Sunday 30 April 2017

Yang's first Chinese enrichment class

Yang went for his first Chinese enrichment class today. We had thought Yang might be more receptive to it since he's younger, compared to Kai who was so unhappy in his first class. Well, we thought wrong - he refused to go into the room and when I managed to carry him inside after showing him the crafts outside the room, he started wailing!

My poor baby wanted to go outside. So while the others were playing blocks on the mat, he was crying. He stopped when I asked a teacher to bring in the skeleton he saw next door - he liked it. Managed to halt his crying with the skeleton - all bones, no muscles, couldn't hold his hand up for a high five, no eyes, no nose, no 屁屁 cannot go to the potty!

But he started wailing again when a teacher came over to ask him whether he wanted to join them. So more talk about the skeleton. Eventually, I managed to go from a standing to a sitting position - gosh, he's so heavy!!!

And then the class put the blocks away and started with some singing and dancing. Yang started looking at the keyboard right next to us and the children dancing. Slowly, as the teacher went through the various animals they learnt last week, he turned from facing me to facing outwards.

This is not an easy class. After the singing and dancing, the children were either staring or wandering about. Did I mention there are three assistant teachers too?? There were fewer than 10 kids in the class. But the teacher used their curiosity to make them participate - the kids had to say 我要看一看 in order to peek into a magic box. She offered Yang a peek but he didn't want. So I took a look and told Yang I knew what was inside! I think he was curious but so so stubborn!

Then it was activity time - sticking feathers on an owl! Yang was familiar with the owl as we have one at home. He rejected the owl so I took it instead. Took the opportunity to unload him onto the floor so that I could get to the owl. When I was putting on the glue, he asked to have a "little" go at it and he really just rolled it once. When it was time for the feathers, he helped out. He took the eyes happily and stuck them on himself. Warming up well!

Our owl


He didn't want the toilet break. Just as well! I took the chance to give Yu a snack at the boob and then we went back in - no more crying! He wanted to go straight for the tables and chairs but it was still mat time. This time, he was ok to move further into the class but he still refused to sit on the mat. We ended up on the floor between the mat and the tables and chairs.

The teacher went through the day's exercise in totality, i.e. she coloured and linked the mice to the owl, and stuck the word cards on. The kids were supposed to follow suit when they went to the tables and chairs.

Yang coloured only a small portion of the owl and linked the mice at the very end


Had to convince Yang which was the right way and which was upside down


It was clear that the goal of the exercise was for the kids to link the mice to the owl and stick the word cards. The teachers were focused on those two tasks. The colouring could be done at home.

It was also clear that Yang understood what was going on but he simply refused to engage with the teachers and other kids. Sito said that when he asked Yang what the craft was, he said 猫头鹰 while he overheard another kid say "owl". Score!

I asked him just now whether he liked Zhang Laoshi. He said no so that's trickier than Kai's case. Anyway, I told both that we will go to the Chinese school every Sunday. Yang didn't respond to that while Kai whined "why???" before eventually saying that he liked it. Hope Yang would come round to it too...

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