From: NWCS Principal Date: 5/2/2014 7:44 PM

Happy May everyone!

I cannot believe that it is already May! Where did the time go? We had a few days of serious rain and hopefully we get a little break from the rain and see some sun in the next few weeks.

I often wonder how much my twins actually absorb Chinese since they have been going to NWCS since Pre-K. This morning the twins and I took our new puppy for a walk in the woods and I heard this loud unfamiliar sound (to me) repeating for a few seconds then stop. Then it would start again for a few seconds then stop again. The puppy was looking up, I was looking up. My twins said “Mommy, that is a wood pecker! ” I was amazed because I have never seen or heard one before. I always thought it was from some construction workers hammering something … yeah, in the woods too.

When we got home, I downloaded my pictures and wrote down my morning walk in my journal. I wrote about the wood peckers 啄木鳥 and the forest 森林 in Chinese … my older twin son was sitting next to me and reading what I wrote … he said to me “I know those words …”. He went on to say, “… well I am not sure what the first word is, but I think it has something to do with mouth so probably something about eating stuff… ” (the word is PECK 啄) You can imagine my surprise … and he continued “… because it has the radical of mouth 口… and I know the next word too, it is wood or tree (木). “ I was about to give him a hug for being so smart, but he asked “Why are you writing about eating wood?.” (He should’ve stopped while he was ahead”). Before I could answer, my evil son, I mean, my younger son (by 3 minutes) was not pleased that I was so proud of his twin brother, he said “Oh please, what is the big deal … we learned that in the first grade…”. So World War III started in the Thomas house again. “Oh yeah, what word do you remember, smarty pants!” “Oh yes! I remember that in Chinese, 5 trees make a forest! See, how many trees are there in that phrase? 森林! FIVE! ” … my husband chimed in “5 trees makes a forest? I think it take more than that … “I had to stop him … I gave him the hand! Don’t interrupt this beautiful moment. I can’t believe they actually LEARNED and REMEMBERED something. Ah! All the suffering so far was worth it! I better write this down in my journal as these types of moments come few and far between.

See you all tomorrow! Classes start at 9am. Please be on time.

Forgot to mention the contest is on May 10th! Good luck everyone!

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李宜蓉 Eileen Y. Lee
北威校長 NWCS Principal, 2009-2014
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GO NWCS!!!! Visit www.nwcsny.org
or email LearnChinese@nwcsny.org