Piglet's education

It's official - Ethan's enrolled in school starting in March. Technically, it's a playgroup that he will attend three days a week for an hour and a half each day. Instruction will be offered in English for 45 minutes and Putonghua/Mandarin for 45 minutes. I'll also be attending with him, and the bonus for me is that I'll be learning Putonghua too! If all goes well, once he's two, he can attend the adjoining nursery school.

This school was referred to us by a few relatives, one whose son is currently attending their nursery school. We took the tour today and immediately signed up Ethan since we were limited in options. I did research a playgroup that's conducted by the YMCA, but it's much farther from where we live. I figured I could take advantage of that particular playgroup with Ethan as well once Moo Moo is three months old since the age range is from three to 36 months.

What kills me though is that the school is very expensive. During the tour, they took us to a village set-up that pales in comparison with what Storyville offers. Their other facilities are okay. I guess I'll see first-hand since I'll be attending with Ethan, and if I find that it's not to my satisfaction, then we'll look elsewhere. But for now, at least he has a spot in a school.

The local mentality is that if you don't start the kid on the right school track at the beginning (i.e. kids going to ABC kindergarten will have better chances of getting into XYZ elite primary school), then the kid is screwed for their whole primary and secondary education. This is not an exaggeration - getting into certain elementary schools here is like applying for college. The HK education system would be the primary reason why we're not staying here. That's why I'm also not too stressed if Ethan doesn't get into a "good" playground/nursery/kindergarten.

Another interesting thing that I've noticed with the locals is that they don't apply themselves. They do what they are told, but they won't go beyond that, and they won't think outside the box. Some of this might stem from the school system's teaching methods, which is memorization based rather than application based. My theory is that learning the Chinese language takes memorization, and the teaching methods mirror that, versus English speakers who use the alphabet to sound out words (application-based). In Chinese, if you don't know the word, there's no way to really sound it out. I find that there's a big difference in the way HK locals who have been exposed to international education think and apply themselves vs. a straight HK local.

In any case, his first day of school will be on March 2nd. We'll keep you posted on how that goes.