Keystroke Journal

In my One unproductive day entry, I was hoping for a different day the next day. Well, yesterday was indeed different. No, it had nothing to do with my research project though. I found an excuse haha. I was out and believe it or not, as a chaperone again but not to my nephews. It was my sister’s class to have their field trip. Unexpectedly, two of the four confirmed chaperones couldn’t make it so I turned out to be the chaperone-to-the-rescue of the day. Well, who couldn’t resist my sister’s plea and her lovable grade one class, anyway? So there I was with Mr. Grandad and Mrs. Mom as the other chaperones. There were 18 kids, so there were four with me and with Mrs. Mom and five more with Mr. Granddad and with Mrs. Teacher. It was my turn to have four girls whose age ranged from six and seven year olds. I wasn’t sure if it was their cultural diversity that made my group unique or was it their dynamic and lively attitude. Nevertheless, it sure was a different day. When Meshka, the Ind...

It’s another chaperone day with another nephew. This time it's in grade 5. In one day, I was in three states: the state where I live, another state where my nephew’s school was and in Pennsylvania where the ski resort was located for their field trip. A mountain resort? Yes I went snow tubing with the kids! And we had a blast. Again, I was assigned to be in charge of boys – four more plus my nephew. I’m glad that the kids under me were manageable though. From time to time I had to look out where the kids were but at the same time, I got a chance to enjoy the ride – by myself -- as well. Yipee! In retrospect, the winter sport reminded me of one of the most awaited carnival ride we had way back in the Philippines. There used to be an open-air Big Bang Carnival in Alabang and they had this Giant Slide ride. The only way to go up the slide is through a one-way 4-story stair. And the only way to go down was by sliding through a smooth metal slide. We used a sack to cover our entire bod...

This morning was my nephew’s K5 class field trip. There was a father, a grandmother, two mothers and an aunt, guess who , as chaperones. The kids went to the Smithsonian Institute National Air and Space Museum’s Steven Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport in Virginia. Everyone was so quiet while they watched Blue Planet at the gigantic Imax theater screen. I wasn’t sure if the kids were really enchanted by the movie or some fell asleep but my nephew, he held my hand in the first few minutes of the show. He’s like that when he doesn’t have any idea as to what to watch. Somewhere in the middle of the movie however, he was able to understand what was the movie all about thus withdrew from his tight grip. After the captivating story of the planet earth, the 23 K5 children were assigned to each of the five chaperones and their two teachers. Since the only father and grandmother in the group had their girls with them, two more girls were assigned to each of them. The two mothers and two te...

Kids sometimes test our wits when they ask questions. My five year old nephew just recently did that. “Ninang, what happens if I turn 10 years old, will I be taller than you?" "Yes, because you grow fast." "What happens if I am 20 years old, will I be taller than you?” “Yes you will be taller than me.” “What happens if I’m 50 years old, will I be taller too?” “I think so.” “What happens if I turn 100 years old, how tall will I be?” “Hmm, you will be stooping by that time.” “What happens if I grow up like a giant and reach heaven?” I paused, thought for a better answer then I replied, “By that time you’ll be dead.” Finally, he stopped asking me what happens.