Thursday, 22 March 2012

Gaia School 鄉師自然學校 (Waldorf)

I came across this blog describing the Gaia School 鄉師自然學校 in Tuen Mun. It's the only Waldorf based school for HK Chinese students (others are catered towards westerners).  The Hong Kong education system is very frustrating and it's pushing me to become the kind of mother I don't want to be. *sigh*. I really believe in the Montessori / Waldorf type of way to raise and school kids - more exploration of the nature, 動動手, 才可動腦. But HK is too focused on paper work. Even though I really try to give more outdoor time and play time for the kids, it seems still ok for Aidan. But for Tanya, a lot more time are devoted towards worksheets - learning English, Chinese and Math. Good thing I took the Montessori parents course and read quite a lot of books on it. I tried to still make learning these fun for Tanya first - making her use her hands to learn, playing games, making toys and games for her to learn these mundane subjects. Then she writes them on paper. But the more I keep reading, The Waldorf philosophy goes even deeper to the root - let the kids participate in the nature's process rather than learning about them in games. Now a lot more planning for me to do in order to squeeze out time to get them to start planting!

不做怪獸家長: 難為了資優孩子 "非典"港爸媽奮鬥記 (中)

森林教室