Kinder Care in Beijing:)

This morning we got to visit a Chinese preschool and kindergarten. Boy was I impressed. In one of the pictures above, the students at age 4-5 are working on their math lessons. They were very on task and were doing work equal to what first graders would be doing in the US. I followed this group to their English lessons. Our guide tattled and said I was a teacher. So, as you can see above, I got to be the guest English teacher for the students. What fun! I taught them "Head and shoulder, knees, and toes."

The middle shot is of one of the rooms where students take their naps. The whole school naps from 1-3. The Chinese people see education as very important. These children are in their preschool about 10 hours per day starting at age 2. They get 3 meals per day. Some families even send their preschoolers to boarding school where they are gone the whole week and come home on the weekends. The schools can range from government schools (which are less expensive) to private schools (which can be very expensive). Our guide said because families only have one child they want to give them the best opportunities possible. He said that they believe sending them away to school early helps them to become more independent.