School

Thanksgiving is now over and we are in full Christmas celebration here.  We cut down a tree...

and the girls are busy making decorations...

They love it and it has brought us all together,  HAHA!  Actually it mainly just been seriously painful for their non creative mother.  But I'm trying :)  Kenz is ultra creative so she has all these idea but I just can't quite see her vision which has been frustrating for her...  poor child.  She was not born to creative artistic parents.

I haven't really talked about it much, but Kyle and I decided that Kenz should attend school while we live in China.  This was a challenging decision because we do not live in a place where English is an option and Kenz does not know Mandarin so we weren't sure how this would work.  We essentially decided that it would be more beneficial for her to have a year of learning the language by being emerged in it and basically giving up a year of learning.  We were pretty certain that she could not handle a normal kindergarten level curriculum while it was being taught in a different language.  Luckily for us the Chinese do not do much serious school before 2nd grade so it has worked out great.  There is a 'English' kindergarten that is part of our complex and it is only 1/2 a mile away, her teachers are great and there is Russian exchange teacher there who speaks English.  It has actually turned out to be a great decision although in the beginning I was definitely questioning our sanity.  I think as a mom it was much harder on me to see her struggle everyday than it was for Kyle who was at work when we left for school. The first week was brutal, but as hard as it is to make your child do something extraordinarily difficult, I think that it has made her stronger and more sure of her capabilities apart from mom and dad.

This is her school.  She also has an extra art class that she takes on Wednesday afternoons.  She is only at school from 8:30 - 11:30 everyday.  They do have full day kindergarten but the afternoon schedule is a 2 hour nap, followed by food, playing outside and finally English class.  We decided that she could spend her time better at home in the afternoon.  So she eats lunch at school everyday and then comes home.  A few benefits of lunch at school has been that she can now use chopsticks fairly well and she is willing to try about anything that we put in front of her.  And that is a huge change from a year ago when she was not willing to eat anything.  Of course at that point she just wasn't hungry enough!

The school does not allow photography but after watching other parents use their phones to take pictures I decided to try to get away with that to get some pictures of the inside.  All rules here are just suggestions...  and I can always just pretend not to understand what they are saying.  Actually I don't have to pretend, that is pretty much the truth!  I did use my phone though so the picture quality is poor.

We didn't think that Kenz was learning any Chinese at all because there was no proof that anything was sinking in.  She still spoke English to her friends and school and they spoke Chinese to her and they seemed to get along fine so she had decided in her mind that she just wasn't going to learn it.  However, the other day I took her to the fruit stand and while I was picking out my oranges the lady started talking to me about Kenz, I couldn't figure out what she was asking me.  Finally Kenz came over and said meiyou and the lady seemed to accept that.  Then she started talking to Kenz and Kenz again replied meiyou pointing at Kaylie and then said 'just me' in English and pointed at herself.  She also added a few extra gestures, she gets that skill from her mother :)   Afterwards I asked Kenz what she said and she replied that the lady said that she saw her dancing at school and wondered if Kaylie went to school too.  Ok.  Guess she understands way more than we thought.  But if I ever ask her what people are saying she always responds, 'mom, I don't know, they are speaking Chinese!'  In a very teenage voice I might add.  My generation probably would have added 'duhhhhh'.  Where does this come from?

 While Kenz has her afternoon art class I let the girls play on the playground.  It is a class that is after school hours so the only kids in the building are those who are taking special music or art classes.

 These two love Wednesday's!  I'm pretty sure they are the only kids who ever play on the playground equipment.  I think that it is just there for show, Kenz says that they have never been allowed to play on it when they are outside.

 I love Chinese direct translations!

 This is Kenz's classroom.  Her teacher Coco is playing the piano, her other teacher's name is Summer.  Her best friends are Happy and Spring.  They haven't quite figured out English names yet :)  It is very common in China to name your child after an object, like my friends little girl is called Xiao tangguo which means Little candy.  Anyway, my favorite was one day Kenz came home and told me that Happy and Spring got into a fight.  Then Kenz tried to talk to them about getting along and Happy got mad at her.  HAHAHAHA!  I mean seriously.  So funny.

 Security guards in front of the school

 Entrance.  Normally in the morning the nurse sits in front of the window and checks each child as they come in and sprays something in their mouths.  I have no idea what it is, but Kenz says it tastes good and Madi is totally into it, she wants a spray on the way in and on the way out.  Then on the other side of the door the English teacher and the Russian teacher stand and greet kids and have them say the English saying.  Kenz has to say it in Mandarin. Usually it doesn't make much sense in English so I'm hoping it is a normal saying in Chinese.

 Art Class

 The kids gardens, they all helped plant these in the fall. Kenz LOVED it!

 This is where they dance and have races, jump rope, kick balls, dance and whatever else they do outside.  They typically go outdoors 2-3 times in the morning session and follow that up with a snack.  The school has classes for kids from age 3-6.  I would guess that there are about 120-150 kids total.  Every Monday they have a flag raising ceremony and one child is picked to go to the front and say hello to everyone and then sing a song after they have raised the flag.  One day last week they had a parents day so I went for the morning to watch her day at school.  One of the teachers told me that they wanted Kenz to participate one Monday.  It seemed a bit strange to me for her to participate in a flag raising ceremony in China.  Maybe more ironic than anything.

 She always holds up her picture at the end and shows me.  I think that she is starting a trend because I've noticed a few of the other kids are starting to do the same thing.  For some reason they do not let the kids take the pictures home so the only chance I get to see what she has done is when she holds up her pictures.  There is a big window along one of the walls where the parents and grandparents can watch the kids draw.  This day she drew sheep, which apparently was really 'boring'.

 This is Kenz classroom after school hours

 Kenz loves school, she has made many friends and has actually learned a lot.  I wish that I had taken my phone with me on parents day and captured more of her morning at school.  It was entertaining to say the least.  The day was freezing, ok, I'm sorry family, but it was freezing to me!  I know that you are all suffering a real winter.  But it was about 34 degrees when we left for school that morning.  The Chinese believe that if you leave the windows wide open you draw in warm air.  WHAT?  So, everyone wears layers upon layers and no one takes off their coats at school.  This seems bizarre to me.  How in the world do you write?  But whatever.  I was seriously concerned that I was going to loose some toes to frostbite that morning.  I was huddled against the wall with all the other mothers counting the minutes until I could go home and crawl under as many blankets as possible At one point I look over at my crazy child and she is taking off her coat.  I will add, it was windy that day so the wind was also blowing through the building and I just happened to be getting the brunt of it... anyway, I was like WHAT ARE YOU DOING???  She claimed she was 'hot'.  How is the possible?!  Anyway, I lived through it and congratulated her on surviving this many weeks in that freezing tundra.  She had no idea what my problem was. I will add that I still do have all 10 toes after lots of post op therapy.  Brutal.

So mornings are not my strong area.  I'll be the first to admit it.  Our kids have always gone to bed late and got up late.  I mean if I ever saw them before 8am they better crawl into bed with me or busy themselves somewhere else.  School was a bit shocking.  Although she doesn't have to be there until 8:30 I have to get them all fed and dressed and walk 1/2 a mile up hill both ways and try not to be too late because Kyle gets a text when she signs in so I know that he is keeping tabs on me and the time.  This is a lot of pressure for me.  I have to build in enough time for things like this (note above picture).  Kaylie was telling me which bowl of cereal she wanted this morning while at the same time knocking the other bowl on the floor.  Now it might look like Madi is trying to help here, but do not be deceived.  Kaylie is scrambling to get her cereal back into the bowl - after I assured her that the floor was fine, just eat it - because Madi is grabbing as much as she can and stuffing it into her mouth.  A fight usually happens at some point.  And because all 3 have had a foot growth spurt at the same time all their socks are too small and their shoes don't fit. This causes a mother child battle every morning.  You will wear those socks.  You are going to wear those shoes.  Life is hard.  This is usually followed by some statement like 'well when I'm all grown up...'  Oh yes mornings...  Although Kenz told me today that she never wants to get married because she does not want to move out of mommy and daddy's house and because they have to drain all the blood from your body when you marry someone.  WHAT?  I can't even imagine what she would pick up in a country where they actually spoke her language.  I'm sure that the only thing the kids will remember about their childhood is their mother yelling 'we are late we are late we are late!' GO GO GO!  But the good thing is that we are doing it and the girls are actually taking some responsibility in the morning and getting themselves ready to go.  I would say that overall despite some very difficult moments, school in China has been successful in many different ways.

 The girls have been posing for pictures too long in China, they are now giving me the peace sign.  I asked our Chinese teacher why the Chinese do this and she said she had no idea, it doesn't mean anything in China. I guess it is just the thing to do.  Madi still can't quite get her fingers right.

Got it mom! :)  hahaha!