Learning More about our Boys

Friday night we went to the Chinese Bible Study at our local university.  This is the second week we have been.  We (GW, TJ and me) eat a wonderful meal first with everyone (a wide variety of ages attends) and then have a time of worship and then the group splits up into smaller groups.  We stay with the college kids as this group is the closest in age to our boys.  I wasn't sure the first week about including TJ or not because of his age, but one of the regulars encouraged him to stay (rather than play with the younger kids).  I'm glad she did! 

As usual, GW is very quiet and doesn't say much.  TJ, of course, is much more outspoken.  The lady who is leading the group has commented that TJ is asking GREAT questions - ones that even some of the college kids aren't thinking about.  One question he asked was "What is the Holy Spirit?"  The leader told me she was trying to explain this to him.  I told her "Good Luck".  That is a hard enough topic to explain to someone who has been exposed to Christianity all of their life, much less a boy with little exposure.  She also told me on Friday that he knows about King David and the two kingdoms of Israel.  I don't have a CLUE where he learned that.  It might be from the Stories of the Bible book that GW has and TJ has been reading, or it may have come from reading his Chinese Bible.  She also mentioned that he apparently remembers everything.

Before study time, as TJ was talking to some of the other adults, he told them about something he had done in China.  Fortunately, they told me about it and it has added yet another piece of the puzzle to his life before the age of 10.  I can't wait until we can carry on enough of a conversation so I can get more pieces of the puzzle.

Saturday night, we watched a Netflix movie titled Please Vote for Me It is about the democratic election of the Class Monitor for the 3rd grade in an elementary school in Wuhan, China.  It is in Mandarin, but has English subtitles.  For anyone who is adopting a school age child, I highly recommend it.  It shows a glimpse into the life of kids at school as well as at home.  Some things can be disturbing if you are paying close attention, but they reveal more about what is normal life in China. 

While watching the movie, GW was singing along with some of the songs and doing some of the movements and repeating some of the sayings.  It was fun to get a glimpse into his life before 14.  I asked him later if was ever the class monitor and he said he was in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade.

On Sunday night, my sister dropped by to visit.  While she was there GW was sitting out on our back deck singing.  He sang a LOT.  He was listening to his MP3 player and singing along with nearly all of the songs.  I guess he is a typical teenage boy that likes music.  I'm so glad I have been able to help him find what he wanted and then download it for him on his MP3 player.

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Someone asked in a comment how we homeschool when I work full-time outside the home.  CP is a full-time stay-at-home Dad and has been (except for a short 1 yr stint when I was between jobs) since JA was born.  We also use a self-taught curriculum that allows the kids to work independently while CP focuses on helping HJ learn to read and GW and TJ learn English.