This year the Noodle started attending Chinese school. It meets every Saturday morning from 9-11 and they work on spoken and written Mandarin as well as Chinese culture. Her class is taught by a native speaker, however most of her peers are like her in that they have parents who do not speak any Mandarin at home. There are other classes at the school for children who do have native speakers at home, so the pace and focus of these classes is obviously much faster and with a different emphasis. On Saturday afternoons children may also sign up for Chinese dance, martial arts, ping pong, etc. At this point the Noodle decided she wasn't interested, but maybe next year?
Overall it has been a huge success. She grumbles every Saturday morning before she has to leave (usually about wanting to stay in her jammies, etc., etc.,) but she's all smiles when we pick her up when class is finished. She is very interested in China and enjoys learning about the country, its customs and its language, so this has been a good fit.
The Chinese New Year coincides with the school's annual fund raiser so there is a big dinner as well as a performance for the families to see what the students have been learning. We had been to the celebration one other time, so we knew a little about what to expect, but there were waay more people this time so the lines were much longer--especially for the food!
Grandma, Grandpa, Lala, Papa and our good friends from church all came out to help us celebrate. There were quite a few acts--children dancing, "grandmas" doing the rumba, skits, tai chi and martial arts. We didn't end up staying for all of it, but was definitely a great way to cap off a fun Chinese New Year!
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