Preserving our roots
One of the things while we are away from our birth country is to make sure that our kids do not forget their roots. We are very proud of Darrius for picking up Mandarin when he spent 2 years in the kindy. His grasps of the language is not excellent but I can say it is sufficient for him to pick up more if we give him the opportunity.
Of course we will never let him slide away if we can. Therefore, we made the painful search for the right school to send him to so that he can continue learning the language…
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I must say, there are plenty of such weekend schools in Melbourne! Most of them are run by native PRC who have migrated here and most of the students are also PRs from China. We visited 2 schools over the weekend and evaluated the classes that was being conducted and we are happy that we found one which is very near our place and the teacher is a very experience middle age lady.
Initially we thought we put Darrius in the Year 1 class but discovered that it was too easy for him so we asked to change him to the Year 2 class. Though he has already learned some of the words in the Year 2 syllabus, we figured that it is good for him to slowly blend in and not push him too far.
According to the principle, the syllabus of all the Chinese classes are developed by the Ministry of Education in China specially for overseas students. Each session is 3 hours and once every weekend. The kids get two 15 minutes breaks in between so they won’t fall asleep! The course will cost of $320 for the whole year…
Hopefully Darrius will be able to continue and learn more! He is our hope in preserving our roots! 
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Well done mummy and Darrius!
yea.. Malaika is using the same series too … high 5!