Homeschool Shanghai

Coach Cheng from the Blue Eagles Dojang had informed the parents of the meeting that was held last evening at 7pm a few weeks ago. This was the first parent’s meeting called by the coach and the call to form a Blue Eagle PTA was sent out.

There were many parents who came to attend the meeting with some not being able to make it. It was delayed as many parents rushed down from work. The meeting lasted for about one and a half hour. It was good to see that so many Chinese parents are concern over their children’s physical well-being, not just academic performance.

Coach Chen briefed the parents on child safety as most parents are working and children are left at home, some with their grandparents, so without. We were also told the common physical stress on the children during summer, like heat strokes, cold etc. and how to help the children cope with the weather and replenishment of lost energy, water and nutrients… and of course, the diet of young sportsmen. This is especially necessary for children who would be going through daily intensive training in preparation for the coming tournament in August. I told Michael about the requirement on food. He laughed and said that food requirements of sportsman can be tough, especially when coach discourages fried food, lots of candies and of course, fast food - which are among kid’s common favourite.

Parents are encouraged to set time-table for their children, so that they can balance between training, study (holiday homework from schools and lots of revision) and play during the summer period. The coach insisted that the children do not neglect their studies as they step up their training at the same time - the Blue Eagle kids are to push for the spirit of excellence. However, parents are not to be overly concern over the their Gup (TKD Belt System) and physique as long as the children are healthy and are trained according to their bodies’ growing stage.

The coach took me by surprise yesterday, encouraging the parents to let the children join a church or Red Cross Association! He encouraged the parents to look into the children’s character building. From what I understand, the coach is open to Christianity but not yet a believer. Kids in Blue Eagle will go through regular character assessment too so that the dojang can work hand-in-hand with parents for the upbringing of the kids and counselling will be made available should there be a need.

There are also several courses going on besides the intensive training. Parents are encouraged to enlist as volunteers for tournaments besides being there to support the candidates from the dojang. Training will be provided for parents who are interested to serve in the judging panel.

Blue Eagle Dojang has been working on their website and computerised student record system for months now. I hope it will be ready soon, so at least I can check my kids’ progress online. The dojang is still waiting for reply from Singapore TKD Association regarding an inter-city friendly match. The coach was confident that the Blue Eagle kids will do well, since Singaporeans are known to be more focus on academic performance and not so strict on physical training, kids training in Singapore would be less intensive compared to China. He asked me if that is true, I could only nod my head sheepishly.

I heard from Mom that kids in Singapore who do not perform well academically go to the school of PE taught by professional aportsmen, but many quitted half-way as they cannot take the tough training. That is something I have against the competitive school system. Much attention is put on a child’s academic performance that physical well-being is neglected. By the time they go into teenage years, they have not enough stamina to sustain physical training. Not only that, but a great percentage of them have become myopic - which teacher in his/ her right mind will take the time to make sure that the kids sit up straight all the time? There are just too many things on a teacher’s hand! Teachers barely have enough time to rest, not to mention the children, working under such kiasu (Singlish: fear of losing) society.

I put my kids through a lot of physical training not only for physical well-being, but for other purposes. Until now my kids are still learning swimming. A lot of their friends have stopped swimming classes once they know at least how to swim breast strokes properly. The kids are still learning with the target to at least pass CAT1 survival (Navy standard).They learn Tae Kwon Do for self defence. Many years ago, one of my friends told me of a horrifying incident that happened to her son, who was about 16 then. They stayed in a private condominium. He was bathing in the swimming pool’s bathroom after his swim when a man came in and tried to take off his swimming trunk! The youth struggled and fled in horror, informed his parents and the guard, but the molester got away. Many have the impression that boys are safer than girls out in the public, but it’s no longer true. It’s a sinful world we live in, and will continue to worsen until the Lord returns.

Michael will be helping the kids with basketball on Tuesdays and hopefully, the kids will get the chance to be in a basketball team one day. Games like basketball, soccer, hockey etc. are good sports that promote team work. One of the sticky issue in homeschooling is teamwork among the children. Efforts have to be made to ensure that this hole is closed.

Coach Cheng asked me many weeks ago if Paul would like to go back to Singapore for tournament, representing Blue Eagle dojang, should Singapore TKD Association give an invitation. I did not give a firm answer as the dates have not been fixed and may collide with their piano exam, not to mention the cost of sending the kids back.

Lots of things are going on this summer.

SALT ended with a pool party at GW’s compound near The Bund. The parents had a meeting while the kids played. Issues like subjects, rental, time-tabling for the academic year 2009-2010 had to be planned before hand, and will be fine-tuned in August. I wasn’t there as Paul was unwell, running a low fever after sleeping on the floor past midnight without my knowledge. We had to cancel the plan of going to GW’s place when he told me he was nauseous.

Summer holiday in Shanghai is a busy time for lots of kids, unlike in Singapore where most kids have break (apart from holiday homework from school). Competition is keen here, so there are lots of intensive enrichment classes and summer camps going on in the city of Shanghai. Paul and John have just completed Intermediate Speed Math and Math Olympiad Grade 2 (for Paul). We’ll not be putting them into these academic enrichment classes in the summer. I think it’s just a bit too much to chew on. The kids will continue with Advance Speed Math and Math Olympiad only after the summer holiday, just like their usual school days.

Looking at their current time-table for the summer, our family is packed with activities everyday. As the children are going for ABRSM piano and theory exam in October, it’s preparation time for them right now - that will stretch over a few months. Their piano teachers requested that they practise for 3 hours a day, but that seems quite impossible at the moment. I was told by the Tae Kwon Do coach last night that Paul will be sent for tournament this end August, which is necessary for his next 2 belts’ promotion - targeting for Black Belt 1st Dan before next summer (he’s now 1st Gup - Red Belt.) Paul is required to report to the dojang everyday for the entire summer for intensive training.

I have been planning the time table ever since two weeks ago. Academic subjects like Chinese, English, Math and Science has to continue during summer. Although Paul is a person who picks up knowledge quickly, he forgets quickly as well. Consistent work is necessary. John on the other hand, has a lot of grounding work (e.g. reading, writing and speech) to do. I had thought of sending the kids to a basketball summer camp held by a renowned coach, but with his current TKD training requirement, we have to let it go this time. Apart from daily TKD training, the kids have to complete at least 2 hours of piano practice daily besides music theory (for Paul). And also they have to save a day weekly to play with daddy or have family outing together. Michael also has to study for his MBA and takes this chance to try to complete the modules faster than planned in this summer. As for me, it’s giving English tuition everyday - it’s time for intensive class for all my students. I thank God for providing me with the students and to hold classes at home while Paul is away in the dojang. The family budget had been in red for a while - this would be a good chance balance the books and keep the excess for emergencies.

Anyway, I’ll still be working on setting the time-table the next few days as there are some adjustments to the children’s teachers’ time due to the training at the dojang. Thank God for a busy summer!

The decision to put the children through ABRSM and not the exam from Shanghai Music Consortium has put us through some days of stress - good ones, I supposed, if we look into the future. ABRSM exam demands a test of knowledge of theory, aural, sight reading besides performance. Shanghai Music Consortium focus on performance skill, music theory is not required until Grade 7.

Paul is on his own, studying for music theory as there is no way he can make it at the Royal Music School in Gubei - he has regular class on Friday and Saturday afternoons. Sundays are reserved for church - no work on God’s day - that’s the rule set in our family. I have to help him by studying the chapter first, marked out the important points and help him revise it later.

I have very shallow music theory background. As a support singer in the music ministry, I was trained with the skill to sight read music scores (a skill which has become rusty now, since I no longer use it after moving into Children Ministry some 15 years ago.) I had learnt basic music theory from GLM, my church pianist, more than 20 years ago. I found music theory tedious and boring and did not persevere to finish, dropped half way at Grade 3 theory. Now I have to learn on my own. Thank God for the internet, it helped me clear some doubts I have. But I do wonder how long will it last, before I get confused and unable to help Paul further? Looks like I need to ask friends who have music theory knowledge for help.

John woke up early last Thursday and asked me for batteries. I didn’t want to give it to him because the boys had used up so many batteries for their toys. Batteries in China are not cheap, on top of that, we create more rubbish by using so many of them and they boys have the habit of leaving things around in the house. Rechargeable batteries are even out of the questions, they are even more expensive. We bought some of these few years back, only to find that the speed of recharging the batteries could not match up to the rate they are being used. So we restrict the boys from playing with toys that use so many batteries.

John didn’t give up. He went ahead to take some new batteries from my drawer without telling me and was prepared to show me and convince me what he wanted to do with it, running the risk of being caned for not listening. He showed me that his remote control was working fine, but his car was not because the back wheels were broken. He wanted to test it out to make sure that it was just the wheels that needed to be fixed, so he reasoned with me. Paul had a similar car but it was damaged, so John had the brilliant idea of taking the wheels from Paul’s car to fix on his - Paul’s couldn’t work anyway. John found out that he wasn’t too good at manipulating the tools, so he woke Paul up and told Paul of his intention. Paul thought that it was a great idea too and took the trouble of troubleshooting and checking that the plan was feasible, instead of washing up and having breakfast.

I didn’t stop them for 2 reasons, although I was very tempted to. I know Paul will fight with me over it as he’s a person who will put his heart and mind into doing something he wanted so much, like helping with repair, instead of washing up and have breakfast; he’s a very kinestatic fellow. To him, he can take ‘brunch’ (breakfast cum lunch) anytime after that. This has always been one of the contention points between us as we felt that he has problem setting priorities, but he views it differently. Secondly, I think the boys have this great idea and it’s also part of learning. So what if they are not doing something academic?

It all took about an hour of dismantling the back wheels (with it’s mechanical parts) from Paul’s car  to fix on John’s car and testing it all out. Now the kids have managed to salvage a toy they really enjoyed by their own effort. I think it is a good effort and experience for the boys. Many children nowadays have very little idea of repairing or salvaging a toy, and rather buy new ones and dump the damaged ones, thus becoming more materialistic and wasteful besides creating more rubbish. It reminds me of the time in the Singapore Navy more than 10 years back, when my husband, who was also a technical land crew like me at that time, salvaged a few electronic cards with the combined effort of his colleague using the same method, and saved his department big sum of repair cost.

That's the remote controlled car that the boys managed to repair - and it works!

Paul’s second-hand laptop gave up his ghost many months ago and his progress with Singapore Math has since been delayed, only to go back to tradition learning with textbooks which he hates. The boys have decided after discussing, to combine their red packet money from Singapore to buy a new netbook for Paul. The ASUS netbook cost less than S$400 with all the peripherals (I bought a 32G SDC to use as spare storage), except that it runs on Linux, 4G hard disk and 512M of RAM.

I spent many weeks trying to figure out how to install WINE (Windows Emulator) into Linux because Paul needs to run his academic programs from Windows. It didn’t work out. The ASUS netbook had been installed with a Linux console that neither Michael and I were familiar with. I decided to wipe out the entire Linux and install WinXP Pro, since I have the original disk (my laptop runs on Acer’s WinXP), only to find out that I could not do a low level format. Michael and I fiddled with it for a while and we decided that we would take it to a reputable computer store and let the real experts do the job. We spent 100RMB (S$22) to get XP on the netbook and to make sure the SDC worked out fine.)

Is that all? No. I spent the next few days validating and installing updates after updates, after activating Windows, and struggling with XP telling me that it has got insufficient space. I had to go for the minimum setting and try to make space in the 4G hard disk, only to find out that each update seems to take up so much more space than what it said it should. I did a search on the internet and cleared all unnecessary files (or I thought I did). I found this great software “Glary Utilities” which did a lot of work maintaining hard disk space and performance. I also found out that the Windows like to store ‘log files’ when automatic update is on. With the help of Glary Utilities, I found out that these files, stored under C:\Windows\Software Distribution\Download, takes as much as over 1G. After confirming that it’s ok to delete them (they will be reloaded back with the next update anyway) I moved them to another folder in the SDC, which I should not - because I have trouble deleting them from there later. I should have just be decisive and delete them. Sigh.

After hours of cleaning and maintaining the hard disk, the netbook had over 1.5G of space which was quickly occupied by the SP3, SP3 updates and IE7 (I didn’t want to upgrade to IE8, but was forced by the update to upgrade to IE7, otherwise I can’t do other updates.) The last 2 days were spent trying to install the academic programs for Paul. I managed to get Grade 3 Singapore Math and first half of Grade 4 Singapore Science on it, but have trouble with the rest. Wonder what went wrong…

The kids went to RLA’s place for a swim after church and lunch, a good time for me to relax and get out of the house and the computer. We came back for dinner and I continued to work over the netbook till late and suffer from aching back and shoulder for sitting at the computer for too long. Who says homemaker’s an easy job? Not when you’re homeschooling, I guess. But there are rewards and joy beyond the troubles.

The boys leaving for Blue Eagle Dojang

The boys passed their latest Tae Kwon Do grading exam last week and received their new belt from the instructor. I took a picture of them in their new belts. John was upset because his eyes look small when he smiles. There was one that I took which he didn’t smile, but it was snapped at the wrong time that he looks sleepy in the picture. The team from Blue Eagle Dojang will be going for competition in the summer in Singapore. The instructor was wondering if we will be returning, and was actually hoping that he could send Paul. Too bad, we’ll be here all summer, in Shanghai.

With the changing of the moral standard of the world, I’ve heard many horror stories regarding the violation of men’s modesty. A few years ago, the son of one of my friends - a teenager, was nearly taken advantage of by a man in the changing room in the swimming pool in her condominium in Singapore! Thank God the boy was quick and fled to call the mother and the security guard. The man got away. With my boys looking androgynous and charming, I’m not taking any chances.

Paul executing a "Chop".

John in sparring position.The boys leaving for Blue Eagle Dojang

The two classes in SALT have been separated into 2 smaller classes each for Art, Lego and PE since Term 4, with Lego and Art going concurrently. Each kids get to do 2 full term of PE, 1 term of Art and 1 term of Lego. The boys enjoyed Lego more than the girls as suspected and never fail to compete with each other using different sizes of gears, connectors etc. The younger ones do the basic stuff and are taught to consider weight distribution versus size of what they construct each lesson.

Mr YC Zhou and the kids from the younger class

SALT may be moving as Aijian refused to believe that we are not a profit organisation. They will most probably raise the rental for te next academic year. The G. family has blessed us so much as to pay the rental for the last 2 terms, we only need to collect money to pay for the Lego class. If Aijian raise the rental. It would mean a greater financial burden for us. We’ve been having problem over the rental of the music room , especially the use of the piano. The parents are now looking for a possible place to rent.

My ACER laptop had been giving this creaking sound for months. Michael bought this laptop for me 3 years ago on installment with a friend’s help since I needed a computer to work on. It has served me faithfully for these years.

Over the months the bottom of the laptop got hotter and hotter. I didn’t think much about it since I think it was the fan that was giving out that creaking noise. I decided to check if it was because the screws were loose - I did just that since it was no longer under warranty. The noise went down slightly for a few days and then it went up again. The base of the laptop was so hot that I had resorted to propping it up all the time when using it. Lately, it began to shut itself down all of a sudden and I panicked. I turn it on again, bought Paul’s little study laptop online and decided that it should go for repair.

I hate to spend the money. Mom’s coming to stay with me for good and I need the extra money to buy more food and visa. Michael has to go back to pick her up on our own expenses. The boys have to register and prepare for the ABRSM exam in October and that means extra expenses. And we might be moving in the summer, that means compensating the landlord for the damages the boys made to the house, the deposit for the new place etc. But the laptop was giving so much problem - it’s like an old lady coughing so badly every time I switched it on.

I took a long journey (15mins walk + metro train ride + 11 yuan cab) to get to Acer’s repair shop downtown because taking a cab there to and fro would set me back about 150 yuan if not slightly more. After I’ve reached there, I was told that I had to leave the computer there for a week and only took back my hard disk with me.

To my dismay when I got home, Paul did not finish his work but wasted the whole day playing and was rude to my domestic helper. I gave Paul a good whacking and made sure he finished whatever he should have done by bedtime.

Paul’s ASUS EePC came later in the week and I had a hard time with Linux because I didn’t know how to get WinE to work on it. Apparently ASUS developed their own Linux and I didn’t know how to get it to work except go on the internet. After fiddling with it for a week, I decided that I have enough of Linux and will install WinXP in Paul’s laptop instead. I’ve bought the Linux one because it was cheaper - something the boys could afford using their red packet money given by relatives from Singapore. Paul needs a computer for his Singapore Math and Science.

I had not received any news from ACER so I thought I’d give a call, only to be told that they are still waiting for parts! I had to take Paul’s laptop with me to SALT’s term meeting and record everything down on Open Office. I did not dare compile it first as I found out from Michael that there may be compatibility problem. I had wanted to continue writing my novel but could not access my backup. I simply feel so handicap. AL at SALT laughed as she found out and said that I had gotten so used with technology that I find it hard to live without it. A scary fact, but true.

It was a hard 2 weeks. Just Thursday, ACER called to say that my computer was ready for collection. We left for ACER immediately after SALT. The boys were so happy, especially Paul, because I will not need to share the computer with him anymore. It was not too far away from where we were, just 30 yuan ride.

It took me a few days to settle all the updates, clear emails, settle outdated minutes and finally, to blog. Looks like it’ll be time to put XP into Paul’s laptop and get all his academic syllabus (those on the CD-ROM) going for the next few days.

The boys had been to GW’s house for their first sleepover party as it was their son, NW’s 8th birthday. I went home with EK in a cab after sending the children there. EK had some queries about Martial Arts and Accupuncture. Accupuncture and Martial Arts have always been an issue for Christians. There are misconceptions about it as improper instructions and practice may well expose one to the spiritual realm. Being a Chinese who has a bit of background in martial arts, I would want to clarify some of these myths. But these are just my personal understanding.

Martial Arts Myths:

1) It teaches violence and solving problem with violence.

Martial Arts is taught for self defence, quick reaction when you are under attack - it started as a tactics for soldiers in the long history of war and it is still taught this way, despite the fact that we have very advanced weapons. When it comes to face-to-face combat, it’s still an advantage. It’s not that I support war, but in a country where national service is compulsory, it is nevertheless necessary. Police force from what I gather, do martial arts as well, as it helps them handle crooks. A true master of the martial arts teaches the students self-control. It is for health and self-defence that you learn martial arts, not to go around beating up anyone that you’re not pleased with. One who uses his martial arts skills to bully others into obedience brings shame to his family and his master. In ancient China, such people were quickly disassociated by their clan and schools.

2) You’ll get demon possessed if you practice martial arts

I always tell my friends who are interested in doing martial arts that you do not empty your mind. “An empty mind is the Devil’s worskshop“, I always quote. It is true that in martial arts, some teachers ask you to do meditation. Be careful. The thing with practising martial arts is that you’ll have to breath properly, like you do while exercising on a gym machine. Improper breathing damages your muscles and breathing pace. Breath slowly, let the body takes in and circulate oxygen properly. It was found that long, long time ago, humans have a breathing cycle of 6 seconds, now it’s about 3 seconds per cycle - how much stressful we have become. One may notice also that when we come into the Lord’s presence, we tend to breath slower as well. I personally do not advise meditation, just that you should not be thinking about the undone groceries and unpaid bills when you are exercising - focus on getting it right and without stress - same advice I would give to someone on a gym machine.

One thing about martial arts though, it was first invented by a Buddhist monk because he found that the monks were too weak and fell sick too often. So he came out with this exercise by observing the movement of animals. As martial arts evolved over many centuries, many has very deep spiritual involvement which can result in demonic influences. So NOT ALL martials are ’safe’. Therefore, you should think carefully when considering martial arts. It you are really interested in martial arts, pray and ask the Lord for wisdom as to which one to take. Also, you must understand that while some martial arts requires strength and speed, it is not necessary violence. Pray for a good instructor who has the right attitude and understanding, if you are thinking of getting the children to learn martial arts, pray for spiritual covering that they will not be led into the spirit of violence.

In an event of being attack, you aim to decapacitate the attacker and bring him to the justice department (police), not to kill - that is if you can, if you cannot, it is good enough that you defend yourself such that you have time to escape.

In any case, whether you are into martial arts or not, one should not be hasty to use violence as a problem solving method. There was this short clip that I saw on Youtube, a young man was creating trouble out in the public and forced another young man (who happened to be martial art trained, but apparently the attacker didn’t know) into a fight. He was quickly taken down by the careful defender with just a quick slap of the palm at the neck. A small flick of the finger from a martial artist can be painful as the body is trained for speed, force and efficiency - not brunt strength.

3) I saw a martial artist threw a man 10 feet away, if it is not demonic then what? How can a human do that?

Martial arts, if you look at it carefully, is a lot of Science, in the field of Physics. It not only aims to get almost the entire body exercised, but it also focus on balance (that you will not fall on all fours so easily when attacked) and leverage -  the efficient use of the body’s position/ opponent’s position (change in centripedal force) to achieve maximum outward strength and speed with as little input energy as possible, the Chinese use the term 四两拔千斤 to move a thousand jin (six kilogramme and more) with only half jin (according to old calculation, that’s 150 grammes) of energy). Like my kids in Tae Kwon Do class, half the time they do a lot of stretching and running, training themselves to lift their legs and arms in high speed and power. That lasts for one hour. The actual strokes only takes about 45 minutes of practice, and then body conditioning (stretching of ligaments and cooling down) for the last 15 minutes. Sparring takes another lesson (another day) in itself. It is not unusual that one gets thrown 10 feet away - it’s just that you have efficiently leverage on the angle and strength that it happens that way. In Singapore, some of our battalion uses Tae Kwon Do, the police force Judo, and the Chinese police Taiji and their arm force other form of Chinese martial arts.

By the way, in real kungfu, you can’t fly. No, you can’t walk upside down on ceilings. And no, you can’t walk on walls either. You can, however, lift yourself up in the air for a while - or run on vertical walls for about six feet or so - depending on how you manipulate your body - like Michael Jordan, if you get what I mean - he ‘flies’.

4) Accupuncture

Accupuncture has long history in Chinese medicine. It is not nerves as the Western medicine views it, but it comes close. The Chinese calls it jinmai 筋脉. Imagine your body has a electronic circuit board with transistors and all sorts of other components. These components and routes are interconnected to each other. By fiddling with certain components on this circuit board, you open, close a route, change the resistance, voltage, current etc. on this board, very often at other points away from this component that you are fiddling with. Can you see the physical wire? No. For those who are technically trained, you know that what happens in a transistor cannot be seen, but it can be measured. It’s the same for the human body, while all the parts that can be seen and diagnosed, there are a lot of things unseen, but you know it works. Accupuncture points, if you like, works like the tapping points of a circuit board.

5) I saw in kungfu movie that if you hit someone on a certain accupuncture point, he freezes.

Nah, you’ve watch too much movies. While it is true that certain accupuncture points do slow down or speed up blood circulation to certain parts of the body, it does not work in a split of a second. And no, you can’t freeze that person like you freeze a film clip.

Yes, it’s finally out! The movie that Paul and John acted in. It has come within the first 100 movies for the international 7-minute-short-clip competition. You vote is greatly appreciated. {Please support the film!

1. Please go to www.thedoorpost.com and register.
2. Search for “Hidden Truths”, watch the movie and vote!
3. Next watch and vote for another 4 movies made by others, only then your vote for “Hidden Truths” will be counted.
4. Please help to pass the word around.

Thank you!

Hidden Truths

Source: www.thedoorpost.com

MOM and BOY run a small fruit stand on the outskirts of Shanghai. Every now and then, MOM writes mysterious messages on the paper used to wrap fruit and hands them to selected customers. MOM’s friend, JACK, asks BOY to make an important delivery to a special customer and return immediately. …