Monday, September 24, 2007
Mylène 2!!!
Another year has passed.Mylène is now 2 years old. And how quickly the past year went by! Mylène's first birthday party (and our farewell party before going to China) was still fresh in our memories; it was a beautiful Saturday in Warburg. Many friends and family members were there.
This year the location was very different and also the crowd was different ... and even Mylène was different, or bigger, anyway :-)
So many differences, but luckily also this time, it was a very nice day. Only the weather was not that comfortable as one year ago. The temperature was OK (around 28C), but the humidity was very high, and with clouds and some rain drops every now and then, it was not very comfortable to sit outside.
Therefore, we decorated the house nicely with balloons and garlands and celebrated inside. Most of our Fuzhou friends were there. Even the Koenigs family came by shortly to congratulate Mylène and to say goodbye (yes, Jacob is going back to Germany, what a shame!).
It was a real kids birthday party, with presents, lots of noise, a birthday hat, and a real birthday cake with 2 candles! Perhaps only the "pannekoeken" were missing.
The atmosphere was nice and for the adults it was a nice party for sure. Whether Mylène enjoyed it just as much ... she is still too young to tell, but perhaps the crowd was a bit too much for her to really enjoy it. What she did like, were her presents, the chips, and the boiled corn.
Where we will be next year, time will tell. But first, we will try to fill Mylène's third year with some wonderful memories!
Monday, September 10, 2007
First week in kindergarten
In China, the new semester has started, not only in university, also in kindergarten. In China, everything is synchronised.
So with the beginning of the new semester we were standing before the choice whether to send Mylène to kindergarten or not. We decided to try!
Now, after one week, I can make a first report.
The kindergarten we chose, is a private one, very close to where we live. It's called Hongbo. Michel and Marco also go there.
Originally, Hongbo was set up like a boarding school principle, meaning that you can send your kid there to stay during the whole week. The children can eat and sleep there. It is also possible to send your child there for a portion of the time only (which will not reduce the costs, though).
We decided to send Mylène there 3 days per week. Yuhuan would bring her there in the morning,and in the evening pick her up again.
The main reason for sending Mylène to kindergarten already, was to let her get in touch with other children and through that, to help her in developing her social skills.
As all parents, we were very worried whether it would all work out. And after one week, I cannot say that we are past our worries.
The first day was a bad one. Mylène cried so loudly that she had to vomit. Mylène often does that when she has to cry a lot and we even have the suspicion that she does that on purpose. But anyway, vomiting is not a good sign. There were also a few days during which Mylène was quite fine. But all in all, she vomited on 3 days, the last one being today. So what to do?
Right now, we still want to try it a while. It is no exception that it can take a month or so, before kids get used to the kindergarten. Yuhuan told us that practically all those new kids are crying continuously.
Shiqi brought Mylène away one morning as well. Afterwards she called me and said that it was heart breaking to see Mylène cry so loudly. I managed to keep myself out if it until now. After all, it's the mother's task to go through those first bad days with the child, right? The fathers are there to pick the happy kid up, at the end of the day :-)
Shiqi did not have a chance to talk with the teacher about how Mylène is really doing in class. She will try to do that to find out when Mylène vomits and if she is fine during at least part of the day.
So, the first week passed, with mixed feelings from our side, and for sure from Mylène as well.
Looking at the teacher's report, though, the situation doesn't look too bad at all, on the other hand. Mylène gets a good evaluation on almost all subjects: eating, participating, listening to the teacher, her temper, and activity. Stunning!! If we would have given an estimation for those issues ourselves, we would have put them on insufficient for sure.
The one issue that leaves room for improvement according to the teacher is Mylène's mood for going to kindergarten ... at least one point on which we tend to agree with the teacher.
To be continued ...
So with the beginning of the new semester we were standing before the choice whether to send Mylène to kindergarten or not. We decided to try!
Now, after one week, I can make a first report.
The kindergarten we chose, is a private one, very close to where we live. It's called Hongbo. Michel and Marco also go there.
Originally, Hongbo was set up like a boarding school principle, meaning that you can send your kid there to stay during the whole week. The children can eat and sleep there. It is also possible to send your child there for a portion of the time only (which will not reduce the costs, though).
We decided to send Mylène there 3 days per week. Yuhuan would bring her there in the morning,and in the evening pick her up again.
The main reason for sending Mylène to kindergarten already, was to let her get in touch with other children and through that, to help her in developing her social skills.
As all parents, we were very worried whether it would all work out. And after one week, I cannot say that we are past our worries.
The first day was a bad one. Mylène cried so loudly that she had to vomit. Mylène often does that when she has to cry a lot and we even have the suspicion that she does that on purpose. But anyway, vomiting is not a good sign. There were also a few days during which Mylène was quite fine. But all in all, she vomited on 3 days, the last one being today. So what to do?
Right now, we still want to try it a while. It is no exception that it can take a month or so, before kids get used to the kindergarten. Yuhuan told us that practically all those new kids are crying continuously.
Shiqi brought Mylène away one morning as well. Afterwards she called me and said that it was heart breaking to see Mylène cry so loudly. I managed to keep myself out if it until now. After all, it's the mother's task to go through those first bad days with the child, right? The fathers are there to pick the happy kid up, at the end of the day :-)
Shiqi did not have a chance to talk with the teacher about how Mylène is really doing in class. She will try to do that to find out when Mylène vomits and if she is fine during at least part of the day.
So, the first week passed, with mixed feelings from our side, and for sure from Mylène as well.
Looking at the teacher's report, though, the situation doesn't look too bad at all, on the other hand. Mylène gets a good evaluation on almost all subjects: eating, participating, listening to the teacher, her temper, and activity. Stunning!! If we would have given an estimation for those issues ourselves, we would have put them on insufficient for sure.
The one issue that leaves room for improvement according to the teacher is Mylène's mood for going to kindergarten ... at least one point on which we tend to agree with the teacher.
To be continued ...
