静水盈盈

More Thoughts on Summer Break

If you took time to read Laura's book report on "Song of the Strangers" (Thank You!!), You probably remember she mentioned about her take on summer break. 

"It’s summer break. If I were in China right now, I would probably be in Summer school. However, I am in America. In America summer is more relaxing. But when my mom says, “It’s time to do some math!” I naturally just go do the math worksheet. When I’m done with it, I feel a sense of accomplishment that I learned something new or strengthened some skills. In my mind, without a good balance between relaxing and learning in the summer, I feel the summer’s not complete."

My girls have been spending their summers with endless days of sleeping in, playing and swimming. Summer learning hasn't happen daily. It never did. But Laura has learned to make it such a natural part of her summer.

Just two days earlier, I read an article called "This Is Your Brain on Summer" on New York Times by Jeff Smink, the vice president of policy for National Summer Learning Association. In the article, Jeff writes about how summer off is one of the most important cause of underachievement in American schools. If students are not engaged in learning during summer, the loss on skills (especially in math and reading) is real.

Summer learning is a wonderful idea, if carried out in the right way. But I always believe it is the programs during the school year that need to be fixed. Only when students have very engaging and challenging programs during school days, then can we talk about the break, the real relaxation of the summer.   

I felt so relived after reading Laura's writing. It's nice to know that she shared the same idea with me. As a Chinese Mom raising daughters in America, I feel I'm facing as many challenges as my daughters. For Laura, she feels she needs to find that "right balance"; for me, it's not just about the balance. It's more about the right way, the better way. 

Song of the Stranger --- A Book Report

by Laura

Song of the Stranger is about Karen, a thirteen-year-old girl who’s disapproving grandmother(Obasan) comes to visit without much warning. Obasan always picks on Karen, saying she’s a rude and spoiled girl without Japanese culture. Karen is Japanese-American, but she doesn’t know a lot of Japanese. Karen is yearning for Obasan to leave, but when that day comes, Obasan announces that she is going to take Karen with her to Japan, ONLY to fulfill a deceased family member’s will. Karen thinks it’s the end to her blissful summer, or is it?

I found this book at the book giveaway at our local library after our Creative Writing class. The books on the shelf were free and you could take as many as you wished. 

When I saw the spine, I thought it was some Drama/mystery story.  Much to my surprise, on the cover was an asian girl and an old woman. I could tell the older woman was Japanese by looking at her kimono.  

I started reading the book the next day. It was awesome! Very well written. I could feel the way Karen felt and experience her thoughts. I felt lonely and angry when she did and I felt happy and hopeful when she did. Each character had it’s own personality, which made me look forward to each character’s conversation. It was written so well and truthful that you could have thought it was more like a memoir, not a fictional tale.

I read what was on the back. It turned out that Karen, the girl on the cover was indeed Japanese. She’s kind of like me, except I’m Chinese-American. I was born in America, but my ethnic roots are from China. Some people describe Chinese-Americans as Twinkies because our skin color is yellow on the outside but we are white on the inside. 

Some Chinese-Americans feel they are 100% American. They do everything the American way. However, I feel I am a little bit of both --- part yellow and part white, not exactly a Twinkie. My parents speak Chinese at home and I do too. At home, my language switch automatically turns to Chinese. When I was small, my mom would read me chinese stories and teach me Chinese writing. When I reach school age, I go to American school and learn american history and politics. I get the opportunity to experience different ways of doing things. At home, I eat Chinese food (of course, if dinner options include lasagna or pizza, which do happen sometimes when my mom runs out of ideas, I would go nuts!) Being chinese-american means going to Chinese school, writing chinese with mom, and most of all, having parents that push me TONS to do my best.

It’s summer break. If I were in China right now, I would probably be in Summer school. However, I am in America. In America summer is more relaxing. But when my mom says, “It’s time to do some math!” I just go do the math worksheet. When I’m done with it, I feel a sense of accomplishment that I learned something new or strengthened some skills. In my mind, without a good balance between relaxing and learning in the summer, I feel the summer’s not complete. My parents are helping me even it out, with summer meaning relaxing, swimming, doing hobbies, and also learning new things so that when school starts again, I will feel prepared. I feel that’s the right balance. But sometimes it can be hard to find the right place to draw the line. That was why I thought it would be interesting to learn about another asian-american girl about my age. I’ve never really seen a book with quite a topic like this. 

After I read the book, I thought this book was really good and well written. The only disappointment I had was that the storyline didn’t really stick to the summary on the back. The summary on the back was talking about how different cultures can interfere with each other. That was suppose to be why Obasan was so disapproving of Karen. Instead, the story was more about the relationship between Karen and her Obasan and about Karen’s adventures in Japan.

It was a good summer read. Learning how Karen deals with the problem may help me when I’m in the similar situation later on. I mean, who knows?

 

Panera Lamp

Laura's piano lesson usually lasts an hour. I usually take Sophie to the nearby Panera Bread during the lesson time.

Sophie would spend time drawing, painting, cutting or reading with me. We have a green plastic pencil box which was generously "handed down" by Laura, and we call it our "treasure box", in which we keep pencils, markers, crayons, erasers, stamps, stickers, scissor, tape, and even a couple of tootsie rolls. It always keeps her(& me) busy.

Today, she saw the lamp hanging from the ceiling, then she declared, "Mama, Let's make the lamp!"

I looked up. It's beautiful paper lamp of simple and contemporary design. We both liked it. I remember a few weeks earlier, Sophie did a drawing of the lamp. (I don't think I still have the copy)

"OK! Let's see what we need." It wasn't very hard to find all the materials we needed: a couple of paper napkins, a few stirring straws, scissor from our treasure box, and some label stickers. The tape would come in hand, but unfortunately we found we were out of it.

Then we started cutting and taping. The manager actually came to our table twice to see what's going on. He was very curious about what we were making. 

( 1- materials; 2- basic frame; 3- cutting; 4- taping; 5. done! 6. Mini Lamp!)

It didn't take very long for us to get it done. She's very quick with scissor and tape. The lamp didn't turn out very presentable, as you could clearly tell from the picture, but that didn't stop Sophie from showing it to everyone around.

She was happy. I was happier. That's the way it goes. Always!

Little Heart Warmer

Another busy summer day. Girls finally fell asleep. I dried the last dish, swept the kitchen floor, blew out the candle and was on my way to the bedroom when I saw some underwear neatly folded on the sofa. Those were Sophie's underwear.

Then I remember earlier today, while I was folding the laundry, Sophie said she wanted to do it too. I set aside some clothes and said,"OK, I put some of your underwear on sofa, if you're done playing, you can fold them." "OK, Mom!" She cried from her playroom. She could play with her dolls for hours without leaving her room. Then I totally forgot about that. In the afternoon We went to pick up Laura from her camp. Then we came home. Girls played (dolls)together while I cooked the dinner. After dinner, I took them to the swimming pool. When back home, more doll play while I worked in the backyard vegetable patch. It's the only time I could go out and work in the garden. It's still over 90 degrees. 

I didn't know when she did that.

Girls were sound asleep when I came in the bedroom to put my cell phone on the night table. I tiptoed to the bathroom and on the countertop, beside the sink, my toothbrush with toothpaste ready on the rinsing cup full of water. I knew Sophie did it, again.

Last night while I was in the shower, Sophie called from the other side of the shower curtain, "Mom, for you!" Then I saw in one of her hand, a cup with water, in another hand, my purple toothbrush with toothpaste on it. Her face appeared, smiling sweetly. "Thank you so much!" I said.

I do that for girls when they're in the shower. Never have I expected Sophie would learn it, and do it for me.

 

Memory Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Nocturnal Mom Got Warning

I stay up late. 

There are always TONS OF things I'd like to do, things I need to do after girls go to bed. The quiet hours usually makes me more concentrated. A cup of homemade soy milk, a few crackers, or a sponge cake, under the warm shade of the table lamp, I really enjoy long stretch of hours all to myself.

Every night, Laura would say, "Mom, when can you go to bed?" "Mom, please go to bed early tonight!" She's my sweet daughter. And tonight, when I checked my email, I found this message:

Dear Mom, 

http://healthandfitnessnotes.com/51/sleep-what-happens-if-you-dont-get-enough.html Please read this article. I am concerned about it(you). Please consider the things noted in the article. Please sleep well. I understand you like working in the night but please don't stay up too late! As your daughter, I care very much about your health. Love, Laura First, I replied to her email, then I read the article, after that, I wrote this ( I had to do it ). And after this, I'm going straight to bed.

 

Dinner's Ready

This is our dinner for tonight. From our backyard vegetable patch, two vegetable dishes (& the tomatoes in the baked fish dish), the fish were caught early this morning (Thank you, Dad!) 

The fish turned out to be most popular tonight. Laura atefish, Sophie ate! Looks like Daddy needs to bring more fish home.