What A Day

Hooray! Crash! Sob ...

That about summed up my day yesterday. It was supposed to be a happy day for Joanne. It was her first Prep Orientation Day at Greythorn Primary School and she had looked forward to it for days. She even willed herself to recover from her tummy upset (bouts of diarrhoea the night before) so that she wouldn't miss her "big day". I was so glad because she was so much easier compared to Joshua.

It was a good day for her. I picked her up from the school and everything was fine until I, for some inexplicable reason, engaged the wrong gear and crashed out car through our garage door when we got home. I had moved the car too close to the door and tried to reverse it back further. Instead I put the gear into "drive" and literally went through the door.

The windscreen cracked but thankfully didn't shatter. I panicked and frantically searched the phone to call Alex at work, knowing that he would be furious. Oh boy, he was beyond furious and immedately headed home.

Joanne was so cool. She nonchalantly said, "Oh no. How are we going to pick up Joshua later?" Trust the kid to be so unconcerned. She wasn't even shaken, unlike me.

I was both relieved and terrified when Alex got home. He took one look at the damage - the car was halfway through the garage entrance with the door on top of the hood and roof of his precious Mazda CX-7 - and a torrent of very angry words came out of his mouth. I suppose I deserved it, for not being careful enough. But he pissed me off too. He never even asked if Joanne was okay. Blast him! (He probably didn't find that important since I already told him no one was hurt.)

After making several calls to his car dealer, the insurance company and some of his friends, Alex drove the badly dented car to the workshop. I had to drag Joanne along to catch a bus to pick up Joshua later. Well, looks like we will be doing that for a couple of weeks.

And the damage was BIG. AUD10K just to fix the car. And the garage door, of course. That was really bad.

And to complete a really bad day, Joanne's stomach ache came back later in the day. She made so many trips to the toilet in the middle of the night and kept whimpering in pain that we both didn't get much sleep. She seems better today. Thank God for small mercies.

What a day! I hope I won't have any of its equivalent any time in the future.

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.

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.

Walk To School Day

It's one of those "days" today - Walk To School Day. This is part of Greythorn Primary School's (Joshua's school) to promote its Walkng School Buses Programme scheduled to be launched next year. Essentially, they want to encourage parents to use the school bus programme when it's available to reduce the use of private cars when sending their kids to school.

Our friend was very eager to be part of the walk until I told him we had to be at the Greythorn Park by 8.30am so that all who were taking part in the event could walk to school together. Joshua was appalled by the thought of going out earlier. You see, we would be lucky if we could leave the house by 8.30am!

Kids being kids, Joshua and Joanne take their sweet time getting ready. (Thankfully we've only been late to school once. )And since I have no idea where Greythorn Park is - it's not that far from the school, I'm sure - I would need to give myself a few extra minutes to figure out where it is. And that would mean leaving the house by 8am. And since the kids' attachment to sleep is unbreakable, I decided not to keep pressing them about joining the walk.

Also, I think we did our share of walking the first few months of Joshua's school life - walking to the bus stop, catching the bus and then walking to school. Same thing after school. So they were excused from doing the walk.

We'll take part in the next special "day" activity instead. Hopefully it doesn't require waking up earlier than usual!

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.

Magic 100 Words

Joshua has mastered the Magic 100 words, and he's got a certificate to prove it.

I'm referring to the a collection of commonly used words such as "I", "you", "we", 'yes", "no", "can", "red, "like", "some", "as", etc (you get the drift) that Preppies like Joshua are using to learn to read. There were 15 sets of such words and having mastered all the words, Joshua was given an "award" during the school assembly for his effort.

Well, the kids get "awards" for all sorts of things. A bit overdone, I personally think, but good to help boost self-esteem among the kids.

Anyway, what I want to say here is that the approach used by the schools to encourage reading is very effective. The kids have a daily reading kit that they bring home to read everyday. Joshua is picking up his reading skills fairly quickly. He can read signs on the road, notices on the wall, movie posters, etc.

The other day, I tried to avoid telling him about some kid meal that came with a toy at the Red Rooster restaurant but he saw "The Little Red Rooster Meal" on the wall and insisted that I get him that one. So much for trying to hide information from him. He can read now. He can also construct simple sentences, thanks to the weekly diary writing he does at at school.

Yes, young people here read quite well, but they don't count too well. Numeracy somehow isn't given the same focus and emphasis as literacy. Hmm, someone should really look into this. Maybe I'll bring that out when I have my next teacher-parent interview at the school.

Footy Fun Day

Today was one of those fun days at the school. It's Footy Fun Day. All the kids at Joshua's school were encouraged to come in colours of their favourite football team.

Now, that posed a problem. Apparently, Joshua had chosen a team called The Eagles. I had absolutely no clue what The Eagles wear. Miss Ellard, Joshua's teacher, kindly informed me they come in blue and yellow. I neglected to ask what shades of blue. Luckily, I had good old Google to find that out.

So I managed to find the right colours for Joshua today. Well, as expected, he was a little underdressed. The other kids, being real die-hard footy fans or future footy stars, were decked in jerseys, scarves, socks, shoes and hats of their favourite teams! Riots of colours everywhere. They even had time to show off their outfits in the school hall.

Gee, school is so much fun here! I wonder what fun day is next.