Honey4Boyz

We were fascinated to see our friend, Augustine, operating an aquaponic system successfully right in his home garden. Aquaponics combines aquaculture (fish) and hydroponics (plants). We then googled to find out more about this new field. An eye-opener for us especially the children. An organic partnership in aquaponics:- the fish provides the waste nutrients to support plant growth and the plant growth helps to maintain water quality and provides food for the fish Augustine has both concrete tank as well as fibre glass tanks for his fish. He is not trained in this field, but he learned it all from the Internet. He has more than 300 fish, both ornamental (eg koi) and edible types, such as tilapia, catfish, baung, kelah, soon hock and krai. Waste nutrients from the fish must be filtered out of the water. To reduce the toxicity of the water for the fish, the water will pass through grow beds, which are simple filtration systems consisting of gravel and worms. A brill

We had heard much about the street ministry or soup kitchen that we decided to experience it for ourselves, as well as to introduce such community service to our urban children. The children these days spend too much time in schools and tuition / enrichment centres, it is good to open their eyes to see some reality in the community they live in.   We went to the Samaritan Ministries' Soup Kitchen in Brickfields, Kuala Lumpur, the place which is a potpourri of different walks of lives. For the last 3 and a half years, the Samaritan Ministries has faithfully reached out to the homeless, hungry and needy in Brickfields through various programmes such as free meals, medical clinic and a Drop-in Centre. The Samaritan Ministries is a joint effort of YMCA Kuala Lumpur, the Kenosis Home and Trinity Methodist church, Petaling Jaya. YMCA provides financial support and the location. The Kenosis Home is a drug rehabilitation centre and their residents take care of the cooking and log

Reviewed by Xian Jin The title of my book review is The Wright Brothers. There are 145 pages in this book. This book is about two brothers, Orville and Wilbur Wright, who love building things. Before the Wright brothers start building things, their mother teaches them about 'wind resistance'. Wind resistance is the force that pushes against an object while travelling. The Wright brothers build many things, such as the fastest sled in town, a printing press, a folding machine and many more. As they grow, they learn to fix bicycles. The Wright brothers do not buy new bicycles- they buy old parts of bicycles and fix together to make a bicycle. However, both Willbur and Orville are sick when they are young. Wilbur suffers a facial injury while playing hockey, which prevents him from continuing his education. Orville has a disease that cannot be cured by the doctors at that time. Orville has to stay in bed for at least one year. For the next three years he continu

Posting by Xian Jin: Friday 3rd marked the end of a chapter of my life. I left my primary school to a learning centre with mixed feelings. School took up a big part of my life. I went to a primary school that had followed the local education syllabus. I've enjoyed every moment of my school life. There was minimal homework and I did not go to any tuition that repeat what was taught in school. I enjoyed the pains and joy of growing up together including sharing our ups and downs, discovering our hobbies and interests, playing sports, doing homework and assignment in groups and doing fun and crazy things. I think the most important thing is the relationships I made with teachers and friends. Many students think that school is boring and stressful. They spend a lot of time doing homework, going to tuition and studying for exams. There's another unschooling group who does not follow any curriculum and learn at their own pace. They also pursue learning in an independent way throu

The wondrous cave in Malaysia - Gua Tempurung in Gopeng, Perak!!!!! What is unique about this cave is - it's a natural limestone with an underground river passing through it. We experienced our first caving adventure as a family on the 3rd day of Chinese New Year. It was a busy time in Gua Tempurung due to the holiday season. There were 4 types of guided cave tours according to the level of difficulty. We chose Level 3 - ie the platform dry tour as well as the river adventure. It's a journey of about 2.4km from entrance to Golden Flowstone (Platform 3), Top of the World (Platform 5) and back through the underground river. Our cave ranger was Salleh, and he said it would take about 2 1/2 hours. Located about 25km south of Ipoh, it is made up of 5 huge domes that resembled coconut shells, hence the name 'Tempurung' came about. Each dome has different formations of stalagmites and stalactites and is also different in temperature, water level, content of limestone and m

Tuan Nian is an important family tradition celebrated on the eve of the new lunar year. We joined the rest of the family members to make our way back to Ipoh for this Tuan Nian or reunion dinner. In many ways, the celebration has changed in modern times. Now most families opt to have their Tuan Nian in restaurants rather than 'home-cooked'. At dinner table, what used to be "we" now become everything "i"..... i-pads and i-phone and we even bring our friends to our Tuan Nian via facebooks and chats, taking picture and updating every detail. Technology has made an impact to our celebration, the way we eat together, the way we talk and listen to one another. But.... not all things technology could replace..... Fun things the boys did with their cousins...... Children were allowed to stay up late and enjoy the last hours of the old lunar year. The sky would be lit up by fireworks and firecrackers. Sparklers are popular fireworks for children .