September School Menu

This is the September Menu that I will finally try to decipher a bit. I was so overwhelmed when I first saw this early this year. Their nutritionist sure knows his/her job. I, myself, can barely prepare a menu good for the week or two.

It will be too much for my Korean language powers to translate everything but let me try with the food today, Sept. 22.

1. bap - Mixed Rice (Rice is a staple but it can vary everyday with other grains that they mix it with. I doubt if I'll ever see a plain rice as it is.)
2. Joreng Dukguk - Stewed rice cake soup (rice always comes with a soup)
3. Banchans - Side dishes
a. miyuk julgi bokkeum - dried seaweed (bokkeum is usually with sesame oil, seeds, salt and garlic maybe)
b. modun (modern? not sure about this) tangsuyok- meat stir-fry something (I don't eat this so I have no idea exactly)
c. bechu kimchi - cabbage kimchi (omnipresent national Korean food, Kimchi)
4. jin hwa gyoeng pear

Basically, the meal will have rice, soup, 3 side dishes and a dessert (usually whatever fruit in season like strawberry early this year, watermelons in the summer and pear/apples/persimmon these days). They will probably have mandarin oranges come winter time.

Moving forward to Wednesday, which is going to be a rainy day from what I heard from the forecast, they will have chicken soup, korean rice cake gyeondan (yumm!), melon and kimchi. A little bit different fare from the usual I'd say.

I'm afraid I'll have to stop this now since I'm getting hungry with all these food. I must try to make my own menu now. :D This is a good inspiration for me to get to the kitchen and start dinner.

posted from Bloggeroid

Book Report No. 1

Title: Septimus Heap, Book 1: Magyk by Angie Sage

Genre: Fantasy

This is a book review about Septimus Heap, Book 1: Magyk by Angie Sage.

It all starts in the castle with Silas Heap in the year 11971.

Silas was hurring back home to see his newborn son, Septimus Heap, who is the seventh son of the seventh son when he finds a little baby girl in the bushes. When he gets back home, he arrived to hear disastrous news that his son was dead!

Septimus Heap (a.k.a. Boy 412), though he is the main character, almost never spoke. He wears red beanie hat and a dragon ring. He is the long lost son of Silas and Sarah Heap that became a young army soldier through unfortunate mix up.

DomDaniel, one of many Darke Necromancers and one of the few who became Extraordinary Wizards,  is rising from the Badlands to become Extraordinary Wizard again. And with him are several Things you wouldn’t like to meet on a dark night.

In this thrilling tale, you will find out what happens to Septimus after he was carried away by the Matron Midwife and hear how he defeats DomDaniel.

I love the parts where Magyk is involved. Septimus is good at learning Magyk!!

The concept of being the seventh son of the seventh son is interesting. And I like his many brothers coz I want to have brothers too!!

223 Words

1st Korean Summer Break

Summer break was filled with camps, performances, out-of-town trips and a loooot of reading at home.

Science, Math and Arts on Korean Liberation Day!

The highlight of our summer, I guess, is our Suwon overnight at a friend's place. P's friend took us to see the Gwacheon Science Museum and Seoul Land. We spent almost twelve hours in the area, almost half at the Museum and the rest is at the outdoor amusement park. I am not really a bit fan of amusement parks so most I hardly took any photos from there.

Since it was a national holiday, there were a lot of special activities going on in the museum. There was even an international math conference along with an art exhibit related to math. It is actually International Congress of Math which we had no idea about before. All I can say is it's a cool geeky thing. hahahaha..I just hope that P had something taken away from that experience since he met one of the exhibitors who had a written a book that looks like a guide in creating cool geometric stuff. That part of math is all I can dig. 

The photos below are the other art/math stuff we found interesting.

origami made from paper bills

posted from Bloggeroid

Korean Kids Lifeskills books

I found some new books that P has been using with his Korean drop-in tutor. They used to have some Korean language for kids which are at beginners' level. It look like first grader's book but just a bit less daunting as the ones that they usually use at school which usually consist of a two books per set.

On the other hand, the ones below are a bit different. These are basically life skills in keeping safe as a kid in Korea. The pages were illustrated in through comics which children can find interesting and easily relate to.

posted from Bloggeroid

Blog Update: Forward to 4th Grade in Korea (1st Semester)

P School's School Calendar 2014-15
1st Semester: March 3 - July 29

We haven't done any update on this end for quite a while. And it has just gotten worse since we moved countries. Here's a quick run through with what we've covered so far for the first semester at school.

The first semester has been an adjustment period for all of us and we still are adjusting until now. The classes are shorter. They finish at 3 pm on Mondays and Tuesdays, and around 2 pm on the rest of the week. The kids usually have after-school activities, either at school or at another private academy of everything like English, Math, Arts, Piano etc. They don't have to wear uniforms to school except for the after-school Taekwondo.

We were overwhelmed with the after-school activity choices during the first few months when P comes home with a number of newsletter from the school. All the notices were sent out to each kid including articles on proper parenting, nutrition, and even the school's cafeteria menu for the month. There was also the schedule for "neuk-sek omunim" or the "traffic enforcer mom" that helps out the kids going to school on the crosswalks in the morning.

Most of the after-school activities from school are either free or has a very minimum monthly fee. P ended up with Taekwondo four times a week and an orchestra twice a week. There was also a whole semester of one hour Korean one-on-one tutorial at school once a week and for free. He really needed the Korean language lessons still.

We also managed to get him another Korean language one-on-one lesson two hours, twice a week from the Multicultural Center for free. We had to wait for around a month after we signed up though.  He was able to start around June and we were told that they will start charging a minimal fee by the next month. Luckily, they haven't done so until now. :D P still likes the class and I think this is also helping him learn the language.

Part of the after-school activities are mountain trips once a month, weekly fun stuff at school which actually looks like "fancified" babysitting for kids whose parents are out working. Nonetheless, these Korean students have quite a lot of things to choose from.

During the first semester, he was able to join a bilingual speech contest and made it to City level and perform with the kids' orchestra. He sure had a busy first semester with nothing much to show yet for the academic side because of the language. He can fairly hang out with his classmates now but we still have our work cut out for us on the academic rigors of school. Most of the subjects are still a shot in the dark except English and Math. He was able to figure out the latter a bit easier than the rest, thank goodness.

Before the semester ended, the school sent out activities announcement for the summer break. This will be on my next post.

2nd Grade is Flying Fast

Third Grading at school is almost over and we have got to update what we have been doing these past few months. 

2012 
June 
July- Lil Red Plane, CBO Election
Aug. - Buwan ng Wika
Sept. Intrams
Nov. Eng Club
Dec. Violin