We are in Sinup, very close to Zhubei and the Hsinchu high speed rail station, until the end of July and looking for activities for our 10 y/o boy. We need something about 4 hours per day. Sports would be best but Chinese class with activities would be good as well. He does speak some Chinese but is very much a beginner. Please let me know if you have any recommendations.
110 views and not suggestions. Not at all a complaint but I am a bit surprised. I’ve been looking and have come up with nothing so far so if anyone does have a suggestion I’m still interested.
(and I transposed a couple of characters in our town’s name. It is Sinpu.)
I think the main problem is that there’s an astounding lack of summer activities for kids.
Some of my students were complaining that they don’t have a choice for summer: either they go to summer school, or they go to summer school.
They’re offered a paper where they have a square to check if they want to go to summer school, but they don’t get a “no, thanks, I’ll do something else” option. Apparently, the students that don’t check it risk the school calling their parents who will bully them into signing the paper.
I think most sports are left for weekends: at least in Taipei, you can find football, roller skating, and baseball classes, and I’m sure there’ll be dojos that will accept kids and teach them martial arts, but I doubt they can have them 4 hours a day.
Blaquesmith, thank you for your reply. From what I have learned you are right. My family here has 3 children and they are all attending summer school. Neither my brother nor sister-in-law have any ideas for ‘summer camp’ type classes and since they live here I guess they would know if there was something.
Thanks again!
I think that most foreign parents have to adopt a “DIY” philosophy if they want their kids to do summer camp or other activities not directly related to study. If your kid is 10 years old, you might prepare a summer program for him to follow, but you might need some kind of nanny or caretaker, anyways.
There are some programs but I know of nothing in your area. Most courses are in Taipei. For example, a few years ago my son attended the Mandarin summer camp at the Culture University near Technology Building Station, which was very good. But I don’t know of anything in your area, sorry. You see, most kids that are learning Mandarin are in local schools of one kind or another, so they have their own programs for their enrolled students. Many expat parents go home for the summer. So there are relatively few children who don’t already speak Mandarin to attend the kind of classes you’re looking for.
Petrichor, all that makes sense. Thank you for sharing your insight.
It’s all DIY AFAIK, in your situation – trips to YingGe and local museums, local music and calligraphy classes, home baking and cooking and art and language lessons, and so on. That’s what we do.
Dragonbones, Than you for mentioning YingGe. My son will enjoy pot making.
The DIY summer is a problem since we both need to work. Before we came we were concerned that we had not found any camp/school to put him in while we worked but were coming either way. At the moment he is playing more video games that we would like but not much we can do. Will just do our best to keep him busy and meet our other priorities.
I’m trying to figure out what would be best to develop his Chinese language skills. He attends Chinese school once / week in the US but he is reluctant to put what he knows to use. We met some kids at a pool 2 days ago which opened up a play date possibility but he refused because he could not communicate. His backing off from engagement with people is not going to help.
We have enrolled our son at the YMCA summer camps - usually the branch at Beitou. They offer various courses - swimming, basketball, badminton, science (they made air propelled rockets) and even had a visit from the local police who talked about their daily work. The courses are aimed at local kids but my bilingual son’s Mandarin improved considerably with the daily interaction.
There should be courses for children at your local sports centre. I think in your son’s situation those might be good for him. Children learn languages really well when participating in activities. Formal teaching can leave them cold. My son’s only a year older than yours, so I completely understand where you’re coming from. My son enrolled in a Taekwondo class in our first year in Taiwan and that seemed to be something he enjoyed and that he could do without too much pressure, because he just copied the other children. Not speaking the same language as other children is frightening and stressful. I wouldn’t push him too much. Just try to find courses in things he would normally enjoy, like sports, art, science etc. There should be some courses like that in your area.
smileymiley, thank you for the reply. I will look for YMCA near us.
If it is any help we have enrolled our son at the Shilin YMCA branch this year. Apparently they will doing swimming, basketball and touring a local hospital to see how the different departments work.
We found a badminton class in Zubhei, 3 hours per day for 2 weeks at a local school. They also offer ping pong. Teachers are great. Wish I had details to share for others but got hooked up via someone we met at a pool and just showed up at the school.
Saturday and Sunday there are rollerblading classes by the Hsinchu Swim Club. They even provided the equipment.
Also found a good Violin teacher.
Overall, we could not find the 4 hours/day for a month we had hoped for but did manage to keep our son busy and happy.
It looks like a great summer to me,
Is there anyone can tell me more about this YMCA camp. there timings, fees etc.
Thanks
If your son is 11yo, he’s qualified to join BSA (Boy Scout of America) Hsinchu troop. If interested refer to my Oct/2016 post on BSA under Taiwan/parenting, or email la1043@yahoo.com.