Kantoi

Yesterday I spent some time with my niece, helping her with her reading. If any of you are familiar with the syllabus and the level of the ujian saringan they have to sit for to gauge their level of literacy you will know how difficult it is. Buat ujian saringan untuk darjah satu macam nak buat entrance test untuk jadi angkasawan. Somehow I feel lucky to belong to a different (nak cakap older tapi masih in denial) generation during which the text book for Bahasa Malaysia had more pictures than sentences. And the concept of 1Malaysia was immortalized through the names Zurina, Ah Chong and Ramasamy.

After the reading and writing activities my niece did some drawing and pasting. She divided her art block paper into four quadrants and drew something different in each. And then did some colouring. And then cut up some strips of paper and pasted them on the drawings. Then she presented her work to me as a gift.

-Here Mak Long. I did this for you. You can take this to your office and show it to your friends.
-Oooh. Thank you. What did you draw?
-Take a look.
-Wah cantiknya. Who is this pretty girl? (elemen membodek dan reinforcement of self-esteem through good words of encouragement)
-Mak Long. That's a boy. (Kantoi number 1)
-Oh OK. And what about this eraser? Pandai Aina lukis little hearts to decorate it!
-But that's a pizza! (Kantoi number 2)
-Uhuh. Well that's a special pizza then. (typical Mak Long cover up)
-Mak Long, can I tell you something?
-Sure.
-You're not good in arts and craft, are you?

Oh well.