Monday, January 12, 2009

Motivation

Jia has informed me last Friday that she wants a computer like her Jie Jie.

Um.... Okaaaay.

I explained to her that a few things needed to happen before she could get one.

First, she had to be older. She not only had to grow up taller, but also not throw fits or take her frustrations out on things. (Such as last night... she broke some kind of glass? acrylic? plastic? figurine because Kenzie was using a hairbrush she wanted to use.) She also had to be able to do what was asked of her and to stop saying no to us as if it was a game. If we tell her to get ready for bed, then she needs to go upstairs and get changed for bed, not say NO and then do something else. Also, she had to stop throwing tantrums - crying every time she didn't get her way. I told her if she needed help, to come to mommy or daddy and we'd help show her a better way to express herself. And finally, I told her she needs to be able to speak more English, like mommy and daddy, so she could tell us what she needed to, and we could understand what she needed better. She was probably learning one or two new words every three to four days at this point.

Every day now, she holds her hand up above her head as if measuring herself, and says "Grow up, computer!" And she is wanting to name things now, learning the words for what is around her.

She's working toward her goal.

Funny thing, originally, I used to understand most of what she said. Now, when I can't understand it, Kenzie will pipe up and say, "OH, she's saying she blah blah blah." Miss Smarty Pants. I guess since she plays with Jia all the time, she gets used to what she is saying faster than I do.

And as I dropped off Jia today at pre-school, she says "Mommy, I go 'chool. You go home."

So good to know I make a difference in her life. LOL!

3 comments:

Super Mommy said...

Glad she still likes school a lot -I'm sure that's helping her with her language. And bite my tongue - so does watching tv! What does she want to do on the computer? Play games? Go on Internet sites?

Gail said...

Wow Julie,
I think Jia is doing excellent with her English!
I think you have to smarty's!

Julie said...

I have NO CLUE what she thinks she'll do with it. We don't allow Kenzie online unless she's been in Daddy's lap - and then only to zoo sites or something like that. Of course, Jia has seen Kenzie play computer games that we had bought her, so I'm pretty sure that's what she wants to do. And I've let her type letters on my laptop at the doctor's office while we waited 'til I could go home.