Summer Event No. 4: 初學游泳

#2018-0713B

Last week my grandson James started to "play" in the swimming pool. Look! He enjoys floating in the water now!

When my wife asked James if he wanted to wan-wan shui (meaning play in the water) in the nearby swimming pool, he said seriously, "I'm not going to play, but I'm going to practice and learn -- learn to SWIM!" Oh, to my surprise, such a little boy SO MUCH wants to learn; he's eager to do it.

I heard of "Learning by Doing" (John Dewey's words) before. Is James (whom I called Little Bee sometimes) learning through playing? Or is he playing in learning now? ...

(See the video and photos.)

依依不捨 -- Just Before Parting

#2018-0713A

My two grandchildren (James and John) have stayed with us for eleven days. Now the little one is going back to Taipei together with his mom. The bigger one, however, will stay for he is taking swimming lessons that will last until the end of July.

I was very touched when I saw them tightly hugging each other -- just before they parted. (They were reluctant to part!) They said to each other, "Bye! Bye-bye! Goodbye, brother! ..."

"Didi, zaijian!" said James.

"Gege, zaijian!" said John.

"Mama, zaijian; didi, zaijian!" said James.

"Yeye, nainai, zaijian! Gege, zaijian!" said John.

駱駝會：太平區三汀山

#2018-0709

Budao Mingcheng: Yaorengou Keng, Laoshu Qi, Dengshan Budao (咬人狗坑老鼠崎登山步道)
Dili Weizhi: Taizhongshi Taipingqu (台中市太平區)

Youlan renyuan: Jia zhu Zhongbu de Luotuo-xiongsao ....
Youlan Shijian: 2018 nian 7 yue 9 ri (Xingqi yi)
Youlan luxian: Canyue xialie zhaopian (Luxiantu qing kan di 3 han di 18 zhang zhaopian)
Zhongcan: yu Xin Tai Ji Dian (新台雞店) yongcan

Summer Event No. 3: 兩支傘的砂畫

#2018-0706

An umbrella can be used in a rainy day to keep you from being wet. It can also be used in a sunny day to keep you in the shade. But, as you can see in these pictures, my two grandsons have used umbrellas as pens or pencils or sticks or rods or staffs or staves with which to draw pictures on the sand.

When the two boys were working hard to draw something hard for me to understand, they must have known nothing about what their grandpa did: I secretly took pictures of them (with a mobile or cellular phone) while they were working hard with umbrellas to create a masterpiece of SAND ART. Well, I will cherish these pictures of mine because of the two little ARTISTS who made these pictures possible!

Summer Event No. 2: 盪鞦韆

#2018-0705

看誰盪得高？
一起盪 ..... 盪呀盪 .....
兄弟這回盪得
　　比　先前　還要高！

James and John (my grandsons) like to play on the swings. As there is only one swing in Ataabu Park (阿罩霧公園, or A-Zhao-Wu Park), they had to swing IN TURN the other day when I was with them. However, this afternoon when their grandma and they went out for a walk, she let them share the only swing by closely sitting together (as the last four photos indicate). Hi, boys! I know how close you two really are!