Katie will begin first grade at a local school at the end of August. She is the only foreign student at the school, but we have been very encouraged by the warm and friendly attitude that the school administration has shown towards her (especially as compared to our experiences in dialoguing with other schools).
[Classic example: One Saturday back in early June was the registration day for most primary schools, which meant that if you were wanting your child to attend a particular school, you needed to go to that school, get in line, wait, and in our case, not be entirely sure about what was going to be required of you when you got to the head of the line. For most local families, getting registered requires going to one school only. Adam, Katie, and our precious, faithful tutor planned to go to 3-4 different schools since we had been unable to get a straight answer from any of them. At the first 3 schools they visited, the registration was taking place outside. In the heat. And sometimes rain. Sounds like fun, right? Standing in line on a hot day with a bunch of 6 year olds who have nothing to do? Their experience at the last school they visited, the one where Katie will be going, was much different. Registration was taking place inside, in the air conditioning, and they had set up a tv with Tom and Jerry cartoons for the kids to watch while waiting. Later on, as Adam was relating to me the events of the day and giving me his opinions of the various schools, he said as he shared the story about the AC and Tom and Jerry, "Someone was thinking!" And that's always a good sign.]
Mercifully, it is a much closer school than the other options that we were left with. Plus, we've recently discovered a few other students in our complex who will also be attending this school in the fall, including some of Katie's current classmates, so she'll already know some folks there!
Some of you have inquired about our educational philosophy for raising children overseas. (insert sound of crickets chirping, because, to be honest, we really aren't entirely sure what we are doing!) Our modus operandi shares pretty much the same name as our blog--we're just taking things one step at a time. We feel like it's really important that she learns the language, for her own cultural and emotional and social adjustment. Can you imagine what it would be like to grow up in a place where you really never had any idea what was going on around you or where you couldn't really play with kids in your neighborhood because you couldn't understand what they were saying? Katie's already shown remarkable progress having been in kindergarten here for a year, affirming to us that there really is no substitute for a full-on, immersion situation. So, we're going to give it a go! Especially since attending local schools seems to be a fairly popular/common practice among the expat families we know, and so far with good result. At this point she'll be going 5 full days a week, doing all the same stuff her classmates are doing--same learning of characters and memorizing of ancient Chinese poems, same math work, etc. We'll see how it goes. Such a schedule won't leave a lot of time for homeschooling, so we're planning only to focus on reading/writing this year (using this curriculum which I'm really excited about). Realistically speaking, Katie will probably only attend a local school at most through 2nd grade (if things go well)--we just want to give her a good foundation in Chinese. I'm sort of sad when I think about having to set aside my desires for homeschooling for the time being (especially when I think that we could be using curriculum like this) and can sometimes be anxious about her falling behind her peers in the States. But then I have to remind myself that my child is becoming fluent in a second language...which is pretty stinkin' awesome. Plus, with baby coming in November, in addition to the normal craziness of our life here, Adam kindly and gently pointed out that, while I may be excited about the prospect of homeschooling, it may not really be the most reasonable option at this juncture. Point taken. :)
All that to say, please pray for Katie and for us. We really have no idea how this thing is going to go. Especially when it comes to how drastically different Chinese philosophy of education are from Western ideas (that's another blogpost). Pray that we will have a good relationship with her teacher--that she will be kind and discerning and gentle towards Katie but also will not overly coddle her or treat her differently to the point that it causes other problems. Pray that Katie will make good friends, that she will have a Hope-filled attitude and a persevering mentality, and that this will be a positive experience for her. Right now at home we're working on learning as many characters as we can so she'll be a little less behind when she starts. We'll keep you posted!
Oh, and Caroline will also be starting school next month...she'll be starting half days at the same kindergarten where Katie has been this year. Also, not entirely sure how this is going to go over--Caro is a pretty independent, highly opinionated child who doesn't seem to have a "mellow" button.
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