I Am A ZooKeeper: Zoo Negara

 We went to the Zoo! Reese's second time to the zoo. It was quite fun. We saw some animals (lack of time) and enjoyed the activities prepared by the zoo. This is a special program organised by one of the mummies. We paid Rm45 for 1 adult and 1 child. The purpose of this program is to let children experience some of the things zookeepers do daily. The children were taught to prepare snacks and playthings for some of the mammals at the Mammal Kingdom section.

The lovely zookeepers and the co-ordinator

Going into the zoo!

A short briefing

Taking the tram car

One of the first animals we saw

Working hard to entangle the rope

Mom, I got one!

Reese really enjoyed this!

Some kids were assigned to poke holes into the banana stem and then stuff raisins and bread into them. They are preparing some snacks for the porcupines!

Mummies helped cut up meat for the Hyenas and Civets

Even the little ones had a great time helping out! She is painting a pinnate for some animals to play!

The zookeepers preparing twigs for the kids to make cages

Oh, this is really yummy!

Busy making holes

I made this twig cage

Then we put in some meat and bread

Reese helping to cover/hide the food with banana leaves

Mom! all done

World biggest rodent. Capybaras! Not too long ago we read about them and Reese was really excited to see it for real.

Snack time!

Can you see the cages we made? These are civets

A hyena sniffing the cages

A caterpillar

Reese wanted to sit with the tram driver at the front

We donated some money to the zoo and this macaw came and took the money from Reese

One happy boy. 

Helicopter Parenting

Don't touch that, don't sit on the floor, don't do this/that, be careful! Parents watching his/her child's every move like a hawk and almost never letting his/her child out of sight unless at home. Sounds familiar? Any parent who tries to over-protect their children maybe doing their children a disservice without knowing it. 

What on earth is helicopter parenting?

Oops! I am a helicopter parent!!! Dear me, have to change...have to change..... :)

Do this instead: 

Loving parents will WANT their children to face, struggle with and ultimately overcome hard challenges in life, for that is how everybody grows and improves and becomes stronger.

Parents, be there to guide and direct your children when they come to you with their problems, but DON’T take away your children’s growth by solving their problems for them. Instead, TEACH your child to be a problem solver on their own; a self-starter and independent worker as it were in the game of life.

Remind your children that you as the parent will always be there for them, but that this is their life to live and grow and learn from, and that you cannot do any of that FOR THEM.

Whatever motivates Helicopter Parenting, be it extreme love or extreme guilt or a lack of faith in your child’s ability to face and overcome the normal obstacles of living, now more than ever all parents everywhere need to realize that our children can grow only if we allow them the opportunities to do so.

A few hard knocks is often a good thing in a person’s personal progression in life. As a loving parent you can be there for your child when they get a hard knock trying to figure out some aspect of life for themselves, but by all means don’t rob your child of the opportunity to grow by trying to clear away all the obstacles of life by which that growth is made possible.

Growth requires personal resistance to difficult circumstances, which creates in each of us the comforting knowledge that we can take what life has to offer, and that we are capable of getting back up even if we are occasionally knocked off our feet.

Your children can learn to be happy, healthy, strong and independent children in no other way.

Helicopter Parents everywhere, get out of your children’s way and allow them to grow and succeed.

(Preteen-Thru-Teenage-Parenting-Action Guide)

Tanjung Tuan Light House Field Trip

We took a drive to Port Dickson. Meet up at a HS family home and had lunch. The kids played for a while and then we drove to the forest reserve. Meet up the rest of the homeschooling families and up we go! 20 minutes hike to the light house. It was fun. Once at the top, everyone were busy exploring the light house compound. 

Later we were given a tour of the place. The adults got to climb up the light house and wow! the view from the top was breathtaking. Too bad, it was hazy that day otherwise, the view will be even better. After the light house visit, everyone went down to the beach where the corals were and silly us got the wrong instruction and hike down thinking that we were suppose to meet there. So we ended up missing the beach fun. Original plan was to go for satay dinner but instead we went home and had Hj Samuri's Kajang satay at UpTown. :) It was a fun trip but we were all dead tired at the end.

Warrior Reese. After lunch waiting to go to the light house.

Little discoveries here and there, a kind of fruit/plant that monkeys love to eat

Daddy took a day off from work to join us for the field trip! The start of the hike.

Lots of big and tall trees in this forest reserve

The Tanjung Tuan Light House

Need to write in to get special permission to enter the light house

One of the older kid brought along her sketch book to draw and observe nature

All of us enjoying the view after the 20 mins hike

Kids found all kinds of bugs

The spiral staircase to the top of the light house. Sadly, kids were not allowed to go up.

Yikes! Dead lizard and the kids were poking at it and having fun!

The light house

Another shot of the light house

Running freely... even had a chance to pee in the open space!

All getting ready to take a group photo

The view from the top of the Light house... it was breathtaking!

Abstract Painting Again!

Master Reese decided he wanted to do abstract painting again and right after dinner he started his creation aka mess! Every other minute I have to add more newspaper as Master Reese kept calling me to tell me that he got paint on the floor! He had a blast though. Getting bolder and bolder with the spattering! Then it got on to his feet and hands and he started to complain... anyway... he thoroughly enjoyed himself. Poor me had to clean up the mess. There were footprints in black paint everywhere including the study room! So much for sacrificing in the name of art! No wonder artists always have a special room to themselves for art creation!

It's fun mummy!

Urrrgggg.... mom! I got paint on my foot!

See the mess in my living room?

Nice piece and somehow it looks like a piece of leaf reducing to only its skeletal remain!

Then he decided to write Chinese characters...

The aftermath... I dreaded the clean up...

A New Milestone!

Today while doing science, Reese stopped me from dictating an answer to him. He asked me to be quiet and he confidently wrote his own answer to a question. I must say he worded the answer very well. He could spell everything on his own and wrote the entire sentence without whining! (He dislike writing sentences) 

We have been doing science worksheets orally except for circling or filling in the blanks. Anything that needs writing sentences, I would have to write it for Reese but now he writes everything on his own (still whines occasionally). So happy. My boy is growing up. :)

Question No.8 - Reese answered the question independently.