My Mandarin Obsession

     Some parents are obsessed with football.  I see them painting their minivans with "Go Bears!" or, better yet, listing the name of their son or daughter and other teammates ALL over the windows.  (How is it even possible to drive that way?!) Some are obsessed with karate, taking off early from work to chauffeur them to class, rushing them out the school door dressed in a disheveled gi.  But, least I think for one second that I'm better than any of these parents, I must take a long, hard look in the mirror.  I'm obsessed with Mandarin class.

     This morning, I got the dreaded call.  Our classes at Language Stars* were cancelled.  BOTH teachers were sick!  This would be no big deal except that my kids are already signed up for classes 2 times a week, the most that our site offers.  And, even though they have a great make-up policy,  I don't want a make-up class in Spanish or Italian.  How would that possibly help a Mandarin-obsessed mom?!  So I got online and found two other classes at another center--one of which started in 20 minutes.  Could we even make it in time?

     Out the door we ran, carrying my daughter to the car with no shoes.  And my son was just thrilled with being rushed out the door because 2 1/2-year-olds just love a frenzied pace.  Not.  By the time we made it to class (relatively on time, thanks to my husband's amazing mental map of Chicago), I was exhausted.  But, my Mandarin obsession was safe.  Everyone was in class, including my reluctant, speaks-not-a-word of Mandarin husband.

     It might be difficult at times (obviously), but my obsession is paying off.  Every now and again, just when I get discouraged that all my effort is for naught, something happens to remind me that my children are learning.  This week, it was my daughter who showed me that she is making progress.  I bought her a wipe-off board to practice writing her numbers and letters (in English).  I just opened it and gave it to her, disappointed as I watched my art-obsessed, handwriting-avoiding daughter flip it over to the "plain" side.  Better luck next time, mom.

     Yet, when I looked again, it was a sight to make a Mandarin-obsessed mom proud.  She had used the "plain" side to practice her Chinese!

Working on her Chinese writing

As always,

Thanks for reading!

Teacher Tam

*I get 50% off classes at Language Stars for blogging.  But, all the opinions expressed are my own.  

Here's my latest product, on sale for 50% off for the next 3 days.  I made the princess set for my daughter.  While she can count in Chinese, she can't match the character to the quantity.  So . . . Check it out by clicking on the picture.