Youngsil and I have certainly had a great time this semester. Reading so many books, some several times, together has been such a great opportunity :) She's even started to practice more at home, and over the last several sessions, has picked out several books that she has wanted to read at home.
Some of the things that I have seen with Youngsil are really quite amazing. She is learning a new language that she didn't speak before, and learning to apply that to reading, communicating, and school is just fantastic. She is also learning several sounds that she is always very careful about, like over pronouncing her 't's and ending consonants. She also corrects me whenever I skip over those, and reminds me to not contract my words when they aren't written that way.
Like some children I know, she is very picky about details, and I'm sure that they help her with learning English correctly. She also has become very adept and changing what she wants to say so that she can say what she wants even if she forgets or doesn't know a certain word -- she knows that a word does fit in the sentence, but since she can't remember, she changes the entire sentence to avoid it.
Finishing off this semester, the last session of Reading Buddies was very bittersweet. Hearing and seeing all of the Buddy Books really showed how much everyone worked this semester. Youngsil, she really worked hard. She doesn't like reading out loud, and I know she was very nervous. Even so, I know that she was happy to be able to read out loud to her parents. But it was so sad to say good bye :( I really do hope that she participates in the program again next semester, and keeps on getting better and better with reading, writing, but definitely with confidence -- I know that if she would just believe in herself and her abilities more, there's nothing that she can't do.
