We love books, but we have never (ok.. only once) visited the public library. The national library is too far away in downtown KL which I only visited once with my dad when i was young. During the year end holiday in2011 I brought the kids to the library in Bandar Sunway located in kompleks 3c but the book collection was miserable and we were not impressed and didn’t feel like going back again.
Sometime early last year, I read about the new library located in Shah Alam and had made a mental note to bring the kids there for a visit. Since I never have good impression with our local libraries, I was skeptical if this library would turn out to be our liking and if we ever manage to find any books we like.
On the 28/11 morning, I had to go to i-city to run some errand and since I am already in Shah Alam vicinity, I thought making a trip to the library after I have got my things done.
The library is huge and is nestled in the lush of green , next to the Selangor Golf Club (KGSAAS) in seksyen 13.
A very serene drive way leading to the library.
We headed to the children’s area called Zon Kreatif first , which is located at the ground floor towards the right , just after the entrance. We were asked to take off our shoes and store it at the shelves. This is the area specially for the below 10. Facilities available at this zone are Reading Tree, Creative Zone (where free or paid craft session is held), Cyber Zone where one get to used the PC and internet surfing, Iterative Zone where one can play Nintendo Wii. Didn’t check for the charges for using these facilities though.
It’s very spacious. We had a good feel and good impression upon entering it.
There’s a stage as well as TV area. The first time we were there , they were playing the HK movie CJ7, can’t remember what movie they put on the second time we were there.
This is another no brainer. The mother encouraged her children to balance, walk , slide down from the bookshelf.
Anyhow we are pleasantly surprise to see some good collection of Chinese Picture Books in the library. Good quality books they are, some award winning books. These are the books my kids love and which we have been renting from the book rental before it ceased operation.
These were some books the kids picked on our third visit and can’t made up their mind which to borrow first.
Books we borrowed on our second visit. We were two days late in returning them, and were fined for RM1 for late return for above books.
On our third visit, we only borrowed 4 books, including a brand new Double DORK diaries. WH actually picked another two machinery books but they were green tag books, which mean reference and not to be borrowed out.
Registration to be a member is free. Borrowing books is free. Which member can borrow up to three books a time for a duration of three weeks. I only registered for myself, WH and JL. JS does not have a MyKid hence I can’t register her online, I need to do a manual form filling application for her. I thought JE was too young to be a member (actually she can). If with five membership, I can borrow up to 15 books a time for FREE. Quite a good deal. And we really like the book collection there. We thought of not borrowing any books on the third visit. Though it’s only 20 minute drives from home, but school has started, making a trip to a library to return books before its due date can be quite a commitment , but still, we can’t resist on our third visit.
The whole library has 6 floors , amounting to 18,992 mps. It is very huge. Even after three visit, I have not ventured around the whole library. The upper floors cater to adult. Children below 10 are not allowed to go up. (JS attempted, but was stopped). I can’t go obviously as the younger kids are tagging along and I can’t just leave them alone at the kids zone.
Lobby/lounge on the ground floor at the opposite wing from Zon Kreatif. This is a much quieter and conducive environment to read and do homework.
Impressive architecture. This is the view from the ground floor looking up to the upper floors from the lounge area.
Other facilities available at this library are Gym, Meeting room, Seminar Room, 6D & 3D theater, Cafe and the latest is Tutti Frutti.
Last Tuesday night, I attended a talk on “Intro to Waldorf Education and supporting Waldorf At Home: Practical Guide” by Whitney McDonald.
Whitney hails from North Carolina, USA. He received his Masters in Education and Waldorf teacher’s certification at Antioch University. He taught and coached for 14years at the Emerson Waldorf School in Chapel Hill, NC. Whitney has lectured on Education, both domestically and abroad. He currently has on-going projects in China, Hong Kong and Korea. He has also been active in Hands-in-Peace, an international organization which brings young people from societies in conflict together for cultural healing through athletics and cultural sharing.
When he was sharing about child development, the stages of growth, I can help to notice so many similarities with the Montessori interpretation, just that the terms used are different.
I also like what he said “Children have to learn to think and create in order to successful as adults!” Through waldorf education, children are taught to feel too. THINK, CREATE and FEEL. Feeling is important, so that they can relate to the environment, to the people around, so that they are not selfish and self centered, so that they are loving and compasionate, so that they don’t loose their conscience.
Though I am a montessorian, but I also like the waldorf philosophy a lot. They really do have a lot of similarities. What I do is to pick up the essence of both and apply it to my children.
When I was a school student, especially during secondary school, I love to answer objective questions where multiple answers were given for us to choose the correct one. I lie this type of question because I kind off give up studies in my secondary schools years and with that I can still “tembak” to possibly score/pass the papers.
Now that I am a mother coaching my own kids, I have come to hate objectives questions. Because I never seem to be able to get the correct answer. Every option given seems to be the correct answer. I have come to realize that our education system only train robots. If the student is good at memorizing, they will score. They need not think and obviously not allowed to analyze.
The question : which is the correct match of habitat to the animals. Bird – bush, snail – underground, monkey – tree, tiger – cave.
If one reads enough of encyclopedia , watch National Geography and have a vast exposure to nature, you will know that all answers are correct. Bird does not just live in tree, there are species that build their nest in bushes. Snail – Snails are quite plentiful in the world so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn they are found in very diverse habitats, tiger s – they do have dens in cave.
Of course the answer given was Monkey – tree , which is very generalized.
If your child does not score the perfect scores during school exam, don’t blame your child and get panic. Check their exam paper. Sometimes it is not your child’s fault. It does not mean that your child is not learning and catching up with their school work. It is just the exam paper’s fault, which is too rigid.