Pre-K with Zalen - What I am learning...

First of all I want to thank all of you for your amazing support on helping sponsor the children from Mwangaza International.  All the children were sponsored for school.  My goal was to raise $400 and through my fundraising link $530 was raised which not only sponsored all the children pictured on my blog post and the rest of the girls that were not pictured!  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

The blog has been a bit silent because our household is coming off of a three week off and on sick streak as we have been passing around a terrible bug.  In between the sickness has been several birthdays.

I guess what is on my mind adoption wise is "learning".  What to expect and what not to expect.  What works.. What doesn't.  Zalen's English continues to improve but he is still having difficultly with remembering the basic flash card objects.  Another challenge is his attention span.

We have worked on colors forever it seems and he can not remember the names of the colors.  He can sort and match the colors but when you ask, "Zalen what color is this?" He hardly ever gets it right.  He seems overloaded by the amount of information I am presenting.

I am surprised how quickly he has picked up using the mouse and track pad on the computer.  He loves playing the games on starfall.com which we are using for the alphabet.  Right now I am spending two weeks on the same letter so we are only on the letter B.

Websites I am using are DreamEnglish (He loves the videos) and Starfall.  I am also using a few other sites for lap books that we are creating so he can review what we already learned.  I have rented an ESL video from the library several times that he also enjoys.

I think it is very important to understand what kind of techniques work the best with your child.  Avery was home today and she observed our lesson time.  "Mom, you really do things with Zalen a lot different then when you taught us in preschool."  I took that as a compliment.  I explained to her that he was learning a new language and we had to do things a bit different.

This link at ESL-Kids was very eye-opening -- "In Class - Meet the Children"  It described many different types of learning.  Flashcards are very difficult for Zalen.  He spends most of our flash card time saying --- Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm!  He is not a visual learner.  I am working to adapt my lessons so they are not so focused on flash cards.

I have learned in the last month or so that Zalen learns the best through music and song.  His strength is auditory.  He sings all the time! He may not always get the words to the song done but the rhythm to the song is always right on.   Makes sense due to his culture.  The Congolese have beautiful music.  Zalen has a way of dancing with his shoulders that just crack me up.   A very common issue for Zalen is adding extra syllables/sounds into words that don't belong. We use his strength of auditory to give difficult words a beat -- clapping out the syllables to a beat as we chant the word.  It has really helped him focus on pronouncing the word correctly.   

Zalen also seems to thrive on learning through touch.  He likes objects.  He can identify objects to a name much better then a flash card.  The link above describes this as tactile learning.  For Christmas we are hoping to purchase an I-pad as a family gift for everyone to share.  I believe that this will be a great learning tool for Zalen due to the tactile approach of touch.

Is there any programs or techniques that have worked for you?  Websites you love for ESL learning?  Please share!  I am really wanting more ideas on how to teach more tactile as well.