Sophia has been in Chinese Kindergarten for three years now, it has flown by. Her class size grew to 57, way too big, but she survived, and has done well. After 'big class' most children go on to Chinese first grade, where the class size is even bigger and the competition starts. Those students not ready or who have late birthdays go to an in-between grade that is still a part of the Chinese kindergarten campus.
I went and sat in on one of these classes and was impressed, we really hope to send Sophia in the fall when we return, but found out today they have almost 80 students who want to go. We will not send her unless they split the class, so we will just wait and see. She has a spot reserved but we will decide then if she will attend or not.
But....everyone else and Soph included 'graduated' from 'Da Ban' or the 'big grade' of kindergarten. Cap and gown and all. And afterwards, if the parents decided, they could continue to send their child for 3 more weeks to make up for the first month of missed school when it was under construction. We decided to keep sending her. It is so nice, her class has 28 students, it is relaxed, her friends are still there, and she is still enjoying it.
Here are pics from her 'graduation day' which was July 19th.
The view from the 4th floor of the building. The Pagoda in our town.
The teachers did a puppet show which was quite cute, but all the students kept running behind the board to see the teachers.
Getting ready to do their dance/performance.
I actually let her wear a 'dress-up' dress that CC had sent. It was pretty, and formal, and the teacher said to wear 'pretty'. There was a variety of outfits, but she was not overdressed, there were plenty of girls in frilly dresses! She was happy to be able to wear this out.
What a big girl!
One of her favorite friends: 'my twin' as she calls her, though she calls her by name when they play of course.
The cap and gown thing surprised me, for kindergarten, but maybe that is normal (not when I was in Kindergarten, but now possibly?!)
Of course a parent game was involved.
We are proud of you Sophia Grace. Keep up the good work.
