Summer School

Summer school has begun for Lin. It's only been two days, but I'm very happy with everything so far. Lin's ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher met us outside both yesterday and today, and was there waiting for me when I came to pick Lin up both afternoons. After the first day, seeing that Lin has no English language to speak of, her teachers decided that a far more one-on-one course was more appropriate, rather than having her struggle along with the whole class.

Lin is in a class with 5th graders and she seems to fit right in, socially speaking. It was so cool when I picked her up today -- there she was, walking with 4 or 5 other girls... Friends. When she saw me she smiled and waved, then turned and waved good-bye to her new friends. Very sweet.

Lin's ESL teacher does not speak Mandarin, but fortunately there is a Mandarin-speaking reading specialist who is working in a 3rd grade classroom. The original plan was to go get the Mandarin teacher only when Lin hit a roadblock. After the first day it was decided that Lin should plan to spend some of her day with this other teacher, even though that means sending her in to a 3rd grade classroom. I was able to speak with both teachers today when I picked her up and both said she is doing great. She came home with some flash cards for us to review with her. I could tell she was unenthusiastic to review her school work, but I made her do it anyway!

Little things are so thrilling to me right now. Two mornings in a row, Lin has changed the radio station in the bathroom from my beloved NPR to a music station. I'm so happy she did that, all on her own! It shows her independence, that she has opinions about things and isn't afraid to let us know. She has been watching TV a bit more and flipping through stations on her own. Again, she's feeling comfortable with us. She knows this is her home. And today she got on the computer and surfed the web for awhile, without my having to navigate to a website I think she may like.

Most parents of 12-year-olds would say "What?! She messed with your radio, watches TV and is spending time on the internet?!? Get some control over that child!" But to me, after not being home 2 weeks yet, these are wonderful developments.

(Obviously, we will keep track of what she's listening to, watching, and surfing on the 'net...)

First day of Summer School!

No blog post is complete without a picture of goofy Ruby.

Lin and her new set of wheels! Now she just has to learn to ride.

Here's a picture of the moment Lin was informing me, in Chinese, that going for a walk to the end of the street and back, in the summer heat, with her mother and kid sister, was the dumbest idea she'd ever heard. (I made her go anyway.)

And Lin, returning from the afore-mentioned walk. Notice how far ahead of me she is? Ruby and I were apparently too slow for her. (Yep, I jumped right into the adolescent years...)