Do They Know Any English?

We get asked often if our little girls know any English. My first answer is always, "I have no idea." Then I follow it quickly by saying, "we think they know a little because the couple that runs their orphanage is American."

I am going on the premise that the girls know a wee bit. Enough to enable us to communicate in the early days as we begin to get acquainted. We have ordered two books on conversational Tagalog and we are working on learning a little ASL (American Sign Language) to help us along as well. Words such as hungry, thirsty, tired, bathroom are some of the important ones we're learning.


I will be homeschooling the girls as recommended by their reviewing physician. (I'm so excited to be homeschooling again that you can envision me doing a happy little jig. I can hardly wait)! The first few weeks will be just a time of getting used to each other and our family routines. I'll be doing lots of interactive playing with the girls. We'll be building towers and houses with Duplo, playing with the farm toys, rocking and feeding our baby dolls, playing with beads, designing with Playdough, painting, and of course, I will be doing lots and lots of reading with them. I'm already looking at using the Sonlight curriculum with them next year. I'm so excited about this!

For this year, I simply gathered up a few books from various different places. We'll work on letters, numbers, colours, shapes, and whatever else I think they will enjoy that will encourage them to learn English and feel confident about learning. Here's some of the stuff I have gathered for school.

Well , the sun is shining brightly here showing me how badly I need to dust! May you all have a day filled with small blessings -- both big and small!