School Antics

Since school started, I have neglected writing about the children.  They are still here.  So, I should write a bit about them, and their days at school.  Because, I know that is really why you are here; as interesting as stag beetles in compost is, the children really do rise a little above that topic.

Hannah: Hannah is now four and in kindergarten.  She has homework, twice a week.   Yesterday's homework was a sheet with dotted lines on it that she had to trace with her crayon.  She was all set up at the table, doing her first line, so I left her to it while I did some online sales orders.  When I came back, her homework was completed, almost perfect.  The first line was a bit wobbly, but the rest were spot-on.
"Hannah, you drew that so well.  What a nice job," I said.
"Oh, I didn't do that.  Kyle did." Said Hannah.
"But that's your homework!  Why did Kyle do it?"
"It was too hard for me, so I made Kyle do it.  He could draw on the lines."
As the teacher said today when I relayed this episode to her, we have no fear of Hannah handling herself in the world.

The teacher also had a chance to tell a story about roleplay time to me.  The class read Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.  Then, three girls got to be Snow White and act out eating the apple and dying.  Hannah refused to eat it, leaning over and whispering to a classmate, "I am not eating that!  I KNOW it's poison!"

Now, the final Hannah story for today.  The class takes a nap at noon.  Hannah did not like lying down at all.  After much discussion with her, I discovered she did not like lying down without wearing "sleeping gear".  So, now everyday Hannah changes into a nightdress for her daily nap, and then changes back into her daywear in the afternoon.  Naptime goes much more smoothly since this ritual was added to her daily school routine.

Kyle has overcome his hatred of Chinese and no longer needs to move to New Zealand so he doesn't have to learn Chinese.  Over summer, I decided not to put him into a pronunciation class, but to just enjoy some daytrips instead.  I was a little nervous that I had done the wrong thing.  Kyle has proved me right in my choice, getting 100% in his first two tests and being top of the class in pronunciation and other academics.  Most importantly, Kyle loves going to school and often tells me how much he loves his school.  Tonight, he read part of a Chinese storybook to Hannah.  And, he now corrects my pronunciation constantly.  His dad is taking him to buy a new junior Chinese dictionary very soon, as he has taken an interest in my old one.  The old one is just too outdated to be useful for his study.  Chinese changes constantly, and kids need to stay uptodate to get the high test scores.

Tomorrow, we are attending a cultural performance in Keelung, with the children's school.  I'm charging my camera battery in anticipation.

My Garden

My garden is a big mess of dirt, rock, and weeds.  I do have a few things growing:

• Basil
• Parsley
• Sweet potato leaves
• Sage
• Mint

Not much of a list.  I bought some seeds to plant, but I never bring them out at the right time.  Yesterday would have been perfect.  I had several enthusiastic children digging the dirt patch, but never thought to get them to work on planting the seeds.  My friend did bring me an oregano cutting, which has been popped into the ground near the sweet potato leaves.  And, they did spot that I had some kind of squash probably growing by itself in the garden, too.

Richard's friends helping dig some of the garden a month or so ago.

Now and then, knowledgeable people come to visit, and point out wild foods growing around us.  The neighbor taught me how to cut the oversized bamboo and wash it gently for an hour or so to get rid of the bitterness.  We discovered our plant that makes a very nice juice-type drink when boiled and mixed with lemon and sugar.  And, there are leaves that you cook with fish to bring out the flavor.  I'm still trying to tell all of these plants apart from the weeds.

We are also doing some basic composting.  I mix our raw food scraps with paper, hair from the drain, old cotton clothes we no longer need, grass clippings, and dirt.  Due to the heat, it only takes about three months for everythign to become a big mushy messy that can be mixed in the garden dirt.  My garden does look more like dirt than last year.  Now, if only I could find motivation to take ALL the rocks out of the dirt.  The compost bin has been a nesting ground for the stag beetles we have in the yard.  They are cute little things, really.

Flash Flood

Late Thursday night/early Friday morning, without any warning from the Taiwan weather bureau, several months' worth of rain dumped down on Northern Taiwan.  Our little cottage didn't suffer any damage, but the surrounding area got a good hammering.

Closest to our hearts was the car park Richard recently dug out, near the little creek by our house.  Two days ago, it was a flat space to make my car.  After the rain, it looks like this:

Last week, the children and I fed the fish down by the stream:

Yesterday, it looked like this:

As we were heading out to school at 7:20am, our neighbor came over and told there had been a landslide, and not even scooters could get past.  She led us up this rarely-used mountain road and back down the hill, so we could bypass the landslide.  It was very nice of her to come and show us this road.  It was a bit scary, though.  Water was rushing over the road like a small river and there were rocks all over the place, too.  By the time I had to drive to the school at noon to pick up the children, the military were out cleaning up a lot of the mess.  And when we came back in the evening, the slip had been cleaned up.

The school's nature area was totally underwater on Friday.  I parked inside the school, as the carpark area was pretty sludgy, too.  Luckily, the rain eased off by noon, so things have had a chance to dry out a bit.

During that heavy rain, Richard got up several times to check the land.  Today, he asked a guy over to look at building some walls to redirect the water and support the bridge.  Having grown up in a wet area and with a father who built national roads for a living, I had mentioned to Richard about the bridge before.  The dirt under the bridge has been slowly disappearing over the years since it was built, I imagine.  It would only be a matter of a time before it all eroded underneath and the bridge collapsed.  I feel lucky that we had this downpour, as it has made Richard aware and now the gentleman will be helping fix things up to be more secure.

We woke to a sunny day today.  Very hot and sunny.  It's often the way - beautiful clear weather after a big stormy night.  A day like we had for the barbecue.  Here's a picture of our yard on a sunny, clear day:

Kyle Reads, Hannah Listens

We have had a great start to the school year.  We chose to put our children into a small school by our cottage, rather than one of the larger "better" ones by my inlaws'.  The school is public.  There are 65 children in the school, from kindergarten to grade six.  Kyle has five classmates, all girls.  Hannah has 11 classmates.  The school is not pretty and it doesn't have great facilities like a swimming pool or gymnasium, but it has won awards including best kitchen in a Taiwan school and best public preschool in Taiwan.   Kyle and Hannah are happy to walk into the school every morning.  And already, I am accepted into the parent community and have joined  the "group food purchasing" team of mothers.

Kyle and Hannah on their first day of school

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Hannah resting in the library

Roof of the school - garden needs a little work

Back of Kyle's class block

After two weeks in school, Kyle has started reading Chinese storybooks!  He read his first pages today.  From zero to full speed ahead in two weeks.  And Hannah loves her teachers and has learned a lot of good behaviour already.