Days of Past Past

So it’s been a crazy couple days/ week; there were routine medical checkups, a bit of a tummy bug, school stuff re both kids…. And so this is a post totally lacking in guile and wit, just to fill in the gaps before I find my writing marbles again…

Approaching the end of Year 2 for Rockstar will be…. kind of a biggie, socially. Rockstar’s year gets a reshuffle of classes, which means this time they won’t just get a new teacher, they’ll get new classmates. (Not all new, but majority new). Before the letter goes home, there’s some chatter, and after it goes home…………. The whole excitement thing is just freaking trippy. It can really take up your phone message memory space if you play the Kevin Bacon Game, but with classmates, former classmates from Kindy/ various other activities (yes, even Sunday school!), neighbors, and just Kid And Parent You Met Randomly 😀  There’s camp, extra classes, and yes playdates (which should really be called play-learning dates)… That should be Playdates, capital P.

Attempt at the arty-farty, and titled, “Friends”.

Social skills are another biggie epiphany I had about schooling nowadays, where back in our own day I think we used to be evaluated a lot more heavily on academics only (as a very general statement… Robert Kiyosaki’s Why “A” Students Work for “C” Students and “B” Students Work For The Government comes to mind.. The review at goodreads.com puts it, “The book urges parents not to be obsessed with their kids’ “letter grades”…..and focus, instead, on concepts, ideas, and helping their child find their true genius, their special gift…” There is something about social adeptness that is a lot harder to quantify than simply grades, I believe, and I think Mr Kiyosaki’s book title puts it pretty succinctly…)

I won’t say too much, suffice to say a hot topic was who’s going to be classmates with whom. I don’t mean this in like, a scary way, but it’s a bit of an illustration of an incentive to try your best to erm, “parent” your kid into being a good friend, good team mate in sports, good classmate… (Because your kid is still a kid, and while you want to cut him/her slack, society – his social life and friends and even other parents, might not. Other parents talk. Sometimes kids repeat. Well, “everyone” talks, and then when you have parents ……we’re not exactly the voice of calm and sanity all the time you know, because we have children!! And this is Hong Kong-of-the-toddler-interview-tuition and in-vitro-Mandarin-classes!!) So y-eah, that kinda thing. No one likes to think someone is saying anything negative about their kid <signs to ward off evil>, so instead lemme focus on the huge rise the parents of the “nice” kids – popular, or “Alpha” – might be enjoying, at this time. It’s like the last two years of a mini Karma cycle in parenting and class behavior all come back. One of Rockstar’s good friends likes to say, “Life is like a boomerang.” Why yes, Rockstar’s friend was also 6.

Imitation can be the best form of compliment. Everyone hoping to be classmates and friends with your kid has gotta be wonderful encouragement for your kid to keep up the good work, which is just a whole nice cycle of warm and fuzzy.

Things that make ya go
“hmmmmm…”

ps: Title dedicated to the latest brilliant X-men installment

pps: Funny old pic of the Miss that every time I look at causes me to go, “High on the hills was a lonely goatherd……….”