Thursday, February 04, 2010

A christian father's chronicle (Proverbs 12:1)

Last night Yan was reading Proverbs to the children.

Proverbs 12:1 (New International Version)

1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
       but he who hates correction is stupid.

The last word caught Gracia's attention. She has been disobedient the whole day and when the word was read, she cried! Literally, she could not contain it. She does not want to be stupid. She wants to clever. A clever girl. And she wonders whether she will be 'not stupid anymore'.

We prayed together as a family and seek God's wisdom to love discipline. When we love the discipline that God place in our lives, we love Him. Not that we will enjoy the discipline while we go through it, but we have the safe assurance that He does it for our good and it will turn out that way in the end.

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

A father's chronicle (Joining a club)

Last week, Theophilus went for an assessment. I guess it must be very popular to join the Robotics club that's why they need the children to go through an assessment.

Anyhow, he went through the test and I must say that he came home quite devastated.

They said very plainly that since there are limited number of places in the club, those who didn't pass the test should "get lost". That hit him quite hard and I guess were really quite a cruel word tool to other children as well. He cried when he reached home recalling quite a few of those questions he was unable to do.

I sat there quietly as Yan relate the incident to me. I guess those questions must have needed his spatial imagination quite a lot. Anyway, we comforted him and assured him that if he is serious about it, we could always do Robotics on our own (yes, we do have Lego Mindstorm and I even developed an IDE for him so that he can program the brick). Furthermore, we could even sign up as independent contestant to compete with his school too. It all depends on how determine he is on this learning.

This evening, I received a suprise message on my mobile.

Dad, igot accepted in2 robotics.

A short SMS. He wanted to share with me his joy. I rejoiced too. It is what he wanted.

Just before he sleeps, I asked him

So, you want to learn computer programming?

And he said 'yes'.

Being in the IT line, I really do not like the idea that my kids end up in this line too. Then again, I wonder whether I should block the way entirely and not leave it to his heart's desire.

Congras, son. I am happy for you.