Tag: {K}

HEROES

They come in many shapes and sizes.  Lately, my hero is a tiny 6 year old girl who has been living in a non-cooperative body her entire life, but has never let that fact dampen her spirit.  A girl who only took her first steps months ago.  A girl who recently left all that she has ever known in a country far away to start a new life in America with her forever family.  A girl who continues to amaze her family and others with her strength and determination. Our girl.

I had the pleasure of sharing {K’s} story on the well known China adoption advocacy website No Hands But Ours.  You can read her story here.  Arthrogryposis is so much more than a scary word.  If we had not seen the child past the medical diagnosis, we would have missed having this hero living in our midst.

SCHOOL READINESS BASICS

When {K} was first home a month and a half ago, I looked into getting her in a ESL (English as a second language) summer program.  In our town however, the programs available were either for adults or were day long in a summer school type setting.  Because we are still knee deep in cocooning, we knew that full on summer school wasn’t going to work for us.

While talking with the coordinator, I found out that if {K} learned the basics such as number and letter recognition, counting, colors and shapes she would be in a good position to start Kindergarten come September.  Though not sure how it would all play out, I decided to take on the mommy/teacher role and since the end of April I have been going through some preschool basics with both girls.  I have found that it has been highly beneficial for both of them – in fact, training them together has provided us all with some good bonding time.  They have already come so far!  We have made it through numbers 0-10 and letters A-O, and also have a great start on colors and shapes.  I am thinking that we may even be able to sneak some basic sight words into the mix come the end of the summer.

Though teaching is definitely not in my comfort zone and is not my gift, I have surprisingly enjoyed being there for the girls to help them get a great start on school!