Open House at Reister's School

At the end of November, Reister's school had a open house morning where parents could come and observe what a "normal" morning at school looked like. I went and got some pictures:
Every morning they do "exercises" to music and sometimes use props. There is one other American boy in Reister's class, and he's to R's left.

I was impressed with how well Reister knew the routines and moves

After exercise time, they went to the bathroom and then had an interesting activity in which the teachers slowly led the kids in a line around their classroom in a follow the leader type thing. The kids were supposed to be quiet and they had music playing. I assume it was supposed to calm them down.

Later on they had their Montesorri time where the kids could choose the toy or activity they played with. Actually Reister was supposed to be in the back with the group of kids watching the teacher - she was teaching them Math with manipulatives. But he didn't want to do that and the teachers encouraged me to not force him. He is playing on a carpet mat with a developmental toy.

Here are some of his classmates playing with blocks during that free play time.

Here is the other side of the classroom where children are playing or coloring at tables.

This boy, Li Zhuo Long, is the one that grabbed Reister's hand the first day he went back to school last summer. He is still Reister's favorite friend in the class, but he also has several other kids enjoys playing with.

Here is Ms. Li, the head teacher of his class, helping him complete the challenge of the building toy.

I enjoyed the morning but I did learn one thing. Our goal in putting Reister in local preschool is for him to learn Chinese. But i observed that he didn't have much opportunity for language practice when he got to chose his own toy and play by himself on a mat. I know they do lots of other things that require him to listen and interact with the local teachers and kids, but it did kind of change my perspective on the advantage of Montessori type classes. I think it's still good because that's the kind of environment he's somewhat used to at home, but I think the more formal classroom setting will be good in the future when he's required to listen and respond more. His Chinese really has improved a lot in the last seven months but he's got a long ways to go. :)