myasiababy

School Music Group

2011-12-11T01:34:00.000-08:00

基隆市100學年度學生音樂比賽瑪陵國小，這是我們20年來再次的參加團體的性的音樂競賽，對一個指有46人的小學校來說，參加一個有節奏有旋律的音樂表演是非常的困難的。這次競賽我們跟信義國小並列優等雖然沒有拿到代表權到全國比賽，但是這樣的成績讓我們有更進步的空間，也代表我們努力的成果。要感謝蔡、巫兩位老師兩年來的指導，也感謝各位家長、老師、及工作同仁的協助配合，我們相信明年，我們會有更好的成績，大家加油!

This was the first time in TWENTY YEARS that Maling Elementary School made it to the Jilong Student Music Contest. Now, their school has only 46 students, so to be even able to put together a music group is quite an achievement. Even though they didn't make it to the national contest, they are going to work superhard to make it next year! (Their teachers are from the renowned Ju Percussion Group, and the kids are extremely lucky to have them come to teach them every week.)

In case you can't work out which one is Kyle, he is back left, the little guy with the big big drum. He was the youngest in the contest.

Back in Taiwan, Back in the Swing of Things

2011-10-01T05:47:00.000-07:00

We got back from NZ over a month ago now. The kids went right back into school, and I went back into Taiwan life. Back into driving my sweet baby, the little red March, back into school life with the kids. Not yet back into gardening, though! It's looking at me, waiting for me to take hold of the weeds.

Hannah is doing great in kindergarten. The NZ experience really brought my daughter out of her shell, and now she is very outgoing and active in her classroom. I'm doing a little class there once a week, which is also going well.

Likewise, Kyle is doing just fine. He suddenly became more organised, more responsible, and more capable and willing to do his studies in Chinese. Kyle has a percussion contest in November, and an English speech contest in October. So far, he is much more willing to go to the music class than last semester.

The past few weeks, the kids have been plastering our house in notes and drawings. Here are a few of the highlights:

by Kyle

A Kyle Monster

You Broke My Heart - by Hannah

Product Adjustment - by Kyle

Thanks to everyone who helped me had a great NZ winter! It was so very memorable. Look forward to seeing everyone again!!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

2011-08-24T15:27:00.000-07:00

Hannah: "Mum, say goodbye to Barbie." "OK, bye. Where is she going?" "She's dead." (Noting the lipstick blood on her head and neck) "What happened to her?" "She got old. So we killed her..."

End of (An Academic) Year

2011-06-20T10:28:00.000-07:00

What on Earth I am doing up posting at 1am I don't know. Maybe it's the anticipation of a trip back to New Zealand, maybe it's the thought of packing, maybe it's the laundry laughing at me from the corner of the room. Maybe I am just enjoying another evening without pain after having my tooth fixed (which has been affecting me since May last year). Whatever it is, I could reflect a bit on the academic year of living in our cottage and the kids attending school.

Hmm, what is a mum to say? Hannah no longer eats only the chocolate options at preschool, but eats things "that look funny, too". Kyle has started rebelling against homework and independent thinking. Hannah can add up numbers under five, Kyle can read and write stories in Chinese. Hannah volunteered to be in the Graduation show, Kyle got to read the farewell to sixth-graders speech by himself in front of the school. Hannah likes to do her hair in the fashion of Crystal Bowersox, Kyle likes to dance like the guys in "America's Got Talent". Hannah helps me find the coffee at the 7-11, Kyle gives me a lecture on the poisonous chemicals in bought drinks. Hannah gives me massages. Kyle finds my phone when it rings.

As for me, I have had some success with the herbs but not the vegetables in the garden. I can now manage to put together something for guests to eat and drink from our selection. The dog is still alive, the goldfish are dead. I've almost managed to give my inlaws their rooms back, but not quite. I'm putting together some goals for the next academic year, in general terms of being a better housemanager, getting healthier, and making more money. First there is a summer to get through, though. I do want to add, that the last few days I have felt really well, which makes me realise how unwell I had been the past few months. I guess that is what happens when health slowly slips out of you. And it is amazing how the tooth affected my whole system. Dad used to tell me that was how people died young, and now I can see what he was talking about.

Seeing as that is about as reflective as I can manage, I will stop and get some sleep. Let's see what the beautiful morning will bring.

Happy Un-Easter, Visitations

2011-04-24T15:52:00.000-07:00

Well, I certainly missed Easter this year. The three Kinder eggs are still in my drawer. I had plans to give Richard, Kyle, and Hannah one each (the kids' first at-home Easter experience), but a wake-up call from a classmate's mom at 8am made me miss the moment. I had the Cultural Education class at the kids's school at 8:30, so Richard nicely looked after the three girls that came to visit for the morning, and some of the afternoon.

We did actually go to an Easter picnic yesterday, with Taipei City Playgroup. It was really a lot of fun, despite the worry about Skippy running around our countryside with a three-meter chain dragging behind him. (Skippy is our three-legged Taiwan mountain dog that a friend rescued and gave to us. He escapes daily, bringing a new dimension to my already interesting life.)

Kyle with his basket.

Hannah, not sure if she wants her picture taken.

Case of the sneezes. This is a really nice park.

Running around looking for the dads who were hiding with candy to give the kids.

We have a group of expat parents that meet a few times a year for big events, and weekly with a playgroup for kids not yet in school. It's a very nice group of people and it's fun to catch up with families I might only see once a year or sometimes even less often. People here are quite transient, so they may go back to one parents' country for a while, then return again to Taiwan. It makes it hard, saying goodbye so often, but I have learned that many times, there will be a hello a few years down the road.

After the picnic, the worry about the dog was too much (the neighbor had called), so I canceled my other plans and we headed back home. When we got to the driveway, there was Skippy, bouncing around without his chain. Someone had taken it off him. I am telling myself some nice old lady needed the chain to make her quota for the metal recyling, and that I have inadvertantly done a good deed. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, as I now had no plants, no library books, and no new clothes from the bargain store where we had just been in town, and here was the dog, wagging his happy tail at us.

I came in, put my things down, and the phone rang. Richard's parents were on their way, to stay for dinner. Panic! I threw together a salad, curry rice, dumplings, and fruit, made some lemon and mint tea, and ran around cleaning up enough to look like we care. Richard was at the car repair shop for the day, so it was all on me to entertain and provide. I'm so lucky to have easy-going in-laws!

The kids and grandma and grandpa went for a walk and then we sat down and had dinner. We had finished just about everything when Richard called to tell me he and two friends would arrive in five minutes and they hadn't eaten. Richard's mum helped me make the leftovers look like they had been prepared for the three guys, and I cooked some more rice and put beer in the fridge. Luckily, those guys are easy pleased when it comes to food, too. I was running out of supplies seeing as the grocery trip had been cut off by the dog.

About 9pm, Richard drove the guys back into town and I got the kids ready for bed. Hannah collapsed before she even got a shower, but Kyle managed to stay awake.

Next morning, Sunday, I got up at 7am and started to get ready for the Cross Cultural Education class at school. Kyle had been sneezing all night so I gave him the day off table tennis. At 8am, Hannah's classmate's mum called to ask if she could come over...now... Richard said it was fine, so she and the three girls headed over on their scooter (yes, four people, one scooter, one helmet). I passed them on the way to school and she said, "I'll see you this afternoon when you get back." Indeed, they were there when I got back and ended up staying until 2pm. Richard helped turn the curry rice leftovers into enough for the eight of us.

At the class, the school principal had me dress up in Vietnamese wedding gear so she could take pictures of me. She had visited a Vietnamese woman and picked up a lot of artifacts for the upcoming school cultural exchange day. We read some interesting books, including one "The Night Tree", which I recommend as an alternative, environmental Christmas story. It's not about the religion, it's about the custom of tree decorating. The family go and visit a tree they are growing in the woods.

Anyway, I came back home to the family and the neighbor's daughter playing with the kids, and the mum waiting patiently on the sofa. Richard and I got some lunch together and I had a chat with the mum. She finally got up the courage to ask me how much Richard had paid for me and how to arrange the broker. Her brother is divorced and needs another mother for his children. I was tempted to throw out a large number proving my worth but decided to be truthful. I can understand why people think Richard bought me. It is what they know based on their experience. This family has some financial difficulties, raising three girls on Taiwan's low salary, but the mum helps out by collecting recycling stuff with the eldest daughter on their bicycle.

Talking to all these people, the biggest realisation is, no matter where you are from, you have the same base wishes and desires, and troubles, too. Circumstances may well be very different, but the heart is often very similar. Being a mother with children in public school has opened up a whole new area of Taiwan for me, as has getting out of the Taipei city. Life is definitely a journey.

The girls having lunch.

big sister looking after Hannah

Hannah's classmate

So, once again it is Monday morning. We have "no" food in the house, the floor needs a good clean, and I still haven't tidied the pile of stuff on the sofa. But, looking back, it's the people that matter. (Anyone want to come mop for me?)

What a Week!

2011-03-24T18:53:00.000-07:00

Sick kid, runaway dog, disorganised business, school pick-ups and classes... it's been quite a week. I should be pushing ahead with class preparation and organising product descriptions and lists, but I really wanted to update the family about life here. So, here goes, the power-post.

Dog: Skippy is a great dog, really. He just has this really really REALLY bad habit of running off when we are not paying attention. He has found the chicken farm and restaurant down the bottom of the hill, which means at least I know where he goes. But, having a dog hang around the prep area of the restaurant is not ideal, especially as in Taiwan it is habit to prepare food like raw chickens on the concrete ground outside. At least Skippy likes his doghouse and will settle down in there for the night. For a dog with three legs, he sure can run fast!

Hannah: My little girl has been home for the week, with a throat infection and fever. She is actually well on the mend today, and will have to come to school with me in the afternoon when I teach. There is nothing like a child at home to put constant interruption and chaos into a day. Everything around me is suffering. But, at least she can stay home and get better. When I think of all those parents still looking for their children in Japan after the tsunami, I realise how terrible it is to think "I wish I had some time alone." We are so lucky to have our children by our sides.

Kyle: This morning, Kyle is off to compete in an inter-school dance contest. Dad was a bit late getting him to school and his poor teacher called me in a panic. I reassured her he would be there. With such small class sizes, your child becomes a very important of every team, group, and community he or she joins. I think this is a really good thing when the children are so young, to feel needed and not easily replaced.

Kyle is also in the school percussion group, which will perform in April. He wasn't happy about it as the teacher gave him the cymbals. This week, the child playing the big drum didn't want to play anymore, so Kyle got his dream of playing the drum fufilled. Now, he LOVES percussion group. On Sundays, Kyle goes to table tennis, and that seems to be going well, too. The biggest challenge of all is for his mum to remember where he needs to go and where. Again, the positives of a small school come out. All these activities are free and taught by professional teachers/coaches from outside the school.

Business: It seems to be picking up a bit, which wouldn't be hard compared to last year. If only I had hours at a time free to think and arrange and update and promote. With kids around, you only get a minute or so before someone calls, which makes it hard to sit down and really concentrate on the hard stuff. With Richard going on a 10-day business trip recently, both kids sick (one after the other) and now Richard having to spend Saturdays at the car repair shop to fix his van (involved in four-car crash), as well as traveling to the inlaws' two days a week, I'm really running on the reserve battery. I often think of that line that became the slogan for bullying: It only gets better. Maybe tomorrow, I will get to sleep in after 6am, go to sleep before 1am, sleep all night or at least three hours straight without an interruption, or even go out alone. If not, at least I have people big and little in my life who need me. And a dog...

Have Tent, Will Camp

2011-03-08T06:27:00.001-08:00

Dog In The House

2011-03-08T06:03:00.000-08:00

Skippy

The PTA and Me, Multculturalism and Maling

2011-02-20T19:59:00.000-08:00

The PTA and Me

The children's parent-teacher meetings were on Saturday afternoon. They are both doing well in school. Their school is trying to develop their program to be more progressive. That means more opportunities for children to learn more things outside the basic curriculum. I'm quite excited by that possibility, as children do need to know more about life than what is in their language textbook, and as the principal said, elementary school is the best time to broaden children's horizons. Kyle's teacher is going to teach her class watercolor painting and music. She is also starting them on writing Chinese stories in the proper format. She posted a few pictures the children had drawn outside her classroom. This one of Kyle's brought such happiness to me.

Hannah is a very happy little student, too. We had a funny incident in class regarding the Flora Expo. I didn't realise how much she wanted to go, and kept telling her we are waiting until a bit later to visit. Her class is going on a field trip there. She piped up, "Mummy won't let me go to the Expo!" The teacher had to double-check with me.

Both children are well-known for their love of reading. Teachers were asking me how I got them to read so much. I explained how I read to them every night before bed. This is not something Taiwan families do. Of course, I also love books and reading. My big mouth then got me into trouble of sorts. I have been put in charge of upgrading the school library, to make it "more like a Western school library." Part of me is going to love this, and another part is thinking, "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING??" Afterall, half the library is in Chinese...

And then we move on to languages. I have been working as a volunteer mother a morning a week, teaching children English while the teachers have their meeting. This semester, I have been hired to teach extra afternoon classes. These classes, and the others offered at school like Taichi and calligraphy, are mostly free for students. So, if you would like your children to learn these things but don't want to go to afterschool classes, consider moving to our school. Friday is my first day to teach the afternoon sessions. I was looking at the textbook last night and the realisation that I am reentering education hit me. Now I am a little nervous. But, it's also exciting to be helping these students, many of whom are very different from the wealthy kids I taught back in cram school before I got married. I even made my first poster to hang up at school!

So, now one of my projects when I go back home is to dig around my old school library and see what I can adapt to put into the library here. Wouldn't it be great to have a fun, dynamic library in the school, where children can really actively learn how to research and be passionate about literature? Oh, me and my ideas. When I told Richard about this, he just laughed and said, well, you do love the library.

Multiculturalism and Maling

When we put the kids into this school, I didn't realise how multicultural it is. Kyle's class has six students. Three mothers are not from Taiwan. Hannah's preschool is also half-filled with mixed-culture children. There are also a number who are being raised by grandparents or who are in single-parent families. As a result, teachers try not to send too much homework home, as many children just don't have support to finish it. And, as one teacher said, the aim of homework is not learn anything or test how much you know, but just to give the average student a little more practice. Very capable students don't need it unless it is special extension work, and students who need help need to get extra tuition and support at school. So, there is a homework support system for students who really need it. Then, there are extra-curricular classes for other students. I am keenly awaiting that list to see what Kyle can do.

Hannah's teacher is doing a study on multicultural families and how they handle education of their children. She has asked us to take part in her study. This could be quite interesting, to see how she interprets our views and experiences.

Chinese New Year Cottage Style

2011-02-06T17:46:00.000-08:00

It's been quite a week at the cottage. Today is the last day of the Chinese New Year break. And the only day we don't have plans for people to come over to the cottage. Including children, we have had around 100 people come and enjoy a break here over the past five days. Richard's parents have stayed over, we've been to two dinners, and visited Richard's uncle in hospital. I think this is the first time I have sat down in a farily relaxed state, and my legs have started to shake. I enjoy having people over, but I could not be a professional caterer. My hat goes off to my mum and my sister for the work they have done in that area.

I sat down with great intentions of tales of the week, but now I am here, my mind is blank. I guess I will put up a few recent photos instead.

Quick Quotes

2011-01-07T21:15:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of gems from the past week.

Hannah's weekly school report:
We have been timing Hannah and how long it takes her to unpack her schoolbag. In the past it has been 20 to 30 minutes. The last two days, we are down to 15. Well done!
...contents of a four-year-old's schoolbag? Three bowls...

Hannah and Lady Gaga - minds alike:
Lady Gaga: He ate my heart and he ate my brain
Hannah (brandishing plastic sword): So I took my sword and cut his head right off!

Kyle on the challenges of science:
I need a sperm donor.
(me): Whatever for?
So I can put sperm under the microscope and watch them move. I can't see them in my wee-wee, so I need a man to give me some.
...any takers?

Our Retaining Wall

2011-01-02T03:12:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures of the retaining wall Richard has been working on this month. It looked pretty rough at first, but it's coming together. Richard paid a guy who has been building these, and doing up old buildings around the island, to teach him how to build the wall.

A new year, a new post

2011-01-01T04:29:00.000-08:00

I am so happy to report I got what I wanted today. We had a wonderful day with friends and their children, at our cottage. The men sat outside cooking on the barbecue and having man-talk, and the women sat inside enjoying good company and drinks. The eight children ran around the house, through the house, around the garden, and through the garden. We even got to play some card games, reminding me how much fun it is to play games with children. It was a very successful start to 2011.

I've also had a few things happen the last month or so that I should write about. The first one is, I started teaching at Kyle's school, as a volunteer mother. It's just one class once a week. It's really a lot of fun. The children seem to enjoy learning English . And now, I will be teaching two classes a week, paid, at the school. I'm really looking forward to it. It should be a bit of a challenge after so many years away, but it is something I love to do.

Ok, next is, I have been trying my hand at gardening (again). I was planning on having an organic garden, but after the incident a few days ago, I really don't know if it is possible in this environment. At 10:30am, I was looking at my beautiful row of brocolli, about break out from the leaf-state it was in. I told myself I should take a picture of it to send to my dad. I had a shower and did a little work. When I came out at noon to get the kids from school, I had to rub my eyes and look again. Every piece of leaf on my broccoli plants were gone. I imagined a giant praying mantis coming in for the attack. Gone, all gone. I had tears in my eyes on the way to school, but on the way home I felt a little anger. How DARE anything eat my hard work? I was tempted to make up a spray and wait for the next bug that came along. After a few days, I am now considering a Net Against Nature. We have an old mosquito net from the four-poster-bed Richard made us a few years ago that I may well cut up in an attempt to protect my future projects.

Kyle is doing very well in school. He consistently gets 100% in his tests, and really enjoys all his classes. He volunteered us for the Christmas show, resulting in the two of us singing a song on stage and then performing four magic tricks. The teachers constantly tell me how great he is, as if I don't know already. Kyle is still determined to move to an English-speaking country, as his true love is reading English (although today he told me he loves rollerblading even more - Uncle Neil will not be impressed!)

Hannah is also a star in her preschool. She loves all her classmates and they all look after each other very well. Hannah is always preparing things from our house to take to school to share with everyone. I think the low student numbers in the school really help the children to settle in and make themselves a social group more easily than the larger numbers in other schools.

Seeing as I haven't posted anything for a long time, I have a lot of pictures to choose from. Here are a few:

Kyle with grandparents at Christmas show

Hannah right after her performance

Hannah's letter to Santa

Kyle's letter to Santa

Cousins at our house on Christmas Day

Hannah on the scooter Nana gave her

Kyle with sunglasses that were in his stocking

Storytime, List of Instructions

2010-10-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

Kyle is finding his writing skills very useful. Yesterday, he made sure I would remember that he wants to keep the fork from the can of pineapple.

With no TV, the kids spend more time creating on their own. To be honest, sometimes I am a bit lazy and don't give them any guidance. Then, they come up with cartoons like this. This is one of Kyle's first stories that he has written on his own. He did this earlier this week.

Kyle has a bit of a cough. He turned his medicine cup into a cute little monster. Helps the medicine go down.

School Antics

2010-09-29T07:34:00.000-07:00

Since school started, I have neglected writing about the children. They are still here. So, I should write a bit about them, and their days at school. Because, I know that is really why you are here; as interesting as stag beetles in compost is, the children really do rise a little above that topic.

Hannah: Hannah is now four and in kindergarten. She has homework, twice a week. Yesterday's homework was a sheet with dotted lines on it that she had to trace with her crayon. She was all set up at the table, doing her first line, so I left her to it while I did some online sales orders. When I came back, her homework was completed, almost perfect. The first line was a bit wobbly, but the rest were spot-on.
"Hannah, you drew that so well. What a nice job," I said.
"Oh, I didn't do that. Kyle did." Said Hannah.
"But that's your homework! Why did Kyle do it?"
"It was too hard for me, so I made Kyle do it. He could draw on the lines."
As the teacher said today when I relayed this episode to her, we have no fear of Hannah handling herself in the world.

The teacher also had a chance to tell a story about roleplay time to me. The class read Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. Then, three girls got to be Snow White and act out eating the apple and dying. Hannah refused to eat it, leaning over and whispering to a classmate, "I am not eating that! I KNOW it's poison!"

Now, the final Hannah story for today. The class takes a nap at noon. Hannah did not like lying down at all. After much discussion with her, I discovered she did not like lying down without wearing "sleeping gear". So, now everyday Hannah changes into a nightdress for her daily nap, and then changes back into her daywear in the afternoon. Naptime goes much more smoothly since this ritual was added to her daily school routine.

Kyle has overcome his hatred of Chinese and no longer needs to move to New Zealand so he doesn't have to learn Chinese. Over summer, I decided not to put him into a pronunciation class, but to just enjoy some daytrips instead. I was a little nervous that I had done the wrong thing. Kyle has proved me right in my choice, getting 100% in his first two tests and being top of the class in pronunciation and other academics. Most importantly, Kyle loves going to school and often tells me how much he loves his school. Tonight, he read part of a Chinese storybook to Hannah. And, he now corrects my pronunciation constantly. His dad is taking him to buy a new junior Chinese dictionary very soon, as he has taken an interest in my old one. The old one is just too outdated to be useful for his study. Chinese changes constantly, and kids need to stay uptodate to get the high test scores.

Tomorrow, we are attending a cultural performance in Keelung, with the children's school. I'm charging my camera battery in anticipation.

My Garden

2010-09-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

My garden is a big mess of dirt, rock, and weeds. I do have a few things growing:

Basil
Parsley
Sweet potato leaves
Sage
Mint

Not much of a list. I bought some seeds to plant, but I never bring them out at the right time. Yesterday would have been perfect. I had several enthusiastic children digging the dirt patch, but never thought to get them to work on planting the seeds. My friend did bring me an oregano cutting, which has been popped into the ground near the sweet potato leaves. And, they did spot that I had some kind of squash probably growing by itself in the garden, too.

Richard's friends helping dig some of the garden a month or so ago.

Now and then, knowledgeable people come to visit, and point out wild foods growing around us. The neighbor taught me how to cut the oversized bamboo and wash it gently for an hour or so to get rid of the bitterness. We discovered our plant that makes a very nice juice-type drink when boiled and mixed with lemon and sugar. And, there are leaves that you cook with fish to bring out the flavor. I'm still trying to tell all of these plants apart from the weeds.

We are also doing some basic composting. I mix our raw food scraps with paper, hair from the drain, old cotton clothes we no longer need, grass clippings, and dirt. Due to the heat, it only takes about three months for everythign to become a big mushy messy that can be mixed in the garden dirt. My garden does look more like dirt than last year. Now, if only I could find motivation to take ALL the rocks out of the dirt. The compost bin has been a nesting ground for the stag beetles we have in the yard. They are cute little things, really.

Flash Flood

2010-09-25T05:05:00.000-07:00

Late Thursday night/early Friday morning, without any warning from the Taiwan weather bureau, several months' worth of rain dumped down on Northern Taiwan. Our little cottage didn't suffer any damage, but the surrounding area got a good hammering.

Closest to our hearts was the car park Richard recently dug out, near the little creek by our house. Two days ago, it was a flat space to make my car. After the rain, it looks like this:

Last week, the children and I fed the fish down by the stream:

Yesterday, it looked like this:

As we were heading out to school at 7:20am, our neighbor came over and told there had been a landslide, and not even scooters could get past. She led us up this rarely-used mountain road and back down the hill, so we could bypass the landslide. It was very nice of her to come and show us this road. It was a bit scary, though. Water was rushing over the road like a small river and there were rocks all over the place, too. By the time I had to drive to the school at noon to pick up the children, the military were out cleaning up a lot of the mess. And when we came back in the evening, the slip had been cleaned up.

The school's nature area was totally underwater on Friday. I parked inside the school, as the carpark area was pretty sludgy, too. Luckily, the rain eased off by noon, so things have had a chance to dry out a bit.

During that heavy rain, Richard got up several times to check the land. Today, he asked a guy over to look at building some walls to redirect the water and support the bridge. Having grown up in a wet area and with a father who built national roads for a living, I had mentioned to Richard about the bridge before. The dirt under the bridge has been slowly disappearing over the years since it was built, I imagine. It would only be a matter of a time before it all eroded underneath and the bridge collapsed. I feel lucky that we had this downpour, as it has made Richard aware and now the gentleman will be helping fix things up to be more secure.

We woke to a sunny day today. Very hot and sunny. It's often the way - beautiful clear weather after a big stormy night. A day like we had for the barbecue. Here's a picture of our yard on a sunny, clear day:

Kyle Reads, Hannah Listens

2010-09-11T23:33:00.000-07:00

We have had a great start to the school year. We chose to put our children into a small school by our cottage, rather than one of the larger "better" ones by my inlaws'. The school is public. There are 65 children in the school, from kindergarten to grade six. Kyle has five classmates, all girls. Hannah has 11 classmates. The school is not pretty and it doesn't have great facilities like a swimming pool or gymnasium, but it has won awards including best kitchen in a Taiwan school and best public preschool in Taiwan. Kyle and Hannah are happy to walk into the school every morning. And already, I am accepted into the parent community and have joined the "group food purchasing" team of mothers.

Kyle and Hannah on their first day of school

Hannah resting in the library

Roof of the school - garden needs a little work

Back of Kyle's class block

After two weeks in school, Kyle has started reading Chinese storybooks! He read his first pages today. From zero to full speed ahead in two weeks. And Hannah loves her teachers and has learned a lot of good behaviour already.

School Begins & Some Education Links

2010-08-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day of the holidays! We have an ordinary weekend and then Monday, the first day of school, is here. I think we all have mixed feelings about this. Kyle doesn’t want to do all the writing related to First Grade but wants friends. Hannah doesn’t want to leave my side but wants to play. I want them to go out and start life at school and have some time away from me, but I want them to stay with me, too. So, today we will spend our last day of the holidays together at Happy Bear gymnastics, the play area, and MacDonald’s.

Kyle is still shining in the area of language and literacy – so far only the English language. His Chinese has some catching up to do. Kyle is reading up to four chapter books a day, and I am ever-thankful for the Taipei City Library for its extensive English-language section. The English area of our Muzha branch library is bigger than my hometown’s library, and we also have access to all the books at the many other branches in the city. Parents have asked me how I taught him to read, and even though he is naturally talented in this area, I would like to share a few good books I found for parents to use.

How To Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons – I followed this book step-by-step, ten minutes a day, over several months. We didn’t use the book everyday but we did every lesson. It covered all the foundations of the mechanics of reading. I am now using it with Hannah, and she is also learning quickly with the book.

Wise-Bauer’s series of books on literacy – Wise-Bauer follows a more classical approach to teaching. Each lesson has clear steps to follow and should be easy for parents even without any teaching experience. Writing With Ease Strong Fundamentals: Children only have to write one or two sentences each day, and through this they gain confidence in their ability. Kyle was unsure of his writing and unwilling to try, but after several lessons he started to write spontaneously without prompting.

Bob Books (Readers) I used these to support lessons in How to Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. The stories are quirky and appeal to most children.

I was a bit concerned about Kyle’s preparation for his Chinese pronunciation classes. My friend sent me a link to a number of very nice Chinese language sites for children. Here is the link to a woman's blog, that you can click through to find more that your children might like.

I am also using a daily practice series of books to support science and math. The children love these as each day’s lessons are very short and to the point.

Finally, Hannah has been using a set of Kumon books that introduce concepts such as shapes and time, and provide practice cutting, pasting, and coloring. This series encourages children to work independently at their own pace. It’s working for my determined, independent little girl.

I hope some of these books are helpful, or at least start a search in a direction that saves someone time and money!

The Joy of Giving

2010-08-06T10:59:00.000-07:00

I just came back from a very nice evening out with a good friend. I know she is a good friend because I could sit in a coffeeshop with one coffee and talk for literally hours! It's not easy to get me to sit like that for so long with one cup of coffee.

During the evening, we talked a little about charity and giving, and I have been inspired to write about my sponsored child.

When Kyle was born, I decided to sponsor a child. I found a child just two years old through Child Fund (Formerly CCF). Rajkumar is in India. When I started with this sponsorship, I didn't realise how attached I would grow to Rajkumar and his family, nor how such a small gift from me could mean so much to them. Each year I give the family 50USD to spend for Christmas and birthday. With that money, they buy their family of four new clothes, new bedding, school supplies, grains and meats, prepare a birthday party, AND save a little for their future needs. This giving has also made me look at our own children and what we give them. This year, I decided to buy them one gift each, and not from me but from the Birthday Fairy. The whole idea of the Birthday Fairy was more exciting than the presents, and the buildup lasted weeks. I am putting the "saved" money toward the cost of assisting Rajkumar and his family. It is truly a joy to assist this family. Even if we can't make a giant impact on poverty in general, we can do a little something now and then.

It's funny where you end up...

2010-07-28T09:18:00.000-07:00

When you are looking for a gas station. Or at least, it's funny where the kids and I end up. This afternoon, I took the kids to buy some supplies for their birthday party to be held this Saturday. I had tried to get them to nap at noon but they didn't, so of course they fell asleep and slept for over an hour, which meant flagging the trip to the store that sells the party gear. They woke up as I was diverting to the highway toward the cottage. I realised we needed gas, so I got back off the highway and drove along to Xijr. Kyle was hungry so I decided to find somewhere to stop if we couldn't find a gas station. Of course, I couldn't (I have a GPS but it listed 20 in no particular order or direction, so I gave that up). We ended up at Cathay Hospital. It's like a huge community, and behind the hospital is the start of the cycleway along the Keelung River. Walking along, we found "叮呱呱", the Taiwan Fried Chicken chain. The kids hadn't been there before, so we ordered our takeout and sat at the park, eating our picnic dinner. Our family verdict is, Ding Gua Gua is way better than MacDonald's. Is that getting too local? We were quietly eating when Hannah yells, "There's a cow!" (She takes after me, suffering from the odd case of animal misidentification.) Coming up to us was this giant pig, with a collar on. It had smelt the chicken and came to ask for some. It was the cutest big pig I had ever seen. It was talking to us, and put its head on my knee. The owner of the pig came over and said sorry but he loves the smell of chicken. It was fine with us. It was certainly a "first time" moment for me. Kyle decided he never wants to be a pig farmer as they "have to chop those gorgeous animals up", and Hannah declared pigs "fantastic". Funnily enough, less than five minutes later, a man walking his cow walked past. Now, please note that we were not exactly in farmland, but right next to a highway and large hospital.

(The bikeway itself is currently 12km long, and eventually will connect to Taipei's bikeways. It's in really good condition and not crowded at all.)

We then walked back to the carpark, stopping at the local community park. The children there were very friendly, and both kids quickly made new friends. But, the promise of a daytrip tomorrow convinced the kids to come back to the cottage when I asked them.

We got back here and painted the paper clay models we had made a few days ago. At first they were all painted beautifully, but then the kids decided BROWN was the way to go, and now all the animals are one color. The kids were quite brown themselves so I had them jump in the shower and head off to bed for stories.

Talking of brown, I was saddened to hear Hannah tell me she is not happy that she is too dark, and not white enough. And to tell me I am too fat to be a mermaid. Taiwan media has so much to answer for. Even if I don't let her watch shows like "美人女" (Beautiful mermaid, a superhero story for girls, with 3 beautiful cartoon mermaids doing cool stuff), even Disney channel shows ads for the mother, selling whitening products, slimming products, and anti-aging products. There is no control over advertising at all. Hannah is only four years old, and she is already worried about her skin and her waistline! I'm going to have to restudy my "advertising ethics" paper materials and educate the little girl before she develops issues she shouldn't have at four years of age!

Sunday Morning at the Cottage

2010-07-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

It's been just beautiful up at the cottage the past couple of weeks. The good weather has brought our neighbors into the 'hood, and this morning was definitely a hive of activity. I woke up at 6am to the sounds of:

The great big labrador at the bottom of the hill barking nonstop
The meditation group playing their Buddhist music at full volume, just up from the dog
The little girl below us and her mother having rather loud dialog between the inside and outside of the house
The gentle hum of locusts
The occasional tweet and chirp from the resident birds

I decided to go and see exactly what the dog was barking about, and get a bit of exercise at the same time. A TV crew had set up at the restaurant at the bottom of our hill. They must be going to shoot a few scenes down by the river. The dog did not like their constant movement, and barked everytime somebody spoke or walked. After saying hi to the dog, I set off on a little walk along the road. There were a few groups of hikers out enjoying the sun, too. There were a few rustlings in the grass by the road, and I assume they were little snakes or lizards slipping away from all the noise. I got a couple of kilometers down the road, decided I was hungry, and came back again. Everyone was still asleep, so I had a chance to enjoy a "quiet" coffee before the day really began. It's now almost 9am, and I think it is too hot for everyone, as there is no dog, no Buddhist music, no chirping birds, and no little girl calling out to her mother. We are left with the gentle hum of locusts and a view of dragonflies darting by as they look for their mates. Bliss.... oh wait, here is Hannah, cuddling me and declaring, "I love you, squashy mummy!"

2010-07-17T08:48:00.000-07:00

It seems just yesterday that I was dropping Kyle off for his first day of preschool. Now, we are getting ready for first grade! And, Hannah will become a preschooler. It's hard to get my head around some days, that here I am in Taiwan, sending my kids to local school (getting even more "local" in September when we move to the cottage fulltime so they can attend the school out here), where they get a Taiwan education and I have to help them with homework written in Chinese. Facebook has made it even more strange to me, as many of my Taiwanese friends have moved abroad and their children are being raised to attend English-language-education schools. The world really is an interesting place these days.

We started our summer vacation early, with Kyle's school closing because two kids in his class had the entereovirus. It is very contagious, and the more serious strains can be life-threatening, so they are pretty cautious. This threw my "plans" into turmoil, but we are still having some fun. I have been driving the two kids around, trying out different places like the Science Museum, Riverside Park Children's Festival in Ilan, Happy Bear's gymnastic classes, and a number of different swimming pools. Fitting my business around the kids is kind of exhausting and it's hard to focus, but last week I met someone who is going to change my life forever - a drop shipping company! So, come September I hope to be doing minimal shipping myself, offering a better service, and focusing on developing markets and retail sales. And of course, spending more time caring for and educating my kids. Exercising. Making exotic coffees... well, one can dream, maybe I will even mop the floors!

We did manage to enjoy Kyle's graduation ceremony. In Taiwan, graduating students get a fancy book of photos, which you pay about about 30USD for. Here are a few pictures - two from the book and two from the day:

Hannah is of course her gorgeous, color-coordinated self. She seems to have my sister's flair for fashion. A couple of pictures of the girl:

I look at Hannah and ask myself, "What did I do to get such a gorgeous little girl?"

She is seriously funny, creating songs all day long that keep the whole family laughing.

Hannah and Kyle have been roleplaying lots of boy-girl situations recently. For example, they "went to a party" where there were a lot of girls. Hannah sent all the girls home, as nobody could be prettier than her. Prince Kyle chased them all out to make sure they wouldn't come back and Hannah had the choice of boys at the party! I guess I read Cinderella to them once too often.

Kyle has bronchitis. I took him to the doctor today. I think I have a bit of it myself, tonight. The kids got up at 6:30 this morning, and Richard had been out, so I did the kid duty for the morning. I was feeling a bit feverish myself earlier this evening and was almost asleep, but Richard woke me up. Now, everyone is asleep and it's getting close to midnight. It seems to be fairly common that the husband gets to sleep and the wife doesn't. I guess we have a lot of things we have to organise and remember, and it's just harder to shut our brains down. And, we tend to think of the husband more and let them sleep, keeping the kids quiet. From discussions with friends, it seems a pretty cross-cultural thing, were the men will wake up the women just to have them help find something or to ask a question, whereas the women will try their best to solve any problems themselves, and keep the kids quiet, too. Anyway, I won't be surprised if I wake up with a bit of a cough in the morning, having had looked after Kyle through his coughing last night.

On that note, I should try to get to sleep before witching hour!

Going Home, Coming Home

2010-06-20T02:42:00.000-07:00

I'm standing on two shores,
My tongue flicks Chinese, English,
A change of station.
I sympathize with both parties.
East Meets West,
My feet are on hot coals,
Jumping from shore to shore.

I wrote this in Singapore airport whilst waiting for the plane back to Taiwan, about ten years ago. It's still hard for me to grasp that I have been Taiwan over 15 years now. Last month, I took the children home to my parents' place for five weeks. I got to celebrate my first birthday with my parents in 20 years. Having left home at 17 to attend university, and then coming to Taiwan at 21, birthday celebrations at home just didn't work in with the schedule. I have to say, it was very nice celebrating with my parents. It just deepened the feeling of being split between two places, though. The children's desire to stay and play in New Zealand didn't help the tearing of the heart when stepping onto the plane at the end of the trip.

We've been back in Taipei almost a week. It's OK. It's just, sometimes you hope things change a little and you come back to new and exciting possibilities. So far, it hasn't been like that. We are still split between my inlaws' place and our cottage, and my business is still in need of attention. I still need to get into exercise and general healthy living and eating. There was no magic CHANGE FAIRY waving her wand while I was away. And, my heart hasn't all come with me this time. Maybe it will catch up and love Taipei again in a little while.

Dancing, Traveling, Rambling

2010-04-24T19:27:00.000-07:00

Sitting here at the computer, listening to "Rave Anthems", put on by DJ Kyle, looking out at the hills, and drinking a nice cup of coffee, with sounds of Hannah and Kyle playing drifting down the stairs, I think this defines "Nice Family Sunday". Richard is silent, as through all of this, he is trying to pretend he gets to sleep in. Anyway, I am going to try and sneak in few minutes' worth of updates before chaos inevitably overtakes the day.

Kyle is still taking dance class. Recently, he has been reluctant to go to the class, but he still enjoys it during the actual class time. On Friday, the head teacher had a chat with him and found out that he finds some of the stretching difficult, and that he wants to learn some MANLY dance actions. So, yesterday, I took him to the school's hip-hop class. Wow! I havent' seen Kyle so high since we attended the insanely intense Gymboree exercise class when he was a year old. (His little friend got so overstimulated that he passed out halfway through the 50-minute class, and my friend and I had ringing ears for a couple of hours after the class.) He would do the actions, run to the side and do a somersault or some other move he had learned in other dance classes, then come back and continue. Even during break, he was dancing around. The poor teacher came out of the class in quite a sweat. The moms said they had never seen the teacher so excitable. Kyle was happy all through the day, dancing and laughing right through to bedtime. Actually, Kyle is too young to attend that class but we wanted to show him that guys dance and guys can teach, and that after you learn the basics, you don't necessarily have to become a ballet dancer. He told the teachers he wants to continue with dance class now.

When everyone came out of class, one of the girls told everyone, "好憐憫,清松要去紐西蘭找老婆". I thought a long time and then realised he meant, "找外婆"
(He said, "I am going to NZ to find a wife." He meant, "I am going to NZ to see my grandmother.")

You can see some information about Kyle's dance school here:
http://www.wenindance.url.tw/en/about.htm

Hannah is one smart little cookie. She has an answer for everything, in both Chinese and English. And, she knows what she wants. On Friday, we had her gymnastics class. Half-way through, she wet her pants. I only had a skirt for her, and a pair of Kyle's underpants. I knew before I offered them to her that she would not readily accept it. She flat-out refused to wear them, and I refused to let her do tumbling without pants, so she gave up that and our Friday lunch together, to go back to grandma's and get her own clothes. Going out yesterday, she had to change her whole outfit because she didn't have a jacket to match her skirt. At least she can dress and undress herself, so I just let her change, as long as she puts everything else away. Hannah is ready for school, and I am looking forward to letting her go to daily kindergarten in September. It will be great for her to have some new friends her age to play with every morning.

We are leaving for New Zealand early May. We looked at Jetstar but the ordeal of booking over the phone and trying to work out how to get there was too much, and we ended up going with Air New Zealand. The travel agent I used is the first that has given me great service, and fast, for a long time. Their information:
http://www.martin.com.tw/ (Zora is the agent that helped me out.) They are the agent Singapore Airlines recommends to you if you call their Taipei office.

We've been reading some great books lately. One that has helped get the kids thinking about life balance and other habits is "The Seven Habits of Happy Kids" . It's fun to refer to the characters and ideas in the book rather than just nagging the kids to do exercise, turn off the computer, and so on.

Well, the CD has finished and dirty laundry is calling!

Easter?

2010-04-04T06:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, I admit it, I am really really really REALLY lazy when it comes to holidays like Easter and Halloween. I just couldn't muster up energy to find chocolate eggs, decorating kits, and so on for my kids. I gave them a candy and made them papaya milk, and that is the extent of my Easter celebrating. Maybe it's because it wasn't that big of a deal for us growing up anyway, and then there is the whole WORK side of finding things for the holiday. We did get a couple of books out from the library to read about Easter. Hannah had two fillings on Wednesday, so I also figure the less chocolate she has sticking to her teeth, the better.

I have spent the day trying to find out about jetstar and other cheap flight options to New Zealand. I've read some NASTY reviews of jetstar, so if you have something positive to say, please let me know! The tickets are a third less than the other airlines, and if you take the view "you get what you pay for", it should be OK, right?

On Friday night, we went to a wedding celebration at gardenmall, which you can read about on my other blog (http://www.kidzone-tw.blogspot.com/). Here some pics of Kyle and Hannah, dressed in their flowergirl/pageboy clothing from the week before's wedding:

With the changing seasons comes the time of friends moving on. This week, I have found out three lovely women and their families are moving early/mid June. It's getting harder to deal with as time goes by. It takes a year or so to get to know people, and most move on after two years. Just long enough to form friendships but not long enough to really enjoy that friendship after you form it. The nature of the expat community in Taiwan is, most expat women stay two or three years then move on. It's really hard work to stay motivated to meet new people when they move away again so soon. But, with somewhat different philosophies toward child-rearing, and probably life in general, its also difficult to develop meaningful relationships with Taiwanese moms. I mean, I know some lovely local women, but there is some fundamental difference that forms a barrier in total understanding. I do have some great friends who are not going anywhere soon, but I know they feel the same way about our social circle.

I've been updating my http://www.kidzone-tw.blogspot.com/ blog, so if you are in taiwan and looking for child-oriented things to do, take a look.

How to enjoy life

2010-03-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

Kyle doing some reading puzzles in the bath.

Hannah draws herself and her brother walking in a magic park.

Riding a bike together at a friend's house.

Gift basket for Taiwan TV celebrity "Ding Ning", to celebrate birth of her little girl.

http://www.littlewonders.com.tw/

Link to the new-look site for my online business.

More of Kyle's Art

2010-03-03T19:07:00.000-08:00

This is a self-indulgent post, sharing more of Kyle's art.

Yuan Hsiao Jie - Lantern Festival

2010-03-01T07:41:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, we attended a celebration for "Yuan Hsiao Jie" (known as the Lantern Festival), which marks the 15th day of the Lunar New Year. The area where our cottage is invited everyone to make little dumplings, sing kareoke, light fireworks, watch a show, drink and eat, and enter a prize draw. We arrived on time at 4pm, which meant the kids and I got to help out with the dumplings, and Richard got to sing before the crowds arrived.

Here are the kids with our neighbor and her daughter (next to Kyle), rolling the dumplings. You are supposed to put the balls into the basket in the front of the picture and roll them in tapioca flour, but as we had so many, that step was finally skipped. As you can see, Kyle saw it as a chance to roll some interesting shapes. I think he was making a robot in this picture.

During the festivities, I think we met half of Kyle's prospective schoolmates. So far, his first grade class has enrolment of 6 kids including him. The parents told me it's fantastic, as the teacher knows each of the kids very well. The children we met yesterday from the school really looked out for each other. Having only 90 kids in the school will at least mean everyone will know all about me within a day or so. It gets old explaining to kids where I am from, day after day, when I pick up Kyle at his current school.

I have a great video of Hannah working to throw the unrolled balls to us for rolling, but I can't figure out how to load it...

On Saturday, I took Hannah to my friend's wedding. Hannah insisted on taking her crown, and waited for the bridal march before putting it on:

Serious case of red-eye, there, and a mouthful of candy. Quite the stylist, she is wearing her Pumpkin Patch floral skirt and a t-shirt that says "Swiss Pretty Miss" and boasts a dancing cow. Guess the last owner was from Switzerland.

It was really good to attend this wedding, as I got to see friends from my SPIN days. I hadn't caught up with them since I had Kyle and really miss them. Now they starting their own families, we might be able to meet up more often in kid-friendly places, who knows?

Today, Kyle was in school and I took Hannah to Ren-Ai Park in Yung-Ho to see the lantern display, and tried to find the Museum of World Religions. Of course with my sense of direction, I failed to find the museum, but we did manage to visit a couple of bookstores and have a chat with a teashop owner and a Filipino nanny working inYung-Ho. With temperature up to the high '20's (celsius), it was a great day for just wandering around.

My baby's first jeans

2010-02-14T05:14:00.000-08:00

Here is my "little baby", so grown up in her first jeans.

I hadn't realised she had grown so much! Here she is in a pair of jeans I picked up from our playgroup rummage sale and a top a mom gave a friend when she left the country, along with a pair of day-market shoes. Stylin'! Kyle is in his All Black pants and skateboarding shirt. Can you tell they dressed themselves?

It's Chinese New Year's Day. Last night we had the New Year dinner with Richard's parents. Most of friends get emotionally ready for the big dinner with family at this time of year. Our dinner is actually quieter, as Lisa and family go down South for the week. We have relative calm, which suits me, as I am not one to really get into tradition like Christmas of this NewYear thing.

Today, I took pictures of some of Kyle's art. This is from last year, when he was four to four-and-a-half. I hope he will get back into it someday as I really enjoy looking at his work.

Flowers. You can see a smudge in the center. Kyle bumped it by mistake, but decided it was fine like that.

Cat on the Roof: They read a Chinese story in the class, then drew their own interpretation.

ER and Plastc Surgery

2010-02-10T09:23:00.000-08:00

So, here I am, at Chung-Gung hospital in Ba-du, waiting for Richard to have his thumb saved. It's just the beginning of a two to three hour wait while he is in surgery. When Richard called from the basement this afternoon, "Katrina, we need to go to the hospital," I didn't think too much about it. He didn't sound like he was too much pain, there was very little blood and he walked up to the neighbor to ask him to move Richard's van for us so I could drive out. We left the lights on and a chicken in the oven. Six and half hours later, Richard is probably getting a steel pin in his left thumb or maybe having part of it amputated, the kids are at the grandparents', and the chicken is being eaten by the neighbors.

Richard says he cannot remember what happened exactly, just that the bandsaw was higher than he should have left it and he must have reached over it. I had suggested he wear protective metal gloves or put a cover over the saw, but up until now it had been fine. NZ Health and Safety officers would have palpatations if they saw the kind of safety gear used (or not) here in Taiwan. What can you do? At least the health care here is fast. We came to the ER and stayed here until Richard's breakfast had digested and they found a surgeon to operate. I am not sure if other countries could boast such efficiency. It's Sunday night and I am the only one waiting in the surgery waiting room.

There may not be many foreigners turning up in this branch of Chung-Gung. I say this because I have been "hello" 'd several times already, and just now had a man sit down beside me and look at me for a few minutes before stating, "bye bye" and leaving. The staff have been very nice so far. The great thing about hospitals in Taiwan is, you will always find someone who speaks English.

*In Taiwan, you need to have someone in the hospital to look after you, as there is nobody to look after the basic needs of patients (toilet, food, drink, nose-blowing...) If your family does not have someone available to stay fulltime, you will try to hire a 24-hour assistant to stay with the patient.

***This was written on Sunday night. It's now Thursday. Richard had cut through bone, nerve, vein, tendon. The plastic surgeon put it back on, with a pin in the thumb that will come out in a month. The damage is about 5cm in length, and when you think of the size of a thumb, that is quite a wound. We have to watch for infection, and he starts rehab/physio on Friday. Just a FYI, the whole thing including a night in hospital cost just over 4,000TWD (about 200NZD). I get to show my sense of duty and love by showering him and helping dress the wound.

And the neighbors really enjoyed the chicken :)

Insomnia

2010-02-02T09:42:00.000-08:00

Over my years in Taiwan, I have had periods of time where I just can't/won't sleep until the depths of the night. I used to think this was particular to me, but have discovered that many expats in Taiwan suffer the same "problem". I don't know if it's the environment, or if it's something about the kinds of people who come to Taiwan and stay here. Because, over time I have found a large number of my friends are quite hyperactive or at least with overactive minds. This trait may be what makes Taiwan attractive to us, or what allows (or compels us) to stay here. On nights like this, I remember things like my dear friend Brian telling me how he thinks I would make a great smoker, and that it might temper my need to move and do things. And times when I would roam the streets at three or four in the morning, just unable to settle and not ready for the calm of the apartment. When I think of things like this, I kind of congratulate myself on the fact I have managed to live in a Taiwanese family for several years, with the boundaries imposed that really make it impossible to release much of the nervous tension that builds up from being in a pre-defined environment. Very recently, I have had the urge to write again, and to create. That feeling is like a ball inflating in my chest, being held down my the weight of something similar to water, yet thicker and darker. I have the desire, but no project, and as yet no creature has shown its face as a subject. Being stuck in this whirlpool of threatened unreleased energy brings a shadow to sleep and makes the bed rather unwelcoming. As my rather insightful father once said, "Katrina, boredom seems to create a dangerous situation for you."

Educating the children

2010-01-22T20:29:00.000-08:00

Richard and I have been considering where to put Kyle when he starts first grade in September. We are lucky enough to have choices, and late last year we went to see the school down the road from our cottage. To our surprise, their preschool won the best preschool in Taiwan award last year through the Ministry of Education, and their elementary school seems to be quite progressive, as well as having small numbers in each class, their own kitchen on school campus, and finishing at 3:20 instead of 4pm every day. Even better, this school does not need you to have household registration* in the area, so anyone can attend the school. So, Kyle and Hannah can try the school out and I can try out living at the cottage full-time.

*Taiwan has a household registration system, where citizens need to register themselves in an area. This affects where you go to school, what benefits you have, and what area you can vote in. If you are a foreigner on an ARC, your children can attend any public school without this limitation, and some schools are not limited by the household registration due to low roll numbers.

Every Tuesday and Friday, I spend an hour with a group of moms whose kids are in Kyle's dance class. All eight of them lament the amount of homework kids have, the long hours in school, and the pressure to perform put on their kids. It is very interesting for me to join their discussions, as it really crushes all the assumptions we made as English teachers in the private language school system. Having kids and putting them in school has thankfully opened up access to a whole other group of parents in Taiwan. Reading foreign-contributed forums in Taiwan, I realise that as English teachers or just in our daily lives as expats, the limited contact we have with particular groups of people really encourage us to make unfair assumptions. This two hours a week with the group of moms is both refreshing and educational. If your kids are in classes, I really encourage you to get to know the parents that are waiting for their kids there. It can really change your perspective.

A couple of weeks ago I witnessed the unfortunate death of a young motorcyclist in Muzha. He had one of those silly little hats that they can use as helmets here, and he hit the ground face-first. Stuck in traffic, we saw them covering him up before clearing the road. I did some online searching about local safety concerns, and found some interesting statistics about road-deaths. There are indeed local groups also trying to educate young people, but it really doesn't seem to be enough. One of the concerning statistics was that 3 children every day sustain serious head injuries due to lack of appropriate seatbelts or carseats, and most of those are in the five-to-ten year old group. It's extremely difficult to change people's views on the full seat-belt and/or booster seat benefits as opposed to the lap belt. Even educated people who have been overseas maintain that a lap-belt is enough, even though there is so much evidence to show the spinal and brain damage caused to children when there is a crash or emergency-stop with a lap-belt in use. Children cannot brace themselves at all and they invariably hit their head on their knees or fly out of the belt. With all the high-way driving we do, it is really an issue for me. If we have this knowledge, isn't it our responsibility to protect our children?

Anyway, now I am trying to compile some information about proper helmet use and seatbelt use, to be passed on to teenagers and parents. If you know of any great information that could be used in print, please let me know!

Unoriginal Thinking

2009-12-31T16:27:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, a friend of mine in Japan posted on Facebook that his fantastic Kanji flaschard teaching products are being digitally reproduced from his site, without permission, by someone. Max and his partner have spent thousands of hours developing these products for sale. (As an aside, if you are going to Tokyo, you MUST consider their Tokyo Tours downloads, they will make Tokyo so much more interesting!

Here is the original site: http://www.whiterabbitpress.com/

Having been a victim of this kind of thing several times over the past few years with my site http://www.littlewonders.com.tw/, and having had product and product images, descriptions and so on taken by both indivduals selling online and registered companies, I want to remind people to keep their eyes open to such things if they start creating content or product of any kind.

Here is an image Richard made a few months ago. On the left is my daughter, modelling the Swedish-made Imse Vimse swimwear I import. On the right is Hannah again, totally photoshopped by a Chinese manufacturer of "Pingu" (not the licensed one) swimsuits. If you see this picture used anywhere, please let me know, as we are still looking for them, all over Asia...

School Christmas Party

2009-12-31T16:05:00.000-08:00

It seems that Christmas Dress Up has become something quite popular in Taiwan schools. Several of my friends have also posted fun pictures of their children dressed up for the Christmas Parade. Of course, Kyle's school had this party again this year. Kyle wanted to be Spiderman again, and I was really happy with that because we have a costume already. His teachers would not let him be Spiderman, as he has dressed up like that several times in the past year. So, Kyle and I got together to make:

Christmas Cookie Monster!

Here he is with Grandpa.

The teacher congratulated Kyle on this great new idea and introduced him as "Cookie Monster for World Peace". Just like last year, 60 children got on the stage one by one to introduce themselves. This took over an hour and a half. As Kyle was no. 11, it was a bit of an exercise in patience for Hannah and I to stay there and watch all the other kids. But we did make it to the end, and were rewarded with...

The biggest sugar fest I have ever seen. Honestly, I wish I had videod the explosion. 60 children descend upon tables loaded up with giant candy bags, cookies, sugar-covered crackers, cakes... I was the only parent who had brought in non-sweets. And I only bought a little plate, not giant containers.

This was my offering. Mini-sandwiches, cut from large ones at the bakery. Total cost 90TWD. I got exclaims of wonder at my imagination and skill. Hmmm.

The feast went on for 20 minutes, with children stuffing and hoarding as much sugar as they could. My sandwiches were eaten fairly quickly, too, though. At 11:30 the teacher announces: Everyone stop eating in five minutes... It's time for LUNCH! I nearly fainted at the thought of those kids trying to eat rice, meat and vegetables on top of what they had just devoured. I was so glad I had gone there to watch, as I also observed Kyle and made sure he didn't get too carried away. Actually, he didn't and I was really impressed with how little junk he ate.

I think was surprises me is the fact people still think buying the giant buckets of jellies and candy is cheaper or easier than buying sandwiches or other things from the bakery. In Taiwan, the bakery has a wonderful selection of things you can pick up really cheaply, and they even supply plates and things if you ask. Some parents of kids in Kyle's class have told me, they don't take any notice of how much candy etc the kids eat, and were surprised on the zoo trip that I stopped Hannah eating all the candy that was handed out, because I wanted her to eat lunch. Hannah complained, and they told me they just didn't like to hear their kids complain. Bet their kids are glad they are not my kids!

The Weekend Before Christmas

2009-12-20T17:53:00.001-08:00

It has been such a fantastic weekend for me! I have seen several people from “long ago” and enjoyed catching up with them very much.

Last week, I got a facebook message from an old AIESEC friend of mine. Her father was my boss during my traineeship in Taiwan, and her University was my sponsoring Local Committee. For non-AIESECers, this means, I came to Taiwan on an AIESEC scholarship in 1995, and I worked for a company here for 18 months as a trainee. Michelle’s father was the manager of KONE (Taiwan), and was assistant to his secretary. Chinese Cultural University was my sponsoring committee, and Michelle, Besta, and Jerry did a fantastic job of making us feel welcome.

Michelle invited me to their LC’s 18th anniversary. Richard was kind enough to come along with me, which I thought was very brave. I did warn him they would probably do some kind of chant or dance, and the current members surely did, as soon as we arrived. But it was truly wonderful for me to attend this event. Firstly, I got to catch up with Michelle and Besta. Secondly, seeing those current AIESEC members, I could feel their motivation and inspiration. For example, one young guy works part-time for the Taipei City Govt, as he is getting practical experience whilst studying. And I also talked to two recent graduates, still so excited by life after university. I really miss the mentoring and sharing of ideas like we used to do in AIESEC. No wonder so many of us do return to act as alumni and advisors once we get to a certain age or level of experience.

Then, this morning, we attended the Taipei City Playgroup Christmas party. This is another chance to catch up with people I may hardly ever see during the year, even though I enjoy their company very much. We had about 50-60 families attend this year. Again, Richard was kind enough to come to the event, and to wait till well after the end whilst I helped Jennifer clean up. Actually, Richard knows a few of the dads in the group, and they did sneak off to the car for beers during the activity. All in the Christmas spirit!

Kyle was really looking forward to this event, and he enjoyed it a lot, getting into the singing, and waiting for Santa with great anticipation. Hannah waited for Santa. She wasn’t into the singing so much. Kyle got a Spiderman toy that spits out goo, it is a very cool and messy toy that didn’t fit with Richard’s idea of what a toy should do. The goo was confiscated… I passed it to my dear friend Angie, who is keeping it so we can goo up her house on Friday. Hannah got a Littlest Petshop parlor, so she can play with the little toy puppies inside. Kyle also liked this toy. He loves his models, and I would love to find him some small toy soldiers or similar to play with. Kyle’s friend Joseph was playing “weird superheroes” with the older boys and Kyle wasn’t into that, but he did find his other friend, Ian, who is more into cars and trucks like Kyle. Hannah was playing with the girls, and even gave Angie a big cuddle, which was great as I was also trying my best to help out and talk to people I haven’t seen in a long time.

Near the end of the day, a dad came over and asked me, “Do I know you from your youth?” I quickly realized he was a coworker from when I worked at a club called ALE, way back in 1995! It turns out Neil is married to a playgroup member, Berta. It was fantastic to see him again, and it brought back more great memories of my first two years in Taiwan, going to the beach on the East Coast, surfing, swimming, late-night barbecues, leading tours overseas… I cannot complain that life in Taiwan has been boring that is for sure!

After the party and cleanup, we headed up to Jerry and Brenda’s for pizza and drinks. I designated myself as driver for our family, letting Richard relax and have a few beers. I figured, after attending all these events with me over the weekend, he deserved it. Once again, we got to meet some more wonderful people and their children. Their friends had been at the Christmas party but I hadn’t really had time to talk to them. It was so nice to be with couples and let our kids play with others in their friends’ home. Jerry and Brenda are mom and dad to Ian and Kelly, who Kyle and Hannah like playing with. Jerry mentioned a stint he had on TV some years back, and I clearly remember seeing him on that TV show. It was funny because II “never” watched that gameshow and just happened to see it the night he was on. Just one more fun memory to add to the list from the weekend!

So, with all these year-end reunions, I really feel 2010 has great promise for me. Frankly, 2009 has been a little dull and a bit of hard work, but it’s winding up very nicely for a social Gemini like myself.

The fishbone

2009-12-19T00:02:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was just another Friday - getting weekend orders out, trying to catch up on emails, then picking up Kyle and taking him to dance class. While Kyle was doing his bridges and tumbles (Chinese traditional dance move introduction), I ran off to "do a Santa", picking up a few presents for the kids and dropping them into the back of the car before going back to wait for Kyle.

The other moms and I were watching the kids on the TV monitor and chatting about gifts we have had (or not) from our husbands when my phone rang. It was my motherinlaw in distress. In the background I could hear Hannah screaming. MIL asked me to go home as Hannah had seemed to have a fish bone stuck and was now very upset. We got Kyle out of the dance class and got him dressed ready for the sprint home. Kyle asked all the other moms, is my sister dying? The nice mom helping him get dressed reassured him, and we grabbed our umbrellas and headed out the door.

Luckily, it's only five minutes at a run back to the house. Kyle was running and grumping, "How dare grandma do that to my cute sister. If she dies I will be really mad at grandma. I will tell her she can't do that again! Oh my knees are breaking but my sister is dying. Why did she feed her BONES!?!?!" I tried to tell him that grandma surely didn't feed Hannah bones on purpose and I was sure Hannah was running round or something to have this happen. Anyway, my dear boy ran all the way for the first time ever. All to save his little sister.

We got to the door and Richard was there, taking Hannah downstairs. Kyle was relieved to see Hannah actually breathing and just crying, no longer screaming. I got in the van with Richard and Hannah and Kyle went upstairs. We took Hannah to the doctor to get her throat checked. They obviously weren't too concerned, as we had to wait in the line like everyone else. I guess the fact Hannah got herself a magazine and lay on the floor with it did show she wasn't at death's door. Her throat was fine, no bleeding or scratches. Hannah got a good scream or two in when the doctor put some medicine on the red spot just to make sure there would be no infection. I called the dance school to let them know all was well, then we drove back around the corner home.

When I asked grandma whether Kyle had told her off, she laughed and replied, "No, he came in and saw no other kids here, and stated: Great, I am alone, nobody will fight with me!" So much for the brotherly concern. As it turns out, Hannah had been running around during dinner. I hope that is a lesson she will remember for at least a few days!

It's Not Really Winter

2009-12-12T23:28:00.000-08:00

We are up at the cottage, enjoying the mid-20's temperature and clear sky. December is really my favorite month in Northern Taiwan. It's generally dry and the temperature is suitable for wearing pretty much anything you like. I really wish I could bottle up the atmosphere of the cottage today. I could save it up and use it when we are stuck in the city.

A few days ago, I took Hannah out to the fabric market, and we picked up a box full of wooden beads, some string, and some felt. The kids have spent the past day making artistic paper clips and bracelets, and sorting the beads according to shape and color. I really should do more of this kind of craft with the children. We did also make up the edible playdough Kyle was given as a gift of thanks at the Hyatt's Christmas event. That was a bit of a disaster, with the kitchen being temporarily covered in colored dough. The craft was much more successful.

Richard is down in the basement, finishing off the drawers and boxes for our kitchen unit. It's really amazing to see how he works, as there are no plans, just ideas in his head, and then suddenly we have fantastic cupboards designed to fit everything almost perfectly.

As for me, I tried my hand at filo pastry at lunch. I made chicken and filo pastry, with cottage cheese and other bits and pieces as a sauce. Despite making up double the needed lot of garlic butter, and putting holes in several sheets of filo, I actually managed to make something quite tasty.

Despite the lack of general care, our lemon trees are still alive. The basil and mint is still surviving, too. I am still trying to work out exactly what is going to grow in our garden. Sage and oregano both died. I think it was just too wet and then too hot during the middle of the day. It's really hard to stay motivated when so many things have wilted, and when there is a deck chair and full fridge to tempt me!

Yesterday, we put the Christmas tree up. Hannah woke me up at 6am, announcing sadly, "Santa didn't come!" I tried to explain the concept of Christmas Day but I don't think she really understands the idea of waiting. We also went online and wrote letters to Santa. Kyle is waiting for his reply email. Maybe not quite the same as writing them on paper, but Hannah can almost type her own name now.

Roughing It

2009-12-07T06:54:00.000-08:00

This weekend, Richard decided we would pack up and head down to Miao Li County to stay with his friend who owns a car repair shop in Taipei. His friend had told us that their house had "Everything you need". I really should have followed my instinct and packed the kitchen sink, but ever-optimistic as I am, I took 2 sleeping bags, 2 towels, and a change of clothes for myself and the two kids. And I threw in four toothbrushes and some antiseptic cream just to be on the safe side. Packed and ready, we headed on the road trip.

We left at 11:30, right before lunch. Luckily, I had packed bananas for the kids, as the trip was not just over an hour, but almost two and a half. We arrived just before 2pm. When we got to the door, Lao Jiao welcomed us with some oranges from his orchard. Richard found some herbs outside and made up a tea for the kids. Then we went on a hike up the hills behind the house. It was just lovely, with views of beautiful trees, orchards, and a clear river flowing along below the road. Richard and Lao Jiao picked some wild vegetables. Kyle and Hannah played with the flowers growing along the side of the road, and Hannah and I kicked stones down the hill. Then, the kids and I walked with Lao Jiao's girlfriend to worship the Local Earth God at the little temple. About six o'clock, we had a dinner. Richard handled the lack of meat very well, I thought. We had a great variety of locally harvested and wild vegetables. The children really enjoyed it, especially Kyle the vegetarian-in-training.

After dinner, it was decided that we would head on the "Short trip" to the hotsprings. The kids were excited to be going. Unfortunately, the trip to the springs was an hour, and both kids passed out in the van before we go there. There were no rooms available at the "purest" hot spring resort, and we couldn't find anything to satisfy the budget or quality standard. The private rooms were 300TWD per room, which is more than we pay in Taipei. So, we headed back to the house to sleep, arriving after 10pm.

The children didn't really wake up even as we moved them into the room to sleep. It was really freezing in the room, and I realised I hadn't packed pillows or enough blankets. So, Kyle was dressed in all his clothes and then had my sleeping bag, and Hannah and I shared the bedding. It had been a long time since I had last felt that chill right through to my bones. Hannah curled into the fetal position, stating, "I can't cuddle you, mummy. I am TOO COLD!" So I gave her another of the sleeping bags. About 4am, Richard came in with another blanket for us, but it really was a little late for me.

It was all OK, though, upon waking up to the glorious sun shining on the mountains and trees. And a cup of Lao Jiao's freshly brewed coffee, taken outside in the sunshine, sure helped, too. We had a breakfast of rice porridge and vegetables, then headed off to see a friend who was harvesting rice.

When we arrived at the plot of land, most of the rice had been harvested, but the children got to see the machine in action. They also got to play in the remaining stalks in the rice paddies, building castles and throwing them at some older kids. The hostess had prepared a few plates of food for us, and we chatted with the other people who had come along. One of the women there is a member of the Taiwan bird society, and gave Kyle and Hannah a book each: 100 common birds of Taiwan. It's bilingual, and priced at only a little over 100TWD - something I have been looking for for several years. They run free classes over the holidays, and I hope I can take the kids to an outing or two during winter break.

Hannah and Kyle also got to pick sunflowers and other plants around the rice paddies. Then, we headed to Yinge, where the Ceramics museum and the old street for buying ceramics is. It's hard to believe I have been in Taiwan for 15 years, and that was my first trip to Yinge. After walking round for some time, Richard bought some bowls for our cottage. Kyle was a bit upset, having been "tricked". "You said you were taking us to PLAY! We are only buying things. This is not fun. This is not playing!" I spent some time explaining that they really are lucky enough to do all these things and not go to any school on the weekend, but I don't think Kyle is fully convinced that we were showing them a good time!

About 6:30 on Sunday, we came back to the cottage. As the kids had not brushed their teeth or had showers for two days, they were delighted to shower at our home. When the soap was washed off, Kyle let out a big sigh of contentment. And, it's the first time I think Hannah has volunteered to brush her own teeth!

And there it was, our weekend adventure over. Gotta love it!