Beijing look see

Loren and I headed up to Beijing to take a look at homes and schools... the weather was a bit strange, they hit a cold spell again.

We saw a very very very very good small school, it was lovely, the headmistress is caucasian woman who speaks perfect chinese. The school is structured such that half the day they do montesorri style English classes, they had their own planners to plan what they need to learn and the "western environment" for school was done in the more creative settings of group tables, mix work groups etc. The kids also get their own mini PC. The Chinese side they have classes where they are lined up in rows, math is taught in chinese (as it is the best language to learn the basics of math esp. multiplication) and they get about an hour's worth of homework in Grade 1.

The school can take in local chinese students and the kids fm this school also have successfully transitioned back into public schools. We got all the right answers we wanted to hear like "no sweets policy" as that just made the kids more wired, why do that in a learning environment. The mix of two systems was like giving exposure to the kids to the "real world" and the more airy fairy environment. They were also building their own vegetable gardens. On top of all that they had a "virtues in us" program as well, where they have 19 core virtues that are universal and are taught to the kids, teachers and parents.

The row of school buses are is from the large large international school, that has around 2,000 kids.

We visited some homes as well.... most places are western like compounds, none as big as dainfern, this one was built in the chinese style which I thought was quite neat.

This big wall of gold and clear boxes is actually the check in counter of our hotel, its a wall of chinese medicine drawers, I should have taken more photos as the hotel is just a green box of varying shades from the outside and quite funky inside.