Of birthdays and neighbors

What would you like to be doing when Christ returns? That is what you should be doing today.

For me, I would like to set up a livelihood project for my community where I was born. Some members of my family still live there and they tell me that their kids are not motivated. A niece argued it could be because of the uninspiring teachers they have there. With the changing times, my barrio the way it used to. Hopefully I could go back and offer education, manpower training or micro-financing initiatives.

Husband has his own endeavors too. He wishes to use his skills, experiences and passions into something that will benefit the out-of-school people.

There have been some projects on the same tone that we have become a part of, but they were just extra curricular. We are convinced that the only way to fly would be to go all the way, to make it as our day jobs.

At this thought, I cringe.

The questions about finances and the kids worry me. Lord, bless me with more faith.

Names and writing skills
I have heard it before, comments giving kids long names would put them in trouble when they are in preschool and developing their writing skills.

It's very much happening now.

A co-parent told me of her son's resistance to go to school one night. My daughter and her son are classmates. According to her story, the little boy finds the school a scary place because of the teachers. One of their classmates was reprimanded and he was overwhelmed with how the teachers got mad when one pupil failed to write his complete name in just one line. The little kid used the metaphor of being like ghosts when the teachers got mad. Since her boy has a long name, he feared that he will get scolded too and dreaded the experience. She practiced writing with him and that eased the boy's fears.

I am very thankful she shared that story with me. My daughter admitted that she was not excited to go to school too. I tried to find out the real reason and it turns out that she misses her old classmates. This was a new class and her best friends were not there anymore.

Because of that story too, I let my daughter practice more of her assignment. I photocopied several copies of her drill sheet of writing big and small 'M'. I chose the best ones and put that back in her assignment bag.

For our son, it is a different story. Nursery level doesn't require much writing yet. So I give him more activities to develop his fine motor skills, like spooning and lacing. Got to add more to that. :)

Danielle's 3rd birthday last May 9

You can get anything you want in life by helping others get what they want. Zig Ziglar