Dd's small garden

Dd had asked me to buy some seeds for her to plant and she is now planting some tomatoes, sunflowers etc in little plastic containers. I've yet to figure where she could transfer them when the plants grows bigger but probably her dad would have some idea as he is in charge of the backyard/garden. Some people are natural green fingers like my FIL who has all kinds of fruit and herbs in his garden patches. My mum also likes to garden for its therapeutic qualities. Hers consist mainly of bougainvilleas and other flowers which I don't know their names, and in recent years, orchids. (I gave her orchids in a pot once or twice for her birthday instead of a bouquet of roses and she was hooked).
I'm afraid that I'm not a green finger at all. Once a Spanish friend gave me a flower in a pot during my varsity days and I left it on the window sill of the kitchen and it got eaten by tiny green bugs! She, on the hand, was great with plants. I gave her a fern plant in return and when I visited her at her home , it had flourished amazingly!
Dd's seeds have now grown into little buds. It is amazing to watch them grow. If her projects goes well, I'll ask her to plant some herbs for me in a flower pot so I could use them when I'm cooking.

Zany dd

Me: Who wants noodles for dinner?
Dd: I do.
Older son: I do.
Dd to her brother: We love noodles so much we want to marry it.

Continued..

Dd had her numeracy test yesterday and she told us her mind was thinking about the story book in her desk that the teacher said she could read after she finished her test.... Hmmm.. Hope she did okay though.
Her school and another school won for best project and presentation. Dh told me their booths were really informative and very well presented. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that they share the same science teachers who teach at both the schools. Anyway, I am pleased that they beat another school nearby with the much larger pupil population and great amenities ( including a swimming pool). Wicked huh!

Dd's Test Preparation

Dd will have a big test next week. I keep asking her to practice and do some mock tests at home which has fallen on deaf ear. She keeps reading books. Story books. My fault. I kept on buying her story books by Roald Dahl and Andy Griffith for the past weeks.
May I add that she also has a science presentation on the night of the test. The teacher says she will be fine. (I hope so).
Oh well she 's only 8. Who cares about test at that age!

Dd's Birthday Bash

[It has been almost a month since we moved in our new residence. I have been busy the first few weeks unpacking and tidying stuff . Dh had packed all my kitchen stuff, cutlery and crockery into bubble wrappers and then into boxes (thanks dear if you happen to read this) but for the most part I had to do the unpacking myself since it is the co FYE and his mind set is at work mode this month. We still got boxes of books and kid's stuff to unpack and organise. I'm waiting for dh to sort that out and get some extra shelves for the rumpus room downstairs. ]
I managed to organise a lil birthday bash for dd and her friends at a bowling centre last week. At first I planned for dd to go to the movie with some of her pals. I asked her the names of her pals and she came up with names that sounded that they were boys. That wasn't going to do so I thought I'd plan a bowling theme party instead with some families with kids from her school.
It has been quite a while since I organised a party at an outside venue for her since her third birthday at McD in KL. It was a relatively last minute plan but Alhamdulilah for the most part, all went relatively smooth and dd and her friends seemed that they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I'd say as smooth as a party with 15 active children can be! A party host was allocated for the kids but at some point or another, dh and I had to take care of a couple of boisterous toddlers while the mums nipped out to the shops. (I realised later they went out to get some last minute gift shopping).
The kids had to play bowling for the first hour and some of the younger kids were already feeling peckish and complained to me. I could understand their feeling as we went to a a kid's high voltage gymnastic theme birthday last year and we were wondering when it was all gonna end and when it was time to eat. I had to give them some potato crisps for them to satisfy their hungry pangs. Dh also bought extra chips and calamari to fuel them to play til finish. However, when it was time to eat the party food , I was wandering why some of the kids had not entered the room where it was held. It turned out that they were playing at the game arcade as dh had bought tokens and distributed it to them. Games certainly distracted the kids from their hunger pangs!When they all came in to eat , dh said it suddenly turned quiet as everyone was soo hungry and happily tucking into their meal. After the ice cream birthday cake came and disappeared into every one's mouth and they received the party bags dd made for them , the kids left the rooms again to finish their last token in the game arcade. They seemed very eager to accumulate tickets and win some small prizes there.

Dd won an award!

Dd won the high achiever trophy for grade 2. I missed it when she went up to get the prize. A mommy friend said that she won and that I was late by one minute. I have to take her word for it and I did see dd holding a lil trophy after the ceremony. We were a bit late as ds was making a fuss and refused to budge on the sidewalk , insisting his shirt was too big and he wanna go back home and change. Anyway, I am glad she won something as she missed her kindergarten's presentation ceremony last year because we had to move to Oz. She also missed the preschool photo session when she and her classmates were supposed to wear graduation robes. The school didn't inform me early and we had already gone to my mum's house as I was due to deliver at the time. (I didn't get to wear a robe til I got a degree. Lucky preschoolers!)

Gifted dd Blogspot

I have created a blogspot for dd at Gifted Dd . Please go there for specific issues of giftedness and stories about dd.

English & the Mentality

Dd used to go to a preschool near our home in the KL city centre. We sent her to preschool not to make her read as early as possible but to socialise with other kids who were her age as we were afraid when she attends formal school in 2 years from then, she won't be able to cope being away from home. It was a good kindergarten and the teachers could speak English and Malay. Dd learnt to read books using the phonics method there. The school also had a very friendly (peramah) Principal.
One day I arrived early to pick up dd so I was hanging around the school compound waiting. The Principal came up to me and started a conversation. She brought up the subject that dd could only speak English and the other parents were asking her "Does she have Mat Salleh for a parent/parents?"(Mat Salleh is the term Malaysian use for the white race). She also said other children sometimes were bothered that Dd spoke English and rarely in Malay.
Sometimes you will hear Malays give comments like " Berabokla, tak boleh cakap Melayu ka?" (interpreted as it is feeling dusty here from you speaking English, can't you speak Malay as one born of the Malay race?) So sad to say that this is the mentality of many Malays I come across concerning speaking in English. I don't believe one language is mutually exclusive for one race but it is beneficial for us to learn many languages and anyone should not be hindered to speak any language they are comfortable of expressing themselves with.
Hearing what the Principal had to say, I had to clarify the matter as I didn't want dd to be the subject of ridicule from her peers or their parents. I explained to the Principal that I initially taught her English and Malay language at home but she picked up English faster . I did not want to confuse her talking in a bilingual jumble at that stage so we later emphasised and conversed in English more with her. Then I explained further that dd was like myself, ie learning the English first before mastering Malay. I grew up as a child overseas as my father was in the foreign service. Infact, I could speak and understand Thai and English better at one point before I ever learnt the formal Bahasa Malaysia. The Principal was enlightened and after that never commented again about dd's berabuk! Dd even did very well in the school despite her earlier reluctance to cooperate fully with teachers/peers. She improved and excelled in her work and was supposed to get 2nd prize on her school's Presentation Day but we had to catch a flight and leave for Oz on that day so the school decided to give her prize to another pupil. *sigh*.
Whereas in Oz , we have a different experience that people assume that we don't speak English fluently as it is not our mother's tongue.When we enrolled dd at her school, we were required to fill in some forms. A nice English teacher came up to meet me and discuss some issues regarding the forms. She told me she wanted dd to be in the special programme for pupils where English is a second language (ESL). I said we speak English at home with her. She asked "But do you speak other languages besides English at home?" Sounds like a trick question. I said "Eerr.. Yes." She was quite persistent that she be allowed to guide Dd's English development . Dh was of the opinion it was fine if they wanted to improve her English so we relented though I did not see the point.
I didn't see or hear from the English teacher again for months later so I decided to catch up with her when I saw her again in front of the school promoting school fiesta last month. Where has she been all this while? She said she was still around in the school for 3 days a week. However, she commented that dd is "very good" and she was not assisting dd anymore. Hmm.. I guess now she is focusing more on the other pupils who needs the additional help most.

Dd's Spelling Session

After dinner last night, my 7 year old dd wanted to spell some words, so while I cleaned up the table and dh washed the dishes, we gave her some words to spell. I started with words that I thought were difficult.
Me :"How do you spell delicious? "
Dd:"D-E- L-I -C-I-O-S"
Me:"you forgot the letter U. D-E-L-I-C-I-O-U-S"
Me: "Spell spacious."
Dd: "What's spacious?"
Me: "When you have lots of space"
Dd:"S-P-A-C-I-O-U-S"
Me:"Very good."
She obviously could see the similarity between the 2 words delicious and spacious.
Me: "Spell competition"
Dd: C-O-M-P-E-T-I-O-N"
Me: "T-I-T-I-O-N"
The TV was switched on so dd was complaining she couldn't hear properly so I switched it off.
Me: "Spell petition"
Dd:"What's petition?"
I had to explained to her that it is when we get people's signatures on paper so that we could do something about it .
Dd: "Is petition spelled like competition but without the com?"
Me:"Yes"
Dd: "P-E-T-I-T-I-O-N"
Dh: "Spell development."
Me:"Spell television."
dd:"That's easy." So she went and spelled the words. It looks like she is quite an intelligent girl, masha Allah. The school's counsellor who is a qualified Phd holder, told us that she is well ahead of her peers in many subjects. Next year insha Allah, the coordinator cum the Principal will start dd on a better integrated acceleration program. She said that dd's standard of comprehension is on par with Grade 6/7 but since she is going to be in Grade 3 next year , she will probably work with the Grade 4/5 pupils as they are closer her age. The school in their 50 years of history had never had gifted pupils there before but this year they have two, ie dd in Grade 2 and another girl in Grade 1. I am happy that they are doing something to enhance her learning curve for the better.
When I was studying in Standard 1 briefly in the northern state of M'sia before my father was posted overseas again, I remember the teacher telling all the pupils in the class to stand on the chairs. Then she asked us to spell the words such as biru (blue), merah (red) etc. Easy I thought. We had to put our hand up and spell the words and then sit down. However, only a handful of us managed to do this because there were only a limited number of words to spell as opposed to the shower of hands that were raised up. Then guess what? The rest of us had to line up to the teacher and have our hand spanked with a ruler at the end of the period because we were not able to answer and spell the words.. Duh! I hope this teacher had improved her teaching technique since then, for her pupils sake please. What a contrast to the teaching methods that schools are currently using!