Originally Posted by
DaileyB
Tentseller really nailed it. The aunt and uncle have never been out of China and are very frugal and protective.
To Lin821: You make a number of good points. However, my deal with my son was that he was supposed to have fun in China his way and that if he got bored I would bring him back early. I will keep the deal. Right now he goes to an International School in the morning, and on nearly all afternoons there is nothing for him to do. I feel it is a real shame that his afternoons are all being wasted. His aunt and uncle are in their 60s, don't speak English and are not real good at entertaining children. Also, as I said before, there are virtually no children in the complex where my son is staying. If you have any particular ideas as to how to find more activities for my son, I am happy to listen
I only wish the ramifications of these points (my bolding) had been fully understood by you and son before the commitment for such a long visit was made, so that suitable advance scouting of opportunities and arrangements could be made to fill the time. Keeping a bright 12 year old boy gainfully occupied is much more difficult than when he was a littler guy, and perhaps the aunt/uncle are also now realizing this. I presume you have already scoured the small universe of Wuhan expat sites. It's unfortunate that he isn't in a place like Beijing or Shanghai where there is a big enough critical mass of foreigners and foreign/Chinese children to have lots of summer organized activities. I wish you could find some sort of supervised volunteer set-up that has adults and kids working on a project, on some topic he might be interested in (planting trees, tutoring/playing games at local orphanages, teaching simple music or sports, etc.). I wish I had specifics for you but unfortunately I'm just blank on Wuhan possibilities.