Medan Kota

I have a memorable childhood… and still remembered those times very clearly…  my typical day would be like, school till 3p.m, finished my homework off in the car!! Once got home, bath, changed and just sit right in front of the TV watching cartoon… I would then have dinner and once done with the last meal for the day, I was off outside kicking ball with my brother.. (I was a tomboy).. and it would be like 8 pm before my mum would screamed to call us into the house, changed and put to bed…  It’s just like that.. fun and simple …

So, when I gave birth to my 2 boys, I want to make sure that they have an enjoyable and a memorable ones as well …  we stayed at home mostly and only began taking the kids to Tumble Tots when they were 7 months old.. and then enrolled them at Highscope at 18 months…

When Jadon turned 3, his friends’ parents began talking of how his/her child attend drawing class, English class, mandarin class or other baby classes after school hours… one of them even attend Highscope in the morning and followed with Kinderland afterwards!!! … funny though, these parents would then often come to me and asked what are the extra classes that Jadon and Elson are taking… and when they heard that I said NONE, they would repeat the same question to me, making sure that I understood what they were asking..

I never really quite understand why parents are so anxious of the speed of their child education.. Kumon, a maths centre, was particularly popular…  I am not sure if these parents feel that they want their kids to be faster or what… (they love comparing who’s who’s kids are in which level at Kumon)…..  if you are not familiar with Kumon, it’s basically just Maths practice centre… kids are given worksheets to simply practice.. e.g 2+1 , 2+2, 2+3  i.e its those dead fixed questions…

Then when Jadon got into K1 at Piaget, it was worst… my goodness, majority of his classmates, I would say like 95% of them are attending outside classes after school for like 6 days a week!!!  You can say that these kids have no free time to do other things at all!!!.. I do admit that I panic at first too.. and again, I was asked if Jadon and Elson are attending outside classes… and again I said No… except for Mandarin, the main purpose is to have other adults speaking to him in the language…

Instead, I was busy looking for a lot of sport activities for the boys to do… like swimming and, karate for self defense… being a parent to 4 and 6 years old, I can understand that school works are important, but I just feel that Kids in Medan are exercising too much of their left brain..

I then asked the parents don’t they think that the kids are doing too much, all of them replied the same thing to me… ‘rather than let them stay at home and watch TV and PLAY, and that we don’t know how to teach them personally…’ I feel real strange to hear those words…

I feel that many of the local mums here are still having the traditional mindset, like the old tradition school system whereby lots of homework are a must from schools..  however, in reality, and been proven and tested that Kids need the sport activities!!! and with that, it trains the kids to be a team player and a leader, where these are the 2 vital factors needed in the real world that we all look out for most in an individual…

and VDO games, been proven to help the kids in ability to learn.. and I absolutely support that… sound surprised?  The games train them to think faster and react to the problems and situation better…. If I ever mention this to his classmate mothers, they must think I am some crazy woman… (sorry couldn’t find back the link to these articles)

to argue that parents have no time and the ability to teach their own child, its depressing to hear that… and definitely silly and an excuse…  IMO, kids learn better from parents and that we, as a parents will know the strengths and weaknesses of our own child… how on earth, these parents think that by sending off to the extra classes will make them skyrock better… to an extend, yes, but still not the same as we spend the time with them..

worst yet, parents then complain of how much $$$ they are paying each month on the extra classes… whenever I hear that… I just want to ask them questions … but as we all know “as much as we may be right, some things are better left unsaid”

Popularity: 7% [?]

ABG is a term used by the Indonesian locals that stand for Anak Baru Gede or simply put, just grown up kid… actually its term used for describing teenager.

I have passed the age like 20 years ago… and I know that the times have changed and that a lot of stuff are different from my early years, but I was really not expecting what teenagers these day are doing..

Last night, I stumbled into a blog written by a 14 y.o girl, a local Medan girl.. I was really in for a panic… I was sweating with worries… worried that my boys will start yelling at me that ‘I hate you mama’ kind of things….

1, she was describing how she needed more love from her parents,
2, complaining that her parents are expecting too much of her, at times stating how she hates her mum..
3, how she does not want a cosmetic surgery suggested by her mum,
4, she hated school,
5, shopping with mum every week and buy like 4-5 new items of clothing each trip at sun plaza,
6, not going to school becoz driver did not come,
7, late for school and once saw how teachers are standing at the school gate simply ask her driver to turn back the car back to home,
8, school teachers are using discouraging words on kids and she was voicing out in confusion aren’t the teacher supposed to encourage them if they are not doing well in school…
9, Sushi Tei and Starbuck are the standard hang out place
10, Birthday party at Marriott hotel, Sushi tei, all the fancy restaurants….
11, designer handbags and blackberry are the basic items….

But having said all that, she may not be doing well in school, but its obvious that she has talent in other areas like photography and graphic design… there are stuff she did that I don’t even know how to myself.. I was even thinking if I should hire her for freelance jobs..

As I read, I can’t believe and simply wordless… I don’t remember my times were that… and then I clicked onto other blogs of her friends …

and this time, I went into one that described how much love she got from her mum and described how her mum is LIMITED… i.e only the few in this world… as a mum… I was going awwww… and my hubby was teasing that I can now stop worrying… hahahaaa..

I ended spending 2 hours, reading some 20+ blogs of all these teenage kids in Medan… and they have the same thing in common… shopping at Sun Plaza, birthday party at Sushi Tei and daily hang out at Starbucks… all very expensive stuff.. and not to forget, top of the range DSLR, laptop and mobile phone…  but looking on the bright side, I so love how these kids are able to blog, set up website with very very impressive designs that many adults that I know are not even able to do the simplest stuff.. they have the brain for the new millennium, and just simply amazing what’s on their mind at this young age…

However, one thing that trigger me is how by comparing both kids and I can see that the first one, who is rebellious, she will be the one that will fit into the real world better… and its just sad to know that the talent she has in her is not being recognized by her parents since many of them still believe in AAA and more As for the education…

I am not saying that the good girl is bad but in reality, she will probably be the standard normal adults whom will ended being the normal individual and obey what she is told to do… i.e a good employee…

Popularity: 13% [?]

Its the time of year that kids in school are having exams.. not just at Piaget.. but in all Medan schools.. its the final exam for the education year..

well, my dearest Jadon being in K2 had one as well… I was a little surprised, didn’t know that kids as young as K2 will be taking an exam as well..  I wasn’t thinking much and was in fact, planning of just sending him into the exam room without any revision.  That way, I am able to see how much attention he is paying during the class sessions..  then  mr hubby disagree.. saying that it would be silly knowing what is there and don’t prepare for it… true.. but he’s only 6 yrs old...

so, ended,  I sort of grilled him for like 3 days….. oh.. and he was definitely miserable…I am not KiaSu but KiaSi…  I was  making him do static addition, static subtraction, static multiplication e.g 562+458, 634-219, 415×5 etc…  and me drawing him parts of animals for him to label… as well as the continents of the world… plus many more.. .. I bet 1/2 of us don’t even know the different types of the fins on the fish … it’s amazing what kids are learning these days…

anyway, Jadon is an active kid so he will be categorised under the carelessness type….. I guess I am more anxious of his exam than himself… a little of de ja vu of my old times at Uni…

on the exam day, I sent him there personally, the kids have 1hr 30 mins to finish the paper from 2pm – 3.30pm… I then arrived at 3.05 pm to pick him up and he was already at the corridor waiting for me!!! ….   my mind was going like… oh my dear Jadon…  and believe it or not, ….  the first thing he said to me was… ‘mama, what’s 5+0? ‘ ….  so I asked ‘what did u write?‘…  and he gave me a very cheeky smile and said …  ‘it’s 5 but I wrote 0‘.…. wordless!!!! …(he probably just realised after he left the exam room)   … he knows what’s 8+9, 7+6, 5×0, 5/1 but he can’t get what is 5+0?  ….  I stood there and just stared at him… not knowing to laugh, cry or scream….   thank god he kept smiling and was hugging me… else I would have gone mad…

from my own exam experienced, I do admit that I have gone through phases like that as well… it’s mental block or something… i don’t know… but he definitely got my genes….

Popularity: 8% [?]

I have heard of Sekolah Chandra Kusuma many many years back… but as the school is located quite a distance from central Medan, at Cemara Asri Estate – about 40 mins drive, I never really thought of it much… in fact, when I first heard of it, an image of 3-4 Ruko style houses came straight to my mind.

then last week, the marketing department contacted me asking to be featured at MedanKu.com, I checked out their website and decided to give the school a visit.  I arrived at about 10am, was given the whole school tour… I stayed on to talked to the Principal for about 2 hours, and oh my my…   I kept asking myself, why have I not heard anyone bragging about this school…  !!!  It’s so totally awesome… so cool, so how a school should be like… surrounded by nice greenery, in a quiet secured compound, with outdoor soccer field – just exactly how we used to go to a school in the old days BUT with the clean and nice modern touch…… and honestly, the school has probably the best all round facilities that I have ever seen in Medan !!!

It’s a national plus school and kids can choose to do iGCSE …  there are about 750+ students with classes level up to Junior college year… the in door sport hall is so so impressive!!.. while I was there, some kids were having their recess time, so I can see them running around freely, some playing tagging, some table tennis.  The library is big and airy with good range of books.  The school even has their own Audotorium Hall which sits over 500+ students!!!

and then there are also different rooms for different activities… like art room, music room, cooking room, english room.. etc.. more info and pictures can be viewed at here

having seen and understand the school concept, I am now quite puzzled by why several parents with kids who live in Cemara Asri Estate decide to put their kids at Piaget???

More on Sekolah Chandra Kusuma

For other schools in Medan, please see Directory List of Schools in Medan

Popularity: 26% [?]

Singapore Piaget Academy Medan, currently known among the locals as one of the best school in Medan.. well….

Alright, I do admit that the school is well… OK.. I was and still am happy with my 2 boys education development in the school until I saw this last week…. mind you.. this is not the first time… in fact, it happened several times to BOTH my boys..

what you see is the work of my eldest son who is currently in K2 @ Piaget… Initially, I didn’t think of much and simply thought that the MISSes were busy and in hurry so, assuming that what he wrote were all correct, so they simply gave a TICK to all answers.

But it’s when I reviewed the work with my son and told him that he had done wrong, he blankly pointed out to me that he wrote ‘1590′ (the correct answer), BUT his MISS told him that he is wrong !!!…  then to think that he is lying to me, well.. I often practice these maths equations with him at home, and he has no problem answering them to me…

To think that the teacher is careless is already unacceptable to me … BUT to tell the kid that he is wrong!!! it does get on my nerve…. seriously, these are very basic mathematics that the kids need to know and the school is making it so confusing to them ????? …

Frankly, what I am doing with my 2 boys are that I am guiding them personally at home with Singapore Education Syllabus… what I do is, I get hold of the Singapore’s school standard Textbooks and use them as a guide to maintain the correct standard of knowledge….. this may sound fussy to some parents, but I am not 100% happy with what the Medan school is putting in my son’s brain…

For other schools in Medan, please see Directory List of Schools in Medan

Popularity: 35% [?]