Thursday, September 23, 2010

Marker

The boy found 2 markers in his pencil case and showed them to me. I told him he must have taken somebody else's marker. He denied taking anyone's marker.

Me: How many markers do you have?
Him: One
Me: So you must have taken somebody's marker!
Him: NO! I didn't take anyone's marker! I didn't go to anyone's place to take their marker!
Me: Ok ok... There are now two markers in your pencil case. One of it is not yours right?
Him: *Nod*
Me: Can you find out who is missing a marker and give it back?
Him: Ok.

..... The boy's in a stationery circus!!!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Eraser & Ruler & Scratches

2 days ago (Sunday was official work/school day here in China) the boy told us that one of his classmate threw his eraser away. Right! In one breath, I told him I'd buy him a replacement, that I won't buy him one, that he should get his classmate to buy him one since his classmate was the one who threw away his eraser and therefore the culprit should be the one responsible for his loss, not me.

Yesterday, he told me his ruler disappeared from his desk. I asked if he knew who took it? He didn't. Thieves! Right ok... these kids are babies in Primary school. Fine! Told him that if he borrowed something and didn't return, that that would be labelled as 'stealing'. He nodded. Told him that if he saw his ruler, that he shouldn't assume that his classmate had stolen it. That it was not uncommon for people to own similar stuff... and that he should label his things henceforth with his name so that there's no two ways about it.

And a couple of minutes ago, his form teacher called... there has been a scuffle between him and another classmate. My boy is coming home with 2 scratches on his face. She had investigated the incident and found my son to be not at fault.

I wonder what I'd say later....***calm down***

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Saving time...

Got inspired about maximising travel time (by Mel) - and asked the boy if he wanted to go for piano classes after his violin lesson. Mistake. Shouldn't have asked. The boy held up two hands to the side, turned his head the other way, grimaced, and waved "NO NO NO!!!"

Told Grandma the story and she suggested that I extend the boy's violin lesson by 15 minutes and have him go for an hour instead of 45 minutes. 

***Hehheheh!!!*** Such evil ladies we are!!

家张会 - Parent Teacher Meeting

Was in the school for 2 hours for a parent-teacher meeting last Friday. Was a really good session. At least now I understand which text are for which lessons and what he needs to have in his pencil case. He was missing a ruler, a pencil sharperner, a 勾线笔 (which I later found out meant art markers) and a 'plate' that can be placed below the sheet he is writing on. They also helped me download an application in my laptop - the app is part of their 'method' to help the kid recognise 1,500 Chinese characters in 10 weeks. Kid learns 30 characters in school each day and is tested by having them type the 拼音 for these characters. Other than that, the meeting was pretty much a one-way street. Teacher speaks, Parent (me) listens.

On one occasion, I turned to the Mother sitting behind me and asked, "她讲什么?" (What did she say?) She responded ,“我不知道!”( I don't know!) in equal amounts of exasperation. Hahhaa!!! We became friends immediately. She's from Malaysia.

Right. Current diversity count is 2 Singaporeans ( including the boy), 1 Malaysian and 1 Taiwanese.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Haining Tidal Wave

Next stop..... :

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Class "H"

He came back with a note for me. Apparently he's been put through an English aural test in school and placed in Class "H"  - where he will join other students in a "challenging environment" where he would be taught English at First Language standards.

Took me a couple of seconds to realize that I had assumed that English would be taught at a "First Language" standard in his school.

Surprise surprise!!!

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

朱家角 Zhujiajiao

It takes only a little over an hour to get to Zhu Jia Jiao by coach from Shanghai.
Day trip costs CNY85 (S$17) and includes 2-way coach fare, and admission to 8 attractions. Tickets are available from the 'travel hub' located at the Shanghai Stadium (上海体育场).
Pity the rain but having a bowl of handmade glutinous rice dumplings (汤圆) in this kind of weather doubled the enjoyment.

A view of one of the many stone bridges in this water town.
Weather!
Lots to see, eat and buy!
Taken from the back yard of the Tang Dynasty Post Office building

Glutinous Rice Balls with Red Bean
Apples - We enjoyed this art exhibit. There were at least 200 watercolor paintings in this gallery.
This was declared 'most fun!'

Monday, September 13, 2010

Violin remake II.1

Another 45 minutes spent 'correcting' his posture and positioning of fingers on the violin and bow. An exasperating 45 minutes... before the boy exclaimed, "我不懂!我不懂你在 说什么!" We both realized we overestimated his ability to understand. She was speaking too fast for him.

I'm frustrated! Each time the boy changes his teacher, he has to lay his fingers on the board a different way. The thing is, he never got it right the first time and so we keep having to go back to undo the habit. The expectation from this teacher is that he holds it precisely the way she tells him to.

Back to the drawing board.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Learning then and now...

I leafed through the boy's books yesterday....

wished I had his books! He has a 美术 (art) book that is just so amazing to look at. It's has different themes in each chapter. One chapter examines how to use dots to compose pictures, giving various examples like 'a pot of flowering plants' and 'tadpoles looking for their mother' . Another uses different mediums to create 'rain'. Yet another 'fireworks', or some chapters teaches the use of collage & paper cutting to create different effects.

His math books looks interesting too! For example, the concept of more or less is tested by asking the child  to identify which length of rope is longer or shorter, giving them a visual of a rope with similar number of coils around poles of different thickness.

His English books are not too far behind. It's a series of 6 books. I noticed some of the popular children stories are incorporated into the lessons as well, like the "Little Red Hen". Each chapter has a list of new words and questions to think about and activities to complete.

I shan't comment on his Chinese text books... can't read them!!!

Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Hours

He gets picked up at 7am from our doorstep.
School starts 8am
Ends 3pm.
His after-school activities are from 3:30-4:30pm
He falls asleep during on the way home yesterday, slept through dinner ( tried 3 times to get him to wake up) and continues sleeping till 6am this morning.

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Extracurricular Activities

Monday: Lego (1260)
Tuesday: Swimming (550)
Thursday: Weiqi  (450)
Friday: Piano (800)

Total cost of his optional after school extracurricular activities for the whole semester (half year) comes up a little over SG$600. I think piano lessons alone, if we were in Singapore, would have cost more than that.

The school also does 2 periods of extracurricular activities during school hours each week and there were loads to choose from - like ping pong, soccer, painting, erhu, guzheng, chinese flute, drama, choir, environmental science etc. The nutcase picked erhu! Tried to dissuade him but it didn't work.

Monday, September 06, 2010

Violin remake II

Found him a teacher in GuBei area. There was fellow Singaporean Mother who had accompanied her child to school during the orientation. They've been here in Shanghai about 3 years and had moved from Beijing. I casually asked if her daughter was taking up music lessons and she told me about how happy she was with her daughter's current violin teacher. *Click*

During the 'trial' session (paid trial) the boy played "Kemp's Jig" and the teacher took over ... and I was horrified!  She went on vibrato maximus on every note and it sounded more like "Kemp's funeral". Oh God!

She was saved by her next student, who was asked to perform a couple of the pieces that she was currently working on for us. Then I thought, ok, if this girl can read those notes and play that range on her instrument, then maybe it's time to get the boy aquainted with solfege and for us to give this teacher a go.

I had read in the forums that it is virtually impossible to find a Suzuki music teacher here in Shanghai. While they can teach what is in the books ( the pieces), the methodology they used is not Suzuki's. Pretty evident that this teacher is not going to write finger numberings on his scores!

His first lesson proper was about translating notes into solfege equivalents.... E to Mi, A to La, D to Re and G to Soh.... and some basic music terms into Chinese as well.

It's be at least a month a backtracking before we see any progression from where he left off. One consolation is that his fees here (SG$18/lesson) are a third of what it used to be in SG.

>>>I'm having evil thoughts of making him go for lessons twice weekly!