Gracie's English

Ok...well, here it is.  I am going to address the question as to how Gracie's English is coming along.  We were home 8 weeks this past Friday, and I can say that I have seen a great improvement in the amount of words she can use just in the past few days!  She and I have been understanding most of what the other says for a while...at least enough to get by.  She has understood English for a while now and could speak some very basic words.  Just lately, she's able to put more English words together to form thoughts.  Some examples would be "Cade, come here" or "Wesleigh went bonk".  She loves to sing the ABC's and sings it alot.  The first video I'm loading is of her singing them.  She knows the song as well as Wesleigh does :) 

My biggest struggle with her learning is to make sure she's pronouncing the words like me and not like Wesleigh.  Wesleigh has some articulation problems, and encourages Gracie to repeat after her...like the blind leading the blind!  The words Gracie says are perfect...I'm trying to keep them that way :)

I haven't noticed alot of frustration from her because of a lack of communication.  I'm a little surprised by that.  We learned in China that she is VERY vocal, but she has not been since we got home.  She learned very quickly that we couldn't understand what she was saying, so she quit saying it...so sad :(  With her increased vocabulary, we've had an increase in "chatter" too.  I am happy about that.  I can't believe she hasn't been more unhappy not being able to communicate...amazing!  She is pretty good at acting things out.  I think she's so smart to figure out that she can act something out when she can't speak it.  I am just in awe of her.  She is frustrating sometimes because her energy is not controlled alot of the times, but she's such a survivor, and has done it with such joy...You can't help but be amazed and pray that you could do the same.

So...here's the first video of her singing the ABC's



Here's another one with more of a "conversation". This is what day-to-day life sounds like :) She sat at this table playing with playdoh for, at least, 2 hours the other day! Wesleigh was there for alot of that time, but Gracie never moved.



I think her vocabulary is really going to take off from here on out.  I have a conference with their teacher next week to see how they're doing.  I can't wait to hear what she has to say!