Updates.

Grounding myself to work on two Montessori/school-related projects. One of which I will reveal in hopefully less than a month and the other would be worked on a weekly basis but I’m not sure how to implement it as I am drafting the idea and policies for it.

Many ideas many hats many triumphs!

Selling used things.

I am selling my used stuff (books, clothes, cds, dvds, vcds, souvenirs) and conducting a survey at Awesome Possum Bazaar booth 32 on

Dates: 4^th July 2009(Saturday)
Time: 11:00am to 8:00pm
Venue: Subang Square Shopping Gallery, SS15 Subang Jaya

I hope to add dosh into my Travel Piggy Bank from the sale. Initially, I wanted to sell my handmade accessories there but the my things are occupying a large part of my brother’s space, so I thought that it would be fair to pass on the things to the next owner to provide more space for my bro’s house and to salvage the abandoned things. I can always find another selling venue for my accessories.

So, don’t forget to bring friends and families on that day to enjoy maximum! And for more details visit http://awesomepossumbazaar.blogspot.com/

Childminder.

Reading an article in an early years magazine from UK, and this thought struck me all of a sudden.

It’s an article about celebrating National Childminding week in UK in mid-June, and the question that hit me was what is the definition and responsibility of a childminder, and any similar position here in Malaysia.

Registered Childminders are professional day carers who work in their own homes to provide care and education for other peoples children in a family setting offering a flexibility of service that is difficult to find in other provisions. – taken from Leighton Buzzard Childminding Association

Do take note of the word ‘registered’. And here they call them nanny, don’t they?

Registered childminders offer a flexible service in a family environment. All childminders are required by law to register with Ofsted. Police and Social Service record checks are carried out on the childminder and all persons over 16 living in the house. The childminders home is also checked for hygiene and safety. Bedfordshire childminders are required to attend training courses before registration. Registration is renewed annually, which involves an inspection of the childminders home by Ofsted to check that standards are maintained. Registered childminders must also have public Liability insurance.

Okay above is something  far-fetched from our local nannies, although no doubt their liability to look after young children is unlikely to differ much from the UK childminders. What I want to highlight is the seriousness and professionalism in child care conduct and codes in developed countries, and whether we should start to emulate this strictly here.

On a lighter note, I’m quite happy to know there are a few semiformal playgroups conducted by parents, taking turns to organise indoor and outdoor activities for the young ones.

Survey at PJ Civic Centre, Malaysia.

I am helping  a researcher friend to collect data on public’s knowledge about  Minggu Amanah Saham and basic financial knowledge on 13 June 2009, Saturday (8am- 5.45pm) at Petaling Jaya Civic Centre, in conjunction with a seminar to be held by the Malaysia Indian Business Association.

Do come and support me at the booth if you are around the corner. You won’t be going back empty handed. A lovely pen with clip and lanyard will accompany you home.

Back To Work.

I am starting to teach full time again in a school in Bangsar, Malaysia next Wednesday. Yeap, this time now I should be slaving my time, effort, blood and sweat there.

I am also looking for a room to rent nead Bangsar and Pusat Bandar Damansara.

Play dough Experiment- Day 5.

I have a confession to make- I don’t make good playdough that can last for months. So, this is a challenge and an experiment I set for myself. Today is the fifth day since I started making the playdough using a method found on the  internet. I’m sharing the recipe here with the readers.

Recipe

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup salt
• 1 tbsp cream of tartar
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 cup boiling water
• food colouring
• vanilla essence

Mix all the dry ingredients into a cooking pot or saucepan. Then, pour the boiling water into the mixture and stir with a wooden spoon. I find that it helps well for the dough to form by putting the pot on the hob under minimal heat, keep on stirring for 1-2 minutes until a mixture of mashed potato consistency is obtained.

The dough should be done by now and it can be very hot, so use the wooden spoon to knead the dough into one big ball. Leave it to cool.

When your hands are able to stand the dough’s heat, put a few drops of colouring and essence, continue kneading until you get a colored and scented ball of play dough.

Store in a tight container.

Now, this is where my dough experiment failed the last time for two reasons:

1. The dough was in the fridge for a whole week.
2. Nobody touched the dough for a whole week.

I was not able to monitor the consisteny of the play dough the last time because I made and gave it to somebody else. This time I made the play dough and kept half at my house so that I can see the changes, if there is.

Today is Day 5 and this is the dough.

Bonding, vital for development.

Parent-baby bonding begins right from conceiving period, during pregnancy time and continues after birth. When baby is born, the bond should be maintained between dad-mum-baby to reduce baby’s stress levels, to smoothen present and future communication and most important of all so that the baby feels secure in a safe and intimate environment.

A few strategies are listed here to help new parents maintain the bond with their babies;

1. Massage
2. Skin-to-skin contact
3. Maintain eye contact
4. Sling carrying
5. Talk to baby regularly
6. Dance, listen to music and sway together
7. Singing and rhyming
8. Cuddling up and reading a book
9. Bouncing and rocking games
10. Don’t rush bathing time. Do it gently and affectionately.

60sec video.

Remember a few months ago, job seekers around the world posted a one-minute video of why they should be hired as a caretaker for an island in Australia and gained popularity in all the social medias? Using the same concept, Montessori Foundation (USA) produced a video to promote Montessori education to the public. The short digital image was supposed to give a very short intro to Montessori.

• Do your children honestly love school?
• Are they eager and excited about learning?
• Are they getting the individual learning and challenged to do the best?

These are the questions I ask myself everyday as I enter and leave the school. Everyday,  I hope that a child has fulfilled the inner desire to learn something on that day. If not, I need to find a way to induce that need in the child by sowing the seed of curiosity, by planting some knowledge and by learning about the child through the carer or the child himself/herself. It is not easy to cater to every individual child’s educational need, but it is topmost essential.

International Montessori Convention 2009

I opened my email inbox today and read this exciting and appealing news from Carolyn:

This is the last call for participants for the above not to be missed event.

I just had a meeting with the event organizer and was told that so far they have managed to attract around 300 participants. Participants are not only coming from Malaysia but also from the around the region including India, Philippines, Japan etc. It will be nice to exchange ideas on how Montessori is practiced in other countries.

Pls find below details on the speakers taken from the conference website. Do note that there are two additional speakers from Netherlands and Australia. Their information will be posted on the conference website by early next week.

Malaysia
	Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Dr Yahaya Ibrahim Pro-Chancellor of Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris Dr Yahaya is the Pro-Chancellor of Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, a premier university for education programmes in Malaysia. He has devoted 50 years of his life to private and public education regionally and internationally, and has contributed greatly to the development of early childhood education and tertiary education.
USA
	Lee Havis Director of International Montessori Society, USA He is the founder of International Montessori Society based in the United States of America. Lee is a well-known personality in the Montessori arena and has also authored several books that are used widely by Montessori practitioners. Currently, Lee is also the Director of International Montessori Accreditation Council and International Montessori Trust.
Canada
	Janice Mayhew President of Montessori Worldwide, Canada Janice has both a BA (Hons.) and a M.Ed. degree as well as an advanced qualification in Montessori. She has been involved in Montessori education since 1974 and she conducts workshops and teacher education courses regularly. She is also the Teacher Education Director for LMS Montessori Teacher Ed Programme in Canada and is currently the President of Montessori Worldwide, Canada.
Singapore
	Thomas Chong Fellow of Stanford University, USA Thomas is a Fellow of Stanford University and is trained in education, psychology and curriculum development. He had served on the boards of international schools and kindergartens and is currently a member of the REACH Policy Workgroup on Education and Human Capital Excellence, Singapore. Being a curriculum developer he is not new to the field of Montessori education.
Malaysia
	Aisha Abdullah President of Montessori Association of Malaysia Aisha is a qualified Montessori practitioner who also holds a degree in law from the United Kingdom. She has also authored a book on Montessori and she is a person who fully support the rights of the child to play and echoes Dr Maria Montessori’s call to “heal the world” through our children and aim for peace in education. Aisha is also the founder of the Children’s Playhouse Group and is currently the President of Montessori Association of Malaysia.
Malaysia
	Ng Sau Pheng President of Malaysian Child Resource Institute Ng, fondly known as Mrs Liew, is an education consultant and trainer in early childhood education and care. She has been conducting numerous workshops, seminars and trainings for preshool teachers and parents including the first Training of Montessori Trainers Course in Malaysia. Mrs Liew is a qualified Montessori practitioner who also holds a masters degree in English Linguistics from the United Kingdom.

If you wish to participate in the conference at the special discounted rate for SEGi at RM312, pls contact me urgently. Attached is the registration form. The closing date for registration and payment is Tuesday 26 May 2009.

Please be reminded as well that Mr Lee Havis will be at SEGi College on 2 June for a one hour lecture from 530-630pm. Again, kindly contact me to confirm your participation in the event as well as places are limited.

SEGi mail currently has problems going out to Yahoo and Hotmail. Do help us to share this piece of good news to your friends, colleagues and anyone else whom you think would enjoy finding out more about the Montessori method.

Act NOW to attend both talks. I’m sure you won’t lose a thing!

Seminar For Care Givers Of Children With Special Needs

Yesterday,the Rotary Club of Melawati helped parents, caregivers, teachers and other interested parties to share and bucket a load of knowledge by inviting medical practitioners and psychologists on the topics related with special children.

The very generous speakers were:

• Mary Easaw – Chief Dietician
• Paul Jambunathan – Clinical Psychologist
• Rajini Sarvananthan – Paeditrician
• Jochebed Isaacs – Clinical Psychologist, supervisor at Early Autism Project Malaysia
• Subash Kumar – Child Psychiatrist

The seminar was an excellent pool of crowd as information, emotions and the load of huge responsibilities as well as guilt of not-giving-enough or don’t-know-how-to-give spurted from one parent to another. As one parent said, “Once a person starts to become a parent, the responsibility lingers until the end of one’s life.”

I attended this event as I have just started to volunteer at a special children daycare centre. A few attendees were quite impressed with the indefinite reason of my attendance. However, if Montesorians remember the very early working years of Dr.Maria Montessori, she worked at a Psychiatric Clinic with mentally deficient children in insane asylums in Rome at the end of the 19th century. Hence, I am hoping that by emulating the steps of the doctor herself, I can to a certain extent relate and understand or further discover the ’secret’ of another childhood’s world.

And above all, probably I would reveal something about myself?!