Shanghai Surprises: Fortune Kindergarten

Just last month we had the pleasure of attending the kid's kindergarten Christmas concert. As I sat there in nervous anticipation of our own children's performance, I couldn't help but notice one of the reasons I am so glad we accepted the opportunity to live in Shanghai: an amazing expat community. And nowhere is there a better example than our kid's school, Fortune Kindergarten. Looking around the room I counted families from the following countries: China, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines, Israel, France, Germany, USA, Canada, Senegal, Ireland, England, Czech Republic, Australia & India. I feel so lucky that we can give our kids a multicultural experience on a daily basis. They learn about other cultures from their classmates and teachers everyday. In fact, Grace was watching TV the other day and Dora the Explorer was on- in Filipino. After a few minutes, she asked me "Mom, what English are they speaking?" I told her Filipino, from the Philippines. "Oh, just like teacher Rose at school,
right?"

Another thing we love about Fortune Kindergarten is their approach to bilingual education. When searching for schools, I found that most international schools here teach only in English with a 30 minute Mandarin language lesson each day. I didn't feel like the kids would really learn the language with such little exposure. Fortune teaches one full day in English, and the next full day in Mandarin; however, both the English and the Chinese teacher are present in the classroom at all times. And when Grace finally spit out a full sentence in Mandarin today, I felt pretty good about our choice.

Of course, there are some drawbacks at the school but understand that these are issues in nearly all schools in China:

1) They like to keep the windows open even when it's 30degrees outside and there is no heat/ac in the hallways- just in the classrooms (and in the local schools, even the classrooms aren't heated). I think Grace froze her little butt off last year until I realized I needed to dress her in multiple layers!

2) No guidelines on peanuts, home backed snacks, or other big no-no's in the US. Again, doesn't bother me but I chuckled as I handed out snickers for their Halloween party thinking about how this would never fly in America.

3) Sometimes if I call the office in the mornings, nobody speaks English- Oh well, just gives me a chance to practice my chinese!

Anyway, overall it's a great little school and we plan on sending the kids there next year as well. Enjoy the pics from Fortune's Christmas Concert and Grace's 4th B.day celebration at school last week.