Eager beaver

After commuting between KL and PJ for about 7 months just to send Wyng for his Robotics class, our travelling woes were over when Cr8 has finally opened a franchise outlet in Cheras.  We couldn't say no to an eager beaver like Wyng.  

He will always asks to attend the class on a weekly basis. As the fee is based on attendance, we have the flexibility to come when convenient. Hence, most of the time Wyng attends it on fortnightly basis.  No doubt he asks to attend it on Saturdays and Sundays, ie twice a week, but his wishes never come through!

Kodu Workshop

It was a very productive holiday for Wyng.  He was able to attend Robotic's Kodu Workshop, one which will be able to help him program his own game, as a beginner.  The workshop was for a good 3 and a half hours.  Whilst he was at the workshop, Mom took the opportunity to spend some time with Hoe.  

We bought tickets to watch a movie, Oz And The Great Powerful.  As the movie started only from 12.30pm  (two plus hours long) and the workshop ended at 1.30pm, I had to exit the cinema to take Wyng to continue with the movie.  Of course, Wyng was pleasantly surprised as he was whisked from one of his favourite activities to another of his favourite activities.

Crazy about Ninja Warrior

Concave warped wall

Similar to the Wipeout obstacle show, this current programme on channel 617 is the kids' current craze.  Wyng is so hooked on this show that it replaces his favourite anime show.

Now, this programme is always their first choice whenever the TV is turned on.  Without sitting down in front of the TV to watch, this show used to be quite annoying to Mom as the narrator rattles throughout the show in lightning speed, in a language alien to me. But, when you care to seat yourself watching the super-lean contestants battle against each other in the obstacle course, you will find yourself attracted to their resilience.
I was in for a surprise when I watched Paul Hamm, an American Olympic gold gymnast, fought against time to complete the obstacle course.

Steely determination and robust stamina and strength rule the game!

First Robotics class

For someone who loves to assemble robots, Transformers or aeroplanes and what not, Robotics is just right for him.

It got me thinking and looking for a while the kind of activities that Wyng may like. I finally found something which I think will be his cup of tea.  When I introduced the concept of using a computer software to assemble robots, Wyng jumped to the idea.  And he actually waited for more than a month before he finally managed to lay his hands, for the first time, on those small pieces of Lego parts.

It was quite a memorable first day at the class as we were late. Actually, we would not have been late if not for the slow service at the eatery at Summit where the centre is. While waiting for our lunch and in order to maximise our time, we actually hurried to the centre and registered Wyng.  Registration was a breeze, no hassle at all.

Hurrying through his lunch but didn't finish it, Wyng started the class 15 minutes late.  Every child has a computer in front of them and fortunately a seat seemed to be deliberately left vacant for Wyng.  We were convinced that Wyng had only missed a small part of the session.  After making sure that Wyng was all ready for the session we left the centre.

Looking patiently for the right parts 

6cm, 10cm, where are you?

When we went back to fetch Wyng after about 1 hour and 45 minutes (it's a 2-hour session),  most of the kids had their robot models successfully assembled.  Wyng was seen still busy scampering but in really serious mode between his workstation and the boxes of Lego parts on the floor, searching for the right parts.

As it was about time to round up the session, a teenage boy was seen helping Wyng with the getting the parts and assembly.  In just a while, Wyng was asked to be at the competition board.  He, just like the other kids, was given a time span to shoot the targets.  Alas! He managed to score -60 because he also shot down a police which gave him a demerit!

Done, finally!

Wyng's first robot assembly, with some guidance.  To make sure that Wyng is able enough to handle the course, I went to enquire the reason for his 'slowness'.   I was told that the mission (robot assembly) on that day was slightly on the tough side and being his first class, Wyng faced some difficulties.

Here's the masterpiece!

Some kids who had completed assembling their robots first were competing in some kind of shooting competition on the floor.  Here, it was Wyng's turn with his shooting mission. Not that successful but it was all about fun.  Somehow, his name was announced as the recipient of an excellence award. Anyway, it's a good way just to get the kid's enthusiasm going.  The reward is a little 'achievement' sticker in his record.

Dinosaurs Live in Malaysia

A close encounter with 'real' dinosaurs.

They are as good as real. With wagging tail, some are roaring, flying or moving. They are live-sized!

Stegosaurus

Deinonychus

Ankylosaurus

Triceratops

Tyrannasaurus-rex

Pachycephalosaurus

Utahraptor

Sarcosuchus

The names of these dinosaurs are provided by courtesy of Wyng. For those rarer ones, we googled and even referred to his 'Know The World of Dinosaurs' book.

What kids do nowadays

Three kids in a family. An iPad each!

So, this is the common scene now at public places.  At almost every single table in WIFI eateries, you can see the indispensable smart machines, either a smart phone, a tablet or an I-pad.

Three kids in the family, father and mother.  4 I-pads, at the table! And another smart phone. The equation is perfect. 5 in the family with 5 intelligent machines. Except for their maid who was free, the entire family was busy. Not talking, mind you but touching away and pressing, their I-gadgets.

Only the table on both sides of this table (including our table) were aware of their obsession.  We couldn't help but gazed at them a few times whilst savouring our dinner. Well, the parents were least disturbed by their kids' behaviour at the table.   The other table was occupied by an elderly couple who seemed clueless with why the kids were so engrossed in the square machines.

As for me, I was bold enough to snap their pictures for me to post in this blog.

Not wanting to be a sour grape, I'm glad I don't own an iPad or iPhone though my kids are crazy about them.  Whenever we frequent shopping malls, the first place they head for is any IT shop which sells Apple products. And they will be stuck there for a while until Mom and Dad come shooing them out of the store.  That's all the iPadding they can enjoy.  No complaints at all about this! In fact, I'm glad they are iPad free, at least at home.

Wyng and his drawing book

After dinner, Wyng was allowed to play at one of the stores

Whilst the kids beside us were iPadding away, Wyng was busy reading the words on the disposable paper table liner in front of him.  The history of some Thai Gods were depicted on the paper liner. Before dinner was served, he was engrossed in drawing his pictures.  Yeah, he brought his drawing book along that night.

We shared thoughts about those things written apart from commenting about the other customers in the restaurants whose hands were also occupied with their intelligent machines. It was an observation started by Wyng and Hoe as they scanned the entire restaurant and deduced the preoccupation of people with iPads or smart phones.  I was speechless!

Why have a date in a restaurant when they could just iPad at home?  Mothers are supposed to be communicating with their kids to share their thoughts and not allow them to get unnecessarily attached to these machines.  Such is the sorry state of family communication.  Who's at fault? But, does anyone care or realise the damage it is causing in the first place?

Mothers especially, it's time to weigh what's best for your kids! A lot of lessons can be learnt in raising kids in this new but challenging era.

Crazy about TCG cards

This was supposed to be Wyng's latest craze until we discovered how expensive is this hobby.  As collectibles, one card can cost as much as RM5 or even higher.  A pack of about 10 can be costing something like RM40 or so depending on demand.

Apparently, there are people who go round scouting these cards as collectibles. As collectibles, the price depends on supply and demand. The rarer it is, the more expensive it will be.

Not just that, these cards can be played and there are certain ways of playing them.  We met this guy at Viva who apparently is an avid hobbyist and the owner of the shop which sells an a variety of such cards.  We were also told that there are competitions held each year to determine winners of such card game.

Discovering the high cost of such hobby, Wyng's enthusiasm was immediately watered down, much to his dismay and agitation.  He had been harping us to take him to Viva to buy these cards.

What is my kid reading?

"Mom, see, his ambition is to be an accountant like you"

"This is how it works"

He reads manuals, he reads circulars, he reads brochures, flyers apart from his usual story books. In short, he reads anything with words, lots of them. Somehow, he is intrigued by how things happen and why things happen.

Whilst waiting for his brother during one of the Kumon classes, (well, he finished earlier sometimes) he grabbed hold of a Kumon newsletter.  What attracted him was the page with many tiny words listing down names of Kumon achievers.  He browsed through the photos of achievers and actually read (out to me) what the students felt about their achievements after taking Kumon. Some of them wrote about their ambitions.

Something I couldn't stand about him is he reads 'dry' and boring stuff such as manuals.  Here, in this picture, he was reading an operating manual of a vacuum cleaner. At this point of blogging this, I asked him the name of the vacuum cleaner. He went to his desk and showed me the manual from Dyson. He's still keeping the manual!

Don't ask me if this is a positive sign that this guy seems to love reading technical stuff.  Only time will tell.

A wet holiday to remember - Part 2

The time the kids had been waiting for had arrived. We were finally at Bukit Gambang Water Park. 

Shunning the sun, I found a nice, cosy spot while the kids and Dad scurried to the rides. I nested there for a good two plus hours with only my books and netbook as company.  And of course, my groundnuts and orange juice.  Being a cashless theme park, Dad had bought some credit while I didn't.  One thing I like about this theme park is the availability of rest areas (called Cabana, as pictured here on the top right) for rental.  But, we were not early enough to get one.

This water park claims to have the biggest wave pool, Coco Beach.

After a good three-hour wait, Mom finally welcomed the kids and Daddy back from their fun and joy at the park.  As usual after dipping and playing in the water, all of them ate like horses.  The boredom of waiting and exposure to the sun were worth it as they gave a verdict of 'great fun at the park'.

A wet holiday at Kuantan with the family

Would you expect a holiday at a Kuantan resort to be hot and sunny? Sure is since our destination this time would be the Bukit Gambang Resort! So, there I went, packing singlets or sleeveless tees and shorts for the kids and myself.  But, instead of a holiday of sun and tan, we were unexpectedly greeted with relentless rain and gloomy skies.  Adamant that the east coast would be our holiday destination, we had totally forgotten about Mother Nature's power on the east coast around the end of the year. Going to the beach during the monsoon season around this time of the year somewhat turned our holiday into a wet one.

Thankfully, Wyng was dressed in a pair of long pants and jacket on his first day in an early morning journey. He was in his long pants and jacket most of the time we were in Kuantan.  Most of our car journeys were surrounded by cool and misty air and we didn't even turn on our air-cond.  "Sun, sun, where are you?" yearned all of us. We even thought we were at Genting at certain part of the place.  The kids prayed real hard that 'Smiley' would be out soon so that they could play at the water park.

"Rain,rain, go away, come again another day". From the highway to Kuantan town, we were accompanied by the continuous drizzle.  

When we finally reached our hotel at noon, it was still drizzling.  Not being able to check-in as we were 2 hours early and the kids also couldn't play at the water theme park in that wet weather, we decided to head to town to lunch first.

Daddy suggested Teluk Chempedak, (Chempedak Bay) a popular tourist destination in Kuantan since we were just a few kilometres away. As we neared the beach, the rain had stopped. This was our first time to this beach.  Stepping out of our car, we were pleasantly surprised that the waves were so choppy.  The refreshing strong wind made all of us felt that the drizzle prior to reaching the place had brought us to Teluk Chempedak.

Although it was a Sunday, the beach was not packed.  There were picnickers, children frolicking at the shore  and some beach activities such as kite flying and boating.  Many just lazed around to enjoy the strong wind and view.

We didn't want to 'waste' the view. There were McD and KFC and we chose the latter as it is nearer to the beach. What a view!

What a windy day!

Although the view outside is magnificent, we chose to eat indoor as it was just too windy out there

After our KFC meal, we took a stroll on the pavement along with scores of other holiday makers, taking some windy air.

Wyng with his 'drug' ice-cream, and Hoe having jolly fun

Hoe attempting to climb the coconut tree

As we reached the end of the pavement, we were amused by our roaming intelligent 'friends'. One of them, who was obviously thirsty,couldn't resist the bottle of apple juice left on the grass and efficiently broke it to quench its thirst.  The smart monkey, after drinking half a bottle, went on to harass a girl who dropped her bread out of fear, to the monkey.  After some pictures snapping, it's about time to check-in into our hotel.

It started to drizzle on our way back to our hotel, can you believe it? The kids were lamenting how unlucky they were as they couldn't play at the water park.  They could do nothing but wait for the Rain God to call it a day.  By the time when the drizzle stopped, it was late noon and to go into the park at that hour would mean that the kids could only enjoy for a couple of hours or two before it closed.  So, the final decision was to go to the park the next morning. The other water activity would be swimming at the hotel 'infinity' (so-called) pool.

Well, it's better than nothing.  Not a big and fantastic pool, but the kids, nevertheless, enjoyed themselves.

Hoe and Wyng had a whale of a time at the pool...

...despite the gloomy weather

At night, we drove out to Kuantan town, hoping to get some Chinese food for dinner. Compared to KL, Kuantan is never famous for its delicacies, so don't hope to savour any yummy food.  The further we drove, the heavier the rain got. After a fruitless hunt for Chinese food, we finally settled to eat at Pizza Hut at Giant. It was a good dinner though, good service too.

In order to spend the night 'productively', I took the kids to the family amusement centre located at the same hotel. Because of the drizzle (oh no!), they couldn't ride the carousel and others.  They settled for some of the arcade games there.

That's the end of Day 1, a wet, wet one...