Back to our school

After a glorious summer of sun and fun, all kids are back in school. Our school here in Hong Kong started in mid- August, a good couple weeks before the local schools. It did seem rather unfair to have our kids wearing their school uniforms and lugging book bags while other kids their same age were still in swim suits. But now it is all a mute point. Even the French kids that live in our building are back in school now and another school year has begun.

This year finds Tori again at the Upper Primary campus and the twins at the Lower Primary campus. They are just separated by a big bridge and still take the same bus to and from school. Luckily for Tori, the Upper Primary had their library remodeled over the summer. It is now replete with great reading nooks, a reading loft accessible by a climbing structure and a cool new system where students can check out their own books. Everyone is clamoring to go to the library these days, and that is definitely a good thing.

The twins’ Lower Primary school looks new and improved as well with brightly colored hand prints up and down the central staircase of the school. Yes, the twins walk up six flights of stairs to their classroom and one more flight to the 7th floor roof top playground. This does not even faze them anymore but parents are definitely huffing and puffing in the early days of back to school.

In an exciting start to the year, the school also hosted a visit by Dr. Jane Goodall, who has a youth institute in Hong Kong that promotes environmental education in Hong Kong and mainland China. The fifth graders got to meet Dr. Goodall but Tori as a fourth grader did not. While Tori bemoaned this, the twins piped in saying that they got to meet Dr. Goodall at a Lower Primary school assembly. And Adam, a little upset, told us that he had to skip his regular soccer game at recess in order to meet the renowned primatologist. You can take the boy out of recess but not the recess out of the boy.