Just like what the parenting books say that children develop at different rates and they do not grow or grow up at a smooth rate. They will sometimes seem to stand still and at other times leap ahead. This is certainly the case for Daniel. Daniel's development seemed slow on first year, but second year into his life, he seemed to leap ahead since he was 14-15 month old. The most noticeable is his language development.
he is now use tow-word sentences, increasing to three words; he express recurrence 'more milk', 'more cereal; no-existence 'all gone milk'; attribution' big wheel'; nomination' that book', 'there' etc. His words are clear.
he starts to use pronouns (mine, yours);
he talks about activities if encouraged, when he came back from nursery he would say' baby, Jade, ball...Cohen', he know he is baby because he would point him when he says baby, the translation for his telegraphic sentence would be Jade(nursery staff) played ball with him and Cohen (another tot of same age in nursery).
he can tell us what he wants, e.g. 'milk' (he want to drink milk),'chair'( he wants to sit on his chair); bus (he want to watch the wheel on the bus)
he starts to use verbs ,e.g. 'Mama hover', 'Daddy plant flower'
he knows his name Daniel and he can say his name in Chinese 'Dan Dan'
Daniel's language development ticks the checklists for a two-year-old, reading to him early finally paid off, i think. he loves having books read to him and remembers the stories I read to him many times. Every night he would demand to read eight-night picture books until I have to say 'no more books! Mama too tired!' he remembers lots of nursery rhymes and songs and would joins in action, e.g. dance to it, try to sing... tell me what's it's called, like 'star' mean 'twinkle twinkle little star...' ; ' Spider' mean ' Wincy, wincy, spider'...
he sits at table to eat with us in a normal chair now and can feed himself with spoon although still messy, So I still tend to feed him but he insists on d it for himself. On his progress report from nursery it said he can fed himself without assistance.
he starts to play with other children instead of just playing alongside them. Last Friday I took him out with his playmate Justin and his mum to a farm. Justin is two month younger than Daniel. Daniel seemed to know to look out for Justin as he is his friend. When Justin wandered off, Daniel would point him and say 'Ju..Ju..Ju..'
he can recognize himself in the mirror and laughs..
he ascribes human properties to animals and objects, like eyes, noses, mouth etc..
4 comments:
That's very good! Well done Daniel!
Does he speak much Chinese? Isaac hardly does although he understands all the Chinese I say. Every time I say something, he always translates into English correctly. When he does speak some Chinese, he sounds like a Lao Wai! I wish he could speak more Chinese!
I only started reading Chinese stories to Isaac last week. He loves them and always wants more. My mom brought those books here a few months ago. I regreted a lot, I should have read Chinese books to him before. I just hope it's not too late now.
Daniel does have handful Chinese vocabulary, he did say them sometime, but compare to the speed he pick up English words, it's virtually nothing,the trouble is when he says Chinese word only me can understand, so no other people to cheer for him and enhance for him, it's understandable that he naturally will pick up english faster than Chinese.I did read Chinese books to Daniel when he was little, but now he want to choose his own book to read. Compare to all these english pop-up , picture, noisy books, the Chinese books I bougt last trip home look a bit dull, no wonder Daniel always push them away when I try to read them to him.
I don't think it would be too late for Isaac. I know it's hard, but keep trying! Sounds say to myself! haha! My friend Yan took her two Estonian-born daughters back to China for 9 months to learn Chinese specially and she just back last month and told me her daughers now speak fluent Mandrin . Her daughers are 7 and 5 this year and they hardly spoke any chinese before they went. I'm thinking to do the same - taking Daniel back China for a year or so to learn Chinese sometime before his 5 year birthday. Obviously it would be hard for us, because I might need to resign from my job, but it certainly worth trying.
Wow, that would be a big plan. I can't imagine Mark allows me and children to be away from him for so long. Well, I can't imagine myself living in China for that long, hehe. For us, it's just not possible - unless we win lotto (actually we never buy lotto, how could we win?). I might check out the Saturday Chinese schools in the local area and send them there.
Isaac's old girlfriend Rebecca speaks good Chinese because her mom has been speaking Chinese only to her. I'm not so persistent, unfortunately. Rebecca goes to a Chinese School on Saturdays, mainly for fun at this age. I should let Isaac try too, if I can find one that's suitable for his age.
Now when I put a DVD on and if it's in Chinese, Isaac would go "It's Chinese! It's not nice! You change it!" After I change to English, he would be very happy and go "That's better!" Well, sigh!!
Not so much a plan yet! more an idea at the moment as we have lots of financial commitments in the UK as well. We haven't come up with a financially viable plan yet that's why I say 'to do this before Daniel's 5th birthday'. Terry is not happy to let me and Daniel away for that long either! However, he is now trying to ditch his day job, it's quite risky, but we don't know if he will be success, if so we can go back together, if not, we might have to go back for short length period.
The Chinese school here only take children above 5.
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