Justinisms
Nov. 27th, 2003 02:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ciroccojWent to Justin's French class this morning. Much, much better than last week's. And Justin was actually participating and showing that he's picked up a little bit here and there - Bonjour, Au revoir, S'il vous plait, some colours, and numbers up to 10. A few other random words. More importantly, he likes it.
He's been pretty cute today, too. To wit:
Justin: (On the way to French class) I don't want to go to Debbie's house (one of his babysitters).
Me: But sweetie, you always say you have a great time when you go there.
Justin: Yeah.
Me: Didn't you like working on the Halloween crafts? And Tuesday morning play group? And playing with Debbie's babies?
Justin: (grudging agreement with all of the above). But she made chicken noodle soup. I don't like chicken noodle soup.
Me: No? I thought you did.
Justin: No.
Me: I love it.
Justin: Maybe you should go to Debbie's house then.
Justin: (In the park after French class, as I was pushing him on the swing) I can touch the sky! I'm touching the sky! (pause) See those footprints on the sun? I stepped on the sky!
Justin (on the way back from French): I really like Jonah. He's nice.
Me: Yeah? Is he one of the boys at the park?
Justin (thinks for a minute): I don't think so. He's an asparagus.
Me: ... (trying to figure out some way that this could possibly make sense) Oh! You mean from the Veggietales movie, Jonah and the Whale?
Justin: Yeah!
Speaking of French, I had a brain wave while driving up there. I was thinking that I'd really like the boys to learn Spanish, but am utterly unable to make time to do it at home. Every resolution I have to work on Spanish while at home falls through.
However, the Ottawa school board has "heritage language" classes offered for free on Saturdays throughout the school year. They're 3 hours long, and they offer Spanish, German, Tamil, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, etc etc. I tried putting Daniel in when we first came to Ottawa, and it didn't go well. But he very much enjoyed going to Spanish camp this summer, and expressed a desire to continue learning Spanish.
So I'm thinking, hm, I'd like to do that, but... the kid already goes to school all week, and the weekend is supposed to be fun-time, and parent-time, and... and maybe it would be OK to put him in next year, because Justin will be old enough to attend too... but then again next year if I'm full-time I'll be spending even less time with them, and part of why Daniel didn't do well when we first tried him in the class was that he was too little to be able to concentrate for 3 hours without more 1-on-1, and Justin will be the same age Daniel was if we try next September... and...
...and why don't I see how they feel about parent volunteers in the class?
And the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. I'd get to spend time with them, and be available if either of them needed one-on-one or started to freak out. And if they didn't, I'd still be there helping the other kids. I speak Spanish fluently and without an accent. And I'm a qualified teacher, although I've let my Ontario College of Teacher's certificate lapse. I'm even qualified for Primary grades.
And they'd get regular exposure to Spanish, and contact with kids who are not playing video games or watching TV.
Hm. Food for thought. I'll have to talk to Chris about it. And then I'd have to see what the board's policy is.
He's been pretty cute today, too. To wit:
Justin: (On the way to French class) I don't want to go to Debbie's house (one of his babysitters).
Me: But sweetie, you always say you have a great time when you go there.
Justin: Yeah.
Me: Didn't you like working on the Halloween crafts? And Tuesday morning play group? And playing with Debbie's babies?
Justin: (grudging agreement with all of the above). But she made chicken noodle soup. I don't like chicken noodle soup.
Me: No? I thought you did.
Justin: No.
Me: I love it.
Justin: Maybe you should go to Debbie's house then.
Justin: (In the park after French class, as I was pushing him on the swing) I can touch the sky! I'm touching the sky! (pause) See those footprints on the sun? I stepped on the sky!
Justin (on the way back from French): I really like Jonah. He's nice.
Me: Yeah? Is he one of the boys at the park?
Justin (thinks for a minute): I don't think so. He's an asparagus.
Me: ... (trying to figure out some way that this could possibly make sense) Oh! You mean from the Veggietales movie, Jonah and the Whale?
Justin: Yeah!
Speaking of French, I had a brain wave while driving up there. I was thinking that I'd really like the boys to learn Spanish, but am utterly unable to make time to do it at home. Every resolution I have to work on Spanish while at home falls through.
However, the Ottawa school board has "heritage language" classes offered for free on Saturdays throughout the school year. They're 3 hours long, and they offer Spanish, German, Tamil, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, etc etc. I tried putting Daniel in when we first came to Ottawa, and it didn't go well. But he very much enjoyed going to Spanish camp this summer, and expressed a desire to continue learning Spanish.
So I'm thinking, hm, I'd like to do that, but... the kid already goes to school all week, and the weekend is supposed to be fun-time, and parent-time, and... and maybe it would be OK to put him in next year, because Justin will be old enough to attend too... but then again next year if I'm full-time I'll be spending even less time with them, and part of why Daniel didn't do well when we first tried him in the class was that he was too little to be able to concentrate for 3 hours without more 1-on-1, and Justin will be the same age Daniel was if we try next September... and...
...and why don't I see how they feel about parent volunteers in the class?
And the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. I'd get to spend time with them, and be available if either of them needed one-on-one or started to freak out. And if they didn't, I'd still be there helping the other kids. I speak Spanish fluently and without an accent. And I'm a qualified teacher, although I've let my Ontario College of Teacher's certificate lapse. I'm even qualified for Primary grades.
And they'd get regular exposure to Spanish, and contact with kids who are not playing video games or watching TV.
Hm. Food for thought. I'll have to talk to Chris about it. And then I'd have to see what the board's policy is.
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Date: 2003-11-27 12:37 pm (UTC)-H