The Prizes: New Bikes

Always trying to look tough. 

And mommy got a new bike too:

 David knew that I struggled with the 100 lessons as much as Tobin and he promised me a reward.

My old bike was 11 years old, and had no existing pedals. It was time for an upgrade. And because our whole family is getting into biking now, I got a bike with gears (like my college days, so I could make it back up the one hill on campus from the hospital where I worked!). And though we now live in a valley, hills are not hard to find. 

Cycling has actually taken off here in our town, and maybe all over China. There are quite a few higher end bike shops. We searched them all and stuck to the low end.

Tobin's new bike makes him look so big to me. And he is FAST.

In this pic his face is grimaced, which is an accurate portrayal of his feelings toward the book he is holding, though that was quite by accident.

 He flies on this bike, and scares me sometimes.

 GOOD JOB little man!

Congratulations on learning to read!

100 Easy Lessons with a BOY

This go around with the book 'Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons' was a bit different (grin, and oh many tears).

Already in round 2 with Bella I knew the faults of the book and how to maneuver them. I also in NO way tout this book as the end all. I love that it gets kids the ability to decode, sound out and and learn that process early if necessary. Now that I have a Language Arts Curriculum that I love I see all the holes, but I also know that LA and understanding English language and rules is not even close to the goal of this book. It was actually designed for students with serious reading struggles.

My process with each of the kids thus far has been:
3.5 y.o. do tot school stuff: fun stuff, some letter recognition, etc. 15 minutes a day. The rest play, read, and fun! Tot 'school' really is a misnomer, because it is really not 'school'.

When tot school is complete and letter recognition/sounds are somewhat there, we start 100 lessons. This is somewhere in the almost 4 to 5 yo range. Age really doesn't matter at all, it is readiness and eagerness that matters.

After 100 lessons....read books, before I discovered my fave LA curriculum I dove into Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading.

Tobin was with it all. I started on my schedule though. He would have been content to play with legos until age 21, I was sure.

First 30 lessons, down. Attitudes still good. Next 20, harder but still doing okay, good days and bad. Lessons 50-80, many days I wanted to quit, and Tobin did too. I told David we should quit at 80. It had nothing with his ability to read, it had to do with our relationship and his inability to sit still. I had instilled the stand-on-your-head and still read policy, which helped some. He could do it, he was just quite frankly unwilling to put forth much effort. When I made him mad enough he would read the sentence like a real sentence, as I helped him with difficult words. Most of the time he was just distracted.

He is not ADD or ADHD or any other abbreviation, he is  a 4.5 year old boy, and my reading lessons were cramping his style. Now, the 4.5 yo boy syndrome does not mean he cannot sit still. He actually can, he can obey, he can do all manner of things. I do not use the 'he's a boy' to excuse wild actions and inability to control oneself. But that is not what was going on here....

The biggest problem was that the lessons took SO long at the end. He hadn't mastered some of the nuances yet, and I helped him, which was fine. I offered him the chance to quit, in all seriousness. But with 20 lessons to go toward a big prize he wanted to keep on.

ALL helps are taken away at lesson 80 so it got hard. Then he got used to it a bit. He was actually reading pretty well, but it still took a LONG time.

The last week, last five lessons, actually went better, he saw the light at the end and pressed on....
There were many apologies by him and me all throughout these 100 lessons, bad attitudes, tantrums (by both of us), we regrouped  a bit and kept at it. I was actually so amazed at how well he read the last lesson, since a lot of the time I just wondered if it was all useless.

Really, I should have been starting the book at this point, not ending it. I started too early, and I should have subtly said, "Let's just wait" when I knew it was consistently hard, and not used the word 'quit'.

On the day of lesson 100 he got a remote control 'Lightening McQueen' Car that friends had given us and then we bought him a much-needed new bike. That day during our read aloud time, he picked up the book 'A Child's History of the World' opened it up and started picking out all the words he knew, which were a lot! He is actually excited about his ability to read words on a page. I don't think that he would confess that  he loves reading yet...but I do think it will come when we pick up books next week. I will set the timer for 15 minutes!

Next post: The 100 Lessons Prize...and Momma's too!

Shadows At Night

This is the poem that Sophia dictated to me the morning after she created it in her mind.
The only thing I did was format it.

Shadows at Night

Written by Sophia Coker

I wake up in the middle of night

See a little light

Out on the road

I wonder what it is

And get out of bed

And go

Walk on the road no one but me

Shadows on the road

Shadows, shadows, scary shadows

Nothing to hear but

Chickens squawk, squawk, squawking

Mice jeep, jeep, jeeping

And bats flying in the air

Shadows, shadows everywhere

I go back home

Turn off the light

And go to bed

In the morning when it is bright

I go to school and learn to write

About my fright.

Fun new clothes and old friends

 We needed a few things from America (including last minute science supplies for this year), so Poppy and CC sent us a package that included  a few super cool items of clothing for the kiddos!

Tobin does have a collared shirt that matches the coral/navy theme but he was all about the shark shirt!

this girl. I say that a lot. She is on my Homeschool schedule to train, train, train, in the area of...you know, listening and obeying. Our friends helper said: 'she doesn't listen at all', don't I know it!!

Where we wish we were: Wrightsville Beach!

And our friends came back from America and other friends came around all week last week, and on Friday they had a junk food picnic!!! 

First Days of School

 Sophia is going into Chinese 2nd grade and American 3rd grade. 

Aunt Laura bought her this backpack when she was 2 or 3 and we are finally using for school not just an airplane. BUT the books and things are pretty big, so we hope it will continue to work this year.

Tobin is going into Chinese Kindergarten 'Middle Year' and American K4! His school actually did order school uniforms this year but they were not ready for the first day.

Act tough man:

Bella is going into Chinese 1st grade and American 1st grade. 

Here, she was going with Daddy to find out her teacher and classroom, so she also did not have a uniform yet. 

Gabrielle is going into her third year of life. She turns  2 on the 17th.

But she thinks she should do all that her siblings do:

Please, can I go...like a puppy dog, she begs. 

2

I am ready, really!

After Bella met her teachers and discovered she did indeed have some people she knew in her class, she received her uniform. I then went to a 2 1/2 hour meeting to fill out forms and learn all that Chinese First Grade would entail. 

 She was SOOOO excited and nervous.

They listed out supplies needed and reminded us to help our kids with their homework!

You can't see Bella in there but she is there.

I will get a better school shot, but pick up time was CRAAAAZY. 

The first graders went for one full day and then everyone had a three day holiday, with the 'make up' day being tomorrow, Sunday. No free breaks around here! 

Great job kiddos, you guys are super brave!

Pre-Semester Mommy Dates

The final week before the new local school semester we took the week off of Home School. I let them play, play, play. AND I did something I had not done before. I took them each (except Gabrielle) on individual Mommy dates. Sure, I have taken the kids out alone before plenty of times. But this was intentional together, lets talk, laugh, play and eat your choice of snacks.

For each kid I tried to ask heart probing questions and played the 'I ask a question then you ask' game. (which really only worked for Sophia).

What do like most about being in our family? And least?
If you could change one thing about mommy? about yourself?
What are you looking forward to about Chinese school? Not looking forward to?

I got some really great answers to these and helped me speak encouraging words into them, express sorrow over some of my tendencies, and just laugh and play.

Of late Tobin and Sophia have been quite at odds. Sophia admitted some things about Tobin that made her mad. He being a tattletale was one. When it was her turn to ask the question this round she said:
"Was Uncle Herschel a tattletale when you were little?"
I laughed so hard at this, and answered: "No, Sophia, he wasn't. You know who was the tattle tale? I was! I was the 'baby' the littlest, I am sure I tattled and acted a bit just like Tobin did..." This was also an opportunity for me to tell her more of what life was like for me growing up. She and I went and explored  a few new shops, ate the local dessert, her choice, Paoluda (coconut, milk, bread, gelatin).


Bella decided on a grocery store snack. It happened to be a hot day, so I got an ice cream cone from KFC and we enjoyed the AC. Bella chose sprite, and  pickled spicy tofu strips. No, I am not kidding. GROSS. She loves them, all of our kids do. Pickled. Spicy. Tofu strips. Take a look:

Tobin and I had a great time too, and he did admit to his 'angry-ness' as something he wish he could change. Among other things I told him how much we loved him and we would help him and ask Jesus to help us all have better self-control (because at four years old and at 38 years old, I struggle with it too, son). But evenso, I reminded, in all our ugliness, Jesus loves on and takes our shame and guilt away. 

I hope to do this every 8-9 weeks or so. My interaction with the kids is mostly instruction in school, and some play, but this time was precious and needed! David had already been taking them one per weekend on daddy dates, but mommy needed it too!

Their first week of Chinese school already commenced last week, and this week we start FULL schedule, all subjects HS and half day Chinese school! Pray for us.

Getting into Chinese Elementary School

Just last year at this time Sophia was being registered for Chinese first grade. This is an altogether different ball game than Chinese Kindergarten. Chinese Kindergarten is optional and expensive. Elementary school is free and 'public' and to get 'anywhere in life' you have to go to school. The pressure starts at six years old for this culture. And since they only have one child (though this is changing some), they put their all into that child, he/she is the parents' future!

Last year we were in the States and we knew it would be hard to get Soph in. We tried talking to the principle before we left, three months before sign up. He barely acknowledged our existence. He was new then and was instilling lots of new rules. The main one, handed down from the powers that be: NO more bribing. In fact many of those 'powers that be' instilled the death penalty for those found filled with such corruption. 

We, of course were not going to bribe, but explain our situation and ask his advice on what to do. We didn't even get that hearing. We had to wait until the time of registration like everyone else. We got together all the documents and had two local friends and our American friend helping out.  At that time the line for 'people holding documents from outside this town' started a day early. Our friends paid someone to camp out for us and wait in line. Sophia was number 21 and they only had 20 spots, but because some people missed their role call in the night, Sophia became number 17 and got in! But those who didn't were angry and JS said: "it was almost like a riot!"

This year, deciding that Bella would not do the extra year of Kindergarten (we missed the sign up and didn't want to fight for it) we knew we would have to go through the same thing for her that our friends did for us the year prior.  And we knew the lines would start even earlier. David went down 3 days early and sure enough a few people were lingering. A list was forming somewhat but nothing formal. The guards were telling people not to worry, so people went home. But we knew better and so did a few others. David warned one couple that put their name down not to go home. This lady was SO thankful to David later because sure enough they would have lost their spot.

And so the camp out started. One parent kind of took charge and he was perfect for the job, very diplomatic, kind, and trying to help everyone. Even when people got quite angry at him, he kept his cool. Put your name on the list, we will call names every two hours all through the night! David took the first evening, we paid a friend to stay the two nights. David took the first morning and I took the rest of that day. David took the morning shift when sign up would begin. 

I know this may seem utterly ridiculous, and I won't go into all of our reasons for working so hard to get her in, but for us it was worth it and Bella was praying hard for this opportunity, she REALLY wants to go to school. And honestly, being with these other parents out there talking for hours, worrying together, re-checking our documents, talking about our kids, etc. it was a valuable time of connecting with the community and feeling 'just like one of them'. This was not unlike my dancing with Bella and her kindergarten class. I didn't love all the practice and the time commitment but in the end I was always glad we participated and made some really good friends.

 We did see some angry parents who didn't understand the methodology of what was going on, it all still seemed unfair to them. There were rumors that the school registered some 'danweis' (companies or hospitals where people work) separately and filled up spots for those with 'local' registration. By 8 p.m. the night before the actual sign-up, I was still on duty. The school posted the number of slots remaining:

This is the listing for all schools in our town. 35 slots for the school we were at. We were number 17, we were feeling good. But horrible. There were 110 people in our line! Do the math and figure out how many people were angry. The parent in charge tried to tell the group earlier that they should try to line up at different schools. No one listened to him. 

By the next morning, the actual sign-up day, Police had arrived. The asst principle came out and tried to talk to all the folks. They slowly let the 35 people in to sign up, one man got hauled off in hand-cuffs. The 35 who signed up, David included, were reluctant to leave and face the angry parents. But things settled down and finally it was all done. Bella could not have been happier!

 

We prayed a ton about this whole situation, and it seems the local school situation for our children is always on the forefront of our minds and ignites pleas to God for wisdom, protection, and grace. We really have seen Him answer very specific prayers thus far in this process with Bella and are thankful.