Thursday, March 08, 2012

Mandarin

Chase has been taking 20 minutes of Mandarin a day at school (not a very good program, I might add), and 3 hours of Mandarin outside of school per week. She is in two foundation courses and one that is more difficult, for kids 1-2 years older, where they work on writing characters.

I pushed hard for Chase to get into that class, only because I really wanted her to be exposed to "what's next." I was up front with the teacher that I didn't care if she actually did well, as long as she was happy and engaged and didn't show signs of frustration or giving up.

The teacher reported back last week that she (and the other Mandarin teachers) have been incredibly impressed by Chase's progress in the class. And that "they just can't seem to find her limit." She continues to remain positive, with a gorgeous can-do spirit and is climbing her way up in the class quickly. She is apparently actively participating in class.

You go, girl!

Reading Like Crazy

Chase is reading like a mad woman. Everything. Everywhere. Everyday. She can even walk and read (not exactly graceful at this yet). She is reading grown-up books now. Without pictures. And doesn't care. Just wants to read.

Her school has book week next week, and I am tasked with dressing her up as her favorite character, which happens to be a little girl from a book called Beach Baby. Not sure why it's her favorite. Probably because there is a beach.

She also wants to spend her tooth fairy money on a book. And wants to join a book club (that she's not allowed to join until she is in P3).

I love her appetite for books! She is insatiable.

Office Supplies

Madoc absolutely loves office supplies. She loves tape. Scissors. Post-It Notes. Hole punches. I haven't shown her the stapler yet.

After multiple times of cutting her thumb on the tape dispenser (ouch!), she has decided to use scissors to cut the tape off. She is extremely good with scissors - better than Chase ever was at that age. Perhaps because I was so worried Chase would cut off her finger.

Anyway, I was helping Madoc take the tape off and she said to me, in her little serious voice, "Mama, you are such a good helper."

This Week

This was a stunner of a week. Started off with Mads getting a high temp on Sunday night. Then I pushed my way into an already overbooked doctor and MADE her see Mads - because if there is one thing I learned early -- Mads doesn't mess around when she gets sick. And I'm glad I did -- she tested positive for strep, influenzaB and had a blazing ear infection (all at the same time). Tuesday evening our helper fell ill and Wednesday a.m. Hubby flew off to the Philippines.

The most interesting part of this whole thing was that Mads was actually vaccinated against influenzaB in the fall and Chase wasn't. And Mads caught exactly the same strain she was vaccinated against. But here's the good part - her body already knew how to fight it, because everyone around here who has it, has it for a week (temp goes up and down like crazy) -- and Madoc's temperature went away within 12 hours of starting antibiotics (which means that her fever was the strep and ear infection, not influenza). I have always believed that the flu vaccine was not a good idea, but decided to do it this year because of Madoc's lungs and I am actually really happy I did. Because I think it saved her, in the end, from what could have gone from bad to worse.

And I'll never forget how she turned to me before bed the night after we got back from the doctor and she said in her little voice, "thank you for taking care of me, Mama."