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October 09, 2008
News from school
Ethan loves school. I'm really very happy. I'm sure the day will come when he doesn't love it this much anymore, as the work gets more and there is less singing, but right now he absolutely adores it. He and Jeff still bike to school every day (from now on I will bike him there on Tuesdays, because I've started a Japanese class for parents that day). I feel really good that we've gotten into that habit. We'll see how it goes as the rainy days get more and more frequent, but since we're about to finally sell our second car, our chances are pretty good.
Anyway, Ethan. School. He loves it. He's much more enamored of the Japanese part, even though initially he was nervous about it. I think he's well caught up. He can read all the hiragana, and they're slowly practicing writing them correctly. He can read most katakana too. Every few days he has homework for Japanese, which right now just involves practicing the kana du jour and then reading all the words to Jeff. Then we have to sign it, which is kind of funny, but I guess encourages parent involvement. He comes home singing new songs, and the songs seem very effective - there's a song for days of the week, days of the month, the alphabet, colors, all kinds of things. Linna has been picking them up too, which is incredibly adorable.
Ethan has one particular friend, who happens to be the other kid in his class who's new to the school this year. He's also friends with some of the girls he sits with. As at Harmony, girls seem to really like Ethan right now. Perhaps because he's a non-rowdy boy, I don't know. Jeff's made a friend too - the dad of a girl who also bikes every single day to school.
Then there's English, which Ethan also enjoys. They seem to do a lot of writing, which Ethan does actually find challenging at times. Not the writing part itself - he's a very good speller - but thinking of what to write. I'm glad they're doing that sort of thing. In addition, Ethan and some other kids "walk to read" one day a week - they have a weekly reading group with some second graders.
But mostly he loves the Japanese part. He's supposed to read at least 20 minutes in English each day, which used to be no problem, but right now he really wants to spend his time reading whatever Japanese books we have instead. He sometimes responds to things in Japanese instead of English, just for fun. I predict a day very soon when I can't keep up with him at all, which is partly why I'm planning to start studying Japanese again myself.
So overall, Ethan's very, very happy at his school.
Posted by ktingey at October 9, 2008 07:27 AM