|
Children
We can do no great things, only small things with
great love - Mother Theresa:
The special prize
Piyumi stared at the equation in front of her 10x+5y=15. Find the
value of x and y. The page in front of her got blurred. A tear started
to trickle down her cheek. She moved to the next question. If a kilo of
mangoes cost Rs. 100 how much would five kilos cost?. And the next “If a
car takes x minutes to travel....”. She gave up. She could not think of
the right answers.
She watched with envy as her friend Sumudu walked up to the teacher
with the completed answers. Miss Manel corrected Sumudu's book and said
“Good, you found the correct answers to all the questions.”
 |
|
Value of
determination |
One by one the others too went up to Miss Manel with their answers.
At the end of the lesson Miss Manel walked up to Piyumi's desk. “Do you
find the questions too difficult to answer?” She asked Piyumi in a
gentle voice.
When Piyumi nodded to say yes Miss Manel suggested Piyumi should wait
after school for half an hour twice a week so that Miss Manel could help
her with her maths lessons.
Piyumi made up her mind to overcome her weakness for maths with Miss
Manel's help, even though this meant skipping her favorite past time of
playing badminton with her friends. The first afternoon Piyumi stayed
after school Miss Manel told Piyumi about a lady called Helen Keller.
“Helen Keller was deaf and blind,” said Miss Manel.
“But she overcame these disabilities and limitations to achieve many
great things in life. You too must follow her example”.
From then on every Tuesday and Friday Miss Manel explained the maths
problems to Piyumi, slowly and methodically. She was immensely patient
with Piyumi. She gave Piyumi lots of homework and praised Piyumi
whenever Piyumi managed to solve a problem on her own.
Piyumi asked her father to wake her up at 4.30 in the morning so that
she would have an extra hour before she got ready for school to do her
maths homework. She solved the questions in her maths text book, over
and over. She cut down the number of hours she usually spent in front of
the TV after she came home from school so that she had more time to
practice solving the maths problems she found in the books she borrowed
from the school library.
Whenever her father was free she asked him to write down maths
questions so that she could try to solve them after she finished her
homework. Whenever she saw a question or an equation Piyumi told herself
“I will solve this. I will” She was determined to keep on trying until
she understood how to find the answers on her own. She grew more
confident. She no longer felt scared when she saw a line of figures
staring at her from the pages of a question paper.
“Well done Piyumi,” said Miss Manel, three months after she had
started to help Piyumi with the extra lessons. “You have improved
admirably. You are as good as the others in your class now.” By the end
of the third term Piyumi too could walk up to Miss Manel with her maths
book with the correct answers. At the end of the term test she scored
eighty six out of hundred for maths.
Her determination had paid off. “I am proud of you,” said Miss Manel.
On the last day of the term, Miss Manel asked Piyumi to come and see her
after school. This would be the last day she would be in Miss Manel's
class. From next year Piyumi would be in another class. From next year
she would not be having her afternoon lessons with Miss Manel.
When Piyumi walked up to Miss Manel's desk that afternoon, her
teacher handed a book of quotations to Piyumi. “This is a special
prize,” said Miss Manel. “This prize is for the determination you have
shown in overcoming your weakness in maths.” Piyumi opened the book. She
read the first quotation: a quote from Helen Keller. “We can do anything
we want if we stick to it long enough.”
Piyumi knew how true this was. Determination will always bring you
rewards.
Listen to nature
Hi children,
Have you ever read John Keats' beautiful poem 'The poetry of earth is
never dead?' I am sure most of you have read it. It is all about the
beauty of nature.
 Millions of similar poems have been written on the subject and they
all finely describe so beautifully the pleasure one gets from being
close to fauna and flora: trees, mountains, oceans and the seas.
Hope all of you are nature lovers. Have you ever walked on a lush
green meadow listening to the songs of birds and enjoying the sight of
trees laden with flowers. Have you ever been close enough to a water
fall to hear the music of the water as it glides down a rock. It is a
pleasure to catch a glimpse of wild animals roaming freely in their
natural habitats, instead of seeing them trapped in zoos as prisoners.
As Red Indian Chief Seattle wrote in his letter "This we know: the
earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the earth. All things are
connected like the blood that unites us all.
Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself."
Find time to listen to the songs of nature. I am sure it will enhance
your creativity and sensitivity.
Bye for now. Sanju : [email protected]
An event to celebrate The first day of school
Divulapitiya Heeralugedara Junior School organized an event to
celebrate the first day of newcomers to the school. Heeralugedara
Samurdhi Society distributed money tills to students to improve their
saving habit. Here, some students are with their tills, while Principal
B.A.G. Damayanthi Gys also participated in the event. Picture by Ivon
Nissanka Divulapitiya group correspondent
|
My flower garden |
My home |
A goat |
 |
 |
 |
|
Ishan
Appuhamy Sailan International School Negombo Nursery |
Sajawal
Sattar, Sailan International School, Negombo, Nursery |
Zulfah
Thahani Ramzan grade - 2A Sailan International School
Negombo |
|
A mask |
Aliens |
A river |
A rocket |
 |
 |
 |
 |
S.Janakan,
Kingston College International Wellawatte,
grade - 5, |
Ruzzaik
Kingston College International,
Wellawatte, grade - 3 |
T.Dishan,
grade - 4, Kingston College International, Wellawatte |
P.Uththara
Idracharuni grade - 2 Kids World Primary School
Udugampola |
|
The
environment |
 |
|
Aravindkanth, grade - 4, Kingston College International,
Wellawatte |
|
Kingston
College annual concert |
 |
|
The Kingston
College International (Matale Branch) held its annual
concert at the Matale Town Hall recently. Here are some
students participating in theconcert. |
|
