Posted in School

My 2 big kids are really coming along with their Chinese lessons.  Tomorrow they will learn the final character of the Chinese alpabet.  My son counted all the way up to 200 in Chinese a couple days ago.  He's fixated on numbers and counting, having counted up to 12,000 in English (so far).  As a matter of course, I'm picking up certain words and phrases to add to the few I already knew - like "Thank you, teacher", vase, aunt, window.  Someday in the midst of my decluttering of the house I will come across more than just tape 15 (which turned up yesterday) of my Learnables Chinese course and pick that back up.  Until then, it's exciting to learn words and phrases that my kids now know - that their nanny, their aunt who was born and raised in Taiwan, has taught them.

Yesterday we took a break from normal school for an outing to Chuck E Cheese.  The biggest hit with everyone was the machine that takes your picture and prints out a sketch from it.  My toddler also really enjoyed the bus, returning to that ride again and again.  On the way home, she had her Chinese lesson in the car - going over numbers 1-10, colors, and some of the alphabet.  It's amazing what a 2-year-old can learn, even in the few short months she's been learning Chinese.

Lots of other things are happening too.  On Saturday we got together with 2 of my husband's college friends and their kids and went for a ride on their boat.  The babies were good, our kids had a great time, their kids (who wanted to go faster and go tubing or waterskiing) were bored, and the adults all had a great time catching up with each other in person for the first time in nearly 3 years.  I discovered that it's possible to feed a baby a bottle while she's wearing a life vest, and it's also possible to carry twin babies and 2-year-old all at once - though not advisable.  It's also a creative way to elicit assistance from bystanders who would otherwise be happy to let your toddler wander into the middle of a parking lot!  I developed strong arm muscles on our trip from carrying 2 babies to the playground, but strangely my arms were not the most sore part of my body - I suppose I must have worked the muscles in my back since that's the only part giving me any difficulty at all.

This week our science curriculum arrived, as well as Kay Arthur Bible studies for the kids and me.  I'll be taking a look at them tomorrow and deciding whether or not to incorporate them in next week's schedule.  We also received a coloring book of Ancient Rome, which I noticed my daughter make off with awhile ago - not to color, but to read, of course!  The kids are really enjoying our study of ancient Rome, and my son, much to my older daughter's chagrin, outanswered him in the review questions on Monday.  She's sure to be back on top tomorrow though!

The babies are keeping me busy.  One is on my lap now, and the other is wishing she was.  A couple weeks ago, the older one found her feet, but now the younger one has also discovered hers and plays with them periodically.  The younger one learned how to make razzing sounds first, but the older one is catching up with her there, although she still has not rolled over, something else the younger one beat her at.  It's exciting to see how differently even identical twins develop and discover their world.