Sa'eed, 'Aatikah and Umaamah

Friday, May 27, 2011

e-Xra: progress so far

So it has probably a month since I started to teach Saeed read BM. Alhamdulillah good progress.

He has covered a, ba, ca up till za plus nya, nga and sya, plus i and bi. That means he can already read sentences which utilizes those sukukata. For example, he can read 'mama ada kaca mata' or 'Tasya ada labi-labi'

Can't wait to finish the whole module and buy him books for him to practice on :)

On another note, we have finally moved to our new apartment. Next question is probably when is the house warming? Hehe...will need to update on that later.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Review on e-xra

Recently, a friend of mine introduced this method of teaching kids to read. It's called e-xra, which stands for eclectic express reading approach. The first picture is the cover of the book and the second picture is one of the pages. (I'm not sure what they mean by eclectic in this context).

If you are familiar with iqra', this method is exactly like that. So, instead of going B-A 'ba', you just read it as 'ba'. I guess it's similar to sight words method. It seems that Sa'eed also prefers this method because he is used to iqra'.

After a section (the 2nd picture is considered one section), there will be some sentences which only utilize the words that the child have learnt. For example, after reaching 'da', there will be simple sentences such as "Baba ada dada".

Similar to iqra', you only spend 5 to 10 minutes 'reading' with the child. They can't focus on one thing for too long anyways, and 5 to 10 minutes is sufficient to cover maybe 2 sections. And as you can see, each section mixes up the words, so the child is most probably reading as opposed to memorizing (a problem I encountered by using the Read Easy method).

Will try to update as Sa'eed progresses along...

By the way, their website is www.e-Xra.com. And you can checkout youtube for some video uploads.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Pretty in Pink

Umaamah in her new dress...a present from Neyna from Jeddah. Looks very cute on her. Perfect.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Story about 'Aatikah

Today I feel like writing a little something about 'Aatikah. She is just so hilarious. A drama queen at times, and can easily switch her 'tap' on and off...(tap meaning cry, not pee..haha).

She'll be 3 insyaAllah in October, but I think her vocab is amazing. A little bit pelat, but largely understandable.

Everytime I look at her, I'll think about how much she has been through. Last year's surgery went well without a hitch, but still...she wasn't even 2 then.

This girl eats a ton and burns it off almost instantly, although not as skinny as her brother, she's still kinda thin for the amount of food and drink she consumes.

She has the funniest expressions and willingly obliges to requests on how to pose. As she grows up, 'Aatikah is beginning to like girly things like combing hair for hours, dressing up, play with bears and pretend they are her babies....right down to nursing her bear.

I can tell she loves Umaamah to bits, but sometimes she can be a bit too aggressive, totally different from Sa'eed. 'Aatikah's voice can be heard a mile away and she is pretty adamant on what she wants. If she doesn't get it, out comes the bawling and crying.

She sometimes live in her own world and can occupy herself with random things. Whenever we're at a family gathering, she doesn't have any qualms on parking her self next to someone with a plate full of food and go 'nak sikit'. Once she gets a morsel of food, she'll go off again to play.

Here are some pictures of the girl who wants to be a princess when she grows up...at this age, who doesn't :)

Muuuuaaaahhh

Whenever I show this picture to people, they will comment 'She looks so cheeky!'

Her latest pose...

This was staged, but she's oh so sweet :)

Friday, April 29, 2011

I just noticed....

...that the picture I chose for the background of this blog is of Sa'eed when he was at the age where he was learning to walk. Amazing. It has been THAT long since I've changed the background. By saying 'I', I mean my brother...hehe

A lot has happened between then and now. And by a lot, I really mean two additional family members. One wants to be a princess when she grows up, and another is rolling away. Hmm...when do babies start crawling anyways? When you have more than one child (and at less than 2 years apart), you kinda tend to not scrutinize their developments. Experience tells that they will eventually get it and not to get stressed out if they don't hit a certain milestone as what the books tell you (betul tak mummy Adam, Imran, Daniel & lil princess?).

It's not that I don't care about the younger kids' development, but I guess I know that they will learn it, and we should just enjoy the moment. It's just lovely to see the kids do their own thing, at their own pace. And plus you won't get so worked up and start comparing your kid's development to others. I believe that things like rolling over, crawling, standing up, walking, talking are all being inspired by Allah (but of course you'll know when things need some intervention). It's like a foal learning how to walk 10 minutes after it is born.

Once the kids' brain has started to develop further and starts to form rational thought e.g. knows how to make a choice between blue and red toy, then you can slowly start to point them into the right direction like etiquette, ABCs etc. With that, I think I have to set some goals and action plans for the kids. Hopefully we'll be able to reach them.

Sa'eed
Be able to read Malay/English by 5 (he just turned 4)
Be able to read Qur'an by 6 (he is beginning Iqra' 2 right now)

'Aatikah
Potty trained by 3.5 (she will be 3 in October)
Be able to read Malay/English by 5
Be able to read Qur'an by 6

Umaamah
Honey, you do what you gotta do, we'll discuss your KPIs when you're a bit older ok :)

Are these goals too lofty or are they too weak? I remembered learning how to read muqaddam coz I was probably at Standard 1 by then. But I definitely cannot recall how I learned to read.

Oh and maybe we should start some organized extracurricular activities like horseback riding or swimming for them. Or perhaps they are too young?

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

oh goodness

Great...a summary post for 2010 and you don't hear from me anymore. And April is almost over (dah file your taxes?). It has been quite an eventful year so far. TWO hospital stays, almost 3 weeks of MC for yours truly here.

Very weird...I was healthier (Alhamdulillah) last year when I was carrying Umaamah in my tum. Manage to not get H1N1 although everyone else got it, MC boleh kira sebelah tangan. But this year is a totally different story. Dengan random demamnye, sore throat, conjunctivitis etc. Really need to boost up the immune system.

Umaamah is 8 months already and she's currently around 9kg :) These kids are chubby and healthy when they are babies, but once they start moving around, they seem to get taller, eat more, yet don't gain that much weight. 'Aatikah for one was 11kg for the longest time. I think now she's around 12-13 kg and Sa'eed is around 15 kg.

'Aatikah alhamdulillah is doing well. But everytime she gets a fever, I get really worried. Need to check those lungs, make sure they're ok. So far so good. She's in high spirits, screams for fun, but can randomly cry for the tiniest reason e.g. Umaamah ter-pull her hair.

Sa'eed is such a big brother. Loves his sisters to bits...and apparently I shouldn't have any boys anymore because boys can only be the 'abang', cannot be the 'adik'. He loves to play and entertain Umaamah. And I can tell Umaamah somehow prefers her brother. I think coz 'Aatikah can sometimes be very loud and can't control her strength.

In terms of progress in school..alhamdulillah Sa'eed now knows how to pray and also recite the do'as during the different movements e.g. rukuk, sujud etc. He knows his al-Fatihah, can give the iqaamah plus can answer the azan. But he's not too confident in giving the azan. He has also started to read Iqra' book 2. And plus I can trust him to teach the right things to 'Aatikah, coz she's still in the stage of 'main belasah je'.

Ok...that's all for now. You can put your bets on when the next updates will come by.