Keeping a promise

Crunch time !!!

Report card period for Laetitia.....and we were eagerly, or rather anxiously awaiting the merciless verdict on her results, and how good or rather....how bad she would score.

Beginning of the school year, our girl bargained with us that she wouldn't follow any tuition classes after school. In return she would make sure that she'd do well. (see former posting, http://yuenslair.blogspot.com/2009/03/compromise.html )

Knowing how lazy she really is, spending energy on how not to do her homework instead of doing it.....(it sounds eerily familiar......I confess, I did it too when I was a schoolkid back then, oops). So this time 'round we didn't expect much of a result from her.

My dear wife, Jessica, even offered her something in case she manages to rank within the top-20 of her class (there are altogether 47 students in her 'first' class, and last year in Primary One she never entered the top-20). Jess promised to buy her a Nintendo Dual Screen, a portable game console.

So in short = no tuition class, not doing her homework regularly, repeated complaints from the teacher staff about her talkativeness.......= recipe for disaster.

That's what we thought and expected.............., day of reckoning came......and.....

Against all odds our girl improved, although maths and science were a let down, but overall she scored well and even improved her ranking, breaking into the top-20, safely nestling herself onto the 17th spot of her class....and overall 40 out of 150 Primary 2 students.

Promise is a promise, we had to break the bank to provide her the NDS, on one condition only......NDS only on Saturdays during schoolweeks, and limited time during school holidays. And still no tuition for her..........

So now it's till November for the following report card, and no, this time we won't make any promises anymore.....it turns out she has a knack of meeting our high criteria.....we are outsmarted by our very own daughter, doh!!