transposable element

hassan and peter have 18 marbles altogether.
hassan has 7 marbles.
how many more marbles has peter than hassan?

that was one of the three questions that jan wasn’t able to solve properly in his math exam, 5 months into first grade. his final answer was correct (4), but his equation was wrong (7-11=4). the other two were simple mistakes that were most likely out of carelessness and eagerness to finish, rather than non-comprehension.

his english exam also turned out very well. there were errors, but nothing to lose sleep about. considering that around this time last year he couldn’t even read, i am amazed at his progress, at his score (79/85), and at the proof that he is really absorbing the lessons in class.

the chinese language exam… um, does it count? hehe.. he royally flunked it, but hey, at least he didn’t get the big fat zero i was secretly anticipating. oh well, next term, he will be participating in a conversational chinese course along with all the international students in his school. hopefully that will help improve his chinese proficiency. if it really doesn’t work out or if we see that it’s stressing him out, we still have the option of applying for an exemption from taking chinese, which may likely be granted since his mother tongue is german, one of the few other foreign languages that are accepted as alternatives in secondary school level. but, we’ll keep that ace high up our sleeves for the meantime. he’s just started out, and who knows, maybe he’s just having a bit of a lag period.

overall, not bad, not bad at all. especially considering that we didn’t overly review for the exams at home.

well done, jan.

(can you read my pride between the lines?)

am not sure how it started, but for the past several years, i’m the one appointed to make the family’s travel plans. perhaps one reason is that techno-bobo as i may be i’m more comfortable making online bookings than hubby is. when i was still writing a travel blog, i was more kept abreast with travel deals, new destinations to check out, new things to try. booking well known chain hotels is easy; it’s just a matter of having the budget. but there’s no challenge in that. it’s in getting good travel deals that i get a kick out of. there’s more excitement in booking a less known hotel in a spot where not everyone else has been to, and finding that you’ve made a wise choice adds to the satisfaction of knowing you’re having a great time for less $$$. so for me, travel starts as soon as click tripadvisor, scouting for well-rated but lesser-known resorts.

so budget travel addict as i am, how could i pass from cebu pacific’s recently concluded promo?

imagine, 599 pesoses for a flight to manila! holiday invitations don’t get more tempting than that! what’s more, a quick check at the school calendar confirmed than jan has a week’s break in the travel period stipulated. click, click, click, done. i’ve booked the entire family for a flight to manila for the price of one person! i’ve no idea yet what we’re going to do once we get there, but i’ve ample time to think about it.

first, there’s jan’s semestral break to plan and think of. it’ll drive us all nuts if he bums around for an entire month! esep-esep…

i’ve embarked on a small sewing project. looking at most of mia’s clothes, they look really simple to make so i wanted to try making one myself. cheapskate as i am, i didn’t want to buy new material, considering that i haven’t actually sewn anything since my home economics classes in high school. so i took an old pink maternity blouse i no longer have any use for and cut it up. the resulting scraps look big enough to make a toddler dress, or a sexy nightgown (there’s not that much cloth!), depending how decent my sewing skills prove to be like.

thing is, i’m planning to sew by hand as i can’t be bothered to bring out the heavy duty machine i inherited from hubby’s grandma. besides, it’ll probably take me eons to figure out how the machine works in the first place. i can make clean and neat stitches, and i have a fair idea what i want to do, but after cutting up the cloth, i haven’t found time to actually do any sewing, arrrgh! at the rate i’m going, mia will probably have outgrown the dress even before i finish sewing it up!

this video clip was forwarded to me by email (thanks again, MissA!) and in the spirit of mothers’ day, i thought to share it with all you moms out there. those who have very young kids might not be able to relate yet, but if you’re like me who has a kid of jan’s age or older, watch this and see if you don’t hear yourself, haha:

while many developed countries are struggling to boost their population, the philippines remain in a quagmire because its population hike has gotten completely out of control. no thanks to poverty, increasing illiteracy, religion and the majority of politicians who don’t dare promote more effective birth control strategies for fear of stoking the church’s ire and thus losing voters. i therefore highly applaud the authors of the reproductive health bill. has it moved forward, though?

maybe they should run campaigns showing local versions of these ads on television:

should be effective, eh?

i was already in college when i learned the utility of “old exams”. valuable sheets of questionnaires in higher chemistry, virology and statistics, passed clandestinely amongst students frantically trying to absorb information during the last week of the semester, aka hell week. the old exams, which may have been from the last semester or the last decade, were difficult to get hold of (either that, or i just wasn’t “resourceful” enough), and for some subjects, possession of a copy made the difference between a pass or a “5.0″. or at least, that’s how it felt.

of course, now that i’m older, have already earned my degrees and no longer need to sit out exams, i can put on my righteous cap and say, what an utter load of crap!

an exam is an assessment tool, with the aim of measuring how much a student has understood of the lessons and how effective the teacher (and his approach, methodology and materials) has been in tackling the subject matter. if you scored high(er) on an exam because you benefited from having seen and reviewed old exams, then you are defeating its purpose, cheating the system, the teacher, and most importantly, yourself.

so imagine my consternation as jan brought home copies of old english semestral exams from 2007 and 2008, distributed by his teacher as reviewers for the upcoming tests next week! what the…?!? oh and yes, may i reiterate: jan is in first grade.

to date, there is not a single case of swine flu reported here in singapore. but that doesn’t mean the infrastructure hasn’t been laid, ready to spring into action should it become necessary. as it is, mexicans are now required a visa for entry to the country. people are advised to cancel travel plans (forget those Argentina travel plans!) and travelers returning from countries where there have been reported cases are held on a quarantine and are requested to work from home. temperature checks are now mandatory in schools, most offices and other public places. i’ve seen a few people walking around with face masks. seriously. i thought it was a bit OA and until this weekend, i simply brushed the whole thing off as some sort of post-SARS paranoia.

come monday, jan went home with several memos from the school, one of which details an action plan should students need to be quarantined at home. today, i went to the library and they were performing temperature and identity checks as well. a few hours later, i received an sms-reminder from the clinic regarding mia’s doctor appointment, telling me that as a safety precaution, only one visitor is allowed now to accompany a patient. hubby tells me that even the taxi waiting areas have now been moved away from the hospital, probably to reduce the number of people in the premises. gee, they really don’t take anything for granted!

paranoia? perhaps. but totally understandable considering that this country has been ground zero for the havoc that SARS wielded. but hopefully, these precautionary measures are for nothing.

i can hardly believe it’s been a year. i haven’t even written her birth story; i wonder if i still can. the scenes from that day when mia was born are all hazy now. and though i have pictures and videos on digital file to tell the story of the year that was, i have the feeling everything happened in a blitz.

now she’s walking, talking… and twirling.

on the morning of her birthday, we celebrated as is the norm for our family: a birthday cake, ribbons, balloons, and gifts of all shapes and sizes greeted the mia on the table as she woke up (ok, we woke her up as jan had to leave for school). she was fascinated, confused, and well, sleepy, but that didn’t keep her from enjoying her first car, the bobby car. she may never have stepped foot on germ’s land yet, but ain’t no reason why she shouldn’t enjoy something all kiddie germs do. i would have preferred to get the princess model, but unfortunately, only the classic and the benz were available here.

from jan, mia got a bead necklace, a labour of love the young man created the weekend before, while everyone else were taking an afternoon nap. sweet, eh?

last friday, i prepared a simple lunch for the rest of the clan and saturday was mia’s party with friends. her party, her friends. we hosted a gymboree party for the six other babies of mia’s age who we regularly meet with for playdates. an hour of baby gym followed by snacks and, of course, yet another birthday cake made for a tired but happy little princess. i was surprised that she held through it all affably, grinning and playful the whole time, but i think by keeping it short and simple, and with people mia already knew, she really had a great time!

needless to say, the past week has been quite hectic than usual, but quite a lot of fun!

mia, now you’re one, that adventure has just begun!

three cakes in a span of 5 days. i’ve had enough, frankly, but with mia’s buddies all turning one within a week or so of each other, i think i’m going to be eating my year’s share of birthday cakes within the next few weeks. no diet pill will work with the kind of feasting we’re having and will still be having until the last party by mid-june. hmmm.