January 11, 2012
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Happy New Year (both early and late)
Lunar New Year is early this year (January 23) - Year of the Dragon - So I figured I'd better get my greeting out now so I won't be late with my "Happy New Year" twice. I'm late for 2012 but I'm right on track for 4710.
Much has happened since I last posted. Shaeleigh turned 8. YiLin turned 7, had his "extra" front tooth extracted, and started 1st grade. Big victory there. We were concerned that the first day was going to be a disaster. When I had taken him to the school to get registration paperwork he made it clear that he didn't want to go to school. I even had our Chinese teacher, Mindy, talk to him about it but all he did was yell (in Chinese) about not wanted to go to school and that he wasn't smart. The only glimmer of hope was that there was something of a smile on his face.
And so last Tuesday I packed up his lunch and filled his backpack with school supplies and off we went, bright and early. We walked down to his classroom and met his teacher and lo and behold, although he seemed apprehensive (as did his teacher), he waved goodbye without a tear. We jumped all day whenever the phone rang but the school did not call. When I picked him up he had the biggest smile on his face and a birthday crown on his head. In true YiLin style, he proceeded to upzipped his backpack in the middle of the hall (pay no attention to all the kids trying to walk by) so that he could show me his papers and a book of birthday greetings that his new classmates made him. He was so proud. And so it's continued. He seems to enjoy it thus far. And everyday he unzips his backpack to show me his papers and to show that he's eaten his whole lunch. We're working on getting to the van first - so far we are outside of the building but not quite as close as the van.
What is he doing all day? That we're not sure. His teacher seems largely surprised at his behavior and lack of understanding (despite my lengthy "heads up" note). She asked to wait a few weeks before a teacher conference. She seems patient however and did comment that, "He has a big heart. And he likes to clean." Hahaha. Yes, yes he does. He did also start ELL (early language learners) this week for 2 hours a day. His teacher called and talked to us a bit about that. We will meet with her down the road as well - after she gets to know YiLin a bit.
As far as we can tell, he doesn't have/was never taught the basics. Things that most kids get from infancy through pre-K. At home we are working on tracing - I had to ask Mindy to help explain tracing to him and enlist Shaeleigh and Chance to demonstrate. Took multiple attempts but now he at leasts understands to goal. That said, tracing lines just isn't very interesting to him. He's not good at it and I'm sure it's boring. And so he loses interest and doesn't want to sit through more than a handful of pages. He doesn't seem able to make the leap to more interesting learning activities though so I'm going to stick with this for a bit. Now that all the kids are back in school I'm going to try to get YiLin to "do homework" when Shaeleigh does hers. This, however, is why I am not sure 1st grade is a good fit for him.
Anyway, he has still come a long way with other behaviors. His manners at the table continue to improve. He has had fewer giant meltdowns and all in all he is still getting along very well with his siblings. That's actually the best. It's loud around here but it's been amazing to see Shaeleigh and Chance just encorporate him right into their games. His delays do not extend at all into the area of running about playing superhero. Yes, he is right on track there.
Shaeleigh didn't seem at all concerned about "sharing" her birthday with YiLin. She decorated her/their own cake again this year. This time she stepped up to helping on carving the pieces. She decided on a Tiger (since YiLin likes Tigers) but made it a Moshling Tiger (since she is all about the Moshlings).
Piping on the legs.
Finished cake. This is Jeepers, the Moshling.
Chance honed in on the photo at the last minute. He's a ham.
We didn't finish making our gingerbread trees before Christmas so we just did them afterwards.
We only had two trees but they did a good job taking turns with the different jobs. At any given time, I only had 1 boy focused so it was mostly Shaeleigh and me plus whichever boy wasn't dancing about and eating icing.
A masterpiece
Grandma gave Shaeleigh a mini art set for her birthday. We had an entire evening of drawing teeny tiny pictures. Those little pencils cramp your hands right up. Shaeleigh has continued but I am mostly in retirement and on frame making duty.
Blowing out the candles. Oh, I should note that YiLin surprised us as he had apparently been taught to sing "Happy Birthday" in English. "Happy Bwahdee do you. Happy Bwahdee do you...." He does like to sing.
This is the hat his teacher gave him. "He wouldn't take it off," she said when I picked him up. Sure enough, he wore it all day and wanted to wear it the next day too. It's the little things.
We gave YiLin playdough for his birthday. He didn't "get" playdough in China but with Shaeleigh and Chance playing with him, he played for over an hour. Who doesn't like the dough!
And there we have it. We have signed Chance up for gymnastics. He starts tomorrow. He can pretty much do a cartwheel and is a regular monkey with his jumping about. I am hoping there are a few boys in his class and that they start off with at least some big ticket activities (trampoline, foam pit, rings) so that he doesn't get bored. Balance beam walking will only contain him for so long.
Cheers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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