This week's home-school outing was to Kunming's Space Museum. It was quite a trip across the city (1½ hours via the underground) but the remoteness meant we ended up having the whole place to ourselves! The early exhibits were a bit dull - black & white photos and patriotic displays of military missiles, etc. But later there was a room full of VR simulators and, whilst we were supposed to pay extra money to use each one, the museum staff were charmed by JD - their only real customer - and let us use them all for free!
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Another home-school outing yesterday. I tasked JD with planning a round trip across Kunming using at least 3 types of public transport... After some mapping and transport investigations, we left the house at 9am. A 20-minute walk to the subway station and we travelled to the Horticultural Exposition Park vie two subway lines. An hour's walk to the far end of the park led to a cable car which took us to the Golden Temple. After a picnic lunch we headed down the other side of the mountain, including an alpine slide ride, in order to catch a bus home. 5½ hours total travel time, and we never got lost - well done JD!
Halfway up, it decided to rain - the first rain we've seen in Kunming for 2-3 months. We learned later it has been artificially seeded. Fortunately we had brought umbrellas. After a vegetarian lunch at MiaoGao Temple, at the top of the mountain, we headed back down and home via a welcome ice-cream!
The "Flying Tigers" were formally known as the "American Volunteer Group", who flew fighter and cargo planes in WWII in Myanmar and China to try and fend off Japanese advances. They are still remembered fondly for supplying food and supplies to war-torn Kunming and its Museum has a permanent exhibition in their memory.
So I sketched a picture [above right] while JD made a 3D train [below left] out of card and glue. He was also in charge of planning our journey there and back by underground train. So, a pleasing mix of academic, art and life lessons!
I've been home-schooling JD for three weeks now. I feared he might try and take some liberties, but he's been working really well - getting up by himself on time, focusing on his work (whether I am sitting next to him or not), and trying to master the endless spellings which are definitely his weak point. As well as English reading, writing and spelling we have been doing topic work each day in History, Geography and Science. These are areas which his Primary School rarely covered and, when they occasionally did, it was inevitably China focused. So far, JD has done reports on subjects like the Romans, Canada, A380 aeroplanes, Spectacled Bears and Volcanoes. He says he really enjoys the lessons but I put that down to the later starts in the morning, less homework and a more relaxed atmosphere, as much as any curriculum planning on my part!
After learning the spellings of certain words for ages, he'll take a 5-minute break and then forget them all! But we're very slowly getting there, I think. Very slowly!
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AuthorPaul Hider lives and works in Kunming (SW China) and regularly updates this blog about his life there. Past blog entries
April 2024
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