My daughter enrolled in 9th grade at IOLANI in 2019, and it's been almost two years since then. One year was spent studying and boarding at school, and another year was spent taking online classes at home due to the pandemic. This second half of the year, she's preparing to return to school for in-person classes. I'd like to share our experience, hoping it can be a reference for parents whose children have recently received offers. 1. For 9th grade, the school meals included fried chicken, pork chop salad, etc., served with rice. My daughter found it quite good. Since the school is in the city, she could also go out on weekends to enjoy Chinese, Korean, or Japanese food to vary her taste. 2. Accommodation was a two-person dormitory. For the first year, the school generally assigned roommates of different nationalities for better integration. Later, for future roommates, the school would provide options for the child to choose from. There's a boys' floor and a girls' floor, and a dedicated supervisor on the first floor. The dorm rooms are bright and clean, very good. Each floor also has public activity areas, self-study zones, and public restrooms with wet/dry separation, and quiet/active separation. 3. Most importantly, the curriculum and learning. Many teachers hold doctorates, and many are actively engaged in in-depth research in their fields, which greatly encourages the children's learning efforts. Over these two years, every subject has been thoroughly covered. Even during online classes due to the pandemic, my daughter was very busy attending live classes, watching recorded lectures, participating in major and minor exams, and completing assignments. Although assignments didn't involve rote problem-solving, they required a lot of subjective thinking, such as presentations, essays, or group projects. This has helped her develop a systematic and complete learning framework, while also fostering habits of active thinking and collaborative skills. Through discussions with her, we've noticed her changes, and as parents, we are quite satisfied. For arts and sports, children can freely choose courses. Our daughter chose mixed media, creating art pieces in class based on teacher inspiration, and she can even participate in exhibitions.
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