Alycia's First Dictation

Alycia had her first dictation 2 weeks ago and her second dictation last week. There were around 40 words in each of the dictation. She fared quite well in both the dictations and had several careless mistakes. She has to learn not to be so excited and jump the gun and learn to think before she writes or do anything. That's how her careless mistakes always happen.




Do you think this dictation is too difficult for 5 and 6 year olds?

Alycia's Spelling List

This is the list of words for spelling given by Alycia's pre-school, until end October 09. From 4 words, they are now given 8-10 words. In October, they will be given dictation too. The pre-school is preparing the kids for Standard 1 next year. Quite tough for 5-6 year olds eh?

All Work And Little Play

Alycia has Ting Xie, Spelling and Ejaan every single week, for the past 5 months. Each day, she has to memorize different words. The number of words for her spelling have increased from a handful to 12 now. On most mornings before she leaves for pre-school, I will go through the Ting Xie / Spelling / Ejaan with her. What boring life for a 5.5-year old kid eh? All work and very little play.... and I even hardly have time to read story books with her now coz the homework load from her pre-school is already taking up all her time.

Here she is practising her Ting Xie just before leaving for school..... with 2 swollen eye lids. Don't know what bit her.... they didn't seem like mozzie bites, maybe some insects or dust mite, I don't know. Her eye lids were swollen for almost a week and now recovering.

H1N1 Precautionary Measure By The Gals' Pre-school

Aly and Sher's pre-school has taken precautionary measures in view of the Influenza A virus. But what if your child has only slight cough or runny nose? Would you still keep your child at home? What would you do? Would love to read your views.

Sher had a mild runny nose and nose blocked early this week. I still sent her to pre-school and that was before I received the notice from her pre-school. What about parents who are working and have to send their kids to daycare? Who will look after their kids if they can't go to pre-school/daycare? Does that mean that the parents have to take leave for as long as the child has runny nose/cough? Some kids seem to have slight runny nose / cough for prolonged periods.

Flash Cards Session In Pre-School

This is a back-dated post.




Alycia and Sherilyn's pre-school has since January this year rescheduled their school hours, beginning at 8:15am and dismissing at 11:45am. There is now a 15-minute flash cards session everyday. Now, Alycia and Sherilyn can recognize many words and I think this is really a good move by the pre-school. The teacher will motivate the students by putting a cute cartoon stamp/chop behind the card if they can recognize the words or Chinese character.

Alycia's Ting Xie

Yesterday was Alycia's first Ting Xie (spelling in Mandarin) exercise in pre-school. She told me that out of the 5 words, her teacher asked her to write out 3 and according to her, she got all 3 correct. Well if she did, I'm really proud of her coz I had only spent 2 days to drill her for her Ting Xie. Tomorrow, she's having another spelling exercise and the words are 'angry', 'upset', 'happy' and 'shy'. With constant coaching from me, Alycia is progressing pretty well in her spelling, Ting Xie and Ejaan (she's the weakest in Ejaan, must drill her in suku kata). Now, she even knows how to do mental Math (addition) up to 2-digit numbers.

Alycia's First Spelling

Alycia sat for her first spelling exercise on Friday last week. She got 3 1/2 words correct out of 4 words. I would say that's really not bad at all for a first timer who had missed almost a whole year of classes in her first year of pre-school due to falling sick every month. She's also one of the youngest in her class being a December child.

The correction that Alycia has to do at home.

Tomorrow she'll be sitting for her first Ting Xie (spelling in Mandarin). When she wakes up from her nap later, I'll be sitting down with her and make her practise writing her Mandarin words.

Stress In Pre-School

I have been drilling Alycia with spelling for the past 1 week and it's paying off. She now knows how to spell the words Deepavali and Christmas. Today, I'm drilling her with the word Chinese (for Chinese New Year). She's going to have her first spelling on Friday next week for the above 3 words and thereafter every Friday. There is also Ejaan and Ting Xie (spelling in Mandarin) every week. Oh my, both Alycia and I are going to be all stressed up everyday practising spelling from now onwards for years to come. Her pre-school is preparing the 6 year olds in her class (Alycia is the youngest in the class being a December child) for primary school and this year, there will be more tests and the syllabus is getting tougher too.

Alycia's English And BM Test Today

When Alycia came back from school today :

Me : Alycia how was your English and BM test today?

Alycia : Good....

Me : Really? Did you know how to answer those questions?

Alycia : Yes....

Me : Really? (I was in disbelief and doubted what she said. What a bad mummy I am not to trust my own daughter eh?)

Alycia : Yes.

Me : Did whatever that I revised with you come out in the test?

Aycia : No. Only got circle and underline the answer and writing.

Me : Oh....

Alycia : But I missed you and love you when I was in school.....

Me : I missed you too.

I am just curious to know how Alycia fared in all her subjects. I didn't want to be seen as if I am so eager that she passes her test with flying colors as that would only put pressure on her..... but I still hope she'd fare well. Nonetheless, even if she didn't fare well or fail the test, I will not chastise her. This will only cause her to have a phobia and hatred towards school and exams.

I am Feeling The Stress And Anxiety

...coz Alycia will be sitting for her pre-school exam next week. I have been doing revision with her for the past 3 days but my brat doesn't seem to have much interest.... and her mind tends to wander somewhere else... and she will be talking about food or TV when I do revisions with her. I am really worried that she will not fare well in the exam.





Anyway, today we had dim sum at Sunway Lagoon Hotel. After I'm done publishing this post, I have to start doing revisions with Alycia again....

Alycia Fell Down From The Stairs In School Today

... and she dared not tell me or anyone.

When Alycia came back from pre-school today, my maid cleaned her up. My maid then told me that there are red patches on Alycia's body and thigh. My mil and I took a look and wondered what it was. The red patches looked like some allergies and we thought she had scratched her body. She remained quiet when we inspected her body. Later when I was working on the PC, she came up to me and told me softly "mummy, I fell down today". She did not even dare to tell me that she fell in school. It dawned on me immediately that the red patches were from a fall. I asked her how she fell and she told me she fell down the stairs. I asked her if it was painful and if she cried, she said no. I doubted it when she said no. When I asked if her teacher saw her fall, she said yes. When asked if her teacher said anything, she said no! Now, I am really pissed. How can the teacher not tell the parents when a student had a fall in school? What if the student broke a bone or some internal injuries happened to the child? I am going to ask the teacher on Monday what happened and if it's true that she saw Alycia falling and not inform us, I will surely tell her off.

Alycia's Pre-School Concert

Today is Alycia's maiden participation in her pre-school concert. Hop over to my other blog to continue reading.

Alycia And Her Abacus

When Alycia was first taught abacus in pre-school last year, she was totally lost. So was I because I was never taught abacus during my time. In Alycia's case, she had a hard time catching up as she had missed her classes almost the whole of last year when she kept falling ill every month. Thankfully she managed to catch up this year and now, she has no problem using the abacus to do her Math.

Alycia did this abacus calculation homework almost all by herself, with me guiding her when she was stuck.

A Phone Call From Alycia's School Principal

My heart skipped a beat or two last week when I received a call from Alycia's pre-school principal. She has never called me when Alycia is in school. Well, any call from the school during school hours is not a good thing right? When my maid told me "mam, ada talipon dari sekolah Alycia", I felt this sudden pang right in the middle of my tummy and I think the color of my face must have turned pale white. "Oh shit" I thought, I hope Alycia has not hurt herself. Thank God Alycia didn't hurt herself. The principal just wanted to confirm with me that Alycia is participating in a school concert in October as we have to pay RM100 for the costume and booking of the hall. Phew..... really gave me a scare. I've already confirmed Alycia's participation in the message book, yet she called me, silly principal. And oh yes, Alycia did hurt herself on that day. She fell and grazed her elbow during PE but thankfully it wasn't serious and she didn't cry. Boy, I just hope I will never receive any more calls from the school in future.

Alycia's First Sports Day

Alycia participated in her first ever sports day in pre-school on 9 May 08. It's a pity I couldn't attend her maiden sports day as I had to stay at home with Baby C. It would be crazy to bring along a 1-month old baby to watch Alycia under the scorching sun. Anyway, I'm glad that the hubs, my dad, mum and younger brother attended Alycia's sports day. They were here the day before to attend Baby C's fullmoon party. I think Alycia is the only kid in pre-school whose daddy, grandparents and uncle came to watch her in action... and she was so proud!


Alycia in action.

Koong Koong and Alycia in the parent and child event.

Koong Koong helping Alycia pour water into the water bottle in the parent and child event.

Alycia came home with a little trophy and a pressie... which koong koong won when he helped Alycia answer a question.

Alycia's New Disney School Bag

Koo Mah from Hong Kong sent this Disney bag over to Alycia just at the right time coz her pink Minnie Mouse bag was torn last week. This bag suits Alycia coz her pre-school has so many books and so much homework to bring home. It's quite a pity that a 4-year old like Alycia has to carry such a heavy bag to school everyday. I can't imagine how big and heavy her school bag will be when she goes to a Chinese primary school in 2 years' time. I think I will need to get her a trolley-bag with rollers then.

Computer Class

Today is the first day of school for the second term for all school kids. Today is also the first day of Alycia's computer enrichment class. For this optional subject, parents are charged RM60 per month, which makes Alycia's pre-school fees close to RM400 per month (extra Mandarin and Computer classes). Kids and pre-schools are really competitive these days. Most pre-schools are now having computer classes for their 4-year olds. Some pre-schools even have additional music, cooking and drama & speech classes too. If parents were to send their child to all the additional classes, school fees per month will be really costly. Imagine parents with more than 2 kids..... they would have to fork out close to RM2k or even more per month just on their pre-schoolers' school fees, enrichment classes and other extra curricular activities outside of school. That is going to cause both the parents and the kids lots of stress.... and this seems to be the norm these days.

Too Tough For 4 Year Olds?

Do you think this exercise is too tough for a 4 year old? Alycia's pre-school teacher has given her this as homework. My mum who is a retired teacher thinks this is a tad too tough for a 4-year old as Alycia seems so clueless when my mum coached her in her homework. In the first place, Alycia does not even know how to read the instructions which is 'colour the biggest numbers'. My mum and I had a tough time explaining this exercise to her. It could be Alycia has missed out too many classes (more than 6 months) last year when I pulled her out from school when she kept falling sick, thus she is very far lagging behind her peers.


On top of homework, her pre-school also gives her tons of flash cards, which mummy is supposed to flash to her. When it comes to Mandarin, mummy is just as clueless though there is 'han yi pin yi' written on the cards.

Mandarin Enrichment Class

Last week Alycia’s Mandarin enrichment class teacher gave her a Mickey Mouse pencil. When she came home, she happily and excitedly showed me the pencil and asked me to sharpen the pencil for her. Then she quickly took out her Mandarin workbooks and started doing her homework without being told to. Little gift like this can really motivate a young child to work, amazing!

Blind Leading The Blind

This was the homework that Alycia's Mandarin class teacher gave her last week. I could not read most of the words there, especially the instructions. As I could recognize a few words (water and hand), I figured that Alycia was supposed to complete the missing stroke for each word. So I ended up spending 15 minutes going through the previous pages to find the words and fill up the missing strokes. It's really a case of the blind leading the blind. I think I should ask Alycia's teacher to write the instructions in English in future so that I know what she's supposed to do. As for teaching her the words, I think I need to get myself a chinese pictionary with 'han yi pin yi' !