Five Things I’ll Miss About Travelling Around Asia With My Family

Posted on August 7, 2014 by Fergus

By Scarlett (aged 8)

I think I’ll miss having a broken leg because of all the special attention. Still, I wish I hadn’t had the accident. I say this because it was very painful at the beginning, also it went on and on and on for 2½ months. It never saw the sun, consequently it grew paler and paler.

I think I will also miss having a lot of time with my family. I will miss having nearly all day with my sisters to play. Also having little school as you will hear about in the next paragraph. We do not have much time at home because of all the different things that we do not do here such as Mummy and Daddy’s work, going to school, and diving lessons.

Homeschooling I will also miss because it is much shorter than normal school and still I think I learn just as much.

I will miss trekking because it is good fun and it is an amazing maze of cliffs and steep drops. At first it was tiring to the legs and shoulders but it got easier and easier as we walked. The places to stay were cheap and an exciting experience.

The views of Nepal are stunning as are the birds of prey. We saw golden eagles flying below us, great blue-looking mountains soaring above us and scraggly, old, dying, dead-looking trees grew around us. Beautiful views stretched out surrounding us. Views appear all over the place: sunsets, beaches, mountains, jungles and islands.

Homeschool in Vietnam

Posted on July 12, 2014 by Janet

What do people in Vietnam eat? Pho!

Here’s the Q&A I set the girls (aged 8, year 4) on our last day in Veitnam.

How do you think they did?

Evie Hadley

1. What’s the original name of HCMC?

Saigon

2. Name 3 buildings in HCMC.

Pro M [meaning the Bitexco Financial Tower]

Majestic Hotel

Yellow church

Elegant Inn

Pho 24

Hotel Sunland

MB Land

Hotel Hoa Hong

[I should point out that the last 3 could be seen from the window]

3. What do people in Vietnam eat?

Pho, cao lau & spring rolls. Spring rolls are (in Vietnam) veg, herbs and prawns wrapped up in rice paper.

4. What’s the night train like in Vietnam?

The night train is smooth and gentle although it tends to stop a lot. There are many 6 beded compartments with very little floor space with a small table at one end and the door of the compartment at the other, the room was cosy and warm with a reading light at the head of each bed and a step at the foot to help climb onto the one on top. The mattresses, though clean, were hard yet I dozed off in the described atmosphere.

5. What happened in the Vietnam war? Tell me everything you can remember!

The Vietnam war was started by Vietnam being colonized for 1,070 years and then finally being free. When this freedom came no one could remember if Vietnam had been communist or capitalist so the country was split in two: South capitalist, North communist. A few years later South Vietnam started a great war against the North who fought back mightily. The Americans joined the South because they were capitalist and wanted more countries to turn capitalist so that they could trade with them and make money out of them.

China and Russia joined the North because they were also communist. At the end of the 15 year (about) war, a North Vietnamese tank crashed through the gates of Independence Palace and the war was won.

The capital of the South’s name was changed to Ho Chi Minh City by a man called Ho Chi Minh (leader of the North Vietnamese army).

6. Describe crossing the road in HCMC.

When we cross the road in Vietnam I feel scared because there are so many motorbikes. Vietnamese traffic lights: red = go, yellow = go, green = go.

7. Give me 1 example of bias from a museum in Vietnam.

When the Saigon Museum called South Vietnam’s army the puppet troops, because they were being controlled by the American army. This is bias because that isn’t their real name and the ‘pretend name’ mocks them.

8. What’s the worst thing about Vietnam?

The worst thing about Vietnam is the heat which positively frazzles you to a frisp.

9. What’s your favorite thing about Vietnam?

My favorite thing about Vietnam is the kitchen we had in Hoi An where we made a yummy spag bol.

10. Recommend a restaurant you’ve been to in Vietnam in the style of a trip advisor review.

The Hungry Pig

At this restaurant we all got make your own sandwiches which was amazing, it was honestly the best sandwich ever. It was a pleasant surprise. 4.5 stars!

Scarlett Hadley

1. What’s the original name of HCMC?

Saigon

2. Name 3 buildings in HCMC.

Pro M [meaning the Bitexco Financial Tower]

Independence Palace

Ava 2 Hotel

3. What do people in Vietnam eat?

Pho bo, pho ga, spring rolls. Spring rolls are vegi and fruit wrapped in rice paper.

4. What’s the night train like in Vietnam?

The night train is rickety vehicle with hard, lumpy beds cramped into a tiny carriage cramped into a tiny corridor resulting in triple bunks! Also, it has creaking joints and oil-needing limbs. I would take the plane!

5. What happened in the Vietnam war? Tell me everything you can remember!

The Vietnam war was started by a disagreement of the communist North of Vietnam and the capitalist South. This disagreement caused the South to send out troops of soldiers and tanks up up up to the North. Of course the North fought back. America, being capitalist, joined the South and yet they could not win! This was because the soldiers of the North just kept disappearing into the jungle. The Americans therefore were forced to drop spray to kill the trees but caused many babys to be born with body problems. The war was won by the North as they broke the gates of the Independence Palace. This was done with a tank. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City by Ho Chi Minh, the head of the North Vietnam’s army.

6. Describe crossing the road in HCMC.

Crossing the road in HCMC is like being in the middle of masses of motorbikes and a chaos of cars! I don’t like crossing the road.

7. Give me 1 example of bias from a museum in Vietnam.

The War Remnants Museum said that when the North won the war, the freedom of the South had come. This is biased because the wealthy people didn’t feel welcome or happy any more.

8. What’s the worst thing about Vietnam?

The worst thing about Vietnam is the road crossing because of the way the drivers of the motorbikes don’t seem to want to live very much! They make me feel in danger.

9. What’s your favorite thing about Vietnam?

The best thing about Vietnam is that there are millions of playgrounds. I like them because they are fun.

10. Recommend a restaurant you’ve been to in Vietnam in the style of a trip advisor review.

The Hungry Pig

The Hungry Pig is a lonely place but it does the best plain bagel, maple bacon, lettuce, bell peppers,olives, rocket, Philadelphia and cranberry sandwich I;ve ever had. 4.5 stars.

Jemima Hadley

1. What’s the original name of HCMC?

Saigon

2. Name 3 buildings in HCMC.

Pro M [meaning the Bitexco Financial Tower]

Clock tower [this is in Hong Kong, but we did go to HK for 2 days from Vietnam]

Parksons

Museum

Hotel Sun

AIA 7

AVA 3 Hotel

AVA 2 Hotel

Elegant Inn

[Most of these could be seen from the window…ah well]

3. What do people in Vietnam eat?

Pho – beef noodle soup with herbs and beef.

4. What’s the night train like in Vietnam?

The night train is nice. Though with hard beds, the lights are comfortable and are not too bright but not too dim. The food isn’t that great but OK. All in all the night train is recommended by me.

5. What happened in the Vietnam war? Tell me everything you can remember!

The Vietnam war started when the country got freedom. They divided Vietnam in half, the North was communist and the South was capitalist. One of them wanted the whole of Vietnam to be their way of ruling so they had a war. America helped South but China and Russia were helping North. The Americans didn’t know how to fight in the jungle so they just dropped bombs instead. North all knew how to fight in the jungle and when the Americans came they just slid out of sight. The Americans dropped more bombs on Laos than all of the rest of the whole Vietnam war altogether. After a lot of fighting the Americans said that they weren’t going to help anymore and without them the South Vietnam couldn’t win and so the North Vietnam’s tank came through the gate of the Independence Palace in victory and the South lost and the famous picture was taken, and so the war was ended. The North had victory.

6. Describe crossing the road in HCMC.

Very hard. Motorbikes streaming everywhere, and the traffic lights don’t help. When you do see a car it’s hardly ever a taxi. Traffic lights: red means go, amber means go, green means go.

7. Give me 1 example of bias from a museum in Vietnam.

A picture of a tank at Independence Palace with everyone waving flags and holding flowers. It was bias because not everyone was happy in real life.

8. What’s the worst thing about Vietnam?

The worst thing about Vietnam is the rain. It always rains at the right time to go to a playground. This makes it so that it is very hard to go to a playground.

9. What’s your favorite thing about Vietnam?

I really like Hoi An at Botanic Gardens because it was just so nice with our little kitchen and the tiny dog and the swimming pool. It was simply amazing.

10. Recommend a restaurant you’ve been to in Vietnam in the style of a trip advisor review.

I recommend the Hungry Pig because, though it’s a little expensive, it’s create your own sandwich was incredible. It’s the best bacon buttie I have ever had. I give it a 5 star review on trip advisor. I am from England.

Cambodian and Vietnamese History: How Much is Too Much for Kids?

Posted on July 3, 2014 by Fergus

The Vietnamese Army’s Newest Recruits

We all know, as adults, that Vietnam and Cambodia have traumatic pasts. And the people of those countries haven’t forgotten either. We’ve just arrived in Phnom Penh and with only one day here, we’re wondering what museums and memorials are appropriate to take kids to. S21 – the prison where the Khmer Rouge tortured so many prisoners before their execution – clearly not. The Killing Field, though? It sounds crazy to suggest a mass-execution site and pile of 8000 human skulls as somewhere to take children, but it’s an important part of this country’s history and a reminder to us all of how dangerous political extremism can actually be. Should we also not teach our kids about the Holocaust for fear of upsetting them?

When I was a child, my family were living in Iran when the revolution happened. I remember being shot at by soldiers of the Revolutionary Guard. It was confusing and frightening but it was also real. History doesn’t pass children by. It sweeps them up, along with everyone else. In many ways, children were the greatest victims of both Vietnamese and Cambodian conflicts.

We had the same decision to make in Vietnam. At the War Remnants Museum there were galleries devoted to the effects of Agent Orange: walls of shocking photographs showing deformed children, and jars containing still-born human fetuses. Needless to say, we didn’t take our kids in.

But we were in a war museum, and I really didn’t want to just show them the cool tanks and fighter planes and have them come away thinking how exciting and glorious war is. We did let them see photographs of carpet-bomb blasted landscapes and American soldiers flame-throwering villages. And we talked about how the war came about; about communism and Americas “domino effect” theories; and we tried to point out ways in which the museum was biased, only showing things from the victorious North Vietnamese perspective.

But maybe the Khmer Rouge’s Year Zero atrocities are just a little bit too recent. I’d have no qualms in telling my kids that thousands of slaves died building the Ancient Egyptian pyramids. But Year Zero happened in my lifetime. There are still people alive for whom it was the defining event of their lives. It’s a personal tragedy, not just a statistic.

[NB. I wrote the following part later, as we were leaving Phnom Penh…]

In the end, we decided against visiting S-21 or the Killing Field. I’m mostly certain that my girls could have handled it, and would have come back having learnt something important. But it wouldn’t have been fair to run the risk of traumatizing them.

Instead, we went to the National Museum where we laid the groundwork for our visit to Ankor Wat by learning more about Khmer history, then we went to the royal palace to see how the royal family live nowadays, as well as the Temple of the Emerald Buddha where as well as the “Emerald” Buddha, there is more gold reliquary than I’ve ever seen in one place and the vast hall is floored with 1kg solid silver tablets.

It’s better, I think, to stick to ancient history until their older.

A Treat

Image

The monsoon is really starting to kick in here in HCMC, with driving rain every afternoon sending street vendors scurrying and causing mopeds to pull over so the passengers can put on their 2-headed ponchos.

We’ve finally gotten wise to weather and went out this morning to the Ho Chi Minh City museum, getting back to our hotel in time to do afternoon homeschool while it bucketted down outside.

Once the weather had cleared and the girls’ brains couldn’t take any more educatin’, we figured we deserved a treat, so walked up to the nearest ice cream parlour: Fanny Ice Cream.

If ever a sign deserved a photo…

Homeschool

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Janet

OK, to all friends who are primary school teachers, what else do we need to teach the kids in Year 4 maths?

We have done:

Whole numbers
– adding with column method
– subtracting with column method
– subtracting with ‘borrowing’ (saying ’30 exchanges for 20 and 10′) like they teach at school)
– multiplying with the grid method
– multiplying with the column method
– dividing using chunking
– long division
– long multiplication

Fractions
– adding fractions
– subtracting fractions
– multiplying fractions
– dividing fractions
– simplifying fractions including top heavy
– converting fractions to decimals
– converting fractions, decimals, percentages (any to any)
– practical use e.g. 20% off sale! How much does the £10 toy cost now?

Decimals
– adding decimals
– subtracting decimals
– multiplying decimals
– converting decimals (as above)

Equalities
– stating if values are >, <, or = to each other (including decimals and fractions mixed up)
– 100 cm is 1m; 60 seconds so 1 minute etc

Other things
– calculating the perimeter of shapes
– starting to use algebra e.g. If the square's sides are y cm, the perimeter must be 4y cm
– reading data off a bar chart
– reading co-ordinates on a grid
– mapping points on a grid with co-ordinates
– lots of converting currencies!

I think we need to do some more geometry things, can anyone give me a clue or any good online resources to help with this?

We have been using mathsisfun.com but it's a USA curriculum, according to the dept of education website, there is currently no year 4 maths curriculum – surely this can't be right?

Any help would be appreciated.