Last night, Ping-Ping’s new tutor visited. Afterwards, Ping-Ping wanted to work on her English. I realized that one of her main problems is not knowing the proper sounds for the letters–she knows the Pinyin souns of the Chinese Arabic alphabet, but they are different from ours.

So, I got out the boys Hooked On Phonics flashcards. Unfortunately, the tape that played the sounds was lost by a friend. Looking at the cards wasn’t much use unless I sat and told her the sounds (which is fine for when I’m there, but I also wanted something she could do on her own.)

I went downstairs and found a couple of video tapes of phonics that the boys had used, including on on dipthongs, which I really thought she could use. I called her down, but it took forever to get her to come, and she just nodded and ran up again. Feeling a bit disgruntled that she was not more appreciative of my find, I went back upstairs.

Ping-Ping was sitting on the couch with the HOP book in her hand. Next to her was the Cherubim. She was pointing at the letters and the Cherubim, who can read, despite the fact that he seldom talks, was saying the names of the letters. She then showed him some picture flash cards and some of the simple stories in the HOP workbook. He read at least some of it for her.

I could not think of anything better: she’s learning English and he’s being encouraged to talk.

It was glorious!