Love this snippet from the school newsletter this week.
"Life gives you what you expect.
The most successful people in life aren't necessarily the best at everything.
They just try to make the best of everything.
They're like the mother who has to clean up the toy box after her toddler very day who says, "I am so blessed to have a creative healthy child" instead of "I can't believe there's a mess here again that I have to clean up."
I have had it up to here with my firstborn's messiness around the house.
In response to her suggestion that maybe we need household rules, I came up with a list of 7 which I gave her today.
Side note:
Hubby saw the list and was full of approval as he thought it came from Beth's teacher and was completely in accord with what we preach...then he found out I drafted it!
HOW TO BE SELF-DISCIPLINED AT HOME
Commandment 1: Tidy up after using things.
Reason: If you don’t put things back where they belong, no one will, and you won’t be able to find what you need when you need it.
E.g.
After doing craft work, put paints and art smock back in art box beneath whiteboard, stationery back in stationery box near the computer.
Commandment 2: Homework first
Reason: A student’s first job is to be an excellent learner. That includes doing homework.
Homework comes before your favourite TV program and computer game.
No TV during school days unless the family is watching it together and homework has been completed
Commandment 3: 30 min of Chinese and 15 min of keyboard practice a day
Reason: A little a day keeps the mental cobwebs away and helps you be more confident when it comes to Sat You will enjoy lessons more when you can understand and follow what the teacher is teaching.
Commandment 4: Get organized.
Unpack school bag when you get home. Remove lunchbox and water bottle, homework books, school notices.
Pack school bag and lay out your school uniform before you go to bed. Make sure you have everything you need: reader, homework books, library bag.
Reason: When you are well-organized, you feel good about yourself. You will never worry that you have forgotten something you were supposed to bring to school.
Commandment 5:No reading at meal times.
Reason: When you read, you forget to eat. Your food gets cold, the nutrition is lost, the food doesn’t taste as nice as when it was warm. You end up eating less than you should and not getting enough nutrients.
Commandment 6:Do as much as you can by yourself before asking for help.
Reason: If you can do it on your own, you should. You can handle simple things like brushing your teeth, getting dressed, taking a bath etc without Mummy/Daddy standing by.
Commandment 7:Be your little sister’s teacher.
Reason: Jordanne looks to you as a role model. She loves to do what you do and she learns best by copying you.
Keep doing what you’ve been doing:
Teach her her ABCs
Show her how to get dressed, how to brush her teeth and comb her hair, how to tidy up after herself
Teach her how to read and write just like you have learnt, so she will be ready for school
Tell her Bible stories, sing to her, read with her
Teach her how to behave at Sunday School, how to pray
It's lovely to hear Jordanne stringing sentences together by herself.
Today, in response to my asking if she wanted to feed the dog, she replied: "Let me put on my shoes first."
She has also been greeting me at pickup time with an enthusiastic "I had good day at school!" A sentiment unfailingly backed up by her carers and her food chart (she usually has 2 servings of lunch when she goes to daycare!).
I shall enjoy this transition without rushing it, because I know the day will soon come when she speaks "properly" like Beth.
Which wouldn't be much fun anymore. Toddler-talk is so much cuter.
I have been trying to impress on Beth the beauty, elegance and wisdom of 华语, to little avail.
She wants me to tutor her one-on-one next year so she doesn't have to go for the weekly three-hour session at Werribee Chinese School.
So today, we watched a DVD that teaches, in 5-min sessions, the word structure of commonly used words.
一人大 二人天 日月明 小大天
The first two characters add up to form the third.
With a bit of imagination and the right graphics/animation, it's easy for a beginner to remember what the word means.
Beth writes down the 汉语拼音, which she is quite good at now, and (with great effort) copies the chinese characters.
The plan is to do one segment a week with 听写 and eventually 默写.
Side note:
I wish the school would get a professional, keyword-search-optimized website that shows up immediately in search engines, instead of the 'free' sites it now uses. I keyed in 'werribee chinese school' into Google (how much more specific can you get?), and the school didn't show up even after page 5! I gave up searching after that, and had to fall back on the latest Principal's Report for the site URL. And that cheesy Congratulations banner at the top that screams Spam/Virus/Hype... Definitely room for improvement there.
Maybe I should talk to them about how SBI! can help...
