Khaira's progress on flash cards!

I guess it's been a while since I last talked about Khaira ♥

She's doing well in her flash cards thingy. Despite of my hectic schedule, I still try my best to teach her hijaiyah everyday.

Along the way, I almost gave up on teaching her. Her progress was not as I expected. I guess Al Furqan method was not suitable for her. I mean, she super love the song.. but there's no stickiness factor. It just doesn't stick.

She would remember her Aa, Ba, Ta today and got confused between Ba, Ta and Ya the next day. Even counting the dots didn't work for her.

When BFF Sumayyah ordered Al Barqy for us, I tried the method with Khaira. The way to use flash cards are the same, but the letters you introduced to her differ. The first four combinations..

On the first day I taught her, she already memorized two out of the four cards. And even when I showed her the letters not in sequence, I just randomly picked between the four cards, she already knew which is which by day three.

On day 7, I managed to capture this.. :) *Watch her video on youtube there.

As of today, she's still progressing very well. She can differentiate the Ba, Ta and Ya. Ja and Ha. And I am ever so excited to take 5 minutes of her day to teach her all these.

There are ups and downs in teaching our little ones of course. But the ups make everything worth it. Happy teaching, mommies!!

The loss of Cory Monteith

If you've been following my blog for quite a while, you'd notice that I'm a huge fan of Glee.

I was not a big fan of Finn Hudson aka Monteith. I'm in Jesse's team. So I wonder why Finn's death had a profound impact to me.

You see.. Monteith was found dead, alone in his hotel room where the autopsy confirmed the cause of death was excessive alcohol and drugs. He was struggling with his addiction for years.

It was unbelievable. A healthy looking young man with a quarterback sort of body.. who would have thought.

At the moment I'm writing this, one of my closest friend was struggling with drugs and alcohol him/herself.

And I of course was not at all equipped to deal with it. Other than accepting him/her as who he/she is (probably the reason why he/she came clean to me and only me..) I'm pretty much as clueless as you are on drugs and stuff.

People can be rebellious. I never told him/her to stop. But by showing him/her enough love over the years.. I hope it'll help him get over them.

But the passing of Monteith made me wonder.. it's obvious how much love and support Lea Michelle provided him on his addiction but the addictions were still there all along. And to tell my friend to stop altogether might lead to a risk that he/she will never tell me the truth afterwards.

Sigh..

RIP Cory Monteith.

The day I passed my PhD viva gracefully

Alhamdulillah.  I am surely a blessed servant of Allah SWT.

That morning of 8th July, god knows how many butterflies wander around in my stomach, I arrived safely at the viva place an hour before my viva. Greeted by a good friend, Kak Husna who came for the moral support.

One of the external was already there! I was not ready for a small talk with my examiner, but I ended up with one I'll forever treasure.

While setting up the slides, BFF Sumayyah surprised me with her little boys. Came all the way early in the morning for me!! At that point, I told myself.. I must do this. For everyone around me.

With the 2 Ms

15 minutes before viva started,  my friend Sajaa came. At this point, everything I read became just some blurry lines. She told me to recite Al Ala instead. I did and felt good afterwards.

I began my presentation with full confidence. One of my external fell sick on the day, he just sent his report and the chairman decided to proceed. At that point I know that for that external examiner, I already passed with minor correction. Otherwise they won't proceed with the viva.

And when I presented with my full of animations slides inspired by Love, I knew I had the second external examiner. You just knew the look of awe. Later when I was done, she said, "the slides were too beautiful that I immediately forgot what to ask you."

Right after presentation, the chairman opened the floor for general questions. The external gave me only 1 question and 2 from my internal examiner. The questions were very minor. Then, I know I had this.

Taken by my supervisor during viva when they went through the thesis page by page

Specific questions were very minor too. My viva was done in an hour; thats a new record.. the fastest so far. With very minor correction to be done in a week. Normally they gave 60 days. Just to show how minor it was.

5 minutes after viva taken by Kak Husna, was trying to call Love to tell him the good news

 

Right after my viva, a good friend, one of my mentor asked me to come to the pantry where he.. I repeat it's a he.. baked a cake for the first time in his life for my viva. It was perhaps one of the best carrot cake I had in life.

More lovely friends came..

And met some more for our pre celebration at Nando's.

So now I'm struggling with my correctionns. And I guess I'm the happiest person in  planet earth who was about to be awarded as a Dr before I even turned 28. Alhamdulillah.

My gratitude goes to my supervisors, my hubs for the continuous support, my daughter, my parents and family, my lovely friends and to everyone for the doa of which without it I myt not be here today. Alhamdulillah.

ITEX 2013 and Utusan Malaysia

Alhamdulillah, I won silver in ITEX 2013!! :)

 

Funny when we won gold twice previously, it was not in the news.

Was in Goldcoast during ITEX so thank you my Supervisor for presenting on behalf of me :)

Tangga at Homer!

Yay finally!! Alhamdulillah :)

RM1300, not bad huh?

Buying and selling shares

Found this Figure that summarizes the process of buying and selling shares!!

http://richsnail.com/blog/how-to-open-a-trading-account-in-malaysia

Hope it helps!!~

Tips for PhD Viva

So, my Viva has been postponed again to 8th July, I hope this time is for real. But yeah, Allah SWT knows best. So, I hope I will make full use of the plenty times given to me.

Anyhow.. I asked the 'Doctorate Support Group' I joined in facebook for the tips in Viva.

So let me just share with you some of the tips that they shared with me:

1) Know your research novelty
2) Bismillahi tawakkal tu a'lAllah wala haula wala quwwata illa billahil a'liyil a'zim
3) Confident and smile consistently
4) Remember all the famous authors with the year
5) Relate your work to prior research work
6) Solat hajat :)
7) Give charity before viva
8) Recite Rabbi yassir wala tuasir throughout
9) Viva day - Read yaasin after solat subuh
10) Think positive!!
11) Recite yassin the night before and pray so that the examiners will listen to our explanations and understand them
12) Zikir/Al fatihah all the way from home to viva place
13) Selawat to Rasulullah before starting the viva
14) Relate the findings and objectives clearly
15) Seek for the supervisor's blessings a day before the viva
16) Run test the slides before you start (meaning come early) and check all the equipments
17) Light meal for breakfast on the viva day
18)  http://www.academicjoy.net/phd-during.html
19) "Examiners role is too assist you" :) 
20) Solat tahajjud, solat hajat n solat dhuha, baca selawat tafrijiyah n zikir rabbi yassir
21) Ask for parents or husband to recite yassin and solat hajat during our viva
22) Virtual viva --> http://viva.3owl.com/

May we benefit from their sharings!! :)