Teaching your pre-school (2-6) to read English and Chinese at home

I found these books (first 100 words, 8 books per set) to be very useful for pre-school children to learn their first 100 Chinese words. Each book only cost you around RM5.50. You can even buy from Popular Bookstore Malaysia.

Picture adapted from: https://www.popularonline.com.my/cnsimplified/9789670370095.html

For English reading scheme, I prefer "Key Words with Peter and Jane". Each book cost around RM9.90 in Popular Book Store and you can also buy them in a set online. I have only started to buy the first 6 books at the moment (1a, 1b, 1c, 2a, 2b, 2c). Series with "a" are for reading while series with "b" and "c" are for further reading practice and writing respectively.



Picture adapted from: http://www.lelong.com.my/ladybird-keywords-peter-jane-full-set-36-books-kiddyzone-165268251-2018-07-Sale-P.htm

I have actually bought "Key Words with Robin" too but  found my child could not catch up with the progress from book to book.

I do not know how many key words should a child recognize in preschool but I am satisfied if my child can at least read 100-200 words in preschool. Any other good books that you have come across and wish to share with me for a pre-school kid? I would love to know more from you out there :).

Experience Staying in a Confinement Centre in Malaysia

Unlike my previous two times confinement whereby my mother came to my house and stay with me doing all the confinement lady's work for me, I went to a confinement center after delivering my third baby this year (2017). Hiring a confinement lady was not within my consideration as I have another two young children at home who I imagine, will demand for my attention hence making me exhausted during confinement. 

After researching around online, I visited Bellemom Confinement Centre in Puchong which was located in between my house and hubby's working place and decided to have my confinement there. They are charging RM8k plus per stay(28 days- start counting from the day you checked in). The price including a confinement lady dedicated just for you and your baby, a single room with bed, table and sofa, 5 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, tea break, dinner and supper), free laundry service, free one time massage for mummy, one pack of pampers for new born, a box of Chinese medicine (So Hup pills), and a pack of sanitary pad for mummy. Besides, you don't have to bring any baby cloths when you checked in here as they have plenty of babies cloths sharing among all the babies. 

This year, the cost for hiring a confinement lady has risen to around RM4000-RM6000 depending on area and the popularity of the confinement lady. My neighbor who had delivered a baby around the same time as I did had hired a confinement lady at RM4300 for instance while I happen to know a confinement lady who get paid RM6000 plus per confinement including ang pow. 

The cost for staying in a confinement centre in Malaysia varied from RM 6000-RM15,000. This again depends on area and popularity. Below are pro and cons staying in a confinement centre from my point of view: 

Bellemom Confinement Centre Puchong 

I love the rooms set up in this confinement centre. They were clean, bright and comfortable to stay (although some mummy did complained that the bed is not comfortable). There are altogether 5 rooms in the confinement centre. One room is spared for mummy who check in earlier or later than the predicted date. A door bell was placed inside each room for mummy to call for her nanny. Besides, each room has a TV with Astro programs. Alas that I do not enjoy watching TV :). 

This is an example of how lunch and dinner were served. Every lunch or dinner came with a meat, a soup and a vegetables. The soup served were mostly herbal soup (rotating). For breakfast, normally we were served with either bread with fried egg and cheese plus ham, misua soup, fried rice, fried noodles or porridge while thong sui (either double boiled raw papaya, pear, sweet potato or red bean) was served for tea break. As for supper, it was simple supper with Milo plus varieties of biscuits or sometimes steam bread. However, on the 4th week, double boiled herbal wine with black chicken will be served every two days as supper.

I like the hospital baby cot that they have in this confinement centre as young babies get to sleep well in it. We can also incline the cot to prevent baby from chocking while sleeping. 

Walkway outsides the room was nicely decorated with wall sticker. A small fridge was provided for mummy to store their breast milk pumped temporarily. 

A small room was partitioned for bathing and changing baby downstairs, next to baby room where all nannies and babies stay. If you prefer, you may let your nanny to fully take care of your baby day and night and only ask her to bring the baby to you when you want to see him or her. You can also ask nanny to bring the baby for your to latch directly during each feed. 

Overall I was quite satisfied with my confinement there except that the food was slightly below my expectation as the food quality is dependent on nannies who cook them. Besides, I was over-pampered with the good food which my mother who used to cook for me in my previous confinement I guess :). The good thing is that I have recovered well staying in the confinement centre with the rest and food obtained. On top of this, I have slimmed down to fit into my jeans before pregnancy again! 

Tips to stay in a confinement centre: 

1. Bring more cloths to spare especially when it was rainy season 

2. Bring your own supplement, chicken essence, DOM etc to get better food during confinement 

3. Bring your breast pump, milk storage bottles and start storing some breast milk if you are going to breastfeed your baby and start working later. 

4. Talk to the operator if you are unhappy about anything including their service or food served to improve it together. Don't just keep it for yourself. 

Diabetes During Pregnancy

Gestational Diabetes

When my little girl turned 2, I was happy to conceive with my third baby again. However, this time I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was 5 months pregnant. While I have no family history of diabetes, I started to suspect that it was due to my eating habits. I have switched back to eating white rice for a few months after picking up a new job. I work from 8.30 to 6pm this time hence making it very hard for me to cook dinner at night. When eating out, brown rice is not easy to get. On top of this, my new job required me to test different cakes and muffins and sweet bread almost everyday!

They called this type of diabetes (diabetes during pregnancy) gestational diabetes. I have checked online (https://www.babycenter.com/0_gestational-diabetes_2058.bc) and it says that if we fall into below categories, we are more likely to get a gestational diabetes:

While I considered myself "lucky" as I only checked point number 1 and not eight of the rest, I was still diagnosed with gestational diabetes! Doctor consoled me that it was not a big deal getting diabetes during pregnancy but these are the risk:

RISK of gestational diabetes (diabetes developed during pregnancy) 

1. Tendency of getting a large baby increases, this lead to difficulties during delivery
2. Too much amniotic fluid (polyhydramnios) which can cause premature labour or problem at deliver
3. Premature birth (giving birth before 37th weeks)
4. High blood pressure during pregnancy (pre-eclampsia) which can lead to pregnancy complication if untreated
5. Our baby developing low blood sugar or jaundice after he/she is born
6. Baby heart beat suddenly stop (stillbirth) during pregnancy (due to the condition is not optimum for baby growth in the womb)
7. Mummy has at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes in future.

How was gestational diabetes diagnosed and monitored during pregnancy

I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes after failing the glucose test (we were asked to fast from10pm to 8am and get our blood tested, after that drink a cup of glucose syrup and get our blood tested again after 2 hour). To pass the test, fasting blood sugar has to be below 5.6 while 2 hours postprandial (after drinking glucose syrup) need to fall below 6.7. 

Once we are diagnosed with diabetes, we will need to get our blood tested for sugar level every  bi-weekly. And this time, we need to check our blood 2 hours after breakfast, 2 hours after lunch and 2 hours after dinner plus early in the morning (4 times a day). If we do not own a kit to test blood glucose ourselves, we will need to spend long hour waiting in the clinic to get our blood tested during the appointment for sugar test. 

An example of record of Blood Sugar Profile (BSP) test; we are advised to make note of what we eat when we fail each test so that we can take precaution not to eat similar food in future. I failed in many BSP tests after dinner and was advised by doctor to take insulin injection if this persist. I eventually took control of my BSP by controlling amount of rice eaten at night and taking a walk after dinner. It really helps!

It almost took us the entire day to monitor our BSP in government clinic. The good thing is that for government clinic, they offer us to borrow a BSP test kit with a deposit of around RM50 (refundable) provided we buy the accessories including the needles or lancets and test strips ourselves. Since I am working and will not be able to report at the clinic often, I decided to buy a BSP test kit myself. After surveying online, I found an affordable test kit at www.11street.my. 

Review- Accu-Chek Performa Blood Glucose System

Accu-Chek Performa came with a lancing device, a reader, 10 test strips and 1 lancet  drum (with 6 needles or lancets). The good thing about this lancing device is that you can adjust how deep you want to prick your finger when taking blood (I am using 3.5 setting) and this resulted in less pain than a normal lancet (used by Klinik Kesihatan). The reading device came with lifetime warranty! To use it, you only need to on the reading device, place a test strip in place, clean your finger with alcohol swap and then prick your finger and get a small drop of blood staining on the other end of the test strip. Reading will appear within seconds! The whole test will take you less than a minute!

I got myself an Accu-Chek Performa (with 10 test strips and 1 lancet drum which contains 6 lancets inside) at the price of less than RM100. It was a good deal from my point of view as I found similar item selling at Watson for more than RM200! I have also purchased additional test strips at the price of around RM58 for 50 strips (50 tests) at 11street. I have left out the lancets during purchase and hence got a box of 100 lancets in Watson at the price of RM50 plus. 

Accu-Chek lancing device with lancet drums (you only need to change lancet drum for every 6 tests and no needle is exposed from the lancet drum). The adjustable lancing device making finger pricking a less painful experience

Counselling by Dietitian (diabetes during pregnancy)

Once we are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, Klinik Kesihatan will arrange us to get a counselling (in group) given by a dietitian. The session took us around 2 hours and it is very beneficial from my point of view. During counselling, the dietitian explained to us what is a gestational diabetes, what is the risk of getting it, and how should we eat to control it during pregnancy.

We were introduced to this plate called "Pinggan Sihat Malaysia" as a guide on how should we control our diet during the counselling session

An example of suggestion for breakfast at Mamak stall. We are advised to order chapati or tosay instead of roti canai and every meal must come with vegetables

Another example of meal suggestion. We are advised to take half a plate of vegetables for each meal and grill chicken instead of fried chicken should be selected. For drink, we are advised to drink plain drink or drinks without sugar.

A brochure containing some advises was shared to us during the counselling session. You may refer to this if you have diabetes and do not have time to see a dietitian.

Well, I think Kementerian Kesihatan (Ministry of Health Malaysia) has done a good job in offering a free dietitian counselling session for all pregnant mum who is diagnosed with diabetes. We should appreciate the service and take good advantage of it. :)

P/S: I have finally able to control my diabetes by diet throughout my pregnancy without having to take any insulin injection. I am glad that my baby and myself is free from diabetes now. If you get diabetes during pregnancy, don't worry too much but watch out for your diet. I am sure you will be able to control it well with diet and walking exercise like me :).

Changing to another Kindergarten

Changing to another kindergarten 

I did not have time to continue blogging after I returned to work more than half a year ago. This year, I have changed my elder child to another kindergarten situated at the garden we stay. It has been one and a half year JY joined Tadika Kristal Cahaya and she had improved a lot academically. She can read many Chinese and English words with the implementation of reading program in her school. Despite this, I have decided to change her to this new kindergarten with Mandarin as main media in teaching (Tadika Kristal Cahaya was using English mainly) as I found her to be too quite in school. She did not communicate with others at all in school and that was worrying me.

Since my plan was to send JY to Chinese primary school later, I made a firm decision changing her to this new kindergarten hoping to see her becoming more outspoken in school. JY had joined her new school (Taska Prima Tropika) for 3 months now. She refused to go to school on and off for the first 2 weeks again but now she had got used to it. The good thing about this school is that the amount of students were very few. On top of this, the teacher was very stern on training the students (it is a must to greet people when they see them i.e. to greet the teacher good morning, to greet the parents good bye; to finish all the food served by themselves daily). The syllabus was simple, but JY begin to learn writing within the line or box (for English and Chinese) and spelling for 3 language was practiced every week (simple words but to train them to spell and write words on their own). It took a while for JY to follow writing on the lines as well as spellings as it was not a practices in her former kindergarten. But now she had got used to it and start enjoy going to school.

I like kindergarten with outdoor playground for children to run and play each day before school starts.

JY enjoyed the new school very much. The teacher has arranged for a water play session during school holiday for the day care children

While I don't think it was possible to look for a perfect school nearby but I was satisfied with this new choice of kindergarten. The number of students is not too many and teachers here are very dedicated and loving. I enjoyed now and then listening to the teachers in school telling stories about my kids when they were there each day.

Reading program however was not practiced in this new school. Hence, I have bought books to teach JY myself at night to continue her reading program practiced in former school.