Learn Chinese

My parents gave us some instruction Chinese DVD's for Christmas that
are very kid-friendly, and Jada has been captivated by the songs and
images. I'm hopeful they'll go a long way towards her learning
Mandarin, but not necessarily in the way you might think. For when
she watches the videos, even though the screen flashes the Chinese
word and the people say the Chinese word, she still sees the picture
of the bunny and says, "Bunny!"

But Amy, who is watching along, is saying, "Shiao too dze." And a
toddler's ability to pick up language is greatly enhanced by her
parents' ability to speak that language. Meaning that we could send
Jada to the best Mandarin pre-school in the world (and the wife of a
colleague of mine runs a pretty darn good one in Chinatown in
Philadelphia that we'd like to send Jada to once she's old enough),
but if we don't speak Mandarin at home, it's not going to stick.

So we'll keep putting these Mandarin DVD's on, and Jada can clap and
dance and say "Bunny!" all she wants. As long as Amy and I pick up as
much Chinese as possible while we're watching along, it'll be a
positive step towards Jada learning it too.