Kid photography and Home school journal

Photos by Elliot.
You start to appreciate how a 3 foot person views the world. 
 These photos take me back to when I was kid. I can remember being too small do the things I wanted to do. Frustrated because I couldn't communicate my thoughts in away as to be understood by adults. Reprimanded when I was sincerely trying to be funny and do good and mad when I was laughed at instead of taking seriously.   Our kids are blessed they have an"easy" life without too much worry and responsibility, but growing up is not devoid of trials.
 I pray that everyday I will take the opportunity to connect with my children and see life through their eyes so as to have compassion and understanding.  We have a perfect parent in God who comes to our level when we are unsophisticated,childish, and even sinful. Although I can't be perfect, I can learn from God to be slow to anger and wrath and quick to listen and just remember what it was like to not be a grown up.

No wonder he gets so bored, the kid probably can't even see out the windows!

The MTR turnstile

Elliot has walked underneath a few times, I think just because it is easier. He technically was short enough to be free a few months ago, but after age three they expect you to pay.

This is the spot where we catch the shuttle bus and where we get dropped off.  I love it when Icome down the escalator and see the shuttle just about to pull in and I hate it when I see the shuttle leaving, knowing I have a 15 minute wait. Of course we live only about a 15 minute walk from home so the option to walk is often what we choose.

The PARK-N-SHOP Grocery store

Walking home in the mild 70˚ weather is an option, not in the 90 degree, if I have frozen groceries and want them not to defrost.  It is then the time to pay the minimum taxi fee and have them take me to Parc Versailles, I have to say it Cantonese- it sounds like this
Die Yon Yoon. 
.

Upon day one of our arrival in Hong Kong the fight between the kids is who gets to push the buttons. I really thought this would stop be exciting after a week. It began when we lived on the 16th floor in Horizon Suites and has continued now that we are on the 4th floor in PV. The system which the kids worked out is Elliot pushes the button to call the elevator or lift as they are called here. Jane gets to push all the rest of the buttons. I think this is okay with him because he can't really reach all the rest of the buttons yet. The time is approaching for this system to change.

Homeschooling

It doesn't seem like it should be back to school and be fall time. It is still in the high 80's here with no signs of it slowing down. The leaves aren't turning colors and there is no crisp fall air to be felt.

Jane asked if it was fall time and I almost hesitated to say yes, our ABEKA curriculum is decorated with pumpkins and apples for the worksheets this term, but the reality of our life is palm trees and lychee fruit.

Jane's primary question during the school day- are we done yet?  There is something to be said for the classroom setting that is ruled by a clock. The kids know when they are done, they don't ask a teacher after they had lunch- are we done with school yet? I should just set up a time during the day that I know we will be done and make it the official end of the day.

A display a New Town Plaza
Homescholing is a very foreign concept to a majority of the Chinese. When I tell them we do school at home, they usually respond "oh you must be a teacher"  I don't know if it is legal for a local to homeschool their kids. There is a community of homeschoolers here but a majority are expats.

Elliot is adjusting to the more formal program I have put him on as a Pre-K student.

Teaching Robots- how nice.  I was reflecting on frustrating teaching moments and thought how nice it would be for the kids to have a switch for when I am teaching, that turns off all their emotions, rebelliousness, laziness, will-fullness,  so they simply listen and do what I say..  
Of course not really, I am not opening up the Stepford Academy anytime soon,  but sometimes the reality of being the parent and the teacher to a child can be overwhelming.
Some days it feels like a little bump in the road and we get over it and go on, other days that bump is a steep hill that we spiral down at a rapid pace.

All parents are teachers. Some might not be actually teaching their kids math concepts or doing the science experiments with them, but our kids will model what they see us do.
We teach them with our attitude toward learning, we teach them how to treat others, how to respond to hurt and failure,  Do we respect authority, obey the laws. Do we act one way in church and another outside of it? They observe and learn.
They would have to learn this from me even if they are in school all day, the fact that I teach them their grammar and about George Washington is just something a little extra I am choosing to do.

I do think I will put Jane in school next year, her personality would thrive in the social setting and I know she would be motivated to get good grades and please the teacher.  We will see what happens, but those are my thoughts.

We have  a membership to a place called Playscope.   My friend Denise who is a Hong Kong native, and my neighbor introduced me to it.
 I describe it as a mini- children's museum.  The fact it is here in Tai Po is a blessing!  The philosophy of the people who designed it is, to let kids have creative play. Give them tools and toys that let them use their imagination. The workers are great and really interact with the kids. They can play dress up and do crafts or jump on the rope web. We have really enjoyed the toy and game lending library. They even have full size play kitchens you can "check out" if you want. We enjoy getting new board games and toys. It is cheaper then spending money on games that either you find you don't like or you quickly get bored playing.
 They have a book library too.  It is an air conditioned haven in the summer. 

Playscope from outypants on Vimeo.

Bus facts and the Busy weekend

Clearwater Bay 1 from outypants on Vimeo.

I took a picture of the second beach as you can see it from the first but I am not sure it captured the contrast. It had easily 3x amount of people at it then where we were. This beach allowed the kids to wade out further in the water compared to repulse bay. I also liked how the showers were nearby to the beach area.

The video includes clips from Ma on Shan- we were invited to a birthday party from our English friends we met at Horizon Suites. We caught part of a dance exhibition at the mall . Some of the video is by the kids.















We had read in a book that Clear Water Bay first beach was a lot less crowded than the second.  So we headed out that way.


 I was unsure we would get off at the right stop as we were relying on being able to read the electronic destination sign. These signs don't always work. The destination shows up first in Chinese then in English.  If you aren't watching carefully, the English can flash when you are not looking. 
 We knew we could look for the Chinese Character for 1 in the sign if we missed it.  In spite of the crowd blocking part of it we caught the English pushed the button and made it.


One reason the first beach is less busy is due to the climb. Lots of stairs. 
 Nathan carried Elliot up most of the way on our way out. Jane who often takes the stairs while we take the escalators didn't complain to much about the long long way up.








The temp that day was 34 degrees c-- about 94 degrees F
end of July and August have had very few days below 85 degrees.
Strange for someone like me who has only known the mild summers of the Great Lakes.

Our day out at the beach ended with me suffering from what I believe was heat exhaustion. On the train home I suddenly felt like I was going to vomit and felt dizzy. When I got off the train I felt disorientated and thought for sure I was going to pass out. I would feel a little better start walking and it would hit me all over again. Three times this happened where I couldn't walk. Felt like I was going to be sick and my head was spinning. I felt so bad Nathan and the kids standing around me trying to get to me stand up. Finally we got on the shuttle bus heading for home. After about 10 seconds of sitting down on the bus I felt normal. I have never felt that bad in my whole life. I learned my lesson drink lots of water even if I don't feel that hot or thirsty.

Happenings

The pictures below were the same day we went to the Ani-con. That day we also visited the Museum of Coastal defense and Kowloon park. So nice to visit Kowloon park on a day other than Sunday. It seemed virtually empty.

The kids have been entertaining as ever the past couple of weeks .
Elliot has informed us he wants to be a pizza maker and a lifeguard when he grows up. He said he is going to be doing these things in Hong Kong- Nathan asked him what if we lived in Michigan- he said he would get on a plane and deliver us pizza.

Jane noted that she gets more toys here in Hong Kong than she did in Michigan making it a reason to live here longer. She wants to be a mom and a singer. I have found it interesting that when ever she has been asked what she has wanted to be once it was a Doctor, then a dancer she has always added next to it a mom. I hope and pray that she is blessed with a loving husband and gets that desire. I am glad she is viewing motherhood so positively. Awhile back I asked her about wanting to be a mom and the reasons, one of those reasons was " because you get to eat chocolate and stay up late" too many times coming out of her room after bed time to find mom getting into her secret stash of goodies I guess.

Embarrassing moments recently: Elliot pulling my skirt down on the MTR. This was so humiliating if you are a FB follower you know it was my status update. Not too much to explain; he was being a little whiny tired of standing on the MTR- and was pulling on my hands, I was relieving him of his grasp on my hands and he grabs my skirt as a way to help himself up. It of course was right before we got off at our stop. Granted when you live in a place with millions of people it is likely I would be forgotten even in my own town, but still the white woman who had her skirt pulled down might be more easily remembered. I didn't dare look up to see who caught it. Except of course Nathan's big grin.

exciting news: The kids watch an Internet program called Jellytelly created by Veggie tales creator Phil Vischer. I can't talk this show up enough for its quality Christian entertainment for kids and adults. Ok so mainly for kids but it has the sophisticated Veggie Tale humor that goes beyond kids.
They have a segment where a puppet gives the news and reads letters with questions from kids that watch the show. His name is Buck Denver. We sent a letter about a month ago, telling him we moved from Mi to HK and asked if there were any other kids from other places beside the US that watch Jelly Telly.. How excited were we when this letter got featured on the show this week.

other big news is we have our first scheduled visitors coming in November. Shanda and Shane- Nathan's brother and sister are coming to visit for 2 whole weeks! How good it will be to see family.

Snacks and treats

Moving Feet from outypants on Vimeo.

If you read any tour book on Hong Kong they all say that you can't talk about Hong Kong without talking about the food. You don't have to live here for long to know what the mean. The city is international so you are able to try anything. Sharing our food experiences will occur from time to time.
I wanted to take a moment to talk about the snacks and treats that have frequented our shelves the past 5 months.
I have posted about Kinder Eggs before. Chocolate shell that easily separates and has a toy inside, the toy is inside another container and you usually have to assemble it. I recently have been awarding these for verse memorization. The chocolate quality is very good and I enjoy the hazelnut Kinder Bueno candy bars myself. Think of Nutella in candy bar form..

Another treat is Mamee noodles. Basically it is uncooked ramen noodles that are primarily intended to eat uncooked as a snack. We have had them both ways and they are quite good. They are extremely messy when the kids eat them dry and I am cleaning up dried noodles for a few days after- so they don't get these too often.
We have two kinds of milk drinks we buy. Yakult and Wahaha
here is the wikipedia snippet on what is Yakult.
Yakult- is a Japanese probiotic milk-like product made by fermenting a mixture of skimmed milk with a special strain of the bacteria Lactobacillus casei Shirota. - simple definition
It is considered to be a healthier drink for the kids. It has sugar so I don't let them drink all they want.
Wahaha is a yogurt drink that Jane prefers.
My kids call these drinks Milkys


In the picture I have Mango tic-tacs. I like the flavor of Mango and here in Hong Kong you can find almost anything that will have Mango as one of the flavors. Even potato chips. My new favorite Mango product is Nestles frozen Wonder bar. It has this popsicle like outer shell that is ok but inside is a creamy mango flavored "pudding"pop like texture.



Nathan's favorite store is Okashi Land - you can find Japanese snacks and toys for sale. Nathan says his two favorite things.
Elliot calls it moomookashi. I have no idea why- but it is one of those cute things you aren't in too big of a hurry to correct. The celing to floor selection can make you fill up your wicker basket quickly. The huge selection of seaweed products usually gets passed up by us. Pocky is always a good treat and one we could find in the states. I really like the Banana chocolate flavored. Nathan recently tried carrot juice in a can from there he said it was good.

Hong Kong ani-com convention

Anicom part 1 from outypants on Vimeo.

The Comi-con was just held in San Diego this past week. We went online and looked at everyone dressed up "cosplay" as it is known. Watched some clips of the Dr. Who panel Q&A. Nathan discovered that the ani-com convention was being held in HK. We decided to venture over to Wanchai and check it out. It cost less than $10 USD for us to enter as the kids were free. Way too many people, we braved a long line to enter a store. Nathan is a fan of a Japanese manga comic called One Piece. The kids are familiar with the characters, so we bought Elliot a "Luffy" hat and Jane a blanket. We found three girls dressed up as some of the characters. Elliot was excited at first so we were going to have him take a picture with them, but he was upset that they were all girls when two of the characters are boys. So he decided not to get his picture taken. He however in his Luffy hat which surprisingly he wore all day, had his picture taken dozens of times. We didn't recognize most of the cosplay we saw walking around but it was fun to snap pictures anyway. We were concerned that their might be some racy stuff, which goes with the territory of comics but fortunately most outfits were modest and it was easy to avoid or divert our attention from any display or pictures that were less than modest. We expected more Marvel/DC comics and didn't see Yotsuba stuff ( another Manga Nathan likes) but we would have been mad at ourselves for being this close and not attending one. We got to ride on a new ferry too. So overall we were glad we went.

Summer fun!

Jane lost her tooth kind of in a violent way; she was looking at a toy a kid was playing with in the park and he pushed a button that made something pop out and got her right in the face.

Repulse Bay Beach



Typhoon Molave damage

Typhoon Elliot damage

Bike Riding Lessons from outypants on Vimeo.

With kids there is never a dull moment and kids in Hong Kong seems even more true for us. July has been eventful. We went to the sea for the first time, Jane's first grown up tooth is coming in, a level 9 Typhoon came through, Jane is now riding on two wheels, we had a bat in apartment, that I found in our kitchen sink while I was doing dishes and recently Elliot wrote on his wall - correction drew pictures on his wall. I am waiting for the first kids hair cut moment to happen any day - maybe it will pass us by may be. Poor Elliot he woke up early went straight to Nathan- daddy I got something to show you in my room wake up, it is a surprise. I even overheard him tell Nathan to close his eyes. He was so proud of his drawing, Nathan had to gently tell him that we don't write on walls and warn him that he would get disciplined if he did it again. The sad thing is I think he got the idea from a library book we checked out- there is a part where a girl writes on her wall and lies about it. I think the moral of that story went over his head. Repulse bay trip was fun. It was a different experience than we are use to at Lake Michigan. This water was about 30 degrees warmer, salty with some good size waves. Elliot was a little too familiar with them at first and I watched as he got completely swept over in a wave. Nathan says I went one way in the water and Elliot up came up on shore the other. It makes your heart race to watch your child completely overtaken by water. He talks about it as the time he rolled over in the water, with a little bit of pride in his voice. I have gotten my feet wet in salt water but never swam. Salt burns your eyes and makes you sticky- 31 years and I never knew that. The kids have been getting better in the water and love their goggles. I can't usually see their faces when we are in a pool because they are constantly going under. The typhoon happened the same day we went to Kowloon walled city. The rustling of the leaves and the branches brushing against our 4th story window kept me up until 3 am. I might have slept through it if it were not for how loud it was in our apartment. In the video you can see one of the branches breaking. A level 10 storm is considered a hurricane. So the following videos and pictures are a collection of the events described.

The Bat from outypants on Vimeo.

Beach Weekend from outypants on Vimeo.

Typhoon Molave from outypants on Vimeo.

Kowloon Walled City Park

A brief History lesson if you care to know more about background of this place...

In 1898, the New Territories were leased to the British for a term of 99 years. At first, Qing officials still continued to station in the City. In 1899, however, British troops were sent to take over the City, and the Qing officials and soldiers were expelled. The resultant vacuum of civil order from 1899 laid the seeds for the eventual deterioration of the area into a semi-lawless enclave and festering squatter slum.

During the Japanese occupation of 1941-45 the wall was torn down and the stone used to extend the nearby Kai Tak airfield. An idea of the large amount of quarried granite so gained is provided by the wall's dimensions: 15 feet wide and 13 feet high for a gross length of 2,200 feet, plus a supplementary wall which ran Great Wall-style from the northern rampart to the top of the hill which formerly overlooked the garrison.

After the war, high-rise tenements built without authority and completely lacking proper foundations mushroomed cheek by jowl over almost the whole site, and the Walled City with its dank alleyways became a notorious nest of drug divans, criminal hide-outs, vice dens and even cheap, unlicensed dentists.

In 1987, with the agreement of the Chinese authorities, the decision was taken to clear the area and build a park on the site which would incorporate as many remaining features as possible of the original buildings and other features.







This depicts what life inside the wall was like. They had to put lights on the streets at one point since the alleys and roads were covered.
































































We stopped into a mall before heading to the park. Toys-r-us was having a Rubik's cube competition. Top prize $10,000 HKD
Afterwards we went to the cultural center to buy tickets to Cinderella the Ballet and we found out they were having a televised 24 hour marathon of people playing this traditional Chinese instrument. The sound quality of our camera is not very good it did sound quite nice in person.

Kowloon Walled City Park from outypants on Vimeo.

Transformers at Grand Century Plaza

To promote the movie they had this display at Mongkok. Elliot has seen the cartoons and knows a few of them, so we took the kids over there to take pictures.

Macau

We travelled to the Macau SAR a few weeks ago. It was in the 90's but we started uphill and walked down and took rests inside the pretty Churches scattered about. Macau is beautiful I don't think that you can take a bad picture in the place. It was owned by Portugal for 400 years and is now in the hands of China. Elliot rode on an amusement ride that went up in the air! His first time trying something like that. We went to Walt Disney World awhile back and I am glad he was free because he wouldn't ride much. He was willing here in Macau so he might be ready for Dumbo at Hong Kong Disney now. I got a little seasick on the way out there. It is about an hour by ferry to Macau. I didn't know I would was that bad about motion sickness, now I know. We rode on the top deck on the way back and that made a difference we will remember for next time.








The video starts out with us taking the bus in Hong Kong then it shows us on the Ferry on the way to Macau. We ate at a Japanese restaurant had Ramen and salmon sashimi. We ate Japanese food run by people who were Chinese in a country that used to be owned by the Portuguese. I was filling out paperwork on the way back. You not only have to fill out the standard arrival/departure cards these days you have a separate health form you have to fill for the Swine Flu. Whenever you cross a border. 32 pieces of paperwork I filled out that week as we had just got back from Japan when we went to Macau. Picture slide show at the end. Ignore the different colored bars it should work.

Macau from outypants on Vimeo.