The Chinese Language paper begins the 3 days semestrial exam for Zeeyau. First real school exam she is gonna take!

The pressure and stress level we felt is really minimal compared to the local stream students or peers back in Singapore. My urge to get her engine properly lubricated only started like a week ago when her classroom teacher began to distribute revision papers for them to complete and also issued a very stern reminder to parents that the children need to be able to recognise 400 and write 100 Chinese characters.

So I began testing her on the 400 words by reading the school text with her. Easy as pie, she could read everything without problem, which temporarily set me thinking that she is going to take after me…lol. However, when I tested her on individual words without the text, she could only get 2/3 of them correct. That got me a bit panicky and I decided to make word cards so I could drill her until she got all 400 words perfectly.

400 word cards is overwhelmingly too much cutting and pasting for me and I gave up after getting 2/3 of them done. Damn it, what is the fuss after all, they aren’t going to test all those 400 words and the sample revision papers given by the teacher look really easy. I also realised there wasn’t much I could revise with her except testing her writing ability of those 100 characters. So we ended up spending 2 hours learning the piano new score I printed from the net last night.

For those who are intested, below is the word list for semester 1

List in PDF format

RE: Accident at Fang Cao Di Primary School on 15th November 2010

A letter which I have written to post on the PTA website, but later realised that I don’t have the access to post new messages, except comments not more then 200 words.

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_6e64d4830100mkl6.html

意外还是发生了！据了解，孩子寰枢椎脱臼，那是重伤，而且往往是致命的。所幸孩子奇迹般的生存，并在康复中！

事故的来龙去脉，我们能在上述的文章中了解。但是日坛校区的校园停车问题，还是需要我们的关注。

当我获悉这桩意外之后，也问了问就读一年级的女儿他们做操或上体育课的情形。她居然说在操场活动时，常常有车子开来开去！小孩子的话，可能夸张了点，但孩子们在做操时，偶有车子在附近行驶的事实确实不容置疑。

当然，女儿也解释，有车子开动时，老师会召集大伙儿站队。我们身为家长，也要时时灌输孩子们安全教育。但是，意外总是防不胜防，尤其是低年级的小朋友，可能因为一时贪玩，大意，紧张或害怕，而无法应对突发的险境。

若不是因为认识受伤小朋友的同班同学的家长，恐怕就不知道这桩意外，更不知道校园内竟潜伏着如此危机。事情发生后，也没见学校给予家长们什么交代。难道，学校就希望把事情掩盖起来，把我们家长都蒙在鼓里吗？学校本因该是个安全的地方，因此我希望学校能向家长们解释什么上课时间会有车子进出校园，也希望学校将如何加强安全措施，避免意外再度发生。

The injury could have been a fatal one if not for a miracle!

As a concern parent, I am shocked to learn about this accident. I was appalled when I found out from my Primary 1 daughter that cars have been moving in and out of the campus while they were having outdoor activities in the exercise area (which has been converted into a temporary car park due to the ongoing school reconstruction project). Despite great effort from the PE teacher to gather the children to a safe location when cars are about to move, it is nevertheless a compromise to the safety of the children in the area.

The school has taken great measures to prevent unauthorised visitors from entering the school, but it seems the children’s safety are comprised from within!

Despite frequent warnings and reminders to keep away from cars, I am still very worried about the lurking danger, especially with the lower primary kids.

There has been no communication about this accident with the other parents, and of course, no reassurance made as to how they are going to step up the safety procedure.

While praying for a speedy recovery for Julien, I hope that the school could address our concerns and this incident in a more transparent way.

Remeber the toilets during our Primary school/secondary school days? Wet, dark, eriee. There were bound to be a few cubicles perpetually locked up and we were made to believe some unfortunate events took place inside or some evil spirits spook those space.

So this nostaglic feeling came back to me again when I visited Zeeyau school. The toilets are just like what we used to have - squat pan style, wet and eriee.

Our kids grew up with clean, dry and nice smelling washroom (sitting toilet), such that using a squat pan toilet become a big challenge. Everytime before we leave the house, I have to make sure they emptied everything that might need to be  discharged and urge them to do it again if we find clean toilets. Its unhealthy, but I discourage unnecessary fluid intake unless they start complaining of extreme thirst. Whinny kids are still more pleasant then dirty toilets.

The problem is simply because they don’t know how to do it while squatting. It gets even more difficult during the cold seasons wearing thick clothings and long pants. They either wet their pants with bad aiming, or worse, the little boy insist that he needs to take off his pants so he can do his big business.

So, we had mock sessions at home, practicing how to squat, how to remove the pants, how to posistion herself, before Zeeyau finally conquere the school’s toilet.

And yes, the girls still like to have toilet break together like we did - packing 2 or 3 girls into a cubicle.

Back to the previous practice of sending the kid to kindergarten myself since Didi’s kinddy doesn’t have school bus service. Without the comfort of driving a car, I can only opt for the more environment friendly mode of transport and join the local by riding a bicycle.

With the rapid increase in car ownership in Beijing, the number of people commuting by bicycles has fallen sharply. That is to my advantage since I don’t have to fight for space with the others while enjoying a smoother ride on the bicycle lanes.

“Love Knows No Borders” International charity sale by diplomatic organisations at Chaoyang Park and we were there to show some support since the park is just right across the road of our place.

While most (maybe all) other countries took up 1 booth, our Singapore stall was operating from 3 booths! What a crowd they attracted and I think most of the staff operating the booths seemed to be enjoying the brisk sales. I was hoping to find some items that could perhaps cure some homesickness, but the usual pork floss buns (BreadTalk), bak kua (Bee Cheng Hiang), laksa paste (Prima) etc, didn’t much caught my fancy. Would be really delighted if I can find some curry puff, pineapple tarts, kueh kueh or even those left over red and white T-shirts that go on sales during our National Day season.

First day of school for Didi in Beijing today! He was the first to arrive and seemed rather disappointed to see only teachers and no other children around. He looked apprehensive initially, but quickly made himself busy when the teacher gave him an activity to work on. Right, that is a Montessori based school he is attending.

When I asked him what he did in school today, he said he played with some dinosaurs, then ate apples, and then it was time to sleep. My goodness, if that was what happened in school today, those must be some awfully expensive dino toys and super duper royal apples to munch on. If there is a reason why we need to go back Singapore, it would probably because his school fees is god damn expensive and have burn big holes in every single pockets we can find in our wardrobe.

Primary 1 students from the international division gathering near the school entrance.

Zee Yau and her classmates waiting patiently for the rest of the class to arrive before their classroom teacher 苏娜老师 leads them to class.

I have to bring Zeeyau to school today though we have signed her up with a schoolbus. According to the schoolbus coordinator, parents of new students will send and pick up the kids on the first day and ride the schoolbus home with the child so they will know where the exact location the bus is going to pick up the kid in the morning. It is definately a hassle to make another 2 trips to the school today, but then, it makes Zeeyau less nervous and give me an opportunity to snap some photos.

The first day of school is somehow chaotic in an orderly manner. There were many anxious parents like myself, the traffic outside the school is bad (as usual) and there is even a camera man filming. Some students are in school uniforms and some aren’t. The girls wear plaid skirts, but in differernt colours, I wonder why. Students from the international division only needs to put on school uniforms on Monday, but I really hope she could wear it everyday.

Hopefully everything goes well. Now I have to get started on my second task, enroll Didi somewhere so he can attend school as soon as possible.

The nurse was right, I probably won’t be able to get a queue number if I was lazy and didn’t arrive early at the hospital to 挂号。 Apparently, they only issue 40numbers a day, and being the peak period now, queue number went out fast.

I reached the hospital at around 7.15am and manage to get number 14. Businese started at 8am on the dot as stated. Didi was required to do a blood test, body checkup and hearing screening. Unlike in Shanghai, urine test is not required.

They took out 2 quarter tubes of blood from the kid! Why on earth would they need so much blood from the little ones. I remembered they only need to do a simply prick test back in Shanghai. All the poor children looked scared and bewildered, though I must admit the nurses were pretty skillful as most of the children didn’t complaint of pain or discomfort.

We managed to get everything done before 9am. However, the report will only be available the next day. Meaning I have to make a 3rd trip back to the hospital to complete the task. Almost like an Olympic scale obstacle course.

Finally got hold of Didi’s kindergarten entrance health checkup report today! Mission accomplished! I was told that Didi needs 3 shots of Hep B vaccine. WTH!? He has had his required shots back in Singapore and all his immunisation is up to date with schedule. I believe they won’t know if he has had his jabs and I wouldn’t want him vaccinated there anyway.

Entrance exam, interview, costly registration fees and that’s not the end of the pain to even get the kids enroll into a school. We still have one more step to fulfill, need to bring them for a body checkup before they are even allowed to begin school.

So, I have more or less decided on the kindergarten to send Didi to and was ready to go down to the school for application and payments. However, the staff requested the body checkup report with the application form. Hey, Didi just did a similar checkup back in Shanghai in February before he started school with Okiki, however, they don’t accept that report!? And no, I am only supposed to go to the 4 hospitals they have listed. Erm, whats wrong with the other hospitals? Does it implies the other hospital aren’t qualified?

Nevermind, I called 朝阳区妇幼保健医院 and check their consultation hours. The lady told me the hours today is until 11am and told me to come down before 11am. So I rushed down with Didi but was told there were no more queue numbers left. I was advised to arrive early on Monday at 7am as they start to allow 挂号 at that timing. Damn, that sotong woman should have told me that on the phone instead of wasting my time.

So it seems that I have to start my day early if I want to save money by visiting public hospital. I also called the (private own) United Family Hospital to check their rates, naively hoping they might have special package for such checkup. Fat hope, the check up alone cost 2000rmb and the next available appointment is like 10 days later!??? WTH, so many rich people around!!!???

I have had much pleasant experience back in Shanghai when I need to bring the kids for such routine. But Singapore is the best, no need checkup at all!

Okie, the school finally called grandpa (our proxy for P1 registration) yesterday and sorted out the correct mailing address. I wonder why would the letter be sent to our home address (which is rented out) when we specified that we are not in the country while providing alternative correspondence address and a contact person.

Anyway, not an issue and I appreciate the fact that Bt Panjang Pri called grandpa to make sure we are aware of the balloting result. Well, at least I am 100% sure now that Zeeyau did get accepted by the school.