This is Why!

When I tell people that my child can speak Chinese and that half of his everyday curriculum is taught in it, I often get weird looks. On numerous occasions, I have been asked, "why?" They don't seem to get this little blond haired, white kid that speaks Chinese because he doesn't fit some sort of mold. I am so glad he's a part of this program and I highly recommend it to other families.The video is kinda lengthy and although Caleb isn't in this one, we did spot his current teacher and some of his class mates.

If you are interested to see what Utah is doing with this program (did I mention they are on the forefront of a National movement?) take a look.

Chinese In the News

Caleb isn't in this video. However, I thought it was a nice piece on the program. Everyone needs a little reassurance sometimes that they are doing the right thing.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=14481960


Check it out on KSL.COM.

Chinese New Year

Caleb's school held a big Chinese New Year celebration last night. 2011- Year of the Rabbit. Caleb got to sing for the audience in Chinese with his class (video hopefully coming soon). Then they had performers there to do a Thai Chi demonstration as well as the traditional Lion Dance. The Lion then came out in the audience and around for all of us to see.

It was a really nice program and then we got to do some break out activities. I was assigned to help in the making fans room so Mike and the boys walked around to the rest of the activities. He got to go to the Chinese Market and pick out a couple things, make a lantern, make a hackey sack, get a Chinese symbol painted on his hand, play a game with chopsticks and learn some Thai Chi moves from the performers who stuck around.

He told us on the way home that he had a really fun day at school. I'm so happy that we have him in this program. He loves it.

Star Student and Chinese Lesson #3

This week is Caleb's week to be Star Student in his classroom, we spent some time this weekend working on a poster all about him. It includes a picture of him and of his family. It also asked him to fill in the blanks on some questions: age (6), favorite color (orange), favorite animal (cheetah), favorite food (pizza), favorite place to be (home), what I want to be when I grow up (football player), favorite thing to do (play my DS), and if I could wish for one thing it would be (100 dogs). This was a fun project to help him with and he's very excited to take it back to class with him tomorrow.

They are also starting to learn the names of colors in his Chinese lessons. So here's the next lesson for you to learn along. I tried my best to sound them out in spelling. But try google translate if you really want to hear it correctly.

red = Hóngsè (Hong-sa)
blue = Lán sè (lon-su)
green = Lǜsè (loo-sa)
yellow= Huángsè (who-on-sa)

Caleb's Chinese 101

Caleb is really catching onto the Chinese in his classroom. He often answers me now in Chinese which I both love and hate at the same time (since I have no idea what he is saying or if they really are even words). We also got to go meet his teachers this week at his first SEP conferences of the year. They both said that Caleb is a #1 student. He listens, follows directions and is as sweet as can be. We are really proud of our little boy and everything he has accomplished in just a few weeks back to school. Enjoy his video, he has been dying to make one for the blog.

So here's the next Chinese Lesson for you: Counting to 10 (taken from wikihow)

One = 一: yi (Yee (The tone of the word is the same all along)).
Two = 二: er (Are (The tone of the word goes down from a high to low voice)).
Three = 三: san (Sahn (Same as 一 for the tone)).
Four = 四: si (sih(Same as 二 for the tone)).
Five = 五: wu (Woo (The tone comes down, and then up)).
Six = 六: liu (lee-yu(Same as 二 for the tone)) .
Seven = 七: qi (chee (Same as 一 for the tone)).
Eight = 八: ba (baa (Same as 一 for the tone)).
Nine = 九: jiu (jee-yo (Same as 五 for the tone)).
Ten = 十: shi (shir (The tone goes up)).

Officially a First Grader!

It's official, we have a first grader today who will go to school all day! Caleb was excited this morning to start the day and picked out his new glow in the dark Star Wars shirt and his light up Sketchers for his first day outfit. He got a little nervous once we got there and Mom had to stay with him until his line went into the classroom. Here he is at home and in his desk in the classroom.

He had already gotten to meet his teachers when he attended a summer camp 2 weeks ago for his Chinese Dual Immersion program. He has a great time at camp and is already spurting out words and working on drawing symbols. Here's the work he brought home from camp.

I thought it might be fun to help some of you learn along as we do. So here's Chinese lesson #1.

Hello- 'Nǐ hǎo (knee how)

Good Bye- zài jiàn (sy gen)

More words and possibly video tutorials from Caleb as we learn more. Stay tuned.