On August 12, a group of six Taiwanese college students, led by Jack C. Huang, the Director of Culture Center of  the Taipei Economics and Cultural Office in Boston, paid a visit to Buds & Blossoms Early Education and Care Center.  Buds & Blossoms, a program of the Asian American Civic Association (AACA), is the first Mandarin-speaking daycare center in Boston.

AACA’s Executive Director Chau-ming Lee, Buds & Blossoms’ Director Judith Kilgore and AACA’s Board President Mary Chin hosted the guests.  Sitting on the child-sized chairs in a playroom, Kilgore and Chin shared about the Center’s Mandarin-immersion program and the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education.
These six students, Li-Min Lin, Yen-Lin Chen, Wai-Hang Hsieh, Tsai-Wei Tseng, Ya-Ping Shen, Li-Hsiang Lin, hailed from four Taiwanese universities:  Fu Jen University, National Chengchi University.

“It’s a wonderful program to immerse kids in a Chinese environment. Learning Chinese from the childhood would help the kids more multicultural views when they grow up,” Huang said after
the visit.

Buds & Blossoms, with a capacity for 51 children, ages 6 months to 6 years, serves families who are interested in having their young children in a high quality Mandarin language environment.  The center also features the highly-regarded Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education, providing opportunities to explore the many languages of children as well as offering visual arts, music and drama to promote children’s independence and success.

Mandarin is the primary language of the program.  All age groupings, infants through pre-school, will be surrounded by Mandarin spoken language and writing throughout the day.  The older preschool room will incorporate the ZHONG WEN early education curriculum, the only program officially approved by the People’s Republic of China for teaching Mandarin outside of  the country.

For more information about Buds and Blossoms Early Education and Care Center, please visit:
http://aacabudsandblossoms.org/