English

Alana was officially registered for kindergarten today. They tested her and recommended extra English services for her. So, she will attend full day kindergarten, but she will be with a different class in the morning and afternoon as only the English learning kids are full-day and everyone else is half-day. There are 10 other English learning kids in kindergarten at her school though. So, those 10 kids will eat lunch together in between kindergarten sessions. Alana is SO excited! We've been picking up school supplies here and there. I am going to have her use the same backpack I brought to China last year, but I bought her a really cute lunch bag that looks more like a girly purse.

They said they work mostly on vocabulary and grammar with the English learning kids. So, she will be tested this fall for speech services to help with some of the sounds she struggles with. Who knows, she may not need the extra services after a few months in school anyway. They were impressed that she was sounding out words already and knew her letter sounds better than the letter names. We are more than halfway through the 100 lessons in her "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" book and she is doing great. She loves doing her reading every night before bed and is writing her name now too. It won't be long before she will be reading real books! Collin's favorite after finishing the same reading program was "The Cat in the Hat."

I'm so curious to see who the other English learners are in her class and what their background and languages are. It would be wonderful for her to have other Chinese children in her class, but that may be asking too much! Only 2 1/2 more weeks until school starts, so I won't have to wait long.

I'm so excited to watch Alana's language blossom. Even though her English is functional (I understand most of what she says "Daddy brushed teeth me" for "Daddy brushed my teeth" or "You no go outside?" for "You are not going outside?"), it is basic at best. She really can't express complex thoughts or ideas. She tries to string sentences together, but they tend to get jumbled with lots of filler words and she becomes very difficult to understand. She even still struggles with simple requests "Can I drink?" for "Can I have a drink?". We've worked on that soooo much in the past year, and when she does say it correctly, she says is slowly in almost a robotic voice. I knew language would be one of the more difficult aspects of her adoption, but to be honest, I didn't realize how big it would be. Everyone says that they pick up the language so quickly and it is a non-issue, but after talking to my neighbor who adopted her daughter at 5 years old -- it can take years and years. Even now, her daughter is 12 and home for 7 years, she struggles with language. That doesn't mean that Alana will struggle forever, but it is certainly possible. Time will tell.

Collin is feeling a little frustrated that Alana is starting kindergarten and is getting nervous about the move. I know this will be a big adjustment for everyone, but things will be more difficult for him I think. He has friends here and will be playing on different soccer and baseball teams and attending different religious education classes. Alana really hadn't gotten involved in too much yet, so she'll be starting pretty fresh. I'm planning to try a new homeschool curriculum with Collin this fall that I'm really excited about. I'll plan to post an update next month on how that is going. It is a literature-based curriculum where they use real books instead of textbooks to teach history and language. I think it will be a lot of fun for he and I and Dylan will be able to participate some too if he chooses. More to come!