It's school holiday. D just finished his SPM yesterday but he's still in Johor. I guess he's trying to get things straighten out at school, then meet with friends before coming back to Kuantan. Y is waiting for her PMR results to come out, which I was told sometime after Christmas. Before the holiday started I was so worried if the kids were just going to stay home and watch the idiot box or just play with computer games. Alhamdulillah I managed to arrange a Quran camp for them. All in all, there are 11 of them attending the camp - 4 of my kids plus 7 others from around here. It started on 28 November and insya Allah will end on 29 December. So far, the kids are enjoying the program which starts at 8am and ends at 4pm with a 2-hour break from 12noon to 2pm. They said muallim Shafie is a great facilitator and he's definitely not a boring teacher :)

I am very happy with the program although it brings extra responsibilities for me. Normally I would go to the office around 8am and stay there until 5pm regardless of whether I have classes or otherwise. Ever since the program has started, I have to be back between 12 and 2 to take care of the kids when they come back for lunch. Four of them live quite far from here so I offered them to come eat and rest at my house. So, instead of feeding 4 kids, I have to feed 8! Most of the time I try to cook but once in a while (like today), I think I will just go to the nearby restaurant to get some food for them. Feeding them is not a problem because they are not fussy about food. Most are just too happy to eat rice and eggs. They are big enough to feed themselves if they are left alone but I just want to be there during that 2 hour break to ensure that they are not making too much mess :) I don't mind if papers, books or toys are thrown all over the place but I simply can not stand food remnants all over the floor. Ooops, it's almost time for them to be home, I better start moving...

Parenting

This book had just arrived at my office today. I ordered it last week from a fellow blogger named Zaid Mohamad. He's a senior manager in a multinational company and yet he's able to write a book on parenting! Ooooh, how I wish I could do that! I am not sure how I stumbled upon his blog but I am glad I did. I remember now! I read an article about him in the New Straits Times a few weeks back. At the end of the article there was his web site address so I started surfing and reading his blog entries. When I went to MPH I saw this book. I thought of buying it but I changed my mind. Then when I got back to Kuantan I contacted the author and was told that if I ordered directly from him, I could have the book autographed by him, so I did. I hope to get a few more tips on how to raise my five wonderful jewels.

Reading

I can’t recall when I started reading “Dreams from My Father” by Barack Obama. It’s an interesting and well written book. He can definitely be a novelist. However, I still can’t finish the book for whatever cosmic reason that might be. For one thing, the font is small, and the language is a bit hard for me to understand. I have to really concentrate when reading Obama’s book, unlike the most recent book I read by Dr. Muhaya which only took me an hour to finish. Now I am contemplating on reading “Ke Mana Wang Anda?” by Hajah Rohani Datuk Hj Mohd Shahir. I bet by the time I finish this one, I will still have many more pages (or chapters) of Obama’s.

Whatever happens, the most important thing is to keep on reading. Reading helps our mind to stay active. I guess when our mind is active it is less likely for us to be senile. When I was a kid I hated reading but I started picking up the habit when I was studying at a university. I guess I didn’t have good models to follow as a kid. My husband and I made a conscious effort to read to or in front of our kids from the day they were born. Alhamdulillah, we are seeing the fruit of our labor. Children will not follow what the parents tell them, but they definitely follow what their parents do, at least where reading is concerned. So to all parents (and parents to be) out there, if you would like to have kids who like to read, you better start reading.