Franny’s school program has always include a day for a Mandarin class. From the very beginning Franny has always loved it. Her ‘special message’ (something that she particularly enjoyed) on her daily summary is frequently Mandarin, and she was very disappointed this past summer when they discontinued it in lieu of the summer camp themes. When she was in the three year old class, Mrs. Zhao stopped me in the parking lot to tell me what a great student Franny was. At the time, Franny was much shyer in class, so I was surprised that she had taken to it so enthusiastically. Needless to say, this winter, when they started an afterschool Mandarin program, Franny was very interested. It’s an hour long class that includes speaking, writing, and singing and dancing. One day when we went to pick her up they were singing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes in Mandarin. It was very cute. Mrs. Zhao says that Franny is extremely active in class (I assume this means she likes to participate) and has very good pronunciation. She is always very excited when I pick her up and chatters in Mandarin on the way home, which is much different from her regular school days when she has very little to say about her day. As a strong supporter of learning languages and studying different cultures, I am so thrilled that Franny has such a strong interest in Mandarin, and I hope she will choose to continue to learn as long as she has the opportunity.