Raising Rockstar

Been awhile (again) since the last linkie…

Hands up, whose kids get influenced by all kinds of media stuff, at least some of which you would rather stick ’em in a hole so they never hear of, much less Google it……..

Because he’d found Scratches of Batman v Superman among others, Rockstar had a mild fascination with Superman in particular (he says Batman is too cynical about life so he prefers the alien). Thus began our conversation about powers:

Rockstar: …..So d’you think the real guy in the Superman movies also has powers? I mean like, super strength and speed, just not the flying or heat vision? D’you think there could really be superheroes from science accidents?  

Me: They’re actors. Sure some actors have to be especially physically fit for the role, but the original guy who played Superman was only acting as Superman…. right up until he had an accident in real life that is.

The late great Christopher Reeve as the original Superman – pic from businesstimes.com

And then he became a real life superhero.

A year after a fall while riding left him paralysed from the neck down, Christopher Reeve appears onstage at the 68th Academy Awards to prolonged standing ovation – pic from ibtimes.co.uk

Superheroes exist in real life, they just don’t wear costumes. Or rather, instead of colourful spandex, cape and an irritating cowlick, their “costumes” look more like wheelchairs or a lack of limbs.  

I’ve mentioned this guy before; aside from being a motivational speaker in general, he mentions counselling teenagers with body issues – pic from betterreading.com.au

We got the childrens’ books too; Nick Vujicic talks about how he has no limbs, and yet can fly (having travelled to countless countries as a motivational speaker)

It’s terrifying, yet true bravery, achievement and heroism is only through strife. Life sucks <shrugs>. I mean, something that costs you nothing is worth just that <shrugs again>. (Like I said, Life Sucks, but…)

Grumpy Cat* agrees!

(*On an aside, Tardar Sauce or, to use her celebrity name Grumpy Cat, Internet and Meme Phenom, is an accomplished coffee table and self help book model.)

In David and Goliath (which is, among others, a book about underdogs and how sometimes they’re “underdogs” only through our eyes), Malcolm Gladwell talks about the secret advantage of “disability”. Gary Cohn, President and COO of Goldman Sachs whose life and career experiences are cited in the book, has described his dyslexia, “I wouldn’t be where I am today without my disability.”

I mean, isn’t this Just One Freaking Ugly Cat. Besides Fox News there’s probably also an Ellen spot in there, and you know NASA’s gonna wanna talk to this thing. (It’s a real cat, right? Not like, an alien?)

In other words…

MILK IT, BABY.

pics from 50 Funniest Grumpy Cat Memes.

Ok, I’m sorry, while messing with the Memes I found another one I have to further digress with:

Of course Jesus, Moses, Vishnu, Buddha, Steve Jobs and Tom Cruise have Facebook accounts and want to be your Friend. And I think God is on Twitter, along with the Mars Rover.

From Best Memes 2012 (this is my out for showing this horrible thing. “Jesus” btw is Facebook Update-ing a line from New God Flow, off Kanye West’s Cruel Summer album.)

There’s a convoluted aside in there about how when your kids are old enough to read there will come a time when you will not want them to. Then again:

How many words do you need for this?

This is from Daredevil Teens Take Extreme Selfie Video. It doesn’t say, but I suppose this might be illegal, and a little risky to life and limb?

Oh, I’m no fun?  Just a sec while I post these, before I respond to that:

Old blog post here, video here.

(Formatting – this is not too long after we first moved the blog to WordPress, having been on Kings’ old dream blog platform that he aspired to build, back then – Kings transferred the early posts hurriedly and without telling me, when he first decided to leave off the platform, which basically meant I would then lose the blog a few years in… Yes that’s why I even have one – the hub once needed an experimental blog to slice and dice. The blog has been taken apart and nearly flatlined more than once.)

Now back to my point about the Daredevil Teens: No these aren’t cool abilities, these kids are being incredibly irresponsible. They could get hurt, they could inspire other kids to try it and get hurt. (In fact, some already have.) So says the boring, gutless, near-middle-aged, otherwise-relatively-social-media-shying little killjoy who jumped out a plane at 15,000 feet.

(Remember I said I started out blogging only because the hub needed a Frankinblog to take apart? That included building traffic, but that was the worst bit because I couldn’t sleep when the blog first got publicised. Now I at least think it’s good for something – pressure to keep my thoughts (and typing) in check as I parent, in a way I can’t do if I have less accountability and can say anything without publicly signing my name to it. It forces me to “clean up my act”.

Can’t remember which famous motivational speaker I first heard say it – you can’t parent effectively with hypocrisy. The kids won’t listen to you (hell, even without the hypocrisy it’s almost impossible to get them to listen to you). I think it’s going to be a few more years of not getting arrested for stuff just because you don’t want your kids to go to jail (:D this is of course an exaggeration – I remember a mummy boss heading a mid-sized dealing room who bemoaned her loss of tv privileges when her 10 year old had exams – see how LIFE SUCKS? Kids are incredibly selfish, incapable of being blind to your transgressions even as you proceed to ban them from tv, alcohol, candy, recreational drugs, boyfriends/girlfriends, social media gossip, Candy Crush, smoking, spending too much on clothes/shoes/devices/buying pets/buying cars/buying tvs/ buying computers/ buying cellphones ok you get my drift :P)

For real though – every time you “like” one of these Daredevil Teen things on social media, you are another (otherwise) unnamed stranger encouraging someone else’s kid to take a horrible risk. Nope, I never thought of it this way either, until someone with 4 teenaged children mentioned it.

It’s a myth adrenaline is illegal.

Here’s a “daredevil” teen/tween who got his kicks being um, just very hardworking at the tasks he was given:

Will Smith’s son Jaden Smith in Karate Kid with Jackie Chan

I remember once watching Jackie Chan on B-roll telling Chris Tucker off for not switching his cell phone off during filming, and on another clip expressing disapproval at a young pretty co-star for having the giggles and wasting film. Each time he used the word “unprofessional”. And so when he said the quote below about Jaden Smith having described how he had his trusted staff observe the then-tween on-set during filming of Pursuit of Happyness for 3 months before taking his dad Will Smith up on doing Karate Kid with him:

“He can take the pain. He can take whatever we teach him. Even when he’s crying, he still does it… I think he’s the luckiest boy in the world, but he deserves it…”

Respect  this little kid ok. (And I have Rockstar to thank for coming across this)

Justin Bieber’s Never Say Never. Never mind what I think of JB and his hair, this one features Jaden Smith’s rap:

“…I been tryin’a chill, they been tryin’a sour the thrill; No pun intended I was raised by the Power of Will; So now I got the world at my hand, I was born of two stars so the moon’s my land…”

Love the rap. Thought it was especially significant how he owned it, acknowledged his privileged upbringing without being intimidated by his parents’ stardom, and then just worked his little butt off anyway. How would you like it if your dad called Jackie Chan for you? Thrilled? Yeah, for like, 5 minutes, before you maybe start to hyperventilate about everyone’s expectations and oh yeah, don’t forget you are 11 years old. (Jaden Smith btw is Will Smith’s second son, his eldest is an accomplished DJ with his own acronym, AcE, who was once offered a sports scholarship to college (that he turned down)).

I had the privilege of working/ being acquainted with a few people who had mega-successful parents and they sometimes hated for people to mention their familial connections (because they were super-sensitive about anyone thinking they didn’t get where they were on their own steam), or feel extremely intimidated or pressured professionally to keep up – regardless of anything their own parents said or did. 

While Malcolm Gladwell acknowledges the secret advantage of disability, I also think there is a secret disadvantage to privilege. (Think how difficult it is to “just have fun” on the soccer field if you grow up David Beckham’s son.)  

Oh…kay. Lemme see if I can possibly find my way back to the original point, which was…. erm….  Superheroes and Superpowers. Rockstar’s original question about powers.

Oh, look. Another Alien with Powers. pic from theguardian.com

Urban legend has it the late great Leonard Nimoy was so convincing as Dr Spock in Star Trek that he wanted to quit, after receiving fan mail from a little boy facing critical illness who so believed in Dr Spock’s powers that he wrote to Mr Nimoy beseeching to be healed.

Yet while the power to heal was not at those fingertips so famously poised in Vulcan greeting, Mr Nimoy is remembered as a gifted artist, author, and person, in some pretty memorable quotes. My favourites:

“You proceed from a false assumption: I have no ego to bruise.”

“Whatever I have given, I have gained…… The miracle is this: the more we share the more we have.”

Have a good week ahead, dears. pic from Wikipedia

ps: I know, I know. Pic of the kids before I get complaints 😉

Miss-Skit is titled Miss Does A Wally:

Where ISS… the MiSS…

(Red Herring alert. Major.)

This is a picture of The Rockstars tripping off to camp one morning.

The Miss is in an asymmetrical hem-water colour print Betsey Johnson dress embellished with studs scored online heavily marked down, for HKD 100-something (seriously). To commemorate the occasion, she eschewed her usual purple Nikes in favour of Rockstar’s shearling Uggs which she has laid claim to, having scored the boots after rummaging through our shoe cabinet one morning.

We don’t ever remember a younger Rockstar wearing those, we bought them from some giant warehouse as a standby one snowy vacation, in case his sneakers weren’t warm enough when he wasn’t in ski boots (he spent most of his ski camp days in ski boots). The Miss considers them a favour well earned, after excavating the deepest bowels of our cabinet, pulling those on and declaring them a perfect fit. Free Favourite Boots. She loves taking over Rockstar’s hand-me-downs and making them her own.

Rockstar is eagerly going for a coding course originally for 11-15 year olds (but in an area he’s familiar with hence the coding school said it would be ok; otherwise we would definitely not try this) – in the clothes he slept in, the previous night. He observed it was “great” his pyjamas were wearable to camp the next day. (Obviously this was a matter of opinion but Pick Your Battles, Aileen.)

Which just about sums up what these two are like.

From Wikipedia: “A ninja (忍者^?) or shinobi (忍び^?) was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of the ninja included: espionage, sabotage, infiltration, assassination and guerrilla warfare.^[1] Their covert methods of waging irregular warfare were deemed “dishonorable” and “beneath” the samurai–caste, who observed strict rules about honor and combat…”^[

I blame the Americans. Without the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and GI Joe (they get a couple ninjas to serve in the US army), and That Whole Hugely-Entertaining-But-Completely-Torturing-Japanese-History-To-Death American Ninja Warriors our kids would not all want to be ninjas. I mean, lookit:

This is Work, People. (pic from 2paragraphs.com)

(pic from Youtube.com)

Yup, and here the rockstars at the newly-renovated Ryze Trampoline Park:

Why, yes, he jumped from the other rope sack

Xena Warrior Princess – no, scratch that, we aren’t allowed to call her Princess, she currently goes by Queen Elsa (seriously – because Queen Elsa has powers and runs a country) – has about 4-5 serious meltdowns in this place on average, per 1 hour session, now the Ninja Pit is up. This is because she gets really, really angry when she can’t do the stunts.

Oh, and I need to qualify another thing about her accepted moniker – Rockstar and boys in general are not allowed to refer to her as such. To all boys, she is Little Miss Rockstar. Only girls may address her Highness as the Queen. This is because boys do not have the respect for Queen Elsa that girls do. (Which is actually true – you can almost hear Rockstar’s Sniff Of Disdain when he so much as looks at anything Frozen.)

Guess how he’s getting down from there.

This – right here this – is why good people end up sending their kids to this Place of Torture For Hapless Dads. I name it such because there used to be a Dodgeball pit here. Every so often some poor dad decides to be all on-the-ball Cool Fun Dad and steps into the Dodgeball arena……. Whereupon all the kids predictably turn on him.

Fresh Meat For The Lions! Let’s annihilate The Dad! Fun! This is because as a Cool Fun Dad On Your Day Off From Work you kinda have to swallow it when kids hurl balls at your head as hard as their skinny little arms’ll let them. Usually, they won’t even be your kids. Usually also, when a Mum goes in, none of the kids really dare to go after her because she’s probably going to scold everyone for throwing balls in the dodgeball pit. “It. Doesn’t Matter. What. Dodgeball. Issabout. No. Throwing.“

An interesting observation about social practice and parenting in Hong Kong, lots more dads are the ones away working and when they get back the kids take advantage 😀 The mums are more likely to be the – Don’t You Dare Hit My Child With A Ball. You Want To Die Issit? – and the – Son. Daughter. No Throwing Things. Don’t You Dare Throw Balls. You Want To Die Issit?  – Parents. (This paragraph was audited by Rockstar. A Dodgeball veteran, he has pronounced this “completely true.”)

We’ll call this an Ode To The Dads, Some Of Whom Were Also Responsible For Foam Pits Being Shut Down When They Attempted Trampoline Jumps And Lost Their IPhones And Watches In There.

Alas, we knew them well.

But What A Way To Go.

150 kids on stage… 10 new songs to learn with stage directions and choreographed movements… 2 weeks to prepare, following Chinese New Year break and a rescheduled Sports Day….. It’s not les Miserables, iiiiiitttt’s the Kennedy School Year 4 Show to kick off their next learning unit: Sharing The Environment.

Planet Plenty on the left, Planet Pleasant on the right

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, was a certain Planet, aptly named Plenty. The inhabitants “lived for today”, staying up late as much as they wanted, driving around in their cars and rocket ships, with a swimming pool in every yard.

One day, Planet Plenty’s king has an epiphany: “What’s going on, my lawn’s all brown?” When the animals start dying and the lion kings petition the human king, they know they have to do something.

Rockstar: Cos all their animals died except the lion king. 

Me: ?? There were like, 3 lions? Maybe more?

Rockstar: <shrugs> KingS. The animal kingdom’s not the same as the humans, they can have more than one king. 

Me: You guys just make this up along the way, don’t you.

Rockstar: <not looking up> O-or, there’s Google.   

The Royal Scientists had some chim (deep) lines in the play…

The Royal Scientists explaining carbon dioxide from emissions (sorry ah, I really like their facial expressions in this one… That means however, other people’s children’s faces on the blog… I took the picture on my cellphone, of one of the pics displayed around the school..)

Like so… (And there goes the king about his business behind Rockstar)

(Drop me a line if the shot of the Scientists is not ok, it’ll be gone in a flash…)

And Rockstar….

Rockstar the gangsta rapper homeless hippie alien narrator

He was Narrator #17. I don’t know how many narrators there were in the whole play,  he said the kids could choose speaking or non-speaking parts (really love this about the school – in this sense there is no vying for a top role, anyone who wants to speak will get some lines, and there’s no pressure for kids to speak or not; Rockstar chose to have a speaking role, and it was nice to see some of his friends who have had stage fright in the past in speaking roles too.

With more pressure or competition I’m not sure Rockstar and some of his friends would’ve enjoyed their little start at “public speaking” – he’s really not a competitive kid, nor the sort who enjoys a spotlight (his sister, on the other hand… :D) Narrators can choose whether to dress as Residents of the Planet Plenty, or Pleasantites. Rockstar being Rockstar said no way is he ever wearing anything posh. Since his best buddies were all hippies or cyclists, even more so.

Speaking of costumes.

Rockstar’s came from an old Halloween costume…. and a Zara girls’ cardigan (which I was careful to remove the labels from as well, when I chopped off the sleeves).

But there’s a little sidestory behind his bling (recycled rubber Ryze bracelets and that Peace chain):

Firstly, that one with the green cord is not Rockstar’s, it’s his friend’s – the mums were thinking to take metal cutters to the chains those big Peace signs came with; but when I tried to do it Rockstar said don’t bother –

He fine wit da bling (Pic of Fabolous from telegraph.co.uk)

Thing with the costumes was, while the kids had 2 weeks to learn the material for the show, the mums had *just* maybe half that time to source clothes for their kids, because they wear all the stuff to rehearse and do the show preliminarily for kids in other years in the school. This is where I invoke the Divine Secrets of the Yaya Sisterhood of Mums Whose Kids Need To Get Stuff And Fast. One of my mum friends cottoned on the Peace signs – at 9am in some market place, no less – and that’s how we all wit da bling. There is just no way you can easily go it alone, sourcing all the stuff kids “need” (money has nothing to do with it, it’s all about the cool and your kid’s idea of cool is not likely to also be yours) without sharing the load of sourcing stuff with some mum friends.

Kid With Retro Aviators And Long Blond Hair has my vote for Best Costume Ever though; and as for the decadent Inhabitants of Plenty, I like the coral blazer with the gold chain.

Wonder where they got the blazer, I don’t think tailored clothes come cheap, so non-basic  coloured (i.e. harder to reuse) tailored clothes for kids to me are quite decadent. So Plenty. He’s even got shoulder pads. So I wouldn’t be surprised if some mum altered that for their kid in the two weeks we had.

Remember this one couple Halloweens ago where Rockstar’s friend went as Geronimo Stilton? His mum tailored the green jacket herself…

Rockstar goes to school with the COOL kids…

Re Best Dressed Hippie Kid, was thinking Wow This Kid Really Looks Like One Of The Original Charlie’s Angels. And then much later Rockstar happened to mention the long blond hair is a wig, and that’s one of his buddies under those flowing locks.

Me: That’s (Rockstar’s buddy’s name)?!

Rockstar: Yeah. I know. Everybody thought he should’ve been a shepherd. We kept asking, ‘You’d get to carry a big stick. Why don’t you be a shepherd?’ 

Me: ? You mean…. like…….. Moses? 

Rockstar: Yeah! He gets to wave the stick, and……..!

pic from shows.sights-sounds.com

Me: Um, different storyline?

Rockstars: <ignores> No more swimming lessons. Done. 

Me: I thought you liked swimming lessons. 

Rockstar: Huh. Yeah, but… that would be so cool with the water, like the Force or something. Right Miss?

Miss: Elsa! I want Elsa! <starts doing the ice-ray motion>

pic from Disney.wikia.com

OH……Kay.

This plot, the inhabitants of Planet Plenty lead an environmentally irresponsible life that ruins their planet, and to save it they travel to Planet Pleasant, to learn from the Pleasantites (who reuse, reduce, recycle, ride bikes instead of joyride around in their rockets).

Rockstar in the playground a little later with one of his good friends, dressed as a cyclist (whose jersey however is personalised with his own name in back 🙂

Bunch of Rockstar’s friends (himself included) enjoyed the lively singing and dancing. Wait. Rockstar doesn’t sing. Wasn’t too long ago, I watched Rockstar stand up on that same stage amongst a smaller group, and…. totally kayu. Not move. Forget he was supposed to have some actions along with the words to the song they were singing. I once put Rockstar in a local music creativity class because I remembered playdates where his friends would be doing whole dance sequences, whereas Rockstar didn’t really like to sing unless he’d forgotten it was actual singing.

But wow, now lookit.

OMG. He’s singing, he’s actually singing – and with gusto – in this one

There’s kids who ride, dance or cartwheel across the stage with newly-acquired cycling/ dancing/ gymnastics skills (all the better to not let those extra classes go to waste – last Chinese Assembly some kids showed off martial arts skills as well as fluency in Chinese too)… and there’s usually rapping or beat-boxing too.

And this. Recycled bottles and things as musical instruments. Yes they really played those giant water bottles as part of the show.

In about 45 minutes, 10 songs, choreographed routines and various Science facts and figures (not to mention comic relief), Planet Plenty is saved.

Lots more dancing and singing. The Ends.

Back to class (because Business As Usual)…

Encore:

Around the school and leading up to the hall are the kids’ pictures – before performing for parents, they do the shows for the other year bands as well. That means the kids always get some extra entertaining “lessons” by watching each other, in addition to passing the artwork and photographs as they go about their school day…

I have a bunch of stuff written in pieces, none completed, and I told Rockstar I didn’t have anything to post yet. He recommended these Scratch projects for your viewing pleasure, that he came by in the course of looking for inspiration for his schoolwork (yes, the Year 4s have started on Scratch).

In his words: “Blog post. Done.” (Hit command+R if you don’t see the windows; it’s my first time embedding Scratch :P)

(Link here)

Kids have the most amazing imaginations and creativity. They make egg carton ATM machines and Fashion Week Runway-Worthy outfits from recycled papers and plastic bags and bottle caps and what-not. They have imaginary careers (oh wait, some of us do that too :D). They make imaginary friends*. (Uh…)

Also, Rockstar had a public service message (seriously):

You Are What You Do. <ominous clap of thunder> (and link here)

(Isn’t this hilarious? Rockstar says one (or both) were done by an 11 year old kid “at least he said he was 11, in one of the video’s comments”)

ps: *Rockstar’s imaginary friends were aliens named Zippety and Yeeka; the Miss has haughtily declared her friends aren’t imaginary, her friends are real.

They’re real animals. They have real birthday parties.

Remember when Rockstar couldn’t eat his snack because of the party?

…And they call her on their cellphones for real conversations. 

Yup, these are the things our kids grow up with these days, turning our children to lives of  crime and nail polish -pic from mentalfloss.com

The Miss takes calls from a fish she met in Margaret River last Christmas. Like I’m smart enough to make this stuff up.

Lobsta in da house…
Remember the Miss’ lobster Bud?

He died. The other one initially didn’t, but then when we got what appeared to be fairly un-aggressive larger lobsters to replace the tiny one the Miss lost, Ka-Bluey got himself eaten. (Sometimes it IS the size of the dog in the fight…)

Rockstar didn’t mind that much, because that one was a real little meanie – ate all our goldfish and I got myself pinched hard a few times when we had to change tanks (that’s taking kindness for weakness for you – we didn’t want to leave him in the tank we were throwing away, didn’t want to use chopsticks to dig him out and maybe break him in two, so I used my fingers. And while it was still too small to draw blood, Wow That Is Just The Most @sshole Lobster I’ve Ever Met.)

So anyway now we have two larger red lobsters. And one of ’em appears to finally be aspiring to what I was hoping for, in getting the kids these creepy little things – every time we sit on the living room sofa next to the tank, Bud II emerges, waving his claws maniacally about.

It’s quite comical. There we have this little tank decorated with a cliff-side like what you might see in some Chinese-style painting…. and every time you sit next to it this 3-inch lobster emerges and starts crashing about (yes he climbs up the scenic mountainside as well.)

What he wants for his troubles is an algae tablet. Or 3.

Polly Want A Cracker?

Lobsters have a pretty good sense of smell, the moment food hits the water, they get pretty excited. Especially Waverly here. These two have been flourishing on the algae tablets I initially bought for an ornate species of sucking catfish (caveat: DON’T buy those, they die much easier than the regular ones) and unlike the cooked chicken meat some websites recommend you feed lobsters, the algae tablets don’t cloud the water. They’ve also been shedding their shells, much to the entertainment and education of the kids. (You’re supposed to leave the shells in the water, the lobsters will eventually finish eating their own shells, it’s apparently good nutrition for them.)

I like lobsters better than your regular terrapins, they don’t mess up the tank water as much (and yes I’ve also kept both lobsters and terrapins, pre-rockstars. As well as grown up with 8 dogs, 16 hamsters, an albino rat… And one of those ugly black bottom-feeding sucking catfish that would root about my fingers looking for food.) I have a point in there somewhere, it’s…. that the catfish could tell to whom the fingers belonged, and this kinda makes you look at critters differently. And I just finally found a lobster that does something like that too.

Why?

I believe all manner of living things have something to teach little kids. From when Rockstar asks if plants are aware of us, whether they communicate amongst themselves (why yes, a younger Rockstar asked if plants have their own language – d’you know the answer to that? 🙂 ), to the Miss always being gentle with animals (while not always being gentle with her brother or adult humans haha)…

(I’d still Crush Cockroaches though 🙂 recognise her?*)

*anyone out there still remember Singapore’s 1994 Masters of the Sea, where Margaret Chan delivers her most iconic line, “I’ll crush him like a cockroach”?

(Ok, cockroaches were around way back to annoy even the dinosaurs, so it’s not like you are doing this species any harm – not to mention they can smell fear. If you are terrified of them is when they will run or fly straight at you. So they are @ssholes. Them and mosquitos. Rockstar’s been reading the Maze Runner series and discussing biological weapons, and we were on the point about how one of the most devastating weapons would no longer be a bomb that produces a mushroom cloud; it would be mosquitos seeded with some new and terrible virus. You don’t have border control or radar or heat-seeking missiles for those.)

Anyway. It’s not just the dogs and the cats, it’s a lot of other animals. I don’t explain it well, but I’ll try:

recognise him?

I remember growing up hearing that Walt Disney, at the time penniless and lonely, befriended a mouse that lived in his garbage cans. When my mum first told me that, I must’ve been not much older than Rockstar. And I remember thinking, “sharing with that garbage mouse taught him something.” What was it?

We don’t have a name for it. But we’re keeping the lobsters.

#41 

During open play the kids can choose what they want to do, and the Miss appears to find her way to the junk-modelling station almost daily. This would be where I imagine egg cartons, plastic drink bottles, kitchen towel rolls (no toilet paper rolls or medicine bottles allowed) and various scraps of coloured papers and fabrics abound. The little kiddies (the Miss not yet 4) can make whatever their hearts and imaginations desire.

“Community” was the big word in recent lessons, and so this had the effect of the following “junk-modelling” art sent home from school:

Community-conscious and fastidious insect larvae

And this – “…a car that helps people and gives presents to everyone for the community” – is when Santa’s reindeer retire (and the dog is giving me this Are You Nuts Look for taking cellphone pic apparently)

These things…. are trading cards.

(pics from equestriadaily.com and supernerdland.com)

Rockstar’s been on my back for like, forever, to blog this. Seriously.

Trading cards is a good name for these things. Arguably the most popular ones are the soccer ones, though they also come in Frozen, Minions, Star Wars, Hello Kitty, Avengers, Inside Out and goodness-knows-what-else-series. We love these things. They’re about HKD 5-12 a pack, kids can get up a collection, and they’re oh, so much better than the latest bulky junky lights-and-sounds toy. Instead of another toy or worse candy, there’s HKD 5 Inside Out Sticker Cards! (And btw that Inside Out sticker-album-with-story that you get from 7-11 has one of the best narrations from the movie as well as some awesome activities.)

(And btw – Inside Out – totally over-the-top recommend. Rockstar was first showed this at school – more on that and Thought Coach Homework later on – though it took the Miss a couple tries to understand that most of the show is going on in 11 year old Riley’s head. The way in which the makers of this computer animation express Emotions, Personality as “powered” (well it is also a children’s show) by Memories, Train of Thought, Abstract Thought and even how some of Riley’s memories start to fade is nothing short of amazing. And I have to tell you about Riley’s Imaginary Friend because Rockstar had one too – as Riley grows up, she forgets her imaginary friend forever – and you feel sad, but you know it’s gotta happen, because being a grownup with a pink Imaginary Friend named Bing Bong is just creepy. People will not find you cute, they will find you a padded room.)

So anyway, kids trade these card things, and I find the learning opportunity in the barter trade to be under-rated. It is a whole little kiddie History of Barter Trade/ Currency/ Exchange Rates illustration for you to use. (5 Elsa cards = 2 Pokemon, anyone? And then the Country of Pokemon experiences a Central Bank Rate Cut and so PokeCurrency shalt depreciate against ElsaLand’s and so you’ll now have to do three Pokemon cards, thank you very much. Ok someone’s gonna put me in a padded room.)

Every year/ season/ cycle, various kinds of these cards get banned from school. Some case or other of kids getting upset over misplaced cards/ un-commensurate trades will happen. But they must surely not ban everything entirely because of the learning opportunities in terms of negotiation and erm, debating skills afforded.

So one day Rockstar makes a “bad” trade. He trades his Absolute Best Card in his 2-years-ago Star Wars collection (a.k.a can’t buy the series anymore, regardless of card score) for a less good card because his friend convinces him that when you can’t buy them anymore is when they’re not valuable because there is now a new Star Wars movie out. (See what I mean by negotiation skills? Increasingly we see more method in the madness of anti-kumon-style play-based-learning.)

The parents undid the trade, no harm no foul, though I just had to rub it in that a trade’s a trade and so we offered more cards as a “penalty” for getting out of this one but the other mum wouldn’t let Rockstar’s friend accept the extra. And then they finally made Rockstar’s friend return the card and not get his own card back so we feel kinda badly about that one. Rockstar surely does. And not getting to return his friend’s card but getting his own valuable one back has turned out to be an even bigger penalty for Rockstar than giving his friend more cards. Which is why he’s made me blog it.

And I always have to put a pic of the kids so the Miss shall contribute this one. Yes she is hanging from a rope. But then she is a monkey.

Stuff To Write Home About…… eventually. Because The Great Grandparent Tour And Then Some over CNY (hey, I’ve managed to blog at 3am waiting to fall back to sleep after feeding the Miss and changing her, I’ve taken notes while waiting around for an emergency C-section, I’ve written on my cellphone while hooked up 4 painful hours a day pumping to feed the Miss… so if I haven’t been posting on a trip to Malaysia you know we must’ve been quite tied up)…

Anyway I have some other writing that takes priority, and that’ll take up my juice awhile longer before I can make like Arnie Wit Da Harley, but I’ll be back here eventually. Meantime…

This is Rockstar’s latest homework, it was in a book and he had some pages to fill in at home including this one.

(I… know. This is like, Homework From The Thought Coaches, and I’m still amazed Year 4 kids get these lessons – I think even grownups need this)

And what happened to Rockstar here?

Why is Rockstar dressed like a homeless gangsta rapper?

Oh yeah, and this is some other Year 4 kid’s classwork.

Yes, this is a dollar bill featuring – not one of the previous US Presidents or some other prominent leader, but some… Evil.Guy With Pitchfork. (Oh, same difference? 😀 ) For now though…

Achievement alert

The Miss has had two bouts of sickness coupled with the messiest of phlegm-vomits late in the night, each time. If you’ve ever had a little girl thoroughly vomit into her long hair while nicely tucked into bed at 2am, you’ll know wha’ I’m talkin’ about. Getting her back on her early morning school bus (much earlier than Rockstar’s) what with us living furthest from the bus stop was seriously dance-worthy.

More, when I get my writing marbles back…