Beaty Biodiversity Museum

The Beaty Biodiversity Museum is opening at UBC this Saturday, May 22. They have a blue whale skeleton on exhibit. We are all looking forward to going, but we may not go to the opening day. Hopefully, we can go on May 29. It's free for the first five shows!

A Lesson in Population Density

On yesterday's drive to music lessons, Austin and Keonho were talking about the 2010 winter Olympics. Keonho asked if we went to any events, or if we watched any programming on TV. Austin told Keonho what he had watched, and Keonho particularly remembered the South Korean figure skater who won Gold.

Austin talked about Joannie Rochette, and Keonho recalled that she had lost her mother. Austin said, "Yes, only days before she had to perform in front of the world." Austin was clearly impacted by Joannie Rochette's story.He's quite sensitive to what she went through, and what she was able to overcome. He is so proud of her for winning a bronze medal.

Austin talked about Canada's gold medals, and how we broke an Olympic record for the number of gold medals won. Keonho remarked that it's understandable that Canada would be able to win so many gold medals, because there must be so many more Canadians than Koreans, since Canada is such a bigger country.

Then, the conversation really got interesting. I responded that, actually, Korea's population is higher than Canada's. Keonho was perplexed ... how could that be? Canada must be at least 50 times as big as South Korea! So I passed my iPhone to Austin and asked him to google "South Korea population," and he said, 48,607,000. Then, he looked up the population of Canada, which is 33,311,400.

Out of interest, later last night, I looked up the area of South Korea, and found it is 98,799 sq km. Canada's area is 9,093,507 sq km. So, 92 South Koreas could fit into Canada!

Then, I worked out how many people, on average, live in one square kilometre of each country. In South Korea, it is 492, and in Canada it is under 4! So, I told Austin and Keonho what I had learned, and as Skye suggested, I used Panorama Park as a suggestion of an area of land which is about 500 sq m, and compared South Korea (246) to Canada (2). It was really remarkable to imagine such a difference in population density between the countries.

Broken hammock

We used to have a free-standing hammock for the back yard. ...



Ever since I put it together less than a year ago, Austin has been trying to play with it as a teeter-totter, or to load it up with several people at a time, to tip people out of it, etc.



Each time he tried to play with the hammock in this way, he was asked by whichever adult was there, to stop. But he couldn't resist. He continued to play with it in that way, to rock it back and forth, and finally, one of the bars of the stand broke.



I was really disappointed that this happened, but surprisingly, I didn't get really angry.



I decided that Austin could earn back the hammock. He needed to earn 10 stickers. To earn one sticker, he could practice typing for 30 minutes, draw for an hour, read for an hour, write for 30 minutes, etc. To earn 2 stickers, he could mow the front lawn. He did decide to mow the front lawn and he practiced typing a few times. Then, he struck a deal with me to pay me $20 for 5 stickers, and he was done.



Attached is his finished sticker page. He asked me to include this on his blog.



So, now I am keeping an eye out for a good deal on a new hammock, and we have to take the broken stand to the dump, as it is sharp and dangerous.

Keonho

Keonho is an 11-year-old boy from South Korea, staying with us for about 2 1/2 months.

We are all enjoying Keonho, and he is learning English with our family.

Keonho loves soccer and enjoys being outside and active. On the first night he arrived (May 5), we had 4 tickets to the Whitecaps soccer game, so Skye took Austin, Aidan and Keonho to the game. This was a highlight for Keonho. He was able to give me a summary of the game highlights, the next day.

We had arranged for Keonho to have his own room, but on the first night, he requested to share a room with someone. Austin jumped at this opportunity, and was thrilled to share the bunkbed with Keonho. On several nights, I have been able to hear them having late-evening conversations, comparing life in South Korea to life in Canada.

Austin and Keonho have been allowed to go to our local school or playground for short trips, on their own. I can tell that they both are enjoying the independence, and it's nice to see Austin more active during the day.

Keonho purchased a skateboard, because he had observed that skateboarding seems to be a common pasttime for North American boys of his age. Austin was using Keonho's skateboard a lot, so I thought it would be a good idea for Austin to have a skateboard of his own. So, I bought a skateboard for Austin. It looks a bit different from Keonho's skateboard, and Austin proceeded to go over all the differences, and repeatedly suggest that his skateboard was better than Keonho's.

Keonho had quite a strong reaction to Austin's pestering, and ended up throwing his own skateboard on the road and cracking its edge. He cried and was very upset, and decided he didn't want to ride his skateboard anymore. I didn't see or hear any of this happening while I was in the house, but Aidan told me a little bit, and when Keonho went inside to cry, I sat with him for several minutes, and got a better picture of what had happened. I think some of it was a cultural difference - it's common for 11-year-old boys to tease each other, and many North Americans will joke that they have something better than the next guy, because it's a different colour, or whatever. It doesn't mean that they really think it's better - it's supposed to be just a playful tease. However, Keonho took the words for what they were, and believed that Austin was convinced that Keonho had an inferior skateboard.

We brought Austin inside to apologise, and I think Austin understood that his teasing was hurtful. This was a good lesson in sensitivity for others.

By the next day, both Keonho and Austin were practicing skateboarding and having fun together again.

E-mail from Austin

This morning, I was at a business meeting from 9:00am until noon. This was Austin's day to go to Academie Duello. However, he had been up very late last night, and when he first woke up, wasn't feeling like going to class today. Since I was headed into a meeting and couldn't stay on the phone with Gemma (who called to tell me that Austin was protesting going to Academie Duello today), I just told Gemma to let him stay home today, then.

As it turned out, Austin had a change of heart and wanted to go to Academie Duello, but he didn't want to take the bus. I wouldn't have been able to drive him there, but I was pretty impressed to open this e-mail after my business meeting finished.

Here's what Austin sent to me, entitled "please talk to me":
"mom ive been trying to reach you but ur phone always goes to voice mail could you please call me i want to goto academie duello but the next bus is in an hour and a half
so i was hopeing that you could drive me ther gemma is realy mad and i dont think that she understands that i neded my sleep and i expect u to go austin thats not cind and get realy mad at me the day is mieribal its raining and im allone cuz gemma says that i canot be wiht gun ho .and i want to go but as i said the next bus is in an hour and a half so i cant go and its all going dounward from here

so im hoping u can turn it around lovee ur son @U$+!N"

Translation:
"Mom, I've been trying to reach you but your phone always goes to voice mail. Could you please call me? I want to go to Academie Duello, but the next bus is in an hour and a half, so I was hoping that you could drive me there. Gemma is really mad and I don't think that she understands that I needed my sleep and I expect you to go, "Austin, that's not kind," and get really mad at me. The day is miserable. It's raining and I'm alone because Gemma says that I cannot be with Keonho. I want to go, but as I said, the next bus is in an hour and a half so I can't go, and it's all going downward from here.

So I'm hoping you can turn it around.

Love your son, Austin."

I'm pretty pleased that Austin was trying to find a solution. Gemma says that Austin was fine this morning.

I'm not normally in a business meeting on Tuesday mornings. This morning, Austin was still asleep when I left the house. I didn't prepare him well for this morning, and I didn't anticipate the issues that might come up for Gemma. I wasn't able to be available for any discussion, because my business meeting couldn't be interrupted.

What I learned, was to better anticipate how things will go for a planned outing ... how Austin will respond to any changes. I will talk to both Austin and Gemma about calling Skye when they can't reach me. And I will remind Austin that the way he gets to Academie Duello, is by bus. Getting driven to/from Academie Duello is unusual.

Securing the soccer net frame

Aidan's hockey/soccer net has been coming apart while the boys play with it. Skye had a suggestion, for Austin to secure parts of the frame together, by using screws. When I awoke from my big sleep-in on Mother's Day morning, there was a heavy-duty extension cord leading from the kitchen to outside, and at the end of it, was Austin using a power tool.

Austin was attaching screws to the frame, with a power drill and a screwdriver bit. Aidan was quick to explain to me that this is a difficult job for Austin, because the frame doesn't already have holes in it, so Austin had to make holes for the screws to go through.

At one point, Austin finished attaching a screw, only to realise that he had failed to first connect the frame parts. So, he undid the screw, connected the frame, and started over. I was pleased to see how well he managed that frustration.

Swimming Lessons

I spoke with Austin's swimming teacher during this morning's lesson.

She explained that it is typically challenging to have siblings in the same class, and wouldn't recommend it to anyone. She has noticed that Aidan feels like he's not doing very well, but she described him as a solid Stage 3 swimmer. Actually, he's quite a bit smaller than any of the other students in the class. The teacher told me that he is getting overshadowed by Austin.

The teacher explained that Austin is a very good swimmer, and that he doesn't know that he's good. He wants her to tell him when he's doing well, and he wants to know how he's doing, compared to others. She says he has good endurance and strength. She recommends that we register him in Stage 4 next time. She thinks he'll like it. It's about an hour-long workout.

When I watched Austin swimming this morning, I saw that he was easily overtaking the other swimmers, but sometimes swimming right on top of his little brother!

In the past, Austin has been wary of taking Stage 4 lessons, because the other name for that level, is "I Can Swim Fast."