Itong Family » aryan

First Place, Spelling Bee

Melo — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:57:59 +0000

Recently, my daughter, Aryan, placed first in their school district’s Spelling Bee at her grade level, she is currently at the third grade. She competed with third grade students from other elementary schools in their district and she came on top. She was selected to represent her school by besting other third graders in a Spelling Bee held in their own school.

Aryan is really good with words and her memory is really good too. She is able to memorize the theme songs from her favorite Animes just by listening to it. She may not know what it means since its in Japanese but she can sing it with clarity. Sometimes, I would just ask her to sing to me a Visayan song (Visaya is one of the main island group in the Philippines and it is also one of the major dialects used in the country) which she learned by listening her Grandfather who sings songs in Visaya. It’s always fun to hear her sing in Visaya even though she doesn’t know what the words mean.

Anyway, her preparation for the District Spelling Bee was really hard. Her English teacher trains her everyday right after school. She also practices at home supervised by her mother and her training continues even at weekends.

It was not an easy win for her because the teacher who was giving out the words to spell pronounces the words differently. When the last words were spelled, she was tied with another student. Both of them were asked to spell an extra word to break the tie but this time, the weird pronunciation of the teacher worked against the other student who was not able to spell the word correctly.

Now, she is preparing for the division level where she will compete against the winners from the other districts. My wife and her English teacher are again training her. Last year, she also competed at the Division level but wasn’t successful enough to get into the top 3 spots. Even though she didn’t win, her attitude about it was really mature. She wasn’t sad or anything. She even told us that she’ll do better next time. We are really proud of her.

This year, no matter what place she gets, she will always be a winner to us!

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Friday Stroll

Melo — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:18:03 +0000

The kids woke up very early that day so we decided to head on over to Sampalok Lake. Sampalok Lake is really the only place worth going to in San Pablo City specially that early in the morning (around 6:00am).

Sampalok Lake is also a favorite place of health conscious people. They come here everyday to jog and exercise. A free aerobics class is also held at Doña Leonila Park every week.

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We rented 3 bicycles for the kids. Kuya took a mountain bike which was a little too big for him but he insisted on using that one while Ate Aryan and Baby Rain used bicycles with training wheels. Only Kuya knows how to ride a bicycle. Me and my wife, Dang, decided to walk.

We had a hard time controlling Baby Rain. He loves to show off by riding faster than his brother and sister. Biking around Sampalok Lake is very safe but there’s nothing wrong in being careful since the edge of the lake is just a few feet away from the road. An accidental bike turn will throw you into the water.

We ended the morning with a breakfast at Jollibee. Jollibee is a very popular local fast food here in the Philippines. Below are photos of everyone at Jollibee.

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Kids Class Christmas Party

Melo — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 05:21:34 +0000

Today, Kuya Ar-ar, Ate Aryan and Baby Rain attended their class Christmas Parties. They all woke up early to prepare their things. My wife, Dang, took care of them because I was still asleep but I was already awake when they all left for school. My kids always say goodbye to me before they leave and they were all carrying their gifts for the party.

Dang was with Baby Rain all day. Well, Baby Rain is only 4 years old that’s why Dang is always with him. I followed them after an hour to take some photos of the party. I wasn’t able to take photos of Kuya Ar-ar and Ate Aryan’s party because they’re in different schools.

Here are my photos of Baby Rain during their group dance.

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Rain looks so cute dancing while wearing his Santa Hat. Well, all of them were wearing Santa Hats and Star Nameplates. Baby Rain’s group were the first to dance and after that they were followed by other groups.

Too bad I can’t be at 3 different places at the same time. I would have taken photos of Kuya Ar-ar and Ate Aryan’s Christmas Party. I know that both of them were also performing since they’ve been practicing here at home with their classmates and group members.

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