The Harbour School

Hello Nonna! This one is for you!

Off we go to school! The school bus comes to pick us up at 8:10 sharp so we can get to school by 8:30. We line up with all the other children from the apartment complex who also ride buses to school, but we're the only ones from our complex who go to Harbour School.

Most of the kids go to the Kennedy School - their uniforms are lavender and white gingham - - ours are a simple white shirt with a navy blue skort (or shorts or pants). We wear white socks and black shoes. In the photo below, Jessica is wearing her P.E. shirt that has some stripes on it.

The school is located in a very quaint and sweet part of Hong Kong called Kennedy Town. It is about 15-20 minutes from our home. Mom and Dad judge everything by the price of a taxi ride because we have no car - - it is $5 USD (or $40 HKD) by taxi. Our bus has about 10 kids on it, and one "bus mother" who helps us get buckled into our seats properly.

We arrive at school by 8:30 - we bring our backpacks and our lunch, a water bottle, and a snack (no nuts are allowed at our school - - not the ones that grow on trees, anyhow). There's no cafeteria at our school. Our school has three house teams -- the Dragon house, Phoenix house and Lion house. Both Jessica and Christina are in the Dragon house. We can earn points for our house by being good! At the end of each week, we have a school assembly where the points are tallied up and we announce the points to the school. The classes take turns "going up" and telling things to the school about what they've been doing. The first week, Dragons were in the lead, but now Phoenix is in the lead!

We also have some class competitions - Christina's class collects bananas in George's tummy, and if they get 5 or more bananas in George's tummy by the end of the week, they get to watch a movie!

Jessica is in P4 with Ms. Amy and Ms. Meredith (and 7 other students), and Christina is in P1 with Ms. Mu and Ms. Chloe (with 7 other students). Mommy really really really LOVES our small class size and that we have a lead teacher as well as an assistant teacher.

Everyday the class schedule changes slightly, although we have Math, Literacy and Mandarin each day. Some days we have Art, some days we have "Cooking and Social Skills," 2 days a week we have PE and get to go for swimming lessons at the community center, some days we have Music, some Library, etc etc. We also have after-school programs that we can join if we want. Both Jessica and Christina are taking Handicrafts and Drama. We'll get to put on a play for the school and the parents at the end of the term! Jessica loves the after-school programs the best!

We also have reading and math homework.

Also, we can sing several songs in Mandarin that really impresses our parents!!! We can sing Happy Birthday, a counting song, a good-morning song, and a good-bye song. AND we know LOTS of words in Mandarin. We try to teach Mom and Dad some words and songs but they seem to say everything wrong. In China there are hundreds of dialects of "Chinese." The two most widely used are Mandarin and Cantonese. In Hong Kong, everyone speaks Cantonese. However, the government of China made a declaration that everyone had to be taught Mandarin as it would be the official language of China. Mandarin is a terrific language to know, but we would probably be able to learn Cantonese faster as that is what all the locals speak. But last night our taxi driver knew Mandarin and so we spoke to him and sang to him. He really enjoyed it! :-)

We have the MOST rocking Music teacher EVER. Her name is Ms. Leslie. She's from Canada and she teaches us folks songs. She is very kind and really wonderful. She came to Harbour School from the Canadian International school. She's been in Hong Kong for a long time. We went to her son's birthday party. It was NUTS. There must have been 30 kids there! Christina's favorite part of school is Music.

On Moon Festival, we had a special party and Dad got to come to school, so he took photos. We got to wear our Chinese outfits (from Texas - ha ha!) that day.
Above is a photo of one of the classrooms.

And another...

At the end of the day we ride the bus home, except on the days where we have after-school programs. We get dropped off 3rd but not last.

We like school!

OH - and our school is moving! On Thursday October 2, we'll be in the new school building! It is very close to our old school and still in Kennedy Town, but it will be very lovely, bright and updated. We'll get a photo of it tomorrow and post it soon.

We promise to write more to you about our school later, Nonna. Please pet Peanut Butter for us, we miss him!

Love you Nonna, Jessica and Christina

(Note from Mom...THERE IS NO FUNDRAISING AT THE SCHOOL!!!! :-) I'm so delighted to take a year or so off from the blasted fund raising!! The school does require tuition, but they also do require additional funding. Rather than sending the children out to sell things (which I think is an abominable practice), they have a big gala for the parents and other school supporters, with auction items, etc. I'm sure we'll be expected to open our checkbook at that time, but hey, the way I view it, I'll get a night out, no wrapping paper that I don't need, and I won't have to deal with my kids wanting to win the silly fund-raising competitions. For all these wonderful gifts, I will gladly write them the biggest check I am able to!!!)