Medan Kota

My eldest son, Jadon will be sitting for his first primary 1 school examination on 16 November, lasting 4 days. The school, Piaget medan was kind enough to inform us the parents very early on… when I received the notes and the guidelines… I have a rather mixed and confused feeling … part of my little voice is saying…  ‘hai yah… he is ok… not need to worry… his only problem is carelessness..’ … but honestly, another part of my little voice is praying rather aggressively hoping for the best…

I am writing this because… I can’t think what is right or what is wrong any more… you see… raising such worries and concern with any husband… these men replied will be.. ‘don’t worry too much, our child will be alright…’ and when the result is out?.. they start interrogating the wife (instead the son/daughter) of why the result is such and such… and what tuition are the children put on…

for me… I never bothered to ask the dearest daddy… he knows I am the fussy one.. so no matter what he said… the final decision is up to me anyway…… with Jadon.. for all his class tests, his results were always above the 95%… the errors that he made were mostly carelessness… in addition to the fact that he has really bad writing skill… as a mum… what is right?.. should I scold him on his carelessness? but knowing that it is not big deal…? so why should I make his life miserable at such a young age… knowing that getting 100 or 95 or 80 right now will make no difference to his adult life… BUT on the other hand… knowing that he knows and that he should easily scored full marks? … he does deserve some  punishment dont you think?…

so with 2 weeks to the D day… I don’t really know what to do with him… should I choose to grill him?.. gosh… I am definitely jeopadising the mother and son relationship …. which I really don’t want to… but should I choose to do it in moderation form… seeing the end result will not make us very happy… which with Jadon’s personality, he will develop that… ‘it’s ok… my mummy is happy go lucky kind’... coz right now… whenever he came home with the silly mistakes… he will always casually replied me… ‘it’s ok mama… I know the anwser but I didn’t see it properly’….

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Whenever I feel unhappy about something… or losing my focus, or just simply frustrated with myself… I have come to realised that all I need to do is visit a temple or help out the less fortunate people …  having said that.. it’s not that I will only do that when I am feeling low though… I make regular visits rather often in fact…

it’s always a family trip … and a good reminder for us and the boys just thinking how fortunate we are…  and is particularly hard to imagine knowing that there are people out there on the streets who never sleep in a bed, who have no bathroom, can’t shower, are hungry, and have no one to love them and nowhere to go…

anyway, last Saturday… we went back to the International Humanity Foundation (IHF) centre, Medan… the last time we were there was many months back… and for some reasons… which I have no clue why… I feel bonded with the place…. and been trying to make trips back there from the first time I was there… but I spread my goodwill trips around many other places as well… so..  last week, after clearing some workloads off table, I went around town buying badly needed stuff for the place … and went back there …

volunteers for 2008/2009…. these are truly great people!!!…

Computer Class

IHF centre provides free extra education classes for the kids around the area… main subjects taught are English, Mathematics and computer… the centre relied on overseas volunteer together with the help of some locals in running the place… hubby and me both feel that… not only that the children are gaining education benefits for their future, but the place helps to keep the children off the street hence avoid being negatively influenced… after all, we want the best for all kids since they are the ones in shaping the future…

daddy and the boys busy unpacking the stuff…

before the trip, I made the boys and the nanny went through all the wanted toys that they have outgrown… and I have also bought many new ones… other stuff I brought include medical supplies, board games, stationary and tools…

I was amazed and proud at the same time with the boys… both seem so readily and happy helping out … as often they  practically gone handicapped whenever they are at home…

for quite sometimes now, I’ve been doing some research on how to set up and run such centre… did some calculations and realized that each year, we have been giving out enough to have our own mini foundation…  so after careful thought through, hubby and me agreed that we will and definitely gonna set up our own Centre similar to IHF one day ….  I am currently visualizing, a learning place like ‘Eureka’ (but in a smaller scale) …. but instead of charging, I am providing it free for the less fortunate ones… anyway, saying it all out loud is real easy… executing the whole visionary plan is definitely not an easy task… but then again… if I have the will, I belief that it will be realised and a dream come true …

I have visited many old age homes, lots of orphanage homes, handicapped homes, disabled homes etc… but nothing affects me so passionately like IHF… I simply love what the centre is doing for the local community…. to me, the place just hit right into my heart… it feels absolutely right….

look at the kids…!!! they are so beautiful and the future is all about them isn’t it??

The centre is rather in need of several things… since not many people know or heard of it… I hope that some of my readers can help out… if you have any wanted toys and story books (especially the english version ones) that your child may have outgrown… rather than throwing it off or donated to local orphanage, please do consider this place as I am sure it will be put in a much better use…. I still see all the books materials that we have given on our previous trip and it sure feels good knowing that the kids have been enjoying it….

IHF Centre’s address:
Jalan Tempuling 128 A, Medan 20222
Tel: 62 61 6626469
www.ihfonline.org

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I overheard a boy speaking to his mum and dad one day … ‘wo ai makan sausage sama french fries.. papa xu mai ok…’ …. I always thought Singaporean mixing English with Mandarin were bad enough (including myself)… well.. some children in Medan possessed a much better capabilities in mixing about 4 languages to form a sentence…

‘wo ai makan sausage sama french fries… papa xu mai ok?‘

Wo ai = ‘I want’ in Hokkien
Makan = ‘eat’ in Bahasa
Sausage = English
Sama = ‘with’ in Bahasa
French fries = English

Papa = ‘dad’ is universal language
Xu mai = ‘go to buy’ in Mandarin
Ok= universal language

it definitely was interesting to hear… I am not the kind to evesdrop on people’s conversation…. But I couldn’t help but heard it as the boy was saying it out rather loudly and it wasn’t just the boy himself… both mum and dad were forming each conversation sentences in ‘ice kacang’ format too…

our boys… when JD was born… I have decided that… Hubby was gonna speak English to the kids, Me in Mandarin, Nanny in Thai while the maid in Bahasa…. we all did our best… by 6 months, at the age when Jadon began to understand stuff …. we noticed that he looked rather confused… being the first and only child.. whenever both of us and the nanny fussed over him at the same time, …. my gosh.. it sounded so weird… all 3 of us were talking all differently… by about 1y.o.. he was picking up the English more… and was definitely confused… I check with doctors and many baby bible books… all pointing to the same direction… ‘kids will do fine… just throw all the different languages with them.. they will understand..’..

right now… the only language we are all having difficulty with … so shamefully to admit… is ‘Bahasa’… we kinda ignored the local Bahasa thinking that he will pick it up as he grows… obviously it wasn’t the case… the only person who seems to make sense with the local language is my husband.. (though 1/2 the time he has difficulty finding the right words himself)… and now with Jadon doing Bahasa in primary 1…  he will often turned to me and furiously said: ‘mama!.. why you don’t know!!.. all my friends mummy speak Bahasa..!!’

and yesterday, he came home with Bahasa homework … on the books, he had to name the photos…

1.    ‘comb’ =  me and him looked at each other… have no absolute clue
2.    ‘toothbrush’ = I told him to write ‘tusuk gigi’… and I was utterly confident that I was right…
3.    ‘soap’ = we both were like ‘soap too right?’.. but it has 5 missing characters blank so obviously its not..
4.    ‘nail clipper’ = I went ‘what’s it call in Mandarin?’
5.    etc..

there were about 6/7 questions … and I think I only managed to answer like 1 or something… hubby came home, checked the answers and laughed at both of us like there’s no tomorrow….  while every of his classmates have no problem… Bahasa homework has turned into our family laughing time…

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I have been following some Medan’s teen blogs for quite sometimes… it dawn on me that most kids in Medan… by the time they finished their SMP or secondary 3 or about 15 y.o (years old) … many of them choose to just go abroad to further their studies…  so I went about searching for the reasons behind…

1.    the local SMA system… i.e secondary 4-6 or Junior college years are terrible… stories have it that.. schools will actually help you to cheat during the final exams…
2.    the local university.. apart from USU… there aren’t proper one around…
3.    local graduates are not being highly recognized…
4.    to continue in some foreign franchise schools in Medan, the costs may worked out to be about the same if they choose to go abroad..

next.. I also found out that… some Indonesian students can purchase their SMA certificate… with that in hand… when you go overseas like UK, US, Canada to further your studies… you will only need to attend the University foundation years.. i.e short courses that prepare you prior to doing the actual university degree… and this foundation years are only like 1 or 1.5 years… hence.. by 17 y.o (the minimum University entrance age), he/she will be in their first year of University… i.e cut short of about 1.5 years in their student life…well.. do note that the normal university entrance age is at about 18 yo or 19 yo .. that is… if we followed the normal education procedures….

when I first found out about all these… my first reaction was… that’s so cool… imagine you saved 1.5 years of education costs… which can easily be at about US$ 20.000 or more..!!!..  next… it became… “ok.. JD and ES will do that only if they are smart enough to cope…”… coz when I reflected back to my Uni years in the UK… I have always wondered about why the Indonesian students were always so young… among the youngest in the course in fact… some of them did ok… but for some.. you can see that they were struggling… and for some… at 17 y.o and entering Uni, the life and the influenced… well… let’s just say… some didn’t turn out alright…

as for my plan for my 2 boys… initially… I wanted them to go Singapore to start their primary 3… then hubby refused… saying too young…!! .. several arguments after… he agreed on after primary 6… now that JD is almost 7… seeing that he is doing well in Piaget … the father feels that kids should be by his side so that he can teach the boys about the values in life … of what’s right and what’s wrong… so he now said ‘No’ again…

after that seminar which I attended 2 months back… I too felt that … may be the boys should be by our side… then.. next.. I found out about this International school in Singapore… www.uwcsea.edu.sg… (I love the fact that the school do a lot of overseas field trips for the older classes… great way to learn stuff)..  and seeing how the whole local education systems are like… I am now thinking… may be I will just put them in uwcsea after SMP…, after 2 years… they will then go straight to UK for their Uni life… with the arrangement… the boys will not have to go through the Singapore stressful ‘O’ as well as ‘A’ level… instead they will follow the IB system…. and with 2/3 years in Singapore… it will help prepared them for the independent life that they will be facing in UK… while us the parents are still be able to see them every now and then…

aiii… sometimes I do wonder if I am thinking too much about my family future …? .. but again.. if you count down.. it’s like just another 5 to 6 years and the time will come…… 2 boys with overseas education….. can’t imagine the number of zeros behind the US dollar sign……  hhaaaiiii @…@ …..  I’m kind of prepared … but am I preparing enough?…

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With Piaget students celebrating the Teachers’ day on Monday, 31 August … and that my boys are not in school to show their appreciation, well…. on behalf of my 2 sons, Jadon and Elson, I am dedicating the poem and this blog post to ALL teachers of Singapore Piaget Academy Medan..

Teachers

Paint their minds and guide their thoughts
Share their achievements and advise their faults

Inspire a Love of knowledge and truth
As you light the path which leads our youth

For our future brightens with each lesson you teach
Each smile you lengthen  Each goal you help reach

For the dawn of each poet each philosopher and king
Begins with a Teacher
And the wisdom they bring

by: Kevin William Huff

and special thanks to;

Ms Renalyn who has great teaching skills, BIG heart and been a great influence to both my boys life… when they both first entered the school with just  A, B, C… 1, 2, 3… within a short time that they spent with you … you have transformed them into a great reader, a true eager learner and an awesome calculator (by the way readers, she comes highly recommended for K1 students.. hahahha)…

Ms Riris.. thank you for being there for everything… any questions, concerns, you will always have an answer and are always readily to help..  your fun, energetic, loving nature has made my boys demand going to school even when they are sick… you mean a lot to us…

Ms Florinda.. without you, the class will not be such a joy to be in… you ensure that the class go smoothly without a hinch… boys are boys..I bet they had been a handful to you.. but your patience and that pretty smile of yours has surely brighten up their time in the classroom..

Ms Rita.. a big THANK YOU for the ways you have care, the things you have taught and do …. and for giving your heart so unselfishly…..  you have make learning an adventure to Jadon which was exactly what he needed… the hundreds of hugs that you have given to my son will never be forgotten…

Ms Pida.. your encouragement, your kindness, your constant understanding …. and for always being there for Jadon simply showed him that you care… as a mum whom find it real hard to do just half of what you have done, I’m grateful for your hard work in helping Jadon to grow …

Ms QiuLi and Ms Xie ….. oooh… you both are truly ’special’… ‘amazing’ to be exact!… no kids in this world will not not want to be your students.. you have turned Mandarin, a language that they dislike so horribly into one that they are embracing with interest… xie xie

and to all the new MSss…..  this new academic year has been going great .... both boys are constantly bragging about how much they are enjoying their time in their new classes… Thank you

and to Mr Raja, the principle… when I was young, a principle is one person that if I saw you coming, I will walked to the left if you walked to the right… but now… the kids are simply running towards you… you have made the school into a warm fun environment for learning and not one to be feared as remembered by me…

and here below is something that both the boys have promised…( just hope that they can keep their words… )

My School Promise

Each day I’ll do my best
And I won’t do any less.
My work will always please me,
And I won’t accept a mess.

I’ll color very carefully,
My writing will be neat.
And I will not be happy,
Till my papers are complete.

I’ll always do my homework,
And try my best on every test.
I won’t forget my promise,
To do my very best!

www.kinderthemes.com

‘Happy Teacher’s Day’

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