Jessica Pan

Money Talks

beijingkids — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:00:00 +0800

Spendthrift or cheapskate?

Whether you have an addiction for designer headbands like Gossip Girl queen bee Blair Waldorf or you save your pennies for rainy days (or mutual funds), what you do with your money says a lot about you. Do teenagers save? What are they buying? And does nationality influence how you spend your cash? Grade 10 and 11 students from the Beijing World Youth Academy sat down with beijingkids to discuss that little thing called money.

What do you spend money on?

Laura: I spend money on lunch, clothes and drinks.
Frank: My parents give me a set amount of money per semester, and I don’t usually save it. Eventually all the money goes to taxi cabs when I go to the CD Center, Wangfujing, places around Wangjing, or for playing football.
Ernest: I don’t get an allowance, but if I have a reason, my parents will give me money. If there’s more left, I usually save it for taxis or buying food.
YeiYoung: I get 100 kuai per month from my parents. About 40 percent of it I give to church, and the rest goes to clothes.

Young Nomads

beijingkids — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 10:00:00 +0800

Expat kids and the school of hard knocks

They speak three languages, have jam-packed passports, and have studied among students from all over the world. These are “third-culture kids”; they don’t belong fully to China or to their home country – their identities come from their experiences of living abroad long-term. When parents have jobs that require relocating to a new country, their young globetrotters face a slew of adjustments unique to their transition overseas.

The good news, according to psychologists at international schools in Beijing, is that adolescents don’t necessarily have more emotional problems even though they’re adjusting to the transition of a move to school in a new country.

“They’re expats, but I don’t think the issues are really any different for these kids,” says American Steven Sutherford, a psychologist at the International School of Beijing (ISB). “They still have the same issues of growing up – they are at the age where they begin to push away and deal with the challenges of making friends and being a student.”

In Sickness and in Health

beijingkids — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:00:00 +0800

Straight talk from a family doctor

It’s not always easy adjusting to a life in a new country, and parents are right to have many questions when it comes to health and living in a new place. This month, American Marie Shieh, a family doctor at Beijing United Family Hospital and the BJU Shunyi Clinic, answers beijingkids readers’ questions about staying healthy in Beijing.

beijingkids: How will the air affect children? Especially children under 2 years of age?

Dr. Shieh: There was a study on kids aged 5 to 18 in the United States. They tested children who grew up in Los Angeles, a polluted area, against kids who grew up in cleaner air. The results showed that the children in Los Angeles had a slightly lower lung function, but that doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t mean they can’t run or do sports any better or worse than other kids. As for living here for a long time, we’re not sure how that translates for children. We don’t have any research on that yet.

Crossing Borders

beijingkids — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:00:00 +0800

Josiah Mast makes history come alive

After tiring of the verticality of life in his native Colorado, Josiah Mast came to Beijing last year for the experience of teaching at International Academy of Beijing. He sat down with tbjkids to talk about the challenges of teaching history and culture in China, what he misses most about home, and how his students are often the ones teaching him.

What brought you to Beijing?
I just love traveling and being in different places. The idea of teaching somewhere else is a big deal to me. I was teaching for two years part-time back in the U.S., but I had been to China a few times prior on short visits. I really enjoyed China, so I applied for this job, and I’ve been here about nine months.

I Want to Be a Pilot

beijingkids — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 16:55:59 +0800

China Southern’s James Wu Lives the High Life

James Wu knew he wanted to be a pilot from a young age, and now, at 29, he is the youngest captain at China Southern Airlines. Born in Kaifeng, China, and trained in Perth, Australia, James has flown to over ten countries in the past eight years. Between flights, James took time to sit down with Grade 1 students at Western Academy of Beijing to answer questions about life in the sky.

Odin Loehr, 7, USA
How many years have you worked on the airlines?
Up to now, I’ve been a civil aviation pilot for eight years. If you include my training in Perth, Australia, that’s 12 years now.

Baby Origami

beijingkids — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:27:09 +0800

Hand-free ways to carry your baby

Babywearing, or the act of using a long swath of fabric to secure a baby to a caretaker’s body, has roots in dozens of countries and every continent. This ultra-convenient mode of baby transportation has seemingly endless benefits: the elevated position of the baby provides him or her a better place to observe and engage with the world, babies who are attached to adults cry 46 percent less, and the person-to-person contact promotes overall well-being. So put away the stroller and roam with your baby, arms swinging freely!

Asian Mei Tai This square fabric has four straps that tie around the body so the child rests in the front or back. In southwest China, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, mei tais are worn with either a double or single strap. The mei tai originates from China, where women used them to carry their children while they worked in the fields.

The Inuit Amauti
In the subpolar regions of the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, Alaska and Eastern Siberia, Inuit women wear a parka called an amauti to carry babies and toddlers. The amauti is a coat with a pouch on the back where the baby can rest against the mother’s back. The large hood can keep both mother and child warm in chilly environments.

Rhythm Stick

beijingkids — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:00:00 +0800

Name: Jon Campbell
Age: 32
Nationality: Canadian
Instrument: Drums
Genre: Rock/Blues

How old were you when you started playing drums?
I started drumming at 13, much to my parents’ dismay. This was after almost five years of piano and six months of guitar. I started playing hand drums a few years ago.

What’s the hardest part about playing drums?
Transport is the number one problem. Transport and noise are two things that make it difficult for many urban dwellers to take up the drums. Technically speaking, the hardest part is getting your four limbs to do four different things simultaneously, like patting your head and rubbing your stomach.

What do you love most about drums?
I think that more than any other instrument, it’s the one thing that people react to most deeply and immediately. Rhythm is ingrained deep in our bones, and drums bring that out – whether you’re playing or listening to them.

Beating to a Different Drum

beijingkids — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:00:00 +0800

Broadening young minds through music

Jenny Xiao left Changchun, Jilin province, in 2002, looking to stir up some change in her life. Inspired by her parents to pursue a teaching career, she eventually found a way to combine her love of music and education: by teaching music to 18-month-old to 3-year-old children at Eton International School. In between periodic interruptions by students requesting hugs, Jenny took time to tell tbjkids about the thrill of her fast-paced Beijing life, why she loves Montessori, and the advantages of teaching the school’s youngest children.

The Dangers of Downloading

beijingkids — Tue, 13 May 2008 10:00:00 +0800

What comes easy isn’t always right

These days, it’s hard to find someone who still listens to music on a CD or record; most people have some sort of electronic device they use to play MP3s. But where is all this digital music coming from? And how is it impacting the music industry? tbjkids sat down with four Year 10 students from Dulwich College Beijing to discuss the pros and cons of the digital music age.

Pia Holdsworth is a 14-year-old from England and listens to all kinds of music (except hard rock!) on her iPod.

English/Scottish Will Mitchell is 15 years old and likes listening to jazz while studying.

Darren Tang from Singapore is 14 years old and uses his Nokia phone to listen to pop and punk.

German Katharina Müstermann is 15 years old and likes to play Rihanna and Pink on her mobile phone.

Moving to the Kindermusik

beijingkids — Fri, 09 May 2008 12:19:57 +0800

A boogie down for the barely walking

At first glance into Beijing’s Kindermusik program, you can’t be sure if you’ve wandered into a children’s band, a dance class, or a small miracle – 11 babies, and not one of them crying.

Practiced in over 66 countries, the Kindermusik program is aimed at children ages 7 and younger and combines music and movement to help develop a variety of skills: singing, rhyming, object identification, sound imitation, listening and coordination. The Beijing program was started in September 2006 by Canadian Sarah Peel Li, a licensed Kindermusik educator. “We never make up what we’re doing,” she says. “There is always a real reason behind what we are doing in each class.”