Noah's Secret Mission

The door to our deck opens out, which means it was blocked by snow. We have been keeping things out there as if it were a secondary freezer and in order to get them I would have to climb through the window and shovel out.
"Make Shao do it" Grace said.
At first I thought, "Why?"
Then I realized that even though I could do it by myself, for me it would be a chore. For him, it would be thus fun adventure. A mission. A quest.

"Make sure you plan it out first in writing with pictures and steps. He likes that. Step 1. Step 2. etc. Plus draw out a little map of what you are going to do." Grace continued

This sounds like a lot of work for a simple thing. Well that's how Noah likes it. Jonah was to be look out sinc the didn't want to go out into the snow.

This was the plan.

Step 1. Suit up
Snow pants. Check.
Boots. Check.
Coat and hat. Check.
Child sized shovel. Check.

Step 2. Exit through window.

Step 3. Travel to door.

Step 4. Shovel out door.

Step 5. Enter house through door that will now open.

"How long do you think it will take you?" I asked thinking 10-20 minutes.

"I don't know." said Noah. "Do I get points for this?"

I thought about that one. But knowing this was more of an activity created for him I decided that, "You can ask Mommy if she will give you any points for this. Baba only gives points for two things. Lion Dance class, and Kung Fu class."

We commenced dressing at 10:15.

I took some pictures. But the picture I really wanted was Noah going through the window. But I couldn't hoist him through and take a picture at the same time. Giggling, Noah took off through the snow to the door.

Shovel slam shovel slam shovel slam.

"Noah don't hit the door!" Did I mention the "door" is like a screen/storm window door made of glass?
Anyway. Noah hustled and he was done in 5 minutes. In fact he was done int 2 minutes but he wanted to do an extra thorough job.

"Wow!" I was impressed. "You get a point for that Noah. I didn't think you would finish so fast."

"I just tried to get it done like that as fast as I could so that you would give me points!"

Well it worked.

Mission accomplished and high fives all around.

Snow Holiday

How is it that we spend all day at home, or at least on our property and then at the end of the day we seemed to not have enough time? Noah started early this morning, waking up before 7am to eat breakfast and then practice his lion dance. He's been dong dong Chahnging all over the house at all time. I'm afraid I created a little Nian monster. Even when we did coloring and other activities I had a blonde haired child to my right and a red lion to my left that colored with a tiny hand sticking out of it's mouth.

We did a lot of sword fighting games, made a dragon, made a mess of the house, and then procrastinated on the Kung Fu class. Finally Noah sucked it up and did a shortened version of the class.  You may say why don't I just let him play fight with me. Isn't that good enough? No it isn't because I noticed when he does the basics regularly he has more gung in his hits. He needs basics whether he likes it or not.

We didn't go sledding today because Noah didn't want to.

I explained that if me and him went by ourselves instead of with Jonah, it would be different. You know, easier and probably more fun. But the truth is, Noah just doesn't care for sledding. No that's not true. It's just that he has to be forced, and he said he didn't want to sled while the snow was still coming down. With so many adults sledding today, there was a legitimate safety risk, so whatever. The snow isn't going anyway.
Instead Noah did a good job shoveling. Something he actually enjoys. Perhaps we will try sledding tomorrow.

The Mat

I have been adapting parts of Tian Gong Kuen and Lau Hohn Kuen as well as some other moves, and stretches to a Yoga Mat. Why? I realize that people like to do sequences of moves instead of say two hours of one move. Also there is a feeling of flying and openness that you can get from using a small space like a Yoga mat.
I my youth I thought mats were stupid. Why do you need a mat. In fact, my Sifu would yell at me if I did anything on a mat. Like, "If you can learn to roll or kick up on this hard concrete floor, you can do it on any surface." But I notice that there are plenty of people who use mats that can at least do these things. Where as I lost my short lived ability to do kick ups. I can still do other stuff, but there is a lot of showy stuff I can't do, And I'm not going to start training on hard floors.
Besides, I am no longer doing these exercises for performances. but just because they interest me.

Another thing I used to not like about the mat is that you had to carry it, and inevitably if you go into an uneven surface in the woods or move to hit trees, or do punching sprints, your mat is pretty useless. It just holds you back.

But ever since I started going to the Yoga classes at the library with Noah I realized  the mental importance of a mat. Dare I say it might be similar to how people who practice Islam using a prayer rug? Of course I am not religious about my mat, but I see how Noah really likes carrying HIS mat and then going and using HIS mat. It feels like there is some special importance to the mat.

Whereas before I thought of this as a crutch. Now that I teach children I see it as a learning tool, or coazxing mechanism to encourage practice.

The student becomes the over controlling teacher

I was peeling some veggies and Jonah wanted to join in, so I set him up with a peeler and a cutting board and tried to show him how to do it without hurting myself. "No!" I cried as he almost peeled his own skin. I tried several more times and then gave up. Instead I set him to cutting up some egg plant with serrated butter knife.

Not even 10 minutes later he was teaching me how to peel vegetables, except we were using soft foam blocks as vegetables and another soft foam block as the peeler. He told me very precisely exactly how I was supposed to do it and how to hold my hands so i didn't cut myself with the foam block. Actually it was good because I could show him how to do something without any danger coming to him. It kind of reminded me of a Kung Fu form.

Now here is a Noah story.

Moh Goon House (our name for the Kung fu school) has a drum that is only used for practice. This drum, taken out past it's prime on a day of wetness, got a hole beaten into it. Which means, as a drum for performing, it's sound is dead. Well it is still actually okay indoors sometimes or when other drums are not around. Jing taped it over and to cover the hole put a red envelope. There may be cardboard underneath but to make it look better the red envelope was placed on top of it. After all, it kind of looks more festive that way. And some students who didn't know there was a hole there might think the red envelope was placed there to show you where you should hit the center of the drum.

Noah has never really been allowed to play any other adult drum. And so as we have been practicing lion dance, he demanded that we tape a red envelope to our drum so it could be just like Jing's. Our drums are but toys but still the sound of the skin is muffled when it is taped and papered. I relented and cut out a Lai si to a small square (our drum is so small) and taped it to a plastic drum we also use.

I just wondered if many sacred traditions start like this. That a red envelope taped as something that was okay to do, to cover a hole, has become some sort of sacred rite that had to be done even if it took away from the sound of the drum, within a generation. That's what happens when student becomes the Sifu. Well at least in this case.

Half of Hairspray

We just finished watching the first half of a live performance of Hairspray. The children could not sit still for the whole thing so it was time to go home. This was probably one of the most interesting experiences I have had, and relevant for Martin Luther King Day weekend.
The plot of course is about the 60's and dancing and kids wanting to dance on an integrated show.
The last scene before we left the police go to break up protesters.
"Why did the police did that?" asked Noah. Well the answer to that is complicated.
But what made this particular version of Hairspray doubly interesting was that it was put on at Showa. So most of the cast were female students who are from Japan, and have come to Showa to learn some English for 6 months before returning to Japan. To put that in perspective, these are not theater students, or students that went to international school or a prep school in the states or even regular college in the states.
They can read and write very well but speaking is still difficult. So that's why doing a musical would help them project and speak loudly, etc.

To be honest, I could not understand most of what was said. But hey, this play is not really put on for me, or even for just the entertainment of the audience. It is an exercise in getting students to be more confident about speaking English.

And the actresses were definitely confident. Their singing and dancing was pretty good and I will say that I enjoyed the half that I saw even if Noah kept trying to cover my eyes for some reason.

It sort of put the protests of 2015 in a new perspective to see a mostly Japanese cast in  a play about integration of a tv show in the 1960's.

I mean I felt all kinds of awkward on all sorts of levels. And I think that's great. Plus even though the kids were fidgety I think they enjoyed the experience.

Life is good

After dripping off Noah on Friday and thinking of what I should do, go home with Jonah or stay at the playground for a bit it occurred to me that we would probably be able to sled. On another occasion I has spotted two sleds being thrown out on trash day. They were dirty, having been used to collect yard waste. They were the type of sled that usually only lasted a season or half a season before they broke up into plastic shards to be cast aside or in the trash of by the sugar bowl. I went back home back home with an excited Jonah to get one.
He slid down by himself from from the top of the less steep side. Then we tried from the middle of the steep side and he dangerously forced himself to wipe out, fearing how fast he was going. So I decided to try and go from perpendicular sledding route that you could never do when there were other children around because you would risk having the child get T boned by people coming down the steep way.
Yeah sledding when everyone out there is a safety nightmare. The older kids old enough to "look out for themselves" are the worst. because there is no sense of working together as a group, moving out of the way so that others can sled. It is example of the dangers of anarchy.
But by ourselves Jonah could ride his little sled down a slight incline and then continue to go along a slippery path on a nice little ride.
"Yayyy that was fun let's do it again Baba!" and we did. The work out and exercise in sledding is not the actual sledding of course but the trek up the hill, and I guess Jonah had more physical activity that morning than he usually has in a day.

They say the best thing sin life are free. They definitely are. But even the runners up, like sledding, are pretty much almost free. The best thing being the memory of togetherness with your child. And joy. I have to say though I began to get bored and insensitive to the wonder of what that moment was. Sometimes you simply do not realize how great life is. In any case we enjoyed our little free activity, and then after a few trips Jonah said, "Let's go home", and we did.

New Basics

I realized I have been neglecting my Kung Fu forms somewhat. but it is because I have been working on two things, which will eventually have books. One is the internal Lion Dance I have created. But you can't just make something up, or even just adapt something and put it to the side, You have to practice it like it was taught to you and you had to learn it, even though you created it. That's the only way to hone it down to a sharp edge.

Then there is this sequence of basics. I had just been doing basics with a Tian Gong like version of the Sun Alutation with Noah. But then I added a moon salutation. And now I have other Kung Fu and Chi Gung  moves flowing throughout the sequence. It may be too much. Not for me, but for a beginner, and so the child's section of that book will probably have a simplified version. Plus I like that everyone sort of knows a version of the Sun salutation so it could be something where in a class I say, "if you are familiar with the sun salutation go ahead and do that." While I do my own version.

Practicing my basics everyday, sometimes with Noah and Jonah and sometimes by myself has been exciting, because I am working on something that will eventually turn into a solid book that I will circulate and so it seems more real. It feels like I am doing something more than just working out. After all I want to master what I will be teaching.

And I want Noah to master it too.