The Girl's Favorite Color.

Our topic in the car this morning was favorite colors. What are our favorite colors? Just to start the morning discussion, I told the girls that my favorite colors are BLACK, WHITE and GREEN. All these colors have its own meaning but I wont discuss it in here. So, I asked the girls, in English (which I expect the answer to be in English too), what are their favorite colors. These are their responses.

Arissa:" I like PINK, LIGHT BLUE, YELLOW and RED"
Aryana:" I like PURPLE, GREEN and ORANGE"

Arissa keeps on forgetting when I asked again but Aryana was quite consistent. Asked her the second time, the same three colors she gave me. I am sure that we could find some articles out there about personality based on favorite colors. Need to find those articles. Just for the fun of it.

Welcome to Hotel Transylvania

Hari Sabtu 6 Oct 2012, kami semua (kecuali Adel) pergi menonton Hotel Transylvania di Cathay Cineplex, Damansara. Aktiviti menonton wayang hari itu adalah hadiah kepada Arissa sebab dia berjaya habiskan 6 buah buku. Kalau Arissa dapat habis kan 6 buah buku, dia akan dapat 6 stars dan 6 stars bersamaan dengan satu consumable hadiah. Aryana, free rider. :-)). Tak payah dapat 6 stars pun boleh pergi. Untung lah Yana ni.

Macam mana cerita Hotel Transylvania (HT). Ceritanya memang kelakar. Kalau nak compare dengan kartun yang kami tengok, Madagascar 2, HT lebih kelakar. Walaupun jalan ceritanya biasa biasa saja (Toy Story lebih hebat) tapi tetap ada mesej yang ingin disampaikan. Ia mengingatkan saya pada cerita Afdlin Shauki Papadom di mana si Ayah sangat protektif pada si anak perempuan. Semua karekter menarik dalam cerita ini. Bermula dari Count Dracula (vlah..vlah..vlah...) sampailah kepada Wayne the Werewolf. Cakap pasal karekter, Aryana minat pada Count Dracula. "Sebab dia handsome"...amboi Aryana...You are ONLY 4!. Arissa, being the girly type, dia suka Mavis, anak Count Dracula. Not surprising lah sebab dalam semua cerita yang di tengok nya, kalau ada watak feminin yang sebaya dia, itu lah favorite watak dia.

Walaubagaimanpun, saya rasa cerita ni sedikit perlahan di bahagian awal, tapi lepas tu, ia dah start momentum. Pengenalan pada watak watak monster seperti Frankenstein, the Mummy agak menarik tapi mungkin humournya agak berlebihan. But overall, kami enjoy cerita ni. Kalau nak bagi star, saya akan bagi 6 stars, sama macam Arissa dapat.

Another Cooking Class

--> a backdated entry <---

* 9th September 2012 *

yes..arissa and aryana went for another cooking class..this time around they cooked some garlic bread and cream soup..

and this time around..they were left alone on their own with the teacher ( Kak Marina Mustafa aka Chef Marina Mustafa) ...more so..we want them to learn to be independent ( and so..mama n papa get to go elsewhere while waiting for them )

personally, mama hope arissa n aryana would enjoy cooking later on...

--> we'll look for other cooking classes in the future ye.. (Villa 16 )

here are some pics...

Basic Music Class

* 24th September 2012 *

yesterday, we went to register Arissa & Aryana for the music classes..yes, we want to expose them with lots of activities as to nurture them with their choices of interests...we hope they will get to try out in different activities, and as a way for them to get to know about themselves and their abilities..so that they will know that they are special in any other way...

so..they will start off with the basic music classes..until grade 4...after that, onlye then they will get to choose what music instruments that they want to play..and as far as now...arissa said, she wants to play the drum..and as for aryana..she wants to play the guitar..so we just wait n see whether the choices of the instruments maintain until they finish their basic music class...

the class will be on every thursday starting on the 4th of October 2012...

Caca Marba: Jom Baca Surah Al-Kahfi (setiap Hari Jumaat) !

Caca Marba: Jom Baca Surah Al-Kahfi (setiap Hari Jumaat) !: Betapa banyak orang lalai dari amalan yang satu ini ketika malam Jum’at atau hari Jum’at, yaitu membaca surat Al Kahfi. Atau mungkin sebagi...

Papa's Morning Routine

Kerja saya pagi pagi, selain menyiapkan diri untuk pergi kerja, adalah untuk menyiap TP1 and TP2. TP  stands for Tuan Puteri. Nak bangunkan diorang dan siapkan diorang persis tuan puteri. Dua dua susah nak bangun pagi. Biasalah tu. Arissa, TP1, senang sikit nak bangun tapi dia punya tantrum (you should check my YouTube. I video recorded her morning tantrums), memang pening kepala di buat nya. Tapi saya tahulah, itu hanya morning tantrum. So, I just let it be. Lepas dia dah mandi dan siap, an apology will be heard from her. So, I don't take her tantrum seriously. In fact, saya seronok nak sakat dia. The louder the tantrum, the more amusement I get.

TP2, Aryana, is the hardest. Memang susah nak bangun pagi. Tantrum dia tak sehebat Arissa. Tapi susah nak bangun. I prefer listening to Arissa's tantrum rather than nak go through the effort nak kejut kan Aryana. So, desperate measures have to be taken. I use my secret weapon, the water spray bottle. Works every time and like a charm. At least that, got her attention. Bangun tidor is one thing, making her way to the bathroom is another.

TP1 and TP2 bersiap depan TV. Pros and Cons. The pro, saya boleh siapkan diorang cepat. The cons, kalau diorang siap diri sendiri, mata kat TV, tangan nak pakai kain/baju dan semuanya bergerak dalam keadaan slow-mo. But it is okay, at least I got to do some work done, angkat beg letak kat the right side of the backseat. The girls seat on the left side. Bila turun senang. Turun kan beg dulu dan baru girls turun.

Because of ALL that. Arissa dan Aryana HARI HARI lambat. End of the year convocation, kalau ada award the MOST LATE STUDENT, no doubt and I guarantee, Arissa and Aryana will be co-winners.

Arissa's Reading Project

Arissa is 6 years old this year and she can already read and write. Thanks to Dzuliman, she is already ahead of her class. As I am typing this entry, Adelia is bugging me with her antics. I wanted Arissa to love books and I can see that she does. Just like any other children of her age, she needs to be motivated. Don't we all. So, we started this Dania's Reading Project. At first, we wanted to include Aryana but to me personally, Aryana is just 4. Let Aryana be Aryana at the moment.

The idea of Dania's Reading Project is to motivate her by awarding a star for each book that read. The stars are then accumulated until it reaches to a certain amount  before she can claim her prize. We set the number of stars to 6. So far, she has claimed her first prize, which is a trip to Toys R Us. After that, she has done a couple of readings but then it just dies off.

In order to track her progress, a chart is posted on the wall. The 6 stars on the wall is confirmed. It is the stars after that which I lost track of. So, I figure we need to restart this initiative. Today, Arissa managed to finish reading a story titled Anak Sang Kerbau Berjasa. I personally asked her questions about the story. I just want to ensure that she understood the story and are able to recall events mentioned in the story. The only question that she is unable to answer is regarding the moral of the story. She needs help with that. Moral? What kids know about moral, ethics and the like. If they know all that, all kids in this world will be well behaved and we know that is impossible. I think she reads the story because she just wants to read it. May be she enjoys having the ability to spell the words and pronounce it. That is already an effort.

I put up Arissa's Reading Log on Google Drive.

Keep up the good work Arissa!