language lesson on the last day here.

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yesterday (Thursday for those of us who struggle with the concept of days of the week ) (note when it is your Thursday night it is our Friday morning if you want to make it even more fun )  anyway, back to yesterday.  It was Patt's last full day here and the grandkids were all over her.  Julianna especially took an interest in helping Patt learn Chinese.

 Now Chinese is not so simple and has tones so there is no mispronunciation of a word, you either said it or you did not.  Tones rise. are high, low or constant.  You got this information from a non-linguist so it may or may not be technically correct.  But it does pass for information and is in the spirit of the subject.

 Counting is also done in sign language, sorta like deaf hand signs except most are with one hand and have motions.  Patt's teacher used a total effort, head bobs, hand signs, facial support, full body moves, and of course tones.

 Patt is very good with tones, she learned Thai, also a tonal language quickly and well.  She was an excellent student and can count very very well --  in Chinese -- she has been able to do so in English as long as I have known her.

 Lydia participated for a good while.  Then joined her Mom and Isaac for a Cat in the Hat reading session.  I wish I had started photos earlier in the language lesson as both student and subject were quite animated and as the lesson went along and Patt was able to count up pretty high.

 You can get just the slightest feel for the intensity of the lesson from these pictures (I have a lot more if you would like to see)

We are all going to miss Patt -- also known very very well as Grandmama, who is at this moment on a flight headed towards the US of A.