Monday, June 29, 2009

Dear PakSu Epoi..

Assalamualaikum PakSu Epoi,

Mummy told me the other day that PakPoi is coming back in 10 days time. She asked me to write my wish list for you. Since this is our first time seeing each other, it is wise for you to buy me cute stuff so that I can love you instantly and won't cry out my lung when you hold me or try to hug me. Of course you know my voice is louder than fire alarm :-) I've googled the things that I really like and wish to get them as pressies from you. *_*

Hugs and kisses,
Nadirah Nizar

p/s - Mummy helped me to post the pictures here.

p/s/s - Please buy me one-year-old baby cloth ok PakSu. Not 6 months.
I like the colour. Red is always my colour! (mummy's actually!)


I like this one too! This is actually perfect, hooded, has a zip and cuffed hand. And the bright colourss.. woowwwii..!This is cute too. But I prefer sweater with zip, not button.
This is ok, but grey is a bit dull.This is smart! It looks like Mummy's coat. Kalo jumpe yg ni beli ok PakSu.Green is not my colour actually. Just want to highlight that it has to be longsleeved ok. This one is not a good example.


I'll will love you even more if you buy me these dresses!
This one too!


I think I'm cute in this too ^_^

Last but not least, if you found any of these shoessss, please, please, please I so wanttt!

Mwahssss! See you in 2 weeks time PakPoi!


Friday, June 26, 2009

Inspired!


I'm an avid reader [and a silent one too!] at Brillkids.com. I found one interesting post from a member, Judy Mendes about her story with her 17mo baby and how she manages between work and spending time teaching her baby. Just wanna share if you Mommies haven't stumbled upon this before. Totally inspiring!

This was his first post:

Hi everyone,
I am a mother of one A daughter who is 17 months.
I took interest in this group as I am being teaching my daughter Glenn Domman progrms all of the below since birth.
"How to teach your baby to read"
"How Smart is your baby"
"How to teach your baby Math"
"How to teach your baby ency."
"How to keep your baby physicaly superb"
"How to teach your baby to swim"

I have being doing all of the above with my daughter since birth, and its amazing how quick they learn. My daughter could float on her back at age 1 month and could walk without support at age 7.5 months, she had a vocabulary of 60 at age 1 year

More importantly what took me to this site is because, knowing there is a software that can help me to faster play around with my BIT materials, saves alot of time.

Then one Mommy asked her, "Where did you learn about the Glenn Domman programs and how far have you got with it all?" She replied:

It was by accident that I heard about Glen Doman. It was one day at Chapters, the book store where I was looking for a scrap book for my new born, accidentally as i was browsing thru the books my eyes fell on one eye catching book "How Smart is your baby" written by Glen Doman. This book happened to me in some extreme corner where barely anyone could see it.

It was from this book that lead me to buy some more books by Glen. I started to prepare all the BIT cards and DOT Cards, Infant stimulation material when i was in my second trimister. Yes, all called me crazy including my parents but all what motivated me the letters from moms who put their children on glen's program. And yes i have seen benefits from it.

Suprisingly my daughter speaks in sentences since age 1. She can say "What happened", "what is this/that" , "whose that", "i love you" and many more, she even says numbers 1-10. But she knows more than 100 numbers by can say just 1-10.

With reading : I do a mix of both single words and phrases. As she learns new things i just add to the list and form phrases

With Encylopedia: I still doing the 100 categories suggested by Glen

With Numbers: Its with 3 step addition, but I have also started to introduce her to French, Chinese, and German numbering.

With Swimming: She goes for swim classes

With physical activities: she goes for gymnastics

The only thing i couldnt do with her is music, that is because i dont any instruments myself. But heard that if you can teach you child 1-9 and A-G they can start to learn piano. Hence I have started to teach alphabets eventhough according to Glen alphabet teaching should be the last on the list. I still do it.

Yes, that's it. But its a big preparation to do all this. One can do it effectively if you are a stay at home. since i work it makes it difficult for me to keep up with it, Hence this software helps me to do it quickly and faster.

Then, another Mommy menyampuk, "I am frustrated most with lesson planning/preparation than anything. What are your experiences and your advice, please?" She added this:

But to start with, i prepare my materials a month in advance, so that i dont fall back in planning and preparing my material. Yes, i do agree it's frustrating when you dont have your materials ready, hence i only start with my child when i have everything in place. [Assie: This is the crucial part in teaching your baby as what Doman said, prepare ahead! and that's the hardest part kot..haha. I'm all over the place now - HELP! MrJ too, the Math Prof who's trying to finish the Math Dot Card Flash Card..huhuh..]

To start with this is what i do:

1. I have an excel sheet that outlines what would i teach my child each week. I have attached a sample of my excel sheet. Hence this gets me to a head start in planning and prepares me in advance of what i need to do. PLAN is the most important thing to achieve what you want

2. Then, once i have outlined all what i need to do, i start to gather material and information, now since i do 9-5 job, i normally prepare my materials every day for 1 hour after my child is off to a good night sleep. Then on weekends i just put all the materials together and make my presentations or i put in Little Reader. Each week I target 2 categories hence by end of the month i have atleast 8 new categories or more to begin for the next month. This keeps me ahead.

About spending time with my daughter and teaching her, I atleast cover 2 sessions in each Maths / Encylopedia / Reading.

This is what I do:

1. At the end of the day, i'll keep my materials ready for the next day, the way i do it, is if i am teaching her BIT Cards, then i'll keep the selected BIT Cards organized in a seperate folder or in a plastic basket. But since now i have the LR lite, i just keep in ready in playback session

2. So, once done this, the next day after work, i just refresh my self and feed my daughter after daycare and spend time in my room playing with her and teaching her, at times she does both sessions together, so which means i am done with my sessions. I dont force her into doing 3 sessions on a weekday as it becomes to stressful. Eventhough Glen recomends 3 sessions, i just follow my daughters mood.

And as such, there is no ground rule that says that only if your child is shown 3 sessions a day, she would learn what she is shown. Hence just follow your childs instincts. Dont get caught up with how many sessions you do with her. Beleive they can even learn in one session a day, I am saying it because my daughter does know things with only one session per day.

Also, not to forget, that as you progress in your teaching, you would be repeating these words / number so many times, hence i am not rigid with number of sessions i do, I can tell when she learnt what she saw, when she shows interest.

Also i try to club encylopdia/reading sessions together, that is when i show the picture i also the words hence in this way i killing 2 birds in one stone. Hence to summarize instead of doing 3 sessions of each in encylopedia / maths / reading, that is 3 +3 + 3 = 9 sessions, i just do 2 sessions where each session is a combination of all 3 hence bringing it down to 2 sessions rather than 9 sessions, and believe my daughter has learnt it this way right from birth (no jokes). It would drive me crazy and stressfull to do 9 short sessions. Hence i just do quick sessions as my daughter can sit with long sessions. I guess she got use to it since birth. But yes there are times that she just looks at few BITs and done with it, then in such situation i would continue with that BIT later during the day or may be next day.

If it's on the weekend then the best time, i do it with my daughter is in the morning after her breakfast, after her nap and evening

Hence this how i manage doing it in short, But yes, there are times that i dont teach her anything for months as they are priorities at home/work, and hence at those times, i just put her on some educational DVDs from "BumbleeBee DVDs", and also as i spend time with her i alway always emphasise speaking to her in short sentences, teaching her atleast one new word orally everyday, this ateast gives me a satisfaction that she learnt something. Also when creates a mess at home with her toys or eating, i'll get her envolved cleaning up the mess. Like eg. If her toys are all around the place, i get her picking up the toys by their names, so i would tell her get the teddy bear, then where is the blue fish, of where is the tall giraffe, hence in this way i am always using short sentences when talking to her, eventhough i am not formally teaching her BIT Cards. And she loves the clean up mess game. Even in the bath tub, i would point to all her parts of the body and believe she knows everypart of her body even her private parts, so this way i am always teaching her be it on / off glen's program.
Also there are times, i'll take her the laundary room and tell her put to the clothes in washer/dryer along with me and at times also name the clothes as i throw it for washing.

My personal experience, is to just enjoy what you do with a child, dont get stuck with the sessions counts you need to them, believe they are born genious. All you need is to create that environment for them and they will follow it. And also most important thing from all, ALWAYS GIVE CREDIT TO YOURSELF, for it is because of you, that your child has the environment.

The best part is, she attached the excel files she used to choreograph the teaching plan with her baby. Impressive! Anyone can download that, from this thread. [Reply #5]

Another thread worth reading is this one here about Daily Reading Schedule. You can download another excel file at reply #17 to have an idea how to schedule the words for your reading session. If you're new with Doman's method on how to teach baby to read, you can click here to find out more!

Welcome to joyous world of learning Mommiess.. All mothers are the best teachers in the world!

The arrival of..

our new CDs! 3 pieces crazy Momy CD, 6 microfiber inserts and 2 bamboo inserts.

3 pieces of Fiffy diaper cover size L, RM8.90 each. Puas hati den! These triplets are to be coupled with the prefold I recently bought. Moi really like these cuties compared to Little Coro I bought earlier and much3x cheaper than Thirsties Diaper cover (RM44) that we have.

I am a happy bunny la la la .. *_*


Thursday, June 25, 2009

Tujuan Hidup

Last Saturday, our little family joined Ibu, Ayah and their twins listening to Ustaz Hasrizal's Wacana Ilmu - Tujuan Hidup @ Taska Sy4z, Wangsa Maju. The talk was very engaging, as always. Masya-Allah. The audience were mainly parents and during that session Ust shared a lot of his thoughts and ideas about Islamic and Western Parenting. His past experience living and dealing with western communities (brits and irish) for many years is an added bonus and enrich his talk about parenting, all the time. He did mentioned exactly the same thing Doman noted down in their books - tiny kids love asking unending series of questions but we love to ignore that moment of glory and put a halt to the kids curiousity.

It was a private function (for parents of kids at the Taska and close friends I guess) so not many people knew about it. Alhamdulillah Ibu has informed me earlier so we've blocked our calendar to go. Anyho, I'd like to see many young parents attending his talk and shares his view on muslim family and islamic parenting which is rarely available compared to talk on "How to make your baby super genius" or "How to Score Straight A's in all exams". Serious. Balance of both world is needed coz at the end of the day, God won't ask how many A's our children scored in SPM but will definitely checked whether we've done the responsibility as parents such as teaching them solat, read the Al-Quran, Puasa, Zakat and many many more. Endless. It's not easy to be parents. Huhu.

MrJ recorded the 1-hour-talk. I'll try to find way to upload the mp3. Else, anyone interested to listen, please let me know, I'll email that to you. [Abg, nanti kasi pd Hny eh? :*]






with UmmuSaif, Sh4z and Ibu

The Progress 3



Both letters are now with VP. It tooooooook longer than I expected for the letter to reach VP's office which is just next to mine. I hand in the letter myself to HR (T) last Monday before they escalated it to VP.

Monday:
Deputy Chief Engineer: Azi3, did you go to see the HR just now?
Me: Yah, why?
DCE: Doc called me. HR called him asking whether we need a replacement for you in OS. So he asked me-la, do I need one, I said, no-lah, she's leaving just for a-year.
Me: Haah?? I don't want to come back and work here again! Ohhhh, ok. You just want to simplify the problem. Ok! Hehe. Agreed.
DCE: I just tell him, even if Azi3 coming back later jadi gileer2 ke ape ke, we still want you here.
Me: ?? Apakahhh ??

Rabbi yassir wala tu'assir. Rabbi atmim bil khair. Ya Karim, Ya Rahim, Ya Allah.


Tuesday, June 23, 2009

How to Teach Your Baby...


EVERYTHING!

Last week I finished reading the book - How to Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence by Glen&Janet Doman. In parallel, MrJ read How To Teach Your Baby Maths by the same authors and finished about the same time with me.

These are the 2 books that made our headlines everyday. Until today, we keep on discussing about the method used by Doman in teaching babies. Subhanallah. I thank Allah for giving us the opportunity to know bout them and their wonderful collection of Gentle Revolution Series.

Here are some of the excerpt of the book I read.

It's Good, Not Bad, To Be Intelligent [Chapter 4]

Indeed, it's very good.

"The difference between intelligence and education is this - that intelligence will make you a good living." - Charles Franklin Kettering -

From the book I read, I realized that many of us worship muscles but fear intelligence. We want our children to be strong but we fear them to be highly intelligent. We waited until it's too late to introduce them with learning. Education is boring, learning isn't.

Today we debated whether this intelligence is heredity in nature or whether it is environmental. That divides the world into two school of thoughts. Some said it's heredity and some said environment.

What say you? Find the answer in [Chapter 5].

Everything Leonardo Learned [Chapter 7]

Babies are born with a rage to learn. They want to learn about everything and they want to about it right NOW.

Tiny kids think that learning is the greatest thing that ever happened. The world spends the first 6 years of life trying to tell them that learning isn't the greatest thing in life and that PLAYING is.

Some kids never learnt that playing is the greatest thing in life and as a result those kids all the way through life believing that learning is the greatest thing in life. Those are the ones we call geniuses.

The truth is that little kids don't want to play and that they do ask an unending series of questions - and what superb questions they are.

"Daddy what holds the stars up in the shy?"

"Mommy, why is the grass green?"

"Daddy, how does the little man get into the television set?"

Those are brilliant questions - precisely the same questions that top-flight scientists ask.

Our answer, in one way or another, is, "Look kid, Daddy is very busy deciding what we ought to do in the Middle East situation. Why don't you run off and play while Daddy thinks."

And that VERY answer kills the kid's nature to learn.

Ok, let say we gave the kid a rattle or toy truck which he had never seen before in hope that this will get his attention.

First he looked at it (which is why toys are painted in bright colours).
Next he listened to it (which is why toys make noises).
Next he felt it (which is why toys don't have sharp ages).
Then he tasted it (which is why toys are made with non-poisonous materials).
Finally he smells it (we haven't figured out how toys should smell yet so they don't smell).

That clever and dicerning process of using every laboratory test available to him to learn everything there is worth learning about this piece of junk called a toy takes about 60 seconds.

But the child is not only clever, he is ingenious. There is one more thing he might learn. he might learn how it is put together by breaking it apart.

So he tries to break it. It takes about 30 seconds for him to find out that he can't break it. So he throws that away. This is why of course, toys are unbreakable.

The whole process takes 90 seconds.

The question is, " How long should anybody look at a rattle?" The answer should be, "As long as there's something to learn from it."

Everything a child learns in his life he learns through those five paths. He can see it, hear it, feel it, taste it and smell it.

Everything that Leonardo learned he learned through those five pathways.

All Kids Are Linguistic Geniuses [Chapter 8]

To a child born in Philadelphia tonight English is a foreign language. It is no more no less than German, Italian, Swahili and Urdu.

By one year of age, he understands a good deal and is beginning to say his first words.

By two year of age he understands a great deal and has rudiment ability to speak it.

By three years of age he understands and speaks it fluently enough to get by in almost any situations.

By six, he speaks it perfectly to his own environment.

If he's born in bilingual household where two languages are actually spoken, he speaks two languages. If three languages, then three - and so on, if not ad infinitum, at least as far as there are languages.

It is easier to teach a one-year-old a foreign language than it is to teach a seven-year-old.

That's because all tiny children are linguistic geniuses.

To be continued...

.
..
...
....
...
..
.

I'll stop at Chapter 9 first, don't want to drag this post too long. It took me almost 2-long-week to finish up the book.[almost 400 pages] (I'll read this during pumping sessions at the office :-) Discussion with MrJ is on going till now. At first we planned to start a systematic learning program for Nadirah by her 5th month birthday. But then, after reading these 2 books, we realized that we need more time to prepare for the learning materials. In addition, our Brillkid Little Reader has been upgraded into new, more versatile and more flexible software. Mummy and Abi has to familiarize with the software before we go on board. Fuhhhh.. So many things to do and we're working 8-5 at the same time! Anyhow, I truly enjoy this journey with Abi - priceless. [Nadirah, when you read this later, you'll know that Mummy and Abi really2 want you to success in life herein and hereafter. Mwahssss]

The books actually teach us details on how to design a practical program with our babies. How to teach your baby Math/Read/Encyclopedic Knowledge - although these topics are included in How to Multiply Your Baby's Intelligence, but the details, preparatory work need to be done are all fully outline in it's very own individual book.

Bought these two books at Kinokuniya. Now I've started reading the book on the left.

GDoman Gentle Revolution Series are suitable for all parents with babies or going-to-be parents. The current book I'm on [How Smart Is Your Baby?] is very very vital for parents-to-be so that they can prepare themselves and start developing and nurture the coming newborn up to his/her full potential. Start it early and start it smartly! It is a great book for pregnant Mummies!

If you're stuck,
or you think your baby is not learning enough,
or you have no idea where to start from,
or you're looking for a guideline to teach your baby,
or you don't know what to teach,
or you think your baby doesn't like the books/flashcard you bought,
or your budget is too tight to send your babies to expensive classes,

then,

these books are the best place for you to start soul-searching and finding the answers for all your questions about you and your baby. From their research, if we want to teach our baby almost anything, teach them before six. Even better before 3! And most optimal period from newborn to two :-)

We've been thinking that probably we can use Doman's method to teach our babies to read Al-Quran. Of course we can! We'll see what we can do and Insya-Allah we'll share our experience later. Wish us luck!

The best ever line in this book that I like is:

"The truth is that the raising of children is too important to be left to anyone other than mothers and fathers."


And Rasulullah has actually said it earlier:

Sabda Rasulullah :

Setiap bayi yang lahir itu dalam keadaan fitrah ( beragama Islam). Oleh itu terpulanglah kepada kedua ibu bapanya samada ingin menjadikannya Yahudi, Nasrani atau Majusi

Hadis riwayat Bukhari


Masya-Allah. May Allah bless our journey to bring up our children and later our grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren to be a true Muslim. Amin.

Smart Baby Reading @ 12 months


This video was taken when Felicity was 12 and a half months old.

Here's baby Felicity reading again, this time mainly reading the words out loud, like Daddy, Mommy, baby, ball, knee, cup, bubble, dog and some Chinese words.

No one had to force her (we do not believe in forcing!), and sometimes you can't drag her away from her books.

Note: When this video was taken, she did not know phonics, in that she either recognizes the word, or she doesn't. If your definition of "reading" means she must know phonics, then she doesn't know how to read. But then, that would also mean that people 'reading' languages such as Chinese do not know how to read either, because you either recognize the Chinese character(s) or you don't.

Having said that, we've found that the more a child is exposed to words (even if they are merely memorizing the words at first), they figure out the phonics rules for themselves intuitively and very quickly.

To learn more about teaching your baby to read, please visit http://www.brillbaby.com . In particular, check out the Little Reader reading software which was also used to help Felicity learn to read.


The Flu


Mummy is at her worst ever since I am around. She's now quarantined in Jasmine Jail. The flu visited Mummy yesterday while she was at work. She sneezes every 3s and coughing like frogs. Last night she kept pulling her hair due to constant headache. Alhamdulillah Abi came back yesterday for a course in KL. Else I'll be wearing the same wet CD all night. Thanks Abi for taking care both of us. You're the best! Pray for Mummy yah.

Monday, June 22, 2009

And now, the toes!

Yesterday nadirah was caught red-legged by Mummy. She was struggling pulling both her legs and trying hard to put her toes (right foot) down her throat. Still not quite accurate but she kept on trying and trying and I think she'll get there very soon.

Huarghh. Then thumbs, now toes, what's next?

And yes, my little professor has started scratching her head since Saturday. I know the world is suffering from economic crisis, green gas emission, human trafficking, drug smugglers etc etc but HnyB, chill out :-) There are lots of red marks on her head and Mummy was speechless staring at 'em.

Have to take photos of her doing head scratching and toes sucking. Cuteeee..

Nadirah, Mummy love you tho. But please, don't hurt yourself k. Mwahss.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

The book and I

Hello Prof! What are u up to?
I'm busy reading the encyclopedia, can't you see?

Bumbo Baby Seat


I'm eying on this at the mo!

Abi jom beli! At Mothercare, the price is RM199 and there's a sale now at TheBabyLoft. You can get the chair for RM139 only!

This is so helpful for our flash card session.

[Abi said mummy is like an NGO who always fight the right to buy more stuff for Nadirah.. TeeHee..^_^]

Read

These days, I enjoy reading tremendously. I feel so overwhelm and content whenever finished reading a book because they are many more exciting books on our shelf waiting for its turn to be read. I read everywhere -while nursing, pumping, trying to put HnyB to sleep, in LRT, before sleeping, etc and I read few books at a time; meaning that I didn't wait for one book to finish before starting a new one. At this moment, my favourite books are on how to develop baby's early learning program. Shall write on this topic later coz it's important to educate ourself on how to make learning fun for babies and it's all starting from home.

Last week we went to Borders at The Gardens.

Nadirah and Abi are sleeping. Yep, that's our snuggbaby MT!

Opah and K zan were there too.

Nadirah and her new friends..



Thanks Mummy and Abi for buying me more books. I love 'em all!



Nadirah in Prefold


Prefold = RM7.50 (newborn, pack of 6 RM45)
Diaper Cover, Little Coro = RM10
Snappy (optional) = RM3.75 (pack of 2 RM7.50)
Total Cost = RM21.25

Most important is..
.
..
...
They are recyclable,
Environmental friendly,
Gentle to the wallet,
And kind to the baby bum!
.
..
...
That was how we were brought up 27 years ago (before DD was around)
and all the mothers survived!
.
..
...

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Abi balik cepat!

Clockwise:
Tido - Menggeliat - Blur2 - Terjegil - Hello World! Mummy, my diaper is wet ^_^
(if you think my double chin is cute, you must see my mummy!)

Abi, we miss you. Balik cepat abi..!





Diaper Rash

Opah took care of her cucu sulong second week of the school holiday. The previous week, Nadirah was fully on CD coz I was all week (except for Friday) with her. Since Opah was not familiar with the CDing thingy, we then used DD for her during the day and when I came back after work, we changed back to CD.

Then.. diaper rash flared up on her bottom. I just have no idea why coz she's been using the same DD with Ibu. The condition worsen by day. We used tepung kanji and Angel's Baby Bottom Bum on her bum but the rashes didn't go away.

I suspected DD must be the culprit. I then made the most important decision that I never thought will be this soooon - HnyB Dearest, you'll be CDing 24/7 from now on!

It's tough tho. We just have 8 CDs. (My entry on our CDs collection is here) It won't be enuff coz I can't afford to do laundry every single day. I've bought Prefold (RM55 for 6 pieces) and Little Coro Diaper Cover (RM10) before Nadirah was born but never used them. Together with another Thirsties Diaper Cover (that I always use with Fitted Diaper) we are set to go. Ibu also agreed to use CD and she's so impressed and excited with the baby gears these days. Further, she's soooo kind Masya-Allah alhamdulillah coz she washed all the CDs that Nadirah has used with her during daytime. Alhamdulillah ^_^ Allah made the CDing journey easier than I expected.

Prefold of different sizes

So what's prefold? For newbies, Prefold is actually one of the easiest and economical way to start CDing without burning big holes as a start-up cost. Normally Prefold is sold in Pack of 6, price range between RM45 - RM75 for a pack. I bought mine here. They are actually quite small for my nadirah now since it is a Newborn Pack. The size is according to the bb weight. In short, Prefold is differ from normal Kain Lampin in such away that they are already fold for you. (that's how they get the name: pre-fold) Just use a diaper pin or Snappy to fasten the prefold. You can just let the baby's bottom breath without covering her bum with diaper cover especially if you're at home. Else, cover the prefold with diaper cover and the duo will now be as good as DD. Snappy is kewl by the way!
Snappy, RM7.50 for 2

Layer the prefold in Diaper Cover

And tada.. I'm ready to go, Mummy!

This is how I normally use Prefold for Nadirah.

Alhamdulillah, less than 3 days, the diaper rash disappeared little by little and completely rash-free after 5 days. :-) :-) :-) Oh yah, my best pal for combating rash is this..

Angel Baby Bottom Balm. It does wonder, insya-Allah.

If you wanna read more on prefold, click here. All the pictures are from that website. Yesterday MrJ has approved my online-shopping license! There's no turning back, Mummy has to procure more CDs in order to survive! (alasan..hehe) Inilah hasilnya.. hehe..

3 CrazyMomy CDs
Joy Angel - Breastmilk Storage Bags *7oz* (50 Bags)Joy Angel - Nursing Tea (200g/7oz) *Economy*

Prefold Deluxe and Snappy

Hopefully all will arrive in one piece tomorrow. *_*

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

5 months!

2 days young

5 months!

Happy 5 months birthday HnyB!
Mummy and Abi lurrveeeee you verrrryyy muchhh :* :* :*