sake of exams. I tend to agree with her a lot. It doesn't really matter at what age the child starts taking the exams or at what grade he/she takes the first exam. The fundamental is the child enjoys it.



I totally agree with her comments as only certain grades in ABRSM are compulsory.

Then, I recalled a Korean friend of mine, she enjoyed playing piano. In Korea, they do not follow ABRSM. She didn't go through any formal ABRSM lessons or exams either. In fact, she was very shock when I told her that we need to go for exam every year to get certification from Grade 1 to Grade 8 and all the way to Diploma.

I remembered one day when she visited the Reunification Palace in HCMC, in the living room, there was an old grand piano. She was very excited. Without thinking further, she sat down on the piano and started playing despite there were many strangers around. She played very confidently and she was enjoying it so much.

Everybody applaused as she ended her song.


I was very very impressed. 

I asked myself how many children from ABRSM passes really appreciate music and have such passion as her strong as her?

Really a dilemma...
I recalled when I was young, I never enjoyed playing piano because of the yearly exams. The scales, sight reading, aural thing and the exam pieces which I had to do over and over again for one whole year.

To add more trouble to it, I had a very good but strict piano tutor. She was not very patient with me. She liked to twist my ears when I could not play well or I could not understand what she asked me to do. I always ended up crying at the end of the lesson.

It was never a sweet memory for me. I wasn't sure why at that time, I never refrained myself from going for more lessons.

I guess I learnt because my daddy asked me to. He said that it can be a career when I grew up. 

But now, I am in a dilemma... whether I should proceed to register my daughter for ABRSM exam next year...  

I wish I have answers for that...

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Dilemma of Moms

My friend told me this morning that she quarrelled with his son. Exam is approaching. Therefore, this week is study week. His son chose to study at home but mummy was not agreeable. Mummy's argument was there were many distractions at home like computer games, PSP, TV blah blah blah, hence it would be a better idea to study in the school library. 

Who was right and who was wrong? If you ask me, both were not.

The problem was getting the message across correctly. Mummy saw the advantages of studying in school therefore magnified the disadvantages of studying at home. From her son's point of view, he interpreted as mummy would never trust me! So, he started to act rebellion. 

If she had expressed her intention as (frankly, I hope I would be as calm as this when my girl reaches that age...) but, like it or not, we need to learn to communicate in their "teenager" language.

"You know, this is one of the big exams that will determine your future prospects. It is a chance of a life time. Mummy feels that it would better to study in school library because of less distraction, you can concentrate better and in case you need any reference book, they are easily available. But if you think you are able to manage your time well by studying at home and not distracted by TV games, mummy is fine with it. Mummy can make you some good food to eat while you study. "

We informed our children of the facts, pros and cons, and most importantly we throw the decision back to them. If they did poorly in the exam, they would not put the blame over mummy for "forcing" them to study in the school library and the next time would be a wiser decision. If his results turn out to be good despite the "distractions", then they really deserved a pat on the back.

As for his son, perhaps he wants the flexibility like he can just grab anything to eat as he studies along. Unlike, studying in library, may be peaceful but he needs to pack up, go to the canteen and queue for his lunch. Perhaps he is strategizing for victory but not wanting his friends to know about it?

They must be reasons why he chose to study at home. If he is willing to study before the exam, it means the exam is important to him. He knows what he is doing. The moment we as parents challenge his decision (by not believing that they made the right choice), he would close all communication channel and rebellious behaviour takes over.  

Mummy would never be able to find out why. More and more misunderstanding and the gap becomes greater and greater. We want our children to talk to us. But sometimes our behaviour / respond cause otherwise. We only realised it when the damage was done.

I always have this dilemma. It is like a mouse trap. We fall into it over and over again just like the mouse and yet we never learn from it. 

Sigh... not easy to be parents indeed...