Chinese Kindergarten

The Chinese start kindergarten at age three. They will attend kindergarten for three years and then they go to primary school for six years, then middle school for three years and finally high school for three years. School is not free in China like it is in America. To sign up for school Chinese parents pay 100,000 RMB, which is about $15,300 USD. Then they pay $1300 a month for school fees.  So a large portion of monthly income goes towards schooling. Because school is so expensive many Chinese say they can't afford to have two children although the government has loosened up on the one child policy.
Our friend Sherry needed help in her daughters kindergarten class for an afternoon so we volunteered to help her.
We got to the school at 2 pm as the kids were waking up. They were only wearing their underwear so we helped them get dressed and did the girls hair. They all used the bathroom and drank a bowl of green bean soup. They only drink green bean soup during the summer because it is supposed to help cool them down.
After doing their hair we taught them a song about butterflies, the oldest daughter read them a book about butterflies and we made a butterfly out of playdough.
The kids recited a traditional Chinese poem for us, I couldn't believe that they had it memorized at four years old.