Preschool Orientation

J woke up extra early this morning, all by himself, and the first thing he said to me was "Are we going to school today, Mum?" He was looking forward to it that much.

We had his orientation today, just an hour and a half, and I was supposed to stay with him throughout. Preschool here is quite different from back home. So much more time is devoted to free, unstructured play. And they have a fantastic room, filled with different musical instruments, writing materials, different toys (cars, trains, dinosaurs, puzzles etc.), a table covered with paper and stamping supplies, magnetic toys, building blocks, a loft that the kids can climb up, clothes to play act in, insects and magnifying glasses. And this is just indoors. Outside his class has a whole sandpit with shovels, buckets, trucks, a swing, a trough filled with water and toys, painting supplies, a small house-like structure.

J was having so much fun, just exploring all that was in front of him, that he didn't want to stop for snack time ("Why we have to have snacks, Mum?"). And he didn't want to leave when it was time to go either.

The reason why his room is so well-stocked - fundraising, which is a really big thing here. All families have to be involved in fundraising and we're only slowly understanding all that is expected of us! There's a great deal of parent involvement - the board is filled with parents (a natural commitment), who run different committees like the nutrition, recycling and fundraising committees (we've decided to volunteer on the recycling committee). Parents also put in three days a year to work on the physical part of the school - painting, gardening, woodwork, and cleaning. And I have to put in 16 days of parent participation in J's class, so I'll be the third adult keeping an eye on his class on those days, after his teacher and teacher's aide (my first day's coming up next Wednesday).

So on one hand, I feel a bit daunted by the amount of involvement that's expected of us, coming from a system where all I was required to do was just to drop J at school and pick him up afterwards! On the other hand, it's also great to see how committed and involved all the parents are in this school. There's a real sense of passion about the school, and from the teachers too. (We've filled up forms detailing what J's interests are, what he loves to eat, what his favourite books are, just so that the teachers get to know him better.) So that's the exciting part for me.

So lunch was dim sum at San Gabriel, where the kids, and E in particular, got to relish their char siew baos.



Our dim sum lunch cost us a mere US$28. Super cheap, although we think they may have undercharged us, seeing as we really ate a lot! Whatever, it was a great deal.