Well done, son!

I've never heard of UNSW Global before my son told me he wanted to take part in an assessment offered by Education Assessment Australia (EAA), a wholly owned enterprise of the University of New South Wales.

In view that he's in a public school, I encouraged him to take the assessment in order to compare his standards with students from various types of school.

I am indeed happy with his result. He scored a distinction which stated that his English writing is "better than 96 per cent of Form 2 students in Malaysia". The areas which he didn't do well were highlighted behind the result slip. Oh ya, a certificate is given too!

Since young my son was an avid reader. He has a flair for language & good in Bahasa Malaysia too. Now I wish he can put in more effort in his Chinese subject which I "force" him to continue studying. Son, I'm very sure you can do it if you put in more effort!

Her way to avoid punishment

According to my 9 yr old daughter, her Chinese subject teacher is extremely strict. He's very particular about getting things right. Those who do not write nicely, or wrongly count the strokes of the Chinese characters will be punished. Initially she was very worried about it.

So far, my little girl was only punished once & that was many months ago. I wonder how she can get away with it because I'm sure it's hard for kids not to make mistakes from time to time.

She told me, "Because I distract him with what I wrote."

Being curious, I checked her exercise book. I was truly very impressed with what I saw & wonder where she got the idea from.

(click to enlarge)

Her note to the teacher:

"Note: I think you said 承is 7 畫 when we're discussing 生字，but 筆順says it's 8畫。It's different! I don't know which is right! If my 生字wrong then I'll get punished, and if my 筆順wrong I will get punished too!"

** "生字" is another exercise book for students to write new words

**"筆順" is the exercise book shown above

WOW! What a brave and clever girl who dares to speak up!

And guess what's her very serious and strict teacher's response...

He gave her an "A", plus a remarks - "I'll find out. Don't worry!". Oh ya, it comes with a cute smiley face too! *wink*

Since than, she will "distract" her teacher with questions such as the followings:

My daughter : "Is it good?"

Her teacher : "not bad" + "A"

My daughter : "Is it OK? Best Writing Critic?"

OMG! "Best Writing Critic"??!! I'm afraid she has got carried away. Her teacher may find her impolite even though she was just trying to be funny.

Her teacher gave her an "A" but without any additional remarks.

I told her not to overdo it. However, I do praise her for having the courage to ask and fight for her right. Luckily she has a strict but understanding teacher :-)

Why is dad the only one who can read the newspaper??!!

My youngest daughter showed me her essay paper. She wrote 4 paragraphs based on picture sequence and keywords given.

(click to enlarge)

Based on Picture 2 and keywords : 人山人海 crowded/jam-packed with people ，迫不及待 can't wait，換泳衣 change to swimwear，拾貝殼 pick seashell

She wrote : "That place was very crowded. We're very excited. My brother and I couldn't wait to change into our swimwear. We plunged into the water and played happily. My sister picked various type of seashells. My mother was listening to music and reading newspaper under a big tree."

I'm happy that my daughter was creative and added in her own thoughts and sentences, especially about ME listening to music and reading paper.

Unfortunately, the word "Mother" was circled by her male teacher, and he wrote "father?"

Why??!!!!! Don't mothers have the right to read newspaper and listen to music too??!!!

What a discrimination!!!!

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My friend holds a high post in the corporate world but at home he's a dedicated father and husband. He loves to cook for his family on weekends. So, it's not surprising that his daughter wrote "爸爸在煮飯，媽媽在看報紙。” (Daddy is cooking, and mommy is reading the newspaper.) His wife is a corporate lady.

Oh ya, even my friend's mom praised him (in front of me & his wife ) ,"他入得廚房，出得廳堂。" Usually this is used to praise a WOMAN who's very good in running the household and also very presentable & capable.

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Hello teacher, the world has changed :-)

The not so fun part of childhood...

Tomorrow is the last day of UPSR. I know my daughter can't wait for it to end (and so do I).

She loves to draw & read story books but sometimes spends too much time on those activities instead of preparing for this "important" exam. I know at times she's frustrated when I nag her to study.

The following are extracted from her drawing book (with her permission).

The birthday of a great photographer... my dad

Today is the birthday of my beloved dad. Just skyped and wished him a happy birthday an hour ago.

Looking through my old albums, I couldn't thank dad enough for taking so many photos of me when I was young.

Mom's sister married dad's brother and in total there're 7 kids in the family... we're closed knitted and grew up in a shop house. I was mom and dad's first born, but there're 3 cousins who're older than me. So, I'm no. 4 in the family.

Mom said I was a happy baby. How could I not be happy when I have such a happy childhood?

"bao bao" 抱抱...

A cool baby...

I love this photo... as if I can hear the laughter of 2 happy girls (me & my cousin).

"Ha ha ha... don't be joking...you mean I'm gonna own a public listed company one day?! ha ha ha... you must be joking..."

Another addition to our family when my younger cousin was born. Who'd expect that cry baby would one day have a very good career (and a love for LV bags)?

A photo taken in the shop (dad & uncle owned 2 shops together...selling textile & cloth).

So, we're the "Material Girl"!

That's not a doll! That's my adorable brother!

My 2 brothers

Daddy's girl.

I'm truly blessed to have such a wonderful (& handsome) dad.

Happy Birthday, Dad.

Thanks for those sweet childhood memories.

I love you.