Author: Dao Li, teacher of Huize County Gansonglin Preschool

Children cannot grow without their parents’ company!

This was a different sports meeting. Under the guidance of the Huize project team, parents were invited to attend the parent-child sports meeting of our preschool. We had an unforgettable and happy day.

On December 21  - the winter solstice - , the first winter parent-child sports meeting of Huize County Gansonglin Preschool was held as scheduled. Even though the weather was cold, our enthusiasm remained unchanged, and the children were looking forward to it.

With the company of mom and dad, all the kids have the confidence to be the best little athletes today.

After inflating the balloons, decking the bunting and all the preparatory activities, the children made their entrance in high spirit.

What a huge audience there was! Parents, grandparents, teachers, and other audience all watched them.

After all the crowds made their entrance and the school leaders delivered speeches, the students in the preschool began to perform.

In the low black sky, bright stars follow. Insects fly. Insects fly. Who are you missing?... (lyrics from "insects fly") With the music of "insects fly" and "Spring Dawn", the children danced on the stage with flowers on their wrists. Waving their hands and shaking their heads, they were so lovely that made parents applaud one after another.

At the end of the performance, each family got the number card and was ready to compete in the parent-child game. The sports meeting included three-legged race, passing game, trampling balloons, blowing ping-pong ball as well as tug-of-war for parents.

Don’t underestimate these games. In playing, the parents not only built tacit understanding with their children, but also accompanied their children to grow up in another way as most of them had never participated in sports games with their children.

The parents worked hard to win the game. They took their children to rush forward, even got their faces wet while blowing the ping-pong ball. Especially in the tug-of-war game, the parents of both sides fought a tough battle. A little bit of moving of the rope affected everybody’s feeling. The children were yelling encouragement at their parents. A lively scene was pictured.

Anyway, we hope that the sportsmeeting is not merely a game, but an opportunity for parents to accompany their children and cultivate the sports spirits. For parents， they should spend more time with their children. For children, they should know that it doesn’t matter whether they win or lose, but perseverance matters most.

After the fierce competition, the winning children obtained their certificates of merit jubilantly. A small certificate of merit brings a great joy to the children.

At last, all the parents and children got commemorative gifts, and took a group photo, recording this happy day.

Projectintroduction：

“One Village, One Preschool” and “Pre-primary Class Turns into Preschool” Projects is a pilot policy of Yunnan Provincial Department of Education in the field of preschool education. It is hoped that the existing preschool classes could be changed into independent pre-classes/schools, and the pre-classes/schools will be set up in large administrative villages, so as to gradually realize the preschool education layout of “One Demonstration Kindergarten per county, One government-run kindergarten per Township, One Preschool per One village”. Huize County is one of the pilot counties. After preliminary communication and field visit and research, Yunnan Representative Office of the Federation for Associations Connected to the International Humana People to People Movement (Switzerland) cooperates with the Education and Sports Bureau of Huize County to assist them in training the teachers employed under the policies of “One Village, One Preschool and Pre-primary Class Turns into Preschool” Project. It mainly trains and supervises the teachers in terms of knowledge, curriculum management and teaching, to change the teaching method of “primary education” in preschools, to improve the teaching quality. In addition, provide teacher training room, management toolkit, teaching videos and other related tool materials. On-site supervision and visits to early childhood education sites to provide hardware funding support for preschool classes. Expand rural preschool education coverage and improve the quality of education and teaching so that more children can receive quality preschool education.

Yunnan Representative Office of the Federation for Associations Connected to the International Humana People to People Movement (Switzerland) cooperates this project with the Educationand Sport Bureau of HuizeCounty.

This article only represents the views of the author and not the views or positions of the donor.