Babel School in Taiwan

Finally all the holidays, vacations are over - first it was Christmas, then trip to Hong Kong followed by New Year and a few days later a 4 weeks long ski holiday in Japan. When we came back it was Chinese New Year holiday which involved visiting family and receiving friends. Ufff! I feel like we've been away from our desks for almost two months! That's why now it's time to really start teaching and learning. Looks like kids are also ready for a more stable learning time. Yesterday was our first day in the classroom and they did quite a lot of work. The only thing I needs improving soon is the morning routine - it takes us far too long to start the school day. Yesterday I reviewed with Zosia what she has learned about kinematics in physics. She has made this mind map: This semester we decided that we would get a Chinese language teacher for Jas. Thanks to one of my Polish friends we found a very nice and knowledgeable lady. We met her yesterday and it looks like Jas...

For the past few years we've been spending one month a year on skis. It all started four years ago with Zosia going for a ski racing training camp in Nozawa, Japan. There were only 6 kids chosen to attend that camp. I joined the group as a helper. Back then Zosia was in 5th grade (11 years old), other kids were also around that age. Every day they trained going through gates from morning till evening. At night they trained with Japanese kids in bitter cold temperatures. Zosia did not enjoy the camp much, but she did learn quite a bit. The following year we followed our long time friend, Nozomi, to Myoko. We stayed there only for a wee, but fell in live with the small Japanese village and the skiing conditions which it offered. That's why two years ago we spent a whole month in Myoko. We were lucky enough to have a whole pension all to ourselves. Of course this meant that we needed to shovel the snow twice a day just to get in and out of the house. Throughout the whole month w...

Only in Taiwan (and maybe other small countries) can normal kids get a chance to appear on TV. I know that some of you may say that my kids have been on TV quite often and their faces are recognisable, but when they started their TV adventure they were ... just a couple of young homeschooled children, without any experience in front of the camera. How did it all start? Few years ago, when Zosia was 9 and Jas 4 years old we met by chance the Public TV team filming a popular children's program 下課花路米 Follow me, go! . Tim talked for a few minutes to the director and gave him his contact number. Few days later TV called back asking some more questions about our homeschooling adventure. And that's how it all started ... Later there were interviews, more interviews, never ending interviews ... Two and a half years ago kids were asked to take part in another Public TV children's program: In the beginning of 2012, after Zosia and her friends made a short documen...

  We've never made any New Year's resolutions before, but this year I talked to the kids about it and here is what they came up with: - Zosia wants to: spend more time editing her films learn how to snowboard better learn to ski well in powder snow spend less time searching Internet for silly stuff write her blog more often post more photos to Flickr take one photo a week for the Flickr photo challenge - Jas wants to: read at least one book a week write one postcard a month to the Grandparents make dinner for the family at least twice a month  learn how to type (in Chinese) And how about me? I just hope to have more patience and time for the kids, play more board games with them, read more (by myself and to the kids) and do some more scrapbooking and cross-stitching. I guess all this means I need to manage my TIME better (sleep less?).

Our very comfortable hotel - East Hotel. Instead of staying home for Christmas we decided to fly for three days to Hong Kong. It was my and kids first time on the other side of the Taiwan Strait. The city didn't really impress us much ... but we still had a great time. Views from the airport bus to the hotel - far from pretty. We not only walked around the city, but also took all possible means of public transportation - bus, tram, taxi, small bus, boat, underground and train (all of us agree that the taxi was the worst). It was very convenient with the Octopus card. Doubledecker tram, Tim on a ferry and plan of MTR.   We tried some local food and drinks. What is "Milk water egg"? Condensed milk diluted with water with a raw egg inside - quite nice. The drinks very really good and the jelly eggs were fun to eat too. Jas loves LEGO so we couldn't miss a visit to the Times Square where big Lego figures and houses were set out. What surprised...

Last year we were away from home for the whole Christmas season, so there was no reason to decorate the house or to put the Christmas tree up. This year, we are spending most of December at home, so we wanted to have the house all ready for the Holidays. We invited our homeschooling neighbours for an afternoon of making dough ornaments.     This is how they turned out. Kids also made origami and Hama Beads ornaments. We've also put out the old and new decorations, mangers and ornaments. And of course a very colorful Christmas tree! Zosia made some cute sweets from marzipan and Jas made and decorated cookies.

Zosia sharing her experience at the camp. During summer Zosia participated in a few summer camps organized by Fubong Culture and Education Foundation 富邦文教基金會. For one of the camps she went to Orchid Island 蘭嶼 off the south eastern coast of Taiwan to learn about the aboriginal way of life. At the end of the camp kids had to make a short film presentation about what they have learned. Another camp was in Tainan, where she explored the newly opened National Museum of Taiwan History 國立台灣歷史博物館 . During this camp she not only learned history of Taiwan, but also made a short feature film about one event from the history using the photos taken inside the museum. Images from "The Kite" animation For the last camp Zosia gathered a group of eight homeschoolers interested in film making and together they signed up for the film making camp. After a few days of learning about acting, working as a group and preparing a script for their movie only half of the groups w...

December 6th was St. Nicholas Day. It is a tradition that on that day kids in Poland receive small gifts, usually sweets and chocolates, put under their beds at night by the Good Old St Nick. This year St Nick was a bit busy and didn't get here on time, he was late by two days. He also thought that instead of stuffing the kids's tummies with more sweets it would be better to "stuff" their brains with some literature.  Kids also wrote letters to Święty Mikołaj, as we call Santa in Polish.  Jas even left a snack for tired Santa and carrots for Rudolph.

Zosia has just finished reading (and studying) The Usborne Encyclopedia of Planet Earth . Everything that a teenager should know about our Earth - climate, plants and animals, land shapes, rivers and oceans, the planet itself, earthquakes and volcanoes - can be found in this book. In addition to that Usborne Quicklinks's website has many links to different interesting and fun websites explaining even more in depth these issues. As a last exercise from this book, Zosia has created a mindmap about different map projections. Here it is:

This time I would like to write a few words about my 15 year-old daughter. After we got back to Taiwan from Poland I've realized what a busy teenager she is. It's really hard to believe in how many different things/activities she is involved. This semester she doesn't have many classes outside home, only art class and ice-skating. After 10 years of dancing in Cloud Gate Dance Studio, Zosia decided to quit, not because she doesn't like dancing anymore, but because of conflicting schedule. She chose to take part in the production of a first Taiwanese musical " Dancing Diva " 台灣舞孃 . One night a week she spends 4 hours observing the rehearsals and helping with little tasks. This way she is learning how a big theater production takes shape. She can see the work of director, producer, music director, choreographer and of course dancers and actors. Last week TEDx Youth@Taida took place in Taipei. Also in this event Zosia had a small part to play - she was one ...