Dr. Seuss

The wind has calmed down now, so the walk to school was pleasant again. We even took the kids outside to play in the snow. They really had a good time standing up on the 5-feet tall banks of snow and shoveling like crazy. I find it very interesting that the Russian educators at my school who speak English are unfamiliar with Dr. Seuss’s Books. I bought some and read the kids “Green Eggs and Ham” today. Their English is so good at this point that they can complete the rhymes when I show them the illustrations. They’re really increasing their vocabularies and are now able to sit still through an entire book. And that’s difficult for a kid when the book is in his native language. An interesting thing about Russian parents is that they think the more lessons you make a kid take, the better off he will be academically. They tried to get me to have a Spanish or Chinese teacher come into the room twice a week for 20 minutes and I refused. 40 minutes a week would be a waste of time. Plus, I thought you wanted them to be good at English! Plus, they already have Tatar lessons, music lessons, yoga lessons and the salt room. For crying out loud, they’re learning English while we play. 2and 3-year-olds are not going to learn English by sitting at desks and memorizing stuff. Let them play. But the mom of one of my two-year-olds decided she would have the Chinese teacher give him private lessons after dinner 3 times a week. I went with the kid today. The teacher is a young guy who had no idea what to do. He just kept saying in Russian, “He is so young.” The teacher has been in Russia for two years, speaks some Russian and no English. His Russian was heavily accented and hard to understand. He had no materials with him, he didn’t really talk to the kid. I tried to give him some suggestions but he said he had just wanted to meet the kid today. I don’t know that this is going to work out. Tonight is another gathering of City Club. Sonia and I are headed out in a few minutes to meet with English speakers of many different nationalities. It’s always fun and exciting. Anna, Fouad and Ravil are also planning on coming. I can’t wait to hear what the discussions will be about. Tomorrow we head to the women’s volleyball match. I’m excited about that because they are at the top of of the league. This weekend I’ll have to post the pictures of the stuff I built out of toilet paper rolls and cardboard for our unit on transportation this week and next. It keeps me busy during the kids’ nap time. I have to get ready now, so I’ll write more on the weekend.