Endurance and Grit! Mo Mo's Perspective

July 5, 2017
Our two grandchildren, Izzy, age 10, and Ethan, age 8, were just with us for two weeks of "summer adventures.'
They left us yesterday and we are missing them!

We are missing their incessant energy, laughter, silly jokes, etc. To use Seiko's description, we are missing our "giggle farts." But we are especially missing two well behaved, respectful kids who are smart and creative, enthusiastic about learning, and who impressed us daily with their endurance and grit!
(Well done, Mine and Marc!)

We had specific goals to achieve in those summer adventures. Mine and Marc wanted "JiJi" (Japanese informal word for Grandpa) to teach them as much survival Japanese as possible in preparation for their summer vacation trip to Japan in August. And I, "Mo Mo," (common name used for grandma in Southwest Louisiana, my former home) had to encourage them to read several books on Japan and also to continue journal writing, which they had done before. And along with this school stuff, they had to have a lot of fun!

To accomplish these "goals,” we began with incentives and choices. They each got to choose their own journal from Office Depot and they were able to write about anything they wanted that happened each day. If they wrote reports on books they read about Japan, they earned extra points. I was able to get 10 excellent books from the Evanston children's library on Japan, and they could choose to read any of the titles that interested them. I suggested that they try for 4 titles each which they easily accomplished. Each also had a binder where they kept handouts on their Japanese language study and other brochures collected from places we visited such as the Morton Arboretum where they saw a fantastic exhibit on origami sculpture. They earned stars on a special chart in their binders for journal writing, Japanese, behavior, cooperation, chores, and "extra achievements."
The star points at the end were converted into money for something special they wanted or for the Japan trip spending money.

Shortly after arriving here, I suggested to Mine that we also start a blog for them and that perhaps each would take turns to write about something special they enjoyed while here -- maybe taking turns to post twice a week. Then as a family they could continue with the blog while in Japan as a way of sharing some of their experiences with all of us left behind. Although Mine was skeptical about another school-like "commitment," she decided to work with them to set one up. It's called:"Iz and E-man’s Summer Adventures." Well, weren't we all surprised when both Izzy and Ethan took to the blog with gusto with each choosing to write daily about their experiences since the blog was initiated. There have been no complaints about doing it each day. This was in addition to the journal writing. My job was an easy one -- only to read it when done. They both know how to bring in photos which they take every day or which they find on  Google Images when needed. They taught me many easy ways to maneuver the blog! Even though I have been keeping my own blog on and off for several years, it has always been "painful" to remember what I need to do for each new post. Working with them was a constant reminder of how technology has reformed education and the ways we have to use when teaching these young minds that soak it up so easily because their brains have been rewired to do this. Old minds like mine have a hard time holding on to any technology learned, especially if not practiced often. If interested, you can access their blog at:
https://bloggingwithizzy-ethan.blogspot.com/?m=1

 One of their posts entitled, Interviewing Our Grandpa JiJi about World War II turned out to be quite remarkable.

It took several days to do this beginning with coming up with questions, interviewing and taking notes, and then typing the responses into the blog.  Hiroshi and I  were both impressed with their choice of questions and with the effort they took to do research on some of the content JiJi told them about, like the types of planes and the balloon bombs. We family members all admitted that we learned something new about the war and about the Okano family from this interview. This interview will always be treasured and we are so grateful that it evolved so naturally from their reading about Japan and especially the dropping of the atomic bomb. The book that motivated the interview was Hiroshima: A Novella by Laurence Yep.  Izzy, Ethan and I read it together so that we could have a discussion about it along the way. Although it's written for children, it has descriptions about the bombing that can be disturbing. Izzy had a hard time getting to sleep the night we finished it. I think their visit to Hiroshima in August will be a memorable and meaningful experience.

When a friend asked me this week about the grandchildren's visit, I told her about some of the things we did and about the blog. Her immediate response was..."But can they do hopscotch?" I was happy to be able to respond, "Yes, and they have also made a hopscotch on the sidewalk that extended almost a block long! It had taken them hours to construct and hundreds of hops to complete!" Although they did a lot of "school stuff," they also spent a lot of time outside. I recognized early that it was important to let them expel some of their energy on a regular basis at the local park or school ground. In the park, they befriended two families of geese and ducks, even naming the offspring. They did gardening and caught fireflies at night. And of course, we did the usual trips to the zoo, the planetarium, and the aquarium.  We were all busy with little time to be bored and we went to sleep fast.  Although there was a lot of structure, there was a lot of fun, too. It's in the blog.

There was also music in their lives. When Izzy saw that I had "Hamilton" on discs, she wanted to listen to it because she had heard about it from a a friend who had seen the play. So each day we listened to it in the car on our way to places. And all three of us became captivated with the music and the story. (Although I had the music, I had not taken the time to listen to the whole thing!) When Seiko saw how enthusiastic they were about Hamilton, and after listening to it herself, she planned her activities in Washington D.C. to capitalize on their interest in the Founders of our country. Hence, they visited Williamsburg, Yorktown, Mt. Vernon. And at Xmas, we are planning to see the play, Hamilton, in Chicago.                    

When I think of my own childhood and compare it with theirs, I see how "privileged" they are. My summer adventures that I can remember were riding our bikes with the neighborhood kids to "where ever" we wanted to go in that small rural Louisiana town and making up all kinds of games and plays and fishing on the bayou, and also doing a little reading although we had no library close by to give us many book choices. We didn't have a lot of structure in our lives. We had no television until I was in 8th grade. Anyway, that's another interview for another time. The challenge today is to provide a balanced life for these kids so schooled in technology with so many opportunities to experience, together with an equal love for nature and outdoor activities.

So far, I think Marc and Mine are doing a great job trying to balance the digital world with nature and outdoor activities. Involving the older generations is a good way to do this as it becomes two-sided.
We both teach each other and also learn from each other. We get to know each other in a special way through sharing both good and bad memories and through struggling to be patient with each other while learning something new or while trying to "act" young again. As I reflect on having Izzy and Ethan with us this summer and sharing various adventures together, I conclude that it involves a lot of choice and planning together with goals, structure and flexibility. And for it to really have meaningful results, I think there needs to be endurance and a lot of grit on both sides!