Early part of the month


November started as a holiday-filled month but ended in a hectic rush as the month rolled in. 
It was the English month and since P was a member of the Lit Guild, he had the chance to
join the activities for the club members.


He was part of the choral reading and some other little activities that they had during the month.
He took part in the club's various quiz bees as watcher, emcee, and goodness knows what else. It was the choral reading that really took a lot of time for practice as this involves a number of students. He missed some of the first practice sessions but manage to really get into it after a while. TM tried to let the kid practice reading by himself before but he wasn't interested. It seems more fun to practice reading together with other mates. I found him enjoying the rehearsals, specially the dress rehearsal where they got to wear costumes.


Tricky part for Teacher Mom is preparing the costume as I had not really been such a big fan of costume design. Sewing is not my thing and putting a costume together would necessarily involve that somehow or another. Unlike most kids who had theirs specially done in a dress shop, ours was simply put together of what is available (a long-sleeved white shirt bought on a sale, and a pair of pants which he already has) with the addition of a few cardboards, foil papers, glues and velcros. 


After weeks of figuring out how to go about it with less sewing or almost none at all, we finally completed it. Dress rehearsal came and the level of "casualty" has been passed. Since we tried on doing less sewing, our final output would have a good deal of foil paper which is more prone to tearing. And that was just what happened! Well, for the most part, it held well except for the all paper thing part, the sash. 


Watching my son watch his fellow clubmates with great interest and he, himself, proudly parading around in our "product" makes up for the stress in creating the costume since I am not really much into costume-making. Ours may have suffered a few glitches during the run but the kid did feel proud of his costume. It's in the epaulette. HAha!!


We'll just see how it can stand the real test on the D Day! (We may have to make some improvements though.) 


Performance Day


The place was a bit far but we all managed to bring the kids. It was all filled with flurry of activity as almost everyone from the club and their parents are busy for the performance. Almost every class has something prepared. 


P was able to perform, albeit a little off from the rehearsals. I just have to thank the club's adviser for giving him a good part. He sure needs a lot more exposure to get used to performing for a crowd. Minor changes didn't really freak him out but it did threw him off a bit. Oh! The part of being a stage Mom that I will have to avoid, literally. ^^,

Almost Direct Tax on a 7 Year Old

10/21/11

My seven-year old son is also being taxed by the government in the least expected place, his kiddie bank account.

After a few days of being sick in bed, I finally got around to updating my financial excel file. I was perusing the grocery receipts, as well as atm and other bank papers when I chanced on his bank passbook which I had updated the past few weeks. I was glad to see that he’s cash has earned, albeit little interest. I know beforehand that the bank interests in the country are not that big really. The ultimate goal is teaching the kid the value of saving and not really to earn big interest, yet.

Upon a second look, I also noticed another column of a slightly smaller amount which, upon a correct guesswork, is the withholding tax. Now don’t get me wrong here about the notion of nobody is exempted in taxes. I know that everything can be taxed even a preconceived child. It starts from the pregnancy test kit that a lady buys at a drugstore up to the milk, diapers, and school supplies that the kid will consume. This is a harsh reality of taxation.

I have recently read somewhere in the papers that the BSP has been trying to encourage children to open their own savings account since Filipinos are not really big savers but more on big “loaners/londoners.” But how can one encourage these young people to be active savers if even they would see right there on their passbooks that almost 20% of the already meager interest that they get. Again, we are not really after the earnings that they’ll get here but to encourage them to save up. But how would you be encouraged to save up in a bank if you’re money will only be slapped with tax? Wouldn’t there be any tax exemptions for these children in their savings accounts just to invest in our country’s possible future savers?