Itinerary: Homeschool, Join co-op, 南門書局, 大安公園, 喫飯
We had one of those amazing days today, where everything goes according to schedule and got done.
The children started school close to 9am and we managed to finish school by 12:30pm. By finish, I mean they actually finished everything they had chosen to do on their workplan. We even had time at the end for Astroboy to reach a milestone, namely getting sidetracked in his work and writing 2 super long strings of number to add together by himself. Plus I actually gave Thumper a lesson on decimals.
I’m really sick of having wontons from lunch. Today was our 3rd day straight. Because we have nothing else in the fridge to eat! I was all set to take that taxi to RT Mart and do some serious grocery shopping. But what did I find in my stack of papers, the stack that I’d turned over quite a few times already?
My Taiwanese ID! The one I thought I’d lost!
So we went to the 主婦聯盟 co-op again to join. By now I’ve already ordered my organic milk and eggs online and the co-op never have any veggies in stock. But I feel better knowing it’s just right next to the MRT stop we go to every time we go anywhere.
I also ordered a basket of veggies and fruit. The concept is akin to getting a CSA basket, except strangely they don’t charge by the basket, but rather the prices change weekly depending on what’s in the basket. No wonder they’re having trouble supporting their farmers.
We took the MRT to CKS Station to go to Nan Men Bookstore 南門書局. I highly recommend this store! Many of the books are at 70% of list price. Most are not labeled so it’s just whatever the lady at the counter says.
I was salivating over the books too much to take a picture. It’s a tiny store and many books are in boxes. But the prices can’t be beat.
Oh. So they also have a FB page. I learned that the FB dept and the store dept are different. The FB dept recently had a sale of the 星期八 magazine and said they were sold out. But there the store lady is, unpacking unsold copies and putting them on the shelf!
I restrained myself and we actually left the bookstore after half an hour to go to Daan Park. The play structures have been changed so that they’re more for the 0-5 age. The kids found the structure boring and went to climb on the monkey bars instead.
We didn’t stay long at Daan as the sky was turning dark, but instead went over to Dong Men 東門 MRT to go to Yong Kang St 永康街 for dinner. This is that super touristy street where Ding Tai Feng is located. My uncle took us to a Taiwanese restaurant 3 years ago called 喫飯. The food reminds me of childhood so of course I have to go again.
Sadly, it’s not as fun eating with just 3 people. You can’t order that many food. The 滷肉飯 was delicious, and so was the stir-fried clam meat? But for some reason they wanted to put salted egg (鹹蛋) over broccoli instead of bitter melon. I will have to go back again to try some other food.
My favorite thing about the restaurant is the sign on the wall that says, in Taiwanese, “吃飯皇帝大”. Basically, eating is more important than the emperor.
After dinner, we swung by a bakery, Gakuden, by the MRT station. I love visiting bakeries because they always have strange sounding flavors. I bought a double-serving red bean bread, and a sesame with red bean bread. Thumper wanted to try their baguette. It feels kind of mushy.
Did I mention today was a super good day? I realized today, once again, the children need to be on a strict schedule and strict routine. Without that strict routine/habit established, I cannot just go off and do my own thing.
Here’s our “strict” schedule that I’ve randomly come up with. If the kids get ready for school before 9, they can watch cartoon of (mostly) their choosing . School starts at 9am and ends around 12pm. If they finish school in time, they can watch cartoon after lunch. After lunch we go out for some play. After dinner and getting ready for bed, they can also watch TV of my choosing until 8:30pm.
I know it’s a lot of TV. But we’re in Taiwan, and this is a major way they pick up language. But to make sure they watch more adult TV like news, or TV drama, or educational TV, I get to pick the show
What always upsets me is waking up from a nap and seeing a table full of wrappers/trash, dishes, etc. Because I would like them to clear tables, get ready for school, do chores, etc, even without me reminding them. I really hate to nag.
Easing into our homeschooling environment in a different country so easily made me realize we do have it partly down. The kids have some of their habits established. Now I just have to work on removing myself from the equation so it’s not only done when I’m there.
