While the children used to spend most of their time in indoor lessons before, now games and a story-based curriculum take up more than 80 percent of their kindergarten life.
"Designing games has become a daily routine for our teachers. It's a big challenge for our creativity," says Liang.
Liang and her colleagues managed to bring local ethnic Qiang culture into play in teaching. Kids are taught with folk songs, role play as pedlars to make and sell typical Qiang food, and are encouraged to make embroidery with traditional Qiang patterns or design their own castle with Qiang architectural characteristics.
"The Qiang culture is passed on verbally as we don't have a written language. It's important for the kids to know who they are from childhood onwards," Liang says.
BETTER FACILITIES
Anchang Kindergarten has become the Mecca for Beichuan's pre-school teachers to imbibe the new concepts. Gou Hongxia was one of its eager pilgrims.
Appointed as the principle of Badi Kindergarten in 2009, she hadn't fully prepared for the job at the time as her son's death continued to be a haunting memory. Nevertheless, the backwardness of the kindergarten stung her heart.
More than 7,500 people, mostly farmers, live in Badi surrounded by hills towering over 2,000 meters. Its per capita annual income is around 2,000 yuan, one fourth of the national level in 2011.
"The first thing I noticed was the kids here seldom washed their hands, and nobody seemed to care," recalls Gou.
Change started in the bathroom. Chinese kindergartens normally use squat toilets instead of the sit-down type.
"The stairs up to the toilets were so high before and the pits were so wide that a three-year old had to play Kungfu to pee. It's a shame that nobody saw it as a danger before," says Gou.
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