I just finished reading a fabulous book called "Peanut butter friends in a Chop Suey World". I think it was mostly written to help kids and probably primarily young teenagers that are living abroad in having a healthy perspective on having expat friends and/or local friends in their host culture. I read it and gained a ton of thoughts on raising kids in a cross cultural environment and primarily in how to encourage our kids in having relationships within both worlds but also in how I as a parent can help to lesson the gap between them and our host culture. There are things that I can do and not do that can make the "gap" wider or smaller for them. It is one of my prayers for myself and Josh as parents that the Lord would grant us wisdom in this area. One of the things we've decided upon is sending our kids to Chinese pre school. Abby started the end of August and absolutely loves it! She doesn't understand the majority of what the teacher(s) say but has had a really good perspective about it. She woke up one preschool morning about a month ago and said. . . "Mommy I don't want to go to chinese pre school today." I asked her why and she said it was because she doesn't understand what the teacher is saying. I asked her if she understands more now than when she first started. . . she got this bright look on her face. . . "Yeah! I do! I'M LEARNING CHINESE!" And she quickly finished getting ready for school. Her not wanting to go has never come up again. :) She is not fluent by any means but has begun to put sentences together to communicate with her friends. She has learned how to ask them to play with her and how to ask the teacher to look at her work. Yesterday when I went to pick her up, her class was on the playground playing. She didn't see me at the school gate so I stayed quietly to watch her interacting with her friends. She was playing with her two Chinese buddies she talks about a lot, (Sui Rong and Duo Duo) and she was using probably all of the Chinese she knows to ask them to hold her hand so they could walk and skip together (side by side- Abby being in the middle). They understood her and I watched her take both of their hands and skip across part of the playground smiling and laughing with her little friends. I can't tell you enough how full my heart was with thankfulness! One of her best little girlfriends (American) Lily and Abby are in the same classroom so I've been SO thankful that they have each other and yet sometimes I worry that because they have each other they won't see a need to make friends with the Chinese kids in their class but both of them have made special friends and have adjusted really well so far. :) One of the challenges for our kids is using a Chinese "squatty" potty while at preschool - and they don't use toilet paper to wipe at pre school so that has taken some coaching and some adjustment- probably more for me than for Abby. :) The pictures I attached above are of Abby and Hudson at the Temple of Heaven this summer when my friend Lori was in town. What a time it was for us interacting within the culture! Because we live here, we don't often go to tourist spots and our kids are one of the attractions when we go. . . so Lori can attest to the fact that it was challenging for all of us to have people taking pictures of my kids constantly and touching them without even a concern or thought as to how a little person (or thier mom) might feel to have a stranger run up and touch their face or hair. . . what a day! It was also a really good reminder to myself of how I need to pray before doing all things. . . pray for protection for myself and my kids, and I need to prepare my children the best I can. . . and then let the Lord provide on-sight learning lessons as we go! AND we need to continue to interact within the culture in the power of the Spirit!
I just finished reading a fabulous book called "Peanut butter friends in a Chop Suey World". I think it was mostly written to help kids and probably primarily young teenagers that are living abroad in having a healthy perspective on having expat friends and/or local friends in their host culture. I read it and gained a ton of thoughts on raising kids in a cross cultural environment and primarily in how to encourage our kids in having relationships within both worlds but also in how I as a parent can help to lesson the gap between them and our host culture. There are things that I can do and not do that can make the "gap" wider or smaller for them. It is one of my prayers for myself and Josh as parents that the Lord would grant us wisdom in this area. One of the things we've decided upon is sending our kids to Chinese pre school. Abby started the end of August and absolutely loves it! She doesn't understand the majority of what the teacher(s) say but has had a really good perspective about it. She woke up one preschool morning about a month ago and said. . . "Mommy I don't want to go to chinese pre school today." I asked her why and she said it was because she doesn't understand what the teacher is saying. I asked her if she understands more now than when she first started. . . she got this bright look on her face. . . "Yeah! I do! I'M LEARNING CHINESE!" And she quickly finished getting ready for school. Her not wanting to go has never come up again. :) She is not fluent by any means but has begun to put sentences together to communicate with her friends. She has learned how to ask them to play with her and how to ask the teacher to look at her work. Yesterday when I went to pick her up, her class was on the playground playing. She didn't see me at the school gate so I stayed quietly to watch her interacting with her friends. She was playing with her two Chinese buddies she talks about a lot, (Sui Rong and Duo Duo) and she was using probably all of the Chinese she knows to ask them to hold her hand so they could walk and skip together (side by side- Abby being in the middle). They understood her and I watched her take both of their hands and skip across part of the playground smiling and laughing with her little friends. I can't tell you enough how full my heart was with thankfulness! One of her best little girlfriends (American) Lily and Abby are in the same classroom so I've been SO thankful that they have each other and yet sometimes I worry that because they have each other they won't see a need to make friends with the Chinese kids in their class but both of them have made special friends and have adjusted really well so far. :) One of the challenges for our kids is using a Chinese "squatty" potty while at preschool - and they don't use toilet paper to wipe at pre school so that has taken some coaching and some adjustment- probably more for me than for Abby. :) The pictures I attached above are of Abby and Hudson at the Temple of Heaven this summer when my friend Lori was in town. What a time it was for us interacting within the culture! Because we live here, we don't often go to tourist spots and our kids are one of the attractions when we go. . . so Lori can attest to the fact that it was challenging for all of us to have people taking pictures of my kids constantly and touching them without even a concern or thought as to how a little person (or thier mom) might feel to have a stranger run up and touch their face or hair. . . what a day! It was also a really good reminder to myself of how I need to pray before doing all things. . . pray for protection for myself and my kids, and I need to prepare my children the best I can. . . and then let the Lord provide on-sight learning lessons as we go! AND we need to continue to interact within the culture in the power of the Spirit!
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