The Riddler

Our Emily is good at tying us in knots with her wit in riddles. Here are a few samples of her latest zingers. Post your guesses in the comment section and I will post her answers in a few days.

Deep in the heart of the Amazon
He springs upon his prey from the tree tops
And with silence and stealth
that would put a sniper to shame
He vanishes away into the moonlight.

What am I?

I am found in the wastelands of the North,
where the wild winds blow strong
I fill many with fear and dread
causing the mighty warrior to bow
And the lowly ant to meet it's death

What am I?

I dwell in the hearts of the people;
Where no man's eye has seen.
My mission is to destroy and enslave
and my harvest is great.
Yet, most deny my existence
and thereby prove my presence.

What am I?

When Emily was early elementary age we would do Dr. DooRiddles. She loved doing these associative reasoning puzzles and they helped her to think outside the box. She is now working on this skill with Andrew by making up riddles for animals and he is doing very well. He loves to play the "Animal question game". Big sisters are sooo much fun!

My favorite Andrew and Kathlena words

When we first started this blog we would periodically post J.Michaelisms. While J.Michael still zings us with his wit, his two younger siblings take the stage with some of their cute linguistic concoctions. Here are a few of our favorites:

Andrew

"Mom, is this Breafkist?" (breakfast)

"My name is Andrew David Shiff-ah-let" (Shiflet, I must admit though I had trouble with this too at first when I became a Shiflet)

Kathlena

She was out whacking the bushes in the yard with a large stick yelling "I kill the dime-o-saurs!"

"Daddy wearing your meeting shirt" translation "Daddy are you going to work today"

In the morning Kathlena will greet me with "I sleep good my beg (bed)" the greeting when she gets up from nap is " I happy"

Walks and Talks

Something that I really love to do with my kids is take walks in our neighborhood. We are blessed to live in a neighborhood that is covered in trees and lots of wild life to observe. A little over a year ago Emily, J.Michael and I began walking for exercise and fun. We got serious about it and Google mapped our whole subdivision printing maps to make 2 mile routes. It was fun...we have a notebook of color coded routes that we rotate so that we cover our entire neighborhood on a two week rotation. I know this sounds so much like a home school Mom project! :)

The best part of these walks have been the great conversations we have been able to have. A time to hear what is on each others hearts and discuss what is going on that day in our studies, an article someone has read or discuss a scripture we have been wrestling with. We have even walked and sang hymns...this will make you out of breath and contrary to Snow White the deer actually run away from you instead of towards you when you do this.

Our walks have had interesting tales of meeting neighbors, finding deals at garage sales or curbside freebies! We have been caught in the rain (or waaaynin as Andrew calls it) We have been on the other end of the subdivision and heard thunder and prayed that we would make it home only to set foot on our driveway as the rain begins...amazing-(not because my feeble prayers bend the will of almighty God, but because He so graciously displays his power for His glory to us.)

I remember days not so long ago when Emily, J.Michael and I would talk about "one day" when their brother and sister are here they will be walking with us. Through God's faithfulness we are now living in those days. It is so exciting to experience our neighborhood through Andrew and Kathlena's eyes too. To see them get excited about seeing a deer or squirrel, to be startled by a passing car or hear a motorcycle to which Andrew shouts with glee "motorcycle!, motorcycle!" -in English. For now Andrew and Kathlena both ride in the stroller as 2 miles is too much for them to walk, but they are getting stronger and learning to love God's creation daily through these walks and talks.

A fun activity we do on our walks to help Andrew and Kathlena learn their numbers and pre-reading left to right skills is to read the numbers on the mailboxes. At first, only Andrew would do this but, now Kathlena is beginning to catch on and repeat what Andrew says. Andrew is most familiar at this point with single digits so I have him call them out this way. It goes something like this:



Mommy: "Andrew look at the green mailbox what number is it?"



Andrew: " one, seven"



Mommy: " good job, one, seven-seventeen"



Andrew: "good job, seventeen"



My favorite of Andrew's numbers is the number 9 which he pronounces "nion" like lion with an "n". Too cute! We also work on knowing our address which has become a game to find our house on the way back from our walks. He now loves to tell you his age and any time he hears the number "5" referenced he exclaims "5 like Andrew".

Baby Einstein great for internationally adopted children

I am not sure what made me think that these DVD's would be good for Andrew and Kathlena except that they are simple and have lots of music in them. I bought one the second week we were home and Andrew watched it 5 times back to back. He was hooked. Kathlena was not as interested at first in the one we had(Animals in the neighborhood). We later found out that our library carried many of them so we began trying different ones out. Our favorite by far and most helpful has been...My First Signs.

My First signs I think is particularly great for international adoptive families because it teaches the children a very simple sign language that they can mimic and use quickly. Andrew had memorized the signs from watching it twice and began using it in context. Kathlena would use it when prompted but not usually take the initiative to use it in context at first. After a few more times of watching it she is now using the signs for more, please, and bath in context just to name a few. It is also great because the signs that are taught have to do with family life. It introduces the concept of family...Mommy, Daddy, baby, etc. I wished I had known about it sooner...it definitely would have been one that I would have packed with us for Russia to have them watch right away.

The second favorite one is Baby Da Vinci that explains eyes, ears, mouth, nose and teaches the familiar Head and Shoulders song that Andrew now sings along with the motions. There are several other DVD's in this series that are great because it is geared towards teaching a child who is in the pre-verbal stages of language. While it is different for a child who is going through language attrition of their birth language. It is normal when learning by immersion a new language and losing your native language when young to revert to non verbal communication before progressing to context verbal language. Simple sign language and music has been a great help for Andrew and Kathlena to pick up English quickly. Baby Da Vinci is actually in French, Spanish, and English. For those adopting from countries whose children speak French or Spanish it might be a good learning tool especially.

Of course just naming everything we see Andrew and Kathlena parrot it back to me and very quickly learn to pick up the names or words for things, then the context comes and last the grammar or usage. Andrew right now has moved to using words in context but the grammar is not there. He will say things like "You like the banana" instead of "I" although he is already catching on to this and has started to use " I" sometimes but not consistently yet. Also, he will say "I like the Babushka Nana" always using "the" whether an object or person. This will fade quickly as he will pick up usage from hearing us speak just as a young toddler does as they grow and hear more language.

An interesting article from Answers in Genesis on language, entitled Words are Us.