#013 Thailand Update: The Pre-K Olympics

Lots of activity last night! We had a meeting at the school for all new Parents to ISB. It was kind of a “get to know you and each other session” if you will. It was pretty neat. I wrote a few words about it. You are welcome to read on…

ISB Parent’s Night
Last night was the ISB parent’s night. We get an opportunity to hear the faculty and staff speak, and then visit the classrooms of our children. To make it to this event, I had to be home by 6PM, and we all know how impossible that is with Thailand traffic. I decide I’m going to have to leave by 4:15PM if I stand any chance of getting there on time. I tell my boss, who tells me he also needs to leave early for the same thing. Good. We can hold each other accountable.

At about 3:30PM, I head to the desk of an engineer I’m working with to train him on a new process. Shouldn’t take too long, right? We run into a few issues during the training, but it is otherwise coming along quite nicely. As I’m training him, my boss walks by and says “Hey, you’re gonna be late.” I look at my watch and notice it’s 4:26pm

Ugh!

I stop training and head for my office, which is on the other side of a different building (sounds just like my office in Chandler). I get to my office and notice an email I need to respond to before I go. 4:31PM I quickly respond to the email and then shut down my computer. 4:37PM. As I am heading for the door, one of the Traffic personnel stops me to get my signature on some invoices. As I’m signing it, she shows me some other issues that need addressing. I look over the issues she has and try to put her in a direction where she can be successful. I look at my watch 4:47PM.

I walk out.

I get to the van and tell my driver “Boonchan, I’m late. I need to be home by 6PM. Can we do it?” Boonchan laughs, but tells me he thinks he can. I get in the van, and he jets off for home.

Boonchan is making excellent time… for the first 10 minutes. Then we hit the monsoon, and traffic slows to a crawl. We cannot see 2 feet in front of our faces because the rain is so hard, and as I look to my side I see the wind pulling the trees down.

Lovely.

Boonchan is still committed to getting me home on time, and weaves his way in and out of traffic. He’s still making good time. We are less than 3 kilometers from home… and then we hit traffic again. Boonchan laughs and tells me we cannot get to the house by 6PM. I call my wife to tell her the bad news, and she tells me not to worry because it doesn’t start until 6:30PM.

Whew! We’re gonna make it! I get home with enough time to eat dinner and head for the event with my wife.

When we get there, all the new parents (conference is only for new students) are in this very large auditorium that resembles a concert hall. The room is packed, which makes me wonder how many kids actually attend this school. I also find out that this is only for the Elementary aged kids. Wow!

The Principals do their talks, then dismiss us to visit the classrooms. Our first stop is Ms. Naheed and Nathan’s Pre-K classroom.

Ms. Naheed and the Pre-K Olympics
We go to our first session, and we spend some time talking with Ms. Naheed. She’s Nathan’s teacher, and she comes from Bangladesh. Very, very nice lady. We look around the room and notice all kinds of things the kids are working on. She tells all about how great the kids are and they are learning so much. In the back of my mind, I’m looking around thinking “how could she have possibly gotten all this done in such a short period of time?” I mean, she was doing charting with the kids, there are pictures all over the room of all the kids working, poems, artwork, crafts, etc. They have only been in school for a couple of weeks, and it looks like a year’s worth of work is on display. Ms. Naheed then tells us that she left many activities for the parent’s to do so that their kids could see some work made by their parents.

What’s that? A competition?

I perked up and my eyes widened. I quickly scanned the room for who would give me the most problems. Hmm… this guy could be a problem at the clay station, I think that Mom over there could pose an issue at the story creation room. Challenges, yes. But none of these parents stood a chance. I was ready to WIN! Ms. Naheed kept on talking, but I didn’t hear a thing she said. I was focused on how to get to as many stations as possible before the bell rang. Time was ticking away, and we hadn’t gotten started yet! I prepared myself for what I’m calling the “Pre-K Olympics”

The Pre-K Olympics
Welcome to the Pre-K Olympics. We have a host of challenges for you and other parents to complete. The full list is below:

Mail Station: Read the mail provided by your child and write mail back to them. Be sure to decorate your mailing as neatly as possible.
Clay Station: Design a creation in clay. Be creative and try to make something based on things your child likes.
Story Creation: Pick a topic and write a story. Each parent will continue where the other parent left off.
Leave a Message: Leave a voice message for your child to hear tomorrow.

Hmm… four activities and only about five minutes to get them all done. We’re going to have to split up. Livonia chooses to write the letter, and I head for the clay station.

The clay station had some initial setbacks. First off, the clay was less like clay, and more like mud. As soon as I picked it up, the gray mud got caked all over my hands and stuck between my wedding bands. It’s okay, it’s okay. I can work with this. I start thinking about what will be the most impressive to my son, and come up with a racecar. I carefully mold the frame and then begin to fashion the contours and curves. After some period of time, I have the framework of a NASCAR. I roll out four wheels, and press them against the sides. Okay, looking good, but it still needs more. I look around for a carving device and spot a letter opener. It will have to do. I start carving out the window frames, draw out the door panels, and make a little area for the gas cap. On the front of the car, I etch out a grill and some headlights, and then add a license plate and tail lights to the backend. Ah, it’s start to look more and more like a car. I hear one of the parents say “Honey, look at that. He’s made a car! That’s right lady. It’s a car. Good luck finishing your alphabetic letter “V.” I etch out the wheels, and car is ready for show. On to the next challenge.

By the time I finished the car, Livonia had already finished the letter and had moved onto the creation of the story. The subject of the story was “If I had a had a giraffe.” Livonia was starting the story, so she started to draw a picture of a giraffe. She knows I’m the artist in the family, so she looks over at me and says “hey, did you want to finish this?”

Of course I do.

Not wanting to take away from she’s already developed, I add detail to the frame she has already roughed out. I start adding shadow and lighting, some giraffe spots, etc. Before too long, the giraffe is taking shape. Again, parents in the background are commenting on the giraffe. They ask if they have to have pictures for their section of the story. Of course not! After all, four year old children don’t like pictures, right? In the middle of shading the giraffe, the bell rings.

I freeze.

Man, only two challenges completed, and we are only halfway done with this one. I ask Livonia if we need to go, and she says to go ahead and finish. Whew! I quickly finish detailing the rest of the giraffe, and then head for the door. Ms. Naheed stops us and reminds us to leave a message for Nathan before we go. Ah yes, the final challenge. Livonia tells that she wants me to leave the message. She says Nathan sees her all the time, so he might appreciate something from his Dad.

I think back to all the things Ms. Naheed told us, and then try to leave a message summarizing everything back to him. I remind him that I’m looking forward to hearing more about the “Hugs” book, and that I will give him his four hugs (since he’s four) each day. I say a bunch of other things, being as expressionate as possible, and then pass the mic to the next parent.

Today at school will be a true test of our success.

Now, off to first grade

From Loosey Goosey to Stiff and Rigid
We get to Christian’s class, and notice a slight change in the demeanor of teachers. Christian’s teacher is Mrs. Anderson (which I always pronounce the way Smith did when he spoke to Neo in the Matrix) and she is from Poland. She speaks Polish, English, and another language that seems to escape me. There were only two sets of parents in Mrs. Anderson’s classroom, which meant she could focus all of her attention on us.

Do you remember in a previous post when I told you all about how we had to find a long sleeve shirt for Christian? Well, we never did, so Livonia just sent him to school with the jean jacket he wore on the plane. When we got to the classroom, we understood why they needed the long sleeve shirt.

At each table was “puppet” of each kid. The jacket we gave to Mrs. Anderson served as the arms and torso for my kid. He made his hands and face, and also made his hair. I liked Christian’s face, because he didn’t just draw a smiley face. He drew an expression similar to the expression “Mr. Bill” would make just before getting squashed by some impaling device. I love it! That’s my kid. Livonia also found his to be quite amusing.

After marveling with that, we sat through a presentation of nothing but words on a page. Mrs. Anderson is nice, don’t get me wrong. Her personality is just a little stiff for my tastes. I’m not sure how Christian reacts to that. She talks very sweet, but there is always that hint of the strict school marm surfacing ever so often. I sat at attention the whole time, and didn’t say anything. Mrs. Anderson continued to discuss all the rules and regulations for attending her class, attending ISB, living in Thailand, living in Asia, living in this world, the galaxy, the universe, your past life, your future life, etc., etc., etc.

My mind shut off at page 2. Again I say, I wonder how Christian reacts to all this.

After we walked out, we talked to the couple that was in the room with us. I would tell you their names, but as hard as they were to pronounce, I can’t imagine spelling them. Oh wait, the Mom’s name was easy. Her name was Myriam. Their daughter sounds pretty amazing. She is only 6 years old, but she can speak Hebrew, Spanish, and English. Simply amazing.

Livonia’s Friends
The best part about last night was getting the opportunity to meet Livonia’s friends. One was named Lilibeth, and the other was I believe LeAnn. Can’t remember her name exactly, but I’m seeing a trend here. I’m going to revert back to my Pre-K studies and say that this level of group is words beginning with the letter “L.” Livonia, Lilibeth, LeAnn. Right?

Thought so.

Lilibeth is a Filipino lady Livonia has talked to me about quite a bit. She is a very nice lady, and seems like her and Livonia are developing a good friendship. The other friend LeAnn I believe is American, although she has traveled quite a bit with her husband. They have been to Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and I believe somewhere else. She is a pretty forward person who I’m guessing doesn’t have a problem fitting in wherever she goes. At any rate, it was good to see Livonia interacting with these ladies.

Livonia also received a couple of phone calls this week from the church. Looks like she's gonna start getting more involved there as well. We all seem to be settling in now. More to follow on that in a later past. Or, perhaps Livonia will add something? (hint, hint)

Nam Plau Quad Yai
Just a quick last note, since I know this update has ballooned into an epic. Every morning, I go into the canteen and order Nam Plau Quad Yai (large bottle of cold water). I learned yesterday that I have to be very careful about how I say “quad,” or bottle. If I say it wrong, it can mistakenly identify a part of the male anatomy. If I say “Quad Yai” (large bottle) incorrectly, it can be misconstrued as derogatory.

Noted.

I spend a lot of my lunch hour trying to understand the differences between the right and wrong way to say it. I’m still at a loss. Apparently, if I add “Nam Plau” at the beginning, people will understand regardless. Let’s hope so, huh?

Until next time…