Growing up with a little of both and the lessons learned along the way
From the monthly archives:
As you know Maile attended this great camp at the Tinkering School last week. They posted a video on their blog today about what the kids built and I thought I’d share:
Action shot of the car going over the bridge...
How cool was that!?
They also wrote blog posts all week long (which I didn’t realize until today) that tells a fun story about the week:
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
(Click here for the video.)
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On Saturday, Christine took the girls to visit Grandma and Papa Hawaii. I received a text message when they landed and it seemed like mere minutes later I was already receiving videos of the girls jumping around in the backyard pool. My imagination has it that they literally threw their bags in their room, jumped into their bathing suits and were half way out the door before Mommy, Grandma and Papa could catch up…
BTW – Lauren 100% gets an “A” for effort in this video. Her determination to copy anything Maile does is awesome.
Just the beginning of lots of fun in the Hawaiian sun...
(Click here for the video.)
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Two years ago on our summer trip to Hawaii Lauren learned how to sit up by herself…
Lauren sitting for the first time in Hawaii...
Christine is taking the girls to Hawaii on Saturday for the week (I, unfortunately, am missing this trip). Can’t wait to see what the girls figure out on this trip!
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This week Maile is going to camp at the Tinkering School – a really cool camp that Christine found. Over the course of the week, the kids build a solution to a problem using all sorts of tools. This week they are trying to move a big box across a bridge (that they are also going to construct) and onto a boat.
From their web site: “We can promise this: we make big art, we build big things and we go amazing places.” – Pretty cool!
Maile has been pretty excited about using the tools (she said she was scared of the electric saw at first, but today she started using it). It’s a mix-aged camp as well and I think the kids really get a kick out of the “size” of the projects they are making.
Maile in front of the game plan that the kids have been working out...
Maile showed me the crane that she's been working on - this is the base. The kids have been cutting the wood and drilling it themselves.
Can’t wait to see where they end up by Friday!
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She’s still a few months away, but clearly Lauren is gearing up for preschool…
PS – She LOVES this song. Ask her to sing it, next time you see her 😉
(Click here for the video.)
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One of the parents at the birthday party took some great pictures of Maile and Lauren on the beach…
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A couple of Maile’s classmates were having a birthday party up in Point Reyes on Saturday. Its about an hour and half drive from the city, so I found a little cottage on Airbnb and we decided to make a weekend out of it. We drove up on Friday and came back Sunday AM. In between we had a fun visit to a part of the Bay Area that I’d never been to before.
The girls have been on a big Totoro kick lately so they were thrilled when we arrived at the cottage and it resembled the house in the story set way back in the woods as it was...
On Saturday morning we set off to find this abandoned boat that a friend had told us about. Clearly Maile thinks she has found it...
... and she was right! Doesn't this look like she is standing in front of a painting?
Family Picture (Maile nearly 6 and Lauren 2.5)
... and, of course, we had plenty of watermelon all weekend!
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(Apologize for missing a couple posts this week – busy times for the blogger 🙂
So proud of this girl!
Alas, we make it to the actual Kindergarten Graduation ceremony – they did a really nice job with a few songs in both Chinese and English and calling each kid up to receive a diploma and a proper handshake from their teachers.
The full ceremony is below – its about 7 minutes long. If you want to skip to see Maile Girl collect her diploma, you can go to the 3:22 mark.
The graduate accepting her Kindergarten diploma
(Click here for the video.)
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I sometimes reflect back on my own memories and try to think about what Maile will remember. Most of it is a big blur. My guess is this blog will play some role in helping Maile with her own memories. Or she’ll just be lucky and take after her mother instead of her father and remember absolutely everything.
To the extent my writing her has some influence, let me just remind you, Maile, that you had two amazing Kindergarten teachers! The didn’t coddle you, but they loved you and supported you and taught you so much. My guess is you were having so much fun most of the time that you didn’t even realize it. With them as your guide, your Chinese went from words strung together to full, confident sentences. And you used those words and sentences to explore so much of the world around you. Your senses. Our family. Art. Water and weather. The food we eat. How things move.
Yesterday I posted pictures of how much you grew and changed physically – but the mental and emotional changes you went through this year are even greater. Matthew Lao Shi and Lorraine Lao Shi were your guides every step of the way. You certainly don’t have everything sorted quite yet, but they led you well and gave you an incredible foundation to keep building upon.
Maile and Matthew Lao Shi
Maile and Lorraine Lao Shi
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