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So in 3-5 months I will be bringing home a 5 year old who speaks another language. She also has some health issues But i don't see them as interfering with her life to any great extent. I know I'll spend the summer just loving her up. But it is January and my mind turns to the next school year.

Does any one have any advice to offer? I have volunteered a long time ago and taught english as a second language. So I'm confidant she will be bewildered for 6 months, and then start to get English. She is past the age of English replacing her first language, (or so my Dad the linguist says) but she should become proficient in a faster time than you or I would.

Where should I start her off? little hearts or little hands? She will be 6 years old some time in June so I don't want to delay to long. I would have to get little hands where, I have little hearts. I also have "Before 5 In a Row" Which I used with my dd but she didn't really care for it.

Any and all input is greatly appreciated.

WOW! I will certainly be praying for you. My wonderful sis and her dh brough home a 2yo from Russia about 4 yrs ago (he is 6.5 now) and I get all weepy just thinking about it....

He wasn't fluent in Russian at all...he had very little interaction. He seemed to adapt very well, she read to him all the time and I think that helped.

I guess my only concern with not starting with Little Hands would be....do you think she will understand all the reading? I know you could start phonics with either program, but the read-alouds require a certain amount of understanding of some pretty hard vocabulary....maybe use Julie's 2-year plan!

Enough of my rambling......I will be praying!!

Tansy,

We're so excited for you and your family! We'll be praying for all to go well with the adoption process.

As to your question, I would probably begin with "Little Hands to Heaven". The last thing you'd want to do would be to overwhelm your new little one.

"Little Hands..." is actually learning that seems like play. It has wonderful language skills and work with words woven into it (colors, numbers, counting, prepositions, following directions etc.) It also is all based around the Bible stories, which you will want to be reading anyway.

Using "Little Hands..." will allow time for your family to adjust and for your new blessing to grow into "Little Hearts...".

Melanie is so right that the higher level of vocabulary in "Little Hearts..." takes more comprehension of the English language. Done too early, it just goes right over little ones' heads!

Hope that helps! Maybe some of the other moms will chime in with their 2 cents!

Blessings,
Carrie

I am not going to be much help but I will try anyway I see you have adopted before so you may already know all that I am going to say depending on how old that child was when you adopted them.

I have adopted four children. Two were babies and two were toddlers and speaking Russian fairly well. They learn the language very quickly just by being here. By the time we got ours home (about a month in country) they were speaking English and we could communicate. One of mine has special needs so we have some learning issues mostly reading and anything related to language delayed.

Mine were younger than yours under but close to three. But I will tell you this seems to be true across the board that they need to regress a little bit because the missed so much. You have to take them back even wrap them up like a baby and let them be little even at the age of five sometimes. So I would say go very easy. Five is still very little and the most important thing would be getting them bonded to you and your family. I would think doing something like Little Hands to Heaven would be perfect for encouraging the bonding between you. But even at that I would go light and focus mostly on bonding the first year. I would make that and helping them to know who God is for the first year. I think Little Hands to Heaven would be wonderful for you to do but I would not go beyond that with them even if they are super smart because of the need to regress a bit and bond.

I wish I could offer you more help. Congratulations!

I'll give y'all a bit more back ground.
she did have a home and parents till age 4. And were pretty sure she was abandoned due to the heath issues. (The care givers are pretty certain she was abandoned as a life saving technique.) So we only have a year or so of institutionalization, to over come. And hopefully she had a good bond with her parents, we can get transfered over to us

My dd was really messed up when she came home. no language couldn't walk, weighed 19 pounds at 23 months was on a 4 hour feeding schedule. She didn't regress because she had not really matured beyond a 10 month old baby.

Thanks for the encouragement. Water2wine I'm so glad ur out there. If you see me pushing Yuan next year whack me across the head ok...

Well depending on what conditions were like with her birth parents then it could be an easier transition but I would think she would still possibly be grieving. So I would take it slow. But that is good that she did get to bond it will make a huge difference!

The two of mine that were adopted as toddlers adjusted differently. They had each other which was good because they were together all their lives. One had a care taker that was very bonded to her and the other's caretaker (for reasons I won't go into here) was indifferent to her. The one who had the close bonds adjusted far easier that that one that didn't. We expected it to be harder for the one that had bonds with her caretaker actually because there were many doctor visits for her and lot of PT, ST, and OT. But she did well. So it does make a huge difference. Both are ten and are doing wonderful now.

If I were you I would take the next year easy and do all the fun things that you would have done with her if you had her all along. I think HOD could definitely be part of that I would just go with the lower program to make it really carefree. And just so you know this is coming from a mom that has her three (getting closer to four) year old in LHFG but she is one I grew myself and has been in a homeschooling family all her life. I'm just thinking this one needs a little easy time. She has been through a lot for five.

I'm excited to hear when she comes home! M BIL and SIL adopted from China. Their daughter was 2 1/2 and did wonderfully.