Simon Fowler

There is no greater bliss on earth than that enjoyed by kids on their summer holidays. The time before school starts again seems endless; the mischief available to revel in is irresistible; and all the time, there’s a spare afternoon to escape the beating sun (or rain!) and watch a magical movie.

Now, I’m not talking about the summer blockbusters that Hollywood likes to shove down our throats year after year. (Does anyone really care about the millionth installment of Spiderman?) I’m talking about the movies that seem to capture the excitement of these golden days in the sun. Maybe you have your own favorites, but here is a personal selection of three films that make me feel young, and give you the urge to eat a popsicle or icecream in front of the TV for a couple of hours.

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I love learning Chinese. Well, actually, that’s a total lie. I like learning obscure words much more than important ones. I don’t know how to say “bed” in Chinese but I do know how to say “bumper car” (碰碰车).

Anyway, I was in Beijing for about three months when one of the students I was teaching introduced me to a Chinese proverb that really hit home with me. The student was going to be leaving my class, and I was sad to see him go.

天下没有不散的筵席
tian xia mei you bu san de yan xi

“There isn’t a banquet in the world that doesn't come to an end.”

My time at tbjkids has come to an end today; I’ve eaten my fill, I’ve had an amazing time meeting so many great families and hearing their stories, but my taxi has arrived and it’s really time for me to make a move. Thanks so much to everyone who has helped out with the magazine for the past 18 months and I hope to see it grow and mature a lot more in the future.

Seeing as my earlier blog about the Top 50 Kids’ Movies inspired some good debate, I thought I’d thought I’d follow up by posting about the Top 50 Children’s Books.

I think this list is interesting for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s very Anglo-centric (not that that’s a problem for me), but I’m sure there must be some lesser known classics from outside of the UK that are easily the equal of some of these. I suppose that’s what I get for choosing a list from a British newspaper.

As far as the number one choice goes, I’m a little uncomfortable having a Christian allegory there. I’m sure the majority of people don’t get the religious connotations of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe when they read the book, but don’t like the idea of spoon-feeding kids that kind of message.

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Being that the British Film Institute is something of an authority on movies, I thought I'd check out their recommendations for the Top 50 Children’s Movies. Even as a self-confessed movie buff, I still find their choices a little highbrow. If any of you are able to get one of your kids to sit through either Francois Truffaut’s 400 Blows then you might want to consider taking your kids off Ritalin. Check out the list here, and look below for my personal top 5:

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A great way to get into the Olympic spirit (as if the past six years of buildup wasn’t enough) is to go and check out some of the Good Luck Beijing events going on around town.

Last week at the diving competition, 13-year-old Tom Daley finished seventh in Beijing's diving World Cup. This means he’ll become the youngest-ever diver to represent the UK at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Check out The Guardian's video of Tom in action.

Here’s a good article, albeit from an alarmist right-wing British newspaper, about the rise of smother-love. It seems that in the UK there has been a boom in the sale of GPS tracking devices, not for high-tech espionage exploits, but so that inquisitive parents can know where there kids are at all times.

Is this overprotection good for them? Should kids be allowed to experience cut knees and bloody noses as part of the growing up process? It’s tough to say, and is obviously one of those “where do you draw the line?” dilemmas.

There’s a good quote from the film director Terry Gilliam about parenting that I’ll paraphrase, if I may: “The good thing about children is when you drop them, they bounce.”

It’s frightening to think that for a period of about two weeks, the equivalent of the population of America is currently traveling around China. If your planning on getting out of Beijing for some much needed R and R with your family, it can be an especially worrying time.

I stumbled across this great article over at www.guardian.co.uk called 50 top tips for traveling with kids. It gives links to online resources, offers tips for disabled travelers and teaches you how to plan successfully for your trip.

If you are heading off this Spring Festival, or staying in Beijing to enjoy the celebrations, tbjkids wishes you the best for the New Year.

My apartment's paper-thin walls are becoming a problem. Now, as a tbjkids editor and someone who's fond of children, I should probably be more sympathetic to the new parents in the apartment next to mine – but that baby had better start sleeping though the night or I’m going to go crazy.

I guess I’ve been spoiled because I come from an especially sleepy (some might say lazy) family. During my brother’s teenage years we used to tease him for his perpetual sleepy eyes and requests for “five more minutes” to recover in the morning. Well, it seems like he’s having the last laugh now that he’s become a father because is sleepy disposition has been passed onto his daughter Rosie.

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I have recently returned from the UK, where I spent an amazing fortnight in the company of my charming nephew Buddy and niece Rosie (equally as cute).

It was a fantastic experience and that instilled in my mind two very important realizations. First, I am too young to have kids of my own. Second, and on a more serious note, it resurrected from the dark recesses of my mind a fact I once learned when I studied psychology: Women have a cognitive ability that men just do not have.

Women are adept at performing two tasks at the same time, whilst men, unfortunately, can only be trusted to do one thing. OK, cue all obvious jokes about men’s probable inability to do one thing well. The reason, I learned, is because during the millennia that helped shape our mental processes, women would be required to simultaneously work and supervise children, meaning they needed to develop this skill.

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I’ve always thought that my name has had a direct influence on me. I mean, title dictates behavior, and over the years that a lot of my actions would have been different if my parents would have had the guts to call me by their second choice: Barnaby. Yes, that’s right, Barnaby Fowler would have been a much different creature to the one I am today.

Barney would have been a lovable, perhaps slightly dimwitted fellow. Would he have been taller? Thought of as more dependable guy? More attractive to the opposite sex? Who can say, but I am a firm believer in this notion, and I do find myself thinking about it quite a lot.

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