We have now attended four class sessions with Kai at our local Chinese language school. We feel extremely lucky to have this resource here in our community. Children are supposed to be four before enrolling, so we waited until January to start in the preschool class. This is making things a bit more difficult for us, as we are having to play catch-up, but we are doing this for more than just immediate language results. It is important to us to help Kai make connections within the Chinese-American community here, and to expose him to Chinese culture. Actually, we made a promise to the People's Republic of China that we would do the latter. So again, we feel very lucky to have a Chinese language school here in town.

Not only are we new to the class this semester, so is the teacher. She is a very nice woman with two young children of her own, ages 6 and 8. She is a native Chinese speaker who emigrated from mainland China about 10 years ago. She told us she has an aunt who used to live in Baoding, where Kai is from. She hasn't taught a preschool class before so she has had a bit of a rough start trying to find an appropriate level to work with them. I noticed her email address was through an out of state university so I asked her about her affiliation. She told me she is currently enrolled in a PhD program there studying textiles and renewable resources, though she may drop out, as she has a degree in statistics and wants to find work in that field. I think this background explains the way she initially approached this class. She writes on the white board a lot and started with the children seated at desks. We meet at the local Catholic school and are using the sixth grade classroom so these are big desks! Things have gotten better though, and she now has the kids join her on the floor at the front of the class, she also is trying some art projects, and another teacher has helped with dance instruction. Though teaching choreographic routines to four year olds is a pretty challenging task as well. I'm not sure how much of this is a cultural difference, or if the teachers simply don't know what to do with pre-schoolers.

Even though Kai's not really getting a lot out of it yet, he does really likes it. He likes the snack time, even though he won't eat most of the snacks that are served. The teacher gives little rewards like stickers and pencils and Kai especially likes this. He also really loves the dancing. So we have begun Chinese school with him and while we aren't too worried about big gains right away, we do hope that all three of us are able to learn a few andy phrases before we travel for Shen.

note: Tina thought this post sounded a bit too negative, so I wanted to say that wasn't my point. I am really glad to be in Chinese school, it's just been kind of hard getting started.