Languages

Start as you mean to go on.....

Yesterday I talked about posting regularly, so here I am with today's edition. I just hope this time it doesn't fizzle out in the next two three days.

The past few months have been hectic for me in terms of thinking about the kids education! I have just signed the Princess and the Pilot up for Hindi classes starting from January. Now in addition to learning English and Mandarin in school they will go for a weekly Hindi class (lessons which run every Saturday, from 9am till 1pm) at a school not very far from home. Everyone thinks I am putting too much pressure on them at the tender age of four, but what they don't understand is that I am making sure the children have the choice of choosing a second language (or Mother Tongue - MT, as it is called here) when they start school. Since they are doing Mandarin in school and Hindi in the class, they can take either of the two languages for their MT.

But this will come at a price - me trying to get them to write/study/read in three languages and probably speak in four! Also now Saturdays and Sundays as I know will cease to exist! Since we will have to be at the class by 9 am, we will need to get out of the house by 8:30am, which means I need to wake them up latest by 7 am and which means I need to finish all my work for the morning by that time (and yes this includes cooking and cleaning atleast the kitchen as there won't be any time to do it once we come back from class). So effectively it means I need to wake up as usual at 5 (or 4 if I can swing it) even on Saturdays and Sundays!! Yuck! I guess this means less sleep for me. I turn into this irritable and angry woman when I don't get my seven hours of sleep a night. God give me the serenity to deal with this and more....

If I can get through the next two years without becoming a zombie, then I would consider it a job well done!