Climbing Half-Dome At Yosemite

I took my oldest son up with a friend and his son to climb Half-Dome at Yosemite National Park this week.  It was the first week of summer vacation for our boys and one of our neighbors, who happens to love hiking, invited my oldest son to Yosemite with his family.  He asked me to come along so that there would be one dad for each of the boys during the long hike in case anything happened.  Well I have been running all year, about 2 miles every other day and thought I was in good shape.  The Half-Dome hike is 8 miles each way starting from an elevation of 4000 feet and ending at an elevation of 8500 feet.  I was winded after the first mile, but there was more.  My son and I somehow walked, crawled, and climbed our way up to the foot of the "cables" at Half-Dome.  The final 600 feet of the ascent requires you to hang on to cables on the side of the rock to get to the top of Half-Dome.  I think of myself as a risk taker, but on this day both my son and I were happy to say - "I think we'll just rest here at the foot of the cables, while you and your son make it up to the top."  I am now more impressed than ever of anyone who has trekked the 8 miles up the mountain and had enough energy and guts to climb up the final 600 feet with only your hands and a cable between you and the Yosemite Valley floor.  My survival instinct kicked into high-gear on that ledge and I really learned something new about myself.  I'm not as big of a risk taker with my life as I would have thought.  

We started at 6:30am in the morning and made it to the Half-Dome cables at around 12:30pm.  We rested there to about 2:00pm, while our friend and his son climbed the cables up the top of Half-Dome.  Coming down was easier, but not by much as our energy and our knees were about spent by the time we reached the Yosemite valley floor at around 7:30pm.  13 hours of hiking in one day was easily the toughest thing I have done physically.  Our friends want to do it again with our younger sons when they are old enough.  At this moment, as I try to recover from the muscle pains that linger, I am happy to have the memories of making it up to the cables and happy to be back on the ground safe at home.  Now if I can just get up out of my chair....

Speaking Chinese to My Boys

My wife and I came from Taiwan when we were very young about 7 years old.  As such, we do not speak Chinese to each other, or we would sound like a couple of 7 years olds talking to each other.  Even though our conversation typically is not all that deep, English is still our means of communications.  We debated about speaking to our 4 boys English only, since Chinese is our heritage and we felt very guilty that we weren't doing more to pass on that heritage.  With our 4th and last child we decided to give it a go and speaking Mandarin to him at home.  To our surprise he has grasped it beautifully, which made both my wife and I feel even more guilty that we did not make the effort with the other boys.  Well all of that changed for me when my wife came home excited that she had found a Mandarin tutor for our 3 other boys.  At a mere $70/hour, which was noted as very reasonable, the tutor would come to your house and speak with one child at a time in Mandarin.  The rate is much higher if we wanted all three to participate simultaneously.  $70/hour!  That was enough motivation for me to start speaking Mandarin to my boys at home.  My wife is not convinced that it will be affective, so I told her that after one week, if the experiment was ineffective/non-productive, then we can reconsider the tutor.  Last night I tried to speak only Mandarin to all my boys, with a lot of empty stares by at me "huh?"  I'm not giving up that easily.  This morning the boys said "jouw", which means "good morning" to me and I am once again encouraged that little by little they will pickup the Mandarin.  Even if I have to pay them $70/hr to listen to me, it would be worth it.  

Our Scootering 3 Year Old

Our 4th and youngest child turned 3 years old in April.  We are obviously busy with our boys since it is Little League season and 3 out of 4 of them are on teams this year.  Our youngest should have been potty trained by now, but we have been busy and a bit lazy.  Potty training is always a bit messy as you can imagine.  We bought a whole box of "pull-up" diapers, the kind that acts like a normal pair of underwear, but also works like a diaper as well.  Our youngest tells us now that he has gone pee in his pull-ups.  It's a good first step, but not exactly the peeing in the potty that we were hope for.  The timing is a bit off, and he doesn't quite understand that he should tell us when he "wants or is about to" pee and not afterwards.  No worries, he is becoming really fun.  We brought him to a parents night at the local elementary school and he was scootering around like a pro.  Since he has 3 older brothers, he has been scootering on two-wheels since he was 2 years old, so we really didn't notice how odd that is.  All of the other kids and parents were amazed to see a tiny 3 year old flying around the school yard scootering and balancing on 2 wheels.  Everything is accelerated in his life, because he mostly hangs around with his older brothers.  He can hit a baseball and throw pretty well for a 3 year old.  He seems to be growing up so fast, and even though we would love him to be out of diapers, there is a part of us that realizes it is our last one and a new chapter in our lives to be out of diapers as a family after 11 years!

He is certainly more advanced in somethings like baseball and scootering, but he still has the wonderful mind of a 3 year old.  The other night I rented several DVDs for the long Memorial Day weekend.  I named them off and one of the movies happened to be "Oliver Twist."  I asked the boys which one they wanted to watch first.  Our youngest said, I want to watch "all-of-the-toys."  

My wife and I are cherishing the moments with our toddler as our oldest prepares to "graduate" from elementary school next month.  It goes by so fast.

What To Make For Lunch

I'm surprised I didn't write more about this earlier, since it is a daily ritual of my wife and I.  What to make for the boys for lunch?  Our 1st grader cannot take peanut butter and jelly sandwiches due to some of the kids at school with nut allergies.  Take takes a whole option off the plate unfortunately.  We end up giving them turkey or egg salad sandwiches most of the time, but honestly I don't know whether they eat it or just through it away.  They use to bring back the sandwiches and I told them they that they needed to eat them and not bring them back.  So now I am left to wonder if there is landfill nearby filled with uneaten turkey and egg salad sandwiches.

The other trick with having 3 boys who need lunches is remembering their individual preferences.  You're probably thinking that we spoil our children, because who cares what their preferences are.  That's partially true, but the bottom line for us is that we want our boys to eat.  Being picky is a luxury we have in America.  One does like cheese, one doesn't, one wants Mayonnaise the other doesn't, one likes oranges, but does not like apples.  Yes, your right, I think we do spoil our boys.  At the end of the day, my wife knows that our boys will eat when they are hungry.  Our oldest is a good eater so I pack him a big lunch.  Our youngest is extremely picky, so it's usually half a sandwich and some snacks.  Somehow they are growing, so I know that they must be eating something.  Maybe they're trading up during lunchtime for something they like, which is completely okay with me.  As long as it isn't just chips and candy bars, of course.

Math Wars

I have been spending most of the day and evenings learning about the various math textbooks available for K-5 graders.  Our school district is going through a new math textbook adoption cycle, which will be for the next 7 years.  Frankly, I was not that concerned about it, but my wife began to do research.  You see, my wife is much more detailed and focused than I am.  When she focuses on a topic, she wants to know everything about it, but unfortunately when their are actions to be taken, that is when I enter the picture.  "Have you seen what is going on with the Math Adoption at school?"  "Nope, I think it will be fine" I respond.  "No, you need to read this and I want you to call the Superintendent and the School Board and attend these meetings...." she responds.  So you see, I have been spending the last two weeks doing just that.  I know more about math textbooks and the process of adopting a new textbook, than I ever wanted to know.

I am on our elementary school's site council, so I felt it was my duty to help address some of the issues with the particular "controversial" textbook that the committee chose.  Being the go between when you have teachers/staff on one side and parents on the other is no small task.  It's like those police negotiators that wear a bulletproof vest and enter a bank to negotiate for hostage release with the bank robbers.  In this case, the stakes are much higher.  Mine, my wife's, and our children's reputation in the community are on the line as I attend board meetings and present my thoughts.  The good thing that came out of this process is a realization of just how many parents care about the education of their children.  Not all, but many parents have spent hours and hours researching the various textbook curricula and the data supporting the teaching methods of other districts around the country and the world.  

At the end of day, however, I know that our boys are going to do just fine in Math no matter what textbook they choose for the district.  The reason I know this is that I'm sure we will supplement ourselves any shortcomings as well as provide outside tutoring if necessary.  We are a very privileged community and I am more worried about those family's will special financial or learning difficulties that may not be able to make up for curriculum shortcomings with additional tutoring or summer programs.  At the end of the day, it is for those parents and families who cannot or unwilling to speak up for themselves that I must present their cases to the board.  I remember when I first came to America and I could not speak English.  It is a good thing that my parents always taught us to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.  It is a good reminder of our responsibilities.