Bilingually Frustrated

Miss B has just had a meltdown tonight over completing her weekly Chinese homework.

She says the homework is getting beyond her, she is falling further and further behind, and she wants to quit attending Chinese School.

My offer to help with the parts of the homework that she's struggling with: 造句 in particulat, was declined as completely inadequate.

She has her mind fixed on only one course of action.

Her distress was so evident that Miss J (who's all of 6) calmly commented, "Mummy, you can see she's very upset. Maybe you shouldn't talk to her now."

Sometimes I wonder who's the mum and who's the child.

As with Miss B's struggle and subsequent abortion of the mastery of the piano, we have reached a bend in the road.

I tried to explain that music and language learning require time, patience and discipline to show results, and that she cannot give up every time she meets a bend in the road.

"There have already been five bends in the road this year!" she retorted fiercely. "And I cannot take it anymore!"

She stormed off to the reading room to seek refuge in her books.

So I proposed a compromise: if I give her the rest of the year off from attending Chinese school, she agrees to homeschool with me five days a week, using the current curriculum but at her own pace.

She has agreed.

Now to explain my decision to hubby and Miss B's Chinese teacher.

It seems to me I have an "Anne of Green Gables" on my hands. Passionate. Temperamental. Unyielding and stubborn. Feather-brained. Has a flair for drama. Bright.