Laura's homework weekend 21-22 Jun

BM - Master Penulisan Bahasa Melayu Pages 4 - 7
Jumbled words to be reconstructed into sentences. I have a beef with this. How to reconstruct sentences when the child doesn't know how to construct in the first place?

Chinese 3M hua bao (magazine)
This is what Laura's teacher deem as fun homework. The magazine covers Chinese, Moral, BM, English and Maths in two languages. We used to struggle with this until Laura discovers she doesn't have to do the whole book. And it's ok not to do as her teacher will go through the questions with them.

Mathematics in English Activity Book Pages 6, 8, 9
This is one of the workbooks that are fun. Calculate and solve puzzles.

Isn't it bizarre that there are less homework in the weekends? I shouldn't complain 'coz at least Laura had time to spend with the family.

Last Saturday, parents were to meet the teachers and pick up their children's report card. Laura's teacher said she did pretty well considering she's from an English speaking family. Now, if my teachers had thought like that when I was in primary school, my command of the English would have been next to zero. My father used to work late and my mother was educated in the Chinese medium until she was 9 years old.

I am very proud of my little girl as she got all A's and B's, average mark 87%. Position in class 24/46, in standard 50/218. Goes to show Laura is a smart little girl. If only there was less punishment and more positive reinforcement in school, my daughter would shine!

Laura's homework Thurs, 19 Jun

Mandarin
A few phrases are picked out of a passage from the textbook. To identify the "radical" of these passages, number of strokes and the pinyin. Then make sentences with these phrases.

Bahasa Melayu Tulisan Rumi (pages 1-4)
Writing exercise. Most of the words, Laura don't know. She just writes them.

Thursday's homework has been like a holiday compared to the previous days! Laura read a book for leisure before going to bed. If only it was like this every day.

Laura's Homework Tue, 17 June

Mandarin workbook Pages 4-6 (3 pages)

Mandarin exercise book
Part 1 - Copy a short story (2 paragraphs) from textbook. Provide illustration.

Part 2 - Complete a poem with some pinyin words. Write out poem, with chinese character of pinyin words.

Mathematics in Chinese workbook Pages 1-5 (5 pages)

KBSR English workbook Pages 7-13 (7 pages)
Teacher did not mark homework done on Monday and gave more homework on Tuesday.

Art & Craft: Make a mask

Laura did not manage to finish her Music class homework yesterday, so she did that today. Finished homework about 11.30pm.

Laura's homework Monday, 16 Jun 2008

This was what Laura had to do for homework today:

Mathematics Pages 118 - 124 (7 pages)
These pages involves problem solving using division.

Mandarin Page 3
To copy a paragraph/poem with some words in pinyin. Write out the word in pinyin and the Chinese character.

Pasti Skor KBSR (English) Pages 1 - 5 (5 pages)
Additional workbook to prep students for KBSR. As if they do not have enough workbooks already!

Mandarin (Writing) Pages 6 - 8 (3 pages)
To write out Chinese characters, count the number of strokes.

3M magazine for Std 2 Pages 1, 2, 4, 5, 8 & 9 (6 pages)
To do only (only?) Mandarin and Maths in Chinese sections. Some of the questions asked:

Mei Hua bought a school bag, gave the shopkeeper RM50. Shopkeeper gave her change RM3.70. How much was her school bag?

A packet of nasi lemak costs RM2.50, a packet of fried noodle RM3.50. If Hua Ming bought 3 packets of fried noodle and one packet of nasi lemak, how much change will he get back?

How much is RM49.10 - RM21.30?

WTF! Children are taught decimals in Std 2 already?? This is the Std 2 standard?! And why are there additional magazine type workbooks?!

Bahasa Melayu (Tatabahasa) Exercise book
List of 13 items. Give the "penjodoh bilangan"

Music Exercise book
Write out lyrics of a song taught in school and draw a picture to the song.

Laura started homework about 8.30pm (after she had showered and had her dinner). At almost midnight, I stopped her as she was too tired and simply could not think anymore. She had completed almost all her homework except for Music and some of the Writing. Is this not child abuse??

What I am planning to do this week is to list out all of Laura's homework daily. So far, I have made a photocopy of her homework today. I shall be writing her a letter with a copy of the homework to be done. I am not planning on wasting paper to photocopy every day but the principal will need to answer to me. If she doesn't give me a favourable answer, I may be forced to complain to the Ministry of Education that children are being abused in school - mentally and physically. Children are being robbed of their childhood!

Today is Adam's 5th birthday. I would have liked to have some fun time with Adam and Laura. Maybe we play some board games or just have a good cuddle together, so Adam will have good memories of his birthday with his family. We couldn't do that as Laura had tons of homework to complete or she'll be punished by her teacher in school!