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The unexpected advantage of Japanese

(Ryan and Sean 2005)

When I put Ryan in the dual language school, I was informed that each student had to also choose a third language. I put Ryan in French because I have a wonderful friend who speaks French and is teaching it to her kids. When I told Nate, however, he made me request a transfer. "French," he asserted, "Is a dying language. Put Ryan in something more useful." Honestly, I was just delighted that he was showing any interest in Ryan's schooling. He generally just leaves it up to me. So, I switched Ryan into Japanese. I didn't think it mattered much. I had high hopes that my kids would be able to learn Spanish. But, I really didn't think there was much chance they would pick up a third language in elementary school.

I have been proud of how well both Ryan and Sean are doing in Japanese. But, there has been a huge unexpected benefit that has nothing to do with the language.

Last year Ryan excelled in every subject except one: handwriting. He struggles with fine motor skills. He always has. He did all the exercises, but just couldn't seem to get his handwriting up to even that of the other kids in his class. This year, however, he started bringing home papers that looked like this:



The teacher wrote the Japanese word in our alphabet, followed by it's English translation. Ryan's job was to write the word in Chinese characters. (The teacher informed me that the Japanese use the Chinese alphabet.) The point is that he has been doing one of these worksheets every night. The example I posted is a completed one from a couple weeks ago. Not bad, eh! His handwriting has improved dramatically. Tonight, I commented on how well he was doing and he just beamed up at me before replying, "Ms. Willis says I write like an adult."

Who would have thought Japanese class could be so good for handwriting?

Good Job, Ryan.

In other news, Sean Pest is being tested for GT this week. He was one of three his teacher recommended from his kinder class. Sorry if my writing is always so self indulgent, but I suppose that's really the definition of blogging. I sure love bragging about my kids. Heavenly Father has blessed me beyond description.