Life long sharing . . .

While waiting at the gate, listening to other Si-Lai like me chit-chatting.

One said, “Before school opens, I brought my girl to shopping center to practise using public phone. I taught her how to put in coins and make a call. In the school canteen, there are a few public phones. So just in case of any emergency, I told my girl to use the public phone to call me.”

“Ya, I told my son the same thing. He said, ‘why don’t you give me a handphone to school?’.” another Si-Lai added + roll-eyed.

Cool ! Lesson learnt: Ya, it’s good to train the girls to be resourceful when come to emergency.

Will do that this weekend.

On the 6th day of her Std 1, when was about to take her bath after coming home from school, Ling suddenly remembered she left her BM text book and activity books in her drawer. She started to cry, start asking whether her books will be lost or not, whether the teacher will scold her or not, will punish her or not..

I was like … sigh … trying not to scold her, I walked away, picked up the phone and called Mr Daddy, “commanded” him to drop by the school on his way home to pick up the books.

Then taking a deep breath, I told Ling to stop crying. “No one is scolding you. You made a mistake, then first thing is to admit it and apologize. Then think of way to correct it. ”

“Tell your teacher first thing in school. Apologize. If the teacher is upset and scold you, just apologize again. She will stop scolding after all. ”

Ling stopped crying, and wiping her tears.

“What if I cannot find my books?”

“Teacher will help to find it and if still cannot find, teacher will have solution for it. Don’t worry.”

She was not tensed any more. And me too…

…

After bath, I felt I need to reassure her this.

“Ling, you did the right thing though. You told mummy immediately when you found out you forget your books. This is very good. You didn’t hide your mistake and let the problem grows bigger. ”

“Ya, I told you the first thing I remember it.”

“Ya, very good. Then we can help. We have more time to help. Imagine. If you keep it until midnight only tell us, no one can help. The school is closed. No one can go and find the books. Tomorrow when the morning session students come, they might throw it, take it, or put it some where else. Then harder to find.”

“Ya. ….” she nodded.  “I hope Daddy can find it. Then I still have time to finish my homework.”

…

@9.30pm, Daddy came home. Mission accomplished ! Ling put on a big smile on her face.

…

p.s. Daddy said, he is not alone. Another mummy and little girl was there searching in another classroom.

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GIRLS,  always always remember. Don’t try to hide a problem. It won’t disappear. It will grow bigger instead. Seek help as early as possible.

(I have been through a lot of hardship cleaning up others’ big mass in life, just because those people lied and hid the problem when it’s small. So I don’t want you two to have that bad habit.)

Another thing I have been very particular and wanting to implant in my daughters is time management.

My hubby and I has different view. IF the class starts at 9am, I would prefer to be there at least 8.55am. But my hubby’s way, reaching there at 9.05am is sufficient.

Being a working mother, trying to get the most out of the time for my dearest daughters, I feel and I know the important of time mgmt.

So, a lot of time, I am quite strict with the girls about ‘doing thing following time’. I spent quite some time, thinking of way to let them understand why sometimes, you just can’t do thing your time your way.

When they are so into playing and don’t want to leave the house for meal (especially weekend), Ling even will come out idea like “I don’t feel hungry yet.”. So there was one time, we just let it be, until it passed 3, only we departed to search for food. Well, a lot of restaurant started to rest during that time. And the girls were starving. I took the opportunity to lecture them.

“All other people work according to time. Now all the cooks are resting, then you can’t find food to eat lo..”

“Teachers go to school at the time set, like morning session, they go to teach in the morning. If you want to follow your way, only go to school after you finish watching your show on TV, the teacher might have left for home. No one is there to teach you. And you miss out what teacher taught that morning.”

“You know you need to sleep at 10pm. But you still want to chit chat. The clock will continue ticking. The time will not stop at 9.59pm and wait until you finish talking then only continue to be 10pm. Time and tide wait for no one.”

Then the ever cheeky girls will ask, “Mummy, what is tide? ”

“Tide is like the wave in the sea…. ” blah blah…

When I finished, only realized I was tricked, side tracked from my lecture.

…

Girls, remember, time management is not just doing thing in a timely manner.

Need to go out early in the morning, still choose to watch Hong Kong drama till 2/3am, and next morning skip breakfast to reach on time, that is not time management.

Ling’s school uses 3M 画报 as compulsory teaching material. We are asked to subscribe it.

Check out this site: http://www.leebook.com.my

e.g.

“Mummy, mummy, can we watch The Cat in The Hat  knows A Lot About That, please ?” asked Ling. “We will go to sleep after this. Just one show.”

“Pretty pleaseeee….. with extra cheeseeee …. ” begged Ying.

“Ok, just one show.”

“Yeah !” … and the girls ran to the TV, and sat there quietly watching the show.

Well, this is another show I would like to recommend. Something like The Magic School Bus, which introduce science topics in an interesting way. I sat down with them sometimes. Once the Cat in the Hat brought the children to the termites home, and saw how they build the termite tower. Once, they met with the silk worm, and showing how silk worm spitting out the silk, building its own cocoon.

The girls find the Cat very funny. hahaha… (mummy finds him ugly …. shhhh…. 😛 )

There are two waiting areas for Ling’s school. Just for Std 1 students, for the first two weeks, teachers will bring them to the canteen to wait for the parents. After that, no more. The children are expected to be independent and can wait at either the canteen or car park for their parents/transporter.

Yesterday, we went there early. When it’s almost time, we saw teachers leading Std 1 children to the canteen.

The gate remained close. We all waited patiently outside. After a while, we saw about 10 plus students walking/running to the car park waiting area, waiting there instead of canteen.

Later, the Asst Headmaster (AHM) came out and saw them. She walked over, reasoned to them that there was no teacher to look after them there. The children remained there, showed no movement. She scolded the children, asking them to go back to canteen. Still no movement.

It’s getting late and the parents outside began to be impatient. No choice, the AHM left the car park and gave the green light for the gates to be opened. Parents/Transporters rushed in to pick up the children.

…

Nowadays the children are so daring. Last time, far far away saw the HM/AHM coming, very scared and will behave. Now, even the AHM opens mouth already, Std 1 student can just be so ignorant.

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Some said we should not restrict a child so much, must give more freedom. But some how, when come to discipline, rules and regulatory, I still strongly agree with this example sentence when I look up for the word “abide ” in dictionary:

“They should act like adults who, while they may have a healthy dislike of laws, nonetheless they abide by them.”