Goodbye Heidi!

Heidi is one of Charisse best friends at school. She's a very caring little girl that she's a popular girl in her class. When Charisse heard that Heidi was going to move to Texas, she thought she's just going to change school. After I further explained to her, she asked me if we could move with her. She looked sad when I told her that we couldn't. But I told her that we could visit her if we ever went to Texas. I even asked Teacher Chu in front of Charisse if we could have a field trip at Heidi's home in Texas :D. Couple weeks ago, we celebrated Heidi 5-year-old birthday at Peninsula Gym; Charisse had so much fun playing with Heidi and other school friends. Last Friday was Heidi's last school day at Alpha Beacon, I asked Charisse to give Heidi a hug but she refused. She didn't say goodbye, didn't even look back when we walked away. I guess she didn't want her to leave. She might think that Heidi wouldn't leave if she didn't say goodbye. On Monday after school, Charisse asked me where's Heidi. I reminded her that she had moved. She felt regretted that she didn't give her a hug. That's how kids learn to love and to treasure as they grow up.

A White Day Gift

Miu is one of Charisse's good friend in her class. She's a Japanese girl, a very cute and sweet little girl. On Valentine's Day, we bought some heart balloons + bags of candies from her school fundraising activity to her good friends. On Wednesday, Miu's mother handed me a bag of cake in heart shape. She told me that it's a Japanese tradition to return a gift one month after Valentine's Day - they called it "White Day". The cake was so delicious and Charisse finished them all.

First Ballet Performance

It was our princess very first dance performance. Although it was not a formal performance, I was so excited that I asked Ivan to make sure his camcorder was fully charged the day before it. It was the last day of the ballet class she took before the summer. Because parents usually had to wait outside during class time, the kids were quite distracted when parents were in the classroom. They always ran to their parents during the performance. Some kids became shy and hid behind their parents. Charisse always ran to Ivan and asked to see replay from the camcorder. It was just fun to see the little princesses dancing and running.

First Ballet Class Performance

First Day of Preschool at Alpha Beacon

Alpha Beacon is a Christian school that Ivan really likes. It is because this school teaches students values and love. However, Charisse wasn't potty trained at the time the school started last year, we sent Charisse to Children's School for a year. Since Charisse had taken Summer school at Alpha Beacon last year, this school environment and teacher were not new to her. In fact, she was really looking forward to go back to this school this fal. She asked us many times that if she was going to this "new" school instead of the "old" school.

One challenge is that we have to get up no later than 7:30 am. This school requires students go to school on time; and we have to arrive at 8:30 am. We reminded Charisse many times before today that we had to wake up earlier. She usually stayed in bed for a long time before she got up. But this morning, Charisse woke up by herself before 7:30 am and chose a pretty outfit to wear to school. I still couldn't believe it was so easy this morning. We arrived at school on time. Charisse recognized Miss Godinez and followed her to her cubby. After leaving her bag in the cubby, Miss Godinez introduced couple students to her, and Charisse started playing with them. She didn't even look back to find us. She felt so comfortable there and just let us go after saying goodbye. After school, we asked her if she liked the school. She said yes. She told us that she would like to hug her teachers before she left. Then she went to hug Miss Jaci and Miss Godinez. I'm so happy that it was an easy transition from one school to another.

This school put preschool and pre-k students in one classroom. Preschool students have classes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday; while pre-k students have classes Monday thru Friday. Since Charisse was borned on October, she could go to preschool or pre-k. Today, she had met all pre-k students, and she's the youngest in class. We still haven't decided if she should go everyday to pre-k because we're not sure if she's ready yet. However, we know that she would not like to be the oldest in her group coz she always likes to play with older kids. This needs to be decided in next couple weeks.

First Day of Preschool at Alpha Beacon

Chinese School

After 3 weeks of summer school at Children's School, we had registered Charisse to go to summer school at Alpha Beacon for the rest of the summer. On the first day of school, we was told that her class was cancelled because there weren't enough students. We were so disappointed because we did not want Charisse to stay home everyday. After lunch, I surfed on the web to look for class or activity that Charisse could do in the summer. I called couple places and had decided to take her to a Chinese school where it's to close to Ivan and my offices.

After first week of school, Charisse started making new friends. Many students are mandarin speaking. One day, when we watched Doraemon with Charisse during lunch, she asked us if we could pick the one in Chinese. I told her it's already speaking in Chinese. My nanny explained to me that Charisse meant Mandarin not Cantonese. It's just funny that she knew that she could learn Mandarin by watching the cartoon in Mandarin.

Another day, her school took her to watch a musical performance called "Disney's Alice in Wonderland" in Foster City. That night, she danced and sang like a performer in front of us. I guess she had made up the melody of the song, but the beats and rhythm sounded right to me. The school also took their students to a theatre to watch the movie "Ice Age". Last Wednesday, they took them to the Academy of Science on the free admission day. However, Charisse was disappointed because the line was too long and the teachers had decided to leave without entering the museum.

Charisse likes going to this school than Children's School. I guess one of the reasons is that she can communicate better with Asian. Another reason is that Charisse was afraid to play with boys in Children's School because the boys were rough, but the boys in this Chinese school are very polite.

衰車

Today, while Ivan was driving, a car ran a red traffic light and almost hit our car. Charisse immediately said, " 呢駕衰車呀,夾硬嚟㗎~" Ivan and I found it very fun and laughed. I guess either Ivan and I had said the same thing when the same situation happened before.

End of School Year Celebration

The end of school year celebration happened over a month ago. I didn't have time to blog about it until now. The celebration was very much like a graduation commencement. It started with a slideshow on pictures taken thru the school year. When the students saw themselves or their friends in the slideshow, they said the names loudly together. After the slideshow, each student went out to get his/her evaluation. Charisse was so shy that she took her evaluation from Teacher Nancy and rushed back to her seat. Luckily, I was able to capture the special moment. The celebration ended by a potluck with all kinds of delicious food.

Here is the evaluation from Teacher Nancy:

Charisse is a dear, sweet, kind and respectful child. She has grown so this school year. She really is feeling so secure in herself, participating well at circle time. Charisse is beginning to use more of her English at preschool. She has a good recognition of the numbers, shapes and colors we focused on this school year. With a little more help she'll be chatting away to us all in no time. Charisse follows directions well. Charisse loves to play with the play kitchen/house area at school. She has some good friends in our class, Jessica and Caris. Keep up all the solid foundation building at home, you are doing a great job. It feels so wonderful to see Charisse so happy to be at Children's School playing well with her school friends. Thank you for sharing her with us all. She warms our hearts.

End of School Year Celebration