Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother

This was, again, one of those books that is hard to put down. Having raised children, I was curious about what this mother could possibly have to say about child rearing that I didn't already know. However, I was in for a surprise! Amy Chua was much tougher and much more disciplined than I was in my mothering. I sometimes kept my kids home from school, hated school projects because I knew that most of the parents did them, and hated the competition of all the other parents who pressured their kids to come in first in everything and anything. My kids and I did things together, napped together, and just enjoyed simple things and being together. If this sounds like pampering, it wasn't. They were told to do things on their own, deal with adversity because it "builds "character," and take the good with the bad. While Amy Chua represents the extreme of parenting,most parents could take lessons from her. I have watched most parents protecting their children's self-esteem, but not giving them the backbone they'll need to get through life. Amy Chua worked at building her children's talents so that they would be successful in life, which is different from what many parents do. Most parents push their children to succeed because their children's successes are validation to the parents--when their kids do well the parents feel they are also successful people. While I won't go so far as to say that how Amy Chua parented is the best way to parent, her approach did have some merit, as the discipline she instilled in her children would benefit everyone. Read this book- the Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother is worthwhile and thought-provoking.

Scrabble & Word Games

I love having children! They teach me something new all the time. Without them, I'd be stuck in a rut of seeing and experiencing the world according to my generation's view. It's true that kids do keep us young. For example, I learned something new from my daughter-- how to play scrabble and word games using my smart phone.

Now you might think this is not new or novel, but to me it was. Over the course of several days we played a game of scrabble, and I have to admit she’s much better at it than I was (even though I did give her a run for her money!). In the process, I also learned that she scored higher points than I did because she was focused on playing a word that earned the most points, while I was focused on playing the most letters per word. I played to create longer words that would give us both more opportunities to form words in the future. She played to score points. She won- I lost.
Perhaps the lesson is to focus on the here and now, on what's in front of you, instead of looking ahead for opportunities that may not materialize.
Now we’re on our next game, but the fun doesn’t end there. She showed me that one can play a word game with an anonymous opponent “out there, somewhere.” So now I’m playing 2 games of scrabble, one with Lili and the other with "Doobus." In the meantime, I've also researched scrabble playing strategies online, and stopped at Barnes & Noble to pick up a Scrabble Players Dictionary so that I can expand my vocabulary.
I do hope that I’m building lots of dendrites in my brain!

Polar Bear Plunge- Mission Exceptional!

Every once in a while you just have to "take a left" and do something different-- in my case, it was plunging into 34 degree water of the Atlantic Ocean today. The day was perfect-- 42 degrees and sunshine. It could have been a prettier day. This plunge was on my bucket list and I convinced my honor society members to participate with me as a service project for a good cause. We raised over $1400.00 which exceeded my expectations! It

as a great day... :)