Day 290 – Chinese Kindergarten and Last Tutor

David and I both had to do our final exams this morning.  I stayed pretty well on time, but David went over with his.  It is still sad to be saying good-bye to these kids.  I hope I have planted good seeds here.

After lunch, David and I met Doris at the north gate of the campus.  She wanted to take us to her son’s Kindergarten class to do some songs and games with them.  We had to wait until 2:30 because they have naptime and a snack afterward.  These are four and five year-olds and they are there all day from about 8 a.m. until 5 or 5:30.  It gets to be a long day for them, so the nap is essential, for them and the teachers!

I had brought some pictures with me to help with the language.  They really don’t know much more than “hello” and “good-bye.”  We sang some songs: If You’re Happy and You Know It, Old McDonald, Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.  Then we did “Ring Around the Rosies.”  Doris had told them that when we sing, “all fall down” they are supposed to fall to the floor.  We had those kids so riled up by the time we left that I felt sorry for the teacher that had to settle them down afterward.  They didn’t want to stop when we had to go.  They gave me a big bouquet of flowers and some foam crafts that they had made.  One girl was so proud of her gift, that she kept asking if I liked it. 

 

This was the Kindergarten class for today.  We had fun!  They teach them early to do the "peace sign" then they get a picture taken.

Here are my gifts from the Kindergarten.  

David suggested that for my four girls that I tutor that we should make cookies.  Since I have peanut butter that has to be used up or thrown away before we leave, I decided that would be a good idea.  I made the batter before they came so I showed them how to roll them into balls and put them on the baking pan.  Pretty soon, they started shaping them into hearts, squares, triangles and other shapes.  When they cooked, they all came out as circles, but they had fun.  We practiced some English while we were doing that. 

The first batch came out and they wanted to eat them right away.  I told them to let them cool for a minute, but the second I put them on a small paper plate for them, they were eating them.  They said they loved them.  When the second batch came out, I took them into the living room so we could work on some words and David finished cooking them.  After the lesson, we let them take most of the rest of the cookies home.  Just saved a few for David to put in his “stash.”

 

From the left: Summer, Lisa (Cece's Mom, who helped interpret for me), Cece, Me, Anna and Rose.  I am holding the flowers they brought me.  They could name all the flowers in English, too.

The girls, Summer, Cece, Anna and Rose brought me flowers and cards they had made.  This will be our last time together so we also took pictures and said our good-byes.  There are many things I will not miss when we leave China, but there are a lot of people and experiences that I will miss a great deal.