what i learned doing homework

Julianna gets homework from school.  Ridiculous, I know.  But no one asked me.  Most of the time it is worksheet type things and she loves it.  It is fun stuff.  I just don't like calling it 'homework'.  Jeepers, she just turned 4 a few months ago! 

(I'm no educator, but it seems like pre math to me..... lots of patterns, counting, writing numbers.) 

So the other day she is working on her homework and I am reading the instructions to her just as they are written, in Chinese.  "Circle the picture of the boy raising his right hand."  She knew exactly which one to circle.  So I stopped and asked her "which one is your 右手 (right hand)?" and then "Now which one is your  左手 (left hand)?  Correct again. 

Recently I've been using a lot of 'right' and 'left' when talking to her, but I wasn't sure she was getting it.  Sometimes she followed my directions, sometimes she turned the wrong way, and sometimes she stopped and looked at me quizzically until I used a hand to indicate which direction I meant. 

Seems I should just switch to using Chinese.  This is apparently something they've worked on at school, and she's got it down in one language. 

This isn't the first time she's been able to express a concept or thought in Chinese but not in English (and obviously there are gobs of concepts that she can express in English but cannot yet express in Chinese). 

It's so interesting to watch young children acquire language.  Makes me wonder what I'll learn the next time the two of us work on her homework :)

Check out her colored pens.  Without a doubt, using the colored pens is the highlight of doing homework!