The Kindergarten visit was very sweet and impressive. Sweet; for the obvious reason of the precious little cherubs and impressive because they did a complete fairy tale for us in English. They did a little dance and included us with them. Each little student would then choose one of us and read to us from a story book in English. The school was very organized and clean. They even had a little farm with bunnies and ducks! We also played some version of Duck Duck Goose and London Bridges Falling Down. It was just adorable! I also have included a picture of Harue and a Monk and myself in front of perhaps the Wild Goose Pagoda (though I am not certain if it is that place!)

I had so looked forward to visiting our first school, but on the day of the visit the cold I came down with on the 1st had me feeling pretty miserable. I was also afraid that I might make the little kids sick. I tried to hang back, but a little guy grabbed me by the hand and charmed me into dancing with him. Adorable! I loved reading with him and dancing and singing and playing games outside. I really hope he didn't catch my cold.

Wild Goose Pagoda was the only time I was ever late the entire trip. I wanted to have a chop made, and I was one of the last to have mine carved. James, our kind and patient guide, waited with me and one other group member until the artisan was finished. Everyone was on the bus by the time we caught up. Sorry!!!

Mary, Robin, and Lois, I agree one of the highlights of this trip was visiting the little ones. I was impressed at the cognitive development of these children. This experience of having young minds learning in a bilingual fashion reinforces the struggle of people in the U.S. who face an uphill battle in convincing America to move away from a monolingual way of teaching. It is a detriment to our students if we want them to globally compete with students of other nations. In this particular case, these kindergarteners have been learning English since they were 3 years old. It was beautiful to see the little ones communicating with people from far away lands about frogs leaping on paddies in a book.
edited by elopez on 10/18/2012
edited by elopez on 10/18/2012

As the others have said, the kindergarten visit was completely amazing and unforgettable. The kids were adorable and seemed so excited to dance with us, show us their reading skills, and perform their play. My reading partner had played the Big Bad Wolf in their performance and was cute as a button, if a bit wild!
We did realize that the students had memorized the text (rather than reading it by sight at the time), but that didn't make it less impressive. The only real hitch to the day happened when we went out to the play yard and visited the school pets. One of the rabbits was dead -- and judging by the fact that he was completely flattened, it looked like he'd been that way for a while. I wondered what the kids thought when they walked by the hutch...
As for the Wild Goose Pagoda, I did wish we'd had more time and could have climbed up inside to see the view! I'd have run off to do it by myself, but I suspect that would have made me even later than Robin was. And no, Robin, people didn't mind since you were normally always prompt.