"Oh, the Places You'll Go!"

Recently, the older children in the Dew Drops Little Flower Inner Mongolia home, spent some time in class coloring “baskets” and reading Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go! Our Education Specialist volunteer, LeighAnn, created a balloon for each child and strung the baskets they colored onto them. They look so cute! Ran, Jie, Fei, Lei, and Cheng participated in this activity first and loved getting to pick their colors and design. Once they were done, it was the remaining children’s turn to make their own creations. It is so fun to watch the children pick their favorite colors and to see what they draw.

During nap time the next day, LeighAnn hung up all the balloons in the playroom. When the kiddos woke up, they were so excited to see their craft up on the wall! A few of them pointed out their own and then asked LeighAnn whose was whose. 

It was so sweet when Jie ran into the room. Right after he saw the balloons, he turned to LeighAnn and yelled, “Xièxiè (thank you), LeighAnn!” and ran to give her a big hug! He loved seeing everyone’s creation.

Back to School!

September is the time to go back to school! At the beginning of September, the children in our Group Home Project started getting ready to head back to school after their summer holiday. We currently have 29 children in our 6 group homes. Just over half the children (17 currently) attend our Chunmiao Education Center, and the rest of them attend local schools.

Wei and Ya are working hard at the Chunmiao Education Center

Art class at the Chunmiao Education Center

Right before the new school year started, Cai, Duo and Liang shared some of their thoughts about school with me. They attend a local school called Century Experimental School.

Cai, as the second oldest boy in the group, took charge of our little chat. After giving his answers, he made sure that both of his friends also had a chance to speak. Cai joined group home #3 in 2012. He is in grade 5 this year and his favorite part of school is seeing his friends!  He enjoys Chinese calligraphy, music and reading class.

Duo is in grade 4. He joined group home #1 in 2009. Duo is a super curious boy. He loves learning and he asks a lot of questions! He is looking forward to meeting his new teachers once his school starts. His favorite subjects are painting and reading. He dreams of going to college one day.

Liang is also in grade 4 but in a different class to Duo. Liang joined group home #4 in 2011. This will be his second year at this primary school. He enjoys art class and loves building things. He also enjoys doing his homework after school. He is a very sweet boy.

These three boys enjoy being in the same school together and plan to keep up their tradition of meeting up each break time to chat.  They are very confident that this will be another great year for them at school.  And most of all, Cai, Duo and Liang are glad to share a glimpse into their lives with you.

A New Playground!

Every child has fond memories of playing in a playground at school or at a park near home. On a Monday in June, the Group Home children attending the Chunmiao Education Learning Center arrived to school to find a new 65-square meter playground where there had previously been an empty concrete space. The playground was planned and constructed by Sean, a 17-year old high school student from a local international school. Sean has been a Boy Scout for seven years.  Boy Scouts of America is an organization for boys aged 6 to 18 who learn through service, leadership, and outdoor activities. After beginning Boy Scouts in the US, Sean moved to China two years ago and joined a local Boy Scout troop in Beijing. To earn the highest rank of Eagle Scout, a scout must plan and lead a large service project. Sean began this project when he learned that the Little Flower Learning Center was moving to a new location which did not have any formal playground.

The Chunmiao Learning Center currently has 15 children ranging from 3 years old to 12 years old. The learning center provides individualized special education, rehabilitation and psychological services to disabled children. The school is based on the Montessori education model.

For this project, Sean needed to design a plan for the playground, fund-raise, purchase material, and then build the playground! He enlisted other scout volunteers to help him with the actual building of the project.

Sean raised over 3,000 USD to fund this project. He did a total of three bake sales at his school and church and asked family and friends to contribute funds for his service project. He actually ended up raising slightly more funds than he needed to build the project, and so with the extra funds he plans to buy other supplies that the students need at the school.

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To build the actual playground, Sean first had to lay a matting, so the children would not hurt themselves while playing. He then constructed the three play structures: a log cabin, a castle, and a pirate ship-themed play structure. Lastly, Sean built a sandbox (2 meters by 2.5 meters) for the students to play in, and he built a fence around the play area to keep all the students safe. Sean really thought about everything in his plan! And we are so grateful for this new playground. The children are already enjoying playing on their new playground!

We are thankful!

Like Halloween, Thanksgiving is another American holiday that is not celebrated in China.  The children in our school enjoy learning about other countries and cultures and one of their favorite things is to learn about holidays celebrated in other places.  This week they learned about Thanksgiving.

What Thanksgiving celebration would be complete without turkeys?  They didn't get to eat turkey, but they did get to decorate turkeys to take home:

In addition to turkeys, the children traced fall leaves and shared what they are thankful for.

"I am thankful for firemen who put our fires." (We did visit the fire station recently!)

"I am thankful for the bus driver who brings us to school each day."

"I am thankful for the cook who makes our lunch."

"I am thankful for policemen who catch thieves."

We have a lot to be thankful for!  The leaves are now hung in our school to remind us of our many blessings.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A Visit to the Firehouse

A few weeks ago, our school kids took a field trip to a local firehouse, where they got to see how firemen train, work, and fight fires around Beijing! Check out the photos below:

Llamas, Piglets, and Pizza!

Recently, the Little Flower Early Education Center class visited Crab Island, a holiday spot on the outskirts of Beijing. Sponsored by Magic Hospital and 3e International School, the field trip was so fun for our students.

Everyone loaded onto the bus in the morning, especially excited to visit the little petting zoo on Crab Island.

When everyone arrived at the zoo, each of our students was assigned a buddy from 3e International School.

They all strolled into the zoo...

...and almost immediately saw the llamas and tiny piglets!

With the opportunity to bottle feed these baby animals, the kids stayed there for a while, everyone taking their turn to pet or feed the animals.

They continued their tour of the zoo, looking at monkeys, birds, goats, and other animals.

Before everyone knew it, it was lunch time. Pizza and watermelon was on the menu--a true warm weather feast!

3e International School also brought bubbles, which everyone had a blast with. The kids all headed back in the early afternoon, having had a great day in the sun.