We went to The Manila International Auto Show 2007 at the World Trade Center. The kids enjoyed looking at the cars, sitting inside some of them, peering inside the cars and posing for pictures. Tania enjoyed sitting on a yellow pocket bike. Julian was thrilled to get near his favorite cars: a panda (black and white) Toyota AE86 or Trueno, more famous for its “role” in the Initial D anime series; Nissan Skyline GT-R; Mitsubishi Evolution (I don’t know what number); blue Subaru Impreza; red Ferrari 575M; black Lamborghini Murcielago; plus a lot more. Julian took a long time looking at the glass display of his favorite racing car, the (Red Suns) Mazda FD3S or RX7. I don’t remember seeing a (real) RX7 there so he was just contented with looking at the display.

The highlight of our trip was when we watched Russ Swift Precision Driving demonstration. He demonstrated the “fine art” of maneuvering a car (a Subaru!) making j turns. He also demonstrated the “finer art of parallel parking” with just inches away from a car parked in front and another car parked behind his parking space. That was done with a lady passenger. Then as a finale, he showed the “very fine art of two-car wheelies”, you know, when a car’s two tires are up in the air? But wait..he still has something up his sleeve. He asked for another volunteer, someone above 16 years old. The lady sitting in front of us stood up and went to him. She sat on the passenger seat and was taken for a spin. And a spin. And another spin, until you can’t see where the car is because of the smoke. Russ Swift did several donuts and it drove the crowd wild.

Beat that… How was it done? Look at some photos here. Watch some videos here. Will be posting some of our photos too when the batteries are recharged.

I did say I was going to post a photo of the nature scene of those children swimming in the river, as I have posted here. Now here is the view that they see which we can only glimpse if we really want to:

Quite rural and serene.

It has been said that cases of children identified with special needs are on the rise. There are several reasons to account for the rise in numbers:

a. increased population = more children = more children identified with special needs;

b. more sophisticated procedures in testing and assessment are being developed to be able to evaluate children suspected of having special needs;

c. the methods of teaching them are more developed thereby, these children are being given specific therapy and intervention services which accounts for a more detailed labeling or identification of learning, behavioral and social deficits.

It is very costly to parents when their child, or in some cases, their children, have been identified as having special needs. If such happens, costs for evaluation and assessment fees as well as therapy and special education services offering individualized intervention as well as special schools placement are required. There are even those who require assistive technology like the use of computers and other electronic devices to aid the learning and adaptability. Here in the Philippines, I think costs for services like occupational, physical and speech therapy are not covered in the medical insurance because even dental services are not included. This is an estimate of what the expenses can be in the US.
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Last Saturday, March 24, we were invited to the swimming party of my god-daughter R and her sister D. They rented a pool in a resort. The pool they rented has a gate which separates the area from the other pools in that resort. I thought, “Hmmm…this is good” since the other pools were kinda full, more like a standing-room-only kind of situation. When the two girls were already in the pool, and hubby and I were still persuading the little boy to with them, I looked over the fence behind our “cottage” and saw this.

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I am almost normal most of the time. Almost normal meaning I can get along well with my family harmoniously. There are times though when I snap at the kids. There are times that I yell at them, or ask them to just keep quiet so I can hear myself think. Sometimes I even tell them, that the time I spend in the bathroom is the time when I can be with myself and wouldn’t it be asking too much if they don’t knock when I’m there, unless it is an emergency. There was even a time when I hid the dvd collection album because all they did was watch dvds the whole day. There are times when I even ask myself why I snap at them when I am so patient with my students. But that is another matter.

Allow me to create a hypothetical parenting-discipline situation:

There are two brothers, the elder, a year older. Allow me to indulge your imagination by saying that these brothers are in the early elementary grades. One day, they quarreled like brothers sometimes (or maybe even always) do. The parents got angry because it was the younger brother who started the fight, or something like that. What do they do to the younger boy? Do they:

1. remove special privileges like tv watching or playing computer games? OR
2. isolate the boy by telling him he has to just stay in the bedroom? OR
3. ask him to apologize to his brother? OR
4. maybe give him a little lesson about living harmoniously with others, especially his older brother? OR
5. lock the door of the house and leave him outside crying his heart out, hoping he learned his lesson. Ooops, did I mention that this happened in the evening?

Maybe it is a good thing if/that they live in an apartment unit within the compound of the little boys’ grandparents. Of course, there would be people helping the little boy. What if they don’t? Don’t live near relatives, I mean? Now, why am I saying this? Because in my hypothetical situation, the answer to the question about what happened to the boy was probably number 5. Probably, but possibly probable. Am I babbling? I sure am. I don’t even know how to end this post. I don’t want to be judgmental because I have my own parenting/discipline flaws and all but…

What about you? What is your take on this?