We are all money minded.

Since couple of months ago, I started giving the kids their monthly allowances or pocket money for them to make savings a habit.

They have 20 bucks each month and they are required to keep an accounts book on their expenses and a record of any other monies that they might get, like 10 cents for buying papa's newspaper, or finding a lucky 10 cents from a corner of our car or receiving 50 bucks angpow as bday pressie from popo etc.

Then there are some bonuses or deductions for their book keeping records exercise.

For making the effort and diligent in noting down the expenses and income.

For balance tally.

For saving all the money without spending any cents at all.

I told them, by the end of the year, they can spend 10% of their savings on whatever they want, and then maybe 10% doing some charity, and the rest to their bank account.

So, the kids have been getting rich, didi figured out not spending any money at all would be best, as he wouldn't need to write anything and another bonus for saving all his money. hmm... he's right, isn't he?

I suppose the plan can't be too perfect.

Then as time goes by, we are talking about paying for everything around here!

First, I was furious that didi had not been appreciating all his stationery I bought for him. So, I made it a house rule. I would only get their basic necessities for their schooling needs only once or twice a year, that's beginning and middle of the year. After which they have to buy whatever they need themselves from their own pocket money they saved. Like mechanical pencils (which keep disappearing), exercise books (which keep scribbled on for no kind of reason), pencil leads (which keep lying around on the floor waiting to be swept away), tumblers (which keep misplaced here or there somehow) and many others which they would have to take care and use wisely.

Once didi had no more leads, and wanted to take from korkor. They both fought and I played referee by saying korkor can sell one to him, if he needs it desperately. So korkor said ok, 1 lead 10 cents. Didi cried foul, saying that's too expensive. I told him, yeah, that's how things work. When there's a demand, anyone can ask for any price. He could have make money himself if he wants to. He reluctantly bought one from korkor and made sure he doesn't have any lead wastage. Sounds good, eh?

Later, while we were shopping, I asked him if he wants to buy some lead for himself. That time, he was more conscious of the price tag on all the different brands there are on the shelf. And he even started comparing those price with the bookshop's from his school, and think about which one is more value for money. Eventually, I showed him one pack of 4 cases which is a better value for money. Told him he needs to keep it safely and even make money if anyone wants to buy from him in desperate times, like he was before.

Another episode of charging money for some of their attitudes, which I am too exhausted to nag already, is when they spend more than 30 mins finishing their meals. Especially meimei. So, everytime they are over the allocated time, it's 50 cents. Another 10 mins, another 50 cents. Counts by the minutes, mind you, else how would they ever learn to eat faster! Meimei had so far, been poorer by few bucks from this whole exercise.

Last 2 days, after a whole 10 days off for the 2 younger kids, didi was VERY slow getting ready for school. I was too fed up again, and devised another punishment which includes money too! So I said, each morning, by 7.20, whoever holds up the rest of not leaving the house by that time, need to pay the other 2, 1 buck each! Wow! That sure made didi go so much faster!

But I wonder, with all these money talk and bargaining around the house, if there's any bad side effects not? Their eyes would only be seeing the $$ sign everywhere?

Sometimes, I tell them, family need to help each other too. If you feel like helping out without charging anything, you are doing a good deed and it's a favor that you would be appreciating when you need that back.

In the end, parenting is always so tough! Have to know where the balance is and don't tip over to one end all the time! That's the toughest part.

Naming each day

Yesterday, on a Tuesday, I was diligently tutoring didi and meimei at home in the afternoon.

Working on a question, didi had cracked his head and asked me if the answer he had is correct. I looked at it, and told him where the trick lied in. His eyes opened up enlightened and asked something about why the question is asked in such a way.

I was dumbfounded and said nonchalantly, that's because it's a tricky question, and today's a tricky Tuesday. His lips curved into a grin admist a long hour of strenuous revision with them. And then we went on naming each day as manic Monday, wacky Wednesday, freaky Friday, scary Saturday, sunny Sunday.....

Didi is mostly enjoying coming up with different ones that we have a good laugh about some of them and boy, I wonder how long this game gonna lasts as its not showing any signs of stopping. I had to threaten them that I will kick them out of my room if there were another word.

But yeah, it sure was fun and made them think of more words to follow the alphabets and name those 7 days. Maybe tomorrow I ask them to name the months also.

Smurfs movie

It was Sat night and we have 2 free ticket vouchers again. Almost every first Sat of the month, yeah~

We couldn't decide which movie to go to, Apollo 18? Contagion? Smurfs? Cars 2?

The review says that the first 2 are quite gross and not very suitable for young children. I was still undecided by the time I was at the counter buying the tickets, and made a hasty one at that last minute. Smurfs it was.

How do I find the movie? Really, it was the most boring show I had been to, but watching the 3 of them laughing their heads off was entertaining enough. Well, corrected, korkor says it should be just the 2 of them, he didn't laugh that much but still enjoyed himself.

It's amusing what kind of jokes to make them burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter. Just the bad guy shooting off right into the dustbin is deemed funny enough. And it was the first time meimei watched the whole movie from beginning to the end, without falling into slumber at all. So I guess, it was all worth it.

When we got home, I was soooo dissatisfied with not even an ounce of movie entertainment for myself on a Saturday night, I then turned on a movie called Hanna just to get some kick, hopefully. At the end of the show, though the pace at times were quite kancheong, I went to bed feeling kinda disappointed with it's whole plot which didn't seem to make any sense at all. That was one constipated Saturday night I had.

Didi cycling on 2 wheels finally.

Didi did it! Cycling without the training wheels. On his own. 2 wheels. Precisely on 4 Sept 2011. Roughly 8+ yo. Wow!

Not very impressive, eh? Then again, who cares! Not like if he learned to do it at 3 then he's a genius. I just let him take his time and get on it when he's ready and feeling confident. A little bit of encouragement helped, and when he managed it, I asked him how he felt and he said he felt great. heh!

From our KLCC park venture last weekend, his training wheel has been annoying him as it was very flimsy. The next Sunday, I had his permission to take them off and dug out the tools to do the job. It was rather fun with him watching me working on it, like I'm so talented liddat! *ahem*

His ear's infection returned that weekend hotel stay and the doctor advised him not to swim for at least a month if possible, to avoid further infections as he's prone to that from his first one not too long ago. From then on, whenever the kids go for a swim, he would be playing badminton with me or his papa. I also realized he's getting much better playing than the last time (which seemed to be ages ago anyway). At least the RM30 fees I'm paying for his badminton 1 hour class a week in school pays off!

Seems like we should spend more time with them to parks for cycling activities and badminton games!

The weekend before

We stayed at Mandarin Oriental, KLCC. To put it not so nicely, we went "hoi fong".... with the 3 kids.

My hubs likes to buy these packages from hotels which offers a book of vouchers for a night's stay, meals, discounts and whatnots, which normally is valid for a year. We had stayed in a couple of them for these last 2-3 years, I think, and I had been wanting to post some of the pictures I took when we went for a short weekend break at the city just like that.

But this time, the only time, that I didn't bring a camera along and I was very regrettable about it!

It is a nice room, with a nice view of the KLCC park.

It is great to be walking out into the park and strut right into KLCC Suria mall without bothering about parking our car and paying for its expensive fees! I had waffles with 2 other girlfriends of mine and took the kids for a swim after that. All was well except the little baby girl, lollypop, was too exhausted from this long outing trip. (Sorry!)

Due to poor planning, it was to our surprise, full houses on each and every restaurants available in the hotel during dinner time! My gawd! There are really very very rich people in KL! OK, I know that fact way long time ago, but it still amazes me to see it in real!

So, after wasting our time looking for a table and didn't want to enter KLCC either, we drove over to Lot 10, braving ourselves for the long traffic snarl in the golden triangle. Couldn't find any parking lot but saw a spot behind the Starhill hotels, which looks like a dark alley to me, where to me, snatch thieves and muggers rule! I walked briskly along holding my 2 younger kids and barked at hubs when he was walking far away in front of me, oblivious to all these threats! Sigh! Men!

Do you know in Lot 10, at the basement, there's this food court which boasts of ALL the good street food in KL there are? I didn't know! And it was there for a long time already, apparently!

So I heard that the developer who revamped Lot 10 invited the best local food operators (not those branded known franchisers) there are in KL to open their business there but was rejected. In the end they agreed on a profit sharing basis and it was a huge success apparently!

I do not know the whole story, but it was packed with people that night! It was so difficult to find a table, for the 7 of us (my bro inlaw and his wife were there too). In the end, as it was slightly over dinner time, we found one at a corner and bought different types of food to share among ourselves. The pork knuckle was REALLY AWESOME! Eek! Again, I regretted not having the camera with me!

My bro inlaw and his wife then went to catch a movie at Pavilion while we just went back to retire for the night.

The next morning, it was a beautiful day, without the sun glaring hot on us, so we could go for a walk at the park. The 2 younger kids brought their bikes along and guess what? Bikes are not allowed in KLCC park!! Why?? Can you tell me why? I really can't understand why not.

Hubs and korkor went to buy breakfast back to the hotel while I send the 2 kids back first to have our shower. Then, the boys stayed in the room while I went for a quick shopping tour with hubs and meimei for, what does a holiday mean without any shopping goodies, right?

I was thrilled to find a nice comfy leggings from Uniglo, enough to make me happy for the day!

And that was our short weekend break in Mandarin Oriental, KL. A nice little treat for the weekend city break.You ought to try that too!

Not another one!

No la, not talking about THAT, if you are thinking about THAT!

The school's 1 week break was just over and guess what? I received another memo from school today announcing next week's 4 days' off for Pri 1, 2 and 3 for the upcoming UPSR exams for those Pri 6.

Then friday is Malaysia Day, which is a public holiday. And Monday is their school's special allocated special holiday. So that makes it 10 days front to back! Oh.My.God! *faint*

I would have loved to take the kids back to Ipoh or go somewhere for a holiday, if it hadn't been korkor who still needs to go to school for those 4 days. Guess who's sulking the most? *big grin*

Well, probably the long weekend, we might just be going balik kampung. Somehow, I missed my kampung. Seems like a long time since we last went back indeed.

Homework is not my job.

I really do get irritated when I hear about parents being too concerned over their kids' schoolwork, ting seah, spelling, ejaan and test results. To me, children should learn their responsibilities as students , to themselves and to their parents.

Homework? Is it more important to check if they had finished off all their homework and correctly as well, than to have them be alert in class and listen to what they need to do when they are back home and finish off that task BY THEMSELVES.

To me, homework is to teach them that it is their job. Their work. Not mommy's work or tutor's job to make sure they are up to it. Doing their homework by themselves teach about responsibilities.

Well, some parents think that it's very frustrating to get calls from teachers who complains their kids not finishing their homework. And perhaps very embarrassing? And that's the reason those parents prefer not to let them learn to take responsibility? Really? Which is of more concern, really?

The kids would just continue to rely on parents or tutors to ensure they do their work, and would hardly learn to do it themselves, I do believe.

So what if teachers come and complain? As a parent, that's when I punish really really hard if I hear or learn from their teachers that homework is not done. Still not doing it? Use other tactics. Hit where it hurts most. Reward them when they do well. And they WILL learn. Eventually. And that's the whole point of homework.

Do you check the homework after they claimed they finished it off? Noooooo... DON'T!

Let them do their own corrections if it's wrong. Let them know they have double work if they finish off their homework half-heartedly. Punish them even harder if they lied or forgot there was another page to do. Had to make them learn whole. Not halfway. Have to keep repeating the same exercise if they lax again. Hard work pays off, I assure you. And the sweetness WILL follow after the bitter is done with.

How about ting-seah, ejaan, spelling and other short tests in class? Need to prepare them to make sure they get 100 marks not? Is that really so necessary? Will they get smarter if their marks are all fullhouse? Will they lead a good life and make a good living because of that?

To me, it's also responsibility. You don't do your own study, you don't get good marks la. You want to feel proud of yourself, then just do your own revision la.

I have meimei's English teacher asking me, during the parent-teacher's meeting at half year, to make sure she learns her spellings every week. Tell you, till now, I didn't bother. OK, so in her recent test, she couldn't score in that question to write out the 4 shapes drawn out there, so? She scored in other parts. Oh yes, it was a pity, but does not being able to spell rectangle, triangle, square and circle would make her find a job lesser than what a teacher gets paid?

It does not impress me that your child can write A to Z when he's 3, that your child has 100% in ALL ting-seah at 4, or that your child is the top student in the whole grade either for every year. It does not impress me when they can't even do their own homework by themselves, do any research on projects given, study at their own will without any prompting or tuitions and having absolutely no idea what to do when the parents are not around to tell them what to do.

And worse still, they do not know how to laugh and enjoy themselves. Pathetic. Such childhood robbed!

The other day, I have a meimei's classmate's mother ranting to me how poorly her child performed in the 2nd test compared to the first. Aiyoh!! She is sooooo worried that her BM Penulisan had dropped to 70+! (And I was thinking, oh dear, meimei got 69 only wor, why I wasn't that bothered huh? Something wrong with me ah?)

Come on la, primary 1 only nia. Need to drill them to know everything not? So early jiao so pressure, waffor? Heiz... I have nothing to say liao.

Having said all that, this is not to say I'm not taking their studies seriously. Yes, they should strive to get good marks. Help them if and when they have problems. Like, if they are struggling with a subject or do not understand what the word or phrase of topic means, assist them. But assistance shouldn't be forming a highway without any obstacles for them to clear while providing a magic carpet to reach the endpoint. It's the journey, not the destination (which is really quite a cliche, I admit)

I'm so going to piss off many parents from this essay of mine!