April, 2009

Calling all writers, journalists and future Pulitzer Prize winning wiz kids!

beijingkids is on the hunt for new interns. We're seeking people who are:
- Over 16
- Reliable
- Available for a minimum three days a week
- Fluent English reading/writing/speaking skills
- Are active members of the Beijing expat community
- Mandarin skills are a plus

We need people to help out in the following areas:
- uploading content to our website
- blogging and general website contribution
- magazine contribution (including articles)

Whether you're looking for a foot in the door, or simply have some free time and want to flex your journalistic muscle, why not send your CV and a writing sample to: imogenkandel@beijing-kids.com

The team at beijingkids just can't seem to get enough of the full-on family fun that is the beijingkids Little Pirates Treasure Hunt.

We are into our 3rd year of hosting this great event and it's only getting better!

The day started with lunch at the Latin Grillhouse, followed by a treasure hunt on the shores of Solana. Little pirates displayed their cunning, bravery and skill with a sword, in order find the pirate spy and the location of the hidden treasure. Even the littlest of pirates received a bounty of booty to take home with them.

Check out our gallery photos for more swashbucking action.

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Visual sensitivity commonly decreases with age but what most people don’t know is that this age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of blindness. As the world’s population ages blindness is becoming increasingly common.

Though some vitamins contained in yellow, orange and red vegetables can prevent degeneration, these vegetables alone won’t offer you a permanent solution.

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Time.com: Why Americans Are Adopting Fewer Kids from China
“Freer is one of a growing number of prospective parents who are unable to adopt from China under new laws Beijing put in place in May 2007. The stricter guidelines, intended to limit the overwhelming number of applicants to China's well-regarded adoption program, have been effective — adoptions of Chinese children by U.S. citizens have dropped 50%, according to the U.S. State Department. The new regulations require, among other things, that adoptive parents be married, under 50, not classified as clinically obese, not have taken antidepressant medications in the past two years, not have facial deformities and meet certain educational and economic requirements.”
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1894333,00.html?iid=tsmodu...

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Seems like every year brings a new animal related health scare. This year's pandemic panic comes to us via Mexican pork, and fears of a worldwide health crisis are already starting to affect China's economy.

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Now is the time to start making those summer travel plans. Here is a list of a few offbeat destinations around China for a more intrepid family trip.

Around Beijing



Wild Duck Lake (Ye Ya Hu)
The Beijing Wild Duck Lake (野鸭湖, Ye Ya Hu) lies northwest of Kangzhuang Town (康庄镇) in Yanqing District, northwest of the city center. The only protected wetland resort in the greater Beijing area, it is home to over 260 species of birds, making it ideal for bird watchers and nature enthusiasts. Take the 919 bus from the Deshengmen bus station and switch to bus 921 in Yanqing for Ye Ya Hu (野鸭湖).
By car, take the Kangzhuang exit off the Badaling highway and follow the route for about 10 minutes.

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The Care for Children School and Clinic is hosting a great networking event for professionals across a wide range of fields. Take this opportunity to get together and discuss the various services and resources available to families with special needs children in Beijing.

If you're in education, mental health services, pediatrics or are simply interested in hearing more about: the Care for Children Special Needs School, and the newly launched Care for Children Family Services Clinic, then check out the details below.

DATE: Monday 27 April
TIME: 6-7.30pm (refreshments and snacks provided)
PLACE:
Care for Children School and Clinic
Beijing Riviera
1 Xiang Jiang North Road
Jing Shun Road
Chaoyang District

RSVP to Meryl Bailey by TODAY, Friday 24 April: meryl@careforchildr en.com.cn

Here’s a list of links to a selection of this week’s family friendly events (until Sunday, April 26) on this site and our sister site, thebeijinger.com. Event times and details are subject to change, so contact the organizers directly for the latest information.

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Just a quick reminder that tickets are going fast for this Saturday's Little Pirates Treasure Hunt at the SOLANA Lifestyle Shopping Park.

Just a few more spaces left for this first-come-first-serve RSVP event - click here for more details!

Been ruminating about the ups-and-downs of toddler feeding habits this week - which, by the looks of it, is a common issue - even for kids (like ours) who were previously prolific eaters.

It's as if someone flipped a switch in the last week or so -- "ingest" has now been reset to "reject" as Marianne spends meal times either spitting or picking out pretty much anything that enters her mouth, even if she had been greedily grabbing at it from our dinner plates (a habit that my in-laws love to indulge) seconds before.

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Does your kid love the limelight? Well this is their chance to shine.

The original 1984 cult movie classic Karate Kid is being remade, starring Jackie Chan and Will Smith's young son, Jaden Smith. This time around the film is called Kung Fu Kid, moving away from it's Japanese origins with a decidedly Chinese flavor.

So if you think your little one would love the chance to show off to the camera, head on down to ISB for a casting call:

PLACE: International School of Beijing, Shunyi. Black Box
TIME: From 8am-2pm
DATE: Saturday - April 18, 2009
GO TO: http://www.isb.bj.edu.cn/isb-recommends.aspx for more info and to
download an application form.
EMAIL: kk102808@gmail.com

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We spent the weekend checking out a couple of play centers for our daughter – one, a local branch of an international mega-corporation, and the other, a smaller, homegrown operation.

Saturday morning we hit up the first play center for a trial session. Based in the US, this “Walmart of early learning centers” boasts hundreds of locations around the world, a NASDAQ listing and a patented approach to “developing the cognitive, physical and social skills of children as they play.”

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It’s Back
The highly contagious Foot and Mouth disease is back and like last year, it’s been affecting kids in eastern and central China, including nine reported deaths in Shandong province. The virally borne symptoms include fever and sores and last year “affected around 25,000 people nationwide, killing at least 40.”

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I always tell my Chinese friends—and everyone else for that matter—that my Chinese only reaches a tolerable fluency once I’ve had a few cocktails. All of a sudden my tones are perfect, my vocabulary is impressive, I’m witty and entertaining. Basically, I turn into the Bing Crosby of the Chinese language.

Learning Mandarin is no easy task, but you can be your own worst enemy. It’s hard to accept the humiliation that inevitably comes with trying to string a sentence together in a foreign language, but you can’t let the fear of humiliation stop you. After months of Chinese classes where I was expected to take part in class discussions about sand (I kid you not), I was going nowhere fast. I’d stumble through some basic sentences to get by, but to be honest I spent more time staring into the bottom of my coffee thermos than practicing my Chinese.

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Teresa Woo and Eulalla Lee Andreasen founded the Ping An Medical Foster Home in 2003 to help Chinese orphans with serious illnesses and birth defects get medical attention and rehabilitative care. Though it is still a resolutely grassroots organization (“We don’t even have a website,” says Woo), Ping An has grown in capacity and scope in its six years of operations and now cares for a continually changing batch of sick children.

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