Zara could read, phonatically. However, she takes time to read simple sight words like their, my, we etc. I do not know what reading level children her age should be at, but I’d seen her friends in the same age group (from school, from her music calss) reading phrases with difficult words effortlessly. If I used that as a bench mark, then we’re in trouble.

I thought I’ll do something about it.

Normally in the evening, I try to spend about 30minutes with Zara, helping her with her keyboard pieces, her Chinese, her maths, and English writing or reading. Most of the time she’ll protest having to do more work (on top of her school homework).

So since last week, I thought I’ll start a reward system. Every day, if she’s done well with her extra homework from me, she gets a star. And each star is RM1. She can cash out the money at any time to buy anything she wanted. When this was first introduced, she already had things in mind that she wanted to buy. A pair of sun glasses (30 stars) and a helium balloon (30 stars).

Since the introduction of the reward system, daily, before we read her her bed time story, she’ll proactively ask me to choose the book for her to read; she’ll try to read phonetically, and I’ll help her with the difficult words. For passages which she struggled to read, I will ask her to re-read them the following day to familiarise herself with the words she found difficult.

After slightly more than a week of doing this, I could see her reading has improved a lot! She’s more familiar with the sight words, and getting better with her phonics.

These are the books I used for her reading.

Zaria seeing her sister getting stickers and all, wanted to participate too. She’ll ask me to pick a book for her to read too. Being younger, I’ll do most of the reading, but I’ll ask her to read words that are 3 or 4 letters which are spelled phonetically.

Some days, I got her to spell out the words she has read too, and she could. This was one of her ‘spelling’. She got the D written wrongly in AND, so she wrote again; and she tried a few times before she got the tricky S in STOP right.

I gave them each a ‘sticker passport’ (just A4 paper folded into 4), and their rewards are pasted on the ‘passport’. Rewards come from reading mainly, but I also give them a star if they are able to spell, do some sums, or behave extremely well.

Each day, after getting their stickers, they will count the total, and Zara woud do a count down, “20 more stickers and I can get my sunglasses.”

And Zaria told me yesterday after getting her 11th stickers, “I’m going to the shop to find something with 11 (dollars) on the label.” 🙂

Since Flower mummy likes doses of the girls’ talking, so here is another one. 🙂

I was trying to tie 2 plaits for Zara one day, and after trying a few rounds, I found her right plait is always thicker than the left.
So I asked, “How come your hair one side is thicker than the other?”
She replied, “I think that’s my birth defect mum.”
o.O”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Her hair is getting thicker, as she gets older, so I commented on it.
She said, “I think my hair is splitting into two. One becomes two. That’s why my hair is bushier.”
😛

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There was a thunderstorm brewing and Zara was looking up into the sky.
“I think the white clouds and the black clouds are having a fight. If the white clouds win, then it’ll be bright. If the black clouds win, it’ll be dark.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One day, when I was facebooking, she saw some photos my colleague tagged me, that photos were group photos taken on one of my work trip in Singapore.
“Mum, is that photo taken on your field trip?”
o.O”
I guess you can say so..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I was talking about trips I saw parents took without their kids, and I pretended to sulk and told the girls, “Everybody goes on a holiday without their children. Everybody, except your mummy. I’m going to plan for a holiday without you girls. I want to go some where ALONE.”

Zara said, “You are an animal, and we’re the animal keeper. We’ll watch over you and make sure you don’t escape. Hahaha..”

I continued, “Even you. You go on field trips without mummy and your daddy. Why can’t I go on a holiday without you?”

Zara quickly defended herself, “That one is not planned by me ok. That’s something that my teacher planned, and you allowed us to go.”

o.O”

I havent’s started sex education at home with the girls yet, except the below few points :
1) You have to get married to have babies
2) tell me if someone stroke them or touch their private parts (Daddy also cannot, Aunty also cannot, their school teachers also cannot, not even their friends, etc etc.)

Here are some conversations with Zara, which is so innocent.

I talked to her about original sin, baptise and baptism.
She asked : What is baptism?
Me : Baptism is the ceremony of getting baptised. Just like if you get married, what is the ceremony? Wedding right?
Zara : Yah. So what happened if I don’t get baptised?
Me : (already told her about original sin, so I thought I’ll tell her what she can’t do if she’s not baptised)Then if you get married next time, you cannot have your wedding in the church.
Zara : Never mind, I can have my wedding in the restaurant.
Me : Normally, you don’t have your wedding in the restaurant. You throw a party after your wedding, and it’s held in a restaurant. You don’t get married in the restaurant.
Zara : Oh….I know. The real real wedding is in the hospital.
Me : Huh?
Zara : You get married already, then you have baby, then you go to the hospital to take out the baby. So your real real wedding is in the hospital right?

o.O”
I had to tell her doesn’t mean once you get married you’ll have a baby, and I told her our story of waiting for her for so long (well, not the whole story, but the waiting and finally having her).

She went “oooooh….” but don’t know if she really understood it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes when we share a toilet, they will check my panty to see if I was getting my period.
“Oh… you are not having your period. But how come you got pus in your petpet?”
o.O”
“It’s discharge, not pus!” I have to tell them.
It’s rather embarassing if they said that out loud in the public toilet.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On another day, Zara told me she felt a pain in her private area and she might have ‘pus’. We waited till we got home so I could check what happened to her.
Upon checking, I found that it’s just because we were out the whole day, and she’s just a little dirty down there so I washed her and told her she would be fine.
Me : How come you don’t know your pain is caused by your petpet being dirty?
Zara : I don’t know because my teacher never teach me in school.
o.O”
And then, she thought of something really funny and she started giggling.
Zara : My teacher cannot teach me in school also. Hahahahaha.. Because if they teach me, then they’ll have to say the word ‘petpet’. Hahahahaha..
Zara : How can teacher said the word ‘petpet’.. Hahahaha..
o.O”
I told her they don’t have to use the word petpet to teach her, they can say ‘private part’. But then, normally teachers don’t teach them about such things.

Wait till it’s time for me to tell her the real truth about how a baby is made. Maybe I can write a blog post and give her the link. o.O”

If you are my Facebook friend, you might have seen my status asking for ideas how to handle the 2 Duracell Bunnies I have at home.

The two weeks school holidays started this Monday, I’m getting stressed staying at home whole day with the girls, who has no where to spend their energy.

The Duracell Bunnies (the girls) out lived all the other bunnies (the parents) with their long lasting energy.

On Monday, they finished watching 3 DVDs by lunch time.

Fully charged up (since I guess watching TV turns your imagination wild and you don’t really use much energy just sitting there), they started moving little furniture around the study and arranged them into some sort of adventure land. Where they could crawl under stools, hopped walked from furniture to furniture and see who won’t fall off.

After their naps (both still take a nap in the afternoon), they were playing a little, but most of the time squabling. So they took turns to come upstairs to lodge their complaints. “Maa, jiejie snatch my things, punish her!” “Maaaa, Zaria drew a line on my drawing!” yada yada yada.

By the time I finished work, the study, the living room, the play room were in a mess. Thank God I have Jelly to do the clean up. (Although I did scream at the kids to get them to tidy up a bit, but they did a sloppy job)

It was a gloomy day, so nobody was in the play ground, and the girls didn’t want to be there. Again no ‘exercise’.

After dinner, they played in the room while I did some bread baking and Daddy took a shower. I heard all the giggling upstairs, so I went to check on them.

They were probably playing some dame in distress game. Zaria used the rubbish bin as the stepping stool, climbed up to her chest of drawers (~100cm), then she jumped down. Zara was moving a big pillow on the ground, trying to cushion Zaria’s fall. o.O”

I don’t know how many times they’d done the jumping and catching game, but I immediately screamed and told them to STOP! Told them how dangerous it was. Both looked at me with dissapointment, as though I’d thrown a wet blanket on them.

Reading, doing some spy games, more reading, and at 12am, they were still so energised, but we just turned off the lights, and went to sleep. Don’t know who fell asleep first, they or us.

On Tuesday, same routine. After breakfast, DVD watching again. I brought them out for lunch, and got them to do some running outside the shops.

When we got back home, they didn’t seem to be tired. Started pillow fighting, and stopped only when Zara’s pillow hit Zaria so hard, she knocked herself on the corner of the table. *faint*

More shouting and screaming (from me), and finally got them to take their naps. This time, I limit it to 1hr.

When they got up, asked Jelly to do body painting with them. Which occupied them for an hour, and they were so proud of their artwork (most of it done by Jelly though).

When I finshed work, brought them to the play ground. Held a race and made them compete with their friends. After dinner, Daddy brought them out for ice cream and took them to some indoor play ground.

When they got home, I took over, showered and brushed their teeth and then did reading with them, and there wasn’t any more jumping around in the room. By 11pm, Zaria climbed up the bed and said “I’m going to sleep already.” Yee Har!

Lights out at 11:30pm, we all slept. Did better on 2nd day.

There’s still 8 more weekdays to go.. Have to find ways to tire these two Duracell Bunnies! (and I didn’t sign them up from any camps or holiday programs. Sigh)

One day we talked about death.
Zara : I think it’s better for me to die first than for you to die first.
Me : Why do you say that?
Zara : Because I love you so much, I think I’ll be too sad if you die first.
Me : But I’m older than you, so I will most likely die first. I’ll be happy if I can live till I’m able to see you grow up, get married and have children.
Zara : Then you must stay healthy. Until you cannot take it any more, then you die.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I scolded Zaria for spilling milk on the coffee table, and while I was cleaning up the mess. I heard the below conversation.
Zaria : Jie, I don’t care about mummy any more.
Zara : You must care about mummy.
Zaria : Because mummy scold me, jie.
Zara : It’s ok. She’s your mummy. You don’t (won’t) know how to behave yourself if mummy don’t scold you. And you don’t (won’t) know what is right or wrong.

It’s sweet of Zara to advice Zaria so wisely.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

There’s Parents’ Day celebration at the girls’ school, the school had each class made the same gift to their parents. A vase with flowers for the mothers, and a mug for the fathers.

Me : How come the gifts are the same?
Zara : Because mei mei and I love you the same.
Me : (to tease Zaria) How can it be the same.. mei mei always said don’t want to friend me. Don’t want to care about me. You never say that.
Zara : When we are angry, we behave different(ly), but we love you the same.

Always so wise.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ MUAKS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

We’d done quite a fair bit of travelling in the car during the long weekend, going here and there. Being stuck in the car with two boisterous chatterboxes for many hours requires a lot of patience, which I have not.

In the car, Daddy and I tried to plan for a get-away during the coming school holidays but constantly got interupted by the girls, for the smallest things, such as the below :

Zaria: Maa. Maaa. Maaaa. (Girls call me either ‘ma’, ‘mummy’ or ‘mum’)
Me : huh?
Zaria: Do you know what is kolam? It’s pond.
Me : Hm.

Zara : Maa. Maaa..
Me : huh?
Zara : I love you, you know.
Me : Hm.

Zara : Maa. Maaa..
Me : huh?
Zara : You know I can sing well.
Me : Hm.

Zaria: Maa. Maaa.
Me : huh?
Zaria: Jiejie teased me. You scold jiejie.
Me : Jie….

Zaria: Maa. Maaa. Maaaa.
(if still no answer from me) Mummy!!! Mom!!! Why you talked to jiejie but you’re not talking to me?
Me : Ok, what?
Zaria: Just now I saw a red car.
Me : (loosing patience) Oh kayyyyyyyyy

So after like 100 rounds of the above.
Me : Girls! Girls…….! Can you girls stop interrupting? I can’t even have a decent conversation with your Daddy.

All quiet… for like 15 seconds.

Zara : Maa. Maaa..
Me : *annoyed* WHAT???!!!!!
Zara : You are not having a conversation now, so can I talk?
*faint*

Daddy intervened : Can the two of you just sit back and relax?
Zaria: I cannot relax. I cannot feel anything.
Daddy : You are not supposed to feel anything. You are supposed to relax.
Zaria: But I cannot feel anything.
*faint*

Zara : Maa. Maaa..
Me : What NOW??!!
Zara : I think you are gumpy because you are having your period. (so they know, because I asked them to help get me sanitory pads from the cupboard)
Zara : When is your period going to be over?
o.O”

And Daddy said he feels like bringing the girls to Terengganu during the holidays. Imagine the looooong drive.

Last week, Daddy had the TV on after dinner to watch the Thomas Cup live telecast.
Zara : Dad, I want to watch my DVD.
Daddy : Daddy wants to watch badminton.
Zara : But I want to watch my show.
Daddy didn’t reply, eyes glued to TV.
Zara : *upset* Even my own Ah Kong let me watch Sponge Bob in Karen yiyi’s house!
(My dad who monopolises the TV in my sister’s place, allowed the girls to watch Sponge Bob from 7pm to 8pm on Astro every time we were there. Well, he didn’t have a choice. The girls begged and begged with all their PLEAAASSSSE, until he gave in.)
There’ll be more to come, when World Cup season starts!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When dining out, despite having her own seat, Zaria loves squeezing her butt on our chair midway through dinner.
One of these occasions, I told her off, “Go and sit on your own chair!”
She raised her voice, frowned and said, “But we’re a family right? We should sit together!”
o.O”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When we’re home, Jelly is the one who bathes the girls. But when we were at my sister’s, I did the bathing while Jelly did the dishes.
One day when were at my sister’s, I was at the computer working, and Zaria came and asked me, “Mum, you bath me now.”
I told her, “Later, mummy finish mummy’s work first.”
She frowned and said, “You can bath me first right? Then you can finish your work right?”
Clever to reason now, I see.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When the girls go downstairs, they like to jump from the fourth step before the landing to the ground, and laugh every time they did it.
I was worried that an accident will happen, so I gave them a lecture, ending with something like that, “You all think it’s fun huh? Wait till an accident happen. If it’s so bad, you have to be on wheel chairs forever. Next time if I saw who did it, I’ll bring out my big fat juicy cane to cane the person.”
Girls were silent.
I asked Zara, “Zara, do you understand what I just said?”
Zara was a bit upset with the lecturing, and replied, “You also did it last time right?” (I told her when I was young, I jumped once from the cupboard and sprained my ankle)
“You also didn’t listen to your mummy right? And it’s fun right?”
o.O”
I had to explain, I know it’s fun to jump like that, if they like jumping, we can bring them to Jungle gym or Kids Sport to jump on trampoline. Jumping like that is too dangerous, and I cannot let them do it, just in case they get hurt.
Since then, nobody did the jumping any more except on trampoline and well padded flour.

Zara was being picky during dinner, she didn’t want to eat the fish, didn’t want to eat the vege, only wanted to eat rice with soup.

Daddy said, “Wait till I send you to the desert.”
Zara put down her chopstick, glared at Daddy, and said very slowly “If you want to send me to the desert, you better send me tonite. I’ll pack my bags and go.”
o.O” <-- Daddy and I went I chipped in, “Your daddy is just kidding.”
Zara continued to glare at Daddy and said, “You don’t really mean it right??”
“If you say one more time, then I’m OFF.”
o.O” <-- Daddy and I went Daddy asked, “Off where?”
Zara clarified slowly, “Leave. The. House.”

Five year old already like that. Fifteen year old that time how huh?

The little one, didn’t like what Daddy said too, so she frowned and told Daddy, “Dad you are speaking nonsense.” and refused to speak to him afterwards.

o.O”