School Days

After all our time off, everyone was ready for school to begin here in China. Kayla and McKenna started at Yew Chung International School (YCIS) on February 2nd, just as the other students were returning from the Chinese New Year break. Kayla was excited about getting back into the school routine, about being with other kids her age (as opposed to just her annoying little sister), and about the opportunity to learn to play the violin. Violin is a standard part of the music program at YCIS for student in the four-year-old preschool group through the equivalent of second grade. It was one of the many things we were really excited about at YCIS. McKenna was excited about making new friends and about getting to RIDE THE BUS!! This is a big deal to a little girl who has had to watch her sister get on the school bus without her for 2 1/2 years. The pre-school buildings are on a separate campus from the primary school, so the girls are not together at all during the day. They take the same bus from our neighborhood to Kayla's school, and then McKenna gets on a smaller bus to go to her school. The buses are very nice, have seat belts and bus monitors so the kids are all very safe. We also have school uniforms, which takes the fight out of the "what should I wear" stage of the morning routine!

During the first week at school, Mom and Dad drove the girls to school, making sure they got in okay and settled in their classrooms. The drop off and pick up process these first few days was slow - we stopped to talk to teachers, pick up information, and meet other parents - but it was very helpful. The girls have great teachers who are really going out of their way to make sure that we all adjust to life and school in Shanghai.

Kayla's teachers are Ms. Mac (Macwilliam) from Australia and Ms. Mei from China. Ms. Mei is also the beginner Chinese instructor, so she has been working with Kayla on her Mandarin. Kayla's class had just started a science segment on rainforests, and is tying that topic into many of their other subjects as well. Kayla selected Hermit Hummingbirds as a topic for research - using books and internet to find information in Science and Computer class, taking notes, writing drafts, and a final report about hummingbirds during English class, even putting together powerpoint presentation for an oral presentation to her class. In addition, her art class is focusing on decorating their room and hallway to resemble a rainforest, and draw and paint some of the selected wildlife. When they were studying symmetry in math, they identified animals and foliage in the rainforest that demonstrates symmetry and drew those.

McKenna's teachers are Ms. Esther and Ms. Rainbow. They are both wonderful ladies who have made us feel right at home from the very beginning. McKenna has had lessons about fruits and nutrition, the weather, and fish (in preparation for her first field trip to the aquarium!) She enjoys singing her new song "What's the weather" (to the tune of "Oh my Darlin' Clementine"). She was very excited about the field trip, and proudly returned home to tell mom that "I stayed with my adult ALL day!" Apparently they had made a big deal about safety on the trip and that was the lesson she had really learned on her first off-site adventure.

The two major adjustments that we are making for school (especially for Kayla) is the Mandarin lessons and the homework expectations. We knew that the Mandarin was going to take some work, but the homework has caught us a bit by surprise! In Michigan, we didn't see much homework, and when we did it was usually something interactive to be done with the parents and we had a few days to do it. Here at YCIS, we were told to expect 1 hour of homework every night. Because so much of this is new to us and we don't have a good homework routine down yet, we have been spending closer to 2 hours a night on it. We hope to streamline our process and reduce the time, but this is going to be a big change for us and has been a bit painful during our first two weeks. We have found a great tutor to help us learn Mandarin; Nina comes to our house two nights per week to help us practice our vocabulary and pronunciation.

Overall, both girls are really enjoying school here in Shanghai. While YCIS is a bit more dramatic a change from our schools at home than we would have had if we had selected one of the American-based international schools here, we are very happy with our choice. The girls are exposed to a significant level of Chinese language and culture here. Also, the student body is very diverse and we have many friends for whom English is a second or even third language. We are playing with children from Australia, England, Norway, Finland, Korea, Japan, France and Germany in addition to our Chinese and American friends. It is a wonderful way for our children to experience the differences and similarities of people from all over the world.