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吃豆豆
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Matthew learned this from childcare today.

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After much thought and consideration, Mike and I agreed that we should send Matthew to playground or half day childcare. This would kind of relieve my mom to take care of Jo and do some housework in the morning. We won't expect him to learn a lot at his age, as it would be lots of learning through play. At the very least, he should learn to interact with other kids, but he really surprised me.

Matthew is not the sing-song-dancing type of kid. It's just not him. When I sat through the sessions with him for one week, it made me wonder why? He refused to join in the fun. Kids his age all love singing and dancing, like Joshua, En and YX, but simply not Matthew. Both Mike and I love music, but not dancing. Matthew refused to let us turn on the radio in the car. Mike sometimes sings in the car and immediately would get a retort from Matthew to stop.

He loves reading, story telling, learning new things. Though he may seem to be inattentive at times during class, he picks up new things. Just like that other night, out of the blue, he spouted "vegetables". That's something he learned from the English teacher. The song goes, to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars, "Carrots, peas and broccoli. Vegetables are good for me!" When I sang that to him, he remembered and could follow.

Colouring is something we seldom let him do. Blame his parents. We hate the fact that we got to clean up after him. He will start by drawing some lines on the paper, then more lines, then onto the table and he will start throwing the crayons around, because he gets bored. Luckily for Crayola Washable Crayons, we could just simply wipe off. Ok, so he was given some crayons and a banana to colour. He could colour within the lines! Not neat, but still...

He shares. Although kids his age would not really grasp the concept of sharing, he seems to understand. One of the mornings, I let him take out his favourite red tank engine James to accompany him in class. Ask him to share James with his friends, he will let them play with it. BUT if they snatch it from him, he will snatch it back. So ask politely... hahaha. When I told him that I was going to buy his favourite Jelly, he asked to buy more for all the 小朋友 (little friends). That's sharing something he likes. I'm glad. :)

Spending one week with him at childcare, I've learned more about my son. He is unique, special...

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After one week, we left him at childcare yesterday. He cried, of course. According to 赵老师 who took care of him, he cried very loudly for a while and then stopped. He followed her around and attended K2 chinese class! When I went to pick him up at lunch time, he was surprised to see me. We have prep him that Papa and Mama have to work to earn money and buy things for Matthew and Gong Gong would pick him after school. His first words were, "愿来妈妈没有去做工。妈妈在这里。" I felt so guilty! He was expecting Gong Gong to fetch him.

Today, Matthew did not cry at all. He was all excited to go to school. But once he stepped into the school, he wanted us to carry him. Tears welled up in his eyes, but he did not cry. We sat him down and he drank some water. I talked to him and told him that we got to work and Gong Gong would pick him up from school. He said, "bye" and we left. We peeped in from outside. He wasn't crying, he was holding on to 赵老师 's hand and following her around.

Our boy has grown up. Big boy now, no longer our little baby we cradled in our arms when we first held him.

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>> Matthew and Mama, 2/5/07


>> Matthew and Papa, 2/5/07


>> Matthew colouring banana in school, 2/5/07