Not too much special happened this past week. Will rides his bike to school each day. He started riding without training wheels when he turned 4 yrs old. When we asked him why he could suddenly just pick up a bike and start to ride it on his first try (true story, just just grabbed the neighbors bike and started riding around the parking lot) he said that he could do it now because he was 4 and when you are 4 you can ride a bike. Fair enough. So he rides with Jen to and from school each day. It's about 1 mile each way - not uphill or in any snow.
Will loves school. We love his school. The school is probably best described as a hippie village, complete with drum circles - I'm serious. There are no desks in the school, they cook all of their own food and it's all vegetarian. They recycle and make their own paper. The school starts anywhere from 8-9am depending on when you want to show up. They have a family day once a month where the parents all come for lunch and participate in activities. They have a school blog that gets updated every Sunday night that talks about what they will be doing during the coming week and has a video montage with photos from the previous week. There are 6 kids in his class and two teachers (just like Utah schools....one thing similar to Utah though is that there are 3 mormons in his school of 30 kids - not exactly Provo numbers but more than you'd expect in China). One teacher is from Australia and the other is Chinese. Every other day his lessons are in English or Chinese so they get both languages. They were blown away by his Chinese at the beginning of the year. He is learning to write his letters and numbers and the sounds they make. We don't yet know if he is right or left handed since he uses both to write and doesn't seem to have a preference for either one. We don't push either one but just watch. If he were in a Chinese school they would just force him to use his right hand. He has classmates from a variety of different countries and cultures. Will learned a few things pretty quick at school. One of those things was that he needed to participate in all of the cooking and cleaning. Early on in the year they were baking some cookies one day and Will said he didn't want to help. They said 'ok' and he played while the other kids helped make the cookies. At the end of the day all of the kids got to take the cookies home to eat. Will wasn't given any. He was very upset about it. From then on out he is always one of the first to help out to cook!
June always loves to go pick up Will at school or go and play on the monthly Family Fun Days or join on the field trips. The teachers all know and love her and she has a great time. In the front yard of the school (they transformed a huge villa/house into the school) they have a big cage with a few rabbits in it. When June shows up the rabbit always come over to the gates because they know that June will never let them down and give them a snack. She loves to feed the bunnies.
Both kids have swim lessons every Friday, which they love. Then on Saturday's they have gymnastics which they quite enjoy as well. Gymnastics finishes at lunch time and there is a Subway in the same building (some of you that have visited us will know the building as the tallest one with the hole on top like a bottle opener. The Shanghai World Financial Center, 3rd tallest building in the world and tallest in China - at least for another two years anyway) so we always get a sub sandwich after class. Will calls these his 'gymnastics sandwiches'.
This coming week is Thanksgiving. This is one of the only times I get homesick. We haven't decided exactly what we will do but nothing every compares to my Aunt's spread that she puts on. It's the best. A week from today my sister Heather will be here! We are all looking forward to her coming over. Will has been saying all week that "Quinn's mom will be here soon!". While she is here Jen will go to Thailand for hip surgery. Hoping that is uneventful and smooth.
The is a pic of the kids doing dishes at home recently.
This is the waitress in Queenstown, NZ that Will fell in love with. She is from Shanghai and her and will had an instant bond. She was a good sport and almost fell over when this blond haired blue eyed kid asked her for a glass of orange juice is Chinese.
