Sex Education; When it’s more than just MALE and FEMALE

We all know that of course… But I thought that was most likely what the students would curious about in their age of grade 1-5.
Apparently NOT! we watched an Indonesian folk tale in which the story told about a goddess who got pregnant after drank a prince left over water. Just like that! And she delivered a baby.
Two boys whispered discussing something. So I stopped and asked whether they wanted to ask questions.
“I hope it’s ok if I asked this…” One of them said in doubt.
“Go ahead.. I’ll try to answer.”
“Where does a baby come from? That one in the story, how come a woman drinks and then there’s a baby. A baby is there when man and woman married, right?”
Before I said anything, other boy responded, “It’s a folk tale. It said it’s magic!”
The only two girls in my class didn’t seem interesting with the topic. The boy in puzzle seemed hesitate to ask some more explanation.
“Is that answering your question?”
“I meant I know what happened in the story but in the real life… How come a baby is there?”
I got this kind of question from my 5-year-old niece when she wondered about the differences between a girl and a woman, a pregnant woman and how come the baby can be inside the womb. I kinda know her level of language and serve her inquiries. Whereas this one is 4 grader.
Upper grader is my new challenge to get to know in term of emotional/psychological and social development.
Am so not ready for this but there’s no choice.
So I answered “A baby comes from a private process between a man n a woman.”
“A private process? What is it?”
He smiled.. Like waiting for the name for the thing he probably already know.
“It’s called intercourse.”
“Intercourse?!” It didn’t sound like he thought he will hear probably…
“Yes, intercourse.”
The two boys nodded repeatedly.
“Ok? Can we continue? For further questions you can clarify with your parents.”
“C’mon Ibu Ririe! Let’s watch again!” The girls still didn’t give any attention to the issue.
So they continued watching while my mind wondered -I hope I said it properly- and every here and then stopping the video to check their understanding of the Indonesian.

Today… I felt so not ready for sex education for the age level I encountered today. I suppose no matter what subject you are teaching, you have to be ready for sex education; when it comes, it comes.😜

The thing is…. I FEEL SO WRONG DOING THE RIGHT THING -one republic 😜😜

-The lesson I’ve learned 😊

Emergency Critical Situation!

Today was one of the Emergency Critical Situation we had at school, only this time is caused by flood that happens in Jakarta and surrounding areas. Many of the students could not come to school and some who managed to come will have to go home early as well as some of my colleagues.

It’s been raining all day long for several days now, but that is not the worst. Tonight, it was confirmed the news said there will be the biggest flood coming down to Jakarta as Bogor floodgate will be opened as it cannot hold the water debit anymore (something like that).

A quite chaos and confusion at school…. Some teachers needed to go home other wise they couldn’t go home. As the result, I had to cover some classes.

Planning with watching a movie to make the day easier 😛 we had an interesting discussion with the 3 graders about flood instead. As they were asking why they were putting together, where are the teachers? Discussion went from flood to weather changes, went to atmosphere and what we have done that impacted the environment. It was became a nice discussion with big group. 🙂

Back to school issue with flood…. Tomorrow school is closed!

In my quiet room, I remember this poem I knew from one of my workshop -can’t remember which one- It really inspired me and always want to spread the spirit.

Here it is…….

STARFISH POEM (adapted from an essay The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley)


At times in our lives, we are all the old man, the young man, or the starfish.  Sometimes, as the old man, we don’t see the purpose to actions.  Sometimes, as the young man, we persevere and make a difference.  And sometimes, we are the starfish who just need a little help.

No matter how small the good thing you do to make a better changing…. It matters. Don’t STOP! 🙂


Weekly Photo Challenge: Solitary


One morning during my duty time, SOLITARY, is the feeling. When seeing the kids playing, running and other kinds of outdoor lively activities, I oversaw and tried to find something to do but still able to keep my eyes on my duty area. Thinking of having the feeling being alone among the busy ‘bees’, I took the picture of my feet in contrast with the ‘bees’ 😉


So this is one way how I spent my duty time in solitary….. 🙂


The Frog is Leaping


Jangka waktu 4 tahun sepertinya menjadi angka kadaluwarsa yang menempel pada kenyamanan lahir batin saya. Ketika melewati angka itu maka fungsi-fungsi tubuh saya inside out mulai malfunction. Salah satu gejalanya adalah otak saya menjadi teramat sulit diajak kerjasama yang ujung-ujungnya saya akan malas karena mendapati hari-hari saya yang semakin restless dan bodoh di tempat kerja.

Pilihan saya adalah pindah kerja ke sekolah lain atau lebih ekstrim ke pulau lain, atau berpindah posisi. Opsi pertama sudah saya coba lakukan, meskipun hanya satu tempat, tapi sebagian hati saya masih ingin do foolish things dengan teman-teman disini. Dengan kata lain, melamar ke tempat lain tapi berharap tidak dipanggil 😛

Opsi kedua mempunyai jalan yang membentang (sampai kerikil tajamnya pun terlihat jelas) karena teman saya dari department lain ingin berpindah di department saya. Gayung bersambut…! Saya menemukan ‘puzzle’ berikutnya dalam kebetulan yang harus saya temukan.

Atasan saya meminta saya untuk memikirkan kembali keinginan saya, apakah itu benar hal saya inginkan, karena posisi yang saya minta bukanlah posisi yang nyaman dan boleh dibilang saya akan mengalami degradasi. For the sake of my sanity yang sudah kadaluwarsa, I made my call! 

Dan meskipun saya telah mengajar selama lebih dari 8 tahun, tapi ini adalah pengalaman saya yang pertama mengajar di jenjang tingkat dasar.  The not knowing is very challenging. It keeps my brain working… now I’m smiling 🙂

Tapi tentu saja saya kangen sangat dengan pelukan tangan-tangan kecil dan wajah-wajah moody anak-anak TK di awal sekolah… 😦

The mosaic is in progress to be completed.. 

Aku Anak Pintar

I am sure everyone have this happen. It is when you have a song or music that you can’t stop playing in your head and make you hum it again and again and again. And… it’s contagious! ;p

I have this song, titled, Aku Anak Pintar that I sing lately with my class, and that song stick in my head all this week… aargh!

As I said it’s contagious and it irritates my colleague as well as she is then start singing the same song hahahahahaha….!

Aku anak pintar, bangun pagi-pagi

Tempat tidur rapi, kamar selalu bersih

Aku anak mandiri, bisa mandi sendiri

Tak lupa sikat gigi, gigi putih bersih

Sayang mama, aku tidak cengeng

Sayang papa, aku tidak manja

Sayang adik bermain gembira

Sayang kakak belajar bersama…!

ENjooy..and sing along.. 😉