…of school is almost done!

‘Aaqil now in Year 6 and ‘Arfaan in Year 1. Surprisingly first day of school for Year 1 here in Cairo was really easy and laid back. Compared to if we were back home. People here take it so normal like just any other day. Haha

Kita pulak segan nak bergambar dgn anak. Ye lah Year 1 tu macam Darjah 1. Kita org Malaysia kena la rakam saat manis dan hari bersejarah kan. Lol. Walaupun I knew that this will be repeated when we moved back to Malaysia and ‘Arfaan will be Darjah 1 in 2024 insyaAllah. Dejavu. Funny but true.

Boys are settling well. With routines and friends. Although ‘Arfaan will be a bit anxious about swimming next week. Hmm. We’ll see about that. Also his bff is no longer in school (moved to Dubai) so he was quite sad. Hope he will get over that soon. ‘Aaqil is coping well as usual. I didnt get to take picture with him on the morning of first day. The moment I settled ‘Arfaan at his class ‘Aaqil already move to his classroom.

Well done boys. Lets make this ‘final year’ in NCBIS (Cairo that is) the best and full of fun memories insyaAllah

A day before the last day of school, ‘Aaqil told me he wanted to get something for Ms Imam, his class teacher. But its already 3pm and we are on our way back home and he has yet to pray zohor yada yada… So I told him why dont you make something as a farewell gift like a card or something. He didnt respond back as he still thinking of getting that “Best Teacher Award” trophy that he saw at the Party Station shop few months ago.

Later that evening after maghrib, he was really quite in his room few mins later he showed me he made a ‘farewell card’ for both Ms Imam & Mrs Eman (teacher assistant). Awww melts my heart. It was a work in progress but i can already see his sincerity. He made it with all his heart. All the words came from his heart. ‘Arfaan also joined the bandwagon – he made one card each for Ms Elaine, Ms Hannah & Ms Sophia all his Reception teachers for REH class.

Back in the days, every farewell at school I would try to make it a point to give some tokens to the teachers – a sign of thank you for all the guidance and care and love they have showered our kids, semoga ilmu berkat. But this time around I truly feel something from the kids themselves would mean the world for them teachers. And also coz theyre big enough to make something special rather than some random gift at shop.

‘Aaqil made few pages – the first two with his wishes and the remaining pages with his doodles. And last page he said he managed to get some of his classmates to put their signature on, before handing it to his teachers.

The next morning i packed some chocs and oreos for them to give to their teachers, together with each letters.

One special thing about this school is the same teacher will teach all core subjects ie Primary – Maths, English ie Reading&Writing, Topic and same goes to Reception. And this teacher wont be teaching other classes. Their focus is on these 20 students for the whole year. Hence the bond they have with these kids and vice versa was very close. Anything they will mengadu to this class lead. For non core subjects eg Drama, PE, Music itll be the same teacher for all year groups.

Last day of school, ‘Aaqil cried so bad during pick up. He said he will gonna miss Ms Imam. Sobs.

Its the final week of Reception for ‘Arfaan and Y5 for ‘Aaqil. The reports of achievement also issued. Allahumma baarik alaikk. They both did great masyAllah. Well considering been absence for more than a month due to covid and unplanned homeleave last year. Amazing boys.

The school also been very thoughtful. They arranged amazing activities for them kids approaching the year end ie summer break.

Celebration of learning (or back home we called ihtifal) were done in separate session for each year group. So for Reception it was held on the 19th and Year 5 was on the 26th. It was a very short and sweet session, only 1-2hrs considering it is weekdays and parents are working so its great and meaningful.

For Reception groups, there was performance from all 3 classes. ‘Arfaan was very excited about his performance. His class performed some poetry basket and Rocky Mountain song. Afterwards, the whole were invited for Hokey Pokey song and dance. There were also short video of kids pictures for whole year. All were invited for a picnic at respected classes. Weather was quite hot so we just eat in their class hhehe

For Year 5, the kids have to select one scholar to be presented in their final year project. They did this under Topic subject entitled Baghdad the House of Wisdom. ‘Aaqil chose alKhawarizmi the father of Maths as his scholar. It s amazing to see them kids really put their effort and passion into it. Us parents got to visit and listen to their creations. MasyaAllah. Such an opportunity for our kids to experience this first hand. ‘Aaqil did amazing as usual. Couldn’t be prouder.

There also arab sweets and drinks served for the parents at the corner of the hall. The session last for only an hour, then we took some pictures and thats it. Short sweet and really intimate. We had fun get to know other kids and parents too.

This week has been very hectic. With water plays, birthday parties, kids bringing back all school stuff (hahaha). Good job my boys!! Now lets gear up for Year 1 and Year 6!!

Last week the boys had a non uniform day at school celebrating the 70yrs of service for Queen Elizabeth – Platinum Jubilee. So they can wear anything in red blue and white.

Also, the primary kids ie ‘Aaqil and friends had a ‘Very British Picnic’ whereby the kids were given a special cucumber sandwich treat during snack break at school. Hehe cool kan. I was wondering what is so special about this sandwich haha.

So apparently the Early Years kids ie ‘Arfaan & friends able to make the sandwich themselves! Of course by the help of them teachers. So ‘Arfaan said its a slice of bread, spread with cream cheese and then put slices of cucumber on it then put another slice of bread. And he likes it. Woww. Talking about encouraging kids to eat vege clap clap

Infact the boys loved it so the other day I made the sandwiches for their lunchbox. Senang dan sedap!

Btw this cream cheese is so delish! The brand is named ‘Kiri’ . We got to taste it the first time during our stay in Dubai last month. They served this everyday for breakfast. Yum!

Few weeks ago we had a parent teacher meeting (virtual) with ‘Aaqil and ‘Arfaan teachers. This was the 3rd one since they enrolled here in NCBIS.

For ‘Aaqil, he is now starting to come out of his shell. He is comfortable with his classmates. More open in class. Alhamdulillah. Still trying to fit in with the boys tho – every now and then he will bring stories from school about his friends not wanting to talk to him. Or even if his football friends coz they rarely pass the ball to him. Well i think its normal la as long as he doesnt get into a fight. And im glad that he express his feelings instead of keeping it to himself. We need to know everything first hand kan parents 🥲 Moga ‘Aaqil bertemu dgn rakan2 yg baik. Ms Imam proposed us to arrange a playdate with the boys to develop friendship and that very weekend he was invited by Seba for a playdate at Bounce Cfc with 3 other boys. Hehe. And the following week we arranged a football practice with Aarav, Yeho & Raef. Aaaand just recently he came back from a 5d4n school trip to Luxor-Aswan and he definitely has loads of bonding time with his friends insyaAllah.

‘Arfaan now in Reception. Ms Elaine said he is so ready for Year 1 – ultimately based on his reading progress. He needs to improve in making proper english sentence – make it longer using ‘and’ ‘so’ & such. He has good friends named Jingran, Samy & Noor. Sometimes he mentioned Jia, Carla, Pablo, Rasheed & Adriana. They will have poetry basket songs every now and then. Every Wednesday he will bring back 2 books to practice phonics & story telling. Every Thursday is library day – kids get to borrow 2 books weekly. Alhamdulillah he is coping very well with school. No more crying in the morning he he

Few more weeks to end Term 2. New term will begin after EidulFitr insyaAllah 😊