PCE 51st Event Announcement

PCE Club will hold its 51st event on Nov 10th, , 2007, from 7:00pm to 9:30pm, at Asian Cultural Enterprises Center, 1876 Rt. 27, Edison, NJ 08817. As usual, this event will be composed of two sessions, Parents’ Discussion and Children’s program. This event is hosted by Ms. Sandra Liu and Mrs. Kam Ferro.

The title of parents’ seminar is “Broken or Beautiful”. The speaker, Mrs. Maria Mastro, is a mother of four daughters who range in age from 13 to 5. Two of them have been diagnosed with special needs. She home-schooled her children for six years before putting them into private school where she is currently working. Maria has also organized many community outreach activities for youth. She feels strongly about the benefit of such programs for all children but especially for children with special needs. She beleives it reinforces the knowledge that we all have something of value within ourselves to give and that we have worth as people. Mrs. Mastro is passionate about encouraging families through the painful process of discovering special needs in their family and moving them toward greater understanding and eventual acceptance by shifting the focus from the "brokenness" of the individual to their strengths and valuable qualities.

As we all know, there are always “brokenness” within ourselves and our kids one way or the other. Sometime, it is hard to accept the fact that we and our kids are “less” than what we have expected. The PCE event will be a great opportunity for all parent to reflect to ourselves, and recollect our appreciation to our kids uniqueness.

The kids program will start 7:00-7:45, featuring the well-loved “talent show”. Here your children will stand up to demonstrate any kinds of talents, such as, playing musical instrument, singing a song, tellling a story, performing a dance and so on. This part of the program has been so loved by kids and parent in the previous events. Due to the high rate of participation, we would have to use a lottery to select the performers and limit the time of each performer to 3 minute so that more kids can enjoy the stage time. If you children would like to have a performance, you need to register for them by specifying your children's name and performance with title when you register to this event. After the talent show, kids under 7 years old will move upstairs to continue with Children’s program led by Ms. Zhao. Ms. Zhao is professionally trained in early children education. Kids love her program!

Registration: Please register online or send your registration to: registration@pceclub.org before Nov. 9th, 2005. Please include the below information in your registration:
Your name and family name (if different from your last name)
Number of Adults (including you) will attend
Number of Children will attend
Your child's name (for talent performance)
Performance (piano, singing, story-telling, etc.) with title
Your home location (town name):
Phone number (optional) Admission Fee: Free for members, $10 per family for non-members to share the operation cost. Location and Time: Asian Cultural Enterprises Center, #1876 Rt.27, Edison, NJ 08817 From 6:30pm to 9:30pm Agenda
Family Program:
6:300pm-7:00pm, Registration, networking and social 7:00pm-7:45pm, Children Performance (downstairs) 7:45pm-8:00 pm, Break
Parents’ discussion
8:00-9:00: Parenting book reading and sharing
9:00pm-9:30pm, Q & A, kids pick up and clean up.
Kids Program (upstairs):
8:40pm-9:00pm, party time (need voleenteers)
9:10pm, Kids pick up.
No pick up later than 9:10pm

Sandra Liu
On behalf of PCE Club

“有残缺, 还是更美丽”

父母子女教育俱乐部将举办第51次讲座, 特邀Maria Mastro 女士分享特殊儿童教育心路历程, 题目是 “有残缺, 还是更美丽”. Maria Mastro 女士现任私立学校教师, 是4个孩子的母亲. 她的两个孩子被诊断需要特殊教育. 她曾举办家庭学校6年, 亲自教育自己的孩子, 直到他们进入正式学校. 其间,由不了解到接纳, 到欣慰与感恩, 她和她的家庭走过一段回报丰盛的历程. 这使她更加认识到每一个人自身的价值, 从而致力于宣讲与鼓励家长们, 尤其是特殊需求儿童的家长们, 不再为孩子的缺陷担心, 改变方法, 转移目光, 开发孩子的长项, 由衷地欣赏孩子们独特的才干和品质.

讲座时间：2007年11月10日，星期六，6:30pm – 9:30pm；地点：Asia Cultural Center, 1876 Rt. 27, Edison, NJ, 08817。由Sandra Liu & Kam Ferro 联络主持。报名费：会员免费，非会员每家$10。欢迎大家报名参加。有兴趣者可电邮至 registration@pceclub.org。电话联系：Sandra Liu: xiangqunliu@yahoo.com; Kam Ferro: kam.y.ferro@jpmchase.com。欲了解更多有关俱乐部的信息，请参阅俱乐部网站 http://www.pceclub.org/ 或注册我们的免费通讯录 (电邮至 joinpceclub@pceclub.org). (Sandra Liu)

Dear clubbers and Friends,

The PCE Club’s 50th monthly event was very successfully held on Saturday, October 13, 2007 in the Asian Cultural Center. About thirty families came to join us in this event. Many children were anxiously waiting for this event as for three months in a row, they hadn’t got a chance to perform due to two outdoor events and one annual conference in July, August and September. Nearly 60 adults attended the seminar entitled “Becoming American”, conducted by Mayor Cecilia X Birge (aka "Xie Lan"), in discussion on leadership skills and emotional intelligence development.

As the first Chinese-American female mayor in the history of New Jersey, Mayor Birge is a dynamic elected official with strong leadership skills and a solid professional background in various disciplines. Despite her very busy schedule, Mayor Birge kindly accepted our invitation for speaking at the club’s event and gracefully arrived at the event ahead of time watching our kids’ talent show. She is such a down-to-earth leader, so approachable, easy-going, friendly and reliable! Mayor Birge started her session with two questions in a slide show entitled “Becoming American” They are: “What is American?” and “Am I American or Chinese?” She then analyzed why we should hold onto our Chinese heritage while being a patriotic American as follows:
“1. the essential process of becoming American is to maintain the diverse ethnic cultures while becoming a part of the whole society;
2. being able to appreciate cultural differences leads to positive outcomes in life; 3. the central theme of becoming American is to have strong identity of one’s ethnicity. After all, this is what America is all about.” Mayor Birge also pointed out the major elements of strong leadership: “1. have a vision - have strong opinions and a structured mind; not to be afraid to speak out; 2. build consensus - meeting of minds;
3. develop a win-win situation;
4. ability to appreciate diversity - be a cross cultural team player - reach out;
5. be prepared to deal with prejudice/racism with a positive attitude.

Followed the presentation was a Q and A section. Mayor Birge answered each question raised from the audience with great wisdom and patience. Some attendees were reluctant to leave when it was time to end. They continued to chat with Cecilia afterwards till it was quite late. It was really a wonderful presentation filled with great ideas, observations, exciting personal experience and constructive suggestions. When I first introduced Cecilia to the audience, I deliberately omitted the mention of her renowned grandfather (former president of Peking University) and her own father (famous anesthesiologist) as I would like the audience to get to know her very own strengths and power. Sure enough, she did not let us down. During the whole session, she was so analytical, logical and articulate. Her English was perfect with no trace of accent given she came to America as a grownup.

Apart from the wonderful presentation, our children’s talent show was also excellent. Jill, our new officer/the club’s public relations coordinator, hosted the talent show. She had each performing child introduce him/herself. It is our hope that the children will not only develop their talents in various areas, they would also develop a good manner in the public and on the stage. Thank you, Jill, for a job well done!The Club’s next event will be held on November 10th, 2007. The seminar will be “Broken or Beautiful” to be conducted by Ms. Maria Mastro. Sandra and Kam will be our next event’s organizers. Please stay tuned for more info.To learn more about PCE Club, please feel free to sign up for the free emailing list at joinpceclub@pceclub.org or http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pce_club/. Please visit us at our website http://www.pceclub.org/ for more details on the Club's activities.

Respectfully submitted,

Yingting Zhang
---
华人女市长演讲领袖才能与情商培养

-- 父母子女教育俱乐部成功举办了第50次活动

10月13日星期六晚，父母子女教育俱乐部成功举办了第50次活动。俱乐部有幸请到了新泽西州第一位华人女市长谢兰女士来为大家讲述怎样更好地培养领袖才能与健全的情商。这次活动由俱乐部会长张颖婷和俱乐部公关部经理季育荣组织举办。谢兰女士曾就读于北京师范大学英语系，后来美就读宾州Bryn Mawr 学院历史系，并于1994年毕业。之后一直任职于华尔街，从事证券分析至2003年，现任新州Montgomery 市长。这次讲座，谢市长根据自己的宝贵经验与亲身体会为我们讲解领袖才能与健全情商的培养。讲座前一小时是谢市长的演讲时间，谢市长以“何谓美国人？” 及“我是美国人还是中国人？”作为她讲座的开场白。她提到成为美国人的基本过程即是在成为主流社会一分子的同时也要保承美国社会的多元文化。对不同文化的欣赏会使我们的生活过的更积极正面。要成为一个美国人， 首先要建立自身强力的族裔身份。所以我们在融入美国社会的同时还要传承自己的中国文化。谢市长还指出，扎实的领袖才能包括：1，有远见；2，达成共识，但不是妥协；3，创造双赢环境；4，以正面的态度来面对偏见和种族歧视。讲座的后半小时则是问题解答。谢市长对听众提出的众多问题都一一给予认真回答，充满智慧但并不失幽默。现场气氛相当轻松活跃。讲座之前是为众多家长和小朋友喜爱的“儿童才艺表演”。孩子们在台上表演各种才艺，包括弹钢琴，唱歌，讲故事等等。孩子们的表演可圈可点，令家长们欣慰。很多家长反映，这个节目使他们的孩子受益匪浅，给孩子们提供了一个很好的锻炼平台，增强了孩子的自信心。下次活动时间：2007年11月10日，星期六，6:30pm – 9:30pm；地点：Asia Cultural Center, 1876 Rt. 27, Edison, NJ, 08817。报名费：会员免费，非会员每家$10。欢迎大家报名参加。有兴趣者可电邮至 http://us.f506.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=registration@pceclub.org。电话联系：Sandra Liu: http://us.f506.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=xiangqunliu@yahoo.com; Kam Ferro: http://us.f506.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=kam.y.ferro@jpmchase.com。欲了解更多有关俱乐部的信息，请参阅俱乐部网站 http://www.pceclub.org/ 或注册我们的免费通讯录 (电邮至 joinpceclub@pceclub.org).
(张颖婷，季育荣）

A Message From the PCE Club's President

Dear Clubbers and Friends,

The Parents and Children Education Club just held another successful annual conference onChinese-American Parenting Practices, the only kind inparenting nature organized by a group of devotedvolunteering parents ever held in the world to my bestknowledge.

The PCE Club is a non-profit, non-religious and non-political educational organization. Its mission isto provide learning and sharing platform for parentsin developing the emotional intelligence of theparents and their children as well as helping to improve the communications between the parents and their children. Its objectives are to focus on building children's self-confidence, social skills, public speech and leadership skills, promoting children's self motivation, encouraging parents to expose their children to different areas so that they become more knowledgeable, promoting the growth of our EQ instead of just IQ.

Since its conception and establishment in September 2003, the Club has grown dramatically from infancy, toddlership, to present preschool stage. Its programs started from within a family house, then to a church auditorium hall and now in the Asian Cultural Center. The club has held 49 monthly events ever since it was founded without skipping any month, covering various topics related to EQ development, benefiting many parents in the community. Its online forum with nearly500 members is the great platform for parents to raise their concerned issues, and to share information, knowledge and experience so that others could avoid many pitfalls that might occur in their parenting journey. Parenting is one of the most challenging tasks for many parents; yet it is also the most rewarding one. We welcome you to join the club if you haven't.

To join the Club, email your application to http://us.f506.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=registration%40pceclub.org, or click on http://pceclub.%20org/portal/%20modules.php? for more info or to register online. If you are already a member, we thank you for your support and welcome you to put forward your opinions, recommendations, and comments about the programs of Club and how we can serve you better. Please remember that PCE Club is run by the parents, for the parents and their children. Together we can make a difference! If you have any questions about the Club, please contact me or email to<http://us.f506.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=info%40pceclub.org>.

Thank you all for your interest in and support to the PCE Club,

Yingting Zhang

President of the PCE Club

父母子女教育俱乐部　(PCE Club)　将在今夏为家长和孩子们连续举办一系列活动 – 第47，48和49次活动
七月的夏日野餐 - 交友
父母子女教育俱乐部将于7月14日（星期六）上午十一点举办户外交友野餐活动。 地点是Colonial Park (Parking lot D or C), Somerset, NJ。 必须要事先报名。请电 732-238-0576 或 http://www.pceclub.org 查询。
八月的夏日野营漂流 – 享受大自然
父母子女教育俱乐部将于8月17-19日（星期五,六,日）再次主办夏日野营漂流. 请大家到俱乐部的网站活动http://www.pceclub.org 查询。
九月的教育研討會 – 为新学年准备
第四屆華人子女教育研討會将于2007年９月８日召開
主题：　“肯定自我—如何培養孩子健康的心理素質”
　　弗吉尼亞槍擊案震撼了多少亞裔家庭﹖ 留給每個家長多少思考﹖
由父母子女教育俱樂部和多維時報聯合舉辦的第四屆華人子女教育研討會將著重探討該槍擊案後我們該如何“肯定自我--培養孩子健康的心理素質”，讓這種悲劇不再發生，讓生活在美國的華人孩子們的心靈健康自由地成長﹗
亞裔通常被认为是模範的少數族裔。然而在模範之外，尤其是我們生活在兩種文化夾縫中的孩子們，有多少人注意到他们所承受的壓力？他們的父母也许正在為全家老小的基本生存奔波，沒有時間給他们更多的關懷和呵護，而使他们缺乏安全感；作為“少數民族”，常常还可能会受到歧視，又有多少人會注意到他们的悲憤，無奈，致使他们的安全感更加受挫？有些父母過於嚴厲的家教，可能讓孩子拿到了無數個“A”，卻沒有留給他抒發情緒的空間，也沒有送給他通過溝通解決問題的工具；特別是亞裔人群對心理健康的認知的“落後”和“無知”，對看心理醫生的歧視和誤解，堵塞了孩子們在生活中出現困惑尋求幫助的通道。在這種情況下，我們該怎麼辦？該如何讓孩子從困惑和壓力中釋放出來？
一旦发现异常，父母們該如何调整心态？尋求幫助？讓孩子也讓這个家庭從困惑和壓力中解套出來。如何幫助孩子們肯定自己是本次大会的主题。
　　請來參加９月８日的父母子女教育研討會，聽聽專家的开導，也聽聽孩子們的心声，說說你的苦惱，幫助其他人解開困擾。研討會内容有：Keynote Speech （由Rutgers 的王益平教授主讲），Fishbowl Forum 以及 Panel Discussion. 在接下来的几周，我们将陆续介绍主讲者及其他参与者的背景，大会的内容等有关情况。
本次年會除了９月８日當天的研討會外，同時還舉辦征文活動。本次征文活動分成人組和青少年組兩個部份，分別設一、二、三等獎和參與獎。並在年會上予以頒獎和表彰。成人組要求字數在２５００字以內。青少年組字數要求在１０００字以內。內容分別圍繞家長培養孩子健康心理的故事、經驗和心得，以及孩子對父母的期望、要求，和自己內心的苦悶。成人組要求中文來稿，青少年組中英文皆可。來稿將選擇一部分登在多維時報教育版。
有关征文活動，请联系：牛新莉 732-287-8066。
第四屆華人子女教育研討會筹备委员会成员：
Jenny Zhu at 908-252-2378, email: jenny.x.zhu@gmail.com
Chengwen Wang at 732-829-3425, email: chengwen@rutgers.edu
Cindy Yu at 732-423-3130, email: cindyxyu@gmail.com
Yingting Zhang at 732-548-7731 email: yingting_z@yahoo.com
Linda Niu at 732-309-1804, email: lindaniu@yahoo.com
James Gao at 908-938-2025 email: james.gao@comcast.net
Dennis Wu at 732-238-0576 email: dcwu@att.com
Wei Tang, email: wtang88@yahoo.com
Cathay Wang, email: cathaywang@yahoo.com

Dear Friends,

We are all safely back from another wounderful outingthis past weekend. Not meant to make you feel jealous for those who missed the trip, the trip was so exciting and fulfilling, but of course also exhausting (good for weight control though :-)) The kids were having extremely fun time together: laughing, running, water fighting at rafting and roasting marshmallow atthe campfire etc...

Although we had some heavy rain on Friday evening, the weather at Kittatinny over the weekend was on the whole very favorable, especially compared to that inNew Jersey. To camp in rain was actually another very memorable event in our life, after all how many people would choose to camp in rain? But we made it. The very next day, mother nature really did us a big favor by showing us a great sunny day. Given the rain on Friday and today (Monday), we were really blessed to have two great days there on both Saturday and Sunday. Rafting on Saturday was much easier than it was last year when the water level was low with many very shallow rapids. This year it took us at least 1 hour fewer to finish the 7-mile trip of the white water rafting. The boats were not caught among the rocks as much as it used to be. However, the kids had the same amount of fun with water fighting even though they were advised not to shoot water to people to avoid coldness as the temporature was not that high.

The food was definitely superb. With all kinds of dishes prepared by the different families, we practically had one feast after another. The calories we shed off during rafting were all regained :-) While we had so much fun, we should not forget to say"thank you" to those who helped to make the trip successful. James spent tremendous time and effort planning and booking the trip and negotiating for better deals with the business manager. Thank you very much, James, for your great effort and time. As Chengwen mentioned, Dennis' unselfish contributionsto this trip is also much appreciated. Tallying the fees and depositing and sometimes refunding the money can be very soul destroying. A big "Thank you" to Jenny and Maggie for leading the work of food preparation and many others who helped to make the food, buy the items needed, etc. I did not realize that Chengwen was such a good cook. He was our BBQ master, together with several other men whose names I couldn't recall. Many thanks to Maggie, Cindy and Simon for the tedious accounting work to caculate the expenses on food and other needed items. Simon's timely creation of the electronic registration form was very helpful for the registrants. Thanks for your expertise and prompt help. Without the help of Chengwen, James Bao, Howard, several others with setting up the tents, our fun time would be much less. Helping with one another was really the key to having a successful group activity. I was forunate to have a chance to have conversations with Lois and Claire, both at 15. They opened a window for me to see the world of today's young people. That world is definitely different from ours but very colorful, exciting and promising, and also challenging. Thank you, Lois and Claire for your willingness to share with me your thoughts and goals...

When I first started this message, I just wanted to express my grattitude for another great outing. By no means did I mean to write that long. Sorry about that, if I made you bored.

Yingting

Dear Clubbers,

We had 26 families which close to 100 people joined in the picnic. Weather was great and food were plenty. I would like to thanks Sandra and Xinyu for their help in secure a couple of tables under the shade. Along with Angela's help, registration table was setup with display of plenty of parenting books to share. With great help from Chengwen and his family, we had all needed supply and pizza before noontime. Food were fill out over two tables length. Picnic was proceed as plan. After lunch, parents were gathering around Rebecca who was our guest of hornor to hear her experience on teaching Chinese at home. [need some details here] Due to limited time, she had to leave early but was volt for her help to anyone who would like to discuss the problem for kids in learning Chinese. When Rebecca is avalable, PCE Club will invite her back to give more indept h solutions.

Eveyone enjoyed this wonderful outdoor event and the picnic was ended promptly at 3:00.


thanks,

Dennis Wu

父母子女教育俱乐部成功举办了第四十六次活动
父母子女教育俱乐部6月9日在亚洲文化中心举办了其四十六期活动. 本期的活动还是从大家都喜爱的孩子才艺表演开始．孩子们踊跃地在舞台上弹钢琴,唱歌,讲故事, 给观众带来欢声笑语. 本次活动的专题主讲是由华尔街著名人才咨询公司的副总裁甘博士介绍怎样让您或您孩子在华尔街找到理想的工作. 甘博士重点讲述了华尔街喜欢什么样的人才以及选择怎样的专业和学校以便今后进入华尔街. 他还讲解了在面试中的一些重点技巧. 活动在热烈的问答中结束.
父母子女教育俱乐部是一个非盈利组织，致力于向父母子女提供培养情商及智商交流和学习的平台。欲了解更多有关俱乐部的信息，请参阅俱乐部网站. http://www.pceclub.org/. (Lily Wang)

父母子女教育俱乐部成功举办了第四十六次活动
父母子女教育俱乐部6月9日在亚洲文化中心举办了其四十六期活动. 本期的活动还是从大家都喜爱的孩子才艺表演开始．孩子们踊跃地在舞台上弹钢琴,唱歌,讲故事, 给观众带来欢声笑语. 本次活动的专题主讲是由华尔街著名人才咨询公司的副总裁甘博士介绍怎样让您或您孩子在华尔街找到理想的工作. 甘博士重点讲述了华尔街喜欢什么样的人才以及选择怎样的专业和学校以便今后进入华尔街. 他还讲解了在面试中的一些重点技巧. 活动在热烈的问答中结束.
父母子女教育俱乐部是一个非盈利组织，致力于向父母子女提供培养情商及智商交流和学习的平台。欲了解更多有关俱乐部的信息，请参阅俱乐部网站. http://www.pceclub.org/. (Lily Wang)

人人都可以作领袖人物, 只需把它从你的内心带出
- 父母子女教育俱乐部举办第四十五期活动

父母子女教育俱乐部于五月十二日晚在亚洲文化中心举行了第四十五期活动。 由俱乐部会长俞心怡主持孩子们的才艺表演, 董事王哲主持以”怎样把孩子培养成领袖人物”为主题的专题讨论讲座, 和方桐博士提供了摄影.
这次才艺表演, 俱乐部的家长们目睹了几位新的小天才. 他们天真烂漫和优异的表演给大家带来了阵阵欢笑和掌声. 小朋友Aaron朱和Stephanie 方是这个晚上的小明星. 招老师的娱乐课让孩子们开心, 大人们专心.
大人专题讨论, 由of Masterful Kids LLC的总裁Robin Schafer女士主讲. Schafer女士给大家讲解了九条原则: 第一, 要有赢的精神. 第二, 决定目标在哪里. 第三, 采取行动. 第四, 要有毅力. 第五, 坚持不懈. 第六, 不要害怕. 第七, 鼓励别人. 第八, 要有责任感. 第九, 遇到困难不能灰心. 只要大家作到这九点, 我们都是领袖了, 都会家庭事业有成 ! Schafer女士讲的内容都很实用, 容易让大家结合教育孩子的实际情况. 演讲和问答之后, 大家还是意犹未尽。一个夜晚很快过去了.

父母子女教育俱乐部是一个非盈利组织，致力于向父母子女提供培养情商及智商交流和学习的平台。欲了解更多有关俱乐部的信息，请参阅俱乐部网站. www.pceclub.org. (Cindy Yu)

大学入学准备及费用的筹备策略和实行计划
- 记父母子女教育俱乐部举办第四十四期活动

正值今年的大学新生录取完毕之际, 父母子女教育俱乐部于四月十四日晚在亚洲文化中心举行了第四十四期活动。 由俱乐部董事唐伟主持展开了一场以大学入学准备为主题的专题讨论讲座。讲座的第一部分为大学费用的筹备策略和实行计划, 由MassMutual 的资深财务顾问Jenny Zhu女士主讲。她首先分析了为什么做为家长从现在开始就需要考虑子女的大学教育费用筹备, 如何来发展子女大学费用储蓄计划,及如何开始计划储蓄计划。然后Jenny从省税的角度例举分析了各类教育费用储蓄计划的利弊并详细解答了大家的众多问题。讲座的第二部分为大学入学申请的趋势,程序及成功实例分析, 分别由Apex Ivy Consulting 总裁张晨先生主讲。他首先介绍了目前大学入学趋势以及其对亚裔学生的影响. 随后他详细介绍了大学入学录取程序和美国顶尖大学的办学理念及学校如何将其办学理念融入对入学申请者的筛选标准中。不同的大学有着不同的办学理念, 其录取标准也会截然不同。接着张晨以实例来分析了针对不同大学如何准备应试的方法, 包括Early action 和 Early decision 的利弊. 正是以他丰厚的实践经验, 他所提供咨询服务的学生获得了50% 以上的顶尖大学入学率。他的演讲切切实实吸引了在座的各位家长, 以至于演讲延长了一个小时, 大家还是意犹未尽。

父母子女教育俱乐部是一个非盈利组织，致力于向父母子女提供培养情商及智商交流和学习的平台。欲了解更多有关俱乐部的信息，请参阅俱乐部网站http://www.pceclub.org/.

Dear Clubbers and Friends,

The PCE Club held its 43rd monthly event on March 9,2007 in the Asian Cultural Center. It was originally planned as a session on child development from a pediatric psychologist' s perspestive. However, due to the speaker's unexpected schedule change, it was then changed into a session focused on discussion of several parenting books. Organizers of this event included Sandra Liu, Dennis Wu, Angela Qiu, Cindy Yu and Yingting Zhang. A special thank you goes to XiaoZhou and her mom who brought toys for all the children who performed. Also thank you to many other helpers who made this event run smoothly.

Followed our usual kids performance was the parenting book discussion which started with a video show of John Drescher's talk on his book "When Your Child Is 6to 12". This book on middle childhood was recommendedby Dennis Wu. Age 6 to 12 is a middle childhood thatis often neglected. Drescher pointed out that this is the last great chance to get close to your child. Here are the outlines:
Last chance to Hold Them Close
Last chance to Spend Time With Our Children (LOVE = T-I-M-E)
Last chance to Instill Values
Last chance to Read To Your Children
Last great time to Feeling
Last chance to Teach The Fact Of Sex
Last good time to Discuss on Vocations

"The Hurried Child", as I recommended before on the yahoo list, was first introduced to me by a teacher in my son's school. It was written by Dr. David Elkind who depicted that parents have pushed their children too far, too much both emotionally and intellectually. Each child has his or her own pace of development. We should nurture them in a way that is best for their growing, learning and maturing... There were several for-and-against opinions on this book posted previously on the club's online forum. Please refer to the list for the related discussion.

"Your Child's Growing Mind: Brain Development and Learning From Birth to Adolescence" by Jane Healy "is a window into the fascinating process of brain development and learning" (in Angela's words). Thank Angela for sharing this wonderful book with us. She read a few paragraphs to the audience. The book has been often picked as a must-read for college students who are majoring in education. Below is a paragraph from the book which is one of the main messages from the author:

"It is possible to force skills by intensive instruction, but this may cause the child to use immature, inappropriate neural networks and distortthe natural growth process. Trying to speed learning over unfinished neuron system might be some what akin to racing a limousine over a narrow path in the woods. You can do it, but neither the car no the path end up in very good shape!"

The PCE Club will hold its 44th event on Saturday evening, April 14, 2007 on How to Make Financial Plans for Your Kid's College Education and Tips on CollegeApplications/ Admissions. More information will be posted. To learn more about PCE Club, please feel free to sign up for the free emailing list athttp://us.f506.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=joinpceclub%40pceclub.org. Or visit us at our website www.pceclub. org or http://groups.%20yahoo.com/%20group/pce_%20club/

Thank you,

Yingting Zhang
On behalf of PCE Club Organizers

父母子女教育俱乐 部 第 四 十 二 期 活 动 介绍
父母子女教育俱乐 部 于 今年 二月 十 日 又 一次 成功 举办 了 儿童 表 演 与 家长 交流 活动 。俱乐部 有 幸 邀请了美国慈济基金会新泽西分会的慈少会员们及辅导老师来给我们介绍这个团体的各种的活动。“慈少”（全称：慈济青少年团）的辅导老师 Joy Zhao 首先向家长们介绍了以“关怀社会，尊重生命” 为精神的慈济基金会。接着又向大家展示了慈少会员们参与的各种社会服务活动。其中包括志愿服务于老人院，盲人图书馆，残障人机构以及走入社会的健康夏令营。慈少的会员们也分享了他们在慈少志愿团成长的心得和在服务社区中的体会。年青的会员们最后为全体表演了手语歌曲。真心希望愿把自己的孩子培养为有爱心和感恩心的家长们一起行动起来，服务人群，回馈社会。慈济的网址为http://nj.us.tzuchi.org
父母子女教育俱乐 部 将于三 月 十 日举 办 第 43期 活动 。 有关 详 情 ，请关注 近期 报纸 或 查 阅 www.pceclub.org. (Yixin Zhang)

Parents and Children Education Association Online Press Release January 20, 2007

PCE Club jumpstarted the year of 2007 with its 41st monthly event. This marked another success for sharing and improving parenting skills with the participation of more than 50 club parents and their children. The event participants had the opportunity to enjoy the performance of the children and the insights from our panel discussions.
The PCE Club is a non-profit, non-religious and non-political educational organization. Its mission is to provide learning and sharing platforms to parents and children for their emotional intelligence development and their intercommunication improvement. This January event was held at PCE's regular site at the Asian Cultural Center, Edison, NJ. Dennis Wu (Club's Treasure), Angela Chiu (Club's Online Forum leader) and Cindy Yu (Club's President) organized the event. As usual, the night was broken down into two consecutive sessions: Children Talent Performance and Education/Sharing Seminar with children programs.
Children Talent Performance session was hosted by Cindy Yu. On this event, the clubbers had the opportunity to listen to a very talented 4-year old storyteller. Everyone, children or parents alike, was so attracted into her story and performance that you can hardly notice anything else existed. She's truly talented. We also had other 1st time comers to showcase their wonderful piano performance and singing.
After the talent performance, PCE Club Teacher Zhao gathered the children to upstairs for a fun-filled night while the parents got started on the parenting teaching and discussing sessions hosted and organized by Angela Chiu. Tonight's subject is:
Coaching and Training Children's Behavior - Beyond Bribes and Threats:
Alternatives to Controlling Children's Behavior
Dr. Angela Chiu first introduced the 5 panelists: Ms. Sandra Liu, Dr. Bonnie Liu, Ms. Yingting Zhang, Dr. Lewei Shang, and Mr. Sin-Kie Tjho.
Angela's open remarks promoted the purpose of the behavior training is to have a happy, competent and responsive child. As parents, we are confident that we all can parent well and should be with the mindset that we can all learn to be better at it. We should view parenting as gardening with most time to observe and understand and seize the opportunity to prune/fertilize using reward/discipline.
Angela then asked the panelists with questionnaires:
1) A good understanding of our children's temperament and development stages and our own temperament builds a good foundation for effective behavior training. What are the main temperament traits? (Sandra)
2) What are the main types of rewards and how effective are they? (Bonnie)
3) How to make a praise or criticism constructive? (Yingting)
4) What are the main types of disciplines and how effective are they? (Lewei)
5) Please share your general philosophy and experiences in behavior coaching and management (Sin-Kie)
Sandra vividly told the story of her experience as a mother in dealing with her older daughter’s selective mutism from age 2 to 4. It was a gradual process for her to understand and accept it. Sandra then involved everyone around her daughter's life to help her. It was a touching story about a mother's love to help her daughter coming out of shadow of fear of speaking in school.
Bonnie in her usual scholarly way talked about rewards types to children. She talked about outer and inner rewards. Outer rewards include material stimulation and emotional/social reward. Inner rewards are the motivation and self-fulfillments. She promoted inner motivation to sustain good behavior. Self-esteem, a true mirror, knowing one's strength and weakness, comes from competence, it's not the same as feeling good. There is no need to shied kids away from disappointment and frustration.
Yingting shared her stories and experience for parents to build self-awareness. She thinks the parents' behavior directly impact the kids'. Setting up the right role model for the kids are parents' responsibilities. She shared many useful tips on making praise/criticism constructive, enlightened by the book “Mindset”. We should separate the person from the behavior when we praise and criticize and the consequences need to be directly related to the behavior.
Lewei feels self-awareness and self-criticism as well as criticism are very important to mode the right behavior of the kids. As parents, we need to help our children to understand their true self. So the parents are to help balancing the emotions of the kids by either pushing or pulling depending on the needs of the situation.
Sin-Kie described to the audience his family system, which composites healthy development of ethics, intellects and physical abilities. The temperament of a child reflects not only his/her own genetic inclination, but also the subtle and not so subtle influence of the environment he/she is subjected to, especially the family setting where the combined as well as individual temperaments of his/her parents exert a powerful influence on the psychic of our children, and which by itself is an another very complicated dynamic system that could not be easily modified for the benefit of our children. Once we can truly appreciate all inner working and inter-locking forces that shape the behaviors our children, we would be in a much better position to formulate a more realistic and more effective strategies for managing and coaching/training their behaviors. A well constructed family system would enable children to understand what they are expected to behave and perform and their responsibilities as family members, as well as how a family can function as a cooperative unit.
The parents in the audience exhibited great interests in the conversation with questions about how to deal with their own children's behaviors in the parenting discussion. After their fun class, the children were all proudly showing their parents the paper-flowers they made with Teacher Zhao. (Angela Chiu)