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

New York City Pass

Once we were up next morning, we knew we had to get going and decide what we can do in terms of sight seeing!

So we were dropped at the nearest bus stop to take our bus to Manhattan....
We did not realise that it is going to cost 15 USD for one return trip so if four of us have to travel to Manhattan where all the sight seing is its going to cost us USD 60...well we bought the tickets and headed to The Metropolitan Museum of Art...

Here we decided to pick up a New York City Pass for USD 79 per adult!

The card gave us access to

Empire State Building Observatory
American Museum of Natural History & Rose Center
Guggenheim Museum
The Museum of Modern Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art and
The Cloisters Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises
OR
Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island

It also enable us to avoid queues at the entrance...so it well worth taking it at one go....


So our first visit was to The Metropolitan Museum of Art..

Having seen the Lourve a week ago...I must say it was too much of museums on our way...but it had a great representation from the world over...
Here is a link to the photos!

Destination USA

Like I always say.....there are two reasons I write about where we go as a family....

Reason 1
========
I know children will forget as their encounter newer facets of fast changing life...
so I want my notes to remind them what we did as a family together...also what the world looked like when they were children....

Reason 2
========
I also hope some soul will find my tips useful and can avoid some pitfalls we make on our trips...

Unlike other holdiays...I did no research on this trip....for once both of us had visited the US on official trips and also we were staying with family.
Needless to say after our hectic trip to Paris...there was no time to breathe...so here we take a flight on July 30th,2009 to NEWARK....

The girls were told just days earlier and they were too excited about "going to America" and also for getting to spend time with their cousins...

So here they are off to dream "Destination USA"

This is a list I maintain to tell them they have travelled widely!

1.India,(Bangalore,Kochi,Ooty,Kodaikanal,Goa)
2.Singapore,
3.SriLanka ( Colombo),
4.Malaysia ( Kualalumpur, Johor,Miri,Genting Highlands),
5.Brunei,(Bandar Seri Begawan)
6.Japan ( Tokyo,Hakone)
7.Hong Kong
8.Taiwan( Taipei,Kaoshing)
9.New Zealand ( Auckland, Taupo, Napier,Paihia almost all of of North Island except for capital city Wellington)
10.United Kingdom (Wales, London)
11.France( Paris, Versailles)
12.United States


We arrived past midnight local time to be picked up by my brother in law and 8 year old niece( I believe she was too excited and insisted on coming)...We had an elaborate dinner home cooked by my sister. The girls continued to play for a couple of hours because of sheer excitement..... till just exhaustion led them to their beds..

Summer 2008

Yet another summer will soon pass by....and 2008 Summer Holidays will be History...
Its been the longest so far that I had to put up so far....starting June 7th and will continue till September 1st....

Tanya started the first week with some swimming lessons to improve her strokes and caught up with her long ignored Kumon "Daily Sheets" ..."Daily Sheets" is never done daily so it has become a big chore for weekends.

The second week...she was off to a Summer Camp at school....and the third week we caught up with all worksheets to do in Kumon and all set to travel to Singapore and India for Summer of 2008.

Riona finished classes on June 27th and we left on June 30th, 2008 from Taipei Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport, yet another time for a period lasting almost 6 weeks, it amazes me how easy it has been to travel with them as they grow up...

.


At Singapore we stayed at Alpana's house....the girls were very excited to have a dog around.Though I have been sufficiently warned the kids may be afraid...they were quite cool....

We started the next day with a 2 hour seesion at a studio..


Tanya made some fancy jewellery and Riona had a blast at Ananya's house.They had a good time playing with a few friends left who they knew at Aspen heights.We signed off the day with a dinner at Tanglin Club hosted by Manjula....





Girls with Aparna missed a chance to meet her daughters Anya and Anika

The day was hectic but we had a great time.Tanya and Riona went on to meet Muskaan the next day.And as they happy days pass by fast we soon found ourselves taking our flight to Kochi.

Although the flight was delayed 3 hours it went ok and we were home at Kochi by 2 AM.
We spent the weekend with Sedj's family and was back on Sunday evening to start Hindi classes for them.

So on Monday we started Typing classes and Hindi Classes...

Well by end of holiday they had 22 hours of Hindi, 18 hours of Malayalam , 9 hours of chess and about 8 hours of typing lessons...



Tanya doing her Kumon worksheets at Kochi!
Some of the highlights, I go to see my extended family as we attended my Grandfather's 24th death anniversary .
I managed to have lunch with Priya from CyberCash at Kochi - after 4 years...wow that was a long time..


I did write about my Bangalore trip earlier...

Well the month passed away so fast and there we were boarding another flight back to Singapore.

We met our friends Sumedha and her daughters and met up with all the others and back was in Taipei in August 8th just in time to watch the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics


Tanya,Riona,Abha and Aditi

All in all we had a hectic but wondeful break from school and Taipei and I had a BIG break from Cooking.....needless to say I added a few kilos....( which is next big activity to work on).

Summer Holidays

We sent our daughter Tanya ( 7 years )old for a 4 week summer Camp so that she learns Chinese.While she had a great time ,the objective of learning Chinese remained a very distant dream.

She had a great time with kids who predominantly only spoke Chinese and doing all the activities....

This is a toy she build with a remote control!



Here are a few pictures I thought was worth keeping....
Aeroplane models built during the camp!

Swimming

Finally one target achieved for 2007 summer holidays!

Riona has learned to swim.

She did 10 half hour sessions with coach Ivan and is ready to go to the pool and take a swim.

Summer Holidays

Tanya's Summer Holidays

We are done with one week.
Tanya caught up her Kumon sheets till May 15th .
She painted a picture of Panda so her first painting is over for the hols.

We attended two birthday parties and enjoyed thoroughly.

Riona's dress up at the Birthday Party!


She started typing lessons online and just managed to master the first 4 letters fingering.
We went swimming and played basket ball too one day.
We visited the oil painting class and still wondering when to begin the class.

Summer Holidays

The best way to plan summer holidays I thought would be to write to my daughters the plans we have in mind so that they know and begin to understand how much thought we put into each of their days.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

Our loving Tanya,

Your Summer Holidays

You begin your Summer Holidays tomorrow and perhaps one of the longest breaks you will have since you started going to school.

You are 7 years and 6 months now and this is what Mama has in mind for you to do this summer.

Fun Activities

Swimming.

You will focus on free style and backstroke and build stamina.
I think a good target will be 5 laps of 25 mts at a stretch of each stroke, so we are definitely going to swim a lot.

Chess

You need to continue to focus on chess so we will play at least one game every day and you must note down how many moves you took to win or lose.

Art

We need to focus on one painting a week and be focused and work on it. May be Wednesdays are a good day to start and complete by Saturday.
I hope to see about six good paintings from you this summer. Mama will check out oil painting class and see we can go for at least 4 classes so that you can get an idea of how it is done.


Ice Skating and Skating

We should perhaps skate on every Tuesday in the compound and complete the one class you have left in ice-skating as soon as possible.


Piano
Miss Amy will continue to come and we need to get you theory upto the level you learned in Singapore lets dedicate Mondays for that. This will help you to be all set for your voice training class in fall. We also need to sing A Whole New World once a week so that you wont forget.

So this is summary


Monday- Focus on Piano/Sing a whole new world
Tuesday -Skating/Chinese/American Money
Wednesday -Art
Thursday- Hindi/Malyalam
Friday- Typing

Cycling

Mama has a trip planned to Singapore and then we should perhaps learn cycling so that you can cycle without support.

Typing

Mama wants you to learn typing focusing on the right fingering. We will have to find this out somehow and perhaps get started these holidays so that you can type accurately without actually looking at the keyboard.


Challenges

Life becomes meaningful when you overcome challenges.

Some of the challenges you need to overcome this summer is doing
1. atleast one side of Rubix Cube,
2. learning to play Taboo and
3. Scrabble with all the rules.

Now finally after all the fun the only thing we need to focus without choice is Academics

We have been sloppy in Kumon so we need to catch up.

Till June 15th we are going to focus on catching up so that we can be current and back to doing just the daily worksheets for 20 minutes everyday.

Mathematics

I want you by the end of Summer hols know all your multiplication tables till 16. You already know till 10 so we have another 6 to go.
So the target is week of
June 11 – 11 times table
June 18 – 12 times table
June 25- 13 times table
July 2 – 14 times table
July 9-15 times table
July 16- 16 times table


We need to do a page a day from Maths Ahead 3 so that by August 16th we are at page 45 at the least.

Also every Tuesday we will revise American money so that it is not a challenge for you in Grade 3

Hindi

Every Thursday we will focus learning a lesson in Hindi. The objective is that you will not forget to read and write and in the due course pick up meanings of some words.

Malayalam.
Although you knew all alphabets and it’s the the first time you are going to be away from India for more than 6 months you need to read and revise the little Malayalam you knew we will read the small books we have and familiarize with some words on Thursdays.

Chinese

Every Tuesday we will revise one chapter Ms Hsia has taught else you will forget all that you have learned….

Mama has also put you for a 4 week fun course in Chinese where you will some learning in the morning and lost of fun activities after ward…. It is very important for us that you can read write and speak Chinese and this will always will be an advantage to you as an individual when you grow up.

English-

Last of all we need to focus on English…

We need to brush up spellings and write journals.

The idea I have is

June 20th onwards we learn spellings and meanings of one letter so that in 4 weeks are done. I want you to be able to spell all words on your spell-write Steno book.

Also you will write a 200 word journal every Monday which we will type and email perhaps to mama and papa, to your best friends and also publish in your website on what you have been upto during these holidays.

Before I sign off you must have lots of fun and grow up to be a more beautiful lady after these 10 weeks of holidays…you must also help your sister Riona to begin to read so that you both can enjoy reading to each other by next summer holidays.

We love you lots

Your loving Mama and Papa.