Field trip

Can't remember when was the last time I went for a field trip... perhaps it was during my secondary school days. But I could remember how excited I was during that time.

Well, today will be my very first field trip in my school and am so excited about it. Hehehe... Feeling like a kid myself! :D I even woke up before the alarm rang... afraid I'd oversleep :p

OK-la... Will take lots of pix and update here later... Chiaoz!

[News] 9-month-old baby chokes to death on fish ball

2010/04/14
TAMPIN: A 9-month-old baby choked on a fish ball and died while being fed by a caretaker at a nursery in Jalan Cantik near the Tampin Hospital yesterday.

Wan Nur Alif Wan Arif Fadhla was sent by his parents to the nursery at 7.30am, but two hours later, he was believed to have choked on the fish ball the size of an adult's thumb.He was immediately rushed to the hospital some 50 metres away but was pronounced dead on arrival.The baby's father, Wan Arif Fadhla Wan Yusof, 41, said he received a call from his wife, Nur Azita Ibrahim, 31, at about 11.15am, informing him of the incident."My wife is a school teacher and she called me from the school, saying that our son had been admitted to the hospital."When I arrived at the hospital, I was told that my son had died. He had choked on a fish ball and was unable to breathe," said Wan Arif Fadhla, a civil servant.

He said he was very disappointed that the nursery staff had not cut fish ball into small pieces before feeding it to Wan Nur Alif. Wan Arif Fadhla said he had lodged a report at the Tampin police station.Wan Nur Alif will be buried at the Muslim cemetery in Kampung Pulau Kerengga in Marang, Terangganu.Tampin police chief Superintendent Wooi Hooi Cheng said the nursery staff would be questioned pertaining to the incident.When contacted, an officer of a district Welfare Department said a probe would be conducted.The officer also said the nursery had been in operation for many years.

News article taken from NST

This is a totally devastating news of what a nursery could do to a child. That is why it is extremely important to know inside out of the place we sent our children to whether it is a daycare, a nursery, a kindergarten, etc. We must do all the necessary checkings to ensure the safety of our children. Do they have the basic knowledge of childcare and education? Do they have the basic knowledge of health & safety for these little ones? Does the centre provide a safe environment for these little ones? Well, for this case, I don't know what the caretaker is thinking, but giving a fish ball? to a 9-month old baby? My goodness! I think this caretaker is really insane!

ONE BIG TOY!

Every now and then both Mummy and Gwamma will be on SMS/MMS about little Sarah. This time, the voice message went like this:

"Sarah's photo so cute-ah? So lovely... Next time gwamma buy you ONE BIG TOY, ok?

Then you can hold the toy everyday-ya? Remember gwamma-ya? Bubbai...."

Sarah loved the sms... she seemed to understand every word gwamma said. She kept asking me to play it back for her and she looked very happy just listening to it. You'd agree with me when you watch the video clips. She didnt get tired listening to it even after many many times! :)

A little bit of Sarah to brighten up your day! :)

This is Sarah... in her normal mischievous look.

I was just testing something on my camera and she gave me pose #1. Yes, she was all sweating when I took that pix. After that pose, she said she wanted to take pix with giraffe. And then she took little giraffe with her and gave me pose #2....

And then mummy told Sarah that she didnt look nice with that mouth, asked her to hug giraffe and smiled... so, she gave me pose #3. Hehe... yes, that look was perfect! :)

He made it POSSIBLE for me to complete my assignments on time!

This week is not so stressful for me as my next assignment deadline is 2 weeks from now... :p Well, cannot really lepak also because there are 3 assignments to complete and I really dread the idea of not being able to complete it on time, or rather I know that I WILL definitely complete all the assignments given, but with less sleep or no sleep at all!

2 weeks ago I managed to complete the most challenging assignment in this course (thus far) - Mathematics for Children! It was an assignment whereby I had to prepare 10 lesson plans with 30 activities in total (all about pre-numbers). I had to get the whole activities done with 3-4 kindergarten aged children, had it video recorded and do the necessary editing and submit the lesson plans write-up together with the dvd. What made it so challenging for me was because time was really not on my side. When the lecturer gave the assignment, she told us that we have more than enough time to do it... hmmm... not really.... counting the hours of a full-time job + being a mummy at home + having to prepare teaching materials for the next class + rest, it's super duper challenging to do enough research, get materials ready, get the "right" children involve, get the shooting and editing done, do the write-up, etc... PLUS we had another 2 assignments and some smaller assignments to submit on that day. Crazy, aint it?

Well, it's all over and I thank God that everything went quite smooth. Praise the Lord for that! I took permission from my Principal to do my assignments during working hours. I had no choice. The time I estimated that's needed to complete all my assignments on time would include the hours I have at work too. My Principal was very kind to allow me to do that. Working in a kindi also allows me to get in touch with children and I managed to get 3 kids who stay nearby the kindi to be my assignment students! Thank God their parents are willing to let me have them. Of course, I prepared some cakes and simple goodies for the kids during the 3-days shooting. My Principal was my videographer! Hehehe... So I had everything taken care of. She even gave me ideas and advices about the do's and dont's of some of the activities I prepared... so, sometimes we had to re-shoot and get the kids to re-do certain things. And btw, they are good "actors" I'd say! Hehehe... So, I thank God that I managed to complete all the assignments.

Some of my coursemates shared about the difficult children they had and how difficult it was to even finish 3 activities with them, or how my partner in class had done the shooting but only to find that the files got corrupted at the end and had to re-shoot. There were so many possibilities of the worst that could take place, and I really dread of that to happen... but all I can say is THANK GOD! He's made everything beautiful for me. On the Saturday when I had to submit the assignment, I had to skip my first class as I only managed to complete my write-up by about 8.30am. I did not sleep at all that morning. I had my assignment bound by 10.30 and reached UM by 10.45. I almost met with an accident with 2 cars and almost hit the highway divider as I drove cause I dozed off without any warning. It was really my first encounter dozing off just like that! A horrible experience! I was praying super hard on that morning for His divine protection. THANK GOD everything worked fine. GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

I also must thank my hubby and in-laws for taking care of Sarah during this period. Not only that, but I must say that I am in a very fortunate situation where my in-laws took care of all the cooking and cleaning at home that I am freed to do my studies. It is NOT possible if this weren't the case. God bless them for being such great blessing to me!

(P/S - don't know what's wrong with blog-posting... I cant even get the paragraph formatted properly! ish!)

Just a lil update...

4-5 am is almost my regular waking up time in the morning to do my assignments or prepare for work... last week was worst as I had to wake up about 3am at times to do my assignments. It's truly a very very very challenging phase for me in my studies. Last Saturday was the submission of one of my super major assignment.... will talk more about that later.... for now, just some bits and pieces about my life! :p

March - April month seem to pass by sooooooooooooo quickly! It was Sarah's birthday on 15 March.... I havent had the chance to wish her Happy Birthday in this blog too.... no time to also sort the photos taken during the celebration.... Will do so after this week hopefully.... cuz I have to submit another 3 assignments this week. Crazy aint it? I really do hope I know why I'm going through all these now... Sometimes it seemed so unworth it... the feeling of giving up is there... but I really have to strive on. There's no turning back.... I'm moving ahead... :)

OK, gotta get myself prepared for work.... if I need a break later this evening, I guess I'll pen down more about my assignments in this blog, so all of you can empathize with me. LOL!

This morning I also took the liberty to read my blog-pal’s posts…. So many to read as it seemed like ages since I read it. Anyway, great to ke-po again in one’s life…. Keep it up, dudes!