a little volunteering goes a long way!

Brenna went back to school today after our long weekend in Singapore, she seemed to transition seamlessly and continues to ride the bus and also seems to be doing well in school. She has problems following a new set of rules, it is getting to the point where it is more "Brenna being Brenna" than "Brenna being New", but our little champ will milk that for all its worth!! we have been communicating with the teacher, we are glad that she is putting the responsibility on Brenna and not reaching out to us just yet, Brenna is 8 and way past the "I don't know how to do that" phase....its coming along, the responsibility i mean. Today was also a day for "specials" after school, Brenna has chosen three days of "specials" including origami, a writing workshop (its about finishing/continuing/or changing the endings of Disney stories, she is pumped for this one!) and Knitting, she has always been very crafty, so this will be good for her!! I have also made my first venture into the volunteering at school by showing up today at 13:30 to do "guided reading". Basically you are assigned a group of kids from the class (Brenna's class) and you take them away from the classroom, on the campus and they all take turns reading an assigned book. They are given a list of questions and you help to facilitate the discussion. Easy! Before this though I had to go "Top up" my 3G phone plan...Have I said how much more I like this Sony/Ericsson Experia phone than my iPhone...Well in case I didn't I do, and i am so happy that I can get whatever service on it i want when i get home!! Might invest in a Samsung Galaxy Tablet while i am here also, they are really nice, and I can save myself some money. So "top up" done, 3G service back and onto school. Well I got a really good group for "guided reading",very bright kids who needed little in the way of facilitation. they jumped right into a discussion of what they thought the book was about, the characters, and the things that they liked and did not like. It was great! Poor Brenna, she is bummed that I don't get to facilitate her group, but the rule is you cant have your own children. I'm actually ok with that...Brenna needs to have time away from mommy and daddy and begin to develop her independence, because at 18, she is out the door ready or not!! When guided reading finished up, Brenna had to go onto her "special" and i decided to see what "Floor ball" was all about, i had heard it was very much like hockey, so i was interested to see if the coach needed any help. It turns out the usual coach, a man who plays for the local "professional" team, was not there today, and I had a BLAST! It was fun helping the kids out, more fun to get to run around with them a bit (a bit hot). It is close to hockey, but mostly for a pure skill perspective, the stick play and physical aspects are not allowed, so there is lots of room to move around. the kids really had fun, and I heard latter from Martin the guy who runs the soccer experience, that another person who volunteers there also plays for the Malaysian national team, so I may have found something else to do!! My pot runneth over!! I have gone from nothing to do, to filling up the days. In fact I will spend tomorrow afternoon, playing a little football, with the less experienced players, i need to get my feet wet a bit before I try any league play, it has been 20+ years since i have touched a soccer ball. I am excited though! So the day ended with me having to drag Brenna off the school bus, so we could catch a cab back home, i figure next week she will grab the bus, so she can ride home with Katie, and I will just run home, the extra mileage wont kill me. We got home and then went Grocery shopping, and had a nice home cooked meal! Another good day in Penang!! well goodnight all, Until tomorrow!!