Chapter 11 looking for kindergarten

The five-year-old cousin said to the three-and-a-half-year-old cousin: "Give me that white police car!" The cousin didn't let go, and said hastily: "Nein, Nein, das gehort mir!" "You've been playing for a long time!" My cousin was unhappy. "Du hast auch ein Auto." The cousin was not happy either. Mom couldn't help but put down the newspaper and listened carefully to the dialogue between the cousins.This is another new discovery: An An actually speaks German with Long Xing! Why?He and his grandparents, uncles and aunts all speak Mandarin!

This is their first day back in Taiwan.After two days of observation, my mother suddenly realized: In Germany, An An goes to kindergarten every day.In his world, all the little people speak German; German is the language of bunkers, swings, cars, and quarrels.Long Xing is also a villain, but this villain said something different, which is really contradictory.An An, who just got off the plane, couldn't turn around all of a sudden. One morning, while helping An An comb her hair, my mother said: "I'll take you to kindergarten today." An An was a little nervous: "Is it the same as a kindergarten in Germany?"

"Well——" the mother pondered, she no longer remembers her kindergarten years, although she still remembers the broken children's lyrics "sit in a row, eat fruit..." Do children today still "sit in a row"? Holding hands, my mother nervously watched the endless stream of rumbling vehicles, unable to find a gap to cross the street.She felt dizzy, her palms were sweating, and she stood on the side of the road for a long time, only to see a little radish head across the street in uniform walking across the street as if nothing had happened.She finally passed. The principal took her mother to see the small class.Mom first noticed that the structure of the house was a typical "classroom" in Taiwan, a square room with square windows and doors. The layout of the "classroom" is also familiar to her when she was growing up in Taiwan: a blackboard is hung in front, and rows of desks and chairs are neatly arranged facing the blackboard.At this moment, there are densely packed people sitting in the small classroom.The teacher stands in front and is teaching the children to read and write.

"Still sitting in rows, it hasn't changed in forty years!" Mom thought to herself.In German kindergartens, the room is not a "classroom" but a family living room.In one corner is a place for drinking at home, where there are doll beds, wardrobes, toy kitchens, small tables and chairs.Another corner, stacked with thick foam pads, is a place for chatting and rolling over.There is a carpet under the corner on the right, on which the house is played with building blocks.There is a chunky square table under the corner on the left, surrounded by chunky small chairs, and paper-cutting is done on this table.There are also a few tables and chairs scattered around.

At 7:30 in the morning, the kindergarten opens.Sporadic little tricks were sent by dad or mom.It came so early, mostly because both parents had to go to work.One after another, there are more and more children.An An usually arrives at nine o'clock, depending on how late he got up.By half past nine, probably all the students had arrived, twenty in total. What will you do when you arrive?Jessica sat down at the breakfast table and began to eat the bread and cheese her mother had prepared; there was already milk and juice on the table.Daniel quickly rushed to the building block blanket to start the day's huge project; Reza obediently went to Mrs. Carat's side, asked for a pair of small scissors, and started to make paper lanterns; Louis and Dolly were playing doctors and nurses in the corner. Li was holding a sick doll in her arms, looking very distressed; Carl and Thomas, who were playing with combination toys, were glaring at each other and were about to fight; Hua An was pulling out a box of puzzles from the toy cabinet by the wall. Start with this!

"There are too many children coming, and we don't have time to build the school building, so," the principal is explaining to his mother, "so it's a bit crowded. In this small class, now one teacher leads forty children." "Our school bus goes on tour early in the morning to pick up the children, and the time to arrive at school is about eight o'clock in the morning." The principal pointed to a row of baby carriages in the parking lot. "What do you do after eight o'clock?" Mom asked carefully. "It's free time from eight to nine, and the kids can play on the playground. Classes start at nine—"

"Class? What class?" Mom asked in surprise. She saw a three-year-old child in the classroom, who seemed to be unable to sit still.The teacher was talking hoarsely, some of the dolls were talking, some were wriggling, and some were in a daze. "We have literacy classes, art, music, physical education, arithmetic, and English... There are three classes in the morning, each for forty-five minutes." Isn't this a regular primary school?My mother began to worry: Hua An had never experienced an "organized" group life. He had never lined up, bowed to the "teacher" with the children in unison, and never "sit in a row" in a fixed position. Never attended the so-called "class".In his kindergarten class, the children are like bees, swarming here and there, they are tired of playing with building blocks and puzzles, and tired of playing with puzzles and cars. The little people in the room are busy like bees in the flowers Shuttle, there is no fixed point.

Group activities are not absent.For example, sports, children learn to somersault, vault, and play in the wind; for example, singing, children play and sing around the teacher who plays the guitar; smear.But these so-called group activities are nothing more than everyone doing the same thing at the same time, which does not require standardization and uniformity.Moreover, the child who does not want to join can do what he wants to do alone. "He doesn't even have the concept of time norms such as class start and end class—" Mom seemed a little apologetic and explained to the principal, "In German kindergartens, children only have one thing to do, which is to play, play, play..."

Just as they were talking, the teacher came out with carrot heads from the small class.Some children were so excited that they couldn't control it. They rushed out the door and were caught by the principal: "No! The playground is wet, so you can't go out to play today!" The teacher hurried over and returned the little fugitive to the team with all his might.Down the corridor, forty small people held hands and lined up in two rows, waiting, looking enviously at Hua An who was slipping down the slide at the other end of the playground; his pants and socks were already wet, and my mother knew it.

"Kids, hold hands, we're leaving!" The teacher gave orders loudly. "Where are you going?" Mom was surprised. "Go to the toilet." The principal said. "Go to the bathroom together?" Mom asked blankly. "Yes," the principal explained patiently, "there are too many children. If you go to this one and then to that during the class time, there is no way to control it. So every hour, the teacher will take all the children. Try to let the children restrain themselves in the middle of class." .” "Oh!" Mom's heart sank. How could An An do this? He went to the kitchen to get water when he was thirsty, went to the toilet by himself when he was in a hurry, and read a book by himself in the corner when he was tired. How did he adapt to this place? Various norms of space, time, and behavior?

Mom walked out of the "elite kindergarten" in frustration.She really wants her baby to experience China's naive education, not only language learning, but also subtle cultural inheritance, which she wants to give Hua An, but the triple standard of time, space, and behavior makes her uneasy: this Is it really what a three year old needs? After listening to Mama An's narration, my aunt said comfortingly: "It doesn't matter! There is also that kind of open kindergarten in Taipei, which is similar to the German kindergarten you mentioned. But it is very expensive. I heard that it costs more than 4,000 yuan a month on average." Mom was dumbfounded: "300 marks?" Ann's kindergarten only cost 100 marks, and the average income of Taiwanese is less than half of that of West Germans. Isn't this kindergarten ridiculously expensive?why? My aunt shook her head, but she didn’t have an answer; she hasn’t told her mother yet, if the three-year-old baby wants to join the children’s English class, if she wants to join the genius piano class, if she wants to join the writer’s class... She thinks about it, forget it, let her mother Have a good vacation with Ann!