Chester loves soup

Circle time during Chinese lesson

Learning the story behind Mid-Autumn Festival

 Counting numbers in Mandarin

Moon festival gathering with friends

Haley and I prepared the lanterns for decorations

It's so hard to get all the kids to take pictures

 Chester loves watermelon

 The kids enjoyed playing on the structure in the dark

猜燈謎 with daddy

Saying bye to Chester

Grandpa takes care of Chester at home while Haley and I go to school.  Chester will cry and ask to get in the car in the first couple weeks.  He wants to be with his sister and mommy.  During the third week, he still follows us out to the car, but he is happily saying bye bye to us while in grandpa's arm.  I know I should be happy that Chester gained independence to be away from mommy, but I have to admit that I feel disappointed and sad at the same time.  I miss Chester, I don't want to be away from him.  October 31, please come soon, so Chester can join us in school when he's two years old.

Learning to write her Chinese name

Chinese school teacher is asking to put student's Chinese name on their work.  I printed out Haley's name with stroke order so she can start practicing how to write her Chinese name.  In fact, I found out the stroke order I followed is incorrect.  Mommy is learning with Haley.

Haley in Chinese lesson

 

I get to sit in during Haley's Chinese lesson.  I hide in the back of the classroom and try to learn Mandarin with Haley at the same time.  Ms. Chou gave them a little quiz on the basic 4 tones, and I did the test too and score 100%.  I think most students are still kind of lost but hopefully they will pick up the concept eventually.  One thing I don't really like about the class is that the teacher stresses on grades.  Honestly, I don't really care much about Haley's score from the quizzes or tests.  It would be nice if she can read and write Chinese and Pin Yin.  Despite the benefit of knowing additional language for a better future, all I want is she will appreciate her mother's language.  Developing an interest will take time and effort, hopefully Haley will enjoy her learning.

Parents take turns to be the traffic control.  I'm on duty today!

Ball pit fun!

Happy Chester

Chester is a happy boy and very playful, but he is also one stubborn kid with temper.  At times, he will throw a fist when he failed to achieve what he wants to do.  He throws toys to across the room, and he wouldn't stop even you tell him not to.  I use the count down 1-2-3 method so he can learn that he need to stop when mommy counts to three.  It works well with Haley, but it doesn't mean anything to Chester.  He will purposefully pick up another toy to throw after I count to three.  One time, he didn't get what he wanted at the store, he decided to sit on the floor and scream.  Owen and I tried to reason with him but he wouldn't care.  We walked away and said bye to him.  We walked out of the store and peeked in to see how he reacted.  He stopped crying but just sat there and waited.  After couple minutes, I had to go back in because we were in a hurry to pick up Haley).  Instead of picking him up, I told him to stand up and come to me.  He waited and finally decided to walk to me.  I AM SO NOT going to give in to him or else I have to suffer in the future with his tantrum.

Chinese school 2012-2013

Chinese school began on September 8 this year.  Since Haley is not yet 4 years old, I originally enrolled her into the same preschool class she was in last school year.  The teacher and materials are the same, but I thought Haley can practice listening and speaking Mandarin during class time.  On the first day, I realize more than 3/4 of the students are from families who have no Chinese background.  Teacher has to speak mainly English to teach simple words and phrase that Haley has already known.  I spoke to the teacher and she suggested Haley to try the Kindergarten Pin Yin class (normally for children from age 5 and up) instead.  The teacher spoke to the principal so she gave a special exception to let Haley enroll the class.  The kindergarten class lasts 2 hours with a 10-minute break.  My friends and I reviewed the textbook and sat in during class time, we think most of the students are very lost when teacher talks about the 4 basic tones.  Haley is the youngest and I will just let her learn as much as she can without pushing too hard.  It's better for her to continue the habit of going to Chinese school.  Even if we decide to repeat the same class next year, she is just at the right age for the class.

Haley's best friend, Claire is in the same class with her.  Stella and I decided to get together once a week to review the lesson from Chinese school, teach them Mandarin and follow with playtime.  Thanks to Stella so Haley can learn the proper Mandarin pronunciation.  I will also learn the Pin Yin so I can practice with Haley.  It is only a 20-minute session, but Stella told me the girls are very happy while learning.  As for me, I take the two little ones, Ashley and Chester outside in the backyard to minimize any distraction.  I lead them to sing songs and play little games.  It works out perfectly.

I wish Haley and Claire will keep their interest in learning Chinese when they have a friend to learn together.  

Cherub Choir - Where He Leads Me

Haley joined the Cherub Choir at San Ramon Valley United Methodist Church in Alamo.  The children have practices every Tuesday afternoon for 45 minutes.  They practiced only once before they performed in today's worship.

Chinese Poem: Big Elephant

Ms. Chen teaches the class a Chinese poem during circle time in school.  I prepared to practice with her at home.  She told me she can do it by herself.  Wow!  I was surprised that she actually memorized it already.

An evening out with daddy

The ducklings were pretty desperate this evening.  Chester clung to daddy so tight.

 Haley fed the ducks from the stairs.  The ducks went up to her on the stairs, she screamed and ran away.

Chok or not? 

Proverbs 3:5

We learned to memory a new bible verse from school every three weeks.  Haley practiced the alphabets writing.

Fall session for swimming lesson begins

Haley began the fall session swimming lesson today with a new teacher, Ms. Jenna.

Silly Dance

School life for Haley and Me

I majored in Human Development back in college when I have absolutely no intention or interest in teaching children.  Is it fate?  I would say it's all God's plan.  An opportunity came and now I am a preschool teacher.  As a new teacher, most of the curriculum is planned by a teacher in another campus, but there are still many areas for my creativity in hosting the class.  I enjoyed every bit of preparing for and during the class time.  Most of the students who comes in on my days of work are around age 4.  They are all pretty self-contained when comparing to the younger ones who have no group playing experience.  Haley is behaving ok having mom in school.  She will cling onto me sometimes and refuse to participate.  I explained to her that she need to participate and stay with her group so I can continue to work in the school.  She understands it but she needs some time to get used to seeing mommy at school.  I wish I can take more pictures of her during school time, but I don't think it's appropriate to put too much attention to her when my role is a teacher.  I still managed to video couple clips during the Mandarin circle time.  I am so glad that she speaks out and responds when Ms. Chen asks questions.  Haley makes a very good progress in that.

One of my main duty is to lead the first circle time and cover things including:  Letters, shapes, phonics, colors, weekly reader, bible story, bible verse, calendar, storytime, science, cooking, etc.  Ms. Chen takes care of the second circle time teaching Mandarin and review some materials bilingually.  We have an assistant Lina to prepare materials on worksheets and projects.  I think I have a pretty good rapport with both teachers and director.  I am sure I will learn new things from teachers, children and most of all from the preparation of approaches in how to teach.

Haley is doing additions.

Haley almost did all these by herself.  She first started to count by her fingers, and troubled when the sum is more than 10 fingers.  I helped and suggested to use the bottle cap to count.  I am proud of her and I never knew that she is capable already.

Haley proudly showed her work to daddy as soon as he came home from work.

Chester saw what Haley did, and he quickly brought over his work to show daddy as well.

A day at home...

Fingerprinting.  Chester hesitated at first, but soon he loves to get his hands dirty.

 Fingerprinting is only the beginning to Haley's fun.  She looks forward to the after-activity, washing her hands and playing with water in a bucket.

 Chester copies everything that Haley does and says.  They will keep calling me "mama, mama" until I respond to show me their silly tricks.

 Trying to teach Chester to find the matching alphabets, but he got distracted after finding A & B.

Pulling grass to throw at me.

First day of school for me & Haley 2012-2013

Today is Haley's first day of school for school year 2012-2013.  It is also my first day to be a preschool teacher.  Owen took a day off so Haley can get full attention from daddy while I'm with other children/parent.  It is sad to find out the enrollment is so low, there is only 7 students.  The school has many children attending the after-school program and the director Sandy explained their school always has late enrollment for the preschool session.  Hopefully and prayerfully we will get more students soon or later.  Parent participated in activities like helping their children made their sign-in books, journal, and measured their weight and height.  Haley is 38lbs and 41 inches.  The other teacher Ms. Chen and I led the children to sing songs, played games, and make a little craft project while Sandy hosted a parent conference to go over curriculum with them.  I was exhausted after the 3-hour school day.  My working schedule is M/W/F from 9-12.  Haley will have the same schedule as mine, and Chester will join us when he turns two in October.  Thanks to grandpa's help.  He will come to our home early in the morning to take care of Chester while Haley and I are in school.  

Haley helped mommy in final set up before the parents and students come in.

 Haley missed her best friend Kaylie from last year in school, but Kaylie is going to kindergarten.  It's good that she found a new friend Olivia to bond with on the first day of school.

 Preparing her journal.

I brought a little game to play with the children.  They all love to roll the set of BIG dices.

Last summer activity before school begins - Oakland Zoo