Memory booster for your kids with rosemary essential oil

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I love to roast – especially my all time favourite rosemary chicken that hubby and Afzal simply love to the bone bits. In fact, it is an easy weekend treat, but also a great platter for welcoming and entertaining guests. I love the aroma and the taste of the rosemary herb. It has a wonderful depth of aroma and taste, but also very bright, uplifting and almost sweet.

Now the great part is, rosemary essential oil is also known to strengthen one’s mental capacity. It has a pronounced effect on the brain, as it helps to increase blood flow. Therefore, it has a reputation as an excellent brain stimulant as well as boosting memory. Further, it also helps with headaches, migraines, neuralgia, mental fatigue and nervous exhaustion. Since it increases the circulation to the scalp, it is also very good in promoting hair growth.

Because of its skin regenerative properties, rosemary essential oil is also used in some skincare products for troubled skin like puffiness, swelling, acne, dermatitis and eczema. However, it is noted that it should not be used during pregnancy and unsuitable for people with epilepsy and high blood pressure.

Rosemary essential oil blends particularly well with Cedarwood, Citronella, Geranium, Lavender, Lemongrass and Peppermint.

With such memory enhancement properties, I’m sure a little dose of this essential oil while your child is studying, reading or doing mental arithmetic will help to improve your kids’ mental capacity. That aside, I’m sure it will also provide a nice, warm and pleasing environment for learning. Wouldn’t you want that for your children?

Now, for only 7 days, I'm offering a 100ml rosemary essential oil for only S$60. Retail is usually between S$18.50 to $S20.50 for a 10ml bottle. Imagine, the average savings of about S$130! You wouldn't want to miss this special.

Other essential oils I have to offer is country rose, lavender, ginger and lemongrass blends, lemongrass, grapefruit and sweet orange.

Free delivery within Singapore. Submit your orders to mariaandtahir@gmail.com. Orders will be processed once a fund transfer of 50% has been made to one of the following account:
DBS: 029-0-028080 POSB: 084-87540-6 OCBC: 553-0-055416

Balance of 50% will be cash on delivery. Once you have made a fund transfer, please email mariaandtahir@gmail.com or sms to 8102-8487. This offer is good up to 24 June 2010. So hurry, don’t miss this opportunity! Only S$60 for a 100ml bottle!

Calming your kids with lavender essential oil

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One of my favourite scents is lavender. It's sweet floral-herbaceous scent that comes with a slight woody undertone is a must-have for me as I used lavender scent all the time as my fabric softener. Also, there is always a can of lavender scent spray either at home or in the car.

Lavender is grown at high altitude mainly from the mountainous region of France. This fragrant essential oil is nearly colourless and blends well with most oils, especially citrus like Sweet Orange, florals like Ylang Ylang and Geranium, and with woody scents like Cedarwood, and Pine.

According to one scientific study, lavender has the ability to help restful, deep sleep and what you can do, is to simply diffuse lavender essential oil in your bedroom or just sprinkle a few drops on the sheets for this calming and relaxing effect.

This is definitely helpful after a long day, especially when trying to get your kids to calm down and have a good night sleep. Applying directly to your kids'feet can have a wonderful relaxing effect on your little tikes. Or you may just add one drop under the pillow for children.

You too can enjoy a nice foot bath with a few drops of lavender oil. It helps to relieve fatigue and stress for you and the significant other. Also, keeping a small bottle of lavender oil with you throughout the day and in the car is a wonderful accompaniment especially when dealing with stressful and challenging situations with your children. It helps to calm both you and your kids and make your day relax, calm and enjoyable.

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For all its benefits, I'm offering a 100ml of lavender essential oil for only S$60. Retail is usually about $20.50 for a 10ml bottle. Imagine, the savings of about S$140! You wouldn't want to miss this very special offer.

Other essential oils I have to offer is country rose, ginger and lemongrass blends, lemongrass, rosemary, grapefruit and sweet orange.

Free delivery within Singapore. Submit your orders to mariaandtahir@gmail.com. Orders will be processed once a fund transfer of 50% has been made to one of the following account:
DBS: 029-0-028080 POSB: 084-87540-6 OCBC: 553-0-055416

Balance of 50% will be cash on delivery. Once you have made a fund transfer, please email mariaandtahir@gmail.com or sms to 8102-8487. This offer is good up to 24 June 2010. So hurry, don’t miss this opportunity! Only S$60 for a 100ml bottle!

Genius in the making

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I've blogged about Glenn Doman before, and am using some of its methods now, though not fervently. I have also purchased the encyclopaedic materials from The Institute of Human Potential from the US, and that sets me back by a hefty hundred dollars. Recently, however, I've discovered the GeniusMaker which is a downloadable software that has words, pictures, dot cards and more. It is a flashcard programme similar to Glenn Doman, and perhaps the Shichida method if you have heard of him.

Truth be told, I don't quite appreciate the Shichida method as compared to Glenn Doman. This was because when I went to the Shichida parent seminar about 8 years ago when Afzal was about 2 years old, I was quite put off by some remarks and comments made by the lady owner who brought Shichida to Singapore. And besides, I am wary of methods that used some form of hypnosis in wanting to reprogram your child's brain. Some Shichida parents may not agree with me but there would also be other parents who don't quite agree with the flashcard program.

I do believe that flashcard program works, as I know of people who have used the Glenn Doman methods, and their children's success are testimony that Glenn Doman works. However, in raising our children to be gifted and geniuses, we have to incorporate other creative strategies in nurturing our kids. And to me, flashcard is just one of the many workable methods or tools in nurturing our young kids.

I have not bought the GeniusMaker but I am wondering whether I should cos it is very affordable and will be a good investment for Aqil and perhaps more bubs in the future. I'm sure it takes away the many hours of trying and struggling to make some of the resources myself, and these self-made resources may not come cheap. This software is also usable in the school environment, so if anyone has a preschool, the GeniusMaker could be one of the tools used in the preschools, and I really hope that our Malay/Muslim based preschools might consider using this software as well.

Click here to find more about the GeniusMaker.

I need time management!

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My firstborn is 10 years old this year, and he is mid-way into his primary four education (aka grade 4).

Since he is out of the zero to nine years age range, the age range of 'early childhood', well, I can safely say that Afzal is into his middle childhood. Now, what does that mean?

It just mean one thing for me. His mathematics subject is getting harder, and it is definitely a steeper learning curve this year, not only for him but for me. On top of the mathematics, there's the science that is a lot more demanding this year.

The problem sums are getting more complicated, and there are layers of layers of problems to solve before you even arrive to the actual answer that the question wants. My speciality has always been early childhood maths, and now I realize  that I am not as productive as I could be in assisting him with this middle-hood maths.

I have reliquished my teaching role to the hubby, partly maths is getting a bit too complicated for me. It has been less fun to teach without using manipulatives and hands-on materials, because at primary four, there's very little creativity involved in the teaching. Maybe I have not researched enough how to solve the problem sums more creatively.

And partly we have an addition to the family, our 2nd born son. As a growing baby, Aqil needs attention, and at 6 months, he already knows whose attention he wants to seek. ;P And now I am re-starting my early childhood strategies cycle once again this time on Aqil.

It's going to be an exciting ride ahead! With the trials that Afzal had gone through with me, I definitely have a better idea of what, how, why, and when to do things with Aqil, I surely hope so. But one thing that I have to remember is that every child is different, but every child has the potential to learn anything and everything. And in order for Aqil to maximise learning, it really depends on me as the parent to nurture and harness his capacity. However, it is always so easy to get sidetracked and distracted with the daily grind of life.

As a working mother who only wants the best for her kids and our lives ahead, I have to keep reminding myself that my children are only young once. If I missed that moment, that opportunity, that milestone, it will never, ever come back to me. So, this reminder is for me to spend my time wisely with my children. Time management! is key to my sanity as a working mum!

The Beauty of Mathematics

As I was chatting with Adib's sister, H, and was tinkering with the idea of a mommy's meet up to chat about good parenting on our kids, she mentioned that her brother, Adib is in town, and would be glad to contribute to the Malay community. Carpe Diem! So, the next thing I know, together with a colleague of mine who was a former Mendaki staff, we arranged and managed to get Mendaki's fast response and agreement to have Adib share about the beauty of mathematics with Mendaki tuition kids at Damai Primary School on 23 January 2010.



Adib shared his love for mathematics, and why and how he sees patterns and art in mathematics, all the more making the subject less numeric but more creative should I say. And to top it all, his parents has also kindly agreed to share their parenting tips with parents of the Mendaki tuition kids.



For more photos, click here.

Another genius in our midst

Image from here.

Aren't we inspired that there is another genius in our midst?

At 13 years of age, Muhammad Haikal Abdulllah Zain scored A star for his 'O' Level Physics, Chemistry and Biology that he sat for last year in the International General Certficate in Secondary Education (IGCSE). This gifted education programme boy from Rosyth Primary School and NUS High School of Mathematics and Science has applied to the National University of Singapore to read medicine. He also sat for the 'A' level Maths paper and got an A.

For his PSLE, he scored 274 points out of 300 in the Primary School Leaving Examination. Now it seems that Haikal's younger brother may just follow his footsteps. Muhammad Farhan who is now a primary 6 pupil at Rosyth and similarly a Maths Olympiad like his elder brother, also scored three A stars and one A in the IGCSE exams last year. Now why would he need to take his PSLE this year anyway?

Born to housewife mother, Salha Abdat, 39, and a director of an engineering company father Abdullah Zain, 40, we do not know much else about this family though I sense that his dad is someone familiar in the Malay business community. Now, aren't we all interested on what the parents did to create such geniuses in their children? I hope Berita Harian, Suria and other oganisations will do something - a report, a tv programme, a radio talkshow, a community outreach seminar, a workshop - so as to create this education ripples or revolution in the community. It's too good to miss, and I can only suspect that it has to do with GD and many other strategies. For one, Haikal's interests include chess and computer programming. He also holds a Grade 8 certificate in violin and practises taekwondo, most of which are very pro-GD traits.

Since 'parents' is part of the equation for our children's academic performance, I'm sure we are interested to know what Madam Salha and Mr Abdullah Zain did right in their children's education department. Also, according to the report, Haikal was inspired by Ainan Cawley's ability in scoring a C for Chemistry at 7 years of age, that he felt he can also sit for the exams and get As. Now, that's what "idols" are for. If one boy (Haikal) is inspired by another (Ainan), we need more publicity for all the "idols" in our community, don't we?

Motivation is the product of success

... and it is not the other way around, suggests Glenn Doman of "How smart is your baby?"

If we are successful, we will be motivated to do even better. If we keep failing, we would not even want to do it again.

If we want our children to be motivated, they need to feel successful in whatever they are doing.

Have our Malay children taste enough success in their lives? Or once they start school, that's the beginning of their 'feel like a failure' journey because of the highly publicised fact that 'Malays are a failure at mathematics and/ or academic performance'?

How should parents make their child feel successful?

Does parents especially of low socio-economic status feel that they are already a failure at parenting or that their lives are already so pre-determined to be doomed that they are not motivated to believe that there are better futures?

Why do we often make parents feel like a failure for our underperformance in mathematics?

Because failure begets de-moralisation and de-motivation.

Just some random thoughts this week that are circling in my head.

Professionalizing the teachers

I saw the Malay news last night and read in Berita Harian this morning about the graduation of 24 madrasah teachers who have completed a professional diploma degree in education at NIE. MUIS, or the Islamic Council of Singapore, invested in these asatizahs so they are better equip and better able to teach their students using current pedagogy. As we all know, the madrasahs have to attain a certain standard in the PSLE exams for their students in order to continue its operations, and therefore an important aspect to achieving this is the professional development of its teaching personnel.

There you go, syabas MUIS for the investment! Mr Alami Musa, who is the head of MUIS, believes that pedagogy in the education sector is very dynamic and continually changing, and this professional development has to continually continue. And I totally agree with this.

May I suggest if MUIS could also look into the professional development of its preschool teachers in the mosque-based kindys? I know that MCYS is accountable to this, but I'm sure we want to do more to help our children attain better in education and maths, and one way is to invest in its teaching personnel in the preschools with current early childhood pedagogy especially in the area of mathematics. We have to start earlier and younger, right?

The T & T of things

A aquaintance once told me about what her teacher friend remarked, "I teach 40 kids in school but I neglect my own children."

And the reason given for the above neglect is that "teaching is a demanding job". This is because it is not true teachers only work from 7am - 2pm but definitely longer than that and it is not true that teachers can take on long holidays during the school holidays, they still have to come to school for meetings, plannings and so on.

It seems oxymoron when a teacher who is also a parent cannot even teach her own children. There are many other working parents out there, who are juggling work and parenthood, some with equally demanding careers if not more. If we could readily point fingers at some parents for our children underperformance in education, what can we say about parents who are teachers, and who are supposedly having the skills to teach. Now, the teacher parent says, "it is not the same teaching your own kids and other people's kids." But of course, this is only one example that I came across. Most of my teacher friends have well-educated children.

Are we to blame all parents for our Malay children low performance in mathematics, or at least analyse another possible cause - ie. the missing algebra - teachers and their teaching instruction, the T & T of things.

When I had to choose a primary school for my kid, I met with the principal of my intended school, and his first question is "Is your child able to read?" He went on to say that if your child is not reading by the time he comes to my school, he will struggle.

Now, now, now, what is he hinting at? What is the purpose of going to school, in the first place? Isn't it to give my child an education?

A colleague who is a professor said that "it is to get educated", and I do agree. But in real life and in Singapore's schools, we want children who come to primary one to be school-ready, to be well-prepared and are less forgiving if the child comes to school not knowing his ABCs and 123s.

The role of schools these days is not of educating the child, it seems, but of making the life of teachers easier teaching well-prepared kids and the status of the principals elevated because their students are achieving better all because some parents have fully prepared and educated their children at home, or paying exorbitant fees to private operators for pre-primary preparatory programs. But not all parents can afford the fees. And for some parents, who is like the teacher above, do at times find it a struggle to be working and then coming home and teaching their own kids. Now, if she, an educated parent, because she is a trained teacher but also has problems nurturing her own children, how do you make sense of all other parents especially those who are low income, low education, untrained in teacher training, lack many skills - parenting included, lack know-how to teach their children and/or struggling to make ends meet? Don't these parents find it a bigger struggle to teach their children at home?

Children in Finland attend school only at age 7 but they are ahead in Singapore as the top performing school systems in the world and the reason being, Finland recruit only the top 10% of graduates as compared to 30% in Singapore to become teachers and most have a master qualification (McKinsey,2007). The status of teaching and teacher is equitable to that of a doctor or lawyer and therefore qualified personnel are willing and want to be teachers in Finland.

I believe MOE and NIE are working towards growing a bigger pool of master-qualified teachers in years to come, but I'm more concerned about our preschools - the Malay- and mosque-based typed which I can safely say have very few highly qualified T and T. I do wonder what are the criterias for teacher recruitment and selection in our Malay- and mosque-based kindys as well as the teaching instructions in these schools?

We need quality and qualified teachers/principals in our preschools. We need teachers who think about their teaching - having the right skills and metacognition in teaching the right pedagogy of early childhood maths. And as much as we feel that our Malay children feel lowly and anxious about doing maths, do our preschool teachers also feel the same way when they teach maths? Do our teachers have maths-anxiety when it comes to teaching maths?

I recommend reading Constance Kamii Teachers need more knowledge of how children learn maths and many of her articles about how the young minds process numbers and think about numbers, and how teachers (or parents) should try to understand the way our young process maths and number, and therefore teachers need the skills, knowledge, pedagogy and metacognition of mathematical learning and thinking. And I have to reiterate this, as most community leaders think that maths is about practice, practice, practice but in the early years, it's about logical thinking. And Constance Kamii clearly expound teachers nurturing logical thinking to their students. How is it done? Well, teachers, you need to read to find out!

Solving Maths Problems: The Confidence Factor by Ng Swee Fong believes that teachers' confidence factor in maths will also influence the way they teach mathematics. If teachers themselves express high anxiety in solving maths, they may be doing a disservice to their students. Though the research is with primary teachers, it is applicable to all teachers. If some primary teachers have confidence issues, what's more preschool teachers - trained or untrained in early childhood education? What's more parents - with high education or low - since most of us are not trained teachers in the first place.

Another paper of interest to our community leaders should be the following "Do Chinese and Malay students report different ways of studying mathematics?" and therefore, if there are different ways of studying, should teachers have different ways and strategies of teaching the maths espcially if the Chinese kids get it, and the Malay kids don't. When the Malay kids don't, can we stop to think that perhaps we need to teach another way so that they get it. Again, T and T?

Get it?

Of "idols" and nurturing giftedness

Once upon a time, a parent told me that she thought her child is bad at mathematics, but his cousins, who could not solve the same problems, are in fact worst off than him. In that sense, she said, my child is not so bad after all.

Well, that's not much of a role model to be comparing with. In this family of low-attainers, where bright sparks do not run even in their closest relations, they don't get much inspiration and aspiration to succeed. With no role models to emulate, they don't even think that their children can be smart like other children. To this family, the smarts are the others, it could not be them.

Now, can we nurture a child to be smart, bright and of course, gifted? Or is giftedness a gift from God, and that a child's intelligence is predestined by the time he or she is born?

We all know the old adage that a child is like a white canvas and it is up to the parents to colour it. Colour it right, and you'll get a masterpiece. The problem is not all parents are great painters, but even if we are not great painters, we can create abstract art, isn't it? Abstract art is subjective, it may not be of value to one collector but it could fetch millions for another.


The "idol" number 2 that I'd like to introduce is Natasha Nabila. At the end of 2007's PSLE results, Natasha is a top PSLE scorer. She is also the nation's first student who held such an outstanding score of 294, short of 6 to make it a perfect score in PSLE's 17 year history. Natasha is Malay, and her success has made the Malay community very proud. We should make Natasha a great role model for our children.

Is Natasha naturally gifted or are there some things that her parents have done to nurture her giftedness? Perhaps, Natasha may have the smart genes, but her "A" level parents also gave her a headstart.

When her mother was pregnant with Natasha, she and her husband read fairy tale every night to unborn Natasha.

At 3 months old, her parents bought her an encyclopaedia. Even if Natasha cannot read, I'm sure her parents are reading the encyclopaedia to her.

At 2 years old, Natasha is already reading on her own.

And Natasha also plays the piano and violin and is in her primary school's Scrabble Club. This Gifted Education Programme student cited consistent work and love for reading as secrets of her success. Natasha also has good time management and a supportive home environment. Her mother, Zaharah Othman will switch off the tv when it is time to study, and they have special time dedicate just for reading which is usually before bedtime.

Even if Natasha is naturally gifted, her parents nurture her giftedness such that she achieved unprecedented performance in the PSLE's exams.

My 'idol' number 3 is Ainan Cawley, who at age 6 has taken his Chemistry exams at 'O' level, and is simply a genius at the subject. This child prodigy of mixed Malay and British parentage is unmistakably naturally gifted, but his parents do not simply let him be. They still strive to nurture his natural and exceptional abilities in the sciences and at the same time create the environment and opportunities to further hone his gifts.

Aren't we inspired by these 'idols' in our community? Don't we want to emulate them - the kids and the parents? Don't we want to nurture our own children to giftedness? Don't we want our own 'blood idols'?

Rather than think we can't, or the smarts are the others, we should think we can, and that our children can be one of the smarts. After all, trying something and persevering is better than not doing anything. Even if our child may not be academically gifted, he or she may be gifted in other areas, and we hope that he or she will be brilliant enough to sail smoothly through school and life, with some heardstart from us, parents.

We need "Idols"

... not of the Singapore or American Idol singing sensation type but "idols" or role models of successful Malays that our young children can look up to and emulate. So here is one "idol" or role model I'd like to introduce to inspire our children and our Malay community, and I hope he and his family do not mind the sharing. It is meant for a good cause.

Photo by Michael Clayton-Jones taken from this site.











A Berita Harian commentator mentioned him in his article as "Duta" (ambassador) for maths, but there was no profile of who or what this person pictured above is all about.

At the time the picture was taken in 2005, Adib Surani was only 17 years old but he was the top student in the whole of Victoria, Australia. Adib Surani is Malay, Muslim and hailed from Singapore. The Age, an Australian paper regarded him as a Maths whiz, and that he is one of the top brains in maths in Australia for a child his age. Currently he is an undergrad with the University of Melbourne majoring in pure mathematics.

While in Singapore, Adib attended Raffles Institution. You may think that he is naturally and highly gifted, but I also believe that it is nurture that help him achieve remarkable performance in maths. What little I know about his family is that his parents, pious and God-fearing, also practice Glenn Doman on their children.

Just google Glenn Doman, and you can read about him and his methods of teaching children. In fact, there are various Singapore websites dedicated to parents who practice GD, and other methods on their children.

I was first introduced to Glenn Doman about ten years back when a colleague at that time, Encik AR lend me the book "How to multiply your baby's intelligence" by Glenn Doman. He said it really worked because his wife, late Aunty Z, who is a homemaker, practiced GD on their only son, and their son is a scholar with an Ivy League university.

Another Malay/ Muslim family I met about five years back also practice GD on their children. Their eldest daughter is a PhD holder, and one of their sons at that time was in a gifted education programme with Rosyth School.

There are other methods in teaching our young effectively not only GD, but I am introducing GD because of what I have seen happening to some families like Adib who practices them. GD can be hardwork for the parents but if one perseveres, the rewards though not seen immediately will bear fruits later.

Though I was introduced to GD, I did not persevere and practice it fervently as at the time my first son was born, I was a working mother who work erratic hours and I simply could not do the three times a day flashing of cards, though I made some of the cards myself. However I improvised, and played some flashcard games with my son during the weekends with him. My method was not GD, but sort of GD-like. As parents, we have to get creative in teaching our children since I cannot follow through the strict principles behind GD.

My son is not in the gifted education programme but at primary four, I think he is doing alright in his studies and we keep working with him on his maths and other subjects.

Now, my question is, if GD methods really work, and could potentially benefit some families, why not "Glenn Domanised" some of our education programme for our community? If not all, perhaps our preschools could also use some of GD methods in their curriculum.

We should have workshops and seminars for parents on GD on a large scale. We should purchase or make the materials to be used for our "at risk of failing" families. We should do it now, and we should get parents to prepare even when their child is in the womb.

The revolution has to start now! Just look at Adib. I'm sure we want success stories like him.

The equation is missing an 'algebra'

According to Berita Harian, 20 December 2009, the cause of Malay students underperformance in mathematics is attributed to the following:-

Lack strong foundation + Lack Parental Support + Lack discipline = Underperformance in maths

Understandably, there is truth to this equation but I felt that it is missing an additional 'algebra'.

We are quick to point out that many of those who lack strong foundation are those kids that were not sent to preschool, thus it is definitely the parents to blame for having such a lackadaisical attitude and for not having the mindset that early years learning is super important. Thus, it has been reiterated many times, and by every community leaders and even the media that parental interest, support, motivation and ambition are extremely crucial in nurturing the basic foundation in maths.

Now, I am just wondering for those who did not do well or have failed maths in this year's PSLE results, how many of these children did go to preschool - at least 2 to 3 years of preschool education? I would really be interested to know the numbers, and if possible even the preschools they attended.

Why am I curious to know?

I read a report on the best-performing school systems in the world, and it cited that the best-performing school systems emphasised the quality of its teachers and instruction (McKinsey, 2007). In other words, for every child to perform outstandingly and to succeed, these countries which include Singapore, do not underestimate the qualification of its teachers and the way subjects are taught by them.

Based on the above report, Singapore has one of the best-performing school systems in the world. However, I'm just thinking, whether this best performance trickle down to the early years schools ie. preschools. Our preschools, though regulated by MOE, do not have to come under its direct administration. And furthermore, I believe, by and large, besides PCF kindergartens, most of our Malay children attend preschools by private Malay-owned, Malay voluntary organisations and mosque-based kindergartens. I do not want to make baseless assumptions but I am just questioning whether in our Malay and mosque-based preschools, do we have truly qualified teachers and excellent instruction?

There is some kind of regulation that in each preschool there is at least a minimum number of teachers with early childhood diploma amidst the certificates. However, do we have teachers who have degrees - bachelors and masters in our Malay and mosque-based kindys? Do these teachers have continual professional development to enhance their teaching?

All this relate to another thing. Again, $$$.

You see, the fees for many Malay and mosque-based kindys are in the range of $90 to $130 per month, and yet many Malay parents cannot afford or lament that it is still expensive. How much can you pay your teachers if your school fees are such? How qualified can your teachers be if you are not able to pay your teachers well? And if your school fees are such, do you have quality curriculum and materials?

Now, if raising the school fees is not an attractive option, what else can be done to improve the quality of teachers and instruction in our Malay and mosque based kindys?

This is one area that our community leaders could and should look into. Beside all that I have mentioned above, the community leaders should also look into whether the preschools have the right pedagogy to teach early childhood maths in an effective and efficient manner?

In this time and age, the buzz word in the education sector is professional development. We need teachers who are highly qualified who go through various professional development courses so as to deliver quality instruction. Even if the curriculum is below par, a teacher with high qualification and excellent knowledge, pedagogy, capacity and instruction will be able to take one more child up the learning ladder.

And I hope I have many who will agree with me on this.

Let's look at a case study reported on the same newspaper on the same day. The paper reported a girl who failed her PSLE maths last year and had to repeat her primary six again this year. The equation on the headline for her looks like this:-

Don't Understand + Not interested = Not Passing.

According to the news report, Girl, who is 12 and shy, admitted that she does not understand what her teachers taught her, and as a result she is not interested in the subject. She has not gotten more than 40 marks since primary 3, meaning she has been failing the subject since then.

According to girl's mom, she is not able to teach her maths, but is able to motivate her to practice. She also buys her workbooks and encourages her to practice at least one page a day. However, girl still don't quite understand how to do her worksheets. Mom added that she sends girl to tuition classes by Mendaki and AMP, and extra classes in school.

It is without a doubt that if you don't understand something, you will not have interest in it. And if you have no interest, your mind will drift away while in class and you just don't do well in it.

Whether or not this child go to preschool, we do not know, but what we know is that her basic foundation in maths is totally weak. Her mom admitted that she does not have the skills to teach her child maths, but if this child keeps saying that she does not understand maths, despite the tuition at Mendaki, AMP and extra classes in school, what should we do? Should we keep pressing her to practice, practice, and practice without understanding?

Let's face it. This child needs help beyond mere practicing and parental motivation. Does she have good teachers and good instruction in her preschool, school and tuition classes? Her teachers must not only teach but need to assess her strengths and weaknesses and come up with appropriate strategies and instruction for her so that she is able to learn efficiently and effectively and thus leads to understanding the math.

Her parents could have done more when the child is not performing at p1 and p2 rather than wait till p3. By now, it may seem a little too late, but before we lose hope, let's try another 'untested' avenue.

There are already many educational centres that claim accelerated learning and some even advertise how the students who enrol in their programme is able to turn an "F" grade into an "A" grade. We hope her parents will be able to send her to such a programme. Eventhough there is no guarantee, there is the hope - the hope of a higher grade and the hope that the low self-esteem in herself and maths is lifted and she will be more positive and believe that she can and will score in maths. If money is a problem to send her kid to such a program as the cost is quite high, please seek help from your MP, and the MP must give it a try - either offer her the financial aid or get the centre to sponsor the child in their programme.

We need this sort of rags to riches story - from an F to an A grade, to boost the morale of our community as well as to boost our statistics. Thus, both equations must not miss out on the importance of teachers' quality and their instructions as well as curriculum and materials in our preschools.

Whose problem is it?

When I was doing my master in early childhood education in the year 2004, I had to write a paper based on a research project that I did. The paper "How to teach low-income Malay parents mathematics to their K2 children" was an unpublished report, but I gave a copy to Mendaki, as Mendaki assisted me and my research partner by giving us four families to research on.

I don't know whether the paper was ever read, or made any significant impact to Mendaki. Having four case studies is definitely not a significant sample size, but it was enough to draw some interesting conclusions. In fact, the families that we had to work with were not really low-income. At that time, they were known as the "new poor", a term coined by our community leaders to reflect those breadwinners who have lost their job during the economic downturn.

In my report, I also reported some previous research done by Mendaki, AMP and Sinda especially in the 80s. Apart from the similar problems like low income, low education, big family size, small flat, Sinda also reported structural problems in our education system. The report by Sinda, if I can remember correctly, was spearheaded by Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

When Mr Tharman became the minister for education, I believed he made significant changes to the education policies. Perhaps it was his way of removing some of the structural problems that his team had identified in the report. I felt that during his reign, he actually created many new opportunities and paths for the diverse abilities and talents in Singapore. I believed he understood that "no one size fits all", and that not everyone is gifted academically and being talented in other areas like the arts and sports should be considered a gift as well. Now, by removing some of these structural problems in the education policies, Mr Tharman allowed low-attainers and low-scorers to have other avenues to move forward. He did not do it simply to create opportunities for his Indian community but for all low-achievers in this country. Now, the Indians have made significant progress in the range of 70% passes in mathematics but we have not. Why is that so?

Let's remove the racial categorisation for a while, and figure what should and could be done to these low-achievers. Isn't it a national problem rather than a racial problem eventhough the profile of these low-achievers are somewhat large in the Malay community? What should our ministry of education do to make the number of low-achievers small, and the drop-out rate even smaller?

Whose problem is it? A national or a racial one? Let's not even bother to point fingers but let's work on this education problem of the low-achievers together.

Let's think like Nadim

When I was a television producer some many years ago, I produced the drama series entitled 'Anak Metropolitan'. It's about our young who were involved in gangs.

This serie caused an unprecedented polemic in the Malay community. We were accused for airing our community's bobrok-ness publicly. It stirred our community leaders and our fellow Malay citizens and we were congratulated as well as fired for creating such a show. The show was not merely about our creativity but based on some research that we have done about our community. We showed what was really happening out there but our community could not accept the truth.

Now, sweeping things under the carpet is not going to solve the problem. And again, the hot news these days in the Malay press is about the state of bobrok-ness of some of our Malays. And it was not because of some television programmes, but the airing of grief by our minister for Malay/Muslim affairs, Dr Yaacob Ibrahim. He was grief-stricken at the tragic death of a young innocent child rotting near Kallang River and the bitter truth that our Malays are still underachieving in mathematics, and not sending their kids to preschools.

And of late, in order to balance the dirty linen of the community, Berita Harian has reported some news of success - like more Malay students going to post-secondary education and more Malay scientists in our midst. However, should we shout and rave about these? Are we still trying to mask our tragic shortcomings by proclaiming these minutiae successes as compared to the other races? I would probably rave about our Malay scientists but not about the higher rate of Malays in post-secondary education.

In the first place, when it is shown that there are more Malays in post-secondary education, what does this really mean? I may be wrong, but I think it meant there are more Malays who go to ITE instead of dropping out at secondary school. There is nothing wrong going to ITE but is this the kind of success that we should be really proud of when the other races have gone to secure higher than just bachelor degrees?

And also of late, another problem in the Malay community is the high incidences of dropping out at ITE.

Malays don't attend preschools, Malays drop-out at primary school, Malays drop-out at secondary schools and now dropping out at ITE. So what's the bottomline? Financial prblems? I dont think so. I believe some of these Malays are not resilient enough. Some of us just gave up too easily. And when the problems get tough, they blame it on the lack of money and what-have-you. Our leaders and self-help group are now dangling $$ to retain the ITE students in school, but I believe the problem is deeper than that. The problem is the mind.

We are not resilient enough. We are not kiasu enough. We believe that it is fate. We just don't think like Nadim.

This mindset is the cause of a lot of ills, and a lot of self-defeating beliefs in ourselves. We believe that we cannot do well in mathematics just because we are Malays. This has got to change, and it has to change really fast. We need a mental revolution! We need to brainwash and hynotize our Malays to revolutionise their thinking towards success. We need accelerated programs!

I've also read in the press about what community leaders planned to do - stepping up their efforts in tackling these issues. I don't want to seem cynical, but I would really like to know HOW are they planning to go about doing it. What does 'stepping up' their programs mean?

Because we have done it for over 20 years, and we have still not achieved the results that we wanted. Even if we don't compare ourselves with the Chinese who are way in front of us, but the Indians have done much better than us. What do we have to say to that? I'm sure they have similar resources but something is just not happening right with us.

Let's revolutionize our minds now!

Bobrok and goblok...

...are these words to define the state of some of our fellow Malays in our community? That is a tragedy indeed!

Dahlah bobrok with all the problems which used to be known as the triple D problems of the Malays - drugs, divorce and delinquency. These problems still existed though it was made known to us that statistically, the numbers have lowered but the problems have crept deeper into an almost bottomless pithole. The pithole that saw too many young marriages that were doomed to fail. And I can only guessed that perhaps these young marriages stemmed from the high incidences of teen sex, pregnancies and gangsterism prevalent among the 'unguided' young Malays, and the problems got deeper when innocent young children became victims of abuse and murder. Not to mention the "Orang Pantai" syndrome that mushroomed in East Coast and Changi beaches. With all these 'bobrok' issues, it is highly unsuspecting how 'goblok' some of our Malays are - 'goblok' in the area of education, specifically in the subject of mathematics (and also science, and the English language).

It could be that we are bobrok that's why we are goblok or it could be the other way around - we are goblok, that's why we are bobrok. And let me disclaim that it is not my intention to label or belittle the Malays. I am a Malay too and I'm saddened by this state of my own community.

Indeed, we have been in this state for a very long time. According to some, it started when we gave up our land to the British. But since I have no plan to research which history came first, it led me to think how far back our shortcomings began. This is the story of "Singapura Dilanggar Todak" where the Sultan of that time ordered the killing of the life of a young genius lad because of his own stupidity. In this fable or legend, I hope that this story is a fable instead, when Singapore's shores were attacked by swordfishes, the Sultan's so-called bright idea was to use the shin of his citizens to protect Singapore shores from the swordfishes. That led to the deaths of his many unquestioning and unthinking citizens. Then came a gifted and genius young lad by the name of Nadim who suggested to the Sultan to use the bark of a banana tree to line the shores so that the swordfishes got stuck to the bark instead. Unfortunately, the Sultan who listened to his evil adviser ordered the killing of Nadim.

What luck that this phenomenon existed still in this info- and nano-technology world that we lived today.

Are we still thinking like the Sultan?
Are we still thinking like his advisor?
Are we still thinking like his unquestioning and unthinking citizens?

Why can't we be thinking like Nadim?

"oh my kids don't speak Malay"

I do wonder why some parents are proud of the fact that their children are not able to speak their mother tongue well. My son's ability in his written assessment and communication to his grandparents in Malay is a long way to go in being near native, but I know he will get by. I know I can do more to get him to speak Malay "like water" as in fluently and I would be a shame for myself to know of a non-Malay who could even do higher mother tongue. But when I hear remarks by some other Malay parents who seem to gloat when they say, "oh my kids don't speak/understand Malay," it's like as if they are ashamed of their own language. I do wonder the pride they have in being monolingual. Wouldn't it be advantageous to be bilingual? And especially so if it's in your native tongue? So here's a little story of a mother mouse and her mice. I hope it will make those parents think before they say those words above.

A mother mouse was with her litter of mice when they bumped into a fearsome looking cat. Immediately the little mice hid behind her in terror. Mother mouse, with all her might, tried to look strong and stare straightly at the big terrifying cat. Though her heart was beating really fast and beads of perspiration was running down her hair, she stared at the Cat with piercing eyes and then she shouted in her loudest voice, "Woof, woof!" The cat, thinking there was a dog behind her ran away as fast as it could.

The little mice were so proud of their mother and her fast thinking as they think that they couldn't have done what their mother did. So this is what their mother said,"It's always good to know a second language."

Seeking His blessings

It was a major wake up call…

Things that you thought would never happen to you or your family, and then it did.

I must have been deep in my slumber, too tired for my own good, only to realize how late I was.

But I believe, that if anyone is sincere in seeking the truth, he will find the truth, whether in the Quran or the Bible or the Torah. May his heart is sincere in seeking the truth, and that he finds it, and leads all of us to the truth.

I read the first chapter of the holy Al-Quran with its English translation, and Al-Fatihah has never meant so beautiful and so inspiring to me until now. It feeds my almost empty soul. By reciting the Al-Fatihah with much understanding, I now know what is that I’m asking for from my one and only Lord.

***

There were many times that I felt the unfairness of life, and especially when it impacts my personal life. There were many moments that I felt I could have it better, or even questioned why others have it easier or better than me? But I forget, there are many others who have it much worst than me. I forget the blessings that He has bestowed on me. Whether it took only a second for him to answer my prayer, or nine years, He had and will answer my prayers, but if only I did not forget to prostrate five times a day to him. I have been so forgetful, buried in my own ignorant, so how can I deserve the blessings that I am seeking from Him. But I know He has given me so much more than I could ask for, and I keep asking and asking from Him.

***

Beautiful Ramadan is calling, beautiful Ramadan is coming, and I can’t wait…I can’t wait for syaitan to be chained, and I can’t wait to perform my terawih which I had done for the first time only in the last Ramadan. It was soul-filling. I seek that He gives me strength and energy to do it again. May Ramadan brings more blessings to all of us, and may He fulfilled all our prayers especially the prayers of our mothers and mothers alike...Ameen.

It's not quantum theory, but just simple physics...

I was honoured to be sitting at the lunch table with a group of people who were experts in the field of Physics, and rightly so, some of them could be called Physicists. They talked about quantum physics, photo-electrics and some unheard of terms. They are normal people, like you and me, with children and family to think about. However, at the same time, they are rather simple - they believe in taking the public transport out for our lunch buffet at Sakura than ride a car, as some of them believes it saves the environment and the pockets. If their cause is about saving gaia, then I would relent but I am sure these are people who certainly have fatter pockets than me, and could afford a car, however they choose not to.

If truth be told, I actually studied Physics in junior college, which was definitely a disaster subject for me. In secondary school, I was studying pure Chemistry and a combination of Physics and Biology. At the end of 'O' levels, I just had it with Chemistry, and thought of switching to something more palatable. I don't know what I was thinking, and the college did not quite offer much choices, so I ended up taking Physics, Economics, Mathematics C and Art. Yes, Art as in drawing and painting. It was a weird combination, of which I'm the only one out of two students taking that combination. As such, I was label as a rebel.

At that time, the arts were frowned upon, as if being in the arts stream means you are doom for life. Though I was in the science stream, I had a very hard time trying to convince my teachers what I was doing was well- for my own passion and good. The teachers did not believe in me, and I had close friends from secondary school who drifted apart because they stuck to the subjects they knew best, and they were all in the same class except me, the rebel. I had a friendship crisis too.

My Physics tutor did not help as I couldn't quite understand him. Maybe he was knowledgeable in the content area but he certainly cannot teach. He was a Chinese educated Physics teacher and that made it harder for me to understand his articulation. I was lost and clueless, and when a junior English educated Physics teacher came to take over the class, he in fact took over the experiments I had to do, and did it for me. In the end, I did not learn to wire up the experiments to light up the bulb, because junior Physics teacher just did it for me, instead of teaching me.

I was told by my class tutor, who was also my maths teacher and the college's discipline master to drop Art when I was in second year. He told me I could not live with the Arts. Art as a subject will not feed me. He told me not to drop the sciences or the maths, as that will guarantee a future. I was half-baffled by such ideas.

My Physics tutor was disheartened with my Physics results but was not sure whether I should drop Physics. I was doing badly, but he still feels that perhaps there is still hope (in me) as Physics (the sciences and maths) will have a better future than Art. Though he was not as fierceful and forceful as my class tutor, he suggested it be best I dropped Art.

My Economics tutor had it with students who took four subjects instead of three. Basically she just did not believe that her students can manage four subjects, so I was asked to drop one subject, any one, economics included. She refused to sign my form that stated I will be taking all the four subjects, as she insisted I should drop one. I left the classroom and cried buckets at the sports hall.How could she make life difficult for me when I already had it so difficult?

My Art teacher insisted that I shouldn't drop Art, and disagreed with my Maths and Physics tutor for thinking that there is no future with Art. She was so furious that she threatened me in fact to stick to Art and dropped my worst subject (which happens to be Physics then) or economics (since the economics teacher did not mind). Again, I cried buckets. I just did not know what to do.

After calming myself down and talking to a friend, I decided to tell all my teachers that I'm sticking to all four subjects, and not dropping anyone of them and at the same time, promised that I will prove them wrong. I will show them that I can do it though deep in my heart, I knew I would be dead for making such a promise.

When my 'A' level results came, the subject that pulled me up was none other than Art. I didn't do well for Physics but I somehow I already knew how difficult it was since I couldn't comprehend it at all. However, I am proud to prove to my maths and economics teachers, who didn't quite believe in me that Art help me, Art gave me a future. I gained acceptance to the university partly because of it when most of my classmates who only had three subjects and didn't do well for one, couldn't.

I was thrilled, I was elated, and I had my Art teacher to thank for. I will always remember her to this day for simply believing in me.

So teachers, since teachers day is just around the corner, do have some faith in your students. Because sometimes they are already having a hard time coping in school, and they don't need that extra bad advice, or the feeling that they are a failure. Don't make them feel like a failure even if they are doing badly. They need encouragement, and sound advice. Really sound advice. Because not everyone is good in the maths and sciences, and that I can guarantee, there is also a future in Art and the Arts.

I'm sure this is simple physics to understand. :)

The "how" of things

It is not what we teach, but how we teach that made the greatest difference to our children.

A newfound wisdom came from a mother of two children, who told me the above. I had gone to her house to do a maths intervention programme for my master's research paper, and the methods that I used made her rethink the ways that she had been teaching mathematics to her children. It was an awakening for her. As for me, it was the stamp of approval that what I was doing was perhaps the better way of teaching mathematics to very young children.

It may not be the absolute way or the school-approved way, but the "how" is very important when we teach young children. You can get the child to add 2 + 2 using worksheets, or you can play a game of two dices and get the child to add the two numbers when the two dices are thrown. That made a whole world of difference to the child and to the mom. And it is probably one of the best ways to teach young children to love and appreciate maths, and ultimately score in maths.

The "how" of things crept up again when I was revisiting a research project that I was involved some years earlier. This time, it was a father of three children who was reminiscing about his childhood - a childhood that he would remember albeit with a bit of bitterness and grief. When he did not do well in his exams, his own father would be disappointed and told him to study harder. But he does not know how to study harder. "How" does one study harder to get better grades when one is not being shown, or demonstrated or have a role model to emulate? This made the father more adamant that he will show the "how" to do things to his own kids and not simply just telling them what to do. He said that it is akin to telling your young child to read, and yet you yourself do not read to your own child, or teach him how to read. That will be disastrous in itself.

I've seen the ad many times in the paper, about some accelerated program that promised to make a difference to your child's grades, of course with improved grades and not vice versa. I've spoken to the founder once, and somehow I decided to attend her free seminar and see for myself what exactly is this program all about. Again, what I felt she is telling to her potential clients is - it is not what we teach, but how we teach - that could make or break a child's grades and esteem. We can study so very hard and for very long hours, but if we do not have the right method or technique of learning, it may just go to waste as we will not produce the kind of results that we wanted. According to her, our human brain is only using less than 5% of the potential it can reap. She does make sense especially to parents who do not understand that it is important to show your child the better way to learn. Show, not just say. Saying the wrong words may ultimately do more damage to your child than you think.

I didn't sign up for my child because eventhough she claimed she will impart 8 different ways of learning, at least I think I may have two or three of the "hows" in my pocket for my kid. That will be enough for now. And if my "hows" are not working for my child, I'll find out more "hows" for him in the future.

All that I want, is just another...

What shall I blog about? Reflections and resolutions ...nah. It was an uneventful start to the new year. No reflections, no resolutions... just a fancy do. I rebonded my hair for the first time. I would still like a nice crown under my hejab without the unruly kinks, and yes, I'm pretty delighted with the outcome. It wasn't about vanity, it was about not having a bad hair day. Yes, I could have a bad hair day eventhough my hair is covered.

That aside, I didn't ponder about 2007, but I guess now that I am writing this, I am beginning to think about the shape my life has taken this year. I went back to becoming FTWM in March but in an industry totally different from what I used to be in. It was more sane, I guess, clocking in sane number of hours, and leaving on the dot or even lesser than the exact dot. Some people may think that I have caved into the rut of the admin lady - the one who does not care about the grand vision of the company, who just need to do her part and off she goes home to her loving husband and child.

Hey, but I do have a grand vision, a vision of a good life for me - that without a doubt. If you believe in Maslow's Hierarchy of Human Needs, the higher we move up the ladder, the more self-actualization we want. And I believe, I'm selfish enough to make it all about ME now. Yes, ME! Like the song goes, "All that I want, is just another..." (FILL UP YOUR OWN WORD).

I have had some great fulfilments in my career in the last decade, and though there's more higher peaks to scale in that area, I'm happy to leave it for the others. But if I do decide to climb that same peak again, it has to be different. It has to be about a cause, a personal cause. A cause that will lead me to the right path and direction, not necessarily the highest peak.

That's fulfilment.