Greetings to Monday week. It is a day of mixed feelings: glad to be sending kid back to school and looking forward for an extra few hours of morning nap while she's at school working.

The weekend was a great one, especially Sunday: birthday party, first aid and emergency crisis course with the civil defence course that went all morning and afternoon. I thought my weekend went great. But I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't taken the pills the doctor gave me to  help ease the rheumatic and joint pains I have been suffering for months. I feel like I am a wonder woman again.

Then a fantastic surprise from a friend. A call came in from California Fitness. Apparently, my great Filipino friend, had given me a 2 week VIP (VERY IMPORTANT PERSON - read that) free entry to the club! Now I have been denying the call to join her cus I knew I couldn't last 10 minutes in my workout shoes because of my joint pains. She insisted and didn't give up on me. When she rang, all I could say to her was, "So you've finally got me. Did you have to pay to get me in as VIP." It was all free. Now how cool and thougtful is that! She knew I have not wanted to join her because I am worried about my pains; I'd rather swim, it is less strenous. "Oh come on! Give it a try." Ok I shall.

I Dare You Will.

Homework on the first day of school: here's the test schedule -

Mandarin test on 28th August 2009 (chapters 13-17). Daughter tells me she can't manage the comprehension passages. Looked at her and while holding her gaze, I said, "Honey, if you continue to say you can't, you....?" I stopped with an inflexion in my voice. She responded, "Then I never will." "That is right honey, you just have to keep studying. You can do it. You have done it, 100 marks and 97 marks...it's all in the way you study."

I Dare You Will

We had gone for a short break at a waterfun park. Stayed overnight at the chalet. The tropical weather is always full of promise: sunshine all day long and you can play all day long, it is hot but not dry, only humid. And you can really enjoy! So enjoy we did. The entire day was spent soaking in the sun and water. And of all things forgotten! The sunscreen!

So as the days passed, we knew we had forgotten but we were so wet and happy, we couldn't care anymore. It is only slight. :) Thought wrong and so wrong. We were burnt and could tell we were burnt as soon as we finished our shower. And so we did enjoy ourselves. But our skin itched and flaked for the next few days and finally, we admitted, we had to suffer for our foolishness. The good thing is the kids were fine: they were fully clothed and had sunscreen on. Why didn't we, the adults even took the time to smear some on.

We were back to being kids again I thought. How  often do you get to do that, except when you forget that you are adults.

I Dare You Will

Kids look at things differently.
A table does not have a top because we cannot see it
We think the legs of the table are the table;
we accept that not being able to see the table is not a big deal,
we see the legs of those who sit on chairs when they eat at the table,
and we are given our very own high chair too, so how could we complain?

The seat of the adult chair is too tall and uncomfortable
because our legs keep dangling in the air when we are seated;

The pencils and sharpeners are not stationery,
They are magic tools; with them our hands become useful
We can draw, scribble and make pictures,
We can tell others what we imagine.

Food we eat are not source of our physical growth and energy,
Running, jumping and walking are what make us energetic
and help us grow.

Books are not our main source of our intelligence
People and the environment are our teachers

We yearn to grow and become adults
because we want to be able to sit without our legs dangling in the air

We want to use the pen and all other stationery without
being told they are too sharp or we are too small to handle them properly
That include the scissors which we know so well,
will shape anything with a single cut. Desparate!

We have the freedom, but there is only thing that freedom cannot help us,
It cannot make us grow taller or bigger even if we will it.

We have to wait, the voice whispers in our ears, constant and angelic,
Oh no, we cannot wait for that to happen!
We have to try to be taller, so we try this trick: tip-toe,
Hey that works, and to add to that height,
we extend our hands to reach out,
Hey that works even better, we try even harder
The effort we take to feel taller is showing,
our body is stretched, our neck is stretched,
as far they can, and we tip-toe even more,
The end of our the fingertip is the highest point to us,
And at the highest point reached,
our face is a signature of joy and happiness,
that we have done it
Our eyes are fixed on the space higher than
than the highest point which our fingers have reached.

We stand tall before we are tall, and when all is done
our two feet feel the floor again,
but just for the moment, that we felt tall,
we could remember exactly how it worked.
The next time we want to feel tall again,
we know how, we know we can stand tall even before we are tall.

- Annie Cook

Montessori first discovered that children learn to express themselves during a session with normal kids at San Lorenzo in Rome where her first children’s house was formed. She had asked a child to draw a chimney which was near where she was seated. She had offered the child a chalk, to which the child took and started to draw on the ground. The child exclaimed, “I can write! I can write!” His shouts sent many others to join him. He also began to write words next to the drawings he made, camino (chimney) and tetto (roof). His friends gathered around him in a circle looking at his drawings in astonishment. A few of the kids asked Montessori for chalk and they began to write words as well.

Reference: Maria Montessori, Discovery of the Child, Page 221, “The Mechanism Of Writing.

This story might ring a bell for many parents and teachers who have been around children and observed literacy development of kids. Writing of alphabets or characters is essentially a skill which expresses a knowledge already known, like how a chimney looks like (visual understanding), how a word might sound like in writing (like mama), and how an alphabet looks like. The explosion of writing could not have arrived to the child or even to any language learner without prior knowledge of how his environment feels, looks or sounds like. Henceforth, it is not impossible for people not to be able to draw anything.

The fear of not being able to produce a drawing that is clear and harmonious, comes from the lack of training in motor and sensorial skills of the hands, eyes and muscular senses. Reading words take priority over the understanding of the dynamics of the living environment. Learning therefore becomes a pursuit academic excellence. When it comes to art and drawing, the result is strange scrawlings know as ‘free drawings’ which shows the person is lacking in emotional and visual stimulus.

Mandarin characters, which has evolved from pictorial writing, is a form of art of drawing, also proves that people have always enjoyed communicating with one another through pictures. The cavemen drew pictures to leave behind history of their existence earth. Drawings, however primitive or childlike, will grow and evolve to become knowledge for others.

Drop everything and start to draw on June 6 2009.

We went for dinner last night. Had Indian Roti Prata. My daughter ordered 2 pieces of egg prata, I had 1 piece of plain prata and dad had 2 pieces of plain prata and tandoori chicken. I had to speak up. "Honey, you cannot have two egg prata. Each piece of egg prata has one egg. So you have 2 egg prata, it means you are having 2 eggs for dinner. That is not healthy." She stared at me, "Why not? I love eggs."

I replied, "You may have eggs but maybe only 3 eggs a week. Not everyday." How do you explain facts about nutrition to a 7 year old? She just completed a worksheet about the types food for the school's health education programme and now I am stuck with words on what to say about the harmful effects of having eating too many eggs in a day.

So with a stern voice, I said to her, "How about mummy have half of your 2nd piece of prata?"

She nodded in agreement. That ended my struggle.

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. this morning. Went to kitchen and wondered what to give my daughter for breakfast before she went out to school. "Should I make her french toast? or Milo?" The thought of having eggs and prata the other night kept playing in my head. I decided to go with freshly squeezed orange juice and a banana.

I think I can be strick to my daughter at times, but whenever it is bedtime or waking up in the morning for school type thing, I harbour fear of becoming dictatorial and demanding. This morning, I literally went into her room with the cup of orange juice and banana. "Honey, time to wake up." And literally fed her in bed. She rubbed her morning stupor off her eyes; in my mind, I only wanted her to get ready on time for school without feeling all stressed out about it. We live in the city and the din never stops. Noise can be stressful.

One of the things I do want her to start learning is to have morning prayers. So I encouraged her to get out of bed, take her ablution and join me for morning prayers. Both of us stood together and we prayed for 5 minutes after she had put on her school uniform (it's t-shirt and shorts today.)

I had made hot milo. The time was 7:00 a.m. Just right to walk out of the house and leave for school.

I imagine there are many parents who have to go through this daily routine like me for many years, maybe even with more than 1 kid at a time. What I do see happening to my daughter is that she learns to grow happy knowing mum is always by her side to support her growth. For her, if I am with her at bedtime and when she wakes up in the morning, her life is full. I see that in the way she waves goodbye to me at the schoolgate and how she insists I stay with her to massage her before she goes to bed. It does make me happy to see her being happy.