In the morning, Hamer was moving a bit slowly. When I saw that it was already close to 7:40 and she was still leisurely getting dressed, I started feeling a bit frustrated and couldn’t help but raise my voice, reminding her, “What about your jacket? Your water bottle? Your hat?” In my impatience, I didn’t properly respond when, on her way down the stairs, she said, “I’m still afraid of language class.” I knew she felt nervous about it, but in my rush, I brushed off her feelings, and that left me feeling a bit guilty throughout the morning.
After playing badminton this evening, I bought her a small chocolate as a token of apology, though I didn’t say anything about my intention. Before bed, I talked with Hamer about her fear of language class. Our conversation seemed to bring her some comfort. I shared with her my impression of the language teacher from the last parent-teacher meeting, telling her I found the teacher quite strict—even I felt she was hard to deal with, so it’s only natural for kids to feel intimidated. I also mentioned that last month, when we visited Ms. Yang, her language teacher made a point of complimenting her performance, letting her know that the teacher values and acknowledges her. Hamer, too, shared a moment when the teacher seemed warm—she’d gone up to the teacher with a piece of paper, and the teacher, smiling, asked her, “Got it now?” Hamer had smiled shyly back. This small interaction seemed to ease her a lot. We also chatted briefly about her P.E. teacher, and she laughed, saying he’s quite funny, always jokingly calling her by her full name, “Yi·Duan’er.”
When I woke up this morning, I remembered her mention of language class and realized she’d been learning initials and finals in pinyin lately. So I found some resources on Spotify for her and played them as she got ready. I hoped the audio would help her feel a bit more familiar with the material. For breakfast, we tried a new type of mini corn we’d bought. Though small, the kernels were plump and tasted great. I also took a cup of coffee to work in the new mug Xiaoyan had bought.
At work, I continued focusing on the development of the “G” feature. I spent a good part of the morning debugging an issue with chart display, eventually discovering that the Y-axis scale’s reserved space was causing gaps. After lunch, I didn’t take a break and used the time to fully resolve the issue. Then, I organized the state display for locations, constantly refining it to consider every possible scenario. Before I knew it, the entire afternoon had flown by, and I was actually a bit rushed to make it to badminton.
When I got home that evening, Xiaoyan and Hamer were doing an exercise routine together. After dinner, I helped Hamer with her homework, which wasn’t as heavy as the previous days. Once she finished washing up, she didn’t rush to bed. Instead, she quietly sat and focused on coloring her My Melody picture. We gently reminded her, “Try to go to bed earlier, or you won’t be able to get up tomorrow.” She replied casually, “Then I just won’t get up.” Xiaoyan and I couldn’t help but laugh, deciding not to push her any further and let her go at her own pace. Maybe sometimes it’s okay to let her make her own decisions—she’s right, after all. If she can’t get up, then she can’t get up.
