Preschool Happenings

HOMEWORK
Yep. In China, homework apparently starts at 3.

04.09.10
On Friday, Schäfer’s teachers informed me that he had homework. When I saw the paper in his backpack, I wasn’t too concerned. We let him cut and tape and offered help when asked.

He was quite pleased with his paper megaphone. On Monday morning, he took it to school and to his dismay it was strung on a string with the rest of his classmates. Eh… I think he had big plans for that megaphone.

I thought we were doing OK with this homework stuff until the teacher showed me his workbook (apparently also in his backpack) that correlates to the lesson they have in class each day. Apparently, Schäfer was way behind on his homework. Already!?!

I took the workbook home and tried to figure out what Schäfer was suppose to do on each page. Sometimes I understood. Sometimes I didn’t. I hated that Schäfer was falling behind because of his illiterate Mommy!

On the way to school on Monday morning, I had an idea. (Yes, Schäfer enjoyed another great weekend of no homework!) I asked the teachers if they would mind helping Schäfer with his homework while the other kids eat lunch. Schäfer doesn’t eat lunch at school, but most days it is served early so the kids are all eating before I pick Schäfer up. With the class munching away, one of the teachers would be free to help Schäfer with his lesson. They thought it was a good idea.

Since then, Schäfer does his workbook with his teacher just before I come to get him. If they finish the homework early, then he gets to work on an activity basket like stringing beads or connecting blocks. He loves the one-on-one time with his teacher and the special activity afterward. I love not spending 45 minutes to figure out a 5 minute worksheet.

AFTER SCHOOL RUN

04.19.10
Sometimes when I pick Schäfer up from school, he asks me if he can go for a run around the track. I figure it’s just his little way of working out some energy after sitting too long.

SPORTS COMPETITION
The day before the sports competition, we were informed that there would be a competition. Excellent!

04.23.10
On the morning of, we were so surprised to see that Schäfer had been selected to carry the sign representing his class. For Schäfer, this was a BIG deal. In this way, going to a local preschool can be really positive because it gave Schäfer an opportunity to be a leader.

He was SO happy.

Right now, he’s attending Xiao Ban the 2nd class.

During the parade of classes, each class walked around the track. It gave me a very Olympic-opening-ceremonies-type feeling.

After each class had walked around the track and a series of speeches were made, morning exercises began. Then, the smaller classes returned to their classrooms for games.

In the first game, the teacher put a character on the board and the students had to find it in a box filled with other characters. On Schäfer’s turn, he got this character “ye ye” which means Grandpa.

I’m the kind of parent who sends my son to play the game by himself. You can see the other Mom helping her daughter. Schäfer did find the correct character and he ran it to his teacher. When he came back to me he said, “The teacher wanted Ye Ye so I brought it to her.” He felt so good because he found what the teacher was asking for. He didn’t even realize he was in a competition.

In between games, there was lots of airplane flying.

And playing with classmates.

Schäfer liked this dice game. The kids rolled the dice then had to count how many dots the dice had. After they counted, they had to find the correlating number in a basket full of numbers.

They had another game where the students had to string a bunch of large, wooden beads.

The final game consisted of the parents carrying the children from one station to the next transporting balls. At the end, we counted how many balls we collected.

These are some of the characters Schäfer has been learning.

After the competition, Schäfer couldn’t help but join the big kids as they played with the rope from tug-of-war.

FIELD TRIP
A few days later, the teachers mentioned that the class would be going on a field trip to a local park, Hubs and I weren’t too sure about letting Schäfer go. After all, we knew they would cram 30 kids into a van with no seat belts.

Then, we found out the excursion was 50rmb ($7.32), we were again hesitant. That’s pretty expensive! (I realize in America this would not be expensive, but in China, 50rmb isn’t cheap.)

I kept asking what the kids would be doing, but each time I got the same response, “We’re going to a park.” I offered to come help. After all, they were 3 teachers to almost 30 kids. The teachers looked at me like my suggestion was insane. “You can’t come!” they said.

In the end, we decided to let him go. I had a short chat with his teacher giving two requests:

1. Please keep his hat on. This will keep him from getting sunburned and it will keep strangers from touching his hair.

2. You can take photos of him with his classmates, but please don’t let strangers take photos of him.

The teachers agreed. As I watched Schäfer line up, I noticed that with a hat on, he blended in with the rest of his class. This time, he was placed at the end of the line which I thought was good since it gave another child a chance to lead.

At noon, I went back to the school to find Schäfer and all his classmates eating quail eggs and drinking yogurt. When I walked in, Schäfer and his friends ran to me to tell me about the animals they saw in the zoo! Apparently each of the kids got to ride two rides at the Children’s Park. Schäfer rode an airplane ride and a boat ride. Then, they all went to the zoo. Schäfer had such a good time. He kept talking on and on about the rides and animals.

I’m so glad we got over the cultural differences and allowed him to go.

THE LITTLE RED FLOWER
One morning, when I went to pick up Schäfer from preschool his teacher told me he was so well behaved today. He obeyed everything they said and did not misbehave once. In honor of his good behavior, his teacher gave him a “little red flower” sticker.

Schäfer walked towards me and said, “Mommy, I got a xiao hong hua!” I noticed that he walked a little slowly and he spoke his words a little softer than usual. When I gave him a hug, I thought he was a little hot. Once home, we discovered Schäfer had a 101 degree fever. Apparently, that’s what it takes for my energetic, extroverted son to get a good behavior sticker.

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