School Time #15: Swimming Class

The most anticipated class finally restarted. Kids love swimming class, you can see that on their faces. Last Wednesday they had their first session for this school year.

I haven't posted Evan's school activities for quite awhile now because his kinder teachers do not allow parents/nannies to come near the classroom, unlike when he was still in pre-k, so I don't have new pictures to share. Lucky for outdoor activities like this, we're allowed to come by near the school's swimming pool. So I came early to pick him up that day and took some pictures during the lesson.

Wanna learn to swim with them? Here we go...

Let's start with a little run in place to warm-up your body

 

Dancing? It may look like it, but it's called stretching :)

 

Remember the strokes you learned last time?

Let's practice them again

 

Now let's make splash with your legs

before you jump into the pool

 

Time for the real lesson. Remember what your coach says,
"Don't breathe under the water (you're not a fish)
and don't swallow that water either!"

If there's still time, you can play with your friends
after you're done practicing with your coach

Oops sorry kids, time's up, let's take a shower and go home!

So how's your swimming lesson today? Too short? Yeah, time flies when you have fun :)

Have a great weekend everyone...

School Time: Art Class Sneak Peek

It's kinda hard to take pictures of Evan's school activities now because, unlike when he was in Pre-K, his K1 teachers don't allow parents/nanny roaming around near the classrooms. Which is actually good because sometimes the students got distracted easily by them. So we were trying to be "invisible" when taking these pictures at his K1 art class.

Didn't work well though because
he could sense the camera's coming his way

Here's the result. Too bad our scanner couldn't capture the whole page so the yellow bird at the top of the page got cut off.

Evan's First Yearbook

Back in my day (it isn't that far back though), we didn't have yearbooks until we were in high school or at least middle school. Now my preschooler already has one. I guess nowadays even preschoolers need to keep the memory of their glorious schooldays in yearbooks too, though at their age now they still don't know the meaning of it.

It was yesterday when Evan brought and showed us the yearbook from his last school year. He was not able to read yet, so what he could do was looking at the photos.

The yearbook front cover

For his entry in the yearbook, the teacher asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up. His answer was a dentist. Why a dentist? He said, "Because I like chocolate!" Wonder why he said that. Maybe because we often remind him that too much chocolate can be bad for his teeth, so he thinks if he's a dentist he can keep his teeth healthy and still eating chocolate ^_^

His entry in the yearbook

The yearbook also contains teachers' notes and pictures from last year school activities. I already posted most of Evan's school activities here, so this blog is actually serve as his e-yearbook as well.

Other pictures in the yearbook

Did you have a yearbook when you were a preschooler?

Back To School

The long holiday is over and it's time to go back to school. Today is Evan's first day as a K-1 student. Since he will continue studying at the same school we hope he will not find difficulties adjusting himself to this new school year. At least he's already familiar with the school environment, the teachers, and he will meet his old classmates again. The only thing he needs to work on is now he will be going to school every day instead of three times a week like when he was in Pre-K. Also the school hours will be an hour longer.

Evan seemed ready to go back to school again. In fact he'd been asking about it since the holiday began and looked disappointed every time we told him he was still on holiday. He couldn't understand why his school was closed for so long. "Well, wait till you grown up little boy, at that time you will long for holiday ^_^"

Evan's Graduation Day

Last week was my son's graduation day. Yes, my little boy is officially graduate from Pre-K and starting next month he'll be a Kinder student. We are happy that even though we enrolled Evan in the middle of school year and his 4th birthday (the required age for Kindergarten here) is still 3 months away, his teachers said he was qualified to graduate. He was the youngest among the Pre-K graduates.

This morning we received the report card for his 6 months studying at Pre-K. The teachers wrote that Evan was able to concentrate and paid full attention to the teachers in the classroom. He can count up to 10 and memorize the alphabet both in Bahasa and English. However, they also noticed that he was a bit selective in choosing friends to play with.

We didn't take many pictures on graduation day because the stage was quite far from our seat so it was useless to take pictures using my P&S camera. We were focusing on making video instead. These two pictures were from the school's documentation. They were taken days before graduation for the school's yearbook.

Evan with his classmates and teachers.
Only 9 out of 12 students in his class that are graduated this year

Remember the love song for teacher he was practicing the other day? On graduation day he sang it together with his fellow graduates. The stage was a bit crowded after they sang. Let's remember that the graduates were a bunch of 4 to 6 y.o. super active kids.

After that was the tassel change moment. Evan's teacher was preparing him before he got on stage.

Once he was off the stage, he was asked to pose with his proud parents.

The graduation ceremony was closed with praise and worship. The graduates were given banner so they could raise their banner while praising God.

But my son was too busy singing until he forgot his banner :)


Thanks for stopping by and have a good weekend.

A Love Song For Teachers

Tomorrow is a big day for my son, it's his graduation day. Yes he's graduating from Pre-K and starting July he'll be a Kindergarten student. Seems it's only yesterday we were busy looking for a preschool for him, now he's already graduate. He will continue studying at the same school as he's quite happy there.

On graduation day, Evan and his friends will be singing Cinta Untuk Guru (Love for Teacher). It's a good way to teach the students to appreciate their teachers. The song was modified from Cinta Untuk Mama (Love for Mother) sung by Angel Idola Cilik. Here's the lyric (hope the translation is good enough).

Apa yang ku berikan untuk guru?
>> What do I give for teacher?
Untuk guru tersayang
>> For dearest teacher
Tak ku miliki sesuatu berharga
>> I don't have anything valuable
Untuk guru tercinta
>> For beloved teacher

Hanya ini ku nyanyikan
>> Just this one I sing
Senandung dari hatiku untuk guru
>> Whispering from my heart for teacher
Hanya sebuah lagu sederhana
>> Just one simple song
Lagu cintaku untuk guru
>> My love song for teacher

If you have time, just see how he practiced it yesterday, it's only one minute video :)

It's still hard for him to pronounce long words like senandung and sederhana. Hope he can sing it better tomorrow. Anyway, what did you give for your teachers? Did you sing for them too? Have a good weekend!

School Time #13: Swim, Swim, Swim

As the school year is going to end soon, the students will have some evaluations on certain subjects starting this week. This week is Evan's last swimming class and he'll be graded. I'm not sure how the teachers are going to do that, I will need to ask them later. Anyway, do you think he could be a good swimmer? Like Michael Phelps maybe? Minus smoking pot, off course, :).

School Time #12: Fun With Clay Update

Last month I posted about Evan's "Fun With Clay" trip to Rumah Keramik (The Ceramic House) where he and his classmates learned and practiced about the process of making pottery products. And they also had a chance to make their very own ceramics by molding some clay dough.

However, on that day the students couldn't bring home their works yet because they were not ready. Their shaped clay still needed firing and polishing process that could take days until they became beautiful ceramic products. Rumah Keramik said they would send the kids' works to school once the process finished so parents could brag about it in their blog see the result.

After several weeks finally Rumah Keramik sent the kids works to school. And last Friday Evan came home proudly with his first masterpieces.

My son and his first masterpieces

He made a butterfly, a bug and his shio dog plate

Isn't he a talented boy??... Alright stop, time to tell the truth now. You don't actually believe a 3.5 yo preschooler can make such ceramics alone, do you? Yes, somebody helped him, so here's the woman behind the little man (literally)...

It's his nanny!! Yes, it was his nanny who helped Evan with the clay, otherwise he would ruin the clay before it was dry enough to be colored.

On this fun with clay trip parents were actually invited to join so they could make ceramics together with their kids but of course I couldn't go since the school always had trips on workdays. So I was counting on the nanny to help him and I think she did her job nicely :).

Thanks for the visit, and have a good day!

School Time #11: Kartini Day

The last school event for this month was Kartini Day celebration. Every April 21, Indonesians commemorate Kartini Day, the birthday of an Indonesian heroine, R.A. Kartini (1879-1904), who fought for women's emancipation during the Dutch colonial era. She established a school for women when tradition at that time banned Indonesian women to go to school. Later her very short life (she died at the age of 25) became a symbol for women’s rights and empowerment in this country. So it's a very special day for Indonesian women.

On Kartini day schools around this country, usually Kindergarten and elementary, will hold a traditional costumes contest or parade. The most favorite costume for girls must be the Javanese "kebaya" like Kartini's wearing above. As for boys, there's no particular one.

For his first Kartini Day contest last Friday, Evan wore traditional costume from Padang, West Sumatra. None of us came from Padang by the way, but we had no choice since the rental shop nearby did not have stock for Manado or Javanese costume that we were looking for. But I think he looks good in Padang costume too, don't you think so?

He didn't win the contest that day, but it's ok. I was happy enough to see him willingly wearing the costume. I remember when I was at his age I didn't like wearing traditional costume. The picture below was taken when I was still in Kindergarten wearing kebaya on Kartini Day.

I was not a happy Kartini girl

Not only schools that celebrate Kartini Day, by the way. Some public services like banks, train/bus, police or gas stations sometimes have their staff wearing traditional costume on that day. This one for example.

Woman bus driver wearing traditional costume
(credit: JakartaPost)

Have a good day!

School Time #10: Celebrating Easter At An Orphanage

Another school event on this month was Easter celebration. While most of Christian schools around us didn't bother to teach their students about Easter, let alone celebrated it, I'm glad Evan's school did. And they didn't just mark the day by having eggs coloring/hunting games, but they also had a simple celebration with other kids at the Abigail Orphanage in Pamulang last Friday. Parents were also welcomed to donate food for the orphanage.

Teachers, students and some of the orphans

The orphanage was quite far from school, it took almost an hour to go there. Once they arrived they were welcomed into a big room and started to have a praise and worship time with all the kids there. Then a teacher told a story about resurrection. Base on the theme, The Reason Is You, I know the teacher was trying to teach about the true meaning of Easter to the students, not just the meaning of Easter eggs. Unfortunately, the room used for the event was too dark and our photographer (aka Evan's nanny) didn't know how to set the camera for dark environment so no decent pictures I can post here.

After the service they had lunch together. Then they went outside to have an egg hunting game for little kids, and guess whose Pre-K kid got the most eggs???

Didn't I say he's a collector? (see my header)
I think he could get more eggs if they provided a basket or something
to carry them, his little hands could only hold three eggs at a time

Have a good day everybody!

School Time #09: Fun With Clay

We have a busy little preschooler at home now. According to Evan's school calendar, they will have several events during April. Oh my little boy is getting busy, just like mommy, lol. The first event was held last week when his Pre-K class had a "Fun with Clay" trip to a ceramic workshop called Rumah Keramik. At Rumah Keramik, visitors can learn about the process of making pottery products and they can try it if they want to.

The trip was held on Wednesday morning last week. The first thing they did when they got there was having a snack time. Then they toured around the place to see their workshop and gallery.

A couple of donuts before tour

After the tour they had a chance to shape some clay using mold of their own choice. When I asked my son what kind of shape he made, he said a butterfly (his current favorite insect). But the teacher said there were only zodiac shapes available, so I was wondering what zodiac sign that he considered as a butterfly aka his favorite. I guess I have to wait until the workers there finish processing the their works and deliver them to school later next week.

After finish having fun with clay, these little potters got hungry so they had lunch together before headed back to school.

Have a good day!

School Time #08: His First Swimming Lesson

After being canceled for about two months because of the rainy season, starting this month the swimming class is opened again. Yesterday was my son's first swimming lesson. Even though the pool is part of the school's facility and designed for kindergarten kids, still I was concerned at first about his safety like being left unsupervised for example. But the teacher assured us that there be enough staff to help the kids.

The Pre-K swimming class is scheduled every other Monday. Evan was supposed to have his first lesson two weeks ago but was delayed due to public holiday. Thankfully the weather was good yesterday morning, otherwise it would be another delay. They started the lesson by doing warm up and stretching activities before jumped to the pool. Which is a good reminder for us since we never do such things when we go swimming with our son.

The teacher was right, there were plenty of staff helping the kids in the water. There was a swim teacher who gave basic instructions to each kid, and others who supervised and helped the kids practicing their lessons.

They also encouraged kids not to use their swim ring so they could learn better. While some kids refused it, my son obeyed them ;). They told us swimming without swim ring is a way to teach little children to depend on adults instead of any flotation toy while they're in the water. It will keep us adults to always be alert either.

Have a good day :)

School Time #07: Occupation Part Two

Last week Evan continued his Week 5 lesson about occupation. This time he went to the city's fire department with his Pre-K and Kindergarten friends.

He looks so small standing near the fire engine

Have a great day everybody :)

School Time #06: My Country

Last week my son started going back to school again after missing one day of week 6 and the whole week 7 because of being sick. The theme for week 8 was my country. He learned about our national anthem and flag. Unlike other new songs that he could easily memorize after hearing it once or twice, this time he got difficulties in singing our national anthem till now. I don't blame him though, Indonesian anthem is quite long so it was hard for him to memorize it. Plus the teacher didn't (or maybe not allowed to) use any movement to make it more interesting for the kids.

At the end of the week they had a flag raising ceremony at the school's assembly room. We couldn't take picture for any activity held in this room, so no pictures from last week. This week shall be more interesting as the school will be visiting our city's fire department. Evan is so excited and been talking about it since yesterday.

As for me, I'm leaving for another office duty today, hopefully I don't need to stay out of town for too long. Thanks for visiting my blog everybody, and have a great weekend ahead :)

School Time #05: Occupation

I've been posting about Evan's schooling time for the last two days now. I need to do this so I won't be too far behind the actual event and forgetting all the details. So this is what he learned during his fifth week at school, which was last week, occupation. At the end of the week the students had to wear a costume suitable for the occupation of their own choice, almost like a Career Day, minus presentation.

I remember the first time I asked him what he wanted to be and he said, "A security guard." I think that because the school's security guards are very friendly and all kids seem to love them. However, as always, he soon changed his answers to a doctor, teacher, policeman, Superman, Naruto, etc.

After searching for a costume, he finally became an Air Force officer. That wasn't really what he wanted though, and wasn't my first choice either. I was looking for a Fireman costume but couldn't get one. Thank God he liked the whistle attach in the costume, so he didn't mind wearing it. But now I think that I should have been more creative about this event. Next time I'll make him become a photographer with a vest and camera, he likes taking pictures anyway.

Meet our future generation. There's a chef, policewomen, minister, etc.
But where's my boy?

There he is, mingled with his fellow armed force officers

He's a three star general

He got a pin as a participant.
It says "I'll set my goals as high as the sky"

School Time #04: Kindness

On his fourth week at school, Evan learned about kindness (from the Fruit of the Spirit). There was a memory verse for him too. Galatians 6:9 "Let us not become weary in doing good." He learned that doing good means taking turn on using toys during break-time and sharing some of his snack to his friends.

To sum up the lesson, on Friday the students were asked to give something special for their favorite teacher. And since that was on Valentine's week so chocolate was chosen as the perfect gift. They asked for specific type and size though, so there wouldn't be any mine-is-bigger-than-yours competition between the kids. The only competition left should be between the teachers themselves. There were three teachers in every class and the students were to give only to one of them. After that the teachers would share their chocolate and give a small love note for all students. Sweet wasn't it.

However, since my son were joining me in Surabaya on Valentine, he skipped school that Friday. "Sorry Ms. Ony, Evan was planning to give his chocolate to you, but he preferred to be with mommy that day." He still gave her gift though, not chocolate but Manalagi Apple from Batu, East Java, after he came back from Surabaya the following week.

Manalagi and Malang Apple