Kristine's "Activity Week" at School

[12 hours before]
Kristine: Daddy, you coming to school with me tomorrow?
Me: Huh? Tomorrow is Saturday. When did you have school on Satuday?
Wife: Tomorrow is the day for her and all parents are invited to see their work.
Me: How come I don't know about this?
Wife: You and your work. Don't tell me its more important than your family. Its already almost end of the year, you have so many leave piling up. Don't tell me you can't even take a day off.
Me: But its last minute la..........
Wife: [Giving me that, "What the Hell you work so hard for and now its almost middle of the month and your salary is still not in yet" look]

Quickly SMS to Boss:
Need to take Emergency Leave tomorrow as my daughter got Kindergarten Last day activity.

And so, today, I did not go to work, my Wife was happy and so is Kristine. Never thought such things can exist. I mean, I have seen all of these in the movies, about Dads not showing up at their children's special event but did not think it would happen to me too. Damn it. I have to be more alert on these stuff and they will never come back again.

While taking her to the school, I can see that she is happy and proud we were there. By the time we settled into her class, the activity for the day was introduced. We have to paint and glue pieces of wood to make some kind of a box. While we were doing it, I noticed the stark difference in her compared to her first month in school. She is actually looking forward to going there (the moment she steps through the gates la). But sadly, try as she might, to make friends, most of her classmates ignored here. Maybe they're shy on that day but if it happens all the time, I will be very sad for her.

I do notice that she is very eager to make friends of her same age but maybe, her approach is wrong. She is happy to greet them with a smile and a laugh and remembers all their names but if they keep on ignoring her, she might get discouraged. Because I was not there, I cannot solve this problem. Maybe during the parent-teacher meeting, we might have some clues.

This is the way to put on your shoes and still pose for the
camera. Why she does the victory sign (inherent in all
girls when taking photos) I cannot understand

After I dressed her up wit the protective smock, Kristine
is ready to paint her project. She wants to make the same
thing as shown by her teacher instead of coming up with
her own colour schemes I must make her to be more
creative and think out of the box often

Mommy also helped out

Krsitine painting the rest of the ice-cream sticks
to go with the box.

I allowed her to stick the onto the box as
well. One thing about sharing is that
everyone at the table shares all the
material from the painbrush to the
water colours to the UHU glue. And
I hate it when they do not return them
to the original place. Since today is her
special day, I have to let it go at that.

Kristine calling out to one of her friends

I hate looking at that face when
they ignored her. So, I distracted
her with more things to stop her
from thinking too much about it

In fact, almost everyone ignored each other and only
the parents talked. But I hate the girl in yellow as she
is really stuck up.

As I walked and explored her classroom, I came across her work in
class activities. Later, I realised that they are for display before the
teacher packs them up and lets them bring it home. Mysteriously
Kristine's is the only one without ears. These are made from dough
(no, not money) and are going soft already. So, I got my wife to put
them into a vacuum bag and hopefully, they can last for years.

A very imaginative use of pasta for a photo frame

Her colouring skills are not bad at all.

Here is another example.

Ball in the cup game which I could not even
get the silver ball to go into the cup

By breaktime, ours were joined with those from other
classes. They laid it there so that the Sun could dry the
paints faster before being sealed with a clear coat

Kristine tried a few times as well

In the end, she cheated. Ha ha ha ha

So which one is hers? Its very obvious.

OK, this is the one

Back to the computer room where everyone had something
to eat. We did not eat them in case the rest of the kids had
nothing to eat. I hated those parents who took the plate
and piles as much food as they can before heading to
their kid's class.

Kristine saying farewel to her class teacher of 2008.
Do we want her to go back there next year? It would
costs us MR300 bookig fee. Ouchie wa wa

Kristine and all her work. See the yellow book?
Some remarks were surpising, such as her most
favourite cartoon show. The girls in her class
wrote down Ariel, the Little Mermaid and other
girly stuff but not our very own Kristine who put
"Ben10" just like the boys in the class.

[Update: 19.11.2008]

Three days later, it was a Parents-Teacher meeting which I did my best to "escape" from work to be there. According to the teachers, she is the shyest in the class and most timid. (But she is a monster at home). However, when she and other girls group together, it was chaos in the class! So, its not that she is kept out of the circle. Still, overall, they said that she is willing to learn and can follow instructions but she is not that daring to "explore" things by herself. (Sure or not? I have to keep shouting and scold her before she does anything or to stop breaking stuff she "found" by herself. Ha ha ha ha). And the Mandarin teacher was surprised when she can talk Cantonese to her, so, in the first few weeks when she cried and cried (wanting to go home), she stuck to this teacher all the time since she was not confident to talk in English to her own class teacher. But when she is confident of something, you can see her positive reaction. But I like what her Computer Class teacher said, "... when you're free, you can go to Imbi or Low Yatt and look for this [pointing to computer screen] software in pirated version and let her try..........she needs to reinforce her hand-eye coordination, maybe you can get her a Playstation or a PSP......." Wah lau,like that also can! Ha ha ha ha ha {Unfortunately, my Wife did not agree on the Playstation part...... oh well]

Time for us to teach her to be more computer literate and also reinforce what she is being taught.