Field trip to Chabot Space Center

I decided to take a day off of work and be a part of Penny's first field trip by volunteering to chaperone.  My job was to be in charge of a group of three girls for the day.  

It was a fun, but exhausting day.  There were the typical events that you might expect; kid getting car sick from the bus ride, kids whining for lunch, kids running into each other and crying, and kids fighting over who gets to sit with who on the bus ride home.  But, overall the kids were very excited and had a great time.

They may not have learned much from the science exhibits that were slightly "over their heads".  For example, in the "Climate Lab exhibit" one of my girls read the word, "fermentation" and asked what it meant.  I thought about it for a second and started to explain in language that she would understand. As soon as I started speaking, she ran away to look at something else...  I was reminded that at this age, the point of many of the things that they are exposed to, is to have fun and to start getting excited about learning rather than to really understand the meaning and purpose.

Japanese school

Penny and Max started Japanese school in February!

I have had some regret about not teaching them Japanese until now.  But, Japanese words do not instinctively come first for me when speaking, so speaking to them in Japanese would be somewhat of a forced and difficult thing to do.  Also, since learning Japanese was quite a disciplined experience for me growing up, I didn't want to add that stress to their lives.

However, in discussion with Minkz, he expressed the desire to teach them, so we decided to try it. The local Japanese school has a "Japanese for English speakers" track which is perfect for them. They started in February and are enjoying it. The teacher mix in Japanese language and culture and do a lot of art.  I feel like it is opening their eyes to another world.  I'm also starting to feel like part of a community that I have been away from for a very long time.

Max turns 4

This year we planned a ski trip around Max's birthday and celebrated in North Tahoe with friends. We rented a cabin for two nights and we all had a great time.  Max also took a ski lesson for the first time.