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.

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.

Pretty in Pink

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

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 :)