EARTH HOUR 2009

I'm a proud participant of this year's Earth Hour. Not just me, but Iqie and Afeeq too. It was on Saturday, 28 March 2009. The Sun reported the event. The response was overwhelming actually.

On that day, Hubby was not home (car fixing-related job), so there were just us - Mummy and sons. As usual after his bath, Iqie had his dinner. So did Afeeq. So all of us were mentally prepared for the black-out hour (well... maybe I was the only one!). A little before 8.30 pm, I already switched off all lights in the house. Iqie was confused for a while... "Oh no!" Then... "Mummy, light no? Mummy, no light?" How do you explain to a 2-year-old that Mummy was voting for Earth ;)

The telly was on, so that was fine with Iqie. Afeeq was cool. Instead of switching off the lights for an hour, we ended up being in the dark for 2 hours. We didn't mind. It was kinda fun for me and Iqie.

You know what, I think we're going to do this Earth Hour on a regular basis. Iqie and I don't have to wait for a year for another Earth Hour. I think we can do this bi-monthly. I guess that's just a little thing that I can do to contribute to this good cause. But as Hubby jokingly pointed out in his email when I sent him the details of this event - what's the difference with the lights off when we have the fridge, washing machine, telly, air-cond, etc. on?? Heheheheheee... how to answer that??

ieja

VOTE EARTH - LIGHTS OFF PLEASE!!

Dear all,
I'm voting for our Earth. Please switch off your lights for 1 hour (only) to show your support. We need this!! Please spread the words.

ieja

The Use of English in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics and Science

I have to say that I'm very disappointed with what had happened over the weekend. The Star published the news. I am not being bias here and I am not judging. Don't say that because I was educated overseas I would definitely agree that English should be used. That is definitely not the case. I agree that English should be used because of many reasons.

Firstly, to use English to teach and to learn Maths and the science subjects would definitely not dethrone Bahasa Melayu (or is it Bahasa Malaysia now - I just can't keep track of the correct term used as it had changed so many times!!). You can't "mertabatkan" the Malay language by using it to teach those subjects. How can u do that if the terms used in Maths, Biology, Physics and Chemistry are taken from English. It's not like we have all the words in Malay... duuhhh...

If you want to "mertabatkan" the Malay language, start at home and the media. Those are the biggest influencers. If you can tackle those two - half of the language problem solved!

To me, the whole point of using English to teach and learn Maths and the science subjects is for us to be able to conquer the wealth of information that contains in those subjects. It's totally not because of the language - it has never been because we want the students to master the language. Mastering the language is just the secondary aim. If you can, hey it's good for you.

I think I've addressed this enough in my previous entry here.

ieja

A DAY OF FUN

Last Wednesday, Hubby and I purposely took a day off. We had promised to date as much as possible, even if it means taking a day or two off ;) So far the plan went well...

Anyway, that Wednesday we woke up a bit late leaving Iqie and Afeeq under the care of our super-efficient helper. After breakfast cum a hearty lunch, we made our way to Flamingo Hotel on Jalan Ampang. No... it's not what you're thinking!! We actually went bowling instead of going for a movie. Why...? Why not... like watching movies, it's been ages. So we thought... why not.

And you know what... we had the best time of our lives. After so many years... we giggled, we laughed, we teased each other. Hubby is still bad at spares, and I'm still bad at strikes... heheheh we really had fun - reliving our courting days.

It is something that we would definitely do again and again... I wonder what is next in our list.

ieja

OF ABANG IQIE

My eldest son - Iqie is 2 years and 3 months old. He's very active and likes to play with his toy cars a lot. He's quite talkative... well... compared to his cousin sister who is 3 weeks older then him.

So far, we managed to use English (I would say 95%) when we talk to him. And he understands us very well. We also managed to chart his progress in terms of his speech development on videos. Looking back at how he grows from one-word speech to two-word speech and now three-word speech or more - he amazes us. It's amazing how children pick up when we put effort in teaching them things.

At one stage, Iqie would just point his finger and say "there... there..." if he wanted to go to the living room or if he wanted me to go somewhere. After some time he acquired more words and would say "Mummy... there...". Then "Mummy... there... telly". Then "Iqie watch telly". He would also say things like "Mummy go there eat", "Daddy vroom car". But my all time favourite - "Afeeq... no..." when Afeeq puts his fingers in his mouth, and "Good boy Afeeq..." when Afeeq takes out his fingers out of his mouth. He says it ever so lovingly... it makes me melt...

With his understanding of his Mummy and Daddy's conversation, we can't actually say "go out" sparingly. He will pick it up and will quickly reply "Iqie go out... there" pointing at the front door and immediately taking off his pants and shirt (expecting us to change him). Hubby and I really have to use those two words carefully. Otherwise, we'll end up walking him around the house...

ieja