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. :)

More Thanksgiving activities

If you remember I took up running in 2010. (I'll let you decide if it's running or jogging based on my time) I had been running with two other girl friends here in our city and we decided to organize an informal 10K for Thanksgiving. About 15 people participated, I believe and it was fun. I ran it in 54 minutes 55 seconds. I was pleased with that! We did it at 7am on Thanksgiving morning, so we "earned" our right to feast at lunch! :) My friend Liz made certificates for everyone:

Then the Saturday after Thanksgiving a bunch of (mostly) American guys (and some girls - but not me) got together for some good ol' American football. They even had shirts made! They played on a really nice field that is on the campus of a sports university. They assigned teams (enough for 4 teams!) ahead of time and played 3 games. I took the boys out to watch and there were other kids too that they played with. Honestly it was kind of hard to actually watch the game with all the sideline action of kids and moms visiting!
Here's the action: Micah is on the left side with the red shirt and white longsleeves underneath.

Here's Mason and his buddy, Josiah. Josiah and his family live in another city. They stayed with us the night before Thanksgiving and his mom ran in the race with me.

Self- portrait

Reister's back is to the camera - he's in the brown fleece. He's playing with his good buddy Micah.

Heres the group shot of everyone who played. The boys are with Micah on the front row.

Our Kitchen

I thought it might be interesting for you to see my kitchen here. Comparatively, it's pretty big - a lot of kitchens here are very small. I like the layout, too. I have an oven (it's more of a toaster oven, but big enough for a 9X13!), a microwave, gas range, rice cooker, a coffee pot and toaster. I don't have a dishwasher, but I am blessed to have a househelper who comes 5 mornings a week to help me with the dishes and other household chores!
I love that I have such a big window in the kitchen - it provides a lot of light and and least something to look at while washing dishes - my view is of other buildings, but I can see some sky!

We put both the microwave and oven up on racks from IKEA (yes we have one here!) to save counter space. By the way, the standard height for counters is much lower than in America. I considered trying to have them raised, but the lady I checked with wasn't into the job :( It would have been a complex job!

I promise I'm trying to get better at regular blogging! I'm going back through pictures by date and will try to post in order.

Mason Goes to School

On December 1st Mason went to his first day of preschool. We found a little school that is mainly a place for "Mommy & Me" type classes but also has one class for 1 1/2 - 3 year olds to go half days or all day. The class has about 10 kids and there are 3 teachers. They agreed to let me pay only for Mason to go two mornings a week from 9-12. He can eat breakfast and lunch there. It is in a really nice building and the classrooms are clean and bright. They take the kids to go potty at least every hour and there is a little toilet that Mason has enjoyed using so that he can flush it. He is by no means potty-trained, but has gained an interest in going #1 at school and sometimes at home. He still wears diapers all the time, though!
Here is Mason outside his school on the first day. The school is called "Star Baby" or "Xing Bao Bei"

He got a backpack when he enrolled.

Here is Mason with two of his teachers - Teacher Kelly (yes, she goes by an English name!) and Teacher Li.

Here is a view with more of his classroom

Kelly Laoshi (teacher) is the main teacher and is very sweet. There is a book they send home each week with teacher comments and ratings in several areas, like "taking care of myself", "personal sanitation", etc. It's sweet to read her comments. She says he especially likes when they sing songs and he really enjoys his classmates.
Mason really likes school. Although he has cried a little bit when I leave him, it's nothing compared to the way Reister would cry when we left him at this age. Mason talks about school at other times, prays for Kelly Laoshi at night, and when asked, will tell us the names of his favorite friends at school (one is Zi Han, a little girl about his age).
We hope he can start going 3 mornings a week in a couple months and continue at this school until he's 3 or a little older. The class appropriate for his age at Reister's school has 40-50 kids in it, and they don't discount for going less days. So this was more economical, and I think a better environment for Mason. Actually because it's getting close to Chinese New Year, some kids have already left or stopped coming and he was one of 3 kids in the class this week.
I'm proud of Mason for doing so well. Today Kelly Laoshi told me she's seen a marked improvement in Mason since he started. She said he enjoys story time and has learned the names of characters in books, can sing some of the Chinese songs they learned, and even makes "jokes" with his classmates and teachers. What a big boy!
Mason is 2 1/2 now and we love him so much!

Thanksgiving 2010

I've slacked, I know, in updating the blog!
We had a good thanksgiving with a large group of American friends. Since there were so many of us, we decided to rent out a large room of a coffee shop instead of do it in someone's apartment where it'd be pretty cramped. It worked out quite well. You can see that there was room for the kids to spread out and play:

The week before some new friends moved to town and both of their boys are close in age to Mason. Here's Mason and Ezekial (they are just about a week apart in age). Mason loves his new friends so much!

Mason, Ezekial and Nehemiah in a group hug

Self portrait of me and Micah

A pretty good family picture - we're all looking and smiling!

It was a special time to be with friends and be thankful for all that our Father has done for us and the ways He's blessed us this year.

Bathtime

Sweet brothers in the bath :)

Fun at Soccer

Here are pictures from two different days at soccer. One was a beautiful day, one was quite foggy.
Mason enjoys going and just plays around the side...

You can tell Reister enjoys going too!

Game face







There is a free standing McDonalds on the way with a DRIVE THROUGH! (For those of you that don't live here or have never been here, that's a big deal) Most McDonalds are smack in the middle of lots of other building, maybe on the second floor above a super market or something. We feel like it's a little like being in the states to get to drive through and get breakfast on the way to soccer. Now, this is something we would never have been able to do in the Shining City!! We don't take it for granted, believe me!
Here's R & his buddy Jacob during a break

Momma has to intervene from time to time during the drills - making sure he waits till the right time to go!

Now, go for it!

Going for the kick...

Yeah!

Mason wanted some ball action, too!



These are from the foggy day. Sweet Mason

Line em up boys

Normally they just do drills but this day they had a little scrimmage. It was so cute they were just running around everywhere!

Soccer is held on the grounds of a really nice international school (think thousands of USD per semester). We only had to pay a little under $30 US to participate in 8 weeks of soccer! Pretty good deal! Below is one of the buildings, I think the gym... Interesting design, huh?

Here is a view of more of the campus. I should have take more pictures on the clear day!

That's Soccer!
Unfortunately today is Saturday and because Mason has been a little under the weather, I stayed home with him while Micah went with Reister to soccer. Hopefully next week we can all go together again!

SOCCER!

We are so blessed that our city has so many families from other countries (commonly termed "expats") living here that there is a international youth sports league. Twice a year they have a soccer program for kids 4 years old and up. This year Reister was old enough to participate and we were so excited for him! Here's a video of Reister during one of the drills.


I'll post a LOT of pictures in a separate post!

Local Preschool

In the past I've blogged about Reister's school, but I thought it might be time for an update. As a mom I am constantly thinking about my childrens education. Not just their elementary, middle & high school education but also and right now more so, their Chinese language acquisition. It is an important value for us that our boys learn to speak fluent Chinese. We want them to understand and feel a part of the culture they live in. We want them to take advantage of this amazing opportunity to become bi-lingual from a young age. So, because we've heard from others that an effective way to do that is to enroll your kids at a local preschool at about 2-3 years of age, we decided to start Reister when he was 2 years old. He started going 2-3 mornings a week when he was 2 and has worked up to going 5 half days a week. He started at his current school when he was 2 1/2 years old. He went for about 5 months and then changed to another one (where I taught English) for 3 months in 2009. Upon our return to East Asia in May of this year, I was not going to teach any more so we decided to send him back to this school. It is right across the street from our apartment complex. We normally take him by bike and it takes less than 4 minutes to get there. It is a Montessori style school so he is in a class with about fifty 4-6 year olds. They divide up into smaller groups by age to do certain activities. Here are some pictures so you can get a feel for what it's like.
This one is blurry but shows most of the classroom. Reister is walking in the middle. I had just brought him to school that afternoon. The shelves around the edge of the room all contain educational toy sets. Reister really enjoys them.

Another one of Reister. Don't mind his high-water pants :)

On the right side of his classroom are all the beds that the kids take their naps in. Reister doesn't nap there because he only goes half days (either from 8:30-12 or from 2:45 - 5:30pm). On this day he went in the afternoon and the kids had just gotten up and gone to the restrooms. The beds collapse back into the tallest one so they don't take up that much room normally.

Here is one of Reister's classmates, Ya Ya. She was his classmate last year when he was in the smaller class too. I believe she is 5 years old.

Each child has a cubby hole with their name. Here's Reister pointing at his - he's about to put his backpack in it. It has his Chinese name, Wang Yi Rong 王一荣 written under it. He can recognize his Chinese name by the characters!

We have some friends who live inside the apartment complex where the school is. I was up at their place recently and snapped a couple of pictures of Reister's class finishing up their outdoor exercises and lining up to go back inside. Reister is in the brown shirt at the end of the middle line.

Here is the whole school from a birds eye view.

Now you know all about Reister's school. What questions do you have?

New Blog Initiative

I have really slacked on my blog posting and I feel bad about that. I think (hope) that there are quite a few of you out there who would really appreciate more blog posts especially if I can give you more glimpses into our daily life here.
So in the near future I hope to do a week long highlight of something like "A Week in the Life of the Webbs" I'll try to summarize what we did each day, and give a couple pictures.
Then I'm going to try to post weekly with at least a little something.
I'd like to hear from you guys (especially those in the US) if you are curious about certain things, what you would like to have me post on.
I'll leave you with a picture of Mason that I don't think I've posted before...

My Friend's Loss

This picture was taken at Mason's birthday party in late June.

This week my friend called to tell me that her husband passed away in late August. From my understanding he had a severe case of viral Hepatitis and it progressed extremely quickly. Her daughter is 3 and has similar eye problems to Mason. Around the time of Mason's party we were able to help them obtain a pair of glasses (frames) like Masons from the company in Italy.
We were able to go to dinner with my friend, her daughter and mother this week. Her daughter really likes our family, so we want to make sure we are available to hang out with them often. Then my friend and I went out for coffee and talked for quite a while. The idea of the grieving/mourning process is not quite as common in this culture, but I was able to sensitively share that I was here for her to talk/process/grieve to. Some of her friends have already told her to essentially "get over it" and start a new life. (It hasn't even been 2 months since his death!) In some ways she's still in the shock stage. It just happened so quickly and she couldn't believe it was possible for him to get so sick so fast. She is 29 and he was 37. They had been married just under 5 years. Would you please join me in lifting up Danielle (I've chosen to give her an English name for your sake) and her daughter? She is having a very hard time sleeping. Please also ask that I could be a good friend and be able to share with her about the Ultimate Comforter.

Blast from the past

One of my friends has been doing blast from the past posts on her blog and I thought I'd do the same!
Here is Reister last fall when we were at my parents house. He's wearing my brother's old Davy Crockett costume!