School Time: How To Ride A Commuter Train

Halo everyone! It's me, Evan, talking here. Last week our teachers brought us on a train trip to Jakarta. During the trip they taught us about how to ride a train and now I'm going to share it with you, especially to fellow kiddies. Who knows maybe you can learn something too. Now, since we're going to use a commuter train, and not the kind of trains you find on the malls or parks, so the first thing to do is get to the train station.

When you are at the station, don't forget to buy a ticket to your destination. Me and my friends didn't have to do that because our teachers already had our tickets, so we directly went to the platform instead. Remember, during peak hours the railway platform is usually crowded, so beware of pickpockets!

 

You need to be patient while waiting for the train on the platform. Do not run around or play hide and seek, even if you feel bored!

 

When the train arrives, wait until it stops and the doors will automatically open. Now you can calmly board the train. If the person in front of you moves too slow, you can give him a little push.

 

Once you're on the train, find an empty seat for you. If you're lucky, you'll get one. If not, ask your teacher to find one for you :p

Remember to behave while you're on the train. I'll give you examples...

 

This is not nice! You're disturbing other passengers

who sit next to you if you act like this!

 

This is better. Sit and talk nicely with your friends and
if you have snack, you can eat along the ride too
Too bad I carried the wrong bag,
couldn't find my snack there so no snack for me :(

When you reach your destination, prepare your things and be ready by the door. No need to rush, just wait until the train stops and the doors will automatically open for you. Then you can get off the train.

  

That's it! My tips on how to ride a commuter train. Hope you like it.

  

Enjoy your weekend everyone, I know I will! It's a long weekend here and we're heading to Bandung :)

School Time: Chocolate For Valentine's Day

To be honest, I never really celebrate Valentine's Day. Probably because when I grew up, Valentine was not so popular. Some schools even banned students from talking about Valentine. It was labeled as western custom that was not for us. However, things have changed now. With so many commercials and shows on TV about Valentine, it is hard not to get involved with this so called love day... even for a preschooler.

Yesterday, Evan had a Valentine related event at school which seems to me like a chocolate day. So what did they do at the event? The main message was to teach the children about caring and giving. To symbolize it the teachers would give chocolate to the students and in return us, the busy parents, students had to prepare something for their teachers within three days notice ggrrr.... And the easiest things for me to grab during these days were, of course, chocolate.

Three little boxes of chocolate for teachers

Inside each box are 9 little heart shaped chocolates with teacher's name on it. This one for example was for Ms. Christine, his class teacher.

We had to hide those boxes from the boy until the event started, otherwise his teachers would get empty boxes, lol. So there he was, ready for school without knowing what to give to the teachers.

The dress code for the day was red for boys and pink for girls.

With his teachers, Ms. Christine and Mr. Harry (music teacher). His English teacher, Ms. Eta, was not there. On the table were the teachers' gifts for the kids, Tango wafer and little heart shaped chocolate.

Enjoy your Valentine/Chinese New Year weekend (whichever suits you) everyone!

School Time: Christmas Event

Yesterday morning we attended a Christmas celebration at Evan's school. Unfortunately, the event was taken place at school's auditorium with dim lighting, so it was difficult for me to get a good shot with my poor Kodak. The spotlights they used for the stage didn't help either. I really need to upgrade this camera soon, hopefully Santa heard this!

Nevertheless, I still have some rather decent pictures to share. Here we go... Before the event started we took a picture of him near the tree. He looked anxious, probably because he was going to perform later. However, once it was started, he was beginning to relax and enjoyed the event while waiting for his turn.

By the way, if you curious about his costume, nope he didn't perform as doctor Santa :) He and his kinder-mates were to dance hip-hop with song "Dari Pulau Dan Benua", the Indonesian version of Gloria in Exelcis Deo, with slightly different beats. Didn't he look like a hip-hop singer? No? Hmm, I'll tell his teachers then...

They already called their class, so time to go up on the stage. "Break a leg guys!"

It took some times for them to find their own spots on stage. Mind you, they were four-year-old kids who used to run around the school on daily basis, and being on stage didn't slow them down a bit. Their teachers worked extra hard to keep them stand still.

And what made it even longer to start was some parents asked their kids to pose for their own camera while they were supposed to be ready to dance. Well, I'm proud to say that (this time) I wasn't part of those parents! I managed to stand patiently waiting for their performance :)

And finally they danced... Ok, it might not look like they were dancing in the pictures, but you just got to believe me, "my boy and his friends were dancing hip-hop!"

 

The grand finale: knelt down at the end of the song...

At the end of the event, we took picture near the school's giant Christmas tree. And look what Santa gave to him! He got presents from Santa after mommy paid the bills off course!

 

With proud mommy and grandma

 

With proud nanny

Curious about the presents? Come back tomorrow then, I'll show you ;)

Thanks for stopping by and happy Sunday everyone!

School Time #16: Trip To Ragunan Zoo

Two weeks ago the school had a trip to Taman Margasatwa Ragunan (Ragunan Zoo) or also known as Jakarta's Zoo. It was the first time for Evan to visit Ragunan. Too bad our camera wasn't available that day so we had to rely on the school's photographer. And guess what? I hardly find pictures of kids with animals from the school photos stock. Apparently the guy didn't think it's necessary to take pictures of the students with animals while they're having trip to the zoo. Can't blame him though, he probably just took random pictures. We should always have our own camera ready for school events like this.

But at least I could find this one with animal on it.

 

As for the rest, you just have to believe my saying that he was at the zoo!

  

  

 

Though its fame is fading since the opening of Taman Safari in Puncak, I still consider Ragunan zoo as a "worth visiting place" for family who lives in or around Jakarta (at least bring the kids there once!). It's cheap (probably the cheapest attraction in the capital) and still a good place to introduce various animals to the kids. So maybe next time we will have our own trip there. We already brought Evan to Taman Safari twice but never to Ragunan zoo.

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!