Her feeling and her achievement

It's been an emotional roller coaster for our eldest daughter for the last 2 weeks. It is normal to feel sad, to say good bye to her friends. We do not deny it, and we do not think that her feeling is unimportant too. We do what parents need to do, to comfort her, to understand her feeling, but we also need to tell her that this is life, sometimes we don't like it, but we do not have a choice, and it is ok for her to feel sad. But it is important for her to know that she still can keep in touch with her friends, and she will make new friends, and that is is lucky to be able to make a lot more friends whenever we live.

I noticed the change in her. She lost her appetite 2 weeks ago, and she even wet her bed twice in a week ( when  she can read my blog, she will kill me to tell this in my blog !:D ) . I knew that , that was the sign of " children stress". Poor girl. But I do not want to deny that facts or just brush the issue aside. We can't do that to our children. Sometimes, we think : oh that is not important, or oh she will get over it, or naah..she will be ok , or no we dont need to tell her the truth.  The thing is, our children need to know the truth. Specially if that involving their life.

I do not tell them that we will come back to KK soon. I told my youngest that this time , we are moving and will not come back to this house again. This is not holiday. I don't want to lie to her and said ok we go ok?later we come back. For Indy, it is different, she knows what moving mean. And she knows that she will say good bye to her friends  , to her school and to her teachers. I told her, that I know she feel sad, and that is ok. She can talk to me anytime about her feeling. But , I told her, don't worry, you will make more friends there, and you will still be friends with your friends here . Just look at mamma, I have friends in Jakarta, Singapore, etc and I m still in touch with them . I also told her, that she is lucky to have all of this technology now, and she can chat with her friends with webcam, and when she can read and write better, I will let her to have her own facebook ( under my supervision of course) to keep in touch with her friends and our family.

Children will adapt well and faster in normal case. And I think both of them will be excited to live in a big city too. ( finger crossed) .

Indy also had her "school concert" last Friday. And on Thursday, her teacher announced to the class that Indiana will leave them and move to Shanghai. Every girls in the class hug her and said good luck and good bye to her, the boys shake her hands. I knew that must be hard for her to hold back her tears. Some of her friends gave her small gifts too. Her teacher told me that every students in the class love her and like her very much. She is a friendly and helpful girl. And Indy told me that she is the class clown :).

The teacher told me this a few months before when Indy came back from holiday, every one greeted her enthusiastically, so this time her teacher told me that her friends will sure miss her very much. I feel bad also for her best friends, some even told their moms that they are so sad that Indy will move . :(

Sadness aside, last Friday also a good day for her. On the " Awards Night" she got 3 awards! She got  " attendance award" , "reading readiness  award" ( for those who accomplish good progress in reading) and " Bible Scriptures memory award"( for those who can memorized the bible verses in a year).

Her school doesn't put the rank system. Instead they give awards. And this is great. And of course we are so proud of her no matter what. Less than a year ago, or when she was in the Kindy, she was consider the "blur" one. Not by the Kindergarten teachers though. They are quite supportive and said she is doing fine . ( I m not a fan of school who wants to push and force  the students). As we know, most people use the " reading skills" as the measurement to someone intelligent level. Some one that can read early will be consider as smart, and someone who read later on will be consider " slow". While I believe that is not true. And that is important to all parents to have faith in our children no matter what.

Indy shown a good progress and efforts to read. I didn't even force her at home, but I did intrigue her to certain books and stories. And this is what the school did for her. She got free time at school to borrow some books to read. So it was more to "dig out" her interest in reading rather than" forcing" her to read.

So to get the "reading readiness " award is a great milestone . She DID it! And for someone who has struggled to read to be able to memorized the bible scriptures is not easy at all. The principal even said, to memorized that many verses is not even easy for adult. So imagine what effort she did with her limited reading ability to be able to memorized that verses. ( shown on the photo's background)

In one sentence : We are very proud of you ,Indy! :) with our without award!

This is her painting being shown in the student exhibition. I think she did a great job!