Getting to know international contacts

I was so glad to get into contact with my old director from when I worked for the school district. Her name is Esther Chong and I had forgotten about her until I ran into her on Facebook. Esther actual moved back to Hong Kong to be with her family. Esther has been in the child care field for over 20 years and she has hers Master’s degree in early education.

The early childhood education system in Hong Kong they follow the preprimary guidelines. They have also adopted the IB, pyp education framework. The IB stands for International Baccalaureate and pyp is the primary year’s program. I have been learning more about their program and how it works. I found it interesting that the children attend for three hours of the day five days a week. This center is an interactive curriculum based program. The first two lessons are conducted in English and taught by a native English teacher. Chinese is introduces for one hour at the end of the day.  It would be taught to cater to the needs of children from expatriate families and those who want to go to international primary schools. The children are learning to read and write in Chinese on a level that is equivalent to public schools.

I would love to tell so much more about what this program offers but that would be pages long and I just got into contact with Esther this past Sunday and I did not want to bombard her with too many questions in one night so stay tuned. I have mentioned questions to her about their being poverty in their local community but has yet to get a response yet.