11月28日

Dear all parents,

Another week passed by. We have following updates for this class.

Homework:

百善孝为先：

父母責，須順承.  From many of your feedback, I noticed when receiving scolding (責) from parents, some of children tend to rebut ("回嘴"，"犟嘴"，"頂嘴" all these words are shown in the feedback forms). Now they were requested not to rebut towards parent. Even when they think they are

right and parents are wrong, they can discuss it when parents are calm. I just asked them to follow this and I understand it's not easy even for the adults.

二十四孝：蘆衣順母（周朝閔子騫)

常礼举要：

朝起早. Children were asked to wake up a bit early each morning to read

弟子規. Some of you expressed that how difficulty it is for kids to wake

up on time every morning. This week, we all work on this. Provide them

a alarm so that they organize themselves properly.

成長點滴：

張帆：給爸爸端洗腳水； 平時在校有禮貌地和老師打招呼。

張磊：謙讓弟弟；在地鐵讓座給爸爸。

程迪：分享食品給同學；堅持每天寫漢字，坐姿很端正；專注地臉小提琴。

趙珮鈞：在校下課時，主動向老師鞠躬；幫媽媽疊衣服；飯前，叫父母吃飯。

莊靜華：熱情招待客人，給他們端水；星期天自己煮飯，并先為媽媽預留飯菜，自己才吃；自己整理書柜，書桌，房間；犯錯后，主動向媽媽示好并承認錯誤；幫姥姥熱暖包；每天洗自己小衣物。

葉芃：認真做作業

江淮：鞠躬向長輩道晚安，態度恭敬；犯錯受父親批評，過后鞠躬說："爸爸，我做的不對，我錯了。"

经文学习：

勿諂富，勿驕貧，勿厭故，勿喜新

故事 --

1. 伯巨探友

荀巨伯远看友人疾，值胡贼攻郡，友人语巨伯曰："吾今死矣，子可去。"巨伯曰："远来相视，子令吾去，败义以求生，岂荀巨伯所行耶？"贼既至，谓巨伯曰："大军至，一郡尽空，汝何男子，而敢独止？"巨伯曰："友人有疾，不忍委之，宁以我身代友人命。"贼相谓曰："我辈无义之人，而入有义之国。"遂班军而还。一郡并获全。（《世说新语》）

2. 荒島三友

有三個朋友一起出遊，到海上旅遊。剛好遇到大風浪，結果船沈下來。幸好三個人祖宗有德，沒死，漂到了一個荒島上，三個人在那裏相依為命。突然在這個沙灘上發現了一個神燈。諸位朋友，看到神燈要怎麼樣？幸好他們有讀過《阿拉丁神燈》，把它擦一擦。結果這麼一擦，這精靈出來了，他說：主人，我給你們三個願望，不過因為你們有三個人，三除於三等於一，一個人一個。結果這第一個因為他是開計程車的，他說我每天早也開晚也開，很辛苦，我的願望是可以有好幾台計程車租給別人，我當老闆。這個精靈說：小事一件。他就回去當他的計程車老闆。第二個在超級市場當雇員，有時候還要三班輪值，半夜還要值大夜班，所以他說當這個也很辛苦，我希望能夠自己擁有一家便利商店，我當老闆請人家來做。這個精靈說：小事一件。怎麼樣？就回去了。第三個人想了半天，平生無大志，只求六十分，也沒想過要幹什麼，所以都沒什麼願望，整天悠悠放任。他突然就想：我沒什麼願望，不過這個荒島也不錯，但是我一個人在這裏太寂寞了，我希望他們兩個回來陪我。有沒有聽到兩聲哀號？（幸福人生講座-細講《弟子規》

第四十集））

論語 -- I explained some sentences from this classic book related to

this topic. I know this can be a bit tough for younger kids.

子貢曰："貧而無諂，富而無驕。何如？"子曰："可也。未若貧而樂，富而好禮者也。"子貢曰："詩云：如切如磋，如琢如磨。其斯之謂與？"子曰："賜也，始可與言詩已矣。告諸往而知來者。"

子曰："富與貴，是人之所欲也，不以其道得之，不處也。貧與賤，是人這所惡也，不以其道得之，不去也。君子去仁，惡乎成名？君子無終食之間違仁，造次必於是，顛沛必於是。"

子曰："貧而無怨難，富而無驕易。"

子曰："君子謀道不謀食。耕者，餒在其中矣；學也，祿在其中矣。君子憂道不憂貧。"

子曰："賢哉回也！一簞食，一瓢飲，在陋巷，人不堪其憂，回也不改其樂。賢在回也！"

子曰："飯疏食，飲水，曲肱而枕之，樂亦在其中矣。不義而富且貴，於我如浮雲。"

子曰：溫故而知新，可以為師矣。

课堂讨论：

什麼樣的人是真正的朋友？

Best regards,

江帆 敬書

11月21日

Dear all parents,

This week we have three new students joining us. The class seems to be crowded now. We will ask janitor to add more table and chairs in the class.

Feedback sharing:
Thank you for filling the feedback sheet. Here is some highlights:
杨安妮 （四岁）：帮妈妈剥蒜瓣。 给猫咪喂饭。Shopping 时帮妈妈搬东西
栾茗荃 （八岁）：衣物摆放比以前整齐。写完作业主动收拾书桌。做完游戏收拾玩具。帮父母拿碗筷
程迪 （四岁）：早上主动朗诵弟子规。每晚自己准备第二天衣物。在幼儿园主动问老师好 （以前即使妈妈提醒也不开口）
江淮 （八岁）：哥哥受妈妈批评后，安慰哥哥。妈妈生病，嘴唇起泡，亲妈妈患处，说“这样会好得快些”
。。。

[Homework]
Review and continue last four homeworks.
孝行:
父母呼， 应勿缓
冬则温 (给父母温暖) - 暖被窝， 端洗脚水， 热暖水袋 。。。
晨则省昏则定。 I asked students to greet their parents (you) after getting up in the morning and before going to bed in at night.

常礼举要:
Prepare themselves well and wear warmly before leaving home -- "冠必正 纽必结 袜与履 俱紧切".
双手奉接物品
电话礼节
arrange personal stuff after returning home from outside -- "置冠服 有定位"


经文学习
"己有能。勿自私。"

We we're discussing about not to be selfish. When asked what can we share with others, students came up with the following:
Money, food, animal, things, capability, LOVE, etc.

They were told that to be selfish means the heart is so small that it can only hold "ego" (我). When asked who we should put into our heart, they said:
Parents, relatives, friends, brothers/sisters, animal, the whole world (this answer surprised me most)

When asked who can possess the whole world in his heart, the answers were:
Martin Luther King, 孔子， 孟子， Gandhi ...

We really enjoyed our conversation. It's full of fun.

"人所能。勿轻訾。"

Not to be jealous. We shared a story about “李斯因嫉妒害死韩非子” http://book.sina.com.cn/longbook/his/1110945539_haibanzhanguo/72.shtml

课堂讨论

What’s is happiness? How to achieve happiness? The index of happiness. (some ideas are from book "The art of happiness" by Dalai Lama)

Parent class

Don't have enough time to write this section. We had really wonderful discussion. Next session will be leaded by Ms. You.

Enjoy,

fan

11月14日

Dear parents,

Soya bean

The half of this class became a workshop. I brought a box of soya bean so that children can make the soothing bag for their parents in the class. Also we made the soy milk with 豆浆机. Almost every student had a chance to serve his/her parents with hot and fresh soy drink. We showed how to hold the cups with respect and carefulness (执虚器 如执盈).

Also, we took this chance to let student understand that soy bean plays very important role in Chinese food and culture. In 2007,  Montreal botanic garden (梦湖园) held a special exhibition to show that how soy bean influenced Chinese and served the largest population in this world. From environmental point of view, soy bean has much less impact on the environment than the meat while providing nutritious food. Our students listed the food made by this small yellow bean: 豆腐，豆腐乳，豆皮，腐竹，豆腐脑，豆腐泡，素肉，臭豆腐, 豆浆 。。。

经文学习：才大者。望自大。人所服。非言大

We shared the following story:

Twenty five years ago there was a famine in Bangladesh. Yunus was teaching economics in a local university. He felt terrible teaching elegant theories of economics while people were dying on the streets. Yunus then began to understand how people in nearby villages lived and if he could do something to help them. One particular incident took Yunus in a new direction. He met a woman who made bamboo stools for a living.  ... ( http://championsclubcommunity.com/covey/2010/01/10/muhammad-yunus-%E2%80%93-an-example-of-leadership-and-greatness/ )

Muhammad Yunus is an example of greatness and he was the only economist who earned Nobel Peace Prize (2006). In the class, I had more detail of this story than the content in the link above. The story is fully described in the book “The 8th Habit” written by Stephen Covey. It shows that no matter how little things you do at the beginning to help others, if you keep doing it, it can grow to something big.

Another story: 渑池之会

Parent Class:

We had discussion on how to conduct the parent class. We agreed that every week we focus on one topic. This week, 赵斌老师 will lead the class. After watching TV (http://www.dizigui.cn/xijiang35.asp), the discussion will focus on "己有能。勿自私。人所能。勿轻訾。"

Home work:

孝行: 父母呼， 应勿缓

From you feedback, I know this is a challenge for the parent. Some kids seem not follow this well. As Annie Wang said: "如果这是作业，我死定了"。 I will do the follow-up next class on this.

常礼举要: 双手奉接物品

Thanks,

Fan

11月07日

Dear Parents,

According to Chinese lunar calendar, Nov. 07 denotes the official beginning of winter season (立冬). So this week's behavioural homework focuses on "冬则温"：

孝行

-- I demonstrated in the class how to make a small soothing bag with soy bean and encourage your children to make one at home. Every night they can warm it in microwave and give it to parents. I hope you already get this surprise from your kids because they were asked to do it on Sunday night . Please refer to 黄豆灸法 for the benefits of this soybean bag.

常礼举要

--I urged your kids to prepare themselves well and wear warmly before leaving home -- "冠必正 纽必结 袜与履 俱紧切". Put on warm mitten, scarf, etc. and make sure that shoe laces are not losing. Use mirror to check if the wearing are in right position. Try not to be sick in the winter season because: "身有伤 贻亲忧"

-- Gandhi

In this class, we learned "行高者 名自高 人所重 非貌高". I believe that Gandhi ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi ) is one of greatest men who demonstrated this principle well. Mahatma Gandhi was short, slim (100 pounds) and not handsome (非貌高), but he possessed a huge mind power which eventually let British men leave his homeland - India. In the town (Brossard) where I am living, in front of municipal library, there is a statue of Gandhi. Two sentences are engraved at the bottom of the statue (my translation in Chinese):

"Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth." -- Albert Einstein

我们的后代将难以置信：如此伟大的灵魂曾经以血肉之躯存在过，并在我们的星球上行走过。-- 爱因斯坦

“You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.” -- Gandhi

你们可以捆绑我，可以折磨我，甚至可以摧毁我的肉体，但是你们将永远无法禁锢我的灵魂。 -- 甘地

I shared with class some practices that Gandhi did to make India become independent country. But most importantly he had very high moral standing (行高者). Several years ago after reading his autobiography -- " The Story of My Experiments with Truth", I totally agree what Einstein said. He maintained very simple life style, believed any kind of violence for any reason is evil; he was the first on who applied non-violence in political area; he was consistently seeking  the truth during his whole life. What about his fame (名自高)? His birthday (Oct 2) become the international day of non-violence. Nobel Prize committee always regrets that Gandhi was not awarded with peace prize even though he was nominated four times. In 1948, when Gandhi was assassinated, the committee chose not to award the peace prize to anyone, stating that "there was no suitable living candidate".

--晏子

Another example of "行高者 名自高 人所重 非貌高" is 晏婴 who is very short but very intelligent. The children loves the story "晏子使楚":

晏子到了楚国，楚国人知道晏子身材矮小，楚国人在大门旁边开了一个小洞来迎接晏子。晏子不进，对接待的人说：“只有访问'狗国'，才从狗洞进去。今天我出使楚国，不应当从这个门进入。”接待的人立刻把晏子的话传给了楚王。楚王大开城门，让晏子进入。          

(晏子使楚。楚人以晏子短，为小门于大门之侧而延晏子。晏子不入，曰：“使狗国者从狗门入。今臣使楚，不当从此门入。”傧者更道，从大门入)

More stories please refer to  http://baike.baidu.com/view/4618.htm.

-- Ending

I would like to close this note with a quotation of Gandhi (my translation in Chinese):

Whenever I despair, I remember that the way of truth and love has always won. There may be tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they may seem invincible, but in the end, they always fail. Think of it: always.

每当我沮丧之时，我铭记：真理和仁爱总是胜利的。尽管有时，存在过暴政和杀戮，这些邪恶可能看起来不可一世，但终将失败。常思之，勉之。

Thanks,

Fan