Today Jim and I took Caylie to our school district's ChildFind office to be evaluated. I was hoping that they would find that she was delayed enough in her English and maybe some other things so that she would qualify for their free pre-school. However, I don't think that's going to happen, as she did great, haha. We're going to have another eval sometime during the summer, so maybe it will work out, but the lady who did the testing was very impressed that Caylie knew so much English already, and did so well at her other tests. So we'll see!
What we did not realize was that they had arranged to have a Mandarin translator there during our evaluation. We were surprised when a very nice Chinese lady came in to be part of the meeting. I told her that I didn't think Caylie remembered any Mandarin, since she never answers anyone who speaks to her and gets rather weird about it! But the lady spent a lot of time talking to Caylie in Chinese, and got down on the floor and played with her for a long time. After awhile, she told us with no uncertainty, "Caylie remembers Chinese." Apparently, Caylie understood what the lady was saying, and even answered her with Chinese words a few times. I was absolutely dumbfounded, as Caylie has not said anything in Chinese since shortly after we returned home early last June.
I LOVE this news. I never wanted my daughter to forget her first language, but there was little I could do about it, as our main priorities upon returning home from China were attachment and bonding, and helping her learn the language we speak at home. Besides the fact that we knew no Chinese-speaking people for her to converse with! But now that I know that she hasn't forgotten, I want to keep it that way. The problem is, we still don't know any other Chinese people for her to converse with, unless we go to a Chinese restaurant! And as sad as I am about it, we are the only family we know in our city who has adopted from China, so she doesn't have any little Chinese friends, either.
So, my prayer is that God would bring other families across our path. We know other adoptive families, but none here in Aurora. I'm sure there are some here, as big as our city is; I just have no idea how to connect with them. But God does. He knows what my daughter needs, and He will be faithful to bring whatever that is.
Oh that is great! Well I will tell you, our Sarah will of course speak mandarin and brendan and Megan are learning Chinese as well! We bought Rosetta stone and they are wanting to practice :) lets get together!!
ReplyDeleteYou live in Denver, right?
ReplyDeleteWe do too. We're leaving for Nanchang in about 5 weeks to bring our little one home. I have been studying at Hong Tu for the past few months and there is an international school and Chinese school in Highlands Ranch for Caylie to attend. We're looking into ourselves to help our daughter retain her mandarin. If you want, we can talk about play dates once we get settled in and over the jet lag.
Cynthia, do you have a blog? I'd love to follow along on your journey. :) Email me: JoyInHim65@aol.com
DeleteNo blog, but I am on Instagram as Coloradogreystar.
ReplyDeleteI'll shoot you an email.
Awesome! My girls have forgotton Mandarin and Cantonese, but we're going to be using Dino Lingo (a preschool language program) next month. I hope to at least keep them *familiar* with Chinese. Hannah watches Barbie movies in Mandarin, LOL. We have the Little Pim DVDs, too.
ReplyDeleteOh, and not sure of I showed you thus before but the agency who did our home study and is doing our parent training has a school too. They teach mandarin and Chinese dance and a few other things. It might be expensive, but I think they have scholarships as well.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.joyouscenter.org/