It has a QWERTY keyboard so he is learning the keyboard at the same time!
Thomas loves his Leap Frog Text & Learn.
He also loves to sit in his book tent and read.
When we went to Texas I bought Thomas a new toy, LeapFrog Text & Learn. He has been playing with it on his own in the house, during car rides and such. Then one day we were in the car, sitting at a red light, when Thomas started saying "I,i,i!". Tom said to me that he didn't know what he was talking about so I looked back and realized that he was looking out the window at a store sign next to us. It was the "DIY Mart" and Thomas was pointing out the "I" in "DIY" to us! We were so surprised as we hadn't put any attention or effort into teaching him his ABCs yet. After all he was only 20 months old!
From that day on, Thomas was an ABC learning machine! He was pointing out and saying the ABCs everywhere we went! Daddy has been working hard to help him now, practicing them with stickers on the fridge. Thomas can now identify, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, I, K, Q, S, V, and Z on his own! He can spot them on signs, on books, papers, cars, toys, boxes, anything and everything. We were so surprised and impressed with his knowledge and even more his desire for knowledge. We bought some posters with the ABCs on them and he loves to read them and tell us what he sees!
Beyond his new-found knowledge of ABCs he is starting to speak more and more English. These days he can easily say "I love you", "please", "more", "all done", "night-night", "thank you", "orange juice", "orange", "car key" and several animal names in English. His Korean skills are also advancing, he can tell us when he doesn't want to eat, that he's had a good sleep, when he wants a bath and he has started saying hello and good bye in Korean. He communicates so well that we rarely have trouble understanding what he wants or what is bothering him. I guess one of the most important developments recently he's come up with is "No". He can tell us what he wants more accurately now and it really helps us in our daily life.
The Kimchi Kid is surprising us daily with his new vocabulary and behaviour. He's growing up so fast, sometimes I feel that it is too fast! We went to the orientation for his Kindergarten today. I cried when we were done, I'm not ready for him to start school! In Korea he is already almost 3 years old! They follow the lunar calendar here and the ages are on average 1-2 years older than in Canada. There were several other kids his age at the orientation, but I just think he is still a baby and no where near ready to enter preschool! Unfortunately Tom, Doumi and the Kindergarten teachers all think differently! I am sure Thomas will love it and will thrive in the new active environment. They don't focus on teaching too much in the beginning, they try to help them with basic skills, behaviour, manners and such. He will have snacks twice a day, lunch, play time, story time, song time, gym time, nap time and more. I worked at his school for the past year and really love the system and his teacher. She is a sweetheart and loves him already since we've been taking him for visits and special days through the past year.
Hopefully I'll update more often in the future, especially once he starts school. I know we will most likely have lots of new and fun stories to share!
Much love from Mommy Cha and the Kimchi Kid.
