The Silver Lining

It was really difficult to get a new school placement elsewhere for Batrisyia this time around. This was what I fear most. Oh dear. Oh dear.

I went to P@rk H0use. Near to my house. They refuse to even give me a form. Even the waiting list is long, they said.

Then I went to @l-J@zeera International school. Yup! Just like the station. Also near to my house. I am in Q@tar afterall, where the station is located. Nope no more place.

This one. C@mbridge. Near to my house. Also full.

C@mbridge girls. FULL! But they allowed us to put her name in the waiting list. It must be because we took hours to get there. Man! The way they do not have a system for their address and road maps!

Ms. Amyl gave me a number though of another school. Funny. I wondered why I never get this school hit on google. I thought it was so small, it didn't have a web page. But it did. Here.

Anyway you must have figured by now that she is accepted to this school. Alhamdullilah. She was called for an assessment day. She stayed in the class of kids her age for a few hours and did activities with them. Teacher, who is Turkish but speak French fluently, asked her questions, ask her to sing, count, random alphabets and play. Which was easy for any kid. She passed. Hooray!

The thing is, in this school she will be going to reception (pra sekolah) instead of Year 1. No wonder such easy assessment.

I asked them so many times why the difference in the system. They looked at me silly and said we are following Br1tish curriculum. But Haziq's school is also a British school (roll eyes) and Batrsyia is suppose to be in Year 1 there.

I talked to Sya's teacher, and she said by all means go ahead. Eh? You see, the truth is, Sya's class is lagging behind by three months. UH?! A week after Sya came in, her teacher got sick and finally quit teaching. The class was out of teacher for a month. Then came a new one, and Sya left for Malaysia. Apparently even that teacher left. Now the class has even a newer teacher. Which in a way is a blessing because otherwise Batrisyia would be the only one left behind compared to her peers.

But..what three months behind? Should I sue the school?

But that is a blessing really. It would give her more time to adjust to the system. English, reading and all. In the other school (the one who rejected her), would actually be tougher. Look at Haziq's english work. My, I think it is tough and wondered if Haziq doing okay about it.

It's a smaller school as well, thus teacher has more time. And the scoop is they are getting a new principal. The one from the school that I wanted to enrol the kids in the first place. I have met her when I visited that school. I must say I am excited and hope that she would bring in ever better changes to the school.

And ok ok. Since the teacher are giving us list of words that they want the kids to be able to recognise and books to assist them to it, I am paying more attention to her.

But oh Lord! Grant me patience for mine is as thin as an onion's skin.

I am trying to mix phonics and word recognition. For instance today she learned the word "end". After a few repetitions, she can say "end". That's word recognition. Add a "B" in front it would make "bend". I asked her to say the sound of B. That's phonics. So she would go beh, beh, beh and end. She would go beh-end. And together what is it Sya? Instead of saying bend, she said beh-end. I told her bend. She said bend. Tried again, she said beh-end. AAGGGHHhhhhhhhhh!

Of course after a while with lots of shouting, she picked up her momentum. Then she forgot the sound of the letter "b" or "m" or some other supposedly easier stuff. I tell you.

Again Oh Lord! Grant me patience! Bestow me with your blessing of patience.

But I must say she is progressing and seem to pick up the habit of reading anything even during eating. This is perhaps because I ignored the kids during eating and would read the papers. (Even the news of Tun going to Malaysia Kini was in the papers here). Sya reads the milk carton. At least she spells stuff like M-I-L-K. I said milk. Then she looks for more M-I-L-K and shouted MILK!

I see silver lining though.

Can you feel the ray?