T is for Thailand

Probably the question I am asked most frequently about our kids is, "How is their English coming?"  It is coming, slowly but surely!  Slowly because we are speaking Thai in our house too so there has not been as much of a need for them to learn English.  Surely because we are being intentional to speak English with dad, read books, and learn new words every day. Their vocabulary is growing daily and I would guess that in a few more months they will be putting sentences together and much of what they now understand in English they will start using to communicate.

One of the ways we are being intentional in learning English is by studying a letter of the alphabet every week.  A great idea I got from my preschool teaching mom.  (Thanks mom!) We are not going in any certain order, rather we are studying the letters that interest the kids most or are the easier letters to write.

For each letter we study, we are enjoying finding pictures in the newspaper or flyers that start with our letter of the week.  The kids enjoy cutting them out and gluing them on a big letter. This week we are studying the letter "T". 

 

A fun letter as there are so many crafts and activities to do for the letter T.   So far this week, we have learned that T is for tiger, turtle, train, tree, telephone, television, toothbrush, toothpaste, and towel.

And traffic light

 

and truck!

 This afternoon, as I tucked the kids in for their nap, I was looking for books with turtles or tigers, trains or trucks in them to read, and I came across a book that reminded me that T is for Thailand. 

T is for Thailand

I know it may seem kind of silly to you, but this brought a big smile to our faces and a wave of emotions washed over me. A few short months ago, I was in Thailand, just getting to know my children, watching them experience the ocean and  many other things for the first time.  Thailand, the country of my children's birth. 

I love this country.  Sometimes it feels so far away, this place I once called home.  Sometimes I feel homesick for this place.  Homesick for the people, the smells, the sounds, the tastes, the smiles.  I know that my kids feel the same way at times.  Though we know they want to be here, we can tell by the way they devour their fried rice, or sit glued to a movie in Thai, or look at pictures from years past, that they too sometimes miss this country they once called home. 

Our son wants to know why people here don't speak Thai and why everyone speaks English.  As I explain to him that we are in America now and most people here only speak English, I realize just how far away we are. 

My kids, they will learn English, but I sure hope they can keep their Thai too, even if it takes them a lot longer to learn English, its one more piece of home that they have. So this week, while we study the letter T, we will most certainly be remembering and talking about the fact that T is for Thailand.