Chinese School

Well, it turned out that the Chinese school we started on Sunday wasn't a good fit. First, Alana was much too wiggly to sit through an hour and a half class. The class is geared for 6-15 year olds, but they made an exception for Alana. Second, the class is designed for children who don't speak any Mandarin, so the material was much too basic for Alana. The good news is, the same agency that put on this class offers private tutoring. They talked to Alana in Mandarin quite a bit on Sunday and she seemed to understand everything they said, she just hardly said anything back. So, we are going to do private tutoring for 1 hour a week where they will just try to get her to talk. I envision them playing games and looking at picture books and just talking for an hour. Even though the class on Sunday didn't work out, I noticed an immediate difference in her. She was singing some of the Chinese songs from one of her DVDs the next day in the car. I think it made her feel more comfortable with using her Mandarin. She is watching Mulan in Mandarin right now as I type this message. I still plan to enroll her in the preschool Mandarin class in January and may or may not continue tutoring after the class starts. We'll just see where we are!

Alana and Collin also switched rooms this week. Collin's old bedroom is right above our bedroom and that kid just can not sleep much past 6:30. That wouldn't be such an issue if he would lay quietly or go downstairs and watch TV quietly. Most of the time he is pretty good, but every once in a while he decides to play in his room. I think the carpet pad must be very thin up there or the floors need more soundproofing, because it sounds like herds of elephants running when he is walking around. Lately he has just starting bouncing in his bed. I had to sneak upstairs and catch him in the act to even figure out what he was doing (still don't know why). Well, he woke us up just after 6:00 on Monday by bouncing in his bed and we decided that was the last time. So, we moved Alana to Collin's room and Collin to the smaller room over the kitchen. They both seem very happy with move (Collin had been warned it might happen), but Collin wants me to paint his room some color other than pink! I told him he should have thought of that before bouncing in his bed!! =)

I'm excited that we will be attending several play dates in the next couple of weeks with other little girls adopted from China. I think Alana will really enjoy making some new friends her age. We are also attending one (and maybe two) Autumn Moon Festivals next weekend. Should be fun!