Eli's morning

Well, here's Eli in the morning getting ready to head off to school. He's in the local Chinese public school, two minutes away from our house.

He should be in 2nd grade, but he's in 1st so that he won't feel left behind in Chinese.

Really, he's there for the Chinese. His math is at a 3rd grade level and he's taken off with reading. He's started writing for fun on his drawings, too...

...soon, I'll pull him out of school, so he can herd the goats...

We're big supporters of the backyard classroom-- last month he discovered some organisms that had grown in some stagnant water and studied & observed them for a few weeks. And with Calvin around, he has a college level understanding of brain development! It's a well rounded education...

Here he is outside his school with his Hi Mien Bao Bao schoolbag... Hi Mien bao Bao is Chinese for Spongebob Squarepants. It translates roughly as "sponge baby that does silly things"...

Here's the inside of his school. Schools here are built in a sort of courtyard style--

--the classrooms are centered around outside hallways that have trees and gardens. If you're going to be bombarded with endless pointless standardized tests, it's a nice environment to have it happen in!

And here's Eli's classroom.