Winter 2016 : Language theraphy

I went to my sons' school to discuss on the Council's language therapy session for my kids. I decided to sign them up for the intervention to help them with listening, grammar, vocabulary, social language and question skills in English.

Winter 2016 : Nazmi's first day

It was Nazmi's first day attending supplementary school on Saturday.

His class ends early, so we went to the library together because I want to borrow a few books.

We had a blast eating and waiting for Papa in the cold. Papa picked up abang-abang first, before he came for us.

Winter 2016 : Malaysian breakfast at SKMM

Usual scene on Saturday mornings at Abraham Moss High School cafeteria.

We had Malaysian breakfast with our kids, who are attending Saturday supplementary school, Sekolah Komuniti Malaysia Manchester (SKMM). Malaysian community around Manchester will come here and sell Malaysian delicacies at this 'Kedai Kopi Malaysia'.  

Libyan also runs their supplementary school here on weekends. It is a good exposure for the students to mingle around with others of different nationality every week. We love to buy sandwiches made by a very nice Libyan lady.

Winter 2016 : Nabil joined football training

We received this letter in November and thought that it is good to let Nabil join the football team. We are in Manchester kan.... a city famous for football, so why not?

They got meal sponsored by famous sports brand (I cant remember, Nike? or Adidas?) on Tuesdays and trained by experienced footballer.

This is an experience that Nabil couldnt get somewhere else. Alhamdulillah.

Winter 2016 : Nazmi at abangs' school

Lost and found boxes at the school hall.

Winter 2016 : Borrowing books

After the Maulidur Rasul celebration, we went to the local library, register the kids as a member and borrow some books. Their teachers said they need to read more, so I asked them to choose and borrow 8 books each - the maximum allowed for 2 weeks. They were excited to use the self-checkout machine at the library (well, I did as well when I first borrowed books from my university library!).

Look at those I-dont-want-to-read-8-books faces. LOL!

Winter 2015 : Maulidur Rasul celebration in Manchester

There were built up events on Saturdays before the main Maulidur Rasul celebration in Malaysian supplementary school in Manchester. The kids participated in poster and card design competitions, learned about the Prophet Muhammad, watch educational movies and learned the selawat. 

On the real day, they participated in nasyid competition and Maulidur Rasul quiz. And they bring home a lot of present from the competitions and quiz. Well done! 

Our first photo in baju kurung and baju melayu together, taken in front of our house. It was freezing cold outside!

Winter 2016 : Meet the teacher - Nazran

It was too, a pleasant session. We were the last one. I purposely wait until the last minutes so we can chat with the teacher longer :) 

 The workbooks:

His classroom. They have a huge touch screen TV in front of the class. The students always watch educational videos before they went home, or while waiting for the parents to pick them up.

 

Nazran didnt have to bring any stationery or book to the class. No bag as well. Since he is in Year 2, he is entitled to get free healthy snack and dinner (lunch). It was a fun year for him. For me as well, to see him really enjoy attending school without any bag.

Winter 2016 : Meet the teacher - Nabil

A few days after a meeting with Nazreen's teacher, it is Nabil's turn.

It was really impressive to see him art work being displayed at the gallery. Our discussion was around his artwork especially his history of Manchester project. He also has a lot of reading and catching up to do.

They learned about Earth and Space this term. They designed a space buggy.

Nabil's design:

These are the report in his book:

They also learned about Ancient Mayans this semester. I was surprised to know about this. This is a very good exposure for their age!

Nabil's ancient Mayans' mural made it to the gallery:

I am proud to see the comment by the teacher in his book. It is really good to know that they actually record everything, every artwork (scanned and printed), in the workbook. 

The kids will have a very good memory of the school, their teachers, friends and their study when they came back to Malaysia this year.

Winter 2016 : Meet the teacher - Nazreen

It was a pleasant session to discuss about Nazreen's progress with his beautiful teacher. Although he has a serious catching up to do (due to the difference between Malaysian & UK syllabus), but Nazreen is progressing well. He needs to read more.

Winter 2015 : Waiting for Nazran at school

Cant stop admiring these games on the tarmac. Great idea to keep the students occupied during their break.

 

Winter 2015 : The history of Manchester project

During the Christmas break, while Nazreen was working with his Anglo-Saxon project, Nabil was busy doing research on Manchester. He need to prepare an informative model on Manchester. I was thinking about an A3 card which opens like a window but Nabil has better idea. He want it to be 3D!

The only problem was... we have no box. haha.

And suddenly, somebody knocked on our door and....our ikan kering (dried salted fish) and ikan bilis arrived from Malaysia!! The parcel was sent by my family. 

I was excited to get the ikan kering, I fried it right away! We ate it while chatting with my parent via Skype. But Nabil was excited for different reason. He got the box!

Nabil starts to gather recyclables around the house for his project. 

I helped him to shape the box into suitable size we filled it with recyclables according to our agreed design.

We covered the recyclables properly. It started to take a form.

Then, Nabil took it from there. He covered the box with coloured papers and add in some 'grass', where he will positioned the famous peoples.

After that, Nabil added in information on Manchester, historical timeline, famous person from Manchester (we made a quick trip to Curry's to buy a printer for this purpose) and map of Manchester. He trace the Manchester map from my laptop screen since we didnt have a printer yet. Talk about hardwork and creativity!

 

The finished project! He stick the printed famous people onto a cardboard, cut them then taped them to ice cream sticks. The sticks were then inserted into the foam underneath. Now you know why we put some layers of foam in the photo up there.

He wrapped the box with wrapping paper and add in leftover studs from Nazreen's project.

He was extremely happy and proud with the outcome. He made it in four days. He was invited to show his project to the school assembly. His teacher told me that Nabil's project is really good during the parent-teacher meeting. Alhamdulillah.

Winter 2015 : Anglo Saxon shield - first and second attempt

Nazreen will learn about Anglo-Saxon this term. Anglo-Saxon is a group of people who inhibit Great Britain since 5th century. Nazreen has a list of Anglo Saxon-related project to complete over the holiday and he chose to do an Anglo Saxon shield.

I browsed through some websites and I found out that their shield is massive (photos below). The Anglo-Saxon shield is characterised by a small dome made of steel fixed to the centre of the shield. I had a few Alice modes on how to plan that part. Nazreen chose the red and blue design (below, right).

Since we didnt have any huge material to construct the shield, Plan A, I asked my husband to bring us to the nearest supermarket to get some big boxes. They usually gathered the boxes near the electrical items aisle after they unpack their products. Unfortunately, when we arrived, they have brought everything out and the recyclables was just collected by the lorry +_+

Therefore, Plan B. I plan to construct a papier-mâché shield. My husband bought aluminum pie pans for Plan C, should our papier-mache project failed ;p 

Determined, we starts the project once we got home. We use the largest stainless steel tray in the house.

We manage to do 20 layers before we ran out of glue. My mom was on Skype all the way, scanning for areas which require more glue or more paper. She loves arts and crafts just like we do. 

I use a plastic ice blended drink cover for the 'steel' dome element. I stuffed it with newspapers and taped it to a board. It turned out great :)

We use the portable heater to dry it.

Well, I am proud to say that it is unsuccessful because we ran out of glue. We need more glue so the papers could hold the weight of the massive shield. However, I applaud the effort put by my kids for this experiment :) Although it failed, it was a time well-spent with the kids. I went straight to my laptop to do my essays afterwards. lol.

Winter 2015 : After the Christmas concert

Nazmi enjoying himself in Nazran's school gym.

 Nazran in his class and reading corner.

Winter 2015 : Christmas break

We went to Nabil's and Nazreen's Christmas performances. Their school didnt allowed students to be photographed in the school compound/during any event, so we just went there and watched. No photograph whatsoever.

 The next day, we went to Nazran's Christmas concert.

UK schools always have interesting programs a week before the school break/half term. And I really enjoy attending every one of them!

My friends were travelling around the world during this break. But, we choose to stay at home :)

Me and my husband strongly feel that it is just not right to spend the government allowance for travelling. The people's money is meant to ease our life in the UK (house rent, food, books, bus ticket to the campus), not to be spend on entertainment and travels. I use my saving for entertainment purposes (buy TV, toys for the kids).

Plus, I have to complete three final essays and helped my kids with their homework and projects. So our Christmas break was pretty occupied :) I didnt have the privilege to spend 247 with my family at home in Malaysia. So staying home during this long break is perfect!

Fall 2015 : Cooking session at school

Before the half-term, we were invited to Nabil and Nazreen's school. They are having a cooking session and parents could taste their kids' cooking at 3pm.

We went to the school hall at 3. Nazreen's class bake Banana Magic cake. It tastes sooooo good, even for people who didnt eat banana (me!) It is gone within a few minutes. The kids taking their time to prepare the handwritten menu, as nice as possible for parents who wants to try the recipe at home. I bring home different recipes from all classes.

Then, we taste Nabil's Salad Lettuce Mango. He prepared the mango. I love it very much! It has different texture and variety of taste from different types of fruits.

We also taste sandwiches, pumpkin soup and soft bread from other classes.

Fall 2015 : Nice puzzles on the tarmac

I love how they drew the puzzles/games on the tarmac at Nazran's school!

It keeps Nazmi occupied while waiting for Nazran to finish his class and of course, keeps the students occupied during their break!

We need to send Nazran to his classroom and pick him up from his teacher, at his classroom, every single day. The school did not allowed Year 1 and 2 students to walk out without being accompanied by their parent.

Fall 2015 : The Golden Ticket

Nabil and Nazreen received this ticket a few times. Good boys!