It's a school holiday!

Yeay! The school holidays has started. I'm happy and so do my kids. Zara, who has problem going to school, kept asking me how many days will be the holiday. When I told her that it would be two weeks, she was very happy. Happy because no more me pestering her every morning to go to school.

I didn't plan anything for them except to be at home. I think this school holiday will be the most boring school holiday for them. Ahh...give them PSP and books, they will enjoy their holiday. Anyway Zaki requires at least 7 days to recover from his circumcision, and Syafiq needs to study for his exam SPM exam in October. The SPM is a Do or Die exam. Failed, you will go nowhere. So, no play-play for him!

I'm worried that since they are highly super active kids, they might drive their grandfather crazy during the school holiday. I really hope not. The school holiday also means, it will be less hectic for me. No rush to prepare breakfast, and getting them ready for school.

To celebrate my moment of relaxnes  (is there such a word here), here, is a song from Cliff Richards. ‘Summer Holiday’ that I dedicated to all school children and their parents. Enjoy!

I can't wait for school holidays

I am really looking forward to the next two weeks. It is a school holiday, and I’m not going anywhere. I will be taking two days off to stay at home with the kids. 

I'm always looking forward to school holiday. First, there is no rush in the morning. On a usual school’s days, Syafiq left the house by 6.50am, and he has no transport to go to school. Every morning my hubby will send him and then come back again to get ready to work.

When he leaves the house early, it means that I have to get up early too to prepare for breakfast. Since I’m not a morning person, this is very challenging. There were times that I was too tired that I doze off on the sofa.

Secondly, the traffic will be less. Most people are going for holiday; therefore, the road will be less crowded. Will there be no traffic jam? I don't know, but let's pray no jam. Oh yeah! There will be plenty parking lot available too.

Thirdly, I will have time to myself. On school’s night, I normally sit down with them to go through their homework and revision. Sometimes when I reached home late and tired, they would be waiting for me. When I asked them to go and asked their dad, they would reply, “Ayah don’t know.” 

Fourthly, Zaki has decided to 'bersunat' (circumcision). Yup every Muslim boy has to go through this. Some did it a very tender age, and some waited until they were thirteen or fourteen years old. I’m glad he decided to do it now. Actually, he has been asking for this since last year, but I have no confidence about it.

I already booked the appointment at Ampang Putri Specialist Hospital for him this coming Wednesday. Not sure how he will react when he has to be warded for half-day, but for one thing, he wouldn't feel the pain because I have asked for the full GA to be given to him. He would be totally knocked out and wouldn't remember anything or what has been done.

The only thing I’m worried is that he might change his mind last minute, but let’s pray that he will stick to his decision. And he also said, “Ibu, I don’t need anything special from you except give me RM10.”

“Really? RM10 is enough?” I asked.
“Yes,” he replied. To him, he can get two PSP games with RM10. 

Okay, I gotta go now. They kids are calling. Salam.

When the kids start to help....

This weekend, my maid didn’t come because she was sick. Since no maid means all the household chores we have to do it ourselves. Do you see 'we' there? No maid means busy weekend and that was how it was. Busy.  I was busy with cleaning, washing and ironing but I’m not complaining as it was a fun weekend for all of us.

It was fun because the kids were involved in the cleaning. No one forced them. They volunteered themselves to help.

My kids like to hang around me. On Saturday, as I was cleaning the stove, they were there with me. At first, Amir came and watched me and then Zara, Syafiq and Zaki. At first they were contented to watch but then slowly one bu one came to help. It was nice but sometimes it slow down my work. Finally after so much disruption, I asked Syafiq to finish the cleaning while I observed.

The same thing happened when I started ironing. This time only Zara was with me. The boys was not around so it just us, the girls. She helped to fetch the school uniforms, the hangers and then helped me to hang the clothes. 

At one point when I was ironing my hubby shirt, she was bugging me to let her try to iron her dad’s shirt. I was very tempted to let her try but then my hubby overheard our conversation. I almost let her near the iron when I looked up, I saw him at the door, looking at me, raising his eyebrow. Huh! It was a no go; otherwise, Zara will be bragging about her ironing feat to her grandpa and I will have to get another shirt for him. I have to take three breaks to finish all the ironing but it was fun as I always like ironing.

So how did you spend your last day of the school holidays with your kids? I bet it was fun.

Okay, gotta go. Early morning for me tomorrow. Salam.

Kids today!

The kids are so happy as they will be off from school for a week. Yup! It is a school holiday where the resorts will be full of people and KL will be less crowded except shopping mall. I always avoid going to mall during school holiday because getting parking will be a nightmare.

I also have not gone for holiday. The last time we went for holiday was to Kota Kinabalu in 2009. So my kids were kind of looking forward that we go somewhere this time. But kids, sorry not this year cause Ibu is reserving my leave for my planned trip end of the year.

My little girl was very cute when she saw me today and she asked me,” Ibu, when are we going to hotel?” she asked.

“Oh! Why are we going to hotel?”

“It’s school holiday,” she said.

“Okay. We can either go to Hotel Saujana Impian or Villa Seroja. Which one do you want?” I asked her.

“That is our house. I want to go to hotel where it has swimming pool,” she said.

Aaahh….kids today always associate school holidays with traveling and hotel stay. It was so different during my time. When I was young, school holiday means roaming around the kampong where we will play all day long and come back only for lunch and before maghrib.

Life was so free back then. Nothing to worry where our parents know that their children are safe. No crazy man, no speeding car and everything was at a slower paced. They know that they can rely on their neighbour to watch their kids.

But today, our kids can't go outside the house without any adults supervising them. Safety is an issue. Because of this, the kids spend most of their time in the house watching tv and playing with their computer.

I'm just afraid that our kids will grow up with less social skill and communication skill as they communicate to their friends through computer or SMS. There is not much interaction with people except when they are at school.

Will this impact their social skill and communication skill? Possible. What about you? Do you agree with me? Please share with me your thoughts.

Sekian..salam. 

Six weeks of freedom and fun

This week starts the year-end school holiday. School will reopen next January for new terms. For most of the parents and maids, it means headache, misery and stress but to those school kids, it is freedom. Six weeks of freedom with no homework or revision waiting for them. Six solid weeks they can play and enjoy themselves. But do I want them to spend six weeks like that? I guess not.

So what should I do with my kids? Vacation is out due to my parents conditions. We have to stay in KL area. Maybe I will take them to see some of the new movies but I can't be going every week to cinema. They may like it but my purse will not like it at all. What if I challenge them to read? Each of them choose one book each and it has to be an English book. Do you think they will like it? Maybe if I dangle something but I don't like to do that. I don't believe in rewarding every single thing that they accomplished with presents. 


I also want them to do it because they want to. No point if they do it because of me. It will not work. It will be a challenge especially to get my 10years old and 6years old boys to sit down and read. TV and PSP will be more fun for them. Think! Think! I need to be creative in getting them to read and make it fun at the same time so that they will finish the book. BTW do you have any idea? Share with me if you have any. Salam.