Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Wii Spit! 任天堂的 Wii Sports

I took the kids to my sister-in-law's (my husband's sister) house yesterday. They bought a Wii system in May. Everyone is eager to try it out. They have a Wii Sport game and a Wii Fit game. The kids' uncle asked the kids which one they want to play. My 5YO nephew blurted out, "I want to play Wii Spit!!!" (sport + fit = spit) You had to be there. It was very funny and cute.

The kids ended up choosing to play the Wii Sports games. Wii Sport is a lot of fun. We tried tennis, bowling, and baseball. The kids had more fun playing tennis and bowling; the baseball game was more unrealistic. The Wii system made these sports feel so easy. The kids actually worked up a sweat playing these games. It's understandable why the Wii system is so popular with families. It's a game that the whole family can get involved in. While the children play, the parents cheer them on, and vice versa.

My sister who lives in Vancouver has a Wii system at home too. My kids played with it last summer. It was torturous seeing them taking turns playing Super Mario Brothers. My sister had 2 controllers and there were 4 kids. It was too much work just trying to figure out whose turn it was to handle the controllers. But playing with Wii Sports is different. In real life, when you play bowling with friends, you would have to wait for your turns to play. So waiting to take turns in sports comes more naturally to kids.

My kids had so much fun yesterday that they are going back to their auntie's house again today to play Wii. My husband and I don't plan to buy the Wii system for our kids. My kids already have their own Nintendo DS, so they have plenty of games to play with. If they want to play Wii, they can always visit friends or relatives who have Wii. Wii is more fun when played with many people.

昨天帶小孩到我小姑家玩。他們買了一套任天堂的 Wii 系統。大家後來決定一起來玩 Wii Sport (體育)。結果我發現真的是超好玩! Wii Sport 包括 保齡球 bowling, 網球 tennis, 高爾夫球 golf, 和拳擊 boxing。 玩起還蠻傳真的。 小孩大人都玩得滿身大汗! 小孩玩得太高興, 決定明天再去姑姑家玩 Wii。雖然我的小孩很喜歡玩 Wii, 但是我不打算買 Wii 給他們。他們已經一人一台 Nintendo DS 了,所以再買 Wii 給他們也是多餘的。買 Wii 給他們只是滿足他們一時的慾望而已(況且慾望是無止境的)。想玩 Wii 再去親朋好友家玩就行。

Saturday, June 27, 2009

減肥計劃 The Eat-Less Plan

The kids have been off school for over 2 weeks now and they have been getting up later and later. But no matter what time they get up, they still ask for a breakfast, lunch, and dinner, plus 2 snacks in between the main meals. When they are in school, I would combine breakfast and lunch and simply eat a light dinner. It's not hard to eat light at night because I rarely feel like eating anything after cooking a full meal for my family. Now that the kids are home all day long, I eat with them and this has not been good for me. My kids are growing. My daughter grew 1 cm. in 2 weeks. I have already gained 5 pounds in 2 week's time. Warning bells are going off in my head!

I have always been slightly on the "chubby" side. I use the word chubby cautiously because it's how I feel, and not necessarily what others perceived of me. At 5'4" (165 cm) tall, I fluctuate between 128 lbs. and 132 lbs. I would like to be 120 lbs., but many friends have advised me that I shouldn't loose too much weight because women over 40 have a tendency to have skinny face. It's true, my face is the first place to loose the fat when I loose weight. I look gaunt if I go under 125 lbs. So I have been happily controlling my weight to hover around 128 lbs.

I know about dieting. I have been doing (or thinking about diets) as far back as 13. These diet thoughts don't stay too far back in my mind. With age, I realized that no matter how much I weigh, I have a certain body image of myself. I will never be satisfied with how heavy my body weighed. If I am not happy with myself, even if I weigh 110 lbs., I am not going to be happy. I also realized that the only great thing about being skinny is that clothes look great on the body. With time, I dealt with my weight issues and I resolved it by making one important decision--I won't date anyone who doesn't weigh at least 40 lbs heavier than me. I ended up marrying someone who weighed 50 lbs. more than me at the wedding. Consequently, even when I was pregnant, my husband still weighed more than me! That being said, I am still a bit envious of my own daughter, who at age 9, looks tall and slender. She looks great in every single piece of clothing I buy for her. I am hoping she doesn't inherit my body-type genes, so that she'll stay tall and slender all her life.

Getting back to my diet plan for this month. Since I don't like to exercise, the only way I can loose a bit of weight is to eat less. Less carbohydrate to be precise. No more cheesecakes, bread, and ice cream. Stick with the principles of "eat only when I am hungry" and "don't eat kids' leftovers".

小孩已經放假兩個禮拜了。不管他們睡到幾點,都會要求照常吃三餐,外加兩次點心。我也跟著兩個正在發育的小孩吃。這下好了,我不但不會發育,我發胖了。 兩個禮拜胖了五磅(二公斤)! 應該是開始減肥的時候了。 其實我對減肥這東西並不陌生。 從我十三歲開始,我腦子裏時常想著要如何減肥。其實我不算胖,只是有點肥肥、肉肉的感覺。我大概是 165 公分高, 五十八至六十公斤左右。 我一直是希望瘦到五十公斤左右,但是我成人後,最瘦時也只達到五十四公斤而已,所以我的目標都訂在五十四公斤左右。可是四十歲過後,很多朋友都叫我不能太瘦,因為都只瘦到臉,看起來蒼老。我真是太為難了,不知道要選看起來老,還是要選看起來胖。 最後也因為無法瘦到五十四公斤而放棄。看起來年輕還是比較重要!

我三十歲左右時,一直無法克服這體重的問題。後來我想通了。對於擇偶的條件我又多加了一項:那就是我的男朋友或未來的老公一定要比我高和至少比我胖二十公斤以上。 在我結婚那天,我的老公比我胖二十五公斤! 後來我懷孕變胖了,我的老公還是比我胖! 我再也不用煩惱這體重的問題了。 話又說回來。我看到我又高又瘦的九歲女兒,我還是有點羨慕。她不管穿什麼衣服都好看。我幫她買衣服也很簡單。只要價錢可以、尺寸對、款式好看,女兒就能穿得漂亮。這是我從小都沒有的經驗。 我最討厭買衣服, 因為每次都要試穿一堆衣服, 而且都還不一定穿起來好看! 不過女兒現在還沒有發育完畢。我希望她沒有遺傳到我胖胖的身材。現在我想控制體重完全是為了自己的健康著想。家族有糖尿病及心臟病的病史,所以我不能過胖。我的小孩子還小,我的健康就是他們的幸福。

我的減肥計劃很簡單,有兩個部份。因為我不喜歡運動,唯一的辦法就是少吃。我不能跟著小孩吃三餐外加兩頓點心,更不能吃含有高澱粉質及碳水化合物的食物。像我愛吃的奶酪蛋糕、冰淇淋及日式土司都不能再吃了。因為我沒有胖很多,大概禁口個兩星期就可以瘦下來了。 減肥計劃的另一部份就是不吃小孩吃剩的食物!

Friday, June 19, 2009

笑話 Joke of the week

My son told me a joke this morning, right after he woke up.

Son: "Mommy, how cheap is Mr. Krabs?"
I: "How cheap?"
Son: "He is so cheap he can't even pay attention!"

早上起床時,我七歲的兒子講了個笑話給我聽。

兒子: “媽, 妳知道螃蟹先生 (海綿寶寶的老板) 有多小氣嗎?"
我: “不知道!”
兒子: “他小氣到他都沒有注意力了!” (英文比較好笑, 因為 pay 是付錢的意思,可是 pay attention 兩個字合起來是注意的意思)。

聽說這笑話是兒子從書上看到的。他說電視上也曾演過這一段。

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

星媽的心聲! Being a Stage Mom!

My daughter's dance school will hold its annual dance recital at the local theater this weekend. The recital will showcase all the dance classes that this dance school teaches. This dance school is located in our school district, so it follows the schedule of the school district. Our school let out last week, so this week, the dance school holds its dance rehearsals at the theater and the real shows will begin Friday and ends Sunday. Since this dance school has 2 locations, dance students from one location will dance 2 shows on Friday and the early show on Sunday and the students from the other location will dance 2 shows on Saturday and the late show on Sunday.

My daughter will perform both Saturday shows as well as Sunday's finale show. She will perform 4 numbers -- ballet, jazz, tap, and hip hop. It's a grueling dance routine that's more stressful for the moms than the dancers.Yesterday afternoon, my daughter had her dance rehearsal for her hip hop number. Later on tonight, she'll have her rehearsal for her jazz number. Tomorrow, she will do the rehearsals for her tap and ballet numbers. That sounds simple enough, but they are doing full dress rehearsals which means they have to be in full costume and full hair and makeup.

For her hip hop number, she will wear a high pony tail, with a blue t-shirt, grey baggy sweat pants, and her Converse sneakers. For her jazz number, she still wears a high pony tail, with a spandex top, jazz pants, and jazz shoes. For her ballet number, she'll wear her hair up in a classic ballet bun with a rented costume and ballet slippers. For her tap number, she will wear her hair half up and half down, with a white t-shirt and a flowy spaghetti strap dress which goes over her t-shirt, and of course, her tap shoes. All these costume and hair changes don't sound too bad until I saw the order of the dances. Her tap dance is act 5, but her ballet is act 16, jazz is act 17, and hip hop is act 19. There is 2 acts in between my daughter's ballet and jazz numbers, and only 1 act between her jazz and hip hop numbers. This means she'll have to change right on the side of the stage between acts. Needless to say, I will have to be there to help her change in and out of the costumes and re-do her hair, if necessary. And...we would have to do this for 3 shows!

We live in Los Angeles where many auditions take place. I have heard parents ushering their kids to various auditions just so their kids will have an opportunity to get into a TV show or movie. I truly believe that it takes a special parent to be able to do this line of work--fostering a child into stardom. I don't enjoy being a stage mom because I see hours of preparation prior to a 2-minute glory. It really is a lot of work for nothing. But I believe it is an invaluable experience for kids to learn to perform in front of a large audience. Inevitably, my daughter has learned to appreciate what goes on behind each performance, whether it's dance or music. So in the end, the harrowing experience of me being a stage mom is all worth it.

我的女兒的課餘活動, 除了女童子軍之外, 就是學舞蹈和鋼琴。現在是我逼著她繼續學鋼琴,可是她對舞蹈還是存有某種程度的熱衷。這學年,她每星朝一、二、三 及五下課後都有舞蹈課。我們是在自家附近的舞蹈學院學舞。這家舞蹈學院 (http://www.pspadance.com/) 已經有二十多年的歷史,培育了無數的舞者。小女生通常是四、五歲開始習舞, 然後到了七、八歲才會自行決定要不要繼續學舞。

這幾天都在忙著準備女兒的舞蹈公演。這星期二、三、四都得到戲院排演。雖然不是整天都要待在戲院, 但是只要是輪到她的作品, 她就得在場排練。 今年我女兒有四樣舞蹈作品要演出: 芭蕾舞, 爵士舞, 踢踏舞及嘻哈舞。昨天排演完還陪她到 Target 買跳嘻哈舞用的球鞋, 也順便買了上髮髻的髮夾。等一下還得去戲院二、三個小時。今天晚上要排演爵士舞。明天還得排練踢踏舞及芭蕾舞,所以這星期真的是以舞為生。

做媽媽的我除了要開車接送女兒,我還得陪在身邊做女兒的貼身助理,幫忙她換舞蹈服裝及髮型。女兒出場的時段己經排好。先跳踢踏舞(dance #5), 再跳芭蕾舞(dance #16), 接著跳嘻哈舞(dance #19), 最後是跳爵士舞(dance #21), 所以跳完芭蕾舞就馬上要在舞台邊換嘻哈舞的衣服及髮型,然後跳完嘻哈舞就要緊接著換爵士舞的衣服及髮型。我這做 ”星媽” 的就必需守在舞台邊待命,女兒一跳完舞,就要馬上幫她換衣改裝。

這已經是我們第二次參加舞蹈學院的公演了, 所以戲院場地及排演程序我和女兒都蠻清楚的。我們住在洛杉磯, 所以常常可以接觸到演藝界表演方面的機會。說真的, 如果要我做職業星媽, 我可能就無法勝任了。這種陪在表演人的身旁, 永無止境的等候, 絕對不是我想過的生活。我很佩服好萊塢的這些星媽為小孩子所做的付出,她們可能要經歷過無數次的試鏡,才會有一次的演出機會。還好舞蹈對我的女兒來講是純粹玩票性質。其實能上舞台表演真的可以帶給一個小女孩無限的自信與自我。

Sunday, June 14, 2009

兒子的小提琴演奏會! Violin Recital!

Every year in mid-June, my son's violin teacher always gets her students together and do a violin recital at the local music store where we go for violin and piano lessons. Last year, my son was in the pre-Twinkle group and this year, he will graduate from the Twinkle group and go on to Book 1 of the Suzuki Method. For those of you not familiar with violin's Suzuki method, Wikipedia has a good write up on the subject (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_method). My own uncle is a Suzuki violin teacher in Taipei and I was one of his earliest students 40 years ago. My understanding of the Suzuki method was that kids have amazing auditory ability. If a young child hears a song many times, the child will remember the music. And once techniques are taught to the kids, they will be able to play the instrument and that piece of repetitive music. So with that in mind, the first piece of music that all Suzuki violin student will learn is Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. Most 4 or 5 year old kids know this song very well, so it was a matter of time that they will learn to play the song on a violin, if taught systematically.

After almost 2 1/2 years of violin lessons, my son has mastered the Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star song and will move on to learn other songs soon. Both my husband and I play the violin. I was a terrible music student and hated to practice, so it's unfathomable that I am forcing my children to take on a musical instrument. My son will practice, reluctantly, if I cajole him nicely. He has a love-hate relationship with his violin. I think at this point, he is only doing violin to please me. Because I want him to continue with violin, I enroll him in a semi-private lesson with another boy his age. Not only is it much cheaper than a private lesson, it's more like a playdate for my son. At least, he has incentive to want to go to his violin lessons--so he can play with his violin buddy after their lessons. This is the reason why his progress is so slow. Normally, violin students will graduate from the Twinkle song within 2 years of starting violin and my son took 2 1/2 years.

My husband kept telling me to put my son in a private lesson because he thinks our son has the ability to progress faster. I don't think private lessons would be as fun for him. Although playing and practicing violin is hard work, I want my son to have fun in the process. In hindsight, I wished I could have continued with my violin playing. I quit violin because we had immigrated to Canada, so naturally, I didn't have the good fortune to find another violin teacher as good as my uncle. My violin career ended at age 11. I did pick up piano at age 13, but I was not motivated and I did not like practicing. Eventually in Grade 11, my mother gave up on me and said I could quit. I was liberated!!! I vowed I would not make my kids go through what I went through!

Nowadays, I not only make my son do violin (in my daughter's case, piano), I have the good "fortune" of sitting with them during their practices. It's like re-living the practice nightmares I had when I was a teenager. Now, I have to sit through 2 practice sessions, instead of the one I used to endure when I had to practice! Funny how life goes around in circles!

學校放暑假後的第一個星期天, 兒子的小提琴老師在她教琴的音樂店 (http://www.amusemusic.com/) 舉行了一場音樂會。她邀請了她所有的學生上台表演。當然也少不了家長在台下加油。表演結束後,大家一起享受家長帶來的飲料及食物。兒子的小提琴老師是用鈴木音樂教學法 (http://www.suzukimethod.org.tw/) 教小朋友小提琴。兒子的進度很慢,最主要的原因是他跟另一位同年紀的小男孩一起學琴,而不是個別指導。二人同時分一個教學時段本來就比個別教學來得便宜。但是兩人在一起的進度相對之下就比個別指導的小朋友慢很多。不過因為兒子學琴有伴,他去學琴時也很樂意去,因為上完課後,還能跟另一位小朋友玩。我覺得學琴本來就得花錢、花時間。重點是要讓小朋友學得開心、沒有壓力。

話又說回今年的小提琴演奏會。 我們去年就曾經參加過一次,所以今年兒子就比較有經驗。我覺得在美國長大的小孩都比較不會怯場, 因為他們在學校常常有演出的機會。兒子說他會緊張, 不過他還是很樂意上台表演。問題是雖然兒子喜歡上台表演, 他不喜歡練琴。可是要上台表演, 不練琴也不行, 所以我這個做媽的就想盡辦法逼兒子多練琴。雖然兒子不願意練琴, 他到最後為了要讓我高興, 他還是會免為其難的加緊練琴。我從小也非常討厭我媽叫我練琴。當時就立志決對不逼我的小孩練琴。沒想到三十年後的今天我還是忍不住的逼兒子練琴。真的是風水輪流轉。 現在終於瞭解學琴這種東西真的是勉強不得。我相信不久的將來, 我也需要面對現實。如果小孩子對音樂沒興趣或者是也沒有玩樂器的天份,強迫小孩子繼續學琴只會破壞親子關係。我想現階段我只想要讓小孩有點音樂基礎和瞭解習琴的辛苦。這樣子,他們以後才會對音樂藝術和音樂家有相當程度的尊重。


Thursday, June 11, 2009

這學年的最後一天! Last Day of School!

Finally! It's the last day of school. Summer vacation officially began at 12:47 PM today. I was at my kids' school all day, distributing the raffle prizes from the Box Tops raffles. The grade 5 students had their graduation ceremony today and everyone was all dressed up for their special event. My daughter will be graduating next year, so I paid extra attention to what the girls were wearing. I know grade 5 is an awkward age (between a girl and a teenager), so it's hard for the girls to "dress up" for this special event. But with all the merchandise available in the stores, I fail to understand why I did not see a pretty dress on anyone. Some dresses are pretty, but looked wrong on 10- or 11-year old girls. A lot of the girls wore dresses with spaghetti straps, but those dresses typically do not look good on chubby bodies. At some point, I think, parents should exert their parental guidance/control and tell these girls to wear something more appropriate. Most of the families in our school can afford to buy their girls a special dress for this occasion, so there is no excuse if the girls look like miniature drag-queens. OK. I have to stop being a fashion police!

All the room moms are busy today. They have to prepare a special year-end party for the kids which included games and food. Room moms also have to prepare the end-of-the-year gift for the teacher. Usually, parents pay the room mom a class fee at the beginning of the school year which should cover all the parties (basically Christmas and End-of-the-Year parties, but there could be more parties) and the teacher's Christmas and the year-end gift. Besides planning and executing parties, a room mom has to coordinate volunteer schedule with the teacher. When other moms don't have the time to help out in class, usually the room mom would have to step in to help the teacher. It's a thankless job that I would never want to do. My son's grade 1 room mom is a very nice lady. She had just moved into the area, but she's enthusiastic and volunteered to be the room mom when no one wanted the job. She did a fabulous job this year.

The plan for today was, before recess, all the grade 1 kids would be together and do different relay races in the field. Of course, we needed parent volunteers to come in and run the games. 3 of our dads volunteered for the job.

After I distributed all the Box Tops raffle prizes, I decided to stay on campus (I didn't want to loose my parking spot in front of the school) and help out in my son's grade 1 class. After recess, the room mom came with all the food and snacks for the party. Our grade 1 teacher suggested a hot-dog party. She took out an electric grill and one of the parents started to grill the hot dogs. While we got the food ready, the kids in our class were watching a Little Rascal movie while the class next door was doing a bingo game.

The room mom for the class next door is the same room mom for my daughter's grade 4 class. She had to do my daughter's class party (her son is in my daughter's class) yesterday so she can focus on her daughter's grade 1 class. Last year, she had 3 kids in this school. I had no idea how she managed to be the room mom for all 3 classes. Some moms can do it all!

The kids brought home all their class work -- the school supplies, drawings, art projects, and writings. The smart thing would be to sort all this out in the next few days, otherwise, it would not get done and these things will pile up.

My kids got their report cards today. My daughter who struggled through grade 4 got a stellar report card. My son who sailed through grade 1 easily got a mediocre report card. I am not sure what it was--He knew all his subjects and was good at doing his homework. His report card showed that there were several areas that he was still "developing". I guess we will continue to work over the summer in those areas that the teacher thought he was weak in. But in all honesty, I think he's doing pretty good. Am I so blind that I don't see how he's lacking in certain areas?! I guess I am baffled that when he can do 3-digit addition (with carryovers) on the worksheets I make him do, why does the teacher assessed him as being insecure with number manipulations (addition and subtraction) for numbers under 20?! Maybe he's weak in subtractions? I don't like report card that doesn't tell the true picture of how a child is doing in school.

As for my daughter, she's strong in math and weak in reading and writing. She got an "O" (for outstanding) effort grade for reading and writing and a "S" (for satisfactory) for math. She said she worked harder in math and not so hard in reading and writing (she hates writing assignments). She doesn't understand her report card, she thought the grades should be the other way around. It's possible that the teacher had a different perception of her work. In any case, I told my kids that the assessments they received in their report cards don't really matter. What mattered is that they worked hard and tried to improve to their best ability. I told them, as long as they tried their best, they both received an "A" from me!

今天是這學期的最後一天。明天開始就放暑假了。 我昨晚又搞到整晚沒睡。一開始是在準備摸彩後的獎品, 總供有六十七個獎項。今天一早就要把獎品發完。接著我又花了兩個小時的時間彙集所有 “台美小筆友” 的信件。不知不覺的就已經天亮了, 乾脆就不去睡了。

到了學校後, 趕緊把獎品分發完畢三後,我趕到兒子的教室幫忙。幾天前, 兒子班上的班媽 (class mom) 就用 email 事先通知我們今天的行程表。從8:45 AM 至10:15 AM, 一年級的老師要辦個小型的接力比賽。其實都是家長到學校幫忙看場, 其實老師都在教室裏整理東西,也沒到操場上跟小朋友同樂。十點半, 我們的班媽帶了一大堆吃的東西到學校來。在場的家長就幫忙把食物擺好。有個爸爸就開始烤熱狗。老師放了一部電影給小朋友看。貼心的班媽準備了爆米花給小朋友做看電影的點心。中午每個小朋友一人一條熱狗, 一包薯片, 一包果汁及一串葡萄。吃完熱狗後, 還有兩種餅乾可以吃。好豐盛的午餐。看得我的肚子好餓喔! 好在我那兒子咬了兩口熱狗就不吃了。他把整盤的食物都交給我。如是我不在的話,他是肯定把整盤的食物都丟進垃圾桶裏的! 其實, 我的肚子再餓, 我也捨不得吃那盤食物。我知道我的女兒下課後肚子會很餓, 剛好可以吃這盤食物。反正我也不會有精神帶他們外食。

女兒的班派對昨天就舉行了。 因為她的班媽也有一個女兒在一年級, 所以這班媽無法負責在同時辦兩個班派對, 只好在昨天就辦好她四年級兒子的班派對。做班媽是件吃力不討好的事情。班媽(或班爸)要幫老師找其他家長到教室服務。最難的事可能就是收班費了。開學後不久做班媽的就要收班費。這班費是要用來辦派對及買老師的聖誕節及學期末的禮物,可是有的家長還是會不願意付這筆錢給班媽。有些家長就是怪。她們認為我們讀的是公立小學, 所以經該是免費用的。真的是讓班媽很難做事。某些事情還是合群比較好!



Tuesday, June 9, 2009

忙! 忙! 忙! Busy! Busy! Busy!

I haven't been sleeping much lately. I guess all the procrastinating had caught up with me. Our school had its annual International Day Festival last Friday and I was responsible for the Taiwan booth. More on that later. Then in planning for the International Day, I stumbled upon the idea that the students from our school should have a pen pal program with Taiwanese students. So I started on that and the responses exceeded my expectation. Then, as I am the Box Tops Coordinator of my children's school, I had to count up all the Box Tops that our students had collected since October for mailing before June 1. Many Box Tops expired on June 1, so I was trying to beat that deadline. The final Box Tops event I had planned for our school was the classroom competition. The winning classroom from the 2 grade groups (kindergarten to grade 2 AND grade 3 to grade 5) will win a pizza party, popsicle party, or a donut party. The competition got fierce the last few days. Last night around 2AM, I finally counted all the Box Tops and declared a kindergarten class and a grade 3 class winners. These classes average more than 50 Box Tops collected per student.

Today, I went around to different chain restaurants in my neighborhood to solicit for free kids' meals as prizes for my Box Tops raffles. Tomorrow, our principal will pick out the winners to the last 3 raffle events (Holidays, Valentine's Day, and May Day). I am absolutely terrible to actually do the Holidays raffle in June!!! I have to distribute all the prizes to the winning students before Thursday noon! I have about 36 hours to do it all. Should I have left everything to the last minute?! Of course not! And I tell myself each year to do everything ahead of time, but a procrastinator will always be a procrastinator.

Anyways, it had been a very difficult school year for me academically--I had to "guide" my daughter through grade 4 and there were numerous projects and assignments that meant many late nights for me and my daughter. Over the course of the past school year, I have learned to step back and let my daughter do her own thing. I am hoping that my daughter also learned something in the process--to utilize the methods I have shown her, so she'll be able to work on her assignments and projects by herself in the future.

這一個禮拜來, 我每晚的睡眠不會超過四小時。上星期四晚上我還 “玩” 通宵呢! 為了趕做兩個海報,我整晚都沒睡! 然後星期五我又得到學校站一整天, 因為我負責我們學校國際節的臺灣攤位。為了能讓我們的臺灣攤位不遜色於日本、韓國及中國, 我攪盡腦汁, 想盡辦法凸顯臺灣的特色。因為我已經做了五年臺灣攤位, 差一點就想不出什麼新點子出來。改天再來 po 有關我們學校的國際節活動。

這星期讓我最忙的事情就是處理 Box Tops 的收集活動比賽。全校的每一班都可以參與。哪一個班級收集最多的 Box Tops 就可以贏得一個班派對。我數了一個星期的 Box Tops, 今年的贏家終於揭曉--低年級的贏家是大甲班, 高年級的贏家是三乙班。這兩班的小朋友平均每個人收集了六十個 Box Tops。大甲班的小朋友決定要開個冰棒派對。三乙班的小朋友要辦個甜甜圈派對。老師說要辦派對就明天辦。剛剛下課後,我趕快跑到 Von's 去訂了二打甜甜圈。明天下午我再去買冰棒送去學校!

後天就是這學期的最後一天。小孩子放假, 我也放假! 至少我有二個月的時間可以睡到自然醒! Yay!