faraway

Yesterday when I picked Zachary up from the school, I met with his teacher. She told me that Zach has been a wonderful student in the class and very good-thinker. He asked many questions, very active in the discussions, and a good-reader. She said that Zach is the youngest student in the class but the smartest. I am very proud of him ….

Zach has grown up as a smart, easy-going and agile kid. He is still 5 years old but his physical and emotional behavior is like older kids. People often think that he is 7 or 8 years old especially after they talk to him. He is not even in the Grade I yet, he is in the “Primary Years Reception” (in Indonesia, it is called as TK Besar)

He is very friendly and good-natured person with an obvious sense of humor. He has become a very effective communicator. I am often amazed when he explained something to me, the way he did it was by using pictures, explaining, and asking me questions to explore my understanding about that topic. He is a logical thinker with a good knowledge and is able to give clear and detailed explanations.


He really enjoys stories before bed-time. He listens very well and asks a lot of questions. He is still into Dinosaurs. It is amazing that he has been into Dinosaurs since he was 3 years old. He knows everything about Dinosaurs (the names, where they were found, when they lived and in which period, etc). One of our friend calls him as “A Walking Dinosaurs Dictionary.” She said that she never met 5 years old kid who knows everything about Dinosaurs. In the last few days, he has been talking a lot about planets. Planets have become his second favorite for this moment.

He has made good progress with his reading and become a more confident reader. Every day he brings home-reading level 12-14 from his school.

He is a good swimmer and diver too. He likes us to throw toys or rocks in the pool and he dives to get them. Jerome is often amazed by how he swims and how strong he is. He said that when he was at Zach’s age, he could not do what Zach does. Zach can already do butterfly-style!

Computer games are one of his favorite things to do before he goes to the bed. His recent favorite online games are on Ben 10 Cartoon Network, Harry Potter, and Dinosaurs websites.

He loves drawing; there is no day without drawing. We have a lot of his drawing collections. But he is very much perfectionist, when he cannot draw something or he thinks that his drawing is not good (based on his perception), he will get very frustrated and sometimes cry. One day, he told me that his friends had Pokemon cards and he really wanted to have them. Then, he made 8 Pokemon Cards. He drew and cut them as a card. We love them but when he brought them to the school and his friends said that the cards were not real and only 8 pieces, he was very sad … when I picked him up he cried in the car and told me that his friends did not like his cards. Poor him … Zach and I together with my friend, David, have made a painting. We played around with the colors and made tons of dots and the result was very gorgeous! Those butterflies were made by Zachary.


Since we live in Phnom Penh, Zach’s asthma or allergy has become worse. He has lost a lot of weight. He is not as chubby as before. Phnom Penh has less pollution than Jakarta, but because he spends a lot of his time outside he is exposed more to dust. He is allergic to dust mite. We use hypo-allergenic bed sheets for his bed. Every time we go on vacation and stay at a hotel, he has a bad reaction and starts coughing a lot. We figure it is the dust mites in the pillows or mattress or both since we always book an extra bed for him. We are thinking that we have to bring hypo-allergenic bed sheets especially for him when we are traveling.

Zach is still very active boy. He does not like just to stay at home, he loves his school and his friends. When he does not have activity after school, he will ask me to set up a play-date for him. He is learning Mandarin and Islamic Studies every Tuesday and Thursday and horse-riding every Saturday.