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Ningde Taimu Mountain ZhouningNingde Zhouning Carp VillageZhouning
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MISC. LINKS
Historical and Modern Amoy People -- Colorful Characters!Amoy People! amoy mission missionaries
Darwinian Driving Survival of the Fastest DarwinDarwin Driving
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South China Tigers -- our Amoy Kitty CatsAmoy Tigers
Chinese inventions compass gunpowder printing paper zoos newspaper etc.Chinese Inventions
1994 80 day 40,000 km drive to Tibet & backTibet in 80 Daysforty thousand kilometer drive around China
Chinese vampires xi xue guiAmoy Vampires! 
Dethroned Perils of Chinese Potty ToiletDethroned!
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Writings by Bill Brown about life in China,  Fukien Xiamen etc. Includes 80 Day Drive to Tibet  Darwinian Driving Misc.Writings
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Copyright 2001-7 by Sue Brown & Dr. Bill Help Build an online  community for foreigners.  Join the Xiamen Guide forumOrder Books Common Talk Xiamen Dailys Weekly English SupplementXiamenguide Forum Guide to Xiamen and Fujian business tourism history culture cuisine entertainment investment


Homeschooling in Amoy
, by Joann Hill

Forward by Bill B: Educating our sons Shannon and Matthew was a challenge in the early days.  Xiamen International School,did not start until 1997, so we first tried Chinese kindergarten and primary school, but eventually switched to homeschooling.  Sue used Calvert School for grades 1 thru 8 and Univ. of Nebraska, Lincoln, High School program for grades 9-12.  Calvert has been around since the 1890s!  Dr. Woodward, who married Sue and I in Taipei, Taiwan in 1988, used Calvert as a child, as did the remarkable Caldwell family, who lived in Fujian from 1899 until 1950 or so.  And Joann Hill, who was born in Hope Hospital on Gulangyu, grew up in the Amoy area, and returned to Tong'an with her physician husband in the 1940s, used homeschooling.  Joann shares her experiences...

My Experience of Home-Schooling   (by Joann): My mother had used Calvert for a year or two with my brother (older than me by 4 years) when I was ready for school. She had a difficult struggle with him -- still don't know just what the problems were but he did not take well. So he was sent up to Shanghai American School starting with the 5th grade.

I think I was a bit more eager and ready. My earliest memory was the day I learned to spell my name--J o a n V e e n s c h o t e n. (Nothing simple like Bill Brown!!) All during afternoon siesta I kept rolling it through my mouth! Loved the "taste" of it.

I know she used the Calvert system (using the materials from my brother's class) the first year. I remember the phonics sort of ladder-tapestrip especially. Unfortunately it didn't stick very well as far as spelling goes. I'm the world's most original speller! (Thank goodness for Word-Spelling check!!!)

Apparently even in my early schooling she often had piano & voice students as well as a stream of callers even in the morning, so that even in the early grades she would give me my assignment to do in my "class-room" on the upstairs porch, while she taught down-stairs at the livingroom piano. If I had a question I just went downstairs and got instructions or whatever. That year's schooling was finished when my birthday came around the middle of May. Then my reward was to have my best friend who lived on Kulangsu ( and was taught by her mother with the Calvert system) came to spend a week with me, or I went down to Amoy to spend the time with her! I think the only difference in what I was learning was that she had some FineArt (pictures) study that I didn't -- and sort of missed.

My 4th grade year was spent in Holland Michigan at Washington School. I don't remember whether I was excited about going there or not. I was a "loner" even then, though I had a couple of friends, mostly neighbor kids nearby with whom I played. I remember one occasion when we were assigned seat-work. I settled down and got on with it, only to be sharply brought up with "Joann, stop your whistling". And then made to go up to the front of the class and sit at a table. Embarrassing! I hadn't realized that I was whistling -- I was concentrating on what I was doing. Must have done that alot when I studied alone. Needless to say I was just as glad to get back to ChangChow. By that time my mother was getting her school materials from Shanghai American School and I was looking forward to going there with the "big kids", which I did starting in the 8th grade. By that time my brother was a Senior at SAS and looked out/after me! and, on the whole, I appreciated it.

During the following summer, things heated up politically in North China --Mukden Incident (I think, tho hazy). Anyway the US Consulate strongly recommended that american wives and children return to the States. Many of our RCAers did, except my mother and Alma Vandermeer and buddy missionary friend in the same station. Based on their experience with the politics of war-lords, they decided to go to the Philippines --Baguio where there was an episcopalian boarding school: Brent. We were enrolled as day students. Six months later, things had calmed down and my mother and younger sister returned to Changchow, but I stayed on with "Aunt Alma". Classes were small at Brent --we had 4 or 5 in our nineth grade class. I found that I could maintain my ranking as 2nd in the class with almost little extra effort! What a lovely discovery!

My 10th and 11th grade uneventful years were spent back at SAS --careful to maintain at least a "C" in all subjects so I'd not have to go to study-hall in the evenings. Great motivation! I did earn pin-money working for the laundry --putting clean clothes in student boxes. Got really quite good at shooting rolled-up sox into owner-boxes! Also found out I was not competative at sports, but did enjoy music and singing --even played for Wednesday evening chapel.

The summer of 1940, my folks went on furlough to stay in a mission-house in Holland,MI. I graduated from Holland High -- not particularly well integrated into the culture. Just happy to get it over and proceeding to Wayne U. in Detroit, as a pre-med student, and where my brother entered Wayne Medical School. My mother set up housekeeping there because the US Gov't wasn't allowing wives and children to go to China, tho my father did and got caught on Kulangsu before he was able to get transportation to ChangChow in "free China". The year was 1941 and Pearl Harbor was December 7th!

Regarding Home-schooling in the Philippines-- we investigated a correspondance course(out of Chicago, I think) for our oldest son when he was ready for 7th grade and Brent seemed too expensive. The Cebu American (Elementary) School, where our 5 children went, used the Calvert system to start with. Don't know what arrangements they made with Calvert to use their materials.The classes were very small and it was a good experience for our children.

This saga extends far beyond home-schooling! But it gives you some perspective.
This is more than you probably wanted to know!!
As ever, Joann

Please Help the "The Amoy Mission Project!" Please share any relevant biographical material and photos for the website and upcoming book, or consider helping with the costs of the site and research materials.   All text and photos will remain your property, and photos will be imprinted to prevent unauthorized use.  Thanks!  
Dr. Bill   Xiamen University MBA Center
E-mail: amoybill@gmail.com  
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Box 1288  Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian  PRC   361005

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AMOY MISSION LINKS
Click to help Amoy MIssion Project with photos, text, donations
The Reformed Church of China (Amoy Mission, started by the Reformed Church of America (Dutch)  in Amoy Hea-mun (aka Ameouy )A.M. Main Menu
List of Amoy Mission Reformed Church of America (Dutch) Missionaries in ChinaRCA Miss'ry List
Reformed Church of China's Amoy Mission 1877 Report by DuryeaAmoyMission-1877
Fifty Years in Amoy Story of Amoy Mission by Philip Wilson Pitcher Reformed Church of ChinaAmoyMission-1893
David Abeel Father of the Amoy Mission, and China's first education for girls and women
Abeel, David
Henry and Sarah Beltman, Amoy Mission  1902-1928?Beltman
Boot Family of the Amoy Mission,South Fujian ChinaBoot Family
Ruth Broekema Amoy Mission 1921 1951Broekema, Ruth
Henry and Sarah Beltman, Amoy Mission  1902-1928?Bruce, Elizabeth
William Burns, Scottish Missionary to China, visited Amoy Burns, Wm.
John Caldwell China Coast Family Caldwells
Henry and Kate Depree Amoy Mission  1907 to 1948DePree
Dr. John Otte and Hope Hospital Develder, Wally
   Dr. John Otte and Hope Hospital Wally's Memoirs!
Douglas CarstairsDouglas, Carstairs
Elihu Doty RCA Missionary to Amoy ChinaDoty, Elihu
Rev William Rankin Duryea, D.D. The Amoy Mission 1877Duryea, Wm. Rankin
Joseph and Marion Esther
Esther,Joe & Marion
Katherine Green Amoy Mission  1907 to 1950Green, Katherine
Karl Gutzlaff Missionary to ChinaGutzlaff, Karl
Stella Girard Veenschoten
Hills,Jack & Joann
. Stella Girard Veenschoten
Hill's Photos.80+
..Stella Girard VeenschotenKeith H.
Dr. John Otte and Hope Hospital Homeschool
Richard and Johanna Hofstra of the Amoy MIssion ChinaHofstras
Tena Holkeboer Amoy Mission, Hope HospitalHolkeboer, Tena
Dr. Clarence Holleman and his wife Ruth Eleanor Vanden Berg Holleman were RCA missionaries on AmoyHolleman, M.D.
Hope Hospital Amoy  on Gulangyu (Kulangsu, Koolongsoo, etc.)Hope Hospital
Stella Girard Veenschoten
Johnston Bio
Rev. and Mrs. Joralman of the Amoy MissionJoralmans
Wendell and Renske Karsen
Karsen, W&R
Edwin and Elizabeth Koeppe Family, Amoy Mission ChinaKoeppes, Edwin&Eliz.
Dr. Clarence Holleman and his wife Ruth Eleanor Vanden Berg Holleman were RCA missionaries on AmoyKip, Leonard W.
William Vander Meer  Talmage College Fukien Christian UniversityMeer Wm. Vander
Margaret Morrison, Amoy Mission  1892-1931Morrison, Margaret
John Muilenberg Amoy MissionMuilenbergs
Jean Neinhuis, Amoy Mission Hope Hospital Gulangyu or Ku-long-sooNeinhuis, Jean
Theodore Oltman M.D. Amoy Missionary DoctorOltman, M.D.
Reverend Alvin Ostrum, of the Amoy Mission, Fujian ChinaOstrum, Alvin
Dr. John Otte and Hope Hospital Otte,M.D.Stella Girard VeenschotenLast Days
Henry and Mary Voskuil Amoy MissionPlatz, Jessie
Reverend W. J. Pohlman, Amoy MIssion, Fujian ChinaPohlman, W. J.
Henry and Dorothy Poppen, RCA Missionaries to Amoy China Amoy Mission Project 1841-1951Poppen, H.& D.
Reverend Daniel Rapalje, Amoy Mission, Fujian ChinaRapalje, Daniel
Herman and Bessie Renskers Amoy Mission  1910-1933Renskers
Dr. John Otte and Hope Hospital Talmage, J.V.N.

Lyman and Rose Talman Amoy Mission  1916 to 1931Talman, Dr.
Stella Girard VeenschotenVeenschotens
. Nelson VeenschotenHenry V.Stella Girard VeenschotenStella V.
. Dr. John Otte and Hope Hospital Girard V.
Jeanette Veldman, Amoy Mission ChinaVeldman, J.
Henry and Mary Voskuil Amoy MissionVoskuil, H & M
Jean Walvoord Amoy Mission  1931-1951Walvoord
A. Livingston WarnshuisWarnshuis, A.L.
Nellie Zwemer Amoy Mission  1891-1930Zwemer, Nellie
"The MIssion Cemetery of Fuh-Chau" / Foochow by Rev.J.W. Wiley , M.D. (also mispelled Wylie )Fuh-chau Cemetery
Dr. John Otte and Hope Hospital City of Springs
   (Quanzhou, 1902!!)
Xiamen Churches Protestant Catholic Seventh Day Adventist Amoy Mission Missionaries Abeel
XM Churches
Xiamen Churches Protestant Catholic Seventh Day Adventist Amoy Mission Missionaries AbeelChurch History Xiamen International Christian Fellowship Expat Nondenominational interdenominational
Opium wars in Xiamen, Fujian China.  Opium Wars
Amoy Mission Bibliography A.M. Bibliography
Xiamen YMCA and YWCAYMCA Volunteer!
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