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Category: kids

  • Had a small scare at Creve Coeur lake

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Today I had a small scare at the CC lake. I was chatting with friends while keep an eye on Sophia the 5 year old. Serenity the 10 year old went paddle boarding with friend with their moms permission. I found out after the fact, and when I asked the moms (my wife and Serenity friend’s mom), who were watching them, they said “we don’t know where they are on the lake”. This made me start to worry. Our quick response is, we rent a kayak to search on the lake. We asked around, not seeing them, increasingly worried, and even thought about calling 911. At this time I asked if we can use “find my iPhone” to find the girl, because the other girl’s mom hanged the phone on Serenity’s neck. It eventually worked, and we found them not too far from where they started, and it’s near the bank too. We were relieved, and did a bit more kayak afterwards.

    My lesson here is make sure Serenity has her own iPhone, and help her learn how to use. Basically the friend’s mom called the girls twice, and the girls did not pick up the phone properly (accidentally pressed the “declined” button, thus the ensuing panic). Because this time she had friend’s mom’s iPhone on her neck while she was paddling / using the roar to push forward. And we had to call her friend’s dad to run this “find my iPhone” to pinpoint the particular device. I also want to make sure we have better network: maybe Verizon or AT&T for my whole family down the road. Right now both my wife and myself have mint mobile which uses t-mobile network, and it’s considered not as good as the VZ and T.

    Serenity’s mom’s thinking is we should keep an eye on them all the time, unfortunately due to the size of this lake, it’s a bit impractical.

  • Family photos

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Family photos of my grandma, my father, me, and my 2 older brothers. This was taken by my father’s friend in middle 1970s (1976?). It appears both my 2nd brother and myself did not start school yet, as we did not have the red collars on our necks: a bit like boy scouts and girl scouts here. It was in the courtyard of our family home in Xiaomeng, Ningbo, Zhejiang province. I stayed and studied in the village elementary school until the very beginning of grade 5. My grandma passed away when I was in the senior year of high school (late 1988). My mom was not in the picture because she was working. Photography was a luxury at the time as China was an impoverished nation at that time. Bicycle, sewing machine and watch were the 3 luxury items young couple like to have when they getting married at that time. Now it’s the house (apartment, which is unaffordable in Shanghai, Beijing and other major cities). I am guessing I was 5 at that time, my brothers were 7 and 9 years old. Now I am probably more than 15 years older than my father on the picture.

    I think the first picture is 1976 (they are one picture, I snapped the original picture using my iPhone a few years ago when I visited my childhood home). I added another picture which is June 1961: I saw my uncle there (mom’s big brother, he passed away 2 years ago, he was 87 years old). I found that picture online (https://www.sohu.com/a/243472385_467312) when I searched for my uncle’s name and the school he was the head (Baifeng middle schoo. He was 30 years old in that picture).

    My uncle / my mom’s big brother, Hu Jinyu 胡金雨, is shown in the second row (counting from left, the fourth person, I can see some resemblance with my mom / maternal grandma). He is the first head of Baifeng Middle School.

    A kind of funny episode involves my uncle and me

    说说这个典故：高考前那个晚上，我失眠了。我可能是半夜醒来，就睡不回去了。我知道大舅🈶葡萄酒🍷，我就打开他的葡萄酒喝了不少，想着帮助睡眠，实际上没啥用。这事我外婆知道，因为她过来做我高考的后勤保障（烧饭），平时她一般是跟小舅住的。后来，我大舅当然发现了。他倒不是心疼他的葡萄酒：我现在想想他应该是有点后怕 – 因为万一我因为喝酒高考考砸了呢？因为我是农村户口的，我两个哥哥已经考出农们了。后来，我每次去大舅家，只要有其它亲戚在，他都会说说我”偷喝酒”的事 🙂

    Below English was translated by Google translate

    Let me tell you this story: The night before the college entrance examination, I couldn’t sleep. I might wake up in the middle of the night and couldn’t go back to sleep. I knew that my eldest uncle 🈶 drank wine🍷, so I opened his wine and drank a lot of it, thinking it would help me sleep, but it actually didn’t work. My grandmother knew about this because she came over to provide logistical support (cooking) for my college entrance examination, and she usually lives with my younger uncle. Later, of course, my eldest uncle found out. It’s not that he felt sorry for his wine: now I think he should be a little scared – because what if I failed the college entrance examination because of drinking? Because I have a rural household registration, my two brothers have already passed the examination to become farmers. Later, every time I went to my eldest uncle’s house, as long as other relatives were there, he would talk about my “secret drinking”.

  • GregTang Math

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteA brain teaser kind of question at GregTang math (I just heard bout GregTang and the problem recently at a school event): use 6, 7, 8 and 9, plus any addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to make the result of calculation as 10 (only use each number once, can use any kind of parenthesis as needed).

    I saw a few kids come up with answers (but it seems to me some answers are from the parents 🙂 I tried but could not come up with answer as 10 at the spot. Note we, my wife and I, when we were kids in China did similar exercise / games using the poker (draw 4 kids, instead of 10, we need to make 24). On my way home, or at home (this is how things work for me, just like how I come up with the solutions to coding at work), I have this: (7+8)x6/9=10

    Note: there should be many ways / combinations to this, the one I heard at the gathering is 8x(9-7)-6=10

    After that I followed GregTang on twitter, and I worked on some of the puzzles there from time to time: those are not “too hard” problems, but nonetheless interesting / educational for the kids (I think).

  • Life is fragile

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteLast Friday evening, when I was at a gathering at Shack, for a fundraising event my daughter’s school association (usually called parent teacher organization or PTO in other schools), with auction and beer/food etc. I was talking to a dad, since his kid is same grade as my daughter. I said “I know your wife too”. Then suddenly he said his wife passed away. I did not know. That reminds me of couple other parents’ passing for the same grade kids, due to various reasons.

    I had my daughter was I was 39, and she is 7 years old now. I think I am at the older side of my cohort parents (parents of kids at my daughter’s grade). And when I heard this type of news from my daughter’s mouth in last few instances, I felt very sad for the affected kids and families. Once I told my daughter: give the kid a lot of hugs. She said she won’t mention the passing parent to the kid. Yes that’s a good idea too.

    Our younger one is only 3, and she could not quite understand the concept of “death” yet. She thinks she will live with us forever. I hope we can live with our kids as long as possible/practical *don’t want to be a burden to them when the day comes 🙁

  • Lego deals

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteI buy Lego mostly for my daughter and her friends’ birthday gifts. There are 5 stores I usually go (both online and offline): Lego official website, Amazon (probably bought the most), Walmart (both online and store pickup), Target (online, free shipping with red card), and Toys R Us (both online and store pickup). Note in the online cases, I usually got the free shipping.

    A ballpark for deal or not is see if the per piece price is 10 cents or not. For example, for an 100 piece lego set, a fair price is $10. If it sells below $10, then it maybe a deal.

    Deals usually got sold out fairly quickly. I recall once in holiday season I had it in the cart, but I was a bit greedy in terms of using shopping portal (Discover Deal) and also tried to find a nearby Walmart store, during the process the lego was sold out. Today I learned my lesson, as soon as I saw the deal from dealsea, I click on it and ordered from Toys R Us. I actually bought two because a friend asked. This afternoon when I go to the store to pick up (btw, I feel the physical stores are in big trouble, as the parking lot was pretty empty at Mid-river Mall). The store clerk said they were a bit puzzled about two orders in the morning, I said they are both mine 🙂

    I think Lego is good for kids toy because they encourage creativity, and in the case of I don’t know a kid’s hobby (for birthday present), a Lego set is a safe bet as it’s pretty liquid (they can give away easily).

  • Kids Rewards System

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteRecently my wife and I are having some trouble find out a way to manage our old daughter’s at home behaviors, esp. around good working habit (wait until last minute to do homework or play piano), clean up the mess after playing, be nice to her younger sister, and last but not least, playdate with friends went over the time we set initially.

    Since I work in the reward space for my day job, and I thought there may be something we can do in an app. We did tried stickers, and charts, but nothing really stuck for a while. I think with the popularity of smartphones, a smartphone app may stick. Looked around I am seeing two; iRewardChart and Choremonster.

    Last but not least, I came across two articles on this topic, Reward system: Goodbye to the sticker chart and How Experts Discipline Their Children.

    (Update 03-20-2017) This is partially inspired at the teacher/JA volunteer (my coworker) rewards kids with chocolate/candy for good behaviors in classroom (see this post about my JA experience).

  • Summer camp recommendations

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteThere are many good summer day camps in St. Louis area. STLToday recently has a good piece on this topic.

    Personally my old daughter has been to the JCC Day Camp, and Andrews Academy. We like both, with a bit preference over Andrews: for its after care, and overall quality. Note cost-wise, Andrews is a bit more expensive than the J (about $1,300 per month vs $220 a week for the J). We also thought about the Arts Camp at COCA too but the pickup and dropoff is a bit challenge (due to half day schedule). Note they do have 2 locations: the U city campus and the Whitefield school at Ladue/Mason. My daughter was very much interested in the arts, that’s why we signed up the art camp at the J when she was 5 (incoming kindergartener). This summer we are thinking again sign her up at Andrews (4 weeks Science camp and 4 weeks Outdoor camp). Both the J and Andrews do swimming once a day.

    For the little ones, the summer camp at Hope Montessori (Mason road, Creve Coeur) is very good. We are thinking about signing up younger daughter this summer.

    Other camps I heard about: the mad science summer camp, and the Lego (Robotics) camp at Maryville U. Both are half day, so it’s a bit challenge if both parents work full time and in office.

    Btw, I wrote about the summer camp about 3 years ago.

    Last but not least, found a summer camp search website here.

  • Fund raising at non-for-profit orgnizations

    Reading Time: 2 minutes(Update 28-Feb-2017) Just got back from the book fair in Spoede school, camp read a lot. It’s a lot of efforts from the volunteers and the teachers. At the same time a lot fun for the little kids and the families. Part of the profit goes to the SSA (the parent association of the school).

    (Original) I have some experience on this topic, when I was a new graduate student at Rolla, I worked on the phone asking the alumni for donation during phonathon. That’s from the asking end.

    When I started to working, I listened to local NPR station (KWMU) for news and english learning, I know from time to time they also have the fundraising campaign. During that time they pause the program, and ask people to call in and give money. After a few years, finally I pulled the plug and called them.

    Nowadays as my daughters started attending schools and they usually have parents association that support the schools. The St. Louis Children’s Choirs my old daughter participated is a non-for-profit organization too. There are a few common ways to raise the money: silent auction (or not-so-silent-auction), trivial/bingo games, the affiliation programs such as scripts program at Schnucks, Amazon shopping, and box-on-top. There are also some events like eating out night (restaurant donate a part of revenue/profit to school). So really it’s whatever it works: bring money from multiple revenue streams. For the trivia night/silent auction or live auction, usually people bring own drink (alcohols), unless it’s a family friendly event in which alcohol is not allowed. It seems to me sometimes the bidding become more intense with all the alcohols 🙂

    This year my daughter’s school did something different, they did a raffle. I think raffle (sweepstakes) is not uncommon, except in this case I think the each entry is a bit too costly ($100). I think $100 is not small money in many families, also keep in mind in some culture or religion sweepstakes (gamble) is not a good idea 🙂

    So here is my 2 cents. I think small non-for-profit organization fundraising is a bit like a small business trying to survive, again I feel this is one reason the multiple revenue streams. Some passive (affiliation); some active (trivial/auction/eat out). Coming from China which does not have this sort of thing, I feel this is interesting.

  • Remembering my middle school teacher 姚仁汉老师

    Reading Time: < 1 minute昨晚在初中群里面惊闻我的初中物理老师姚仁汉老师，因病去世，年仅56（虚岁）。这里有相关的介绍, 还有这里, 和这里。

    姚老师大学一毕业就来镇海中学（84年），我们（初二）是他的第一批学生，教了两年（初二初三）。除了教书，他还组织物理兴趣小组。记得他带我们坐公交汽车去他的母校（宁波师范大学）参观，这是我第一次看到天文望远镜。98年我有机会回到母校镇中，有幸遇见他，当时他好像已经是领导，负责整个初中部教学工作。记得他还是是憨憨的老样子。现在算来，他当时大学毕业（22岁），我们初二（13岁），他大我们十岁都不到。他就是我们的兄长。

    借用一句兄弟班同学的唁文“人生有幸，在最好的年纪遇上最好的老师”。。。

  • Montessori, Reggio and Waldorf schools in St. Louis

    Reading Time: 2 minutesThose schools are considered speciality schools, because they have their own philosophy, which is NOT exactly the same as other private schools (both sectarian and non-sectarian).

    Pre-school
    Schools that care and educate the younger ones, some even have infant class.
    A growing place: it’s located at Forsyth and Big Bend road, next to Washington U. Danforth campus. It’s a small school, but I heard very good things about them from two people (one montessori teacher, and one parent).

    Faith Academy of Montessori: Housed in a historic 19th century train station in the heart of Webster Groves, Faith Academy is a Montessori preschool and kindergarten serving children and their families since 1982.

    Hope Montessori: they have many campuses but our favorite is the original one Creve Coeur. Also noted the infant toddler community. My old daughter attended there for 3 years (from 1.5 years old to 4.5 years old; from toddler to preschooler). The only downside I can see is the cost, the environment and teachers qualify is the best in STL.

    Kirkwood Children’s House: founded by Florence Kramer in 1985, is a Montessori preschool dedicated to the care and education of children ages 18 months to six year old.

    Visitation Academy: Viz is an independent, Catholic school offering a co-educational Montessori program in Grades Toddler through Kindergarten…

    RainTree school: emma reggio themed pre-school. I heard from my coworker. It’s a fairly new school, and they emphasize the outdoors (if you don’t mind wash kiddo’s clothes). Also they have some discount if you pay the whole year tuition in advance.

    The Waldorf School of St. Louis: the only Waldorf school in St. Louis, located in a Webster Groves neighborhood (residential area). They also have elementary school.

    Elementary schools
    Schools have elementary schools (or higher grades).
    Chesterfield Day School: Beginning in our Toddler program through First Grade, Chesterfield Day School’s premier Montessori School bridges to a strong and distinctive secondary school preparation program with personalized methodologies woven throughout.

    Chesterfield Montessori: “Chesterfield Montessori School was founded in 1981 as a private school serving children ages three to six. Today CMS is a well-established, non-profit school recognized by AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) offering authentic Montessori programs at all levels from toddlers (16 months) through 15 years…” Six years ago I toured the school on a sunny day after snow, a gorgeous view of the school, and wonderful facilities. I learned the “mixed ages kids in same class” from that visit.

    St. Michael’s School (about us): reggio approach is used. This may sound a bit surprising to some but note Visitation academy (catholic school) offers Montessori (see above)

    Which school to choose?
    This is very personal (individual family has to make this decision). Note there are many excellent public (Ladue, Clayton, Lindburgh, Kirkwood etc.), and private schools in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

    Also see the link here, here and here.

    To be continued…