Being different or being unique? The walk starts at the Third Street Promenade. Go and take a look if you are in Santa Monica. What is it? Farmers market. Not really. A place to shop. Yes, but there is more. Cafe and restaurants. Yes, but there is more than that. There are the iconic Dinosaur topiary sculptures and fountains that stand there for decades in Santa Monica, California. There are street performers. And, there is this cool
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Amy is tired. She had a busy long day at work. Finally, dinner is done and she just wants to take a break. Little Josh is playing with his sister, Mary. “Maybe, we can skip today,” Amy thought. Skip the Chinese routine that she has started a couple of weeks ago. Don’t skip it. Don’t! Keep it, even it is only 5 minutes. You can make it short and sweet for you and the kids. Try one
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“Dinosaurs are coming! They are coming!” “Come! Dinosaur Come! Come!” “Go! Dinosaur go! Go!” Kids are excited about the game. Last time, the boys told me they love dinosaurs. So, when they saw me taking out my “precious” collection they were thrilled. First, we talked about the names of the dinosaur and the dragon. These are 恐龍 kǒng lóng 恐龙, I pointed to the dinosaurs. “Are Chinese dragons called 恐龍 kǒng lóng 恐龙?” I asked them. “龍
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Disclosure: “This post contains affiliate links. If you click and make a qualified purchase, Miss Panda Chinese will receive a small commission that will be used towards maintaining the site.” Happy Mother’s Day! 母親節快樂 mǔqīn jié kuàilè 母亲节快乐 is how we say “Happy Mother’s Day” in Mandarin. 母親 mǔqīn 母亲 is a respectful title for mother in Chinese. It is used in classical Chinese literature and it is a way to show respect to a mother from
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Children’s books for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and every day! Great stories can engage children. Reading can take kids to explore the world through words and pictures. Heritage culture instills in your family. You and your children can celebrate it daily. Heritage culture on the basic level we hear the language and we taste the authentic food at home. However, it goes much deeper than that. With the heritage language children can communicate with people from
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Kids were having a great time in the classroom before I left for my next class. There was an end of the year class party going on. After I finished the last class I quickly walked back to the second grade classroom. I saw John, one of the students, sobbing. John was standing next to Mrs. Watanabe. Red teary eyes. Tears. Now, he was crying. Crying so hard. Mrs. Watanabe was hugging him and trying to calm
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Jane is the head coach for Science Olympia. She has an extensive engineer background and she wants to recruit parents to be coaches for the weekly after-school practice. These elementary school students who are sitting in the cafeteria for the first team meeting are excited. They are more interested in what they are going to do and what they are going to build than all the logistics parents are talking about. Tammy’s son is in the team.
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Piano teacher. “What’s your piano teacher’s name?” I asked. One of the kids answered, “I don’t know.” They all shrugged their shoulders. Then, another one whispered to me, “We don’t like her.” The poor piano teacher. I had one, too. He was my poor piano teacher years ago. He always said I was not ready for the recital. My friend, Yu did. He was so good at playing piano. He practiced playing the piano every day. His
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Connecting Cultures. Home culture connects with community culture. Classroom cultures connect with home culture. School cultures connect with community culture. It is like a circle. This connection expands. The first year I had the dumpling-making event at school. The teachers were supportive and the kids were excited. Then, a teacher came to me and told me that the cafeteria might not work with the hours we needed for the event. I went to see the cafeteria manager
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Play peekaboo with a young child is a lot of fun. The giggles, laughter, and excitement are the sound of joy. I had a baby blanket between my baby girl and me. “Mèimei zài nǎlǐ？” I asked. The baby blanket was between us. Mèimei zài nǎlǐ？(pinyin) Where is the little sister? (English translation) 妹妹在哪裡? (traditional Chinese) 妹妹在哪里? (simplified Chinese) There was silence. “Mèimei zài nǎlǐ？” I asked again. In a few seconds, I dropped the blanket. Almost
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