Rainy mornings & sick children.
Today was a wet Thursday. It was raining in the morning. We stayed in the entire morning due to the rain and there was no sports rehearsal or marching today.
Quite a number of the children were absent. Tze En and Eugene were sick. Celina has been absent from school for quite a while. Lilian was sick as well, so basically, I had to manage the kids in the morning.
Tze En was quite quiet in the morning. She looked rather pale. She totally vomitted all over her dress and onto the floor and the whole room smelled of the vomit. I had to quickly evacuate all the kids out into the main hall and close the door. Then I told the administrator to call her father to pick her up to go home.
I pushed the mobile board (on wheels) out into the hall to continue the lesson with them. Today the children seemed rather disruptive the entire morning, and could barely remain still even for a single while. So after a while, I just played some music on the radio in the hall, and let the children move to it. (I had to dance with them of course!). After that they went in for their snack time. The classroom was already cleaned up by then.
There is a rabbit pen in the school garden. One of the parents (of previous enrolments who have since left), found a rabbit in a box. I took the rabbit out of the box and left it in the pen. It seemed quite happy munching on the grass (there is a lot of grass in the pen itself!) and roaming alone by itself. The children, obviously, seemed overjoyed to see another rabbit in the pen again. Nicholas in particular!
Hmmm....if no one is going to claim the rabbit soon, I think I shall BBQ rabbit for dinner some time...Yum Yum!
The principal seemed to think that by coming in to show the prizes (of the games during the sports) would spur the children to try harder during the Sports Day itself. You know what? It may seem a nice idea, but to me, I don't really care. To me, I think it is more important that the children have a good time, and not so much about winning prizes. It would be good if the children DO win, but it is NOT a must. I'd rather they have a good time, than to be pressured to win something! However though, I'd rather the children have sports instead of just staying in class. Because sports is another way the children can develop their growing bodies, instead of just going in for lessons (like most competitive Malaysian preschools which focus so much on academics they forget the rest of the physical development aspect of the so-called holistic progamme!). The rest of the school year after the Sports would be to prepare for the year end concert instead!
Whilst I was sending Nicholas (4 years) and ChingWen (6 years) home, I talked to them about the cars. Ok, I know next to nothing about cars. Ching Wen asked me how would I know what the name of the cars were, if the names of the cars were not written there. So I pointed out to him that behind each and most of the cars, there were names of cars glued to it.
Nicholas told me never to get the Kancil and Kelisa! His uncle James (whom I know as well!), drives a Kelisa and Nicholas complains that it is very small! So he told me not to get a Kelisa. So I asked him, how about a Kancil?No, No, he said! Even worst. Don't get a Kancil! Very small indeed!
Nicholas although young for his age, was able to point out to me that cars (which had bright colours), could be seen at night, whilst cars with dark colours could not be seen at night.....pretty perceptive for a child his age, won't you think eh??
Some people think that talking to children about matters like type of cars or colours of the cars, houses and even religion seem a strange idea. But the thing is, children are not that un-observant. Although children may not understand many matters, but one can actually learn and observe that children do notice many things in the environment and surroundings that adults take for granted or may not think about, if only they took the time out to ask or probe them about it. Expecting children to be seen and not heard during family dinners or wedding dinners is a rather outmoded behaviour. No wonder our Asian children seem to have trouble expressing themselves in public or even to give a speech!!
Quite a number of the children were absent. Tze En and Eugene were sick. Celina has been absent from school for quite a while. Lilian was sick as well, so basically, I had to manage the kids in the morning.
Tze En was quite quiet in the morning. She looked rather pale. She totally vomitted all over her dress and onto the floor and the whole room smelled of the vomit. I had to quickly evacuate all the kids out into the main hall and close the door. Then I told the administrator to call her father to pick her up to go home.
I pushed the mobile board (on wheels) out into the hall to continue the lesson with them. Today the children seemed rather disruptive the entire morning, and could barely remain still even for a single while. So after a while, I just played some music on the radio in the hall, and let the children move to it. (I had to dance with them of course!). After that they went in for their snack time. The classroom was already cleaned up by then.
There is a rabbit pen in the school garden. One of the parents (of previous enrolments who have since left), found a rabbit in a box. I took the rabbit out of the box and left it in the pen. It seemed quite happy munching on the grass (there is a lot of grass in the pen itself!) and roaming alone by itself. The children, obviously, seemed overjoyed to see another rabbit in the pen again. Nicholas in particular!
Hmmm....if no one is going to claim the rabbit soon, I think I shall BBQ rabbit for dinner some time...Yum Yum!
The principal seemed to think that by coming in to show the prizes (of the games during the sports) would spur the children to try harder during the Sports Day itself. You know what? It may seem a nice idea, but to me, I don't really care. To me, I think it is more important that the children have a good time, and not so much about winning prizes. It would be good if the children DO win, but it is NOT a must. I'd rather they have a good time, than to be pressured to win something! However though, I'd rather the children have sports instead of just staying in class. Because sports is another way the children can develop their growing bodies, instead of just going in for lessons (like most competitive Malaysian preschools which focus so much on academics they forget the rest of the physical development aspect of the so-called holistic progamme!). The rest of the school year after the Sports would be to prepare for the year end concert instead!
Whilst I was sending Nicholas (4 years) and ChingWen (6 years) home, I talked to them about the cars. Ok, I know next to nothing about cars. Ching Wen asked me how would I know what the name of the cars were, if the names of the cars were not written there. So I pointed out to him that behind each and most of the cars, there were names of cars glued to it.
Nicholas told me never to get the Kancil and Kelisa! His uncle James (whom I know as well!), drives a Kelisa and Nicholas complains that it is very small! So he told me not to get a Kelisa. So I asked him, how about a Kancil?No, No, he said! Even worst. Don't get a Kancil! Very small indeed!
Nicholas although young for his age, was able to point out to me that cars (which had bright colours), could be seen at night, whilst cars with dark colours could not be seen at night.....pretty perceptive for a child his age, won't you think eh??
Some people think that talking to children about matters like type of cars or colours of the cars, houses and even religion seem a strange idea. But the thing is, children are not that un-observant. Although children may not understand many matters, but one can actually learn and observe that children do notice many things in the environment and surroundings that adults take for granted or may not think about, if only they took the time out to ask or probe them about it. Expecting children to be seen and not heard during family dinners or wedding dinners is a rather outmoded behaviour. No wonder our Asian children seem to have trouble expressing themselves in public or even to give a speech!!
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