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.
Do everything together and share everything (in this case,
the warm blanket).
And sleep together.
They can talk and laugh together for hours before they sleep. We usually make sure the lights out by 9.30 - 10pm because we dont want any trouble with the Council.
I ordered some stuff from eBay and get them to send to Argos
for me to pick later. Since I am in the campus most of the time and my husband is
busy running errands and managing the kids, so we might not be home when the
Royal Mail guy came.
It is truly convenient to be able to choose where to pick up
the stuff we bought online, at our own time. I chose Argos at the Manchester
Fort Shopping Park as I also ordered some perfume and men’s stuff for my husband at online Boots store. Argos have allocated special collection point for eBay orders.
I told my husband that I just need a while to pick up some
stuff at Boots (and pray hard that we will not follow). He decided to wait in the car as it was cold outside. I emptied my backpack earlier and put the books at the
backseat. He didn’t notice. I glad I did that because the boxes are
massive!
That night, we blew some balloons for papa while he was
sleeping, then we surprised him with a loud birthday song and showered him with
a lot of birthday presents and kisses!!
Nazran borrowed this book from the library. The ABC to Z refer to everything unique about the UK, for example, A is for Arthur (as in the King Arthur), B for Beetles (the band), G for the Giant Causeway (in the Northern Ireland). For each letter, I will find some videos (about King Arthur, the Beetles, etc) and watched them together with Nazran so he can learn more about the UK. Night time is loooong in the winter so we read a lot to kill time.
When he arrive at the letter L, he said he cant pronounce the word. I asked him to try harder (I was washing the dishes and I didnt look at the book). He tried but still, he said it was too hard. I asked him to spell it. He did but I stopped him halfway because I think he was not making any sense. Until I look at the page.... then I understand his struggle.
Cool, isnt it?! Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogochis a large village in the Wales. It means - Parish [church] of [St.] Mary (Llanfair) [in] Hollow (pwll) of the White Hazel [township] (gwyn gyll) near (go ger) the rapid whirlpool (y chwyrn drobwll) [and] the parish [church] of [St.] Tysilio (Llantysilio) with a red cave ([a]g ogo[f] goch) (Wikipedia). It is the longest place name in the UK and one of the longest in the world :)
Now, let's learn how to pronounce it!
It is surprising how much you can learn from a simple book of ABC!!!
It was January 2016 and finally I had a free time (and extra money) for our sons' birthday party. Nabil and Nazran was born in December and Nazmi was born in February. First, to get things going, I designed the birthday invite. I just invited a few close friends.
It is going to be Nabil's 10th birthday, Nazran's 7th and Nazmi's 3rd. Good age combination. Those numbers (10, 7, 3) fit into the BIR7HDAY C3LEBRAT10N!! On Friday, January 29, the day we welcomed Storm Gertrude to the UK, after sending off the kids to school, we went to get some presents for them and ingredients for the main menu and desserts.(Northern UK was the most impacted, but we still get the strong wind)
The night before, after they went to bed, we hung the birthday bunting, pump some balloons and wrap their presents. We keep a few blankets ready to cover everything should any one of them came down to get some water (they did that sometimes, in the middle of the night).
They will get the light sabers they were asking for quite sometimes, books, stationery and some cool clothes. None of them knew we planned this party. We cant wait to see their faces in the morning! Waking up to the house full of balloons :)
The next morning, YUP, as we expected, they were cheering and laughing and running around the house in joy once they went downstairs and saw all the deco. As I was preparing the chicken rice, they helped me to spread the chocolate topping on the cake I baked the night before and topped it with a few packs of M&M.
25% of the M&M went into their mouth but I just pretended that I didnt see a thing.
Kid's book in the UK is a huge industry by itself. They have a lot of renowned kids' book writers, good books and interesting graphic. Some of the books has also been a textbook for my sons' class. This is something that I would like to venture in one day.
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!
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!
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.
Our neighbours asked us to join them to the Heaton Park (a large park with hills covered with snows and you can sledge there) at 7am but I need to study. I am one day away from my final exam.
Kids are having fun around the house, playing with what's left from yesterday's evening. So it doesnt matter if we dont go to the Heaton Park. Nazran went inside after 10 minutes because he cant stand the cold.
It was really hard to roll the snow to make a huge ball. I gave up half way. It was painfully cold working with a wet snow. Someone wore my snow gloves and I ended up with thin wool gloves. It got wet pretty quick.
They made these. They rolled the snowball at other area with thick snow and put the parts together in front of our house. I have a bowl of warm water ready for them if their fingers started to feel painfully cold.
The snowmen were still standing later that day (and the next day). I keep checking every 10 minutes because I was studying by the window. I saw passers-by took photographs and selfies with these snowmen. lol.
....and everybody ran out the door. Extremely happy to see and touch snow for the first time.
We were on Skype, chatting with my parent when Nazran asked me what are those white thing falling down outside. It took me almost 20 seconds to digest. Leaves falling? Autumn is over. Bugs? No bugs flying in the winter. Kids throwing confetti outside? Maybe. Hmmm... or maybe it is a big raindrop? ice? SNOW??
It is snow, alright.
We just spent a few minutes outside. It was freezing cold.
Alhamdulillah the snow is sticking. At 8pm, it is getting thicker. We gave a chance for the kids to go out and play with the snow. We spend less then 10 minutes outside. No one can stand the cold so I asked them to bring the snow inside. haha.
At 11pm, we went out again. It was a pure joy seeing them running around, having a snowball fight (well, it wasnt fun to be the target) and giggling.
We bought a carpet for the living room last week. We have a laminated floor so it is extremely cold in winter. We cant even step on it especially in the evening if we dont put on our slippers.
We need more stuff to keep us warm. So we bought a carpet for our bedroom (GBP9), some throws (GBP5 each) for the sofa in the living room, TV cabinet (GBP9) and other small stuff. The current currency exchange (RM to GBP) made the prices of these similar items are more expensive than IKEA Malaysia.
As usual, there will be some by-products made during or after the art projects using the leftovers. From box leftover, Nazran made a helmet to complement his new shield. They also made stick figures using ice cream sticks from Nabil's famous people.
Kids are creative. They can make anything if you give them chance to imagine and explore.
While studying about Anglo-Saxon, Nazreen also learned about the Vikings. He made this cute Viking helmet at school.
Oh yes, for your information, there were no horns in the actual Viking helmet. My brother told me after I shared this photo. You can read more here - Did Vikings really wear horned helmets?
Thank you Papa for having the strategic thinking (the papier-mache is going to fail ;p). So, we are now constructing the shield with the aluminum pie pans *sigh* They are too small *sigh*. My husband told me not to be too serious with the whole size thing. lol. Nazreen doesnt mind making small shield, so, we just proceed with the SMALL pie pans.
Nazreen cut an A3 papers into two semi-circles. He painted each paper with red and blue paint. Leave it dry for a while. Then, he put a good amount of glue on the bottom of the pie pan and stick the red and blue papers.
Then, I helped him to stick a grey duct tape in between to make it looks neat. We leave it for a night, while I am endlessly in Alice Mode, thinking how to make the small steel dome in the centre and studs around the shield (click here to see shield design chosen by Nazreen). Baubles came to my mind!
We went out the next day to buy baubles. It was Christmas and there were baubles everywhere, some of them are shiny and steel-like. I also found a suitable embellishment to act as the studs. I bought both for GBP1 each. Yay!
So, here is the excited Nazreen. My husband helped him to cut the bauble into half. It was hard. The first attempt by end up with miserable chipped dome. Luckily we have 8 baubles. lol. The following attempt came out okay (not that good, still chipped but not that obvious).
Nazreen stick it in the centre and started to put on the 'metal studs'. And he continues with smaller studs around the shield.
Meanwhile, I helped him with the holder using fabric and kitchen tissue roll on another pie pan. And finally, Nazreen pasted both pie pans together (his beautifully embellished shield front and another pie pan with holder).
IT TURNED OUT REALLLLLLY GREAT!!!!!!! He even offered Nazran some helps afterwards because Nazran wants an Anglo-Saxon shield too!
This was a very adventurous project. A very good break from my final essays. Bring it on!!!
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.
