« Volleyball | Main | Chinese School »
August 22, 2011
Extracurricular Activities
We told Monkey that we were not able to send her to kung fu classes any more. At first she was happy, because she got tired of going to some class in the evening every day. Now that the school starts, she said she would really like to keep kung fu but not dance.
It was a struggle. kung fu lessons are very demanding. There are three lessons each week, so it is difficult to find time for anything else. And we always have to rush off work to get her to classes on time. In addition, the cost is very prohibitive. MonkeyMama felt guilty that she had to make budget cuts by eliminating education expenses.
MonkeyMama also told Monkey that she wouldn't be able to take her favorite art lessons this coming school year. Monkey was disappointed, but she is taking piano lessons and Chinese school, so that should make up for it.
MonkeyMama read on Sacbee about hard-working Hmong families in Sacramento. About how the parents had five or six jobs between them, working day and night, just so they could send their kids to piano lessons and other enrichment activities. And the hard-working Hmong children appreciated what their parents did for them, they studied hard (in the library to save electricity) and all went to Harvard, becoming medical doctors and alike.
In the meanwhile, the only reason MonkeyMama wouldn't pay for lessons for Monkey was she wanted to save some money for the rainy day. It sounds quite selfish compared to the nice Hmong families. She told Monkey that if she really wanted to go to kung fu classes, Monkey can stop dance lessons and pay for the difference between Kung Fu and dance classes. The difference came out to be equivalent to her monthly allowance.
Monkey decided to keep dance and forget kung fu.
As a footnote, the cost of Monkey's enrichment activities has surpassed her daycare expenses, just like we predicted five years ago.
Posted by Mike at August 22, 2011 10:15 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)