If there’s one thing that schools learned last year, it’s to have many contingency plans to choose from in the event we need to shut down and move to e-learning. Part of those plans includes the possibility of shifting school vacation dates as needed or eliminating some breaks entirely to compensate for missed time in person. In fact, when it was announced that Shunyi schools would start online, many chose to extend the Chinese New Year break and forego spring break in an attempt to maximize how much time students will spend together in the classroom. Other schools are keeping this option in their back pocket.

School vacations, and especially the Spring Festival, are usually times that families travel out of Beijing. But with guidelines discouraging travel and most people staying put, it’s possible that school breaks aren’t as necessary while we still have Covid outbreaks, even small and controlled ones. Rather than seeing a school year as starting on a fixed day and ending at a set time with scheduled breaks, maybe it’s time to consider a more flexible timeframe.

Summer vacations, after all, evolved mostly out of convenience over the years. In some areas, it was too hot during those summer months to even be inside a classroom. Summers have since come to mean downtime, summer jobs, and a chance to see family or go on vacations, or for some students, it’s considered a forth semester to continue studies elsewhere.

What do you think we should do? Take this year a few weeks at a time or rethink our idea of vacations entirely? Scan the QR code to let us know!

KEEP READING: Growing Up In a Gentler World: Encouraging Kids To Be Kind

Images: Canva

It’s been a week.

And by a week, it’s been a month.

Actually, closer to two…ah, never mind, who’s counting? (Me, I’m counting. My kids have been out of school for 41 days and Shunyi kids for over 50.)

So as the notices saying that schools would resume as of March 1 came pouring in, we might have rejoiced were most parents not so beaten down. And here we come, your essential resource for Beijing families no matter our new name, to offer some laughter among the inevitable tears.

First of all, don’t try to tell me this isn’t you counting down the days to school (even if not in quarantine).

At least we know our kids are prepared for the workforce now.

If you need to call in the grandparents, make sure you know how to find them:

And set the ground rules before you’re out the door!

Just know that everyone’s feeling the pressure of working from home while trying to do e-learning…

But we all have our hacks!

And know that you never have to pretend when it comes to your family at Jingkids International. No need to be Pinterest-pretty with us.

We love you just the way you are, scales and all!

KEEP READING: Sick of Gifts: Raising Grateful Kids in a Commercial World

Images: sourced from the internet, Canva

I always try to enter e-learning with a positive attitude. After the first week of navigating a massive work deadline while facilitating Year 2 e-learning, a huge hole in the plan was evident: what would we do with our ECE kid?

We knew from last year that our youngest does not like to participate in an online classroom if he’s used to being inside it offline. It isn’t about the attention span on a computer. He just does not like to see his classroom through a screen. With all the emotion of last year, it brought him to tears to see the beloved teachers he didn’t get to say goodbye to. This year, it moved into indifference, even though he adores his teachers and ayis in ECE.

The other problem is that since I need to be in the same room as my Year 2 kid to be his cheerleader and snack provider, and we have a small apartment, I spent most of the first week shushing my youngest. It just killed me. He can finally express himself in complex ways and loves to sing his songs, and here I was yucking his yum.

Our school offers e-learning but at a cost that can be credited against tuition paid, and we tried it one week without the e-learning option and one week with it. It was very helpful to have craft supplies delivered to us and activities in our inbox every day, but it didn’t work as well as last year, mostly because he wants more now. Younger classrooms just don’t translate as well as older ones (who still have their challenges), and I soon learned that most ECE programs were just going on hiatus. Even if it was offered, most parents I knew didn’t try. So what are our choices?

Teach Your Own Homeschool

Beijing Mom Vivienne Rush told Jingkids that her school wasn’t going to do online learning, but instead implement two read-aloud classes in both English and Mandarin, plus they’d send home a crafts kit. “In lieu of that,” Rush said, ” I started my own homeschooling for a trio of kiddos around Nalo’s age (5)…We do yoga, music and art, read and do science experiments.”

This is one huge benefit we have over last year, at least. We can have friends over and take some of the burden off parents with more than one kid in e-learning.

Involve Your Children in Your Work

Kim Clifford, an ECC teacher herself, found a way to keep her son entertained while keeping her students more engaged – by not trying to separate the two. Clifford told us she “made lots of videos with my son (4) at the time and that made it easier for the kids to watch and then do the activities. My son got so used to saying “Hi ECC 2″ that he just kept doing it in home videos. Now he’s doing videos for YouTube: Adventures with Lachlan.” They’ve kept up his videos as part of his ongoing learning, and recent ones include his Covid test and their ski trip.

I know last year we loved the PE videos that included our teacher’s daughter. Kids just love following other kids’ directions. It makes them laugh and listen more. But for parents who are also teachers of older grades, there isn’t much they can do, and sometimes classes are interrupted for potty breaks or their younger child makes a cameo appearance.

So What If You Can’t?

I am very lucky in my situation with True Run Media, as they understand the needs of a family, especially in Covid related situations. If last year taught us anything, it’s that more workplaces need to have open and empathetic conversations about what really matters — seeing people at their desks 9-5 or not making people choose between their career or their job. But that still means that some times of day your attention needs to be on your younger child — either on an art project or reading to them or being the dragon to their brave knights.

When e-learning works in our house, I am next to our youngest doing his own Mathletics or Khan Academy subjects while his brother is in a class. When it doesn’t, well…..I integrate English and Math concepts into building with LEGO bricks. In between, I can handle small work tasks. I sneak down to the cafe when our ayi comes and stay up as late as needed to stay on track. No matter what, they watch a little more TV than normal, and then it’s a matter of curating the programming so it’s either a learning show (which thankfully they love) or just some good old fun cartoons.

And if parents aren’t lucky enough to have the option to work from home, it’s up to ayi. A lot depends on whether they can speak the language of instruction, though, and in my case, there are just days when I have to release the household from the expectation of afternoon e-learning in lieu of time to work. Many friends with younger kids took their experience from last year and just decided to shrug off the idea that any e-learning would happen for ECE, with the grateful understanding that we are only in this for a short time this year.

What’s your experience? Has your school cracked the code of Early Childhood Education online? Let us know in the comments.

KEEP READING: How to Talk to Your Boss About Working From Home With Kids

Images: Canva, Kim Clifford, Vivienne Rush

Well, here we are again
The same old shape we’re in
….Did we learn nothing new
From all that we went through?
Or was it worth the same
To do again?

-“Here We Are Again”, The Statler Brothers

But what’s it like for older kids? How are teenagers adjusting to the process?

Senior Bella Perez says that the hardest part for her is living in the same time zone as her classes. She has been stuck in the US last year, with “a 12-hour difference and [I] was constantly moving places, so I was given more room in e-learning to do things on my own time. My teachers are a lot more strict now because they know I’m at home, and I have no excuse to be late or not show up. I’m not used to a lot of these components of e-learning, my school changed platforms, my classes expect different things of me, and I’m not used to waking up at 8am if it isn’t to go somewhere.”

These stories are barely a microcosm of the full experiences around Beijing, and we’d love to hear what you think in the comments. How’s it going for you as a parent, student, or teacher? What are some great ideas you’ve seen or implemented since last year? Or is it still kind of unbearable some days and tolerable the next? Let us know!

KEEP READING: Headphones: The New School Supply Necessity

Photos: Canva

We are still weeks away from this year’s Spring Festival, yet for most parents in Beijing, the hustle and bustle have already started since all schools closed out of caution. For kids who haven’t started their winter break, it means they need to resume e-learning. Even though attending classes, taking exams, and communicating with classmates online is not novel for students by this point, studying at home with increasing holiday vibes can bring some new challenges, especially when you have more than one kid. To keep them away from the distractions, no matter if it is the TV, the vacuum cleaner your Ayi is using, or the square dance music heard from the park next to your apartment, and as a way to avoid those awkward moments such as the whole classroom hearing your complaint about their teacher, it is necessary to pick a decent pair of headphones.

BuddyPhones

For kids in primary school, their auditory system is still undergoing development and can be quite sensitive. Wearing the headphone for hours has already put enough stress on their fragile eardrum and nerves, not to mention some of them may not be able to hold back their curiosity and turn the volume up and down from time to time.

To save the kids from damaging their hearings and free their parents from worries, BuddyPhones, one of the best-reviewed kid’s headphones company located in Iceland, designed their products to be volume-safe, which sets the maximum volume at levels recommended for children by WHO. No matter what the kid presses, it won’t surpass this safe threshold. Moreover, considering sometimes the kids need to share what they are listening to with their parents or friends, BuddyPhones allows the user to plug any headphones into its 3.5mm socket to share the audio without taking off the one you are currently using.

Sony WH-CH510

It may not be an optimal choice if you are looking for a premium headset to dive into the virtual world of game or orchestra performances, but this headphone from Sony serves pretty much all your needs for remote learning perfectly.

When you have to wear it for consecutive hours daily during the weekdays, the sound quality may give way to the comfort level of wearing it, which is what most Sony headphones are known for. The product is rather lightweight which will not dig into the top of your head, making the whole learning session more tiring.

It also comes with a noise-canceling mic and ambient mode so excessive sounds will be filtered when speaking which will allow you to hear yourself speaking in the normal rather than a muffled voice.

AKG Y500

For people who are not satisfied with just purchasing another entry-level headphone and have a pickier taste for the quality of sound flowing into their child’s ears, here we present you wireless headphones produced by renowned acoustics engineering and manufacturing company, AKG, located in Austria.

Compared to many of their other products, AKG opted to endow Y500 with a much younger and approachable design. The mix of aluminum and plastic structure leaves it feeling sturdy yet lightweight while the vibrant color and polished metal edges give your child more chances to “accessorize” with their daily outfits and show them off in class.

AKG’s headphones are highly praised among gamers and music aficionados for their superb quality of sound, offering ample heft for the bass and crisp and crystal-clear edges for the high notes. And this Y500 is no different, especially considering it is a Bluetooth headphone.

Moreover, it also offers the ‘Ambient Aware’ mode which can be activated by a single button on the headset. It will let the natural noise seeping in naturally so that you can be aware of your surroundings while keeping your headphones on, in case you get lost in the music and get yourself in trouble, like missing the alarm that class is starting. Even if you have to take off your headphone for whatever reason, you won’t need to worry about missing a note since the music will be automatically paused and will only resume when you put it back on

The only downside of this headphone I can think of is probably its price. But it’s worth the value of the money for sure, especially if your child is into cool tech.

KEEP READING: Guilt Free Math Lessons For When You Need Time to Work, Shower, or Just Drink a Glass of Wine

Photos: courtesy of product website

Listen, this timetable that schools sent us is fantastic and all, showing great strides from what everyone learned in a year. but some days the e-learning is just not going to work. The kids will be frustrated, upset at the situation, or sad when they see their friends but can’t play with them. Plus, many of us are now back to balancing our own work and household tasks, never mind showering, while facilitating e-learning for kids.

So what happens if the kids just won’t sit down for math class, or you know your preschooler wants to learn more addition but can’t wrap your head around a curriculum? You can pull up this handy list of fun math lessons rooted in real life.

Do you have suggestions? We want to hear all your math tricks in the comments!

Coin Stacks

Grab all those coins that rattle around in pockets or have piled up in a drawer, since who carries cash anymore? Have them stack each in a pile of just that same coin, then count each stack, line them up by height, and see whether the highest pile is the largest amount.

Toy Store

While you have the coins out, start playing toy store. If you don’t actually have coins then they can cut little circles and bills to use. Or, get out your Monopoly set and put those bills to use. Get your kid(s) to choose ten toys and line them up like they’re on display in the store. They can make signs and practice their writing, attaching price tags to each item. Then it’s dress-up time and kids can pretend to be customers and shopkeepers as they count out the play money and purchase their toys.

Make Your Own Math Game

Take the board from any board game, two dice, and play the game. Except, wait! If you roll a double of any number, then each player needs to subtract the amounts on the dice from each other, not add them together! And when you roll a double again, it returns to adding the numbers on the die.

Need to Cook? Teach Them Fractions!

Sometimes it’s hard to have your kids help you cook. It always takes longer than when you do it yourself and quite frankly, it’s messier. But I like to find recipes that require us to use fractions to make different sized helpings, and show them how to figure it out themselves. It’s also a great excuse to make cupcakes!

Have Montessori, Will Add Numbers

We got this simple Montessori-inspired math game, where you count up all the different colors for different parts of your math problem. Even if you don’t have the set, just cut index cards into smaller squares, write numbers, and the addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and equals symbols on them. Then take a few different colored pipe cleaners or crayons or anything you can use to count out each numeral. You’ve got yourself a math game!

Melts in Your Mouth, Not in Your… Sum?

Take a die or two and roll the cube, then whoever correctly adds up the numbers first earns that same number of M&M’s, as long as they also count the accurate sum themselves. As long as you have enough M&M’s – and dental insurance – throw in a third die!

Clock Em!

Telling time can be a little abstract at different ages, and the best way we found to get it in their bodies – quite literally – is to make a huge clock on a wall out of construction paper. Give your kid big construction paper “hands” as gloves, call out different times, and see how quickly they can make it with their hands! It also works for a PE lesson if your kid gets really good at it.

Please Just Wait a Minute

Even asking them to wait ten minutes requires math. Pretty quickly we realized that our son mixed up minutes with seconds, and so we taught him that when we need five minutes to finish an email before we can play, that’s 5×60, which equals…….if you said 300, you get the point! Then they get to count down from 300 before holding you to your word!

Really, nearly everything can be a math lesson. But counting is really fun, and the more they learn, the more mysteries about the world they unlock!

KEEP READING: Stuck on Science? Online Camps Are Here to Help!

Photos: Pexels, Cindy Marie Jenkins

As overwhelming as it might feel to combine online schooling with working from home and all your other household tasks, it helps if you remember that learning should be fun. And Science is one of those topics that should really be learned in the most hands-on, fun way possible so the ideas stick. In fact, all kids are born as little scientists, curious about their world, and excited for experiments. It’s our job to indulge in those curiosities as far as they go, and keep it safe! Here are some cool easy experiments and a few online resources if they need to understand a concept in a more tangible way.

Mad Science Winter Vacation Class Pack: Online Lessons and Materials Shipped to You

In response to parents’ requests for ways to keep kids entertained over the Chinese New Year, Mad Science is holding a special winter discount on their 9 online live bilingual classes and a course kit with 50+ labs inside a box. The teachers send a preview of the material before class, interact with the kids while conducting experiments, and integrate science facts and review so the concepts really sink in. Classes start Feb 1 and the live component is twice a week between the hours of 9.30am-12pm depending on your child’s age. Scan the QR code for more info.

Outschool

We got into the Outschool habit last spring, and still love to join a class or social club or two when it’s a subject that interests my kids. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right teacher, but the coolest thing about Outschool is the teachers combine learning with popular games, shows, and more. So that’s how you get Mario Math, Jedi training, LEGO Build clubs, and an assortment of cool science-related courses as well. Some are one-offs and others recurring. It gets tricky with the timezones, but we’ve found many good options no matter when we were available.

NASA Stem for Students

With topics like exploring the space station, NASA’s Search and Rescue office, build an airplane/spacecraft, and decoding secret messages, plus coloring pages, interactive games, and free science-related books, your kids could explore the NASA sit for days! And it is all for free. Scan QR code to start your astronaut training.

SciShow Kids

Every since SciShow Kids premiered, we’ve been excited to share it with our kids. Especially once they got into their “Why?” phase, most questions about nature or how the world works science wise are explained in a non-condescending and factual way, with great graphics to help kids understand the concepts. Their videos are neatly organized in playlists and very easy to find. Older students will also enjoy SciShow, SciShow Space, and SciShow Psych. SciShow also has a game show which is a cool way to “quiz” kids but make it fun!

KEEP READING: Say It Like You Mean It: Online Chinese Learning Resources for Kids

Photos: courtesy of websites, Cindy Marie Jenkins

Yesterday (Jan 2), we started to get notice that the Shunyi Education Commission determined that international schools should move online, at least partially. Dulwich College Beijing (DCB) will move to e-learning up to Year 9, and The British School of Beijing (BSB), Shunyi will move online except for Years 10 through 13.

Here are some ideas so that you are not completely at sea while trying to hit your own deadlines around e-learning schedules. 

I worked from home for over a decade, the last seven years with kids, so I know quite a few hacks. But this blog will focus more on creating a space that will (mostly) work for everyone so you can begin thinking of your home as more of a co-working space during certain hours of the day.

Everyone needs headphones

Unless every person in your household has their own room with work and school space, you’re going to need to tune out the science class once in a while. Conversely, the kiddos don’t need to hear your conference call. Take it from someone who lost her headphones for a week and had to lock herself in her bathroom for daily management meetings. Get all the kids and yourself a comfortable pair of headphones so they can focus on their own work in a shared space.

Create a private space for focused time or meetings

Beyond your bathroom, it’s hard to find a private space when you need to be on a video chat. For a little while, I got away with a standing tray on my bed, but I got sick of bringing work into that personal space. I cleared away a spot near the bedroom window that could only hold a laptop and a small notebook then got a chair that easily tucks away when not in use, and kept the surface clear no matter what happened. Then I could literally turn my back on the rest of the house and focus on my video call or meeting. If you’re doing this solo, it’s harder until they’re older. But for now, I’m able to establish an “If no one’s bleeding, don’t interrupt me” rule that I took from author Arielle Haughee’s advice.

The kid(s) need their own space for school

This usually ends up being the living room table, but as the kids get older they may need an actual desk area. One option I didn’t think would work at first was to clear their LEGO build table during school days and make that the desk area. Somehow, it helps them to focus. My oldest often likes to fidget with a small build while listening to his teachers, and it helped that we used the play areas for school, so they weren’t tempted to play. Then the last class is over and laptops are cleared for playtime!

Break down your work tasks to stay on track

The above is how I had to organize my work tasks when I worked multiple writing and communications jobs while also acting as a primary caretaker for two young kids. Luckily, one was in school, but the other was too young. By laying out my priority work tasks and how much time they should take in black and white, I was able to stay on track, and also not spend too much time on any one item. If something new came up that I “had” to deal with, I could look at my daily tasks and plainly tell my supervisors that I could pivot to this new thing, but then the newsletter won’t get out in time, or tomorrow’s blog won’t be ready. Workers do not have unlimited time or bandwidth. If you know how much time you need, it’s easy to see how your schedule goes off the rails and make a plan to remedy that rather than feeling overwhelmed.

Prep as many snacks as possible

We call this spread “Mama needs to run a meeting” in my house. I’ve seen parents prepare charcuterie boards with meats, cheeses, and nuts; I’ve used the snack platter as an excuse to clear out the pantry. Whatever your method, give them an assortment of nourishment throughout the day, and not only will energies stay spry, but you won’t have to put a work project on hold to make three different sandwiches to a kindergartner’s specifications.

It’s all hands on deck if you’re home

There’s nothing worse than feeling like your spouse doesn’t pull their weight, and if you’re both home, it’s time to nip that in the bud. Sure, one of your jobs might require more alone time than another, or need to adhere to deadlines in a stricter way. So then you split up the mealtime duties or who keeps the laundry going. And honestly, if your spouse has a problem with it, maybe direct them to the uptick in divorce rates after last year’s lockdown, some of which were caused by (mostly) wives feeling they were not partners at home.

Honor when you – or they – need a change of scenery

Sometimes a brain just needs new stimulation. Even if our spaces to go are limited, I find that switching to just the little common room in our residence helps, or taking a brisk walk to run an errand before trying to finish those last two classes of the day. Even once school started in September, some days the only way I can get them to do homework is to find another focused place, then return to the apartment for playtime and dinner.

Just remember that what works one day may be a disaster the next. Be kind to yourself and your kids, keep an honest line of communication with your colleagues, and we’ll get through whatever the beginning of 2021 throws us.

KEEP READING: I Don’t Want to Forget 2020, I Want to Learn From It

Photos: Unsplash, Cindy Marie Jenkins

Due to the ongoing discovery of COVID-19 cases in Shunyi, yesterday the Shunyi Education Commission instructed their international schools to move classes partially online. This news comes five days after the announcement that public schools in Shunyi will take early Chinese New Year vacation dates and one day after all 51 of the district’s after-school training centers were ordered closed, as well as movie theaters, swimming pools, and other recreational facilities that normally draw crowds.

It appears that priority for returning on campus was given to higher grades, particularly those preparing for examinations. As of publication, beijingkids received revised plans from three schools either directly or through their website. Please check with your school for the most updated information.

Here’s what you need to know:

Dulwich College Beijing (DCB) Early Years, Junior School and Key Stage 3 to resume online learning through Jan 15

• DCB Early Years, Junior School and Key Stage 3 (Year 7, Year 8, and Year 9) students will resume online learning at home for the first two weeks (Jan 4 – 15) of Term Two, according to DCB communications.
• The Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 students (Year 10, 11, 12 and 13) will be able to return to the campus on the morning of Monday, Jan 4.
• Any student or staff member accessing the campus or school buses must provide valid proof of negative COVID-19 test results, green code on the Beijing Health Kit, a completed 14-day temperature record form, and a completed Health Declaration Form.
• No external visitor is allowed on campus unless absolutely necessary.
• Towards the end of the second week of Term Two, the College will review the situation and consult the government authorities for further guidance.

The British School of Beijing (BSB), Shunyi moves all years to online learning except for Years 10, 11, 12, and 13

• As noted on their website Saturday evening and updated later that night, BSB Shunyi Principal Richard Thornhill announced all students will move to online learning with the exception of BSB’s examination year groups Years 11, 12, and 13, provided they supply proof of a negative COVID-19 test.
• Staff will work on campus Monday and students should expect their normal timetable to begin on Tues, Jan 5.
• Thornhill assured parents that online learning has improved, as teachers are in the country and will teach from their classrooms.
• Homework will also continue as normal.

(UPDATED 1/3 11.30am) International School of Beijing (ISB) moves Early Years 3 through Grade 8 to virtual learning through Jan 15

• According to ISB leadership, beginning Tues, Jan 5, ISB will return to online learning for grades EY3 through Grade 8, according to information parents received the evening of Jan 2. ISB students in grades 9, 10, 11, and 12 have the option of attending classes on campus if they so choose. The authorities requested that ISB also make e-learning an option for these grades, but the Principal feels confident enough in their safety measures to encourage on-campus learning as well.
• The authorities have granted permission for all High School grades to return to school.
• All after school activities are also canceled. Mon, Jan 4 is now a preparation day, with Microsoft Team meetings to be scheduled between Principals and parents. Students will also be given time frames to pick up any necessary materials from school on that day as well.

Schools have been preparing for this possibility since reopening last summer or fall. Shunyi authorities and the schools will continue to assess conditions as the continued testing and contact tracing in Shunyi is known.

We will update here as we confirm more school information.

KEEP READING: Need a Covid-19 Test in Beijing? Ditan Hospital is Quick and Easy

Photos: Pexels