Linda – Children are More Selfish These Days: Parents Spoiling Children

Now a days children are becoming more and more selfish I think.

They think they are the center of the whole world. And they don’t care for their friends and parents. They even think they can do anything if they want to. And the reason for why they think they can do things without restriction? Well I think their parents have responsibility for that. They shouldn’t have obeyed some requests that are unreasonable from their child. And they give their kids too much love that their child cannot become independent.

Once I was on a bus, I was sitting there and felt very tired. At that time an old granny(about 65~70) and a young boy(10~15). When I saw the old granny I stood up immediately and told her that I could let her sit on my seat. To my surprise, she brought her grandson and then the boy sat down and starting looking at the landscape outside. I felt disappointment and could say nothing.

I sincerely hope that all the parents can think about these problems carefully. Think about their behaviour, thoughts and so on. Please.

Special Post from WKCD (What Kids Can Do)

After 6 months of the Beijing Youth Voices (BJV) blogging project , Dr. Barbara Cervone, Executive Director of WKCD, joined Tricia Wang, BJV Program Manager and Gloria Xu, BJV teacher, in China to work with the 6 BJV students for 1 week at the Adobe Beijing headquarters. Within 48 hours, Linda, Steve, E-mail, Kelen, Siqi and Iris produced amazing narrated, photos slideshows. You can find their six slideshows here, as they talk about the confluence of the Olympics and their daily lives. Before checking out their individual slideshows, we suggest that you listen and watch this special 5 minute audio slideshow on their thoughts around the Olympics. After following their lives for 6 months on this blog, we think you will be able to gain a new perspective when you hear their thoughts around this important event in their lives.

Hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics is a point of huge pride for Chinese of all ages. It is China’s debut on the world stage and they pray it is impeccable. For many Westerners and other non-Chinese, the Beijing Olympics offers a different—and no less urgent— storyline: about the suppression of dissent, the importance of human rights, the impact of environmental pollution, and more.

The Beijing youth whose voices and photos we share here speak from the first perspective. They love their country. They are smart and compassionate. They worked terrifically hard to produce these audio slideshows, and they offer them with open hearts. As outsiders, we may wish these six Beijing teenagers had taken up some of the issues that have stirred discussion and protest elsewhere in the world. But these are their stories—from youth who have big dreams for their country as well as for themselves.

We would like to give a special thank you to Adobe Beijing and Adobe Youth Voices for making this project possible. In particular, the Adobe Beijing staff was absolutely invaluable in empowering the students to tell their stories!

Enjoy!

Barbara Cervone, Tricia Wang and Gloria Xu

E-mail – My Free Day: Sitting in a Real Ship with Blooming Flowers Around Me

I went to Beihai park and the Military museum several days ago when the flowers were starting to come out. They were really beautiful! I saw Jasminum nudiflorums, oriental cherries and many wild flowers.

Here is a picture of Jasminum nudiflorum. The trees in this picture were still yellow but if you looked at it carefully you can find the young leaves coming out. When you see them, you can feel that life is so great!

After the park trip I went to the Military Museum. I took many pictures in it. But the most favourate picture is the one of me sitting in a big ship.  Everything in the Military museum is free including the admission ticket. Except that if you want to get on the big ship you have to buy a ticket. I think the big ship was the greatest. It is a real ship, a real ship running in the ocean several years ago and here I am right now sitting in it. It all feels very exciting.  I asked my friend to help me take a photo, here it is!

By the way, can you see the flowers on the trees behind me? They smelled really good. You can smell it through the wind even though they are far away from you!

E-mail – First Time Making Ceramics

Last Friday, my friend and I went to Xidan shopping mall. Suddenly, my friend saw a shop. It was a Ceramic. We have never played in the Ceramic shop before, so we wanted to have a try.

We choose the machine, which was in the center of the room. Then a teacher came in and taught us how to use this machine. Then he put some pottery clay on the machine and turned it on.

The turntable on the machine helps the clay turn as a circle. We can use our hands and two thumbs to make the pottery clay to looks like anything!

I like pot better, so I made a small pot. When I finished, the teacher put our pots in a kiln and fired it.

After firing for a long time, the pots dried.

I made a picture on my pot. I like cartoon, so I put a cartoon picture on it. Here is a picture which was taken by my friend. I was drawing pictures on it.

I like clay model, I like use my hands to make things. Here it is what I made by myself.