Grasshopper and Sensei started learning Chinese when she was in kindergarten. My neighbor tutored Chinese so it was easy to slip this in. I thought we were all set but then she moved away by the end of that school year.

To continue their Mandarin, I put my girls into a Chinese school for adopted Chinese babies. No one speaks Chinese at home. I was in Chinese school for one year when I was in elementary school and my siblings and I were the ONLY kids who spoke English at home. It was not a great experience.

After two years at this Chinese school, my girls wanted out. I hired another Chinese tutor who evaluated them to see what they knew. It turns out that my kids only knew how to count to 10 in Chinese. How could this be? I had sat through those Chinese classes while the teacher drilled flashcards covering the colors including silver and gold! They had been taking Chinese for more than three years!

Deep breath. I took several. I focused on my mantra: It doesn’t matter how many words they remember. It’s more to get them to speak with a decent accent and get them to intuitively understand how different languages construct sentences in very different ways.

My kids started getting busier. The year that all three of them played town soccer and club soccer was the year that we just could not fit in Chinese. I was too tired to figure out a slot, even if it was humanly possible. A year without Chinese passed. Then two. My son who had been learning Spanish since he was a baby could not even remember the color green in Spanish. In one ear and out the other was happening; they were forgetting more than then they were learning. Deep sigh. Feeling defeated, I just let it go.

Then, this past year, PickyKidPix announced that she would like to learn three languages. Out of my three kids, she has the least natural ability but she works the hardest. She had been taking Spanish and Latin in middle school and now she would like to add back Chinese at home. Could I hire the tutor back again? I was delighted too.

Grasshopper and Sensei had switched from Chinese to Spanish in high school and had no interest in learning more Mandarin. My son said he was going to take Spanish in middle school next year, not Chinese, so he didn’t want to take 15 minutes of a hour lesson. I forced him to anyway. It turns out that he remembers more Chinese words than just the color green.

This week’s Chinese lesson included making these Mother’s Day cards. They don’t look like much, but they make me happy. All those years of trying to expose my kids to Chinese did count for something after all.

Happy Mother’s Day (and Aunt’s Day, and Grandmother’s Day) to everyone out there! Hope you all have a wonderful day!

p.s. I really did try to expose my kids to Mandarin Chinese and Spanish at home. Here’s my evidence:

Introducing Foreign Languages to Your Kids

Simon Says in Spanish

Kids Can Learn Spanish Through Songs

Teach Kids Chinese Through Songs

Chinese Words Are Easy to Learn. Really!

How to Pronounce Mandarin Chinese: Pinyin Cheat Sheet

Sites to Teach Kids Foreign Languages

My books:

 Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me

Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me

Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World

• Junior Library Guild Gold selection
• Massachusetts Book Award Long List
• Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
• Starred review from School Library Journal
• Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
• 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
• Green Earth Book Award Long List
• Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids

 Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me

Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me