Penmanship Contest

I got good news from Julia this afternoon. She came home and gave me this letter.








On the letter it says...

"Your child, __________, Gr /Sec _______is one among the Top Five finalist of this year's Penmanship Contest. As such, s/he is qualified to join the final round which will be held on Wednesday, January 6, 2010 in the library at 7:00 am.

We advise you that a finalist loses by default if s/he is absent.

thank you very much!

May we continue working hand-in hand in developing the penmanship skills of our children. Good penmanship enhances one's personality.


respectfully..."


ok, my first thoughts were... wow! I was excited for Julia. I mean, I've never been on any penmanship contest in my life, even though I've always been complemented that I had nice penmanship. I knew it was really something for her bec Julia said, "Mom, I can't beleive it!" She said it in a very calm and relaxed tone while I was ecstatic, almost jumpy. Ok, that was my stage mother instincts kicking in. :-)

When I was young, and would get compliments on my penmanship, my mom would always dismiss it saying, " Na u tong iyong?" (translated in Fookien for What's the use?) See, during those times, my parents believed that for you to become better, criticisms were forms of making you strive harder. I'm not about to follow her footsteps on that one. I gave Julia a lap hug and praised her profusely.

Ok, but wait. Did you see that last part of the letter? "Good penmanship enhances one's personality." I hope for DH's sake this isn't true. He happens to have one of the louiset penmanship I've ever seen. hahahahahahh

Santa Stories

I know its being "Scrooge"... but I want to stop at this Santa charade that we have to put up every year. I could easily just spill the beans on Santa, but I don't want to be the one to burst the bubble on our 8 year old Julia.

We have this family tradition of opening gifts only on the morning of Dec. 25. That morning, Julia found Santa's gift under the tree...

Nico: "Santa's penmanship is so ugly!" (Referring to the "to and From"" note on the gift tag)
Julia: "No, its not. It's a special kind of font!"
Me: "Yeah, can you imagine? If you were Santa, you have to write on so many tags?" (sounding very defensive)

A few days after Christmas...

Julia: "Daddy, Santa's gift is from Toy Kingdom." (She sounded suspicious and confused)
DH: "Santa needs a lot of toys to give during Christmas, maybe he owns Toy Kingdom!"

yeah right! Maybe Santa's full name is Santa Claus SY! hahahahah

Seriously, if Julia asks me if Santa was real, I'm really itching to spill the beans na!

Letters

Its been a while since DH and I went on a trip-just the 2 of us. Mostly, our trips the past years have been with family and friends. Last month, we decided to take a trip to HK/Macau, with the Venetian as our main point of interest.

The night before our flight, Julia hugged us really tight as if to make up for the few days we won't be with her at home. She was hiding her teary eyes and was fighting to keep them from flowing. I instantly became guilty that we were leaving. Its not that I haven't anticipated this reaction from her. I knew she would really be sad despite the fact that I have tried to prepare her with the idea of our trip weeks ago. I felt very uneasy, so I decided to write her letters for the days we won't be around.

In the first letter I wrote...

Dear Julia,

You always surprise me when you come home from school, so I decided to surprise you today. I bet you didn't expect to receive a letter from me. By the time you read this, daddy and mommy will already be in Hongkong.

I remember you told me yesterday that you wanted to answer crossword puzzles. I found some easy crosswords for you last night so you can answer them this afternoon. If you are having a hard time, you can check out the answer key for some clues.

Don't forget to sharp your pencils later after doing your homework. Try not to miss daddy and mommy too much. We'll call you up tonight.

love,
Mommy

Money Matters

This is a pile of unfiled bills and statements I have accumulated from last year. As part of my goal to declutter the house this year, this is my first task of order. I hate the task of filing...so it really helped that I had some motivation to do this ( bank statements and credit card bills for the last 3 months are some of the requirements for Australian Visa application).

Julia wanted to help as usual, so I had her highlight the dates for easier filing. I didn't realize it was such a good opportunity for teaching her about money until she asked. " Mom, why are the checks you paid Enopi with you now?"- She saw the checks returned by the bank. I tried to explain the mechanics to her in the simplest terms until she was finally satisfied with my answer. Then she paused to ask, "Mom, how do you pay when you sometimes buy something on the internet?". "I use my credit card.", I answered. "Aah, ok. You know, before, I thought you scanned the money and sent it to them, then they go to the bank to get it.", she explained her theory. I was amazed at how she tries to come up with the concept of things-money in particular. So, I guess its not too early to try and explain complicated things to her now.


I took this experience further by training her to do the filing lol :-) - for future contingency plans he he he. Just today, when the phone bill came, I asked her to do the filing, and she was able to do it! Yey! I'm planning to retire early.