China - Day 52, Friday

What a busy day!

Shanghai American School hosts Soccer Day each year. This happens twice a year, once in the Fall and once in the Spring. All of the International Schools are invited to the day, but not all choose to attend. This year there were 6 schools attending. Grade 3 was held on Monday, Grade 5 was on Thursday. 4th Grade was supposed to be on Tuesday but it was rained out. On Tuesday the schools arrived, by bus, and then waited in the cafeteria while those in charge decided whether to play or not. When they decided to cancel, the students had to get back on the buses and return to their schools. Soccer Day was rescheduled to Friday. The weather was beautiful on Friday.

Each school provides uniforms for their students. At 10am the games began. They play 30 minute games. It is just for fun, so no trophies are awarded or anything like that. In the morning they played 4 games. They stopped for lunch around noon. Then they played 2 more games in the afternoon. Each class played their own game, so at SAS there are five 4th grade classes, each playing their own game against the other schools. The field was marked off into 12 different soccer fields, so that 24 teams could be playing at one time. The teachers were the referees.

SAS (Shanghai American School) is in Blue playing Concordia (gray).
Daniel is to the left between two Concordia players.

Watching the game

Daniel, Sarah and Bryce coming off the field.

Daniel and Bryce pretending to be a tree!

SAS verses BIS (British International School). Daniel is in the center.

Everyone paying close attention to the game!

Daniel had a lot of fun. What a great event for the kids. They finished up at 1:30. This allowed for the other schools to return to their schools for dismissal time.


At 2pm Randy arrived at the school for Date with Dad. The school started this last year, because they realize how important Dads are for children. Here in China, the work pressure and schedule is very difficult. Most dads work long hours and travel a lot. This event gives dads an opportunity to spend some time with their kids doing a variety of fun events. Around 450 dads and kids attended the event.

 At 2pm the organizers of the event met with the dads to talk about the day and how things would flow. At 2:30 the students joined their dads and they spent time together until 5:15. During that time they had outdoor activities, such as football, basketball, two and four square, tether ball, flying fish, other organized games.

Tossing the football with dad

Daniel playing 2 square - Randy lost and was out at this point.



Dress up int he Library




The things we do for our kids!



















Inside activities included such things as make a book tower, dress up and board games. Both Randy and Daniel had a good time.



They came to the apartment to pick me up around 6pm (No moms were allowed at Date with dad - I ironed instead!). We then went to grab a pizza at New York Pizza. We needed something quick, because Daniel had basketball at 7:15.


Basketball is more like a camp or clinic. The first hour they work on skills. The second hour they play a game against each other. There were a couple of students from Daniel's school. Both coaches teach Gym at Daniel's school. He liked it. This session was a trial lesso to see if we liked it. He wants to continue doing it.

Daniel should sleep good tonight with all that activity! Thank God it won't be like this every week. Daniel had a ball today though!