Thursday 25 November 2010

Dragon Boating Experience

Coco's school organised a dragon-boating activity for the primary fours in September this year. I followed them as a parent volunteer to make Coco happy. She was always saying how all her classmates' mothers had been a parent volunteer, except me.

The place
The boats

The instructor teaching them how to put on the life jacket and how to hold the oar

The kids were asked what names they wanted for their boats, using the alphabetical representation of their classes. Coco's cheeky classmates said,"Hopeless!" and "Help!!!"
An array of life jackets and oars, in the hot sun

A parent-volunteer was apparently highly experienced. She brought along sun block for the kids to apply. *Impressed*

The glorious weather

"Put your oar on the grey part (of the boat). Step on the yellow part (the seat)."

Setting sail

"Start rowing now!"


There was a dragon-boat race. I'm glad the kids didn't take the who-won-who-lost too seriously.

The girls dipping their feet into the cool water

Home-coming, tired and wet

Docking
Posing for the camera despite her tiredness
The long queue at the shower
"The next one is us."
The first time she entered a male cubicle without any complaint

So much for an "express shower"!

The objective of this activity is to promote team-building amongst the children. The school probably feels that children at this age tend to become individualistic or reluctant to work in groups, especially when the gifted programme is implemented at this level. It sees a need to humble the gifted children at the social level so that they would not become social inepts or elitist. At the same time, by intermingling children of different abilities for non-academic activities, it gives them a chance to interact with one another.

To a large extent, I like what the school is doing. I feel that it is able to cater to the needs of the children at various levels, not just academically. It thinks about the children largely, compared to many other schools where the Heads are more preoccupied with their own glories.

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