Preschool

Becky and I have felt for a while that our children's Chinese wasn't progressing as fast as we would have liked. Even though they live in China, they had never been required to lean on their Chinese to function in daily life. There has always been someone to use English when needed. As a result, we could see fluency was not happening.

Another disappointment was the children's lack of playmates their own age. After our second year in China, we had moved off our school campus into a regular apartment. Part of our reason for moving was our desire for our children to have other children to play with. However, we found that there were hardly any children over the age of one. We discovered that the majority of young children in Beijing attend preschools from morning until evening. This was why there were very few children out during the day with whom they could could interact.

We decided to try letting our children attend a preschool in our area on the weekdays for half a day. We looked at several preschools in our area. In the end we decided on a preschool near our home called 未来之星幼儿园 (Future Star Preschool).

Josiah and Amelia attend Monday through Friday starting at eight in the morning. They eat a Chinese breakfast and lunch at the preschool. They have exercise time, story time, play time, various classes, snacks, etc. Originally, we intended to pick them up after lunch, but then we learned that the students have nap time immediately after lunch. So, we decided to let our kids have their naps there. They sleep for two hours until about 3:00 at which time Becky or I are there to pick them up.

So we are trying it out. Josiah has been excited from the first day. Amelia has needed several days to get used to this new idea, but she is quickly adjusting. We have already noticed an improvement in their Chinese.

We are praying for wisdom to know how to provide our kids with the skills and training they need to equip them best for God's service.