How Melur Got Her Email Account

Kingston's annual spelling bee contestants - junior level - Melur on the far  left

Melur had been asking for an email account. She said she's the only one in her class who doesn't have one. Roy and I were not sure about this. We were worried about spam - among other things.

Anyway, in the end I made a deal with Melur. She'll get her email account if she enters the Kingston's annual spelling bee and gets through to the tie breaker round. To get through to the tie breaker round, she needs to be able to spell all the words listed in the guidebook - about 300 words or so. She was happy to accept this challenge. We worked hard for about 3 weeks before the spelling bee. Here's how we went about it:

1. Melur went through the words for 1-2 alphabets every day. She'll write each word on a flash card.

2. I'll quiz Melur every night on the words from the flash cards. Roy and Arman also did this; basically whoever is free for that night helped. But whenever Arman did the quizzing, it usually ended up with the two of them screaming at each other **sigh** Melur would scream that Arman is pronouncing the words wrong and Arman would scream Melur's just making excuses for not getting the spelling right.

3. We went to the spelling bee practice. They had this about 4-6 times before the actual spelling bee. We attended the practice twice. The first time is just to see how it is, and Melur joined in the second time.

4. We also had a family spelling bee on the weekend. We did this once. Melur and I went one on one, and I think we drew. What can I say... the words are not easy ones.

Melur was a bit scared in the beginning, she became more confident  after the first preliminary round.

On the day of the spelling bee, Melur was a bit scared at first. But, she went through 5 preliminary rounds and spelled the following words correctly: tacit, uxorious, lithosphere, rectitude, and reconstructed. For the tie breaker round, she misspelled "reassurance" and that was that.

You can watch the YouTube video here.

We had a good laugh about this - they misspelled Melur's name - with double Ls

Roy and I are proud that she made it through to the tie breaker round. I asked Melur if she wants to do this again next year, and she said YES! Melur's goal next year is to win a trophy - so at least third place. She has to be a "big reader" for this. We'll definitely come back again next year for the spelling bee. Wish us luck!

PS - That night Melur got her own gmail account.

- Posted by ehaz

Melur's Science Project

I was looking through this blog for the past few days. My, how the kids have grown... Melur is in Grade 4 now and Arman is in Grade 3. Soon they'll be in middle school, high school, and then off to college.

Anyway, last March Melur presented her science project - "Electrical conductors and insulators" - during the Winston Churchill Public School's (WCPS) science fair. She had about 6 weeks to do the project... but, well lets just say that the bulk of the work was during the last 3 weeks before hand-in (which was not that bad really, could be worse). One week was spent reading and understanding the materials - i.e., the science behind conductors and insulators. The next week was spent setting up the experiments and preparing the written report. And the last week was spent preparing for the class presentation and creating the display board for the science fair. Melur got some help... but she did most of the work. She has to because she must be able to answer the questions during the science fair and class presentation. Here's a picture of Melur and Papa putting together the written report.

Melur and Papa putting together the science report

And here are some pictures of Melur during the science fair. For her project, Melur set-up an experiment to test whether an object is a conductor or insulator. She the small light bulb she's holding? She must be holding a conductor. 

Melur and Papa showing off their stuff... 

Melur and Mommy during the science fair

The science fair was for Grade 4 and 5 students, but only Grade 5 could go to the provincial science fair. All the projects were on display at the gym with the students minding their booths. Lots of other interesting projects were on display - e.g., magnets and magnetism, hydroelectricity, pollution, etc. Melur enjoyed doing her science project, and she's planning to go to the provincial science fair next year. 

Melur proudly explaining her project to a visitor

It is quite interesting to see the education system here. I don't remember doing anything of this sort when I was in Standard 4. I had projects in high school though. And definitely parents are more involved here. The instructions that came from the teachers included instructions on what parents could do to help. Maybe the education system has changed in Malaysia... it has been quite a (LONG) while.

Melur and the Cats

We have two cats - Archie and Hermione. Melur loves those two cats. She reads to them, plays with them, and sleeps with them. Here, she made a makeshift bed for Hermione from the piano bench, Arman's pillow, and Arman's hair towel. Hmmm... how come she's using all of Arman's stuff for the cat?...

Here you see a picture of Melur and Hermione. Maybe it's time to buy cat beds...