Boarding or non boarding

 

Having a son who will reach 13 by next year, I have lot in mind. Whether or not I should let him go for boarding school is a big question. I find parenting is hard now especially when decision making is important to ensure that he gets the best of him.

So, both husband and I have had few serious discussion on whether or not we should let him go on his own. We have even listed down the positive and negative side of our decision.

First, Emir himself. We supported him in each and everyway, but on the flip side, everything is made easy for him. I would love to see him to be more independent and matured because in a long run, he gonna live on his own, with no backup from his parents, and it should start from now. Looking at his character, he needs to be pushed, and the best decision is to send him for boarding school.

Many will disagree, even my own mother. To him, daily school is sufficient to shape a person, I agree. From my experienced dealing in selection process and based on my analysis, I found out that daily school performed better in terms of resilience and communication as compared to boarding school students.

But as a mother, I want him to step up from his comfort zone. No doubt, the character building for those in boarding school is far better than the daily school. You can easily tell a person if he is from MCKK or from SMK Bukit Bandaraya (sorry, I cant think any school).

But, there you go, it comes with limitation. We (read: I) only let him go if the school is up until Putrajaya :)  Poyo much. Yes, because I may want to visit him every single week, both Saturday and Sunday haha. Otherwise, yes thank you, any daily school in KL.

Speaking of that, Emir would love to continue to be in KL school as he really "sayang" his KL chess team. The teamwork and friendship that he created may not be the same at other states.

But yeah, truly, it depends on his UPSR result which makes me feel hmmphh and ummpphh especially thinking of his Bahasa Melayu. Honestly, whatever the result is, we are OK as he has a long way to go and UPSR is not everything.

My own mission is for him to secure a sponsorship to study abroad because I personally couldn't afford to fund his overseas education. Yes, he MUST ensure admission for overseas university because there is one fine line between local and overseas graduates. Saya pun dari UTP saje, so yes I can tell the difference too.

Insyallah, ini semua perancangan.. From an eye of a mother..

Sports person - my definition

How should i start.. 

I do love sports. Honestly i do. But i know my body doesnt show the right figure to say that i am a true sport supporter. 

But not many of my friends knew that i love sports. And i dont blame them since i am with my 5xL shirt. I envied those who have determination to be on diet and working on their exercise routine everyday, because me on the other hand busy to pay a visit at any recommended restaurant in town. Ive tried to be on diet, and always tried especially when it comes to Monday until my husband said “berapa kali Isnin la nak diet”.. 

I immediately failed when i see nasik. Yes, i cant live without nasik even though it is only a small portion. Yes, brown rice is available but im always using my workload  as the big excuse to not having time cooking a healthy meal.

For now, im trying to cut  down my meals. My big mission is to announce that im on diet tapi malu sebab takut tak jadi. 

Ok lari topik. I have endless excuse not to be on diet *sigh

Back to the topic, dari zaman sekolah rendah i sanggup tak tido malam semata-mata nak tengok big sport event. Olympics., Commonwealth, Asian Games, Sea Games, World Cup & Euro Cup. I tak kisah pun any countries janji the sport is not snooker, karate, taekwando and sewaktu dengannya.

I enjoyed watching the atheletes fighting at their best for the country and i agree sports reunite people. The crazy experienced that i had was when i was heavily pregnant with Emir back in the year 2006 and that year was World Cup year and if im not mistaken it was held in Germany. The different time zone didnt hinder me to wake up in the middle of the night and watched the match until it finished and the next few hours i was ready for work. Crazy kan. That time i was Italy big fan and Italy won the World Cup for that year.

So when Emir was born, putih pulak tu and tak sama langsung dengan mak paknya, i jokingly said “ini mesti sebab maknya suke tengok World Cup dulu”

Until now, i still glued my eyes on tv when there is any big sports event tho my two heroes tak heran pun.  Im ok so long that they dont fight with me to change the tv channel.

So, Pandalela and her partner just won a gold for Malaysia in 10m diving at Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast Australia and in the same event, Dhabitah and her partner won a bronze Malaysia. Bangga pulak. I asked my husband if only we have a daughter, does he allow her daughter to wear swimsuit in ang sport events? And i was surprised he said yes.. i continued to ask, Malaysian is very judgmental when it comes to this and guess what he said “anak aku, berani dia cakap”

Yes, thats my husband. Told ya, apa2 yang anak dia punya interest dia memang support.  But dun worry, anak tak keluar lagi berani la cakap bagi anak pakai macam tu kan lol. Anak dah besaq, mungkin ayat lain yang keluaq.

Till then..

How does it takes to support your children passion...

First chess tournament - March 2015

Representing his school for the first time

Without any hesitation everyone knows that Emir’s favorite subject or Emir’s Hobbies or Emir’s bestfriend or whatever you want to name it- is Chess.

It started all the way in 2015 when he decided to sign up for school selection for chess and amazed us when he managed to secure a place to represent his school despite being the super duper beginner.

We as a parent never know that Emir has potential in chess as we never thought that he knew how to play chess. Being the kiasu parents, once we received the confirmation that he is one of the school player for zone bangsar, mulaah tugas kami to ensure at least Emir shows that he deserved a place to represent his school at such a young age.

That is where we started to sign up for chess classes and joined as many tournaments as we know and also the beginning of no more weekends for us.
At first he joined the school chess club and later we signed him up for Polgar (chess centre in Sri Hartamas).

Of course in the beginning of his chess years, Emir is “lauk” for the seniors and achieving 3 points in every tournament is considered  Fantastic!!
As a parent on the other hand, ok i personally thank my husband for his dedication towards chess. To be honest, dalam setiap apa yang Emir minat dialah yang akan bersungguh sungguh. On a side note, sometimes i have to always remind myself to be grateful. Yelah some of you is blessed with super rich spouse, some of you with hardworking husband and me is blessed with a spouse yang tak kisah pasal hal anak. So is rezeki masing-masing.

Back to the note, husband slowly gathered all information on chess and he started to find chess group for parents. And we learnt that to be successful in chess, you must have a dedicated personal chess coach (i first terkejut chess pun ade coach) This is due to the fact that at chess centre, selalunya akan belajar basic in chess saje, so when your child has reach that level, his performance becomes stagnant and as parents, nak dapat hadiah luxury bag or owning a luxury bag, mimpi je sebab now its time to invest on chess!!

Emir with his Coach



So, we have been recommended to get Emir a personal chess coach and wahlah tak sangka harga dia (to cry or to smile) 😂. We are lucky to get someone who introduced us to Coach Kamal as his personal coach till today who is very passionate about chess and understand kids!! U know lah budak2 kejap perangai dia malasss..  Kejap asyik nak mainnn jer. Or sometimes waktu kelas nak tido! Its so common among the kids..

Slowly we could see Emir’s progress in Chess. Instead of having one personal chess coach, honestly Emir has few personal coaches depending on the availability of the coaches because some of the coaches are from other countries. And belum lagi chess class that catered for certain topics with his teammates.

Me with crazy chess mothers



Why suddenly this madness happen. Senang.. because we have been surrounded by other crazy parents who want their children to excel in chess.
I always thought chess players are all nerd and work in silo, of course part of it i cant deny but overall they are not. Normal macam budak lain cuma mungkin mereka satu group nampak macam budak baik. Get it?

Emir with his favorite gang



Im glad Emir found his friends in chess. Chess has changed him tremendously. Emir is always known as someone who is quiet and very reserved. But with chess, he is now more confident and able to speak up. He is still quiet in class but the teachers said, during the lesson, he is the boy who always raised his hands until teachers have to stop him asking. 😂😂

Besides, Emir has “opened” his own chess academy at school and now he has two students. And sometimes he received requests from our friends to teach their children. Tapi itulah.. masa emir yang takde. Kalau satu sekolah senang sikit.

Emir with his "student"



From this networking, i have learnt that few overseas universities allocate scholarship for chess players and i want him to get that opportunity after he has sacrificed his time for chess.

Well, Of cos along the way my husband and i always has disagreement for Emir’s time management. Husband is serious to develop Emir in chess and me, sometimes i want my Emir back in my arms doing nothing especially during weekend.

How is Emir? My friend and even my family said Emir is a busy kid and some of them think that we forced, or put too much pressure on him.

My say? He is fine. To be honest, he would rather skip his school for chess. And so does his friends. In my entire life, i never had a friend who is chess freak, so i myself susah nak digest why do people love chess.

But I realized, you cant force anyone to follow your plan, let alone your own child. As a new generation of parents, I believe that the new breed of kid knows what they want but as a parent, we have to always monitor them and giving advise appropriately.

So, whats next for me.. honestly I just want him to concentrate on his UPSR.. but of course im having a hard time to convince his father that he is 12 years old now *sigh..

Let me end with some of Emir's achievements for the past two weeks..



(1) Champion for Individual Category Age 12 and below for Bangsar Zone
(2) Champion for Team Category Age 12 and below for Bangsar Zone
(3) Champion for Individual Category Age Group 12 at 6th International KUSESS
(4) Champion for Team Category Age Group 12 at 6th International KUSESS
(5) Champion for Open Category Group C Round Robin at Global International School

When i finally write...

I feel like writing today. Writing has always been my first obsession. Unfortunately my style of writing is too leisure yet may not attract followers.

Life has been quite hectic recently. For the longest time, i finally managed to transfer to HR. Thanks and no thanks to my previous boss 😂😂.. so moving to a department titled HR, everyone is asking the big why question because In every Company, we often heard “HR la ni.. “ “HR lembap”

And true enough, HR is supporting the Company to grow and retain people but HR is not an asset to the Company. Get it. So moving from Skilled position to non technical position is such a roller coaster ride.

What i do miss most is my circle of friends. In my previous department, we are about of the same age, almost same character and the best part, we have known each other for ages. While on the other hand, in my new department, i am considered as kakak among them but thank god, from the beginning i did not allow anyone to call me kakak, so i erased some gap there 😂😂

Adapting process is a challenge. Yes, Pro n cons from both sides of the world but honestly, i find my current job very satisfying. 

Let me share with you one story which i experienced last few days. On the last day of the sponsorship application, my friend forward to me a poor boy who managed to get 10As in his recent SPM. So, quickly my friend and i searching for the boy’s school and Google worked its way. . Mind you it was a school holiday week And coincidently, the principal was at the school. So, i spoke to the principal and asked for his assistance to get this boy applying for the scholarship. An hour later, the principal called and informed that the boy is with him and wah-lah, i guided him to complete the scholarship application. Tho’ it has yet to be finalized, at least getting him to apply for the scholarship is unlocking his new future. 

To be fair, the not-so-best-part.. hmm perhaps the protocol. Why on earth we must have salutation ie Puan and Encik 😬😬because..  some of the people that i communicated previously, i used to call them by name, but it is so weird when you have to switch to Puan and Encik or even kakak / abang at the front .. lol.. but yada yada, work is work. I dare not to be different.. so am following my peeps.