February 12, 2007 08:36 - How do we get in and out of this Earth ?
Remember when I say Don ask so many good questions ? Well here is one of them.We were driving and he saw an airplane. Somehow it reminded him of the space book we read the other day and he asked
"How do we get to space ?"
"With rocket, of course, just like in the book."
"No, I mean, how do we get out of this Earth ?"
"Well, do you remember the space vehicle and the rockets and all ? With those, those are very fast and we can reach space with those."
"No Mom, not how we get there. I mean how do we get OUT. You know, out of the earth."
And suddenly I remember when I was really young. We were watching Star Wars and there was a scene when Darth Vader's spaceship is approaching a planet. At the time I was asking the same question, how do we get in and out of a planet.
In our language, we don't say we live ON earth. We say live AT earth. So when somebody says getting to space, it seems like earth is something that we can go in and out, it's not clear that we just live ON earth, not IN earth.
So Don was asking the same question I had when I was young, how do we get IN or OUT of earth, it's hard solid !!! How do we cross that solid barrier ?!
What mother wouldn't be so proud of that kind of question, especially since it's the same one I was asking years ago. LOL !
So we found a globe, and I explain to him about living ON earth instead of IN earth, and getting to space is just going up and up.
Then came the question of gravity (which I was worried since I didn't think I could answer that right away) but we were distracted. Don was satisfied with his first question and he forgot about the gravity one, much to my relieve.
February 7, 2007 13:52 - Pre-reader book club
There was a pre-reader book club with our homeschool group this afternoon. I didn't really know what it was going to be like and whether Don would want to participate, but we went ahead and tried it. Only 4 family was there, each with 2 kids, so it wasn't so overwhelming for Don.Every kid (well the older ones from each family) read a book aloud and then every mom read too. Don didn' read, of course, he doesn't know how to read just yet. Everytime I ask him whether he wants to learn how to read, he says no. Maybe because everytime I also tell him that if he can read by himself, then he wouldn't need to wait for us to read for him. Maybe that's not such a good thing to say. Maybe then he thinks, if I can read by myself, mom and dad won't ever read to me again. Maybe. That's just my thought.
But going to the book club today was such a great thing. Don saw other kids his own age (or should I say his own size) reading. One kid was already a really good reader and he read us quite a long book. The other one read us a level 1 book but the illustrations was so great Don was really impressed. Another kid read very simple sentences. So Don saw a range of reading ability. After we got home, he pronounced proudly to his Dad, "Dad, there were some kids reading at the library !!" I guess he was proud that not only adult can read. I was surprised myself. I thought he knew that other kids can read.
So maybe after this I'll try teaching him his alphabet again. I mean he knows his alphabet already, but he doesn't how to sound them just yet. Plus, I'm still not sure how to teach him. Should I teach him to read in English ? Or Indonesian ? The problem is, he knows his alphabet in English, but he knows more Indonesian words than English. But then again kids are amazing with language.
We also went to Little Gym today. Today was only Don's second time (the third if we include his trial class). Even after only three times, Don is already talking to his friends in English. I don't know what he talks about or whether he really speaks English, the point is they're communicating.
He really enjoys Little Gym. He can run and jump as he likes and really let his energy out. He's always all smile everytime he's in there and I just can get enough of watching him have fun.
February 6, 2007 07:45 - We're back !
There's been so much happenings since I last wrote here. I quit my job, which I think was a very big step. I wanted to be with my kids and enjoy them while they're young, and the opportunity to resign came at the same time I was thinking of resigning. So it was meant to be. I'm a full time mom now and so happy about it.Then the children and I went abroad (went home I should say) for about 4 months. Now this is where the fun starts. I hope I remember to write them here. I am so bad about taking notes or taking pictures. But anyway, I did a little so called research about our bilingual homeschool. The kids were just amazing in how they're processing 2 languages at a time. More about that later, I hope. Just trying to mention everything here so I'd remember to write more about it.
We also did part-time kindergarten. What !! Oh yes, I found out about this school and fell in love with the school's vision right away. It's the closest to homeschooling, so it's like homeschooling together. It was just great, can't wait to tell you more. Not a lot of pictures, though, really feel sorry about that.
We all enjoyed it very much. I guess it was just the right timing, with Don's age and the development of his speech and logical thinking, he asks so many questions. I mean MANY !!!! Everybody says that. The questions could be silly sometimes, but they are logical. I try to answer every single bit but boy, they can be very difficult.
Oh well, will write everything in a better and more organized way later (I hope). I couldn't access this blog when I was away (forgot to bring it along, so excited about quitting and going for vacation, I guess) otherwise I could've written about it as it happens.
