Christmas 2014

​‘Tis another season has gone by.  My love for the holiday merriment lives on each year.  It seems like everyone is so happy and cheerful, even as they deal with stress from work or society.  I enjoy seeing the excitement in their anticipation of a pending vacation.  (Maybe I’m projecting…)  2014 has been a great year for academics in our household.  Books were everywhere…literally!

My 3 y.o. started his bilingual preschool and is enjoying it.  He, however, figured it out that Saturday was a rest day.  Therefore, his dislike for Mondays started while love for Fridays grew.  Even with his dismay, he is learning at lightning speed.  In additional to his alphabet, he is learning basic math in Chinese and English.  Unfortunately, he is learning at the same level as my 5 y.o. in public school doing the Common Core.  And they wonder why our kids can’t compete on the world stage.  Pssh!

My middle child started kindergarten in public school.  It is agonizingly slow.  They teach a letter a day and then a color a day, even though he knows how to write, read, add, and subtract fluently.  The principal of the school argued that we needed to put him in ESL (which is now called “English Language (EL)” class) because he speaks multiple languages.  She ignored the fact that English is the primary language spoken at home.  I don’t know, maybe it’s my Chinese accent.

As for my eldest, the books consume her.  She wakes up practically every morning at 6am to read her books.  She finished the complete Harry Potter series in 3 months.  She continues her violin and ballet classes with annoyance, as they require constant practice sessions.  She defends her brothers every time we discipline them, right or wrong.  I’m beginning to think this girl has a career in the crooked field of litigation.

This year my husband showed his “Tiger Dad” side.  He made our daughter take her violin with us on our trip to the Grand Canyon.  It was a 5-days trip, 2 of which were spent driving in traffic.  He was going to bring the keyboard too, but there was not enough room in the car.  And y’ all thought I was the Tiger Mom.  I’m sure one day my children will appreciate the “Meannie”.

Finally, it has been an exciting year for me as I tread through multiple classes and seminars all while maintaining a private office.  As much as I don’t like to admit it, I love being “in school”.  I love learning.  I love learning dentistry and all its advances in technology and research.  I also love learning about irrelevant things in my life, i.e. Harry Potter.  As my daughter reads each book, my husband and I are watching the movie to catch up with her at night.  Then we let her tell us the stories all over again.  It was actually a real fun bonding time.  Even her brothers wanted to hear the stories.

As always, our household sustains that “je ne sais quoi” chaos of deep emotions ranging from insanity to utter love.  We could not have arranged our lives any better.  Each step is a process onto a bigger lesson and story to tell.  So from our little home to yours, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The Frozen movie theme...(L-R) Kristoff, Olaf, Sven (Photon), and of course the ice queen Elsa.