Getting To Know You

Over the halfway mark, and our broken front door has seemed to temporarily fix our spotty internet connection! I think climbing the fence is a fair trade for a blog post.

On my first day at the Bond English Kindergarten, we were positively swarmed by kiddies giving us cards and hugs and chattering on in rapid Chinese, and I tell you it was love at first sight. I have spent almost every day since (vacations and weekends excluded) falling more and more in love. We arrive at the school pretty early each day and are there to greet the kiddies as they come in. At around 8 o'clock we have opening time where I put the vast store of silly songs, kiddie songs, chants, and lullabies in my brain to good use. Then we feed them breakfast and the first two rotations begin. While the teachers are doing their thing, I am sitting in on classes and filling out evaluations, meeting with native coordinators or ILP directors via Skype, updating documents, and on occasion helping out with lessons and/or teaching for someone. 

About midway through rotations we have outside time, which is a blast. We stuff sweat rags down all of the kid's backs, and begin with a dance that the school requests we teach them. For the past while it has been the Cha Cha Slide, but I have fond memories of standing outside and leading 60 something Chinese Kindergartners in the Macarena. After dancing we limber up with some intense stretching.

And then the games begin. Relay races, tag, breaking out the sand toys when the sand box isn't flooded, catching bugs, and on a very rare, very good day, when I'm super lucky, we play Rabbits Run. On these days I am able to imagine myself in the Princess Academy and live out a childhood dream. In the words of Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn, " 'Swonderful."

                                        Catching Beetles                   Hardy Is Too Cool To Look
                                                                                                At The Camera, 
   

When outside time has ended, we all head back into the schoolroom for our last rotation, and then we set out beds for nap-time while the kids are eating lunch. Then we eat our own lunch in the cafeteria and head home for the day. 

I LOVE IT HERE!!!! I find myself smiling and in the best of moods from the moment I walk in the school gates until the moment I leave. If I could live at the kindergarten I would. Sometimes I think my heart might actually explode. Life is good, people. Anna Leonowens knew what she was talking about.