Spring Beach Holiday

Okay, this is a way overdue piece. I should've posted this like 2 months ago, shortly after our fantastic one week holiday in Blairegowrie, a nice little beach town in the Mornington Peninsular and just minutes away from Sorrento, a bigger town with better amenities.

My cousin Pin Pin and her husband invited us along for the holiday. The bank they work for, ANZ Bank, has a stuff club that runs several holiday houses around Australia and this nice, charming house in Blairegowrie is one of them. Very cheap - only AUD600 for one whole week!

Our holidays started on 20 September to 27 September - what bliss. Everyday we went to a different beach, except one day when it rained all day. But six out of seven was pretty awesome. Of course, the kids had more fun. They built sand castles and collected seashells on all the beaches they went to. Each beach has its own personality - different types sand, landscape and seashells. One day, we even found a beach all to ourselves, sort of like our own private beach. Splendid!

We had lots of barbecue fun too. Instead of cooking, we just bought some some sausages, chicken wings and meat and took them to the park with BBQ pits to grill them. Easy, no need to clean up plates and cutlery after each meal. We just had to throw all those soiled paper plates and napkins in the bins provided.

It was a shame Alex couldn't be with us the entire week. He only drove us there and then came back to Melbourne to work for the next few days before driving to Blairgowrie the following weekend to pick us up again. But we may go there on our own one of these days. After all, the drive to the Mornington Peninsular is only about one and a half hours. Too bad we wouldn't have the luxury of staying an entire week the next time, unless of course we got invited by Cousin Pin and family again to another place.

Photos will be uploaded later.

Friends Of My Own

I never realised how much I missed the company of friends until I made some of my own friends earlier this year. The first year we were here, I hardly ventured out of the home, safe the few trips to buy groceries and the weekend outings with the whole family.

The thing is, I didn't feel anything lacking. Perhaps I was too busy getting the kids (including the XL size one) and household organised. After I dropped Joshua off at school, I often went home with Joanne in tow. We didn't send her to kindergarten so I had to take care of at all times. Which meant no free time for myself.

Then Joanne started school earlier this year. I suddenly found myself with a lot of free time. Hooray! Freedom at last. But that doesn't mean I get to lepak all day long. There is still a lot of housework to attend to - it's never-ending but at least I didn't have to tag along a small kid wherever I go anymore. And that makes things a much, much easier.

At school, I got to know a few more mums. I got particularly close to two of them - fellow Malaysians. Sze Nam and her family moved here almost a year after mine. So she was even newer to the environment than I was. The strange thing is that she lived in a neighbourhood not far from mine back in Cheras. And we had to travel all the way to Melbourne to meet each other. I might have seen her in Malaysia before. She worked as a pharmacist at Guardian and I used to haunt Guardian a lot! I thought she looked really familiar when we first met.

Lina, on the other hand, has lived in Melbourne for nearly 20 years, since her university days. So she knows a fair bit about a lot of things here. Plus, she is a certified accountant - really useful to have her as a friend! Lina and I also share another special bond. Both our daughters are named Joanane. More we both seem to have the same taste in clothers, having several identical outfit!

So these days, after I drop the kids at school, I would hang around at either Lina or Sze Nam's house. They both have a 2-year-old son each, so I help them a bit whenever I can. Lina's son, Arthur, for some inexplicable reasons, adores me. So I could watch him while Lina tries to organise her household. Sze Nam's son, Ken Zet, however, doesn't share that affinity. So the only way I can help is to go food shopping with her from time to time.

Well, it's so good to have my own friends - not that my cousin and Alex's friend's wife Anla had not been helpful. They have, especially when I first got here. But it sure is nice to have a few more good pals.

Head Lice Alert!

When the word "kutu" is mentioned, one often envisions dirty poor children with unwashed hair and bodies. Well, the fact is, "kutu" is quite feared here too. Every few weeks, I would get a "Head Lice Alert" notice in the kids' school satchels.

I was stumped when I got the first notice. Surely, this couldn't be, I thought. I read and re-read the notice. That wasn't a joke. I asked around. Yep, head lice are a real problem among primary school kids. But fear not, there are many ways to get rid of these nasty little blood-sucking bugs. Just hop in to the local pharmacy and you'll find an entire shelf devoted to getting rid of head lice! There are head lice shampoo, head lice gel, head lice mousse, head lice powder, head lice solution - just take your pick. At least the treatment options seem hassle-free.

I remember when I got "kutu" on my head when I was in primary school. We were living in Langkawi at that time and we hung out with kampung kids, who understandably were very prone to catching head lice. The treatment was horrendous - kerosene. Imagine having fuel on your head! I don't know what's worse - the fact that you may turn into a human torch easily if there was some spark the moment your hair was drenched with kerosene or that the "kutu" might drive you mad if you didn't get rid of them. There wasn't much of a choice. So I had to be careful not to go near flames while I was having my "treatment". Of course after the incident I was sporting a near crew-cut style too!

So far, both Joshua and Joanne have been spared the head lice agony. Hopefully no head lice would ever take up residency on their heads. But I think I know why head lice are such a persistent problem. The weather could a be a factor. It's often so cold that some kids go without having a hair wash for more than a week! I suspect many of them do not take bath daily as well. Some might even blame it on the water restriction, I think. How convenient!

Just the thought of having "kutu" running around on the scalp is enough to make my skin crawl. Heaven help me. I hope I don't have kids coming back from school with heads full of "kutu"!

--

Kiasuism Aussie Style

You know how Malaysian and Singaporean parents are extremely kiasu when it comes to their children's education (and everything else in general, actually)? Well, kiasuism exists here too, but not in terms of academic performance, apparently.

To be fair, all parents want their kids to do well in school. But few local Australian parents would take the trouble to send their kids to tuition classes after school. This is something prevalent only among Asian migrant families. Yep, they load their kids with extra homework because there's virtually no homework for kids below Year 3.

On the other extreme end, there are ridiculous proposals by some very misguided parents to ban homework because they claim homework should be done at school under the supervision of the teacher. Beats me. I don't know how on Earth some of these parents justify that kind of thinking but this is not the minority speaking. This kind of lobbying has been going on for some time it seems.

Anyway, back to the topic of kiasuism. The folks here take socialising and sports very seriously. Most kids will go to their friends' houses after school once or twice a week - just to play, not to do homework together. Joshua has been going to his friends' house regularly and Joanne has invited her friends too. That's fine actually.

But what boggles me is how some parents arrange their kids' week according to the kind of sport they get involved in - Monday (Swimming), Tuesday (Soccer), Wednesday (Tennis), Thursday (Footy), Friday (Cricket) - you get the drift. And then they protest when there's homework for the kids because their kids' week is already packed!

Don't get me wrong. Sports are good. I wish Joshua would show more interest in them but he's happy just being the spectator, not the player. But don't you think too many sports may not be that great? How does a kid stay focused?

And then there's the thing with birthday parties. They are BIG here. And I get worried every time the kids receive an invitation (once a month at least). The parents seem very preoccupied with outdoing one another in the form of lavish parties. The parties usually come with a theme, sometimes with clowns-cum-magicians to keep the kids amused. Some are held in fancy venues. And of course, the host is expected to hand out goodie bags before the guests leave. I must say, some of the parties are really cool - more the reason for me not to hold any birthday parties for I'll never be able to live up to their standards here!

Honestly, I dread the day Joshua and Joanne start demanding to have their own birthday parties. I have been coughing up lots of excuses. I'm not sure for how much longer they'll buy those, though. Maybe I'll have something for them when they turn 18 ...

Yu-Gi-Oh!

In the beginning, there were the superheroes to keep them enthralled - Ultraman, Spider-Man, Batman. Joshua couldn't get enough of them, and Joanne just sort of decided to like whatever Joshua liked. She still does, actually.

But for some reason, they could never endear themselves to Superman. Don't know why. The bright red underwear worn on the outside probably had something to do with their aversion the the most recognisable superhero of all times.

Later on, the kids discovered more superheroes - the Powerpuff Girls, Power Rangers (and gosh, there are so many variants of Power Rangers!), the Incredibles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Kimpossible. They have T-shirts, pajamas, shoes, socks, slippers, cutlery, bags, books, caps, DVDs, etc, featuring these unearthly creatures.

Then, Pokemonia hit them. Both Joshua and Joanne ate, drank, breathed, slept and dreamt about Pokemon. They even created their own Pokemon and on many occasions "forced" me to create mine as well. Of course, my Pokemon had to "battle" against their Pokemon too. It was madness. And apparently, it is an affliction shared by many other kids around the world. My 2 nephews are crazy about Pokemon and have collected decks after decks of Pokemon trading cards.

I thought this Pokemania would haunt me for the next few years. Alas, it is not to be. Oh, they still like Pokemon but they like something else better - Yu-Go-Oh! - a game and manga franchise created by Kazuki Takahashi involving a card game called Duel Monsters in which players or duelists use cards to defeat one another.

I find the concept pretty similar to that of Pokemon - the Pokemon battle while the duelists in Yu-Gi-Oh! duel. I personally prefer Pokemon. At least many of the creatures are usually cute and cuddly. Duel Monsters, on the other hand, look hideous most of the time. Which is why I find it a little odd that the kids like them so much.

Now, instead of uttering names like Pikachu, Raichu, Blastoise, Treecko and Charizad (Joshua's one-time favourite), they now spew out rather spooky and gothic-sounding names like the Dark Magician, Celtic Guardian, Spell Caster Summoner, Soul Tormentor, Exodia, Sword of Revealing Light and an assortment of dragons! And there are trap cards, spell cards, magic cards, etc too.

These days, they have several decks of Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. Actually, they harrass me on a weekly basis to get more cards in the hope they will find a magic card or a card featuring the legendary Blue-Eyed White Dragon. These are supposedly rare and therefore very much sought-after.

There's one good thing about Yu-Gi-Oh! though. The games come with points earned or lost during duelings. So Joshua has learnt quite a fair bit about additions and substractions. Not Joanne, though. The figures are too big for her to manage.

Also, with Yu-Gi-Oh!, Joshua has discarded his propensity to demand that I create my own duel monsters. That would have been too much for me. Maybe I should create one now - just in case. Kid-Chewing Dark Mummy would do nicely.

Watching Tennis With The Kids

It's tennis and cricket seasons now. And since I know next to nothing about cricket, I opt for the Australian Tennis Open. After all, I was at one time a big fan of professional tennis.


We can't afford the pricey tickets at the Rod Lever Arena to catch the action live. Fortunately, we get to see matches broadcast live daily over Channel 7. So we tune in to watch tennis whenever the kids are not hogging the TV to watch their kiddie shows.


Last week, Joshua and Joanne watched their very first tennis match - the 3rd round match between Aussie underdog Casey Dellacqua and former Australian Open Amelie Maurismo. Joshua the patriot wanted Dellacqua to win while Joanne chose Maurismo simply because she was dressed in pink, Joanne's favourite colour.

It was an exciting match with both players taking turns playing brilliantly. Joshua, still new to the game, kept asking me how the points were scored. So I explained as the match progressed. He could read fairly well now so he could tell who was leading. He was definitely anxious for Dellacqua. Because it was a close match, he couldn't sit still. He would cover his eyes, walk around, wince or grimace each time Dellacqua lost a point or made an error. He would cheer and jump up and down excitedly when a point went in favour of Dellacqua. Naturally, he was over the moon when Dellacqua emerged the winner of the match. Joanne, on the other hand, wasn't all that concerned that the "pink girl" lost.

Dellacqua's quest however was over in her next match against Jelena Jankovic. Joshua was disappointed. Then he turned his attention to another match involving another Aussie - this time the match between Lleyton Hewitt and Novak Djokovic. Until yesterday, Joshua has never heard nor seen Hewitt but Hewitt instantly became his favourite in yesterday's match. Unfortunately, Hewitt too lost.

Yes, Joshua was definitely disappointed but not crushed. Even before the match ended and we all knew how it was going to end, Joshua stayed true to his "hero", saying he didn't care and still wanted to cheer Hewitt on. At Joshua's age, I would've stopped watching if my hero was being given a sound beating.

There are a few more days of tennis watching to go. Joshua is sure to sit next to me if I'm watching. I wonder if he'll pick up watching cricket or footy too. Probably not, since I don't.

I'll Be Darned!

"Who farted??! It's so smelly!"

"Oh no! Not an old bus again!"

"Hey, that's the same bus driver we had yesterday!"

"That woman with a fat tummy isn't really fat because she is having a baby!"

"That car is so ugly and old!"

I have to endure listening to my 2 kids babbling loudly like this between themselves while riding on the bus. Kids being kids, and we all know how downright painfully honest they can be sometimes, they just blurt out whatever that's on their mind without thinking.

Of course, I do my best to hush them, telling them to keep their voices down while talking in public. Naturally, they don't get it most of the time. They just make any passing comments whenver they stumble on something that deserves some kind of mention, usually the more unflattering kind.

One of my biggest fears is to hear them commenting loudly about somebody's disabilities. Disabaled people in Australia are very independent and frequently move about and board public transport on their own. Many of them have cerebal palsy or severe obesity and therefore physically look unusual.

I'm so worried the kids would say someone looking ugly or stupid. But thankfully, they haven't embarrassed me like that, yet. Maybe they instinctively know it's not right to comment about others' misfortune and disabilities. If so, maybe the kids aren't so clueless about life after all.

Until we have the car back, I'll have to hope Joshua and Joanne will lower their voices when making commentaries on the bus, and pray they NEVER, EVER say someone is ugly because of one reason or another. I don't fancy getting killer stares from strangers!

Pokemon Rule

These days, Joshua lives, breathes, eats, drinks, sleeps and dreams of nothing but Pokemon. Apparently, he and some of his school chums had formed their own Pokemon Club too. That's fine with me. Kids love to have fun after all.

But what drives me bonkers is Joshua's incessant need to "battle" with Joanne. This is some Pokemon exercise in which Pokemon trainers try to capture a wild Pokemon or compete with another Pokemon trainer.

Sometimes, Joanne amuses Joshua by playing along. Other times, she is not keen. That's when Joshua will start a shouting match with his sister. Beats me but he is pretty bossy and demands that Joanne plays Pokemon with him when she'd rather play with her girly toys.

That's not all. Joshua has also started "creating" his own Pokemon. Now these new creations of his have their own names and their special abilities. He can even describe how they look like or what they are going to evolve into (It seems that evolution among Pokemon is the norm). Fine, as long as he's happy with his own kind of Pokemon.

But no. Our friend was not happy with that. Last week, he insisted that I create some Pokemon of my own too (slapping hand on forehead)! And he wouldn't leave me alone until I'd created a few of those pocket monsters. And of course, naming them alone wasn't good enough. I had to describe how they looked like and what special abilities they had.

I've forgotten most of the gibberish stuff I churned out to silence Joshua. But I remember one that I named Tarantulo. You've guessed it. It looked like a spider and was armed with poison. Joshua was apparently pleased with Tarantulo.

See what having kids can turn you into? Now I'm supposedly a Pokemon fan too, according to my son ...

Play Time

It's been a good week for Joshua. He's been to his best friend, Alexander's house twice after school just to play. The first time was on Wednesday and yes, that was his very first outing to a friend's (his own friend, I mean, not kids of his father's friends) house.

He was having so much fun performing Pokemon battles with his pal that he didn't want to come home with me when I went to pick him up 2 hours later. I didn't want to impose on Alexander's mum, Rosemary. So I insisted that he gather his things and leave.

But Rosemary kindly offered to let them play for a few more minutes. So while we waited for the kids to stop playing, we had a nice chat between us. To be honest, I haven't exactly been a social butterfly since arriving here. It's usually hi and bye for me whenever I see the other mums at Joshua's school. But Joshua's hanging out with Alexander after school at the latter's house had given me the chance to at least get to know another parent better.

I found out that Rosemary actually lived in Butterworth as a child. Her father was with the Royal Australian Air Force and was posted at their base there more than 30 years ago. Interesting. She also loves cats (she has 2 of them) - something in common with me.

But the best thing is - she has asked me to bring Joanne along (which is what I did today) to play with the boys. I was hesitant at first because I didn't think it would be nice to make her "babysit" my kids for 2 hours. After all, I didn't know her that well. Still she insisted, saying that it was actually quite alright because the kids don't usually bother her when they are that preoccupied with their own games. Which is quite true. I can relate to that too because whenever my nephew Andrew comes for a visit, I actually manage to finish more work! So I left my 2 kids in her care for 2 hours today.

What bliss! Ha ha. Maybe I should socialise more with the other mums too. Play time after school for the kids turns out to be a great thing for both the kids and me.

Creativity Unleashed

All kids are creative. Which is why many of them have imaginary friends. Joshua at one point had an imaginary friend named Scratch. He also had an imaginary pet dog called Clever-Doing-Dog. Not to be outdone, Joanne announced she had one named Clever-Doing-Cat.

They seem to have forgotten these imaginary creatures now, though. Maybe the various activities and new friends at school have diverted Joshua's attention elsewhere. As for Joanne, she just busies herself with her new toys (mostly hand-me-downs) and cartoons.

But they are both still creative in their own ways. Joshua, a keen sketcher, never seems to run out of things to draw. And what makes things interesting for him is that the kids in school are encouraged to draw and colour when doing their school exercises (they refrain from calling these homework because some parents are apparently allergic to the term). And of course, they are allowed to stick their drawings and stickers on the cover of their books.

I don't recall being allowed to do that in school. In fact, if anyone was found with stickers and drawings on their book, they were likely to get a good scolding, or worse, caning from the teachers. There was hardly any room for creativity. Any desire to truly explore one's creativity in unconventional ways was quickly stifled by the various strict and oftentimes ridiculous rules we had at school.

The kids here also spend a fair amount of time doing art and craft. Joshua brings back something fancy every week, much to the envy of his sister.

Well, Joanne has a vivid imagination too. She makes her own "pet food" for her favourite toys - Fluffy the rabbit, Kitty the kitten and Pikachu the Pokemon. She actually draws the food and cut it out and place it on the pretend plates for them. Sometimes, when she's too lazy to draw, she will cut out pictures from supermarket leaflets.

I'm glad she's going to Prep next year. She'll have a blast everyday at school, just like Joshua is right now.

The Double Bunk Bed

It's funny how kids can turn almost anything into a toy or in this case, a playground. Our newest purchase, a double bunk bed, arrived this morning. Well, it was still in various pieces but the minute the kids saw the boxes and the new mattresses, they were estactic.

Well, they saw how the bed would look like at the furniture shop. So they knew what awaited them once their dad fixed the whole thing up. But even while Alex and I were busy assembling it, Joshua and Joanne couldn't contain their excitement and kept interrupting us, until we banished them from the room.

Once their new bed was put up properly, they started climbing up and down the bunk bed. Not surprisingly, both wanted to sleep on the top bunk now. There's something about the top bunk, I guess. Probably because it reminded them of the playground. I certainly did when I was a kid.

To be fair, I told the kids they had to take turns sleeping on the top bunk. And to my surprise, they readily agreed. If only they are so agreeable with everything else!

I think it won't be hard to get them to sleep early tonight. I just hope whoever is occupying the top bunk will not end up on the floor in the morning!

The Reunion

Over the weekend, we met up with some old friends who had come for a visit in Melbourne. Our little get-together was held at another friend’s house in Balwyn North since only his fortress-like abode can fit all 30 of us!

It was so good to see some old familiar faces and to catch up with one another. And since each family had its own little army of little people, the house was filled with screaming and running kids as well.

A few years ago, such a reunion of friends would see us chatting, drinking, smoking, eating, drinking, reminiscing, drinking, playing cards, smoking, drinking – you get my drift. Later, we’d probably go somewhere else only to indulge in the same things. And this could go on till the wee hours of the next day.

But these days, we don’t all get to sit down together. Some of us, usually the mums, will have to attend to the kids first, making sure they eat their dinner and are not fighting among themselves before having the chance to sit down and enjoy the meal and conversation. And when we all finally sit down to play catch up, some of the kids will barge in and demand some attention. Quite a struggle holding up a conversation when you have cranky kids pulling at your clothes and hair!

Naturally, we all become like Cinderella. By midnight, it’s time to hit the road and go back to where we’ve crawled out from earlier. The night is still young but our priorities have shifted to the young ones. So we reluctantly bid each other goodnight.

That’s what happened that evening. There was so much to catch up on but so little time and too many distractions. Still, the “party” was a blast. Wish we could have a few more of that every now and then!

Farewell My Teacher

Yesterday, Joshua completed 3 quarters of his first academic year at Greythorn Primary School. Time really flies.

The last day of his school was also a "Casual Clothes Day" - the kids left their uniforms at home and donned casual clothes to school instead. It was all so informal. And since it was also Miss Ellard's (Joshua's class teacher) last day at school for year 2007, the kids had a special farewell party for their beloved teacher.

I don't know Miss Ellard as well as some of the other teachers but I think she has played a very big part in moulding Joshua's life at school. All the kids love her - she's generous, warm and genuinely affectionate towards the kids. And of course, it helps that she's young and pretty too. Well, actually, she looks more like a model than a school teacher!

As I reached the school compound to pick up Joshua after school, I saw his classmates and Miss Ellard all gathered under the big oak tree for a group photo. Oh, it was a lovely sight. The kids were proudly showing off their special individual cards that Miss Ellard made for them and were all smiles for the camera. I quickly whipped out my camera phone and took some shots too.

Some of the kids lined up to give Miss Ellard a cuddle. Joshua wanted to do that too but was too shy to ask. In the end, I had to take him and present him to his teacher. She was full of praises for all the kids. Some of them cried, reluctant to let her go. It was one those "awww" moments. So touching. I could see her blinking back tears too.

She won't be gone for good, at least not yet. She's on a long sabbatical leave and will be back next year. Hopefully Joanane will be enrolled in her class. She's such a wonderful teacher. Joanne actually asks if she can go to Miss Ellard's class next year! Well, one can always hope.

Locked Out!

I had quite a scare today. While I was out in the garden pulling out the weeds that threaten to turn my backyard into a jungle, Joanne actually locked the door leading to the garden. I didn't know that until much later, when I needed to go back into the house for some other chores.

To my horror, the door was locked. I peered into the house (the door is sliding glass door). No sign of Joanne. She must either be in the playroom or her bedroom. I could only get near the window of the playroom, which is quite a few metres up from the garden. Hoping that she was there, I used a rake to reach the window and gave a few hard knocks. She didn't appear at the window. Which meant she was in her bedroom. Which was bad news for me because her bedroom is on the other side of the house. And there was no way for me to get to that side unless I scaled the garden fence.

Luckily, there was one way to get to the front door and ring the doorbell. That would get her running to the front door to see who was out there. I went to the backdoor of the garage, which thankfully has never been locked, got into the garage and then climbed out of one of the windows there. If someone had passed by that window at that moment, they probably thought they had stumbled on a burglar climbing out of a window!

Thank heavens no one saw me doing that. I quickly jumped down and ran to the frontdoor and rang the bell. The little one appeared, looking very bewildered to see me outside. I asked for the house keys and got them from her through the front window. Phew!

That was quite a fright. After making sure Joanne understand that she is not to lock the door when I am outside, I decided from now on to take the house keys with me if I'm outside the house. I certainly don't want to repeat that burglar stunt again!

Happy Father's Day!

Joshua has been very excited about Father's Day. (Yes, it's Father's Day in Australia though most of the rest of the world celebrates the ocassion in June.) He'd bought something special and made a very nice card for his dad. But he was a little shy when I pressed him to give his dad the goodies he's got for his old man.

I had to "accompany" him to spring the surprise on Alex. He was beaming when his dad happily took the card. Joanne too started floating around after she presented him the gift. There were kisses and hugs and lots of happy faces. But Joshua was a little disappointed Alex didnt' open the gift immediately. You see, on this big day, Alex had to go out and meet his colleagues over something.

Well, at least the kids are starting to feel a closer bond with their father. They still won't go hug him for no reason like they do me but there has been some improvement. I keep telling Alex the easiest way to get their attention is to play rough with them. All kids love that, within limits, of course. And Alex has been doing that on weekends when he's home, sometimes even without my asking him to do so.

Maybe there's still hope for this dad. I long for the day when I'll be able to go out on my own without the kids whining about being left at home with their dad. That will be a great treat for me on next Mother's Day! I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Homework Should Be Banned?

Okay, this is going to make Malaysian parents cringe. The Tasmanian Parents And Friends Association says that homework should be banned altogether! And apparently a lot of parents share the sentiment.

Gosh! That's about the most absurd thing I've ever heard. I got this information from an article that appeared sometime back in The Herald Sun newspaper. At first I thought I misread the sentence with that statement. I had to read it a few times to make sure I got it right. It seems that homework is "an excuse for poor teaching in the classroom and merely adds to the stress of students".

Goodness, as it is, the kids here don't have much homework to do. From Prep to Year 3, there is no homework at all. The kids just get supervised tuition in school - meaning they finish whatever they need to do in the classroom. They have daily readings at home but the teachers stress these are not homework, just something to practise on. And even some exercises that the kids bring home are optional. And no, they stress that's NOT homework. Hmm, "homework" must be a very bad word indeed.

The kids already have things too easy here. I say some homework is definitely a must. Otherwise, they are sure to get lazy and find it hard to cope when they go to secondary school. This is already happening, especially among Australian born kids. But the parents don't seem too overly concerned about the lack of enthusiasm in homework.

I still don't get it. Homework should be banned? That's just too ridiculous.

It Runs In The Family

It's common to see familiar traits and mannerisms in children from the same family. Younger siblings, in particular, have the tendency to follow what their older brothers and sisters do. They may mimic the way their "heroes" (some kids do hero-worship their big brothers or sisters) talk, walk and interact with others. Or maybe they have the same interests and hobbies.

In my family, such similarities extend to cousins and nephews as well. Tse Hao, my nephew, talks in a very animated way, sometimes a tad dramatic. Joshua does that too. They used to hang around quite a fair bit back in KL. Maybe that's where Joshua picked up the animated style. He's still like this here in Melbourne. Old habits die hard, I suppose.

These 2 boys share another thing - they love drawing and making art crafts. Their drawings often have words - making the drawings look like picture stories. Now, my third sister Hui Yin used to do something like that when she was a kid. In fact, she had her own comic strips - complete with speech bubbles and all (Her husband Rizal was like that too when he was a boy - no wonder they clicked so well!!).

The thing is, Hui Yin is not Tse Hao or Joshua's mother. I certainly never did any picture stories as a kid. Neither did Tse Hao's mother, my second sister Sue Yin, although she was pretty good at sketching.

Another thing - Joshua likes to create his own "songs". He would sing some nonsensical stuff and go on and on for a while. Hui Yin did that too 20 years ago. It is just so weird!

Now, I have another little nephew - JJ. He's my youngest sister Wei Wei's son. He is turning 2 next week and he looks so much like me when I was a toddler. Don't know why. He's not my son but he looks like me. Ha ha. And apparently, his mannerisms are said to be almost identical to Joshua's.

What makes it even more interesting is the fact that JJ and Joshua hardly ever spend time together. So where did JJ get what Joshua has?

Must be the crazy genes in my family. Yes, they run deep.

Tse Hao & Tse Yuen

Long before my own kids were born, I was very close to two other very special kids - my nephews Tse Hao and Tse Yuen, sons of my second sister Sue Yin.

I used to visit them almost every weekend. Then I started going out with Alex. The first few times Alex came along for the visits, Tse Hao would burst out crying! For some strange reason, the boy didn't like Alex on sight. We always joked that probably because the kid could see horns sprouting from Alex's head! The younger boy, Tse Yuen, seemed more partial to Alex's presence.

Then I got married and had Joshua and Joanne. The four kids got along famously. My regular visits to my sister's house continued until we migrated to Melbourne last year. My kids miss them and they appear to miss my kids too.

So I was thrilled when I started receiving their emails. They are big kids now, 11 and 9 respectively. It's always nice to hear from them. Tse Hao, the more flamboyant of the 2, is now sort of "inventing" his own version of the English language. It takes a bit of head scratching to decipher what he's talking about. My other sister Hui Yin describes the language as a disgrace. Which is quite true. But as long as the boy knows exactly how those words are supposed to be spelt and he doesn't do that with his homework and exams, I guess it's okay. He's pretty bright actually but somehow loves appearing silly. Beats me!

Tse Yuen, the younger one, appears to be more mature between the two. He has a big heart and always thinks of the welfare of others first. He gets worried if somebody spends too much money on something. He also would let Joshua "win" from time to time whenever they played. And Joanne just adored him, always holding his hand whenever they went out somewhere together. Fantastic traits from a 9-year-old, don't you think?

Well, I hope Joshua and Joanne will be able to exchange emails with them soon. For now, I'll have to help them type out their messages. Still, isn't the Internet great? It's so much easier to stay in touch with loved ones now.

Daffodil Day Teddies

Today is Daffodil Day, a day dedicated to raising funds for cancer patients and cancer research. Joshua's school has actively participated in this event, selling a range of items to raise funds this week. The kids were even encouraged to don something yellow instead of their uniforms.

For the past few days, I kept hearing Joshua telling me about some cute teddies the school is selling. I had no idea he actually wanted to buy one of those until yesterday when he finally told me that today would be the last day. The poor boy. I told him he should've just told me he wanted a teddy. Since it's for a good cause, I wouldn't have minded forking out $5.

To my surprise, he said he didn't say so earlier because he was worried I didn't have money. Once more, my emphasis on being thrifty has paid off. A bit sad, though, when my son took such a long time to tell me what he wanted!

Anyway, he was really thrilled to have the money to buy the teddy. After dropping him at school, I took Joanne to Box Hill Centro to do some grocery shopping. And there was a stall selling teddies and other items in conjunction with Daffodil Day as well. Joanne knew Joshua was getting a teddy. So she asked for one too. A good cause. So I readily parted with my money in exchange for a teddy. Joshua would be surprised to see another similar teddy, Joanne quipped.

When we went to pick up Joshua later in the day, he wore a forlorn and sad look. The teddies were sold out! Poor thing. He had been so looking forward to getting one. Luckily, we had another one that we got from the mall. Joanne showed him her teddy - which I insisted should be THEIR teddy.

The kids agreed to share the teddy. And they are playing with it as I'm writing this. Funny how things turned out, huh? If I hadn't gone for my grocery shopping I wouldn't have bought a Daffodil Day teddy for Joanne. And Joshua would probably be very disappointed not being able to get his at school.

I'm just glad they are happy sharing it.

Anyone Missing Daddy?

Alex is away on a business trip in China. He's been there for a few days. And each day, I would ask the kids if they missed their daddy. The answer was invariably a "No", expressed in an I-couldn't-care-less manner.

But this morning, I got a different reply from Joanne. She actually said "Yes". Ah finally, I thought, redemption for the man of the house. At least one of his kids finally started to miss him. When I asked my 4-year-old why, she replied: "I want Daddy to come home because we don't have much money left. We need him to give us money to buy things."

Some redemption. (I have been stressing the need to be thrifty since we are now a single income family and it appears that Joanne actually understands that more than I give her credit for.)

So Daddy is only useful because without him, we have no money. It's awful to hear my own child sounding so mercenary!

Well, that the price for not being a hands-on dad during the first 12 months of the kids' lives. Unlike many modern dads I know, Alex seemed to be stuck in the 1950s, happy to leave everything concerning the kids to me (and his parents while we were in Malaysia). It used to irk me endlessly. Then I gave up on nagging him. He would eventually regret that.

And I was right. These days, Alex does try to make up what he missed before with the kids. Unfortunately, he doesn't know how to handle them. He'll be completely lost if I were to leave the kids with him for more than 2 hours. Yes, it's that bad.

The kids will always prefer me to him, no matter what. So you blokes out there, if you're about to be a dad, make sure you play your parenting role effectively when the time comes. It's kind of sad if your kids don't miss you when you're away!