Preschool Shopping

If you ask Molly what her favorite day of the week is, she'll say that she has two: Tuesday and Thursday. That is all thanks to her wonderful preschool/mother's day out program she attended in Waco, Kids' Kastle. Needless to say, she has been asking about when she gets to start her new preschool in China. We've been looking into a few different options here. Our first thought was that it may be better to start with a Chinese language learning program for several months before enrolling in preschool. I was excited because I thought it would be fun to be there with the kids and learn with them on a level geared for children. :)  Unfortunately, the only classes meant for children are focused on learning English, not Chinese.

We began looking into preschool options, and visited three within walking distance from our apartment. (Only one allowed us to take photos.) They are all full-day programs (8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.) with small meals provided for breakfast, lunch and dinner plus morning and afternoon snack times. The classes are divided into age groups: small, middle and big. Hudson would be in the small class and Molly in the middle one.

We visited the first one with our British friend and her daughter. We arrived just before lunchtime, so they took us to this classroom and fed the girls lunch.

On the left are thin sheets of dried tofu. You picked up two or three at a time and wrapped the meat inside like a burrito to eat. Molly ate it all up!

There seems to be more emphasis on math than other subjects. This is a desk in the oldest class:

 There were lots of drawings and art projects hanging along the hallway:

They have an exercise room plus outdoor and indoor play areas:

If you're curious, here's a shot of the washroom. (The lady in the bottom left-hand corner was washing toys.)

We also peeked into the classrooms and the kids seemed cheerful and sweet. After lunch is rest time, so we didn't stay too long. Our favorite preschool of the three we visited is actually a Montessori school. It is larger than the one pictured above, and each classroom has its own washroom. It also is the only school with three teachers in each classroom instead of two. And it's the closest one to us -- bonuses all around!

It's more expensive than I was expecting, but they did say they would cut the tuition in half -- since our kids would plan to attend only two days a week instead of the standard five -- and they would lower it even more if I would teach a class or two on the days Molly and Hudson are there. Without teaching, it would cost about $225 total each month (two days/week for both kids). We'll see what we can negotiate this week -- Molly is so eager to start!

In fact, we just had this conversation:
Me: "Do you think it will be hard to be in a school all day where they only speak Chinese?"
Molly: "No, I know ni hao and zai jian!" (hello and goodbye) 
She has such a great attitude!  :)
~Dayna