school visit

School starts next monday for Ming Ming... We are invited to come in for an hour of visit today for the kids to meet their new teachers and get familiarized with their classroom, and get to know a bit of the school rituals (the good morning and goodbye songs, that they need to wash their hands first when they arrive, etc). Although it lasted only for an hour, Ming Ming really gets into the idea of starting school and is now really looking forward to it.

singing a getting-to-know-each-other's-name song and a goodbye song.

I was there for another orientation on Sept 1, and was surprised by a few details: 1, strict kosher rules - we need to pack MM's lunch (which I don't mind at all), but no meat or shellfish is allowed, which means that I probably have to cook something else for her every day (for her old school, I packed whatever we had for dinner). And even for birthday cakes, we would need to get it from a specific kosher bakery for it to be accepted at school. 2, they observed Shabbat day every friday, they will bake their bread, light candles, sing and pray, and eat their bread I guess. I don't mind that MM will learn some Hebrew words and biblical stories, but feel a bit mixed about a routine ritual like that.
There are a lot more new things to discover, I think we will be learning and blogging a lot about Jewish traditions this coming year!