Kids' Schooling

I send my kids to an education centre that offers Glenn Doman method in their system. I just fall in love with the method since it is well-balanced : emotion & physical activities. They are so child-led, no exam, no test. Let the kids be free.

Teachers usually tell us about kids behaviour at school on daily basis. Hafiy and Fahry usually get good remarks. Although I always insist if the teachers have any concern on my kids development. However, they convinced me that the kids are doing good. In fact, Hafiy now able to read even though he is always escape from reading activities at home.

I guess it's just how boys are growing.

I love the school, not only for their practising method, but also they food they serve. No junk food. I do not allow my kids to eat even candies (however, sometimes they still could have it, especially in family gathering or birthday parties).

It's just unbelievable that Hafiy will go to primary 1 next year. How fast time flies. I even do not even started homeschooling them! (& I'm gonna lost my beautiful time to travel with the kids once any of them enter primary school).

So.. hmmm actually this a kind of catching up, I found this very blog again after 2 years of abandonment.

Will I write here often from now on?

New Workstation For The Kids

We just bought a new set of table and chairs for the kids so that they're gonna have a proper place and study props. Like other mothers, I choose Ikea marmut set combining 4 colors, green, blue, pink and white,

I choose the circular shaped table because it gives more space for them. Rectangular ones is just too inflexible for my kids who love to jumble everything in one go.

I wish I could upload some pictures of my kids' workstation!

Homeschool Activity : Cloth Pegs

You don't need any expensive tools to make your children happy.

My kids saw my brand new clothes pegs and they insisted to open the pack. I unwrap it and gave them. Hafiy screamed "Pink! Pink!" OMG he's really a pink boy. He loves his pink pajamas, wants a pink chair.....

I taught him to put the pegs on. We used some thick papers. It was so nice that he could arrange all those pegs accordingly.


He then used his imagination to build ship from it.

Homeschooling For Working Mommies?

I am not gonna do a formal homeschool by all means. For us it is enough by doing some family activities which we regard as 'schooling at home', just for our own sake.

However, it is not impossible for working mommies to practice formal homeschooling with their kids, meaning that giving full commitment and not going to send the kids to either public or private school.

Some Western mothers are successfully run their homeschool by:
- work in shift with their spouse, where each of them take turn to teach the kids at home.
- collaborate with other mommies in the same area, which where they're gonna send the kids when they're off to work. Definitely for schooling!
- get a helper to look after the kids while they're away, just to take care of some minor parts like practical living, hygiene, etc.
- plan for flexible schedules so that it won't effect the kids' lesson when their parents are away.

I don't have any reason (yet) to do all those things. Perhaps one day. Public school in my country still provides good and condusive learning environment.


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Learn to Read : How to Start

I believe that reading/learning could be nurtured as a habit, not merely a practice/approach we use only when we want to acquire certain knowledge. My husband and I adore reading very much. As a child, I was an early reader, I was able to read before I entered formal school. I had lots of books, when most of my friends still learn to spell, I already read short stories.

I still remember my mother and father used to buy me some story books and sometimes borrowed them from local library.

I loved reading because my parents were readers too. According to my father, I hadn't been forced to learn to read, but I got the skill by myself when my father gave me a set of alphabets when I was about 4 or 5 years old to play with. From that I started to know the alphabet letters and began to spell.

I am using the same approach to my children. We read in front of them, to them and with them. I bought my children sets of alphabet blocks, magnetic alphabets, alphabet cards and so on, so that they could play with.

A child need to be nurtured with love of learning before he start to learn to read. Reading is not merely holding a book and read. A child need to master some skills in order to get themselves ready to read i.e. motor skill.

To help children with motor skill, parents should help them in stimulating their physical. Example, instead of leaving them in walker for the whole day, allow them to crawl, creep, climb and hold things.

From day to day as our children grow older, more motor activities are needed by them to help them in mastering hand-eye coordination which is important for them to write later.

How to Teach a 2 Year Old

It is not easy to 'teach' a 2 year old boy because he likes to jump and run to here and there. We have to know the secret. The secret is, that's how they learn.

Sometimes, we mothers, especially for a full time working mom like me, we can't wait to see the result. As our child learns something, we want him to understand and remember it forever.

Children born with zero skill, zero knowledge, zero problem... So they are free to absorb everything around them. So, no matter how active our children are, they are actually absorbing.

My boy is a very active ones. He won't stay put a second even during 'study time', except watching his favourite videos. What I do just let him play while I am teaching him. Usually he'll respond while playing. So it will be play and learn sessions.

To teach our children need lots of love and patient.

Getting My Kids To Hook On Discipline

My first son wants to be breastfed all the time. He is willing to do anything for a suckle on my breast. Even though he is 2 years and 3 months old already but still no sign of weaning.

Lately he demands for comfort nursing, which I try to avoid because I have to utilize my time to meet all the household needs. So I decided to take his breastfeeding or comfort nursing as a reward instead of 'need'.

Everyday he has to collect good points for his nursing session. 1 good deed, 1 point, 1 nursing session. 1 naughty deed, 1 point deducted, 1 nursing session burns. So he has to do good deed and stop being naughty to get his milk.

However, from time to time I have to remind him that he has to be good or he'll lose 1 point.

I am not being too harsh on him. My intention is just to train him to be responsible on his manner and behavior. 2 years old is still a baby to me, however the good behaviour starts before birth. Furthermore he's going to nursery now and will enter kindergarten by end of this year, so he has not be treated as a below 1 year old baby.

It shows posistive sign since I introduced this system. He's not hitting his little brother as frequent as usual. So I might continue this reward-and-punish-up-to-you system to discipline my kids.