What to do when the kid catchs cold or fever.

Syndrome with cold and fever: for the first two days, the kid starts to have running nose. It may comes with a fever or not depending on the kid’s immune systems. After two days or so, the fever goes away, but the kid may still have stuffy nose or starts coughing. In a week, it becomes better. After two weeks, the kid gets back normal. Most of the time the fever comes at the night time. It depends on the situation, I try to avoid Ibuprofen if it is not over 103( for little babies, 100).

Things I usually do:

1.  Give the kid a steam, warm bath. it helps reduce the syndrome of stuffy nose and sore throat. It is a great way for the kid to relax too.  

2. The kid doesn't have good appetite for sure. Don’t try to feed him so much solid food if he doesn't want. Let him have more milk.

3. Fruits and juice are better choices. I let my kid have apple juice and pear juice. They are good source of Vitamin C. Also pear juice can easy inflammation of throat. We all love this one:

http://alturl.com/vmc3s

4. Being hydrated. Drink more water and pediatric electrolyte. My son likes the purple one a lot:

http://alturl.com/gwmxv

5. Have enough sleep and relax.

6. If you worry a lot, go to see the doctor.

Keep away from dry skin and rashes.

I see a lot of kids with dry skin and reddish on the face. We have been following the instructions our pediatrician gave us. Our kid has perfect and adorable skin most of time. I would love to share the instructions and hope it helpful:

1. Do bathing everyday for the kid over 10 minutes. Bathing not shower. Let him immerse in the water 10 minutes or so. This way the skin gets hydrated naturally.

2. Apply aquaphor on daily basis both on face and body for dry area:

http://alturl.com/yfnve

Some people don’t like aquaphor as it feels very oily and heavy. I didn’t like it either at the beginning. After our pediatrician explains that aquaphor has less ingredients comparing others and may have less side effect, I started to use it. It works perfectly.

3. When there are rashes,  use 1 percent Hydrocortisone cream three times a day. Apply aquaphor on top of hydrocortisone as it can protect the medicine and make it work better:

http://alturl.com/jdn3v

4. We use Pampers for both diaper and wipes. Our little one has never got rashes:

http://alturl.com/2a7j9

Love Nordstrom

I started shopping online for clothing after I got to know that Nordstrom's forever return policy. It is better that you have a receipt to the full price you have paid. It still does the return and refund without a receipt, but the price is the current sale price that may be lower than you have paid. Another nice thing about Nordstrom is that it does price match too.

Today I did a return without a receipt. Not to say that the sale person is always polite and helpful. He located my purchase by the credit card I used to pay.

Using credit card in stores or online these days is really a DANGEROUS thing. The recent breach at Target and Neiman Marcus is scary. Nordstrom is not in that list. Thump up!

Visiting Millikin Basics and Laurelwood

Millikin is one of the best elementary schools in States. It is a public school in Santa Clara county. But due to the high enrollment, it is run by lottery. The chance of winning a lottery is 1:4.

We had a visit during the open house on Tuesday. We dropped in a few classes and attended the meeting hosted by the principle. In general it is a great school with high disciplines. All kids are seated well, behaving well in the classroom, and participating discussions in the class. I like the message they are passing that kids' job is going to school and study. They have strict dress code to avoid the distractions. They are very strict about what to teach too. Teachers only teach the requirements at the grade level. Even if the whole class are advanced and ready for the next level, the teacher will still stick to the curriculum. This may make some students feel bored.

While glancing the homework hung on the wall, I spotted a few spelling errors. I am a little disappointed by that. It seems that the teacher doesn't go through the homework and do any corrections at all. Though I didn't think the education system in China is great, I remember clearly how hard our teachers graded our homework. Sometime it made kids feel shame on it. Such a big difference.

I asked my friends about the public schools in Cupertino. It seems that the elementary schools are not as good as boasted. The teacher doesn't grade students' homework much. Most of the parents send their kids to after schools where they learn the discipline and learn something really serious. I haven't visited them. One may visit and correct this.

I just dropped by Laurelwood elementary for some basic information. The staff there is very helpful and com potent. She explained to us the rule for registration. According to the federal law, the minimum age for admittance to kindergarten in California in public schools is five by September 1. Private schools don't have these requirements. At Laurelwood the teacher will observe the kids behavior for two months or so in the kindergarten. If the kid is ready for the first grade, they will move them from kindergarten to the first grade. The staff also explains to us the differences between Washiongton Open, Milikin, and public schools like Laurelwood. At Washington Open, parents need to involves a lot both in classroom and after schools. For Milikin, only teachers teach. It doesn't allow parents to teach anything in classroom or at home. It doesn't let students do group projects either. At Laurelwood, there are some parents involvements, but not as much as in Washington Open. It also allows students to do group projects and teach each other.

After observations in these schools, I started to like montessori method more and Marva Collins' book. One may buy the book at amazon: Marva Collins' Way.

To deeply understand the public schools, the flat world and education is a good reference.

Don't confuse investment on housing with education.

People confuse two things: investment on house and investment on education. These are two different things. 

It is true in general that for relatively expensive neighborhood, the school is relatively better  in USA. As the public schools money is from property taxes.

Bayarea is a special case due to California Proposition 13. The current housing price is exceptional high. The recently homeowners pay high housing price and high property tax, but the real tax 
collected city wise is not really high due to california proprosition 13. Comparing to the public schools on east coast, it doesn't have that much money at all. 

Like what I have explained in another blog, the motivated students accounts for the goodness of the public schools, not the teachers in bayarea. 
http://xiaoqinsiliconvalley.blogspot.com/2013/12/how-to-select-

People definitely can get better reward for the housing investment from the view of the money, but not for the education. 

Some kids are just good as long as the environment is not destructive. However, it doesn't mean they really develop their full potential. 

There is an inspiring book related to education: 
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0874775728?tag=piasblo-20&camp=0&creative=0&
linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0874775728&adid=1WXNBRBZY0Q60YHR416T&

Icebreaker: keep you warm in the winter

As it becomes colder, I was looking for nice legging made of wool. I tried a few stores like Nordstrom, macys, but none carries wool legging. Then I did a search on amazon and found this product: icebreaker everyday legging that is made of marino wool 100%. I ordered it immediately after reading those reviews. When I got them and tried on, I don't want to get off it. It is so comfortable and light. After having it, I start to wear more skirts and dresses in winter as this legging keeps me warm all the time. Really love it. It depends the weather. If it is really cold, using the 250 one. If it is cool, using the 150 one. If it is in between, 200 is a good choice.

I did a little search online. It is a good brand that carries marino wool products mostly. It offers kids clothing too. I ever tried to buy marino wool clothes for our son as he doesn't seem to like multiple layers. It has a great kid section too.

I found a local store on santana row and had a visit.  It doesn't carry everyday which is the cheapest line. I asked the sales if it has annual sale or something like that. He said only on black Friday or off the season it has some sales. Later I found out that REI carries some icebreaker stuff too.  When it is on sale or there is a promotion from REI, it is a good time to stock some for the next year for the kid.

Review bayarea housing and public schools

As a first time buyer, it is worthwhile to read some books considering how much time one needs to work to pay off the house:
http://alturl.com/kd5kv。

Doesn't matter which agent you talked to, the top school districts on the list are:
Mission San Jose in Fremont, Monta Visa in Cupertino, Gunn Hign and Palo Alto high in Palo Alto.

But mine is a little different:
Palo Alto high, Los Altos, Homestead high, Laurelwood district, then Irvington district.

If money is not the problem, Palo Alto high district is nice and not too far to most of companies.

For the same price in Los Altos, one may have a bigger house, similar commute as in Palo Alto. People may argue that the Los Altos school is not as good as schools in Palo Alto. It is true today, but it is changing. After google co-founder Sergey moved to this area, it spends more money in the community to foster the education systems. You can see the news to find more details: http://www.mercurynews.com/education/ci_24730190/mini-exploratorium-opens-los-altos and http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/12/how-one-hour-of-code-can-launch-an-entire-computer-science-program/. It has very good potential.

Homestead high in 94087 area is very convenient for commute, easy access to freeway and caltrain. The school is becoming better and better.  It is very close to target, and wholefood. There are a few parks in the area.

Same for Laurelwood district, it is just so convenient both for working people and old people. It has a lot of preschools and after schools in the area. Both the elementary school and middle school are in walking distance. One can easily walk to chinese grocery store, korean store, indian store, safeway. Millinkin is around the area too. Once Millinkin becomes a neighborhood school, Peterson middle school will jump to better, same to the high school.

If one wants to save money and sacrifice for a little commute, Irvington is a better choice. The house price is much cheaper and the school district becomes better. It has bart station too.