We've got school books packed and I'm betting against hope that we will be able to get reading material in English either on line or in stores. Learning Mandarin has gone better for us. Repeating the phrases in Chinese has been great and I know that when I get off the plane in Beijing I will be able to say hello and goodbye, I'm hoping to be able to hold more of a conversation. However, do you remember taking a foreign language in high school and how you learned phrases that made no sense what so ever? I had a moment like that tonight as I was working on my Mandarin. Tonight's lesson was about what fruit it was and the answer. Then the next moment the question was how many pens do you have? I reminisced with my husband about odd things you have had to memorize in a foreign language like "My pig is Green". Well off to do more Mandarin for the night.
Packing is going well but it is hard, how do you pack what you will need for 6 months to a year in one checked bag and a carry on and laptop bag? What will we need? One blog says take lots of clothing. Another says you can get most of what you need once you get to China. And yet another is about the lament people have in bringing too many clothes with them. Nate and I are NOT bringing our winter coats and planing to get outerwear in China.
We've got school books packed and I'm betting against hope that we will be able to get reading material in English either on line or in stores. Learning Mandarin has gone better for us. Repeating the phrases in Chinese has been great and I know that when I get off the plane in Beijing I will be able to say hello and goodbye, I'm hoping to be able to hold more of a conversation. However, do you remember taking a foreign language in high school and how you learned phrases that made no sense what so ever? I had a moment like that tonight as I was working on my Mandarin. Tonight's lesson was about what fruit it was and the answer. Then the next moment the question was how many pens do you have? I reminisced with my husband about odd things you have had to memorize in a foreign language like "My pig is Green". Well off to do more Mandarin for the night. With all our packing and getting ready to go to China its nice to just sit back and watch the opening ceremonies tonight. Been real, but we have a DVR so I'm going to say good night.
I want to tell everyone about the wonderful site that I have found that helps me with teaching spelling words and making the learning fun for my son. This site has wonderful games that can be played with the spelling words so that learning the words isn't difficult. I also like the ability that I have for making my own word lists. We print out spelling tests so that we can have a physical copy of what he is doing in school. Spelling words have transformed into something that is fun for my son. I've recommended this site to some other homeschooling parents and they to enjoy the success that we've had with Spelling City.com
Disclosure: I've been given a premium membership to SpellingCity.com for a candid, personal, online review. VocabularySpellingCity helps students study word lists using 25 different learning activities such as Word Search, Hangman, WordFind, and Crossword Puzzle. Parents can create their own spelling lists, find published lists already available on the site, or use any of dozens of free teaching resources on topics such as Compound Words and Multiple Meaning Words. Be sure to come back in three weeks to read about my experience. There might be more free memberships available for bloggers. If you're interested, find out how you can review VocabularySpellingCity.com. Our passports and visa's are back. We are going to China next month. I'll tell you all about the packing and the layover and then Beijing, China. Really looking forward to this. It is going to be EPIC!
Today we went to a tournament. Nate got a 5th place in weapons, I got a 2nd and 3rd in kata and weapons. My mom got two first places in kata and weapons and Sensei L got a 4th in kata, 2nd in weapons, and 2nd in sparring.
We are still waiting for our visas and then we can make travel plans. Well it is all a waiting game now. I've had my physical as has my husband, we have sent our passports to get our visas now we just have to sit back and wait for the visa's to come through. Its funny, my husband and I had to have physicals but not our son who will be coming with us. Please do keep checking back as I update often what is going on.
Around our house, we've cleaned and de-personalized many rooms here so when my sister and her daughter come it will they can bring their things to make the house their home while we are away. We've also been working on getting those little extras that we've read we need over in China, toothpaste, deodorant, and my beloved WEN hair care products that aren't shipped from the company there. Ofcourse the rainbow sock monkeys are coming. I think they'd be crushed if they weren't coming well I hope they won't get crushed in the luggage...lol Well off to learn more Chinese. Nate and I are using http://Chinese-tools.com check them out if you want to learn Chinese too! Awesome to have our passports in today. Now that hurdle has been passed. It was just the other day we were wondering when they would get here. Next stop is the Visa's. Looking forward to opening our eyes to a new world. I'd better get busy with my Chinese online. LOL
Hi,
We are working on getting ready for China. So far we have gotten paperwork submitted for our passports. We have been looking on line at what awaits us in China and I've found a free online tutorial for Chinese: http://www.chinese-tools.com/ For homeschooling, I've gotten most of the books that I have for Nate to use next year. I've also found some pretty cool printable's on China. I'm also getting Zumba certified this month. I'm looking forward to all the awesome things that are happening right now. I'll keep you posted on all upcoming events! Hi everyone! Have a safe and happy Independence Day as we celebrate the freedoms that have been won for us to enjoy.
Since it is summer, that means taking time to enjoy the longer days and that is just what we are doing. My posts to this blog will be less frequent until we get back to school full-time in September. We are doing summer work to keep things as they were and better. I am using Spectrum Math this summer and Nate and I have been having fun with working on math. Today he taught me and it was awesome! Well enjoy the summer and we will see you in the fall. Toni |