Carvin' it up with Matt.

We have been trying to get the kids involved in some sort of sports league or team. Not happening. The Chinese don't embrace sports for kids; after school and weekends are for studying, tutors and homework. The kids that play sports are the ones that have little to no academic ability. The amount of pressure put on kids to excel in school is ridiculous.

Our friends enrolled a tutor to help their daughter get ahead in math. Well so did all of the other parents. Now, instead of being ahead, she is just keeping up and the few kids in the class that don't have a private tutor are falling behind.

Kids here arrive at school at 7:30 and are dismissed at 4:30. They leave school, go into a corner shop, buy an armful of crap and eat it while they walk home. Once they get home they eat another snack their grandparents have prepared and sit down to do homework until dinner. After dinner they sit back down and study some more. These kids are smart but they are also fat. Still they idea of implementing a little physical activity into their schedules is nonexistent.

That was a bit of a tangent. Point is it has been hard to find activities for the kids that don't involve quadratic equations.

So, when we found out a guy, Tyler, at church is in the X-games and he gives skateboarding lessons we jumped on board. (Get the very clever pun?) Matt had his first lesson on Friday and it was pretty sweet. Matt thinks Tyler is awesome. I think he's great because he tells me what every mother wants to hear, 'Your son is a natural. He must get his innate skill and grace from you.' Of course, where else!?

That last one isn't Matt.