Prep School Life, Oh Her Prep School Life!

our daughter is now in Prep. her work load is overwhelming, to say the least. every day, she comes home with a bag full of homework and activities. quizzes are scheduled every week (sometimes 3-4 in a given week). nyar.

not that i want to complain. she breezes over all her English subjects (math, reading, language, science, etc). thanks to her constant addiction to workbooks (we buy her about 3-5 new ones each month). but with Filipino, it's a whole different ball game.

actually, we never really thought about talking to A in tagalog when she was younger. even her nanny was tasked to talk to her in English (yea, yea, K's pet peeve, hey, we're talking about the freshie who aced the grammar competency test in Ateneo! *cough* hehe, don't ask me where it all went, ask my husband, hehe). one incident however changed all that and had us determined to teach her to speak in the native tongue. see, back when i was still chummy-chum-chum with one of the ex-PBB... uh... housemates (hmm, i wonder where she is nowadays? last time i saw her was on my hubby's digicam. apparently, they're now friends, and have the same embassy-ascend-alchemy-jaipur-what-have-you clique), she took A inside the PBB house, where A met one of the directors and the other peeps behind PBB. and this conversation ensued:

Director: Hi! Anong name mo?
Ex-PBB Housemate: What's your name daw?
A: A!
Director: Hi, A! Ang pretty mo naman. Gusto mo bang mag-artista?
A: Oo...
Director: Para pareho kay ni Ate (names Ex-PBB HM)...?
A: Oo...
Director: Sinong mas maganda sa inyo ni Ate (names Ex-PBB HM)?
A: Oo...

when our nanny realized that her ward can't become a celebrity because she couldn't speak Tagalog, she started teaching A simple words. today, A speaks in broken tagalog. "Gulat ako" "Ano pakain mo for A?" and all those funny broken tagalog phrases, which hey, i attempt to correct, but to no avail.

so anyway, because i've been spending more time teaching A (we didn't need to teach her a thing last year, since everything was easy as pie for her, what with her workbooks at 1st and 2nd grade levels already), i have been struggling with teaching her Filipino. last week, she had a "quiz" on Alpabetong Filipino, where she had to memorize all letters that are Patinig, Katinig and those Hiram na Titik (kayo, alam nyo yun?). The quiz was announced the day before. and because it was the first time for us to see her Filipino notebook that day the quiz was announced, i couldn't help but despair on how to explain to A what those letters are. i explained it in English, and she got it naman after a few tries (yea, we got through studying at 1130pm, and by then, she was already running a fever). she aced the test though with a perfect 40/40 and a big "O" for "Outstanding", so yey!

because of that test, i figured i should make note of every single lesson she brings home each day just so i can review it with her, in case her Filipino teacher springs another surprise. we started with words that begin with or contain the Patinigs A through U (i got it from her Binhi book, which she brought home for homework). see, i have to work with A in such a way that simple words such as aso, araw, apoy, etc. are translated into English. as a result, we already have a mini English-Filipino dictionary of some sort. there were about 8 words per vowel, so i figured it'd be pretty easy as long as we prepare for any upcoming quiz. true enough, a quiz was announced Wednesday. the quiz was to be on Friday (today). and i was glad that her teacher announced the quiz two days early so at least we'd have enough time to go through what A had already started to learn. but then when i read the notice in her homework notebook, it said "pag-aralan ang mga salita sa BINHI at WIKA"! that's two books! and when i got all the words for all the Patinigs from both books, it summed up to about 20-25 words per vowel! how'd you expect a 6-year-old to learn more than a hundred new Filipino words in two days?!

funny how you have to be very graphic when teaching A. it works well for spelling so i figured i should do the same for Filipino. i go through each word, and what i cannot explain in drawing or English, i draw plus demonstrate. example: ARARO which is PLOW in English. since she doesn't know what a plow is, i drew it for her (with matching carabao and farmer plus field) and demonstrated how a farmer plows his field by walking around the room with an invisible plow. :P last night, at about 1115, we were going through the U words, i was trying to make her remember the Filipino word for HUT, which is KUBO (since she kept getting the same mistake). so aside from showing her a picture, i told her "diba, you know the song Bahay Kubo?" to which she replied with a "nooooo..." but then a few seconds later, her face lit up and she gleefully said, "yes! yes! i know Bahay Kubo!" then she stood up, placed her right hand across her chest and sang... "Bahay Kubo, Perlas ng Silanganan..." ayayay! :P

we worked through Wednesday and Thursday ('til late at night) and in the car each morning, with A "testing" her dad since it makes it easier for her to remember the right answers when R purposely makes a mistake. and today, she came home telling me that the test was a little hard but she prayed before the test and got only 3 mistakes (haay, salamat! i thought she was coming home with a red mark!). i checked her results page and true enough, she got a 38/41, an "HS" for Highly Satisfactory or i dunno... "High Score"? R is relieved. nakakaawa na daw kasi yung bata, ang dami sobra ng inaaral, akala mo college. and being the loving dad that he is, he told me we should get A something to reward her for her hard work. :)

this is just Prep. what do kids do in grade school nowadays?!

The Voice of Truth

we were supposed to catch Casting Crowns last Saturday, but tickets were all sold out. people were literally standing in front of the Sommet Center hawking for extra tickets, some even holding up signs that said "i want YOUR tickets, sell me some". so we skipped that. it would have been fun to watch Casting Crowns live. they are my favorite group right now.

i was able to catch Chris Tomlin though and a talk featruing Louie Giglio over at the Renaissance, but yea, missing Casting Crowns was like missing the next big thing. see, unlike the other groups, Casting Crowns holds dear to my heart, with most, if not all, of their songs, having real meaning and great impact in my life. i especially love THE VOICE OF TRUTH as it speaks about the giants one faces in life and how those giants tell you that you will fail. and you rise up against all your giants because you choose to listen to the voice of truth.

Oh,what I would do to have
the kind of faith it takes
To climb out of this boat I'm in
Onto the crashing waves
To step out of my comfort zone
Into the realm of the unknown
Where Jesus is,
And he's holding out his hand

But the waves are calling out my name
and they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me
time and time again
"Boy, you'll never win,
you'll never win."

But the Voice of truth tells me a different story
the Voice of truth says "do not be afraid!"
and the Voice of truth says "this is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of truth

Oh, what I would do
to have the kind of strength it takes
To stand before a giant
with just a sling and a stone
Surrounded by the sound
of a thousand warriors
shaking in their armor
Wishing they'd have had the strength to stand

But the giant's calling out
my name and he laughs at me
Reminding me of all the times
I've tried before and failed
The giant keeps on telling me
time and time again
"Boy you'll never win,
you'll never win."

But the voice of truth tells me a different story
the Voice of truth says "do not be afraid!"
and the Voice of truth says "this is for My glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of truth

But the stone was just the right size
to put the giant on the ground
and the waves they don't seem so high
from on top of them looking down
I will soar with the wings of eagles
when I stop and listen to the sound of Jesus
singing over me

But the Voice of truth tells me a different story
The Voice of truth says "do not be afraid!"
And the Voice of truth says "this is for my glory"
Out of all the voices calling out to me (calling out to me)
I will choose to listen and believe (I will choose to listen and believe)
I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of truth

I will listen and believe
I will listen and believe the Voice of truth
I will listen and believe
'Cause Jesus you are the Voice of truth
And I will listen to you.. oh you are the Voice of truth

Far, Far Away...

blogging from the US. was gonna blog earlier but i transferred my pics instead (i have it on draft, dami e)... anyway, the flights were terrible. there was a crying baby from Manila to Nagoya to Detroit. poor guy who sat beside the mom and her kid couldn't sleep a wink. i was an aisle away, and even i couldn't get any shut-eye.

i miss home. i miss my family so so much. i do not understand how others can just get up and leave their families to seek happiness elsewhere when your family should be synonymous to just that - happiness. i suppose it's different for others.

was able to go to Opry Mills for about two hours tonight. will be working tomorrow, so i guess that's it for shopping. :P anyway, i am here for a purpose, so i might as well make sure that i fulfill that first. but i have all the directions to all our fave stores ready... hehehe. who knows, i might be able to sneak out for an hour or two. nyar.

Today is Big Mouth Burger Festival Day @ Chili's!

so yea, yea, i convinced my foodie buddy and brother, KW, to head to Chili's for lunch. for today only, they are serving their big-mouth signature burgers (original price @ approximately 320+pesos each) at 88+pesos each only. i received a text message from some unknown source (thank you!) this morning, and my tummy decided that it wanted a Chili's burger for lunch and nothing else.

i was wise (nagbuhat ng bangko!). hehe. i called up Chili's Tomas Morato to book a table for 4. :) anyway, KW and i escaped from our staff meeting at 10 minutes to 12noon to rush to Chili's. Jwas "shy" so she didn't come along (syempre, special mention! hmph!), good thing SS came to the office so we took her with us instead. we got to Chili's and there was this loooooonnnngggg line of people waiting for tables. of course, because i had reserved seats earlier, i went to the front of the line to get our table. but the girl says she doesn't have my name on her list. so i asked her to ask her manager. turns out the manager, Alex, has pretty bad handwriting. the girl did get his advisory on the reservation, but thought he wrote "China" instead of Catral. hohum. good thing my mobile number was on the list, so we were able to get our table.

Amy, our server, informed us that the waiting time for burgers was about 30-40 minutes (you should have seen the faces of all those people waiting for their burgers!). we placed an order for 2 Barbecue Ranch Burgers (for KW and SS), 1 Mushroom Swiss (for me) and a Peppercorn Burger-to-go (for R, who earlier gave his regrets because he was on a "diet" but later texted to say he wanted one...). 40 minutes came and went, and still no burgers. after about 40 more minutes (and after getting a Royal Flush on my Video Poker game!!! woohooo!) and a zillion follow-ups, i called Amy and asked about our burgers and she apologized for the delay, but also said she didn't know when they'd be out from the kitchen. so i asked if she could give us chips, and she gladly gave us a complimentary basket of Nachos and Salsa. :) of course, we gobbled up the chips since we were really hungry already. 10 minutes later, i was already calling Manager Alex's attention, because our burgers were already about 2 hours late! which brings me to conclude that i should have called his attention earlier, because 5 minutes after i talked to him (and a free glass of iced tea later), he came out with our burgers! :)

it was a hearty lunch (and a pretty affordable one too), but hopefully they do better next time. i don't mind the wait but because the burgers came out super late and we were already famished, we forgot to take pics of the meal (and remembered to do so right when we were halfway through our burgers, hehe). Alex says this is the first time for them to do this, so they didn't expect the long wait, alhough ok lang because we were served well anyway. :) yum!

ps. we were waiting so long for our burgers that R came over to Chili's to get his take-out right when we were finishing off our fries. :) walang diet-diet, half-pounder ba naman ang itapat sa yo. :) thanks, Chili's. sa uulitin.