The Big Apple - A Fun Place for Families

The Big Apple

It's a happy family gathering for us as we are going on a trip together. We have never done this before. Because Xiao is here visiting for a few months, we would like her to see as many parts as Canada as possible.

A Little Zoo!

\We are spending a few days in the Ottawa area and driving past through a few towns.

The first place we stopped was the Big Apple, about an hour drive from Toronto.

A Train Ride for Kids

We visited the Big Apple a few time in the past when our children were young and we were on our family vacation passing the area.

Mini Golf

But we haven't been there for a little while. It has gradually involved into a very family friendly place with a few activities for the children to so.

The Big Apple Gift Shop

The Bit Apple has a couple of Ilmas, a Train Ride, a mini golf place, even some ping pong tables

The Store

There is a gift shop where one can buy various crafts and food items.

LocalcCrafts sold at the Gift Shop

The restaurant has expanded its menu.

 We tried the grilled cheese on apple bread ( $5.99),  Apple Fries ($3.99), and the Philly Steak Wrap with the works, loaded with a good size mixed salad, served with french fries for $7.99, not bad at all!

We were able to observe some employees at work making apple pies and other baked goods.

Mom is happy that she is able to travel with her grown children.

Creating Happy Memories onn Our Trip

We just hope that we would have some good weather for the next few days so that we can create some fond memory for Mom!

As for families with young children, it is a nice place where you can spend a couple of hours easily!



R.T.
Big Apple
Ontario

ACE Net's Second Conference, OISE, Toronto

Padmini, P.- ACE Net President and Donna Quan

Networking at the ACE Net Conference, OISE, Toronto

Canada's a multicultural country and we receive immigrants annually from around the world. Due to cultural and language barriers, minority parents, students and educators encounter problems unique to their own cultures.






ACE Net was formed a couple of years ago to address the issues and to advocate for Asian Canadians educators and students.











This year, ACE Net held its second conference at the OISE library in downtown Toronto.

Donna Q. - Director of Education for Toronto Board

Asian Canadian educators are immensely proud of the appointment of Donna Quan as the Director of Education for the Toronto District Board of Education, the first Chinese Canadian who heads a 2 billion budget publicly funded organization and the biggest public board of education in Canada, the 4th largest in North America.

ACE NET invited her as the keynote speaker for the conference.

Barbara Hall, Former Toronto Mayor

It was great to see the good turnout and the prominent speakers and educators who responded to our invitations and attended the conference as speakers and participants.

Some of the speakers included:

Barbara Hall, former mayor of Toronto and currently Chief of the Human Rights Commission, Ontario.

Panelist responding to audiences' questions

A four member panelists for a panel discussion with lots of audience participation.

Participants posting questions for the panelists.

Teachers, administrators, student teachers and other interested educators from across the GTA school boards took part in the conference.

Trustee Rutka sharing her thoughts

There were good information sharing and discussion sessions plus some nice displays.

One of the display at the conference

It was a lot of work planning and organizing a conference involving so many people.

One of our panelist

ACE Net could not have done it without the help of many dedicated volunteers.

ACE Net Volunteers  helping at the conference

It was a great event and a great day for ACE Net!

Congratulations to a successful event!

R.T.
OISE Library
Toronto

A Graduation Ceremony at Tyndale Seminary, Toronto

Tyndale Seminary, Toronto, Ontario

 Janice is a missionary who has worked in Christian ministries in Cambodia for quite sometime.

She started churches and later rural schools to help educate poor Cambodian children living in villages.



 

The Chapel at Tyndale Seminary, Toronto

Janice - sitting proudly with her classmates

With a desire to better equip herself for Christian ministries and to increase her knowledge in the bible, she flew back to Canada and enrolled herself at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto four years ago.








How time has flown by! It seemed like yesterday when I first met her at the beginning of her
bible school study.

She is graduating now; we had the pleasure of attending the ceremony last Saturday and congratulated her in person.

Receiving her Degree from Dr. Au

The graduating ceremony was held at the Tyndale Seminary chapel located around the Bayview and Steels area, a beautiful site in Toronto.

Tyndale Seminary moved into it current campus recently and we had never visited the new campus until this time

All the Present Pastors  were invited to Pray for the Graduates

 The campus is located in a beautiful area of Toronto easily accessible by public transit.
It used to be a Catholic high school and now Tyndale occupies these gorgeous buildings.

Church families and friends shared in Janice's happiness on this special day!

Many of the graduate's proud families, friends and their church families were there to celebrated and congratulated the graduates who, after four years of studies obtained their degrees in biblical studies.

The ceremony started with a few short speeches by the seminary staff members who encouraged the graduates prepared to go out to do ministry work for Jesus.

After the presentation of certificates, the seminary invited all the church minsters/ pastors present to come to the front and prayed for the graduates. What a wonderful gesture inviting some of the audiences to take part in the ceremony and blessing of the graduates!

 It was a very special day for Janice who has studied very hard for the past four years to obtain her degree from the seminary. May God bless her and use her to glorify His name and extend His work in the future!

R.T.
Tyndale Seminary
Toronto, Ontario

The Career Path at McDonald's

May 3, 2014

In order to help young people to obtain their first job, 105 Gibson Centre, Markham, Ontario, has sponsored the Student Employment Mentoring Program ( S.E.M.P.) for the third year.

The Planning Committee has been exploring the possibilities of partnering with some big corporations in Canada and trying to get their support for the youths in our community. We have approached T & T ( brought by Loblaws ) and the McDonald's in our neighbourjood. After meeting with their Human Resources at their headquarters and couple other meetings, we were absolutely delighted about their positive responses and their willingness to support the young people.

Student Employment Mentoring Program Workshop - 105 Gibson Centre

This Saturday, I gave my last workshop for the Youth Employment Mentoring Program and invited two of the consultant managers from McDonals's to come and share their experiences and advice with them.

Donna, One of the Manager Consultants Spoke to the Youths

Dwight and Donna came and informed the youth of the career path and the qualities they looked for in their potential employees when recruiting for their McDonald's' stores.

For Crew staff members, store managers are looking for people who are:                                                 
enthusiastic and  outgoing. They also put strong emphasis on the importance of punctuality at work.

Dwight Shared the Career Path at McDonals' at 105 Gibson Centre

A Crew member can be promoted to become a Crew Trainer after working at their stores for six months and having developed knowledge to train others.
  
After working for a year, a Crew Trainer can be promoted to a Shift Manager.
                  
For the person who likes to be an Assistant Manager, the employees must  show           initiatives on the job.

After a couple of years, an Assistant  Manager can be promoted to the position of a

Store Manager  with good Knowledge of food cost, managerial and other experiences.

With developed knowledge in budgeting, staff training and managing the entire store, a Store Manager with five years of experience can be promoted to the Store Consultant position.

Some of the Guest Speakers for the Youth Mentoring Program

The youth job seekers learned a lot from these two store managers. They learned that being a Crew Member at McDonalds is not just a part time job for highschool kids. With the experience and training they gain, there are real career opportunities and growth with an intentional corporation such as McDonalds.

 105 Gibson is grateful that big corporations such as Mcdonalds and T & T  are doing their part by giving back to the community by llend a helping hand and support the young people in the community!

R.T.
Toronto, Ontario    

            

A Joyous Family Occasion

The Bride's Colourful Wedding Bouquet

Mike and Danielle have been together since their senior years at university.

They finally decided to tie their knots last Saturday!

York Civic Centre on Eglinton Ave.. Toronto

They wanted a simple civic wedding ceremony at one of the Toronto civic centres and a traditional banquet in the evening to celebrate with friends and families.

It was supposed to be a rainy day today. It did rain a bit in the morning but it stopped by the time we got to the York Civic Centre at 2700 Eglinton Ave West, Mississauga.

The Wedding Chamber at York Civic Centre

 The Wedding Chapel, located on
 the main floor of the York Civic Centre building, is much bigger than I expected. It is a sunny place furnished with modern white chairs accommodating about twenty plus people comfortably. Large pots of lush plants lined one side of the room by the windows.

The Wedding Chamber I was at before in downtown Toronto was small and dark  This one on the west end of Toronto is spacious, with a lot of natural light streaming into the chamber from the floor to ceiling windows.


Micheal's parents and I got there before everyone else and chatted with the lady who would officiate the wedding ceremony. She was a wedding planner before;  she went through some training to get her license which allows her to officiate wedding ceremonies in Ontario.

The Bride and Her Sister

The wedding ceremony was supposed to be at 2:00p.m. but Micheal and Danielle were held up in traffic and were a little late.

 While we were waiting for the new couple, another couple was waiting for their 2:00p.m. wedding ceremony as well. We just hope that the wedding chamber was not double booked.

The radiant bride

The bride looking radiant and beautiful in her gorgeous purple flowing long dress was escorted by her sister while Philip stood in as his the best man.




The wedding ceremony started shortly after Micheal and Danielle arrived.

The bride and groom exchanging their vows

It was a simple, yet solemn ceremony with the officiating officer sharing with the bride and groom some beautiful thoughts and advice which she wrote herself  for a happy marriage.

The Happy Couple !

 It was always touching to witness the union of two people in love.

Families were present to witness the ceremony

It was a joyful moment for family members who witnessed and shared in the new couple's happiness and commitment to each other.

The new couple & relatives

After the civic ceremony, the new couple stopped by the High Park to take pictures for a few minutes but it was chilly!


Since Micheal's background is Chinese Canadian, both he and Danielle  wanted to follow and perform the Chinese traditional Tea Ceremony.

Micheal's aunt was kind enough to offer her house where the tea ceremony took place.

Grandma Lui receiving her tea at the Tea Ceremony

The Tea Ceremony is a time honoured Chines tradition where the senior family and extended family members of both the bride's and groom's sides are invited to participate.

Family members officially welcome the new couple into their respective side of the family.

The bride's uncle also took part in the tea Ceremony

Starting from the groom's side of  the family, the oldest member of the family was served tea first by both the bride and groom.

Grandpa McClaren receiving his tea & shared his wisdom

After drinking the tea, the family member gave the bride and groom each a gift - a piece of jewelry, or a red pocket envelop. 

If there is a piece of family heirloom to be passed down to the next generation, this would be a good time to do it in front of family members.
\
Words of marital advice can also be shared at the tea Ceremony.











Though not of Chinese decent,  Danielle's side of the family also took part and Grandpa McClaren seemed to enjoy the private moments spent with the new couple, sharing with them his words of marital wisdom.

Wendy & Mom beside her  spectacular creation

Every senior family members of the bride and groom drank the tea that was offered to them by the new couple; in turn they welcome them into the family by offering them their personal congratulations and a gift, either a piece of jewelry or a red lucky envelop.

Danielle;s side of the family really appreciated and enjoyed the experience!

Er. flew from S.F. to attend his cousin's wedding

The families spent sometime  enjoying some light refreshments and had an opportunity to socialize a bit before heading to the Diamond Restaurant in Richmond Hill for a traditional Chinese wedding banquet.

Many friends and relatives were at the wedding celebration. Er.,  Micheal's cousin, made a special trip from San Fransisco to fly back and attend the wedding banquet.

Cutting the Wedding Cake

Wendy, Micheal's cousin, made a beautiful cake for the wedding reception.

 It was a huge cake with four layers decorated with  intricate purple icing flowers.

Crispy roasted chicken

 The wedding banquet was a gourmet feast with at least eight different main dishes consisted of a meat tray appetizers, followed by  seafood, chicken, lobsters, scallops, freshly steamed fish, fried rice, noodles and desserts.

Crab balls served with vegetable decorations made with carrots

 The banquet was enjoyed by guests over a 2-3 hour period.

Shrimps & snow peas with taro & carrot towers

We really enjoyed the food at this restaurant. The food was delicious and the presentations of the dishes were creative, colourful and appetizing!

Dancing the night away after dinner

Not only did the guest enjoy a sumptuous dinner, there was dancing afterwards after the almost three hour banquet.







A great wedding celebrations indeed!

May God bless Micheal and Danielle as they start a new life together as a married couple!

R.T.
Toronto

Getting Ready to Start a New Chapter in Korea

J. and dad

We cannot believe it! Our younger son is going to be working and living in Korea for the next twelve months, at least!

We praise God for His boundless mercy and grace for listening to our prayers, answering them and opening doors for our two sons. After applying for a job in Korea a couple of months ago, J. has landed a job in Korea doing what he does the best- teaching!

It has been an exciting past couple of weeks watching our son preparing everything for  his departure to a new country in the far east. He got everything done in time including finding new tenants.and subletting his apartment downtown.

Yesterday, Rosie was kind and she called; she asked to take Jo. out for lunch and wish him well.  She took us to the Mottofuku downtown and tried the delicious fusion food. Rosie even gave Jo. some words of wisdom sharing her secret of success - good people relations skills.

Rose drove me home and helped  finish decorating the guest bedroom. We put up the border wall paper to finish the wall paper making the room look really welcoming in preparation for Er.'s coming home this Saturday. She remained in our house even though we left to help J. move.

J. And his cousin at the family dinner

J. rented a U-Haul van and we managed to move everything in three hours. Good thing I  could help to clean up the place a bit before the new girl came in for her key. By the time we unloaded everything into the garage, it was well past 11p.m.

On Wednesday, we hosted a dinner for my mom, Wayne, his girl friend, Margaret and Douglas. Mom and W gave J the red  pocket and wished him good luck. It was a very nice dinner with the family.

A Family dinner to send J. off to Korea

I treasured the time I spent with J. on Tuesday night when he slept over and again on Wednesday evening when he was finishing his packing.

This were the rare moments when a mother and son could spend time together and talked.  A few days before, I started crying thinking about our younger son leaving home and will be on his own completely in a new country. I was worried.

We even managed to Skpe Er. and chatted with him a bit. He looked good and seemed happy at his new job.  J. got everything done and we drove him to the airport at 3 a,m, getting there plenty of time ahead. Before we got out of our car, he even asked me to pray for him!  I could not remember the last time when he asked for our prayers. After getting his boarding pass, we all sat down for a snack and my husband spent a few minutes sharing the story of Jacob from Genesis with J. to encourage him. It was a memorable moment!

We saw him off at the America Customs, before he went in, J. told us he loved us and thanked us for helping him to get everything done. It really showed how much he appreciated us.

Our darling son, May God bless you and use you to glorify his name in Korea!

Mom
Toronto
p.s. As we drove home, I felt a great sense of peace. I did not feel sad or worried at all as I know God will protect our son in Korea and give him the best!

Parenting Strategies - Taste Your Own Medicine

Parenting Strategies  – Taste Your  Own Medicine

Another incident happened with the same mother and the same child mentioned in my previous blog; the son was around 6-7 years old at the time.

One day the mother picked up the son from school. The son made a request to the mother for something, the mother said no. The son was not very happy in the car, complaining and asking the mother for something. The mother said no.

As soon as they got inside their own house, the son threw his clothes, his school bag and everything on the floor.  He  laid down on the floor, started screaming and yelling, kicking his arm and feet, throwing a temper tantrum.

This mother,  reacting to the son’s temper tantrum, also threw her jacket and her handbag on the floor. She then lay on the floor spread eagle beside her son, screaming and yelling exactly like him and did it as long as he was doing it!

The son was so surprised by what the mother was doing. He sat up and looked at his mom who was screaming,  kicking her feet exactly like what he was doing. His mother did not scream at him, nor yell or scold him. She was just mirroring exactly the same thing as he did.

The son did not expect his mother copying his actions. He stopped his temper tantrum, sat up and looked at his mom.  

Son: Mom, why are you doing this?

Mom: Doing exactly what you are doing. Whatever you do, I can do too!

The son looked at the mother’s actions and thought she looked silly and stopped his temper tantrum. He also learned that whenever he throwed a tantrum, his mom would do.

Tasting Your Own Medicine – Without fighting with her son, without beating and arguing with her children, this mother used wisdom, and humor to teach her children.

We can try that too!

Do not be angry, do not nag and repeat our children all the time because they would not listen. They would tune us out.

On the other hand, we also need to teach our children  that they cannot always get what they want by throwing temper tantrums. Do not reinforce them and reward them  when they are behaving badly.

If they scream and kick and we give what they want, they will learn that this is the way to get things for them. Reward them when they are behaving well, i.e, when they are sitting nicely doing their work, pat them on the back, praise them. 

Do not ignore your children when they are quiet and behaving properly. Praise them, give them a big hug when they are doing something you want them to do, such as performing their routine and chores and getting ready for bedtime by themselves, helping you or helping their brother and sister. 

When you let them know that you are happy and proud of them  while they are doing well, they will want that praise and keep doing well.

R.T.

Radio AM 1430 

April 24, 2014

Toronto