Going to the Post Office

One of our favorite bedtime books right now is "Busy, Busy Town" by Richard Scarry.  It's an oldie but a goodie.   Each section takes you through different jobs in Busytown (Huckle the cat and Lowly the worm's home).  Tyler gets a kick out of the "post office" where it starts with Huckle writing a letter to Grandma and takes you through the different stages until Grandma Cat receives the letter.  So this week we took a little trip to the local post office, bought a stamp, and made a drop into the mail box.  Tyler insisted doing it all himself of course.

Tyler's latest craze is Ultraman, and has been for a few months now.  He likes to draw Ultraman stick figures and include them in his correspondences.  So if you should receive a drawing in the mail, that's who the stick figure is.  For "Ba Ba Jie" Chinese Father's Day (Aug. 8), Tyler made a card for his daddy.  (see picture)  With each picture he has different embellishments... this ultraman has fingers.  But there will always be two ultraman buddies.  It's important he has a friend.

Busy Day (Visiting Schools)

Visited two very different schools for Tyler today...  American Eagle (in the science park) and a Montessori school (Bilingual).  A friend was nice enough to offer to drive and accompany me, so I thought why not do a little bit more research with the plan to still wait until Tyler turns 4 for enrollment.  Before going to Eagle, I always thought it was really more like an after school activity. So after seeing it first hand, I was pleasantly surprised by the environment.  The curriculum is really modeled more after the kindergartens in the US (there's show and tell etc...), so if Tyler attended Eagle the transition back to the US would be seamless.  Their strength and focus is really on language proficiency.  Facilities wise,  there are about 15 - 20 per class with 3 teachers, the classroom layout accomodated the group nicely with a raised/loft area for story and circle time.  The details are planned out down to the copious storage/cubby holes separate for bookbags, toothbrushes, things to take home, and shoes (indoor slippers/shoes).  The price tag of course reflects what you get, the number of teachers per class and the beautiful classrooms.  In Taiwan there's also a premium on an English-speaking environment, with a preference for U.S. and Canadian teachers.  

The Montessori school was a new experience.  The pre-K (small), K-1(medium) and K-2 are in one large space with subgroups for special activities.  The classrooms are bright with large windows and spacious to accomodate the 30 students per class. Not familiar with the Montessori Method, it took me a while to understand how the classroom would operate with the subgroups.  There were stations throughout the classroom (sensory, math/logic, science etc...) and chock full of activities to stimulate and delight kids as well as parents.  I can see the environment will foster independence quite quickly -- not sure if I'm ready to cut the apron strings so quickly yet.

After a long day, we hit NanLiao beach where my friend showed me a part I haven't been (a beach about 15 minutes drive from home).  The overlook was grassy and hilly and a great place to romp and fly kites.  We watched the sunset, while Tyler and his friends ran up and down the grassy hills and then down to the beach to make cakes and snow balls out of sand.  A pretty nice way to end an activity-filled day!

To Pre-K or not?

Monday morning is clay class.  This is the 7th class and Tyler's little fingers are getting quite good at rolling and kneading.  Teacher Serena commented that Tyler tends to be very neat in his work -- hmm, probably takes after Steve in this regard.  Last night I mapped out Ty's activities in September, and without attending pre-k, it looks like Tyler will still have one major activity/class per day.  Most of the classes, like the clay class will still right in our apt. complex which is convenient.  So the plan is  pre-k in the spring if Mom can find a Chinese-speaking environment, with less than 10 per class, and nice facilities (ideally with a nice outdoor playground).  So the search for pre-k continues....

Painting Wood Animals at SanYi

This past weekend we went to SanYi (known for wood carvings) to paint wood ducks.  Originally an exporter of duck decoys, this little workshop in SanYi provides the paint, the animal wood carving, and materials to anyone who wants to get creative.  Tyler insisted on painting his duck in Spiderman colors (of course) and Steve's green egret(?) with intricate spirals and detailing came out quite beautiful.  It's nice to see Steve unwind after a long week, and for the whole family to spend some quality time together.