Friday, February 20, 2009

My Vietnamese Grandson is a Star


Today was the Vietnamese equivalent of sports day at Sesame's school, so off we went; his Mom Quyen, his Dad Binh and Grandma Ba Elaine and Grandpa Bruce. We were a large and fitting cheering section for our boy! Ok, OK some of the other kids were pretty cute too, especially the 2 and 3 year olds.

Each class was attired in t-shirts of the same color and Sesame proudly wore a yellow shirt, given to him by his Canadian friends Kieran and Taylor who live in Vancouver. He wore a tiny Canadian flag pin on his sleeve for good luck.

The day began with demonstrations of calisthenics, very regimented, but colorful with flags, balloons or streamers. Each class did two routines, before the relay races and games began. The old egg on a spoon race is obviously a cross cultural race!!

We were really impressed with the kindergarten and Quyen confessed that she and Binh had a lot to do with improving the standard of teaching and care there. They opened their computer school four years ago to the teachers and delivered three months of night school training. Quyen then showed the teachers how to use the Internet to research teaching skills and techniques for early childhood education. It was glaringly evident that these teachers had used well the resources made available to them. With simple equipment, colored sticks, yards of Christmas like garlands, balloons and bits of material they had plenty of equipment for their games, which were fun but also included reading and counting skills.

A really great day and we were so pleased to see a small pocket of creative education going on. Uncle Ho Chi Minh would be very happy!

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