07.30.08
Posted in Life with my girls at 10:24 pm by tina
This week I started to help out in Maddy’s kindergarten class. This whole elementary education is brand new to me, but one short session in class I become so aware of the differences in Chinese culture and American culture.
I remember writing pages and pages of characters and doing math problems every day at this age. All the kids were ranked according to their acedemic achievement by now (I still remember the name of that little boy whom I constantly competed for #1 with). Parents boasted about how many ‘Chinese poems’ their children can recite by memory. We got punished by how many problems we answer incorrectly on tests.
It’s an entirely different world here. They are never forced to sit down and write the letters 20 times or do 10 math equations a day, but there are different learning stations achieving the same. Some choose to work with magnet letters. They dig out the letters and put words together on the white board. Some choose to make story books and in the process asking teachers/room parents how to spell things they’ve drawn. Some choose to go through the picture word book and pick out the words they want to write themselves.
I remember classes back in Taiwan. They were all about sitting up straight and most important sat through each hour listening to the teachers. There was no interaction between kids and we better made sure that we didn’t get caught when we passed notes underneath the table.
There is none of that here. Besides than the half hour a day circle time where everyone is required to sit on their assigned spot, most of the center time is broken into small groups of 4. Kids can enter and leave the station as they wish. They are always working with different classmates.
So somethings I realized:
My child will always be ‘behind’ by Chinese standard. She will never be able to (nor would she ever be interested) to sit there and copy the whole chapter from first word to the last. She will be ’slow’ when she does math problems on paper. She won’t be able to recite whatever lesson book she’s given (typical homework even from Chinese school here. “make sure your child can recite book #blah blah blah)
What she is taught and is being trained, is a mind of curiosity and creativity, to actually UNDERSTAND a story and being able retell it through her own words, to work through numbers in their little grocery/cashier station, and to have the skill to work with others and believe in teamwork.
She is growing up American, and I am humbly grateful for it!
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07.20.08
Posted in Life with my girls at 12:40 pm by tina
Maddy has been sporting a rather FOBISH haircut lately. During her staggered entry week of school, she happened to stay home with her still-recovery-from-chickenpox mother. I guess she ran out of things to do and decided that she should give herself a haircut.
Auntie Betty took her to our stylist and there was not much she could do. We’re waiting for her hair to grow normal again:
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07.12.08
Posted in Misc at 9:00 am by tina
We’ve been having some major events since the beginning of June:
1) Renter changes - ran into some unfortunate issues but thankfully all are resolved
2) Maddy graduated from preschool - enjoyed their wonderful ceremony
3) Closed on the new townhome
4) Help ahgoon/ahma move from TN to NC for good.
5) Went to auntie Betty’s wedding in Baltimore (and me getting sick on the trip)
6) Livy started wearing underwear
7) Lost auntie Betty’s dog Tanner and found him the next day at a neighbor’s
8 ) Uncle Dave’s family and grandma/grandpa Junneck’s visit
9) Maddy’s first day of school in kindergarten
10) Our short trip to Great Wolf Lodge with the grandparents and cousins - realized that I got chickenpox so we had to cut our trip short
I think I am actually looking forward to have some mundane routines!!
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07.07.08
Posted in Maddy at 11:43 pm by tina
There were so many things going on in the family that I felt like I didn’t quite make as big of a deal for the girl as I can for her first day of school. I wasn’t sure if I talked to her enough about the bus ride for her to realize that she will be on her own for the first time. I just let it slip because there were so many other things needed to be done.
The day came. We went to the bus stop early (it is right outside of ah-goon/ah-ma’s townhome), and I worried sick that the girl is going to have a meltdown when the actual bus come. The bus came much later than we expected (apparently not to the other family since they showed up 2 mins before the bus came.. obviously not using the bus for the first time) I introduced the girl to the bus driver. She walked up and never even look back once, and I was so super proud of her. We strapped mei-mei back into the car and thought, hey, let’s follow the bus. We followed one bus, only to find out that it is NOT the bus our daughter is on. Joe and I, we are perfect parents like that.
We went back to the bus stop at 4:15 (so I was told that ‘might’ be the time bus comes back) to wait for the bus and very surprised to see that the bus is right around the corner. Bus came, the girl came out. I wonder why the other kid didn’t come down, but whatever, maybe her parents picked her up from school.
“I have something very funny to tell you” Maddy said. “Something happened in school?”. “No.. I fell asleep and didn’t get off the bus the first time bus came back. And we went back to school, and bus driver said why are you still on the bus and she started laughing and laughing and she drove me home for the second time”
OMG we were late picking her up and were not there when the bus came the first time, and our daughter had a private school bus driving her home thanks to her yet again perfect parents. I know lots of people complain about our growing school county, but I am so so thankful for its strict rules and its tracking of each student.
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“Tell me all about your first day”
“Ok.. I made a new friend. Her name is Abby. Just like Abby our neighbor but not her. It’s a different girl”
“Ms Buckner asked me lots of things. First rhyming things. She said ‘does bat and cat rhyme’ and I said yes. and then ….”
“But you know what mommy, in kindergarten, the nap time is SO MUCH shorter than Primrose. We don’t even get to sleep on the cot. Only on the floor with our towel.. and I just read 5 books and the nap time is already over” (they have 40 rest time vs. the 2 hr nap time in preschool)
The girl is SO TIRED, she fell asleep shortly after we started the road trip and didn’t even have the energy to say hi to the cousins when we got to Great Wolf Lodge.
Welcome to the big world of Kindergarten!!
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Posted in Life with my girls at 10:58 pm by tina
With the cousins living all the way in CO and us having two young girls, it gets tougher and tougher to get together. We’re delighted that they stopped by NC on their yearly road trip from CO to NY where both uncle Dave and auntie MaryBeth’s families are.
Maddy remembers everything about all the cousins from last year, and she has special fond memories of her big girl cousin Colleen. It was no surprise that she immediately followed the girl cousin around everywhere she goes. Livy is just a little too small to really join the group, but she did not miss a beat acting like she is ‘in the loop’.
Maddy had her first ’slumber party’ with cousin Colleen. She was beaming with giggles at 11pm for sure the latest time she was still up and about. She got to go all the way to the top of the playset at Frankie’s (three story high) with Colleen, something she would never have done by herself or even with one of us.
Thanks for visiting us Ryan, Sean, Colleen and Mathew!!
p.s. Sean, sorry we didn’t get to eat your famous omelet. I am writing down as the my number 1 thing to do the next time I see you.
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07.01.08
Posted in Livy at 9:38 pm by tina
Little girl went to school in underwear for the first time. Well, she wore an underwear for the first time period.
Just one accident during the day (they put diapers back on her during nap) in school; one at ah-goon/ah-ma’s and one in jiejie’s room this evening.
Considering it’s the first day she’s in underwear (and started potty training only two weeks ago), she really did a good job.
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