Happy Graduation, Obi ...

the graduation cake

"And next... 

To the girl who knows exactly what to do with paint and brush, here is our most artistic girl, Nadine Frakarsa.... C'mon down..."

Happy claps and cheers were filling the room, as my daughter Obi stepped up and received her certificate of recognition from her school, Mushroom House Daycare.

I almost broke into tears..

Happy tears..

bunny foo foo :)

I still remember.. 

Roughly 15 months before, when we rushly looked for Bo et Obi's school. 

Just moving in to NYC from Jakarta, Indonesia in May 2014, it took a while for us to get the house we wanted. After around 1 month, we finally got one in Astoria. Then the hunt for the school began... 

Or rather, we chose the house we lived in now because of the school :).

Here in NYC, they use the school zone system, especially for the elementary level. So, I have to make sure that our address is within the school zone of the school that we want. Sometimes even if you are living closely to one school, the school zone might be slightly different. Therefore, before we signed the contract, we made sure that PS 122 will be Bo's school -and soon Obi, too :).

As for Obi, as she was eligible for pre-K, we were looking for free Universal Pre-K funded by NYC near our house. They open the registration in February and we were in June already at that time. from 4 schools we applied, we finally got one spot, of two left, in Mushroom House Daycare. it was a close call but we made it ;).

So, Obi's new adventure begin in September 2014...

It was not a smooth sailing for Obi at the beginning. Huge adjustments have to be made and Obi was picking up the pieces at her speed. But with thel of Ms. Linly, Ms. Sallyan and Ms. Asha, my little girl surely learnt more and more everyday...

Obi, me et Ms. Linly :)

                                     

And how she loved her class.

Everyday there will be new story about whatever happens at school.

Obi made this, the class went to the park, Nadia did this, we sang this song, Brandon drew this.. On and on and on...

happy friends forever...Nadia, Brandon, Obi..

And now, after sharing so many beautiful moments together, the class finally said goodbye to its petit passengers.

The graduation started at 10 AM and filled with lovely songs, performances, and award presentations.

Everybody was a winner that day ;))

cheeers :)

The theme for the graduation day was creatively taken from Dr. Seuss' Oh the places you'll go... 

So lovely...

And there were many food and munchies for everyone, although my munchkin and I were fasting ;).

One lovely photo booth were prepared as well, complete with funny accessories that we could use.

With Ms. Sally and Ms. Linly :)

                                   

Cute photo book filled with colorful pages of Obi's day at school became a lovely memento, along with goody bags of stationery and sweets. Ah, and one lovely toutou as well :).

After for about 1.5 hours, the program was concluded. With mixed feelings, we all bid farewell to friends and teachers. Some will go to the same kindergarten, some will not. But for sure the friendship will stay in our hearts.

Thank you Ms. Linly, Ms. Sallyan and everyone at Mushroom House Daycare...

We are forever grateful..

Bo et Obi's Story: Presentation of Travel Brochure

Bo has just presented his second travel brochures...

Bo et Ms. Machado

As part of the project at school, Bo was preparing travel brochure. They were studying about different parts of the world in Social Studies. Last fall, they discussed about Africa, so Bo decided to make Egypt as the country he would be promoting. 

This winter, they learned about Asia, so definitely, Bo was so excited to talk about Indonesia. It was soooo much fun indeed :). Although they only studied about China, Japan and India, but Bo chose his homeland for this project :).

Kali ini, sebagai bagian dari pelajaran Social Studies, Bo mempelajari negara-negara yang ada di Asia, seperti China, Jepang dan India. Seperti sebelumnya, selesai mempelajari negara-negara tersebut dengan segala details, informasi dan pengetahuan baru, mereka diminta untuk memilih satu negara di kawasan tersebut untuk dijadikan brosur perjalanan. As simple as that, tapi tugas sekolah ini benar-benar seruuuu lho..anak-anak jadi belajar tentang negara-negara tersebut dengan lebih dekat, mulai dari bendera, lagu kebangsaan, jumlah propinsi bahasa, dan budaya lokal yang menjadi kekayaan khas negara tersebut. Belum lagi tempat-tempat cantik yang menjadi tujuan wisata. Pokoknya seru dan fun :). Dan untuk tugas kali ini, Bo memilih Indonesia. Yaaaay ...

Bo was taking his time working on it and the brochure looks nice :). 

It took around 3 days to make it, starting from getting the information, choosing the photos, writing, decorating, and coloring it. He got this list of questions and points he would get if  he got those elements on his brochure.

He used a lot of photos, including our own photos, showing our beautiful homeland, Lampung. Bo was even on some of the photos, especially those on beautiful beaches  :).

Bo was showing activities that people can do and enjoy in Indonesia, beside some basic facts and interesting information about our country :). Like how many Islands Indonesia has and how many traditional tribes we have.

I guess he wrote about enjoying the natural beauty of Indonesia, embracing the rich culture, experiencing the culinary wonders and shopping! Yuuup.. Shopping :). I don't know where he got the idea but I guess watching me coming home with those colorful shopping bags clearly shown that Indonesia is a shopping paradise :).

So, he finally finished the brochure during the mid-winter recess. 

Wanna see his work ? 

be careful...

we also had the Lampungnese dance and wayang :)

And last week, parents (and grandparents ;)) were invited to come to the class and saw the children's presentation on their works. 

I managed to come and watches the whole presentations. It was great for sure! 

It was briefly opened by a short video showing every kids introducing the name of the country that they would be introducing to the class. 

Then they made a short speech about the  country and the goals they have accomplished by making a travel brochure. 

This is Bo and his group before the presentation.

getting ready...

And I made a short video of Bo's presentation as well ;). 

After the presentation,  we even had one girl performed an Indian dancing in front of the class. Then everyone had the time to go around the class and talked to  the kids about their works. We could also write some comments and compliments about the brochure. For about one hour, we finished the program and the kids continued their studies. 

I really like this program and Ms. Machado, Bo's teacher, has planned to have one more when they study about Europe.

I love the fact that kids get creative and brave to present their work in front of the class. Way to go, kiddos...

Last fall, Bo was working on Egypt travel brochure when they studies about Africa. I didn't get a chance to write it down here but I guess I can put it here together ;). 

preparing for the first brochure...

It was a great experience as well for Bo :). And for us, it was like reminiscing of our trip to this Land of the Pharaohs...Such a great memory!

the photos used for Bo's brochure..most of them were taken from our trip....

And the final product is this:

taraaaaa...

Here were some of the photos from last fall's presentation....

cheeers...

Bo's friend's work...

colorful :)

How about your kids? 

I bet they have many interesting school projects as well..

Bo et Obi's Story: homework time #1- purple home..

Needless to say, my kids are having fun at school here. And they have many home works and project to work on as well.

A few weeks a go, Obi, my daughter, started learning about family and home. After a fun session learning about family members and making family tree, Obi was assigned to make a house. Well, it proved to be a fun project as we are free to make whatever house we have in mind. Soon this work involved everyone in the house, including mama, Bapak and Bo :).

We used the shoe boxes and cardboard to create a two-story house comprises of one living room and one bed room ( no kitchen and no toilet, as complained by Bo et Obi :) ).

With the help of construction paper, some gift wraps, crayons and markers, plus glue and a huge amount of enthusiasm, voilaaaa....our purple (surpriseee surpriseee :) ) home was ready!

here's the 2-story house :)

Obi was so eager to work on the details as well...
We taught her how to use the scissors safely and she seemed to enjoy it. But for some tiny pieces, Obi let mama do that :)

Wanna see some details? Here they are...

First, here's the living room, where we have 4 chairs and coffee table and some pictures on the wall...

We have lovely paper rocking horse that mama got from Pinterest :). Just click the link, follow the steps and you will have this beautiful bright-red rocking chair. Obi loves it :). 

Then we have our pictures on the wall. Well, knowing how we love posing in front of the camera, it shouldn't be surprising to have this section in our cardboard house :p.

Mama, Bapak, Bo et Obi :)..

On the second floor, we have one bedroom, complete with the cupboard, and TV in the corner :). Aah, and one greeny table as well :p.

Well, well...that's what we have for a 3-hour work as a team, although it was Obi's homework :). Obi was so happy to bring this labour of love to her school that day. Enjoy your purple home, Obiiii :)

#BoetObi's Diary: visiting pediatrics in NYC ...

As we moved in to NYC in May,. tons of adjustments have to be done
Well, that's for sure...
And that includes the kids' schools...

Waktu kami pindah di awal bulan Mei, Bo baru saja menyelesaikan ujian tengah semester. Agak tricky juga sih, soalnya itu artinya kami akan berangkat dan pindah sebelum Bo menyelesaikan kelas 1nya di SDN 01 Cipinang alias SD Kuda Laut.

Sayang memang, tapi apa hendak dikata, tugas tidak bisa menunggu dan berangkat duluan terpisah dari suami dan anak-anak juga bukan pilihan ideal. So akhirnya, kami pun berangkat berbekal raport tengah semester. Setelah mengecek laman sekolah umum di NY, daftar dokumen yang perlu dipenuhi untuk pendaftaran murid baru pun kami dapat. Salah satunya adalah kartu imunisasi.

Well, complete record of immunization is one of the prerequisites to register for school here in NY City.

We had the same requirements when we enrolled Bo in his Jardin d'enfants back there in Geneve, Switzerland.

But this time, we have Bo et Obi.

Well, it's not that complicated or confusing if the list of obliged and supplementary  immunization lists in every country is the same. But it is only natural that the lists might be distinguished from one another as every country faces different risks in term of communicable diseases.Not to mention different weather and other geographical factors.

For Bo, it was a bit complicated as he has 3 immunization cards.
Yuuup...three cards :)

welcoming Bo to the world...

One set from Melbourne, Australia, when he was born. Such a brief period but important phase of developing his immune system

One from Jakarta, where he stayed till 10 months and finally one from Geneve, where he spent most of his childhood. I feel like I start collecting immunization cards here :)...

here's the list from GE...

So, we have to combine them all to get a complete set of immunization that Bo has had. And is not that easy at all as we have slightly different lists here

By the time he moved to NY with us, Bo is required to have more immunization as we have, unsurprisingly, different immunization requirements. He had to go through blood test to check his immune system, compare the lists and decide what to add. I felt so guilty looking at all those shots that have to be given at the same time but Bo really stood out for it.

For Obi, it's a different story :)

She has one set from Geneve, as the crucial first 7 months of her life was spent there, then one set from Jakarta as well, pretty much the same as Bo's. Quite colorful, I can say...





Soo...that's about the cards :)..

Another complication we had at that time was that it was the last days of registration Obi's UPK. UPK stands for Universal Pre-Kindergarten, the free pre-school program provided by the NYC Government. No wonder the place is quite limited and the price for private Pre-K can rise up to USD 1000 for full-day program.

 Since the registration for this program started last March, we had to rush and submitted the application form as soon as we can. That means, on that day. Yuup, that particular day...

So up we went searching for pediatrics for my Bo et Obi...asking around, getting some info from friends who have kids with the similar age, browsing the internet, consulting with our insurance agent. Then we finally decided to get to Dr. Robert Yu to be the Doc for our kids. Lucky us, he is so used to consulting with Indonesian parents, so we managed to get the appointment directly on that day. Alhamdulillah...knowing how tricky it can be to get an appointment, I felt so blessed and relieved :). 

So, right on that day, we went to the Doc and the kids seemed to enjoy that very first visit. For sure, they loved the overall interior, boosting colorful walls with children's favorite cartoon characters and cute animals. That's, of course, before the needles were involved.

Obi loved the panda she found on the cabinet where the Doc examined her immunization list and gave her the shots. All smiley ..in the first 10 minutes...

go green for today...

Well, who wouldn't love Nemo swimming around you? I love thaaat...
While waiting for the shots, Obi was exploring the rest of the room as well...

swim with me...

I suddenly miss diving....

Then the Doc decided to  give Obi Haemophilus influenzae Type B (Hib), Pneumococcal Conjugate, Varicella, et MMR, as required by the NYC Health Department as well as Education Department. Jadi imunisasi tambahan ini disesuaikan dengan daftar imunisasi wajib bagi seluruh anak di AS.

While Bo got an extra dose of Polio, MMR, Varicella and TDAP (tetanus diphtheria). All in one day...But alhamdulillah, the kids were fin after all those shots. No fever at all,  just scolding mommy for letting the Doc give them shots :).

So, after 4 shots in a row (with a little kicking and screaming :) ), Obi and Bo had completed their immunizations cards and we were all set for the enrollment of the new schools. And Bo et Obi got stickers  (transformers for Bo et princess for Obi :)) and lollypop ..I normally don't give them the sweet things like that but I guess they deserve to have one..

Here are more snapshots from our visit to the Doc :)...
How's you kid's visit for immunizations?
Bagi bagi dong pengalaman mengajak anak-anak imunisasi :)

after the shots...puffy eyes from crying.. 

what's on TV, Bang...