Mom Drops the Ball--Or, Circle

My son knows his shapes in English, but not in Mandarin.  And I have to admit that it's all my fault.  My parents visited from Kentucky, we had a family birthday, I've been busy working on my "teacher stuff" . . .  I could go on and on with the excuses, but you get the idea.  Mom has officially dropped the ball when it comes to Mandarin class.

But I have to say that Language Stars* makes me lazy!  I know that the kids will get a great lesson (both new material and review) every time we go, so I don't worry so much about our "homework." I know, I know.  That's not the right attitude to take.  No matter how good the lesson is, I know that review and work at home is essential if we are going to see real progress in the language.  (For them AND for me.)

This week's lesson in the parents and tots class focused on shapes.   It was so well-prepared and engaging that I have to tell you about it.  The teacher had 3 different shape games:  1) shape boxes, 2) finish the house, and 3) fill in the picture.  (We did all 3 of these activities on Thursday because there are fewer children in the class.  On Saturday, we only had time for the shape boxes.)  

The teacher brought out boxes of 4 different shapes.  They were filled with pretend objects in that shape.   My son really loved the rectangular piece of "chocolate"!  The children practiced the words by asking for objects of each shape.

There were boxes of 4 different shapes filled with objects.

My son loves chocolate!

Then, she brought out a picture of a house for them to complete.

The students found the correct spaces for the shapes.

Last, students finished pictures of a caterpillar and a truck by attaching the correct shapes.

Circles and rectangles complete the pictures.

 With so many activities, you can see why I get lazy about our practice at home!  But, as I have said before, I know that if a word doesn't get practiced and used at home, the children do not learn it.  So I'll try harder this week to fit some shape practice in somewhere between turkey dinner and Black Friday sales!

*I get 50% off of our tuition for blogging about our experience.  Yet all the opinions expressed here are in no way influenced by it.