ICASP 2009

ICASP stands for Illiniois Adopted Chinese Sibling Program. It is a wonderful cultural day for our children. They are assigned Big Sibs and they spend the day with them learning and playing. This is our third year to participate. We have only missed one year so far. We try to make it a priority to attend. It is important to us that our children have this time since they don't have much interaction with other Asian Americans in our community. There aren't many in our community.

We took a few pics of the kids with their big Sibs. I would have taken more, but our workshops were so interesting!

We learned about Chinese/Mandarin linguistics and learned to speak some sentences with Dr. Jerome Packard. Mike Liu told us all about Chinese Fables and how they affected him as a young boy growing up in Shanghai after being born in New Hampshire. Dr. Ian Wang is the curator of the East Asian Gallery of the Spurlock Museum and he opened our eyes to Chinese Art Appreciation and meanings of the art we see. We enjoyed some very delicious Simple Chinese Snacks made by the students of TASC (Taiwanese American Student Club). Then we had the pleasure of hearing from two adopt adoptees who were adopted from Korea. Shane Carlin, and Susann Heft. Shane was recently a speaker at the KAAN conference held I believe he said in Chicago. Afterwards we were treated to photo ops of the group and of the song above in the video. Dr. Ian Wang told us something that really made sense. The Chinese believe that an education for their children and their Children's children is very important. Without an education you can not become anything. That is why they are so pressured to do well.

The children's portion included learning about the traditions of Chinese New year and other traditional stores. Chinese songs, mid autumn festival, dragon boat festival, geography and a game of jeopardy. In during all this they had a snack time and a scavenger hunt to find buildings in the area with their big sibs.