We have had the most taxing day for the children in China yet, ushering them right the way through the entire Forbidden City, the former residence of Ming and Ching dynasty emperors on a mildly hot and extremely sunny day. It is only when one goes about Beijing with young children that one realises how much there is really to walk, even from one corner of Tiananmen Square to the other. They have indeed done well, being cajoled with frequent moments of rest, rolling bottles of mineral water down the slopes of the palace buildings and indirectly discovering how rain water is drained, through hundreds of stone-carved hornless dragon outlets. They used the side of palace building stairs as slides and chased sparrows during spare moments, and we had a lengthy discussion between me and the 5 year old on politics. Here were some of the things we talked about:
Why do the people no longer want an imperial system and an emperor nowadays?
Why is it important not to run away but to defend one's land?
The importance of a country's defence ability
What is a good emperor/ruler as opposed to a bad one
It seemed to me that the size of the palace highlighted the ridiculousness of a country focussing so much on one person in the past. Louis XIV springs to my mine though - the heavenly realm 天朝大國 needed an imposing residence to assert its importance.
Sent from my iPhone
14.9.12
Travelling with the brood on the high speed train to Beijing
We woke up nice and early by our current jet-lagged standards, insisted packing and made the 11 o'clock high speed 高鐵 train from Shanghai to Beijing. Thanks to the hospitality of well connected friends we have been chauffeured around Shanghai for the past week and today is the first time we are sharing public transport with our compatriots. Frankly reading this week's Xinmin Weekly of Shanghai (新民周刋) made me glad of this little privilege. Beggars readily exposing their maimed limbs for sympathy, rubbish and children weeing on the Shanghai metro as mentioned in their feature article 公共空間誰的地盤 (Whose space is public space?) do not entice me to take two under sixes on the Shanghai metro by myself, least of all jet-lagged and at rush hour, when my better half is at work meetings.
I may be somewhat ashamed of myself for being timid and over-protective of my children in their education about China, but I reckon these things have to be taken slowly but surely. Coming out of their relative cocoon of extremely educational and child-friendly museums and summer holiday entertainment, children can be over-excited about a country that may under-deliver touristically day-to-day basis. I wanted to see Shanghai Art museum, my 5 year old wanted to go back to the hotel for his holiday daily swim. Hubby wanted to see Shanghai Museum, yet the boys were yearning for a playground, hard to come by in central Shanghai. You want to show them the bund? They'd rather go back to he hotel to watch Madagascar.
China has a great deal to offer and I have forgotten that this is the first time we are here with children. There will be a time for them to rough it with the rest of the Chinese people, but for the time being, small to medium doses of Chinese culture coupled with a little of what they fancy is what we need.
The advantage of taking the high speed train to Beijing is the ability to watch the changing landscape as we race northwards, while marvelling at the speed display at each end of every train compartment. Being with other ordinary Chinese locals on our first high speed experience merits a day in itself.
Sent from my iPhone
I may be somewhat ashamed of myself for being timid and over-protective of my children in their education about China, but I reckon these things have to be taken slowly but surely. Coming out of their relative cocoon of extremely educational and child-friendly museums and summer holiday entertainment, children can be over-excited about a country that may under-deliver touristically day-to-day basis. I wanted to see Shanghai Art museum, my 5 year old wanted to go back to the hotel for his holiday daily swim. Hubby wanted to see Shanghai Museum, yet the boys were yearning for a playground, hard to come by in central Shanghai. You want to show them the bund? They'd rather go back to he hotel to watch Madagascar.
China has a great deal to offer and I have forgotten that this is the first time we are here with children. There will be a time for them to rough it with the rest of the Chinese people, but for the time being, small to medium doses of Chinese culture coupled with a little of what they fancy is what we need.
The advantage of taking the high speed train to Beijing is the ability to watch the changing landscape as we race northwards, while marvelling at the speed display at each end of every train compartment. Being with other ordinary Chinese locals on our first high speed experience merits a day in itself.
Sent from my iPhone
12.5.12
One typical Friday
I have to say today was a day when things came together fairly well and the sunshine after weeks of rain helped enormously! Fridays are normally days when we have no set plans apart from possibly a museum or gallery visit related to our current topics of study or interest, or sometimes just a nice day to spend a half day with daddy who takes a bit of time off work to enjoy the best of London life.
Today we had a relaxing morning getting through some chilled work, first in the children's room and then a newly kitted out study. Violin practice happened straight after a hearty breakfast, which was a wonderful thing considering my eldest, who was the one practising, was in top form after a good night's sleep. Both my younger child and I snuggled up seated on top the bedcovers. Listening to the violin music which was coming along very nicely. A gold star was rewarded for my eldest's labours rather effortlessly today!
Then we faffed around in the study trying to work the new state-of-the-art computer. Maths Whizz web-based tutoring failed to launch as we didn't have Flash installed, so my older one had to delay finishing his initial assessment to gauge his 'Maths age' a.k.a. Maths level. He happily opted to work through his Activity Bible while I downloaded a new, recommended Britannica Kids app onto my iPhone for learning about dinosaurs for my 3 and a half year old.
Packed lunch once prepared, we went on our way to the London Fire Brigade Museum to attend a booked 'school group visit' organised by another home ed parent. On a regular basis individual home ed parents would search high and low and book a 'school group' visit or special activity according to their own child's current learning an invite other home edders to join in, mostly only at a small cost. We were blessed with brilliant sunny weather so the children played with other home educated children in the playground opposite the museum before we were due to go in. The visit that ensued was duly informative, being mostly on the Great Fire of London of 1666. They also learned about making a fire plan and had an introduction to the fire engines through the ages, and finished off with every child who wanted to having a go at putting on a firefighter's costume.
That wasn't the end to our venture south of the river. The aforementioned playground opposite attracted a number of home ed families after the visit had concluded, and we gradually gravitated towards the even more exciting adventure playground which opened at 3pm ahead of school children's arrival.
This turned out to be a great time for the children to play and get to know each other better, in wild games pretending to be pirates of all sorts of nationalities and making a fire with the playground staff. We home ed parents were equally happy to chat and swap notes, especially since the planned museum visit intended for KS1 students drew a crowd of patents with children of similar ages.
On the way home my oldest commented on the Monument - which happens to have been erected in commemoration of the Great Fire of London and the ensuing rebuilding of the city- as we passed it on the bus. Looks like we are going back into town to walk the 160 steps up to the top of the Monument!
By the end of the day, my oldest had successfully tackled the entirety of the Maths Whizz assessment and done some more work online, finished his Chinese writing ahead of Chinese Saturday school tomorrow morning, and well ready to snore away in bed.
We the parents went off worthily to the parent talk run by our Suzuki method music centre on the topic of music practice. Suzuki Method and home education are made for each other, I concluded by the end of the evening - but that is another blog entry entirely.
Today we had a relaxing morning getting through some chilled work, first in the children's room and then a newly kitted out study. Violin practice happened straight after a hearty breakfast, which was a wonderful thing considering my eldest, who was the one practising, was in top form after a good night's sleep. Both my younger child and I snuggled up seated on top the bedcovers. Listening to the violin music which was coming along very nicely. A gold star was rewarded for my eldest's labours rather effortlessly today!
Then we faffed around in the study trying to work the new state-of-the-art computer. Maths Whizz web-based tutoring failed to launch as we didn't have Flash installed, so my older one had to delay finishing his initial assessment to gauge his 'Maths age' a.k.a. Maths level. He happily opted to work through his Activity Bible while I downloaded a new, recommended Britannica Kids app onto my iPhone for learning about dinosaurs for my 3 and a half year old.
Packed lunch once prepared, we went on our way to the London Fire Brigade Museum to attend a booked 'school group visit' organised by another home ed parent. On a regular basis individual home ed parents would search high and low and book a 'school group' visit or special activity according to their own child's current learning an invite other home edders to join in, mostly only at a small cost. We were blessed with brilliant sunny weather so the children played with other home educated children in the playground opposite the museum before we were due to go in. The visit that ensued was duly informative, being mostly on the Great Fire of London of 1666. They also learned about making a fire plan and had an introduction to the fire engines through the ages, and finished off with every child who wanted to having a go at putting on a firefighter's costume.
That wasn't the end to our venture south of the river. The aforementioned playground opposite attracted a number of home ed families after the visit had concluded, and we gradually gravitated towards the even more exciting adventure playground which opened at 3pm ahead of school children's arrival.
This turned out to be a great time for the children to play and get to know each other better, in wild games pretending to be pirates of all sorts of nationalities and making a fire with the playground staff. We home ed parents were equally happy to chat and swap notes, especially since the planned museum visit intended for KS1 students drew a crowd of patents with children of similar ages.
On the way home my oldest commented on the Monument - which happens to have been erected in commemoration of the Great Fire of London and the ensuing rebuilding of the city- as we passed it on the bus. Looks like we are going back into town to walk the 160 steps up to the top of the Monument!
By the end of the day, my oldest had successfully tackled the entirety of the Maths Whizz assessment and done some more work online, finished his Chinese writing ahead of Chinese Saturday school tomorrow morning, and well ready to snore away in bed.
We the parents went off worthily to the parent talk run by our Suzuki method music centre on the topic of music practice. Suzuki Method and home education are made for each other, I concluded by the end of the evening - but that is another blog entry entirely.
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