Language

Language is the focus of our house right now. Alana is picking up English rapidly and now can speak phrases. She ran up to Dylan the other day and asked "Are you OK?" She is learning more and more words and making so many connections it is amazing! I am worried about her retaining her Mandarin. I can't wait for her to start her Mandarin class the end of August (I'm also taking a course). I am hoping that she meets some friends at class that we can socialize with as well. We had friends over the other day and Collin and Dylan had someone to play with, but Alana felt very alone. I really need to find her some little girls to play with. I'm not going to enroll her in preschool. She will start kindergarten soon enough (next fall) and I want all the time with her that I can get.

Dylan has regressed some with his language since Alana came home. He is such a parrot and he likes to imitate her limited English instead of speaking in sentences like he is fully capable of. For instance, he will say "more" instead of "I want more milk" like he used to. He even says "more" with Alana's Chinese accent. This is getting better, but it still happens some. He says a lot of Mandarin phrases too. Sometimes he knows what they mean and other times he is just repeating after her. I think it has been great for the boys to be exposed to another language early like this.

Collin has always struggled with language. He has picked up quite a bit of Mandarin, but English is still so hard for him. I'm working to find a speech therapist to work with him at home in addition to what he receives through the school district. He is doing a great job of asking questions lately though. I feel like his vocabulary will really explode in the next couple of years. I wish there were more that I could do for him. I was able to find a reading program last year that helped him tremendously -- I wish I could find a similar program for speech. Maybe there is no magic bullet and we just need to press on. He is such an amazing little boy and I am so proud of him that he has never let his speech hold him back from making friends.

We are off to the zoo in the morning, so I should have lots of cute pictures to post tomorrow!