To inspire me to type long passages today. LOL. As if.
The keys feel much better than the stock keycaps that came with RK61, less clackety but still has this satisfying clicks since they’re blue switches.
However nice my keyboard looks and feels like, I’m still not inspired enough to finish what I need to finish as I’m not done with the things I needed to write and publish today. TOO MUCH ADMIN WORK! Then a reporter got stuck; couldn’t access our system and I had to act as a go-between her and our IT guys in HK and Mumbai. Then an application for our job ad in Bangkok came through so I need to schedule calls…
It’s already 7:03 pm and I’m not yet halfway through with the digest I need to publish soon.
Some cuties to keep me company during this bed weather day…
Entrance exams
My kids and I are preparing the entrance exam requirements today. We’re filling up our applications for Philippine Science High School as it turns out their grades have qualified them to take the entrance exam (above 85%). However, we need to wait a little bit because we still need to submit their 1st or 2nd quarter grades by November before they can take the exam in December. Our target school’s exam will also be in December.
I was also looking at the requirements for Quezon City Science High School and it looks like we need an endorsement from the principal to certify their grades will qualify them to take QSci exam.
The girls are complaining that their classmates in their review school could keep up with the advanced lessons because it seemed like they have already taken up those in regular school (and their school is based in my hometown). In contrast, my girls said most of the lessons/concepts tackled in the review and practice exams were alien to them at first—they only encountered those for the first time in review school. That was why before I left for Singapore, I had to help them answer the sample tests to supplement the lectures given to them by review school.
Just as I suspected, the schools in my hometown are advanced compared to Metro Manila counterparts. This was first observed by my bff C, whose niece first went to an elementary school in our hometown. After her parents split, this niece transferred to St. Paul Pasig to live with her mom. She later complained that the lessons in St. Paul were late–they have already tackled those in her old school in our hometown. So when she passed our high school’s entrance exam, she went back to live with her maternal grandparents to study there. I think she already graduated college from UP.
I don’t know why this is so. Maybe because we are a university town, thus, basic education around the area had to be competitive? Maybe because of the existence of my high school, so other competing high schools had to level up? I will know later when we transfer there. All I know is that the kids there have more school days than their counterparts in Metro Manila as class suspensions in my hometown are not as frequent compared to Metro Manila. We didn’t have to contend with epic floods and horrendous traffic then. Kids here in the city have to wake up at 4:30 am so they can leave for school at 5:30 am and reach their school at 7 am. Imagine that horrible commute everyday. The kids are always tired.
This is the primary reason why I chose to live where I am now so my children will just be within 2 km radius of their school even though it would make my own commute for work horrible. I want them to be less stressed about the commute so they can stay awake in school.
I remember in elementary we only had to wake up at 6 am so we can take public transportation at 6:30 am and be in school at past 7 am. But in high school, our family transferred to a new house within the university campus so our school was just 100 meters away from our house. LOL. Living near our schools made a huge difference in terms of our scholastic performance and participation in extra curricular activities. It was just I had different priorities in high school. Hahahaha! Well in the end it served me well since it was the arts that saved my ass.