Congratulations to Teacher Espie Yu, my friend and ex-Kumon co-instructor, for passing the LET exams. I’m so proud of you!

T. Espie, T. Cathy, me

One of the few things I look forward to each year is the annual Kumon Santolan Christmas Party. Since the 2006 party was kind of a downer (my cousin was buried on the day of the party AND the manager at KFC Eastwood sc@mmed me!), I really wanted this year to be extra special.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle the hosting and the kids at the same time, so I got my wonderwoman/super-wedding-planner friend Tenten to help me out. As expected, she was spectacular! A natural host, she kept the party moving at a lively pace and kept all of us organized. We opened with a short song number (Christmas In Our Hearts) from my 3-year old student Louise, accompanied by Paolo on “lead guitar.” She was shy at first, but when I gave her a loot bag, she started singing. I think she was just shocked to see so many people looking at her. Afterwards, we commenced with the parlor games for the kids. We stuck with traditional games like The Boat Is Sinking, Newspaper Dance, Bring Me, Trip to Jerusalem, and Longest Line. There were a few scary moments (kids fighting to win) but all in all, I think both the children and their parents had fun. We ended the festivities with the awarding of Advance Student Honor Roll medals.

This was, by far, the best Christmas party ever. Something to add to my treasure chest of Kumon memories.

PS: Thanks to my sisters, Sheryll and Issa, for helping out. You rock!

This is Hans, my best friend Iyay’s cousin.

At Kumon Santolan, we’re all about education. Lessons for the day:

1. Sharing
2. Rockstar!

My friend and fellow instructor, Teacher Espie, formally opened her Kumon center in BF Homes Paranaque (Aguirre cor. El Grande) last friday. I’m so very proud of her…she put all of her life savings in this dream of having her own center. This is us (T. Cathy, me & T. Espie) holding a buffet table centerpiece. Thanks Conti’s Catering haha!

Back in the home front. I’ve been trying to come up with some sort of fun, end of summer activity for my kids and I thought, “How about a movie day?” I just decided to go for it last week (no preparation whatsoever!), and I thought today would be perfect since it was a special holiday. So I finally settled on Transformers (1984) to give the kids something to compare the live action flick to when they catch it on the big screen this month. It was fun for some, but not for me. I had to chase one student around, take the small kids to the bathroom, and keep everyone fed with chips and juice drinks. By the end of the movie, I was tired. Thank God Paolo and my “crew” helped me with the clean up afterwards.

Before the movie

“Cleaning Crew” – Red, Gerard, Justine (l-r)