Back to School

The long summer holiday is finally over today.

Ryan is finally going back to school and he is more than glad because he just cannot wait to get back to see his favourite teacher, Jeff and his pretty assistants, Mari and Grace and to play with his classmates. The two long months of summer holiday have been challenging especially with Chenya at home as well, because Chenya tends to fight with her brother quite a fair bit. Most of the time, it was Chenya who bullied Ryan rather than the other way round. She bullied her brother so much so that Ryan spend most of his time in the master bedroom, watching TV and playing with his toys while Chenya stayed in the living room with her toys.

The moment they are together, Chenya would already have either scratched or beat her brother, or comes crying that her brother had beaten her, although most of the time, it is the other way around, all within 10 minutes.

This morning while Ryan was getting ready for school, Chenya was getting ready too. She said that she wanted to go school too, complete with her school bag and waiting. I just hope that she is as eager to go to school when she actually has to go and not have to be drag up the school van every morning, kicking up a fuss, screaming and crying.

We have already registered Chenya into the same school and although the term actually starts today, we have asked to delay Chenya starting date till November. That is because the first week of October is going to be China National Holiday and after that we would be going to Juizhaigou for a holiday. Hence, we thought it is best to start her in November so that we don’t have to waste paying for her school fees in October when she is going to be away from school so much.  We also did not want to start her off in September and then having to re-orientate her all over again in November after our holidays. That will save us quite a fair sum of money.

For now, daily routine is back to norm and slightly better, now that we have already engaged a full time Chinese helper (Ahyi) for 8 hours everyday to do the cleaning and cooking.

Just looking forward for Chenya to start school too.

Thank God for SUMMER CAMP!

Monday, officially, the first day of the summer holidays has begun. It is also going to be the first day of the five days that mommy is not around and daddy has to deal with a stay in mother in law and two active kids, seemingly with boundless energy and who are constantly arguing or fighting over some trivial issues or toys.

But thank God, there is something called SUMMER CAMP! We managed to register Ryan for a five days session with his school instead of going the full 10 days session for two weeks. The schools here in Beijing certainly know how to increase their revenue and having summer camps are definitely one profitable business. Parents are just too glad to sent their little ones off again to school, even for half a day so that some could still keep their sanity for a bit longer, besides getting the kids to learn a new skill or something out from the normal school curriculum.

Ryan is attending the IVY's Summer Chinese Immersion Program, where children will learn Chinese and be introduced to the Chinese culture in Beijing. We really want Ryan to learn as much Mandarin (Chinese) as he can while we are still here in Beijing. This little guy simply refuse to talk to us in Mandarin at home because he knows that we can speak English with him. However, he speaks a fair bit of Mandarin outside with the locals to get what he wants. In another words, situation can `force' him to speak and use his limited Chinese to `survive'. Therefore, we believe this one week will do him lots of good because they will ONLY use one language throughout the program and that is Mandarin. In fact, I think soon, he will probably speak Mandarin better than me.

The program does not come cheap though. The fee is RMB2800 (RM1400) for five days from 9am to 3:30pm daily, excluding transportation to and from school daily. But as long as he learns one more skill and one more language, we believe that the money has been well spent.

Ryan, 加 油!!

OMG! Summer Holiday has STARTED!

Yupe. The long summer holiday has finally arrived! Ryan's school held a year-end BBQ lunch for both children and parents alike on Friday to mark the closing of another year. I can still remembered us being invited to last year event when we were scouting for a suitable school for Ryan in Beijing, and now, here we were, attending our very first year-end event. Time flies. 

Soon, we will be attending our second BBQ lunch and it would be time for us to leave Beijing, based on our current contract.

I dread to think having both Ryan and Chenya at home 24 hours for 7 days a week. With Ryan at school in the morning till 4pm, I could at least get some peace and quiet when Chenya has her daily naps. But when both of them are at home, with nowhere to spent their boundless energy, they WILL let their energy out at each other. 

At least with the school on, Ryan could burnt off some of his boundless energy doing what he does best like running, shouting, fighting, jumping, climbing and swinging (like the picture above) in school with his classmates before he comes back in the evening. 

Without school, he will be finding ways and means to run, jump, shout, fight, climb and swing at home with his sister closely imitating every move and every step.

It is a good thing that we are at least going back to Malaysia for a couple of weeks to break the monotony, if not which, I am sure that I will probably go berserk and lots more white hair.

For now, I just got to manage them for one more week, in the absence of their mother who would be going to Guangchow for a meeting before we pack our bags to head back for a short break (which I really need to keep my sanity intact).

Wish me luck!