This year - as my winter vacation began - the coronavirus hit the world.

My mom told me that, in the Wechat group of Longling Nonggang POF class, my teacher said the Coronavirus is so cunning that I can’t go out to play with my friends, neither do my parents can go out. We should all stay home. Even the date to start a new semester was postponed as well.

I was very happy to hear that because the holiday was extended very very long. What made me even happier was that Mom and Dad would not leave home and go to work in the city as usual. They would work with me to complete the weekly parent-child activities arranged by the teacher .

In usual days, if Mom and Dad went out to work, they would come back to see me only every three or four months. Or they would just call my grandma everyday and ask questions such as if I was good at home, if I listened to the teacher at school, or if I was naughty and made grandma angry etc. But now they were at home, they were busy working in the fields during the day. When they came home in the evening, they would only ask if I had finished my homework. I was so annoyed that they only asked the same questions as every time before.

Dad and mom didn't even know what I'd like to have!

Dolls? Or toys such as Peppa Pig? Not at all.

In fact, all I want was that they could spent some time with me together, that we could do some activities together. I would love that they could tell me a bedtime story every night.

Well... this is good!

They didn't go far away this holiday. Instead, they spent a lot of time with me every day to watch the videos sent by my teacher. Together we did handicrafts, drew pictures, read picture books. We also played the game “Eagle catching chicken” and had a lot of fun. My mom sent the videos of my handicrafts, paintings, and the songs that I sang to my teacher.

The teacher praised me for being awesome and said that I did good jobs. She also said that the story I told was very nice. She would share it with other children in the preschool class when the school starts.

One day, the teacher told my mom that we should work together to complete an artwork. Both of us had no idea what to do at first.

Mom suggested that I could make paper-cut flowers or play-dough flowers, but I didn’t like the ideas that much. As my teacher had already taught us how to do them last semester.

After thinking about it for a long time, we finally decided to make a big crab.

Mom is smart. When I was worried about what to use to make a crab, she said that she had an idea. We could use the sand and play-dough to make different pieces and then put them together to form a crab.

We painted the shape of a crab on a cardboard first , next we used sunflower seeds to outline the shape of the crab's chubby body. After that we used play-dough to make the crab legs, eyes and mouth. Finally, we put a thin layer of sand on the crab's body and legs to complete our artwork.

Mom took a picture of the big crab that we made together and sent it to the teacher. The teacher praised me and said my artwork was very creative. Although I don’t quite understand what it means to “be creative”. My mom explained to me that the idea of using sand and play-dough to make a crab was very smart.

Mom also showed me the handmade artworks by other children in my class. There were houses, flowers and little rabbits etc. All of them were made by re-usable household materials such as corns, cardboard and plastic bottles.

It turned out that with the helps from their parents, all children could make beautiful artworks!

Then dad came over and asked why I was so happy. He said that he had never seen me so happy before even he bought me a doll?

I hesitated a little bit. Then I told mom and dad ,that I liked them to spend time with me every day and played games with me, and told me stories. Although the doll is lovely, I need my parents to care more about me.

Mom hugged me and promised that she and dad would take time to read picture books with me and play games with me no matter how busy they were.

Mom also said that the teacher told all parents that they should spent more time with their children. That is also why she designed the weekly parent-child activities assignment, to encourage the parents to interact with children more often.

I really liked the weekly theme activities assignment. I was really happy this holiday!

Project Brief:

The Longling Nonggang Preschool of Future program is funded by the China Charities Aid Foundation for Children. The purpose of the community preschool education project is to help poor children get rid of poverty. The project opens preschool classes in natural villages in the remote and poverty-stricken areas, by using various existing rooms and transforming them into classrooms, recruiting and training local teachers for preschool, setting up parent committees. In addition to traditional teaching subjects, children will also learn about nature, animals, nutrition, hygiene and how to express themselves through art and music. These children are usually 3 to 6 years old, and they can be fully prepared for entering primary school by participating in preschool education.

The project is funded by China Charities Aid Foundation For Children.

This article only represents the views of the author's, not that of the foundation's.