My Juggling Act

We have a precious home video of me as a 4 year-old trying to put our kittens in a doll stroller. I’d have two safely in the seat but as I turned about to get the third, one of the two in the stroller would jump out and flee for safety. I’d set the one in my hands in the stroller and bend down to scoop up the escapee, but while my back was turned another one would jump out! This happened three or four more times before I eventually just start crying out of frustration.

Who knew I’d be having a parallel experience teaching Chinese kindergartners?

You put one in line, and one runs across the room and starts kung fu-ing someone. You take one kid’s pencil and tell him to go wash his hands for snack, just to turn around and find another kid is going through all of your materials. You think you have all of the Play-doh snagged from the clutches of their little hands, only to have a kid come back a minute later and hand you a small clump. I could join the circus after juggling these kids.

To illustrate..

Goal: Try to get a cute class photo to take home to America for when I miss the little angels. Watch how this progresses..






(Notice how the kids on my lap change, they are so ADD...)

This is how it sounded: "Okay everyone come to this corner! Okay good, OH yep you can sit on one of my legs, you sit on the other. I promise there’s enough room for both of you, sheesh. Wow there's no way I can hold both of you up, let's get a chair. Alright! 1,2,3,4,5,6,7..wait, where are Jimmy and Hocking? Get off those beds and get in here! Why do I have to come out here and get you? Okay Hocking get OFF my chair. Alright everyone’s here, hurry and take it! Seriously, Jimmy? STAND UP. Look at the camera, look at Debbie!! Debbie, do something exciting so they’ll look at you. Dora, look at Debbie! SMILE!!!!! Come on, we’re happy! PETER, GET BACK here! Yeah they’re done..did you at least get ONE decent picture?"

Yep, that’s my life three hours a day, five days a week.

Barnum and Bailey, here I come!

Catching up!

Okay so I've been really bad at blogging lately. I don't know if it's the pressure of being able add pictures now, or that I've not felt creative enough to write about anything, or that we've been doing way too many exciting things too often that it just builds up!! Anyway, I'm just behind and it's stressing me out. But we have a vacation coming up on Friday and I feel like if I don't catch up before then I never will. So that's my goal! Before I go to Sanya this weekend I will:

1) Teach the children an Easter song

2) Endure a very intimidating "parent visit day"-- I want to run away and hide everytime I think about it

3) Buy a cute dress to go over my swimming suit for the beach

and

4) Find sunscreen-- I am going to need it :)

So I'm gonna start catching up now! Watch for the backdated posts. But first a funny story from today:
I was playing Red Rover with the kids, which, yes, sounds awful, but my first and second rotation of kids did pretty good. The rules weren't quite there but they went to the next rotation with no injuries. My third class though? Before I could even start playing the game, Fred (as in Fred and George, named after the Weasley twins so I'm sure you can guess how their behavior is) bumped into Dannis and Dannis hit his head on one of the beds. And these beds are not comfy--they are like a piece of plywood on a wooden box. Dannis started to cry. I groaned and bent down to help him up. I looked at his head and saw that where he hit it there was a very distinct red line and some swelling had started. Oh. Crap. A kid had just been injured in my class!!!! I mean there had been bumps and tattling that Peter had punched Lee but nothing like this! With Dannis still crying crumpled on the ground I picked him up (he's a lanky kid, it probably looked real funny) and took him to the Chinese teacher. Fred got chewed out majorly later, but we compared to that the rest of class was uneventful.

So later Vivi, one of our native coordinators (she's 22, majored in English and is living proof that Chinese people can indeed be blonde at heart) told me after class that she'd talked to the Chinese teacher who had told Vivi to tell us that when we line the kids up we "needed to separate the bad kids," and that "last semester the kids weren't this bad, no one ever got hurt like this," at which point Vivi told her that the kids last semester were better because they were actually afraid of their Chinese teacher last semester-- she had been a better teacher! And even before this it's been a power struggle with the Chinese teachers, with disciplining the children during class. The kids listen to them tons better than us (obviously...) but when the Chinese teachers are there to control the behavior the kids don't learn to respect us as their superiors or how to not treat us like playmates or someone they can get away misbehaving for.

So now we feel like she hates us. Great. Chinese enemy #1.

Poor Dannis, though! He didn't even get to play Red Rover :(

I really can't lie: I love these kids

Are you ready for this? You're about to finally see the demon children!

Here's couple kids in my homeroom group. Hocking on the far left, about to punch Martin next to him. That's Lee with the cheesy smile and Peter who is pretending to shoot Debbie behind the camera. Charming, no?

Hocking used to be my ultimate favorite but he started being too naughty that Lee took that spot (I have a little crush--shh! ;) ). Martin....oh Martin, where to even begin...he's enthusiastic about everything that happens in class BESIDES speaking English, and when I tell him to repeat what I saw it's just, "I wa la craw yalon" ("I want a crayon"). Cute little guy, though. And Peter is one of those weird Chinese people that reminds me of someone at home who is most definitely not Chinese...my nephew Ian! Don't be freaked out, Jen, this is a bad picture but I can promise you your child is cuter. And TONS better behaved!! Peter is a menace!

Isn't this picture just oozing with mischief??? This is what I have to deal with all day!

"Eva, stop talking to Martin! English only! Everyone line up! Who's being good?? Do you need a strike??"

But one look at a face like this...

...and I can't stay mad for too long, even at the naughtiest ones. I'm a pushover for those squinty eyes!

And recently we've started going over at bedtime and helping the kids who stay the night at the school get ready for bed. It is quite possible the cutest thing I have ever seen! So fun to see them more happy than naughty and hopefully the behavior will get better as we bond with the kids!

I also love it when they call me my Chinese name... they sure get a kick out of that :)



P.S. I didn't catch up before my vacation :( Drat!