Sperms and Eggs (part II)

Here's the 'sequel' to my earlier post titled "Of sperms, eggs and balls", the kids know how fertilisation occurs but has never gotten down to the details of where sperms actually come from.

My little 7 y.o. Eryn came up to me after dinner and said she's got a very interesting story to tell me. So, I sat with her and she took out her kids' magazine, 小星星  or Bintang SinChew, and showed me this page below.

She then went on to tell her story which goes like this :

"These are all the sperms and the fastest and strongest sperm will go to the egg in your body 
and make a baby. Just like how the sperm, which was daddy, and the egg, which is inside your body, 
meet and made me. 

"The little egg baby will go inside your womb and slowly grow into a real baby and when the baby is ready
to come out, it will come out from this part (pointing to the vagina in the picture)".

I then proceeded to ask her, "Where did the sperm come from?"

She answered like a girl full of wisdom, "The sperm is quite invisible. It is very tiny, and you can't see it. 
It's like the size of kutu (lice). Wait, it's more like the size of germs because you can still see kutu. This
sperm will go down your mouth and inside your tummy to find the egg."

I almost chocked on my guava hearing that! Gosh! Trying to be smart indeed. he he he....

She continued, "And only married people can have babies."

Earlier this year, Brendan's version of where sperms come from is from kukubird and two balls.

I wonder what new versions I'm going to hear.

Of sperms, eggs and balls...

I was sitting on my notebook with Brendan (age 8+) beside me doing his homework while Eryn (age 6 1/2) was reading a book.

Suddenly, this conversation came up :

Eryn        : mummy, my egg is here right? (pointing below her belly button)

Mummy  : Huh?

Eryn        : There, you see, (pointing to a kids Biology book, as per picture below),

                  this is an egg.

Brendan : Oh, I know, it's where the sperm swims towards the egg.

Mummy  : *eyes big big* (double) HUH?!

Oh well,  and that’s how I realised I had to get started on my basic introduction about the birds and the bees. I asked if they really know what are the sperms and eggs for and this is how to conversation went on :

Eryn        : The sperm is in the boy’s kukubird

Brendan : Ya, and the egg is inside the girl’s body.

Mummy  : Yes, and when the sperm meets the egg, you can have a baby.

                  And it is very important that you must understand.

And then, the conversation got really funny :

Brendan : How can the sperm go to the egg? The sperm is in my 'kukubird' lah.

Eryn        : Hahahahaha......

Brendan : So, you better don’t touch my sperm. Actually, the sperm is my two balls.

Mummy  : *eyes rolling and controlling laughter*

Eryn        : You see this book (pointing to the picture below), sperm plus egg equals

                  baby in the womb.

Brendan : Mummy, do you know that it is very dangerous if a boy only has one ball?

                  He can die one you know.

Oh well, that’s all on the so-called basic sex education. This was really getting nowhere. Besides, I was so tired to be able to do any proper explanation as it was nearing bed time for the kids.

This is the cover of the book. A very, very good book which I bought in the last Big, Bad Wolf sale. It covers mostly on the human body and the kids learnt a lot from there.

Eryn enters primary one

It is now Eryn's turn to go to primary school. She seems pretty excited and knowing that she can cope well, I didn't feel so stressed up preparing her for her first day of school yesterday.

Brendan used to be an extremely shy boy but he was ok when he was in standard one. So, Eryn will definitely be ok too.

I went to school during Eryn's recess time yesterday, thinking that I was half hour early, but found that the standard one children were already queueing up, preparing to go back to their classrooms. I had bought chocolate milk for the kids and only managed to pass to Brendan. Luckily Eryn finished the bread I packed for her this morning.

During Brendan's time in standard one, there were a total of 11 classes compared to Eryn's year at only 6 classes this year. It's still chaotic though cos all the kids looks alike from the side or from the back in the standard blue and white uniform. I could only locate Eryn when I located her class queue. Even that also I found that she looked different as I've just cut her hair two days before school starts.

With Eryn being in the second batch of the new KSSR syllabus, I hope she can cope well in school. She can't reach much of chinese yet, as compared to Brendan.

This is the part and parcel of many parents' life when their kids enter school. Always a new phase as we go along our journey in life.

The standard one crowded during recess time.

Taken during school orientation day on 30th Dec 2011.

Mathematics

People always say that chinese school students' maths is the best! I always thought that it was based on lots o f memorising of certain formulas.

I have to testify that Brendan's maths amazes me!

Sometime in December last year, we took the kids to a sushi place and halfway eating, Brendan told us how much we've eaten in RM (ringgit currency) based on all the different colour plates that we ate. The coloured plates show difference prices for each colour and the prices are not rounded up, with prices like RM4.90, RM5.90, RM6.90 and something like that.

Hubby and I stared at each other in disbelief and we too started calculating but at a rather slow pace. We didn't expect that to come from Brendan who was only in standard one last year! I only remember doing basic calculations when I was in standard one the last time.

We tested Brendan before by asking him questions like "how old would he, mei-mei and mummy be if Poh-Poh turns 70 years old" or "how old would his baby cousin and kong-kong be if his favourite Uncle K.Leong is 40 years old", etc..  He answered everything correctly, and that was last year. He showed me his formula but I just don't seem to understand his way of calculating cos it just doesn't seem to gel with my formula! But the answers are always correct!

I'm impressed!!

School reopens

School reopens 2 days back ago without any hiccups on our end. But I dread to think about the school books that Brendan has to carry everyday. I do wonder whether it's really compulsary to bring all the BM and Chinese text book, workbook, activity book, writing book, grammar book and exercise books every single day. I'm quite surprised that there's only about one hour of English per week. How to speak proper 'engrish' like that?

I've just bought a 'chiro-bag' which is meant to protect a child's back due to heavy luggage. Apparently, I was told by my friend who manufactured the bag that the chiropractor recommends that a school bag should not be more than 10% of a child's age! That would mean that Brendan have to take his Bakprotek bag and another smaller bag to school everyday.

Eryn on the other hand is happy to be back in school and everything seems quite ok for her. However, after her 3 Barbie shows a day throughout the school holiday, she still haven't really gotten over her Barbie fever yet.

Brendan seems quite excited to go to school after the long holiday. He says that the teacher started teaching on the second day and he even brough back homework on the second day itself. I see some other schools have yet to distribute books and some have yet to settle down, but here, my son, is already doing his writing and colouring on the second day itself.

Oh well, I can only pray that he copes well in school this year and most importantly, to enjoy school and be happy!



Brendan's books for today and Brendan doing his homework last night.



Std One Assessment

I just don't get it. What's with our school syllabus, specifically, chinese school syllabus. I get crazy just looking at Brendan's book. I mean, he's in standard one this year and his level of education is similar to that of mine when I was in standard three, I think. I was told that this instill the discipline in them, thus they are hardworking and committed and that's why they make superb businessman and disciplined in their adult lives.

How can he comprehend the 'sukukatas' when he doesn't even understand the BM word? How can he write sentences in Mandarin when he had just started school not too long ago.

I'm even more surprised that he enjoys his subjects, especially maths, mandarin writing and science!

As I reflect back to my school days, I remember that I was an all rounder, and I enjoyed sports and music. I represented school in netball and atheltics and I got distinction most of the time in my music classes. I took my music in diploma when I was in form 4. Having said that, I was never good in studies. I was always one of those who is always at the bottom of the class. Well, not too bad, considering the fact that I'm always in the top class of the school. So, what the heck!

Hubby is worst! He ponteng school, his results were never good. But he turned out to be one hard-working chap now and good in the job that he's doing apparently. hehe..

Now back to my kids. I've been delaying sending my kids for tuitions or music/dance classes, swimming and badminton classes, but I'm just so not up to it. They have the energy, but not me. They can do all that later if they want, so I'm not going to stress myself to send them here and there for now. *bad mummy*

Oh well. Brendan's half year exam is starting next week. His daycare centre has been reviewing his school work and they recently did an assessment based on 21 standard one 2009 half year exam papers from various schools in PJ (SJKC Han Ming, SJKC Serdang Baru, SJKC Lick Hung, SJKC Yak Chee and another school) . I'm very surprised at his achievement! He proudly told me he did it all by himself. No guidance, no reference and no copying. And he wants more! Oh dear... I'm going nuts just looking at this papers.

Here's the summary of his so-called trial exam done at the daycare centre.

English - 3 papers from different schools. Marks : 100, 96 and 100.
Maths - 4 papers from different schools. Marks : 95, 100, B+ and B
Chinese - 4 papers from different schools. Marks : 89, 98, A+ and A+
BM (Penulisan) - 2 papers from different schools. Marks : 78 and A+
BM (Pemahaman) - 3 papers from different schools. Marks : 78, 93 and 92.
Science - 4 papers from different schools. Marks : 100, A, A and A.

Great job, Brendan!

Primary One

I'm joining in the bandwagon to blog about Brendan's first day of school.

He managed well, having two of his friends from kindergarten in the same class and a few other friends in other classes. The teachers in the kindergarten has prepared him well for primary school, just like the principal has promised.

Brendan was surprisingly quite enthusiast about going to school. I met a mummy friend I know from a mummies group whose daughter is also studying there. I also bumped into a client and a few neighbours whose kids are also studying there. It's such a small world to know some people in the school.

Things were so different back then when I was in primary one. I remember playing and playing only, and I had wonderful teachers who were extremely experienced in teaching. Nowadays, we have to be careful of our kids' well-being and all.

I've put Brendan on the school's food programme at RM80 for two months. Don't think I can prepare food for him everyday and decided to go ahead with the food programme which have quite different variety of food every single day, inclusive of a drink. Brendan takes his lunch at 11am which means by recess time he'll be so hungry that he'll chomp down on his food. He only reaches home at 7:30pm which means he'll be hungry.

It's the start of the year and big challenges are coming ahead. Get ready to rock-and-roll!

School Orientation

It was Brendan's school orientation yesterday morning. He took it very well and was pleased to have two or three of his kindy friends in his class as well as a few other kindy friends in other classes. The demand for the school is so high that there are 8 classes consisting of 50 students each and the headmaster was announcing that he'll stretch it to 11 classes.

We have opted for a chinese school. Though I didn't like the idea of sending him to a chinese school, I had to change my mind after scouting around for a kebangsaan school which really pulled my confidence down with the standard of teachers dropping in the few kebangsaan schools that I went to check out. Pathetic. It's therefore not surprising to see quite a few Malay and Chindian kids in the school.

It will be a tough challenge with tons of homework and with strict discipline a but it will prepare Brendan for  later years I hope. Brendan's kindy has prepared him well and surprisingly, Brendan doesn't find it boring, at least for now. If things doesn't turn out well, we'll have to find other alternative. (cross fingers).

The number of textbooks and workbooks are crazy, just like when Brendan was in kindy, but for him, it looks too easy as he had done all these work while he was in kindy. I hope he can still say that when he reaches standard 4-6 and secondary school. We'll have to wait and see.

academic result

Brendan and Eryn did extremely well in school and was positioned number two and number four respectively.

During the exam week, Brendan came back from school everyday saying that he can't answer some questions and don't think he can get good results. Well, I scold him to pay more attention in class instead of disturbing his little sister all the time. Deep in my heart, I wasn't particularly concern whether he'll be at the top in his age group especially Mandarin, since I can't read Chinese and was never the top in my class. I was placed in the top class through school but was never the top in class due to the pressure I felt from the top students and my involvement in extra curricular activities and practice in sports and netball.

Coming out from school, I was satisfied though, for being all-arounded and I didn't do too bad at all. Likewise, I would hope my kids to be well-rounded as well instead of being too studious. Emphasis would still be placed in their studies still, without giving the pressure that they're already facing in school.

Anyway, for Brendan to achieved 2nd place was indeed a surprise for the school principal and teachers and for me and hubby. The subject that pulled him down was Moral, which was really wierd for us. He achieved 100 for mathematics, 91.5 for Chinese, 98 for maths, 89 for BM and 82 for Moral. A big, big clap to you, Brendan.

They have very tough questions like identifying the Abdul Samad building, Twin Tower, Planetarium and KL Tower and stuffs like grammar errors and spellings. I think I only studied what Brendan is studying now when I was in year 2 or year 3!

Eryn was an even bigger surprise at 4th place as she only started school middle of this year. She has adopt a keen interest in books now and achieved 100 for Maths, 94 for English, 98 for Mandarin and 88 for English.

I wasn't very happy with the academic based in the beginning, but am now very pleased that I sent them there cos they seem to enjoy their kindergarten school. The teachers are very patient and kind in guiding them in all the reading and writing. They only need to come home and play and watch TV, without having to do any homework. For Brendan, going to primary school will not be the same anymore. I hope things turn out fine.

An example of Brendan's chinese paper - I don't understand what it's all about.


A page taken from Brendan's Moral paper - I don't understand this as well.


A page from Eryn's BM paper. "Ekor"?

Brendan's entering Standard One

It was a tedious hassle more than two months ago when I learnt that my application for Brendan into SJK(C) School A was rejected. Thus, began my journey for appeal, going to School A and School B, the other school that Brendan was assigned to.

So, up and down I went, again and again. In my appeal form, I have to give two options for the appeal and all parents were advised by the parents to put two options in case the first option for School A was rejected.

Imagine, 90% of the application to School A were rejected. All because another school, let's call it School X, was undergoing renovation and were therefore, transferred to School A and School A has to be transferred to School B! I do wonder why can't they just transfer School X to School B instead.

So, back to my appeal form, I decided to only put one option and that is back to School A despite hearing that it's quite impossible to go back to School A. Well, I decided that's the way I want it to be and then, the waiting began.

I have yet to received the second letter, but went direct to School A yesterday morning to check for myself. The teacher was very doubtful that I could get it and went through the list, which is not in alphabetical order, one by one, and at page 3, I decided to help the teacher to search for it and immediately stumbled upon Brendan's name!! The other teachers were surprised and asked to double check on the full name and IC number.

Boy, am I glad to see that, but there were fury coming from other parents nearby, who were still appealing for the third time.

I don't know how good School A is as claimed by some parents, but the convenience is something that I've been asking for. I personally felt that our local kebangsaan school standard has dropped, unlike my time, when our teachers were so good.

In my search for schools early last year, I've checked out a few kebangsaan school and found that the teachers can't even speak proper English, what more teach! Oh dear... I can't read Chinese myself, but am glad that Brendan's current kindergarten principal is a well-qualified educator, who is able to provide some tutoring to Brendan in his early years.

It's going to be a new challenge next year. We'll see how it goes.

School has re-opened

It's been a week since school re-opened. Brendan was happy to go back to the same kindy he attended last year.

I'm not surprised with the many books that he brought back home but I was surprised that one of his book is a standard one book! I'm even more shocked at the content as they are so much more difficult that it was when I first started kindergarten at 6 years old.

The funny thing is, despite having so much textbooks and so much books nowadays, the standard of a lot of teachers are deteriorating and most students can't even speak proper English! I was told by the principal that all these textbooks are preparation for Brendan when he enter Primary one next year! Wow!!

I remember attending tuition the year that I sat for SPM. I've known some parents who has started sending their children to tuition as young as 6 years old. Gosh, am I laid-back or what? I wonder what has gone wrong with our education system, and I do certainly wonder how would my children cope in school - with the tons of homework and carrying that heavy bag behind their bag in the not too distant future.

Here's a pic of Brendan's textbooks. The exercise book has not been taken into consideration.

School exams

I used to hate exams cos I just hated having to study for it. I went through it though and survived well.

I had to laugh till my tummy ached when I got some "interesting" real life situations of some genious trying to prove their capability in answering some physics & maths questions. Seriously, are these kids really trying to test the teacher's patience or are they just simply asnwering what they think the answers should be?

Gosh, I'm keeping my fingers crossed my kids will never pull such stunts on me, or the teacher!

You go figure these out yourselves :-) Just simply amazing...oh, and funny too!