Parenting – 35-Year Public Affairs & IT Professional

It’s wonderful that the summer is over and Vee is officially in 1st grade. During the summer, Vee went to Springfield for 5 weeks of immersion Spanish with Langokids. While there, we stayed with Vee’s friend J, went camping, watched the Independence Day fireworks, swam in the Atlantic waterpark in Bull Run Regional Park, and most importantly chased fireflies.

After Virginia, we drove to LaSalle, Canada where Vee met her uncle and aunts for the first time. After we returned home to Maryland for 3 weeks of STEM camp at Oakdale Recreation Center in Urbana, MD, we went back to Canada. This time to Mississauga, a suburb of Toronto for a week of Happy Mandarin Chinese reading day camp. While there, we visited the Egyptian Museum which has a special display of King Tut’s tomb. We also went kayaking for 3 days and on the 3rd day, Vee went solo!

National Aquarium in Baltimore

National Aquarium in Canada

Vee did 5 weeks of immersion Spanish at Lango Kids in Springfield and while there went swimming with her friends J and Xiang and went camping, including roasting hotdogs and catching fireflies.

Sky zone with Lango kids

Swimming at Atlantis Waterpark in Bull Run Regional Park, Virginia

Watching Independence Day fireworks in Manassas, Virginia

Vee meets her uncle and aunts in Windsor, Canada

Vee visits the Egyptian museum in Mississauga, Canada, a suburb of Toronto

Vee went kayaking on a lagoon fed by Lake Ontario three times and on the 3rd day, she went solo.

Visiting the national aquarium of Canada in Toronto

Over the summer, Vee started learning Japanese kana letters so she could read the names of her favorite snacks from the Asian markets.

Vee hit the Rattlewood driving range before school on her first day

Objective: Raise an asset to global democracy
Key Results
Courage/Confidence – engage safely with mild fear, (iFly, ninja kids, pony riding – Starting Age 4), rock climbing, swimming
Citizenship – Eagle Scout (begin August, Age 5)
Concentration – Skeet Shooting at Prince George’s range (Age 11)
Bureaucracy – Civil Air Patrol (begin August, Age 12)
Critical Skills – foreign languages especially geo-politically important languages such as Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Russian and Farsi as well as world languages such as Spanish, French and English
Emotional Intelligence – not sure
Objectives are WHAT. They are significant, action oriented, they are inspiring.
Key Results are the HOW – that how we meet our objectives. Good key results are specific and time bound, aggressive, but realistic. They are measurable and they’re verifiable.

https://www.ted.com/talks/john_doerr_why_the_secret_to_success_is_setting_the_right_goals#t-437645