Family Values

Family Values

Six months ago

When I landed in UK the first friend /acquaintance I took to happened to be a lady from where my children got enrolled. She had a daughter who had in the recent past received admissions to a prestigious grammar school in the locality. On her visit home….(this is even before my shipment arrived from Taipei and I am just about learning to survive in a new country that I have never been before.), she had a huge bag of so called books she is passing onto a friend who intends to pursue the 11+ exams( which I am now familiar with).

She told me in several ways on why and how I should prepare my 9 year old as soon as possible for these tests….finally since I had another dozen priority things in my mind…I took out a new note pad and said let me take points from one what you are saying. So I diligently wrote down all the pointers she said also wrote the name of every book she had with her. I had no clue then why but I just thought it may become handy.

Now...

I am fully aware that my nine year old will have to sit for her 11+ exams next year that’s a way of ensuring a good secondary school for her unless you can afford private schooling. When I began to research I found most people are quite tight lipped on what they do currently for their kids and not “Very helpful” to give me more insights..since its a competitive exam and every one will not get a seat in these so called “Good schools”

So one Friday morning I recalled the 11+ conversation I had and remembered how I had taken a note pad an jotted all that I heard…However after unpacking 200 boxes I cant recall where I would have left the “notepad” I had written. So after dropping the girls for their Drama lessons I searched my entire home for the “notepad”There was no sight of it and I had no clue if I even threw it out by mistake.

On our way home I asked the girls by any chance did they have a notepad in which I had written about 2 pages very neatly…This is because I did not check their drawers not that they are locked but I like them to be incharge so don’t really open them unless very necessary .They prompty said no and the conversation was forgotten..

When we got home being Friday all that they do is watch TV and probably have a small pizza or snack…I was surprised they are not down watching television started calling out. While I knew Riona wanted to play computer games as she did not get access to a PC in the ICT club that afternoon but was very surprised why Tanya is not back…So after 10 minutes I went upstairs and I saw her going though every pile of books…we still have several I need to sort…So I told her don’t bother “Its not worth wasting your time on it…I will look for it”But she insisted "I know what you are talking of I will help you look for it".She even said it was a notepad you had offered me to use it but I decided not to…and suggested a few more places to look for and I found it in less than 10 minutes.. Even though I had searched for over an hour in the same places before….

Then she comes and says

“You know why you found it I was praying even in the car so that you find it”also “ Why didn’t you pray about it?”

I couldn’t do anything but hug her and thank her and was very happy that she would forego her TV for an “insignificant notepad” which she hardly knew if it had any value other than her Mom was looking for it

I am thankful that this showed she has inculcated two values:

There is a God and he is always there for me.An important value I want them to have.

She was considerate enough to look for something that was not important to her but to some one else foregoing her earned TV time on a Friday evening after a full day of school and three hours of drama/singing/Jazz classes.

Sorry if the story was long but really if I had lost that notepad forever it wouldn’t have mattered at all….but this made me realize so my daughter is indeed developing into her own unique being with some great values I want them to have!All that matters is that they grow to be good human beings! really!

Empire State Building

This was a really bad day...unlike our outing to Statue of Liberty!

We wanted to take the girls so that they can see the skyline of Manhattan but we got stuck in horrid weather and visibility was very low.

Anyways the girls enjoyed the NEW YORK sky ride.

We also took them to Museum of Natual History.

It was a great Museum and the shows outstanding.

Their spectacular SPACE show in the planetarium was fantastic.

Photos!

Performance

My sisters family had hosted a party and all the children were expected to put up a performance .

We were very proud of the performance the girls put up.



And Tanya sang "A Whole new World"

What to see in Washington DC?

We headed to Washington DC next morning ....Its a great city .....Its a must see.
It looked very different from all the other cities we had seen so far.

We took a HOP ON HOP OFF TOUR.
It was a fabulous tour every 15 minutes and we saw as many things we could.

If we had more time we would have spent a whole day at Smithsonian museums but with limited time we just browsed through the museum and didnt do any of the regulars events they had.

Photos

We took AMTrack train back to Baltimore from where we headed back to New Jersey.

The girls enjoyed it too and it was a pity we could not spent more time at the museums...

Family Day

After 4 days of sight seeing we decided to go slow as it was my nieces birthday.

The girls did "build a bear workshop "and we went back to Manhattan to do Circle Line Tours which gives a sightseeing cruise on Hudson.

We also walked through Wall Street and surrounding in Downtown Manhattan.

We went to the Grand Central Terminus too.

We headed back to go to TGIF for a birthday dinner..

What to see in Niagara Falls?

Well we took a tour bus and went and in retrospect I dont think it was good idea at all.

If I had researched more...we would have hired a car and driven down and possibly visited Totonto which is an hour away on the Canadian side.

As we had not planned there is only so much you can do with a group.
Its a great experience.

Its best to take a pass.

Enroute we also visited Thousand Islands which is part of a package bus tour.

On our way back they also take you to the Corning Glass Museum- one of its kind in the world.

Photos

Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

A bright sunny Saturday morning we set out to Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty...

As expected thanks to the great weather there were large crowds...

One tip to the furture traveller ..always books your tickets in advance.
Only advance tickets allow you to go up the monument...

Since it was a clear day we got an awesome view of Manhattan Skyline..

The photos will reveal how clear the day was

Her is the link