Charity begins at home

For two days in a row, Ella has to go back to school in the afternoon. The teacher said they will double time since graduation will be next month. I had no idea that the teacher could just decide on her own…or the school could. It is their fault that they are so behind and the kids suffer from it because when I checked Ella’s paper yesterday, they are already in addition of two digit numbers. Though Ella got a perfect score in their quiz (which I doubt if she did it all by herself or the teacher taught her), I am still unhappy with this whole thing. They are really behind because Ella had this lesson when she was still in Kinder 1 in Davao. But my point is that they are doing it pretty fast just to finish the curriculum in time. One day they are on single digit, the next day they moved to double digits when they should be familiarizing doing the single digit first. They have plenty of time the past months but they are so focused on their scholarship program. Anyway, with this new set up (that will be Monday, Tuesday and Thursday), I missed seeing Ella at home. After her class in the morning, she would watch movie and play before and after lunch then come 1 pm, she would get ready for school again. She seem to like it because she could see her old classmates (the scholars who were moved to afternoon classes and was blaming us for paying school fees when others do not) Well, the good side here is that she could get used to a whole day class if she gets in the 1st grade in June.

Donald discovered something that we could be proud of and something we could be mad about. When Ella started school, we always send her snacks from home so she don’t need to buy. We thought that giving her money is too early yet. We did that for a couple of months until she complained. Others would run to the school canteen and have a different kind of snacks than her. After a very long deliberation and after doing a random act of kindness due to ignorance that everything in the canteen is for sale and not for free, we met halfway. Donald talked with the canteen staff to give Ella what she wanted to eat and he will just pay it after class. Since they do not sell junk foods there, I don’t worry about what my daughter eats. So today, it was discovered that she been doing charity work for I-had-no-idea-how-long when Donald saw one of her classmate whisper to her. He asked the child what was it all about and Ella answered, “tinatanong niya Dy kung may juice ba ako…” (He was asking me if I have some juice). The puzzle as to why Ella often exceeds in her limit at the canteen has been answered. She admitted it too….that she gets two of whatever food she eats and the other one is for her classmate.

This is the hardest part of teaching a child about GIVING. When she was still small, we instilled in her mind that it is not good to be selfish and that she has to SHARE. But as she grows older, we see something that could be a problem. We always have some issues about the concept of giving and sharing because at 5, she have fed more than you could imagine. She has a big heart and is such a giver but then we really need to sit down and talk about it more deeply. I am still clueless how to handle the forthcoming debate between us and her because we always end up as losers. We’ve been there, done that….to no avail. We talked to her that to give is good but it should not be done always which we would hear her say, “Buti nga tayo may pagkain….sila wala.” (We are lucky we have food, while they have none) or “Okay lang yun Mommy, lagi naman ako nakakatikim ng ganon, sila hindi pa.” (It’s okay Mommy, I got to taste that food often, while they still don’t) or “Wala kasi silang Mommy at Daddy na nag-aalaga at nagpapakain sa kanila ng maayos, mabuti nga ako meron.” (They do not have Mommy and Daddy who takes care and feed them properly, I am lucky I have you.)

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