Yesterday evening, my son and I played a “what if…†game when I was cooking dinner. We created lots of jokes using rhymes. Here are a couple funny ones:
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What if you and dinosaur have a date?
I will be eaten like a cake.
What if you are a dog?
I will bite your socks.
What if you are a bird?
I will poop on a nerd.
What if you punch a B?
He will turn into a D.
What if G has a baby?
Her tummy will be heavy.
And here are the best two which were made solely by my son:
What if you are a fish?
I will swim in a dish.
What if you are a chip?
I will dive into a dip.
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I am proud that my son can read many books by himself. He is just a kindergartener but he can read simple chapter books at the second grade level. I am sure he will be able to read full length chapter books by the end of kindergarten next June. He is also the best reader in his class (only three or four kids can read something).
When he was little, I read books to him every night. At the age of four, all of a sudden he started to read simple words in picture books. My wife and I got very excited and were wondering if he could read more. However, he stayed on simple picture books for almost a year, laboriously accumulating vocabulary and making sense of grammar. I think the problem is that we are not native English speakers and we don’t speak English at home. My son has to learn all words and phrases from books. Even now, he doesn’t know many daily words in English.
I am not sure if we made a good decision on sending him to a Chinese dare care before age 4. It occurred to me that when we enrolled him to an American day care at age 4, he instantly picked up English, and mapped all what he learned in class to books, and vice versa. I once talked with wife that if we had sent him to the American day care at age 2, he might be able to read earlier and much better, and would be more confident talking in Public. He knows a lot, but he sometimes has difficulties expressing simple ideas, especially when arguing with other kids.
Being competent in language is the biggest advantage of all. It gives you ability and confidence to express your ideas, communicate with other people, and expand knowledge quickly. For kids, psychological development is more important than being bilingual. We felt very sad to see him struggling through language barriers and being shy in the class. They may affect his personality development negatively.
If one has to master at least one language, for my son, it is English. I think he can learn Chinese later. Besides, he has no time now to review Chinese characters he once learned. He has to live through English, not Chinese.
Saw your posts a lot at xys. Fun to read your blog as well. You just keep up writing so that I can finish all my reading assignment here. Just kidding.
As to your son, I don’t know him, but I think that his shyness might not all because of his English. Chinese daycare may have more rules, and chrildren there might be taught more on obeying the teachers and making peace not war with playmates. That might not be a bad thing. Kids always catch up on English in no time. Soon he will be teaching you all the ‘cool’ words from school. Just don’t be surprised that some of them might not be too nice or decent.
I know a guy who has two daughters. The older one had difficulties in writing in school. He and his wife decided to speak English at home all the time, so that the younger one might not have the same difficulties. I do not like the idea at all. For several reasons: 1) it is so un-natural to speak only English at home, at least I do not know how, 2) that would make both girls un-natural as well - learning English is better from school than from should-be-Chinese-speaking-parents, 3) parents should and could not remove all the difficulties that the children will encounter, they learn through the hardships, where all the fun is, 4) practice would alway improve their writing anyway.
My son is a little over two. Sometimes he is quite a sight to behold. I wrote his name on the diaper pack to be taken to daycare, he pointed at it and said ‘name’. He told me in Chinese that he was stinky when he needed a diaper change. When I asked what he would say to his daycare teacher, he said ‘poopy’. I am not sure how much Chinese he says in daycare now, we just let him say whatever at home. We understand him, well, most of the time, that is important.
As to books, have you read the Narnia books yet? They are supposed to be classics. I am more into novels and fantasies, guess I am just the daydreaming sort of guy. Anyway, I think of the Lord of the Rings so much higher than Harry Potter, I almost had a fight with my colleague friend, who thinks they are about the same. Speaking of Harry Potter books, knowing that you must have read them all, do you think that Snape was in love with Harry’s mother? That is the only logic explanation to me for Snape’s hating Harry’s dad but never really harming Harry in any way. That might be just the thing to keep Snape from falling all the way to the Dark side.
I enjoy reading your stuff a lot. Thanks for sharing with us. Keep doing it and Good luck with everything!
Comment by xh — January 13, 2006 @ 12:43 am
Thanks for the comment. Teaching kids is always fun, and a pain in the neck too.
My wife and I sometimes go over the edge. Anyway, we have stumbled through the whole process.
Speaking of Harry Potter, your idea of Snape loving Harry’s Mom secretly is very interesting. I never thought of that but I think you may be right. Snape is the critical person who will help Harry defeat Lord Voldermort.
Comment by xlsyu — January 13, 2006 @ 9:16 pm