Exam result

Today Ethan brought back his last week exam paper. He did not score all the 4 subjects.

At first mother was a bit disappointed with his English test. He had made a careless mistake. Mother asked why he was so careless and he argued with mother that some of his friends did not score any subject. Mother was angry with his attitude and told him not to compare with other people. He kept quite and almost wanted to cry.

Books for revision

Next week, Ethan's kindy will be having the 2nd semester evaluation. Teacher has given back the books. Mother asked why so many books then Ethan's response was teacher asked to read and do revision during the weekend. Mother really doesn't know what to read to him since the books already done by him and got answer so no need to ask him to do it again by looking at the book.

What mother worried is his BM subject as we seldom use it at home. Even sometimes mother did read the BM story books for him but compared with Chinese and English it was far less. The BM story book mother read for Ethan is quite simple and few words in one page as mother knows that his BM standard cannot beat his Chinese and English. Mother did hope that during the school holiday can close up the gap of his BM language with others.

Maths : The Division

You see. Mother did not take any action to teach him the division. During the school holiday, mother found out that Ethan almost forgotten some of the multiply after few months he did not do the exercise. So he needs to refresh again his memory. Luckily he picked up quite fast even not 100% remember.

Looking at his multiply, mother delayed again teaching him the division. "BUT" this kid gone and used the calculator to do the division exercise. Mother spot this and said that he was cheating using the machine. He immediately stopped and mother told him that the division is the opposite of the multiply. He got the idea and do the rest of the exercise by himself. What surprised mother was that he had done all the questions correctly. He really loves maths....

Homework issue again

Few weeks ago he was still fine with his homework but recently the situation changed. He was very slow and day dream when doing his homework. Just a simple few words he can take ages to finish it.

Today he needs to write the Chinese character, he informed mother that he wanted to take a nap first. Ok the deal was on and before he slept he requested mother to read the story book to him. When mother finished reading the book he bargained for more. He seemed like doesn't want to take the nap. Instead wanting mother to continue reading and reading. Mother rejected him knowing that without nap time it would even be more difficult for him to finish his homework. He wailed a bit then he fell asleep.

When he woke up he still refused and made funny action doing his homework. At last mother gave up and said to wait after the dinner and daddy comes back to guide him. After everything was settled, mother quickly bathed him and brought him to the room and asked him to finish what he promised then mother went to take a bath. After the bath, mother went into the room and found out actually not any progress on the homework. He was doing other things instead. Mother was angry with his attitude and said she will not take care and ask him to do the homework anymore. Is his choice not to do that then he needs to take the consequence of it. He was afraid and tried but he seemed like having no concentration at all of doing that. He waited until his daddy walked into the room. He constantly asked daddy to sit beside him to accompany him but he was doing funny action again.

Daddy was out of patient after asking him so many times to write the word and walked away. He was like the boy who cried wolf asking his daddy if he sits beside him then he will write it. After few attempts daddy felt like being cheated then daddy was really mad at him. So the next action was to beat him. He cried non stop and mother also cannot stand his attitude so we collected the homework and banned him from doing his homework. We told him that we will let him not able to hand over the homework to the teacher next morning. He wailed even louder and begged for the homework then we rejected his request. We told him that we gave him so many chances but he did not appreciate it so he has to bear his choice.

He even refused to sleep and walked around the room. Mother erased all his Chinese characters that he wrote because his words were like scribble on the book. Mother gave him the last chance after he said sorry and that time was already 11 something. Mother did her own stuff , Ethan was doing his homework. Half way through mother cannot stand anymore so he needs to complete his homework without anybody accompanying him. Seemed like he had learned his lesson so he wrote it nicely and completed it but that time was already 12 in the midnight....

Now we need to see whether he learned the lesson or not. The result only can be shown in Thursday as normally Wednesday he will not have any homework because every Wednesday is his school fun and sport day.

New game

Actually mother did not invent this game. This game has been printed in one of his Chinese nursery rhythm book. The book contains some activities beside teaching the young kid to read the simple Chinese nursery rhythm. He likes the game very much and he told his mother that he knows how to read the word hanging on the apple tree. At first he still cannot read all the 8 words but he took the initiative to ask mother to teach him the words. Surprisingly he memorized them very fast and now he knows all the words. He told mother he wants to play the game so mother enlarged the apple tree by drawing on one of recycled poster and pasted it on the wall.

He was happy to see that and he tore down the words from the tree and read aloud to us. He said that one word scores 10 point and in his first attempt he only cannot read one word.

Improvement

After half month's of special note for Ethan to learn Chinese words, mother has seen some improvement with him. He showed the keen interest of trying to read the Chinese sentences from the book. Mother was glad that this method did work on him and he was happy to learn it everyday. He even requested the special note from mother if mother forgets to provide to him. With this mother cannot be lazy any more.

Since this method can work so mother is thinking of providing him the special note on BM and English.

Circle the words

Recently Ethan likes to circle those Chinese words that he doesn't know how to pronounce. He will ask mother to teach him. Even though he cannot instantly remember them but mother is pleased with his learning attitude.

Knowing that it is not easy to learn Chinese so we let him take his own sweet time. What we hoped is that he will keep his interest on learning. That alone is enough for us.

Spelling game

Mother had made some of the alphabet cards for him to play the spelling game. Mother initial plan was hoping that he will learn the spelling through playing. At first he was excited about the game but after a while he started to arrange the alphabet surrounding according to his will.

From this game, mother found out that he actually knows how to spell some words.

Talk about homework

Mother always hope that one day Ethan can independently do his homework. Last time when he first started Malaysian kindergarten, mother had to sit beside him to ensure that he finishes his homework and done it correctly.

Mother hated the most when accompanying him in doing the Chinese writing. It seems like it took ages to finish it. Recently, mother gradually see some improvement because mother does not need to accompany him anymore. Mother told him to finish his homework by himself and try his best and if he doesn't know then only ask for help. Now when he finishes it , he will bring the homework and mother only has to made sure he finished and done it correctly.

Even now he can finish the homework by himself but mother still help him to look through every books he brought back and search which one is the homework and which one is the text book. Mother thought that she should not pamper him in this area anymore. The ball should be passed back to him.....

三字经

Ethan just finished memorizing part of the 三字经. We did not expect him to memorize it so fast since he only gets to listen to it when he is on the way to school and also if daddy is driving him to school.

It took about one week for him to remember the part below:

人之初，性本善。性相近，习相远。苟不教，性乃迁。教之道，贵以专。
昔孟母，择邻处。子不学，断机杼。窦燕山，有义方。教五子，名俱扬。
养不教，父之过。教不严，师之惰。子不学，非所宜。幼不学，老何为。
玉不琢，不成器。人不学，不知义。为人子，方少时。亲师友，习礼仪。
香九龄，能温席。孝于亲，所当执。融四岁，能让梨。弟于长，宜先知。
首孝弟，次见闻。知某数，识某文。一而十，十而百。百而千，千而万。

Mother printed the following part for him but seems like he is not so aggressive compared with the first part.
三才者，天地人。三光者，日月星。三纲者，君臣义。父子亲，夫妇顺。
曰春夏，曰秋冬。此四时，运不穷。曰南北，曰西东。此四方，应乎中。
曰水火，木金土。此五行，本乎数。曰仁义，礼智信。此五常，不容紊。
稻粱菽，麦黍稷。此六谷，人所食。马牛羊，鸡犬豕。此六畜，人所饲。
曰喜怒，曰哀惧。爱恶欲，七情具。匏土革，木石金。与丝竹，乃八音。
高曾祖，父而身。身而子，子而孙。自子孙，至元曾。乃九族，而之伦。
父子恩，夫妇从。兄则友，弟则恭。长幼序，友与朋。君则敬，臣则忠。
此十义，人所同。

But who cares, let him take his own sweet time. He can stop learning it any time since we treated this 三字经 as bonus to us from him.

Sticker as reward...

Mother told him that he only entitled to get the sticker after he can read the whole Chinese word on that particular page. So far he only entitled to two stickers.

In order to prevent him from just memorizing the sentences instead of words. So after this exercise he can claim that he can read the whole page. Mother will break down the sentence word by word and write them in another blank paper to ask him to read aloud. He only can get the sticker after he passed this test. The purpose is to let him know that he needs to work hard for it.

Let talk about 三字经 Three-word chant

Mother never thought of teaching him the "Three word Chant" at his age even knowing some of the parents already start teaching their kids at very young age. But recently mother did and this is not because of "kiasu". The learning of the "Three -word Chant" was requested by Ethan himself. How can it happened?

Is story time again. It happened when we went to "Popular Bookstore" last Friday. Daddy said he was quite interested at one of the counter selling education CD like those 三字经, 唐诗,乘法表 and etc. The TV was on to promote the product and Ethan was hooked on it. We really have hard time to persuade Ethan to walk away but he did after the ending of the CD. Back at home, mother tried to find 三字经 in the internet and we let Ethan listens to it. Later, he requested us to teach him. (Most funny part was he even create his own 三字经 before he goes to sleep and we cannot stop laughing at his action). Mother was thinking that just listen to the CD may not know the words and meaning. Searching in the internet and copied out the words and explanation of 三字经 is mother's job again.

Finally mother finished custom made part of the 三字经 for Ethan. The word is big and no other fancy fancy thing beside it. Will introduce the later part to him when he finished the first part. We only plan to teach him on the way we bring him to and back from the kindergarten.

Am or Are?

Tonight, mother simply wanted to know how far Ethan knows English grammar.
So mother played a game with him. Mother asked him to choose between the two questions and tell mother which one is the correct answer.
i) I am a boy or I are a boy?
ii) You are a girl or you am a girl?

He had given it a thought for a while and then he answered correctly. Why mother wants to know this is because we seldom talk to him in English. Now his Chinese is more fluent than his English. However at least now mother knows that he knows some of the pattern of the sentences in English.

He did it on timetable

Mother has set an objective to teach Ethan the 12 timetable in a period of one year. But this fellow had surprised us with his ability. He memorized all of them within half a month.

He really shocked us when he read aloud the timetable until 12 to us in one day because we only taught him until 7. Guessed he was secretly self learning by using the timetable card mother done for him. Even though he cannot perfectly 100% memorized all as sometimes he will forget 3 or 4 out of 12 timetable.

We did not simply asked him to memorize the timetable instead mother did explained to him that the multiply is the shortcut of adding. For example, 2X3=6 is the shortcut of 2+2+2=6. So if he forgets about the answer of the 2x4=8 so mother will ask him to add 2 to 6 to know the answer since he knows the 2x3=6. Now when he forgot about the answer, he will use his fingers to add up the next multiply answer. This is the way we let him learn the multiply and of course he loves the math or else he would find it boring.

We were really proud of him when he found out his mother's mistake on the timetable card on "9" as the print out is 9 x 1 = 8. At first, mother thought of printing again the correct one for him but later seems that he had corrected it by himself by gluing the correct figure on it. So just let it be so he can remember it by heart.

Since he knows all the multiply, now is time to let him practice so he can remember it instead of going back to zero.

"MONEY" is our topic tonight

From previously played shopping supermarket, mother noticed that Ethan does not really understand the concept of money even though we let him pay the money every time for us. Tonight Ethan picked up one of the books which consists of money and asking mother how to do the exercise. The idea flip through the mother's mind and thought of why not play a money game to teach Ethan.

The game is very simple.
i) First mother asked him to arrange the money according to the book which is from smallest to the biggest value. Told him to recognize the value of money.

ii) Teach him to use different combination of coins to form MYR1. Like combination of 5 "20 cent coin" add up to become MYR1. Mother was pleased that he picked up very fast. Guessed because of his basic adding skills is strong.

iii) Mother drew simple things like apple, orange and wrote down the value and asked Ethan to put how many coin needed in order to buy the fruits. He had done it correctly in the first time. He continued asking mother to draw the objects for him to arrange the money.

At last mother had to stop the game and he requested to play it again tomorrow.....

Arrange the money and using the coin to form MYR1 value of money

Mutiplying project

Well, Mother did not anticipated that it was so smooth sailing on teaching Ethan on the multiplying.

From the conception of the idea until today, mother had been cracking the head on what method to teach him. Using the ready product in market like buying the CD or flash card and etc.. Or download from the internet the timetable but found out that only have up until 9 instead of 12 timetable. Mother even thought of recording mother's voice reading the timetable and playing it back. In the end, mother homemade the timetable and no recording. Why no recording because the recording cannot stop and wait for the kid to follow and repeat the words. Mother read aloud with him is more flexible depending on his speed.

Where and when mother teaches him? Well, mother only teach him on the way while mother drives him to and back from kindergarten. Normally there was a bit of traffic jam on the road so mother asked him to follow what mother said and he did. Then before his nap time, mother asked him to follow mother reading the timetable again. Surprising, it only take one day for him to memorize the timetable of 2. Of course mother only teach him one timetable since the target is one month per one timetable.

In order to let him understand what is the purpose of him having to memorize the timetable, mother had printed out the worksheet for him to do. Mother's opinion is if he did not constantly practice on timetable surely one day he will return back to zero. People may think mother is cruel but this is the fact.

He was a bit slow when doing the worksheet but he had tried his best to calculate by himself and get assurance from mother. Today he just finished 6 pages of worksheet from 0 - 2.

Simple theory made him laugh

This was unexpected. Mother was reading a story book " Chug the Tractor" for him and he was asking how the tractor gets down to the floor from the lorry. While at first, mother just drawn and explained to him on a plain paper but afraid that he might not really fully understand. So mother told him to be patience until mother finished the whole book.

After finishing the book, mother tried to find the stuff that can demonstrate to him. Well, we use the dictionary as the base, his toy car and the chopping board of his toy. Mother told him that the car will fall down from the top without putting anything. He laughed when mother pushed the car and the car fell down.

In order for the car to safely get down from the higher place, we need to put the ramp and help it. Mother just put the board to form a ramp for him and demonstrated to him. Mummy also told him that normally the ramp will be forming a triangle shape when he views it from the side...

He was having fun and laughed just because of this simple theory. After that he took over from mother and played for himself by on and off took away the ramp and pushed the car.....

Error in the books

Ethan finished another maths book again. This time he used less than one week. One common thing that mummy have been noticing is that in those books there are always printing error. In one book you can find at least 5 and above printing errors. Seemed like it is very common in the Malaysian printed books especially the kid's books because mother also can find it on Ethan's kindergarten books.

But mother had no regret to buy the books for Ethan because he has the capability to find out the mistake and informs mother. Then mother will amend them for him. This is good for Ethan that he knows where the mistake and not just follow the book. Guessed his capability may only apply in maths and sometimes in English. For Science, Mandarin and BM, mother doesn't think so. It would need double careful and accompany him when doing those three subjects but shame to say, so far mother did not let him do other subjects. Hi hi..... So far only maths because he loves it so much....

Is he ready for it...?

Mother did consider to teach Ethan the multiplier since he loves maths so much. Some people will think that mother is the "kiasu mother" but I don't think that I'm the first mother to do so. Mother has this idea mainly due to Ethan's poor memory. Taken longer time to teach him and it might stressed him up.

Mother did plan to teach him to memorize one table in one month. So 12 timetables should be taking 1 year to complete it. It is very painful to remember the 12 timetable in a short period which mother had experienced before. Now the problem is will the school teaches memorizing like the old way or followed the recent print out. Last time we memorized like 2x1=2, 2x2=4, 2x3=6 .... but recently the print out seems like the arrangement is like 1x2=2, 2x2=4, 3x2= 6 and .....So not really sure which arrangement to choose but probably will choose the old method because it is easy for mother.... Ha

Will he be ready or not, let's try first. If cannot then postpone until he is ready for it.

Shown some willingness

Lately, Ethan on and off will pick up an English story book and read by himself. He insists that he reads it by himself after mother told him that the book may be too difficult for him. Mummy doesn't want him to loss his confidence just because he cannot read it smoothly. Mother offered him to read the books like "Peter and Jane" which are easy and the words are repeating but he rejected it.

Why mother does not really willing to let him read the book from library because the stage and level that mother chooses is for the primary kids. Just used his ears and eyes to look at photo while mother read them to him should be Ok for him. But he wanted to read all by himself. Mother would say it is too early. As the book got a lot of short cut words like "We've, can't , we'll, didn't " which is seldom found in the "Peter and Jane" book.

As last, he listened to mother persuading him to try to read the Peter and Jane. Yes, he can read it but he is only interested in reading a few pages then said will leave it for tomorrow. Mother knows that there is no tomorrow for this book. He still does not find any interest in that book.