I Love These Boys!

May Fun

I've gotten a little behind in posting lately. It seems time keeps getting away from me so I thought I'd make one post about some fun things we've done so far this month.

One of my friends from Missouri travels with the Supercross and builds the tracks. For the last two years he's come to Salt Lake and got us tickets to the race. This is the second year we've taken Colby. This year it was extremely cold, rainy and even snowed some. We were hoping for better weather so we didn't bring the proper rain gear and got soaked. Chris and I were ready to go within an hour but Colby was a trooper and didn't say anything about being cold or wet until almost the end of the race. We were waiting for him to get cold and say he wanted to leave until then we were going to tough it out for him. Finally, when there were only two races left he couldn't take it any more and asked to leave. We promptly headed to the Trax train and by the time we got on the train my feet were so cold I couldn't feel them anymore. So I would have to say since Colby loved it so much we will be going every year.
On our way to the race via Trax.

At the end of April Colby started soccer and so far he's doing great! We took a half year off and so far it has worked out for the best. This summer he's going to try T-ball.


Last week Colby had to do a report on a farm animal and he chose the dairy cow. He had to recite three facts about the cow and also create a farm scene. Here is what he came up with, with some help from dad on building the barn. When he got home he was so excited because he was the only one in his class that got an "ooohhh".


Yesterday at Grandpa and Grandma's house the boys made good use of the hot tub by making it into a swimming pool. They had a great time! We are so excited for summer to get here so we can go swimming all the time.


This is only the beginning of our fun summer so stay tuned.

The Wait Is Over

We finally received that very important piece of mail regarding the Chinese Immersion Program:

we will have a Mandarin Chinese speaking child in our home shortly!

Colby is very excited about this awesome opportunity. I don't think he really knows what it entails but he has not once said he didn't want to do it, even when told he would have none of his friends in the class with him. We are very proud of him for wanting to pursue something like this. Now the guessing game has been taken out of wondering what track he will be on and what teacher he has, we now know all of that. He will be on C track (which I don't really like because he starts school for three weeks and then goes off track in August) and his English teacher will be Ms. Timothy. Also, he will have to attend a week long summer camp from July 12th-July 16th so he can get to know his fellow Chinese Immersion classmates and teachers before school starts as well as some learning and fun.

Since my last post we have learned a little more about the curriculum and I thought I'd share a little of the information with you.

The daily instruction will be done half in English half in Chinese. He will have two teachers, one for English and one for Chinese. Chinese instruction will occur in math, science and related arts content areas. In class, the Chinese teacher speaks only in Mandarin and communicates using a range of engaging strategies including pictures, songs, games, body language, expressions, pantomime, drama, etc. Children at this age are adept at picking up language in the meaningful contexts. After a brief period at the beginning of the year, students too will speak only in Mandarin during Chinese class.

Math in Chinese-90 minutes
Integrated curriculum in Chinese-45 minutes
Chinese Literacy-45 minutes
English Language Arts-135 minutes (reading, writing, spelling)
Integrated curriculum in English-45 minutes

So for the remainder of his elementary years this his how Colby will be taught. Next time you see him, wish him well and congratulate him on making such a great decision. I'm sure most kids would not want to participate in something like this knowing they will not be with their friends any longer. I can't wait to see Colby excel in this and to see him with all his new Chinese speaking friends.

The Sad Gas Station

Last night we passed a Maverick gas station and Cameron said,

"It's the sad gas station"

as opposed to Holiday Oil.

I don't think I've laughed that hard in a LONG time.

For those of you back home that are not familiar with Holiday Oil, their logo is a giant smiling clown face.