It has been a busy couple of weeks. Two weeks ago I went on a field trip into Beijing with Little Learners, the preschool I have been volunteering in here. We went to Fundazzle, which was like a McDonalds playplace on steroids. It had a bunch of slides, tubes to climb in, and the largest ball pit I have ever seen. It was probably the size of two combined Olympic sized swimming pools. The kids had a lot of fun and thankfully we didn't lose any of them. It has been such fun working with these kids for the last two months and it will be sad when it is all over. It's great when you can connect with a person (small or big) who speaks a different language and that's what has happened with these little kiddos.
Another way I have connected with people is through the homeschool program. The kids performed their plays that they have been working so hard on for several weeks. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the younger kids performed "The Three Javelinas." Let me tell you that it was a hoot! We used an office that was right off the "stage" as our backstage area and it was a little difficult to keep kids from peeking around the door. It was funny though when they kept walking onto the stage and I had to pull them off. It was like a little glimpse of my future as a teacher and the productions my students might put on. The older students performed "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" which is based on the book of the same name. Their version was also quite entertaining because it had more Chinese homeschoolers and so hearing them say "Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin" was amusing. And one of the older girls did an awesome job with the set pieces. The house we used was three sided so it had one side made of hay, one of sticks, and one of bricks. Unfortunately I was not able to get any pictures of the plays because I was busy corralling kids.
Last week was sort of a final event for the homeschoolers. On Friday we went to the Beijing Science & Technology Museum. It was a children's museum so it had lots of interactive exhibits. Learning by playing! I went around with the kids and we looked at the different areas (bodies, animals, earthquakes, etc.). And of course there was a gift shop...looking at the prices made me appreciate the low cost of everything in the village where I have been staying.
Another way I have connected with people is through the homeschool program. The kids performed their plays that they have been working so hard on for several weeks. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the younger kids performed "The Three Javelinas." Let me tell you that it was a hoot! We used an office that was right off the "stage" as our backstage area and it was a little difficult to keep kids from peeking around the door. It was funny though when they kept walking onto the stage and I had to pull them off. It was like a little glimpse of my future as a teacher and the productions my students might put on. The older students performed "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" which is based on the book of the same name. Their version was also quite entertaining because it had more Chinese homeschoolers and so hearing them say "Not by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin" was amusing. And one of the older girls did an awesome job with the set pieces. The house we used was three sided so it had one side made of hay, one of sticks, and one of bricks. Unfortunately I was not able to get any pictures of the plays because I was busy corralling kids.
Last week was sort of a final event for the homeschoolers. On Friday we went to the Beijing Science & Technology Museum. It was a children's museum so it had lots of interactive exhibits. Learning by playing! I went around with the kids and we looked at the different areas (bodies, animals, earthquakes, etc.). And of course there was a gift shop...looking at the prices made me appreciate the low cost of everything in the village where I have been staying.