Ryan's Talent Day 2014

It is that time of the year again where mummy will go teary eyed while watching her little boy perform so confidently on stage :)

Alhamdulliah we managed to attend Tadika Ceria Az-Zahra's Aqua Ceria Talent and Convocation day on the 26 October 2014 @ Crystal Crown Hotel, Klang, where Ryan performed twice. First singing "Nasyid Nabi Yusof and Ikan Nun" for his Tahfiz class and later dancing to "Sailor and the Sea". Ryan looked so happy performing and being in the limelight, so that's good. He's been trying to keep his performance a secret for months now, and looked so satisfied that he managed to keep Lan and I in the dark about his routines.

 The deco on the stage, too cute right :)

 Pics from my new compact camera, not bad, huh?

Boys will be boys, tengah-tengah perform pun sempat goof around with  his friends

Ok iklan tak berbayar kejap, I love my new Zawara Alicia Sequin Jubah, so comfy and the cut is so flattering. I'm so itching to buy another one in a different colour.

Anywayyyyyy, the kindergarten had encouraged parents and family to come with sea inspired headgear, there's even a special prize for the winners. Too bad we didn't win :p

Cool, huh? I made this out of felt. Lan grudgingly wore them for like 3 seconds and now it is an addition to the kids costume collection.

Oooooo....We were given the VVIP seats, WHY VVIP???

It is because......

Muhammad Ryan Daniel was awarded the Anugerah Mutiara Harapan. It is an overall award for 5 years old showing the most development for the year, looking at qualities like character development, communication skills, manners, academics etc. Alhamdullilah, for the recognition :) I think his teachers did take into account Ryan speech issues and his hard work in trying to overcome it. So awesome that despite all that, he has grown to be such a confident and delightful young man. Mummy is super proud of you abang. I hope that you'll continue to grow to be such a fine example to your little sisters... Alhamdullilah Alhamdullilah Alhamdullilah.....

Ryan with his class teacher, Teacher Ana. Thank you for helping him, teaching him new skills and knowledge this year :) Ryan is so lucky to have you. 

The pic on the right is of Ryan and Mama Ati one of his caretaker in Taska. Hehehe I was so worried last year when we wanted to enrol Ryan in early. I was telling Mama Ati that I can't imagine if he'll survived going the whole day without bottle, diapers PLUS his major pelatness.. Mama Ati assured me he'll be alright and alhamdullilah she's right. I owe it to his caretakers for assisting us with his potty training and weaning him off the bottle...

We're so lucky to have found such a good kindergarten for Ryan and inshaallah the twins next year. With all the news about horrible babysitter and kindy in the media, you can't help but feel worried having to leave your kids with strangers all day. Thank god we've found a school that is ikhlas in educating and taking care of my ahli syurga. 

My tiny bit of validation...

Last 2 weeks on the 21 June 201 was Ryan's Report Card day. I was nervous as hell despite him being only 5 years old :p I was imagining the worst case scenario but was of course praying for the best. Alhamdullilah my fears was unfounded because Ryan is doing very well in school.

According to his teachers he's thriving academically, emotionally, mentally and physically. Ryan is a very well mannered boy and listens to instruction well ( I'm mentally wondering why is this not applicable at home? haha) He's also very helpful and loves helping his teacher to clean up the classroom after playtime (How come kat rumah mummy kena jerit2 dulu baru nak kemas ye, abang?)

Academically he's on par with his peers despite of his phonological issues.He's been scoring perfect marks for the past 8 weeks for his Fun English assignments and is able to present in sentences rather than words as was expected for his class. Teacher Ana also said that he has improved on his speech and is not as pelat as last year *alhamdullilah* The best part is despite his limitations, it does not affect his self confidence as he will readily offer input during classes :) I'm so proud of this little boy.

This awesome little boy have also been fasting from 7.30am to 5.30pm for the past 2 days. It was such a huge surprise for me because we didn't ask him to do it, though I did explain to him the basics of Ramadan.  When I asked Ryan WHY he's doing it, his reply to me was "sebab semua orang puasa and Ryan nak masuk syurga dengan semua orang" MasyaAllah good enough of a reason for me, love. May Allah continue to bless his little soul :)

 Ryan acting as Imam during school solat time :)

 Picture a bit grainy because I copied it from his report card hehehe

My parenting journey has its ups and down, with Ryan being the first, he's a bit of a guinea pig to us and sometimes suffers from incompetencies and poor choices made on my part and Lan's. Maybe I over think sometimes but I'm constantly afraid that I'm not doing and giving enough attention, opportunities and care to my children so when I do get positive input from a third party it really meant a lot. At least I'm doing SOMETHING right :) 

We still have a longggggg journey ahead. Here's to hoping that we'll be making more positive choices in relation to parenting my 3 little angels *inshaAllah*

Salam Ramadan, everyone. May this Ramadan help us to become even better Muslims than yesterday :)

The one on Fire Station and Inherited Kiasuness

I love arts and crafts. It is just one of those things that I don't mind having to cleaned up the mess after. I can sit happily one whole day doing one of my creative projects: scrap booking, refurnishing old furniture, finger painting with the kids etc. 

So when I found out that Ryan is expected to build a 3d object as a part of his Parent-Child school holiday project, I totally jumped at the chance. I went online finding for inspirations (and at the same time practically hijacking the whole project -_-) In the end after a toss between a papier mache dinosaurs model from the Jurassic era and a fire station, the boss Ryan Daniel decided to go with "Fireman Sam's House " :p Mummy have to keep her "dry ice" volcano plans for next time (mak dia memang kiasu sikit haha)

First order of plan is to get Ryan to start drawing a "blueprint" for his fire station. To tell you the truth, I never plan my "creative projects". I'm more of a trial and error kinda girl and I tend to experiment a lot. This is of course not the trait that I would like my 5 year old baby to inherit, so I explained to  him my general plans and told him to draw his expectations on a piece of paper :) See?  a lesson on structure, something that his mummy struggle with until today hehe

:)

Next we collected 2 shoes boxes, tape, straw, alimium foil, milk cartoon, art blocks and started assembling his fire station and fire truck.  I did most of the assembling because again, the plan is mostly in my head and there's no way I would let Ryan play with sharp blades. Ryan helped me with the taping and wrapping.

I got this idea to build the fire truck after watching an episode of "Art Attack". So easy ok, parents should try it at home :) It took me less than 15 minutes to assemble this.

The next day while his little sisters were taking their afternoon naps, Ryan and I started painting the models. The painting was 80% done by Ryan, mummy just did some touch ups and I tried teaching  him some lessons about "shading" which he totally ignored.

After the paint has dried, we started assembling the "things that can be found in a fire station". We searched for pictures in accordance to the scale of our model and printed it out. Ryan later cut off the printout and started assembling and pasting it on his model.

Final product. Alhamdullilah. Ryan and I worked hard on this project and we're both so happy with the results. Thank god we didn't do some half way job because most of the other parents and children put in a lot of effort in their art work too. At least I know Ryan can stand tall and won't be embarrassed during show and tell.

 

Atuk also brought him to the Klang Fire Station so that he can have an idea on how a real life fire station looked like. Ryan enjoyed the trip and was so happy that he got to ride on a real fire truck :)

Thank you Mr. Fireman!!!not only are they busy saving lives and putting off fire but they also made this little boy felt so welcome with their hospitality that Ryan can't stop talking about his trip to  anyone who would listen.

Anyway, stay tune for next year, we shall see if mummy can find the energy and ideas to create not one but THREE models for all 3 children. Memang kena cuti seminggu la jawabnya nak buat :p I know some people would say "Alah, suruhla Lan buat satu" . I'll be like....

Not that I don't trust my husband's creativity (or lack of it hahaha) but I'm a too much of control freak to let that happen :p Sorry, B. You can clean up after we've made the mess if you want....

Ryan : Kindy Activities Updates @Tadika Ceria Az-Zahrah

How time flies and we're already in the 2nd Quarter of 2014 :) Time for a quick update on the activities that Ryan has been involved in school so far. My little boy have been quite busy, we've enrolled him in a "Bijak Baca" and "Pra Tahfiz" classes which takes place after his morning session kindy (Monday- Friday). He is also still attending his speech classes every Saturday. 

Quite a hectic timetable for a 4.5 year old, huh? But he's enjoying it and Lan and I think this would be a good training for him when he enters Standard 1 in 2016 (InShaAllah) His Tahfiz classes have also tremendously helped improved his speech and he is also able to memorize Surah Al-Fatihah, 3 Qul and the first 5 ayat of Surah Yassin. MasyaAllah I've never been more proud of this little boy. 

The feedback I've been getting from his teachers/therapist have also been very positive.As much as I'm delighted  to hear about his development in the academic department, what really made me really happy is the input on his attitude on learning. He is very determined to learn new skills, love asking question and very hardworking.The only problem with this little boy is he's a bit kiasu and competitive (god knows where he get that trait from :p) 

His "pelatness" is a blessing in disguise. He knows that he needs to work harder than his peers when it comes to his speech so he does not take things for granted. Alhamdullilah it helped shape him to be the cheeky, intelligent and hardworking boy that he is today. Anyway after hours of going through the pics from his school FB photo archive, I managed to collate some pictures of my little boy in action :)

Classroom Activities

Sand Castle Building Activity

Personal Hygiene Week : Learning how to wash their own clothes

Trip to Tesco 

To learn about personal safety (not to speak to strangers etc) and halal food

Kembara Alam @ Kuala Selangor

2 days 1 night, Sleepover/Camping activities with his teachers and classmates. They visited Pantai Remis and Bukit Melawati to learn about nature and independence 

Activity of the day: Making their own photo frame using shells they collected from the beach. A picture of Ryan and his "jerung" group with his class teacher/chaperon - Teacher Ana

Camping/picnic session in Pantai Remis

Solat Jemaah in one of the Masjid in Kuala Selangor

:) 

Collection of artwork during his weekend away : A Counting Nature Book, Windmill and photo frame

FINALLY after 1 month, I managed to complete the promised "update list". Looking forward to May 2014. I have so much plans arranged and we all know it is my favorite month being my BIRTHDAY month and all (hahaha how's that for giving out subtle hints???)  Anyway have a good week and do enjoy the upcoming Labor Day...