Washington State: Hmong kids in Kirkland play to learn

[Harold Schiffman]

Hmong kids in Kirkland play to learn
By Rachel Tuinstra

Seattle Times Eastside bureau


GREG GILBERT

Coordinator Sau Lai Chan, right, who works for the Chinese Information
and Services Center, helps Hmong children with their alphabet and
numbers at Kirkland Heights Apartments. Principal Jeff DeGallier could
see he had a challenging situation months ago. John Muir Elementary in
Kirkland is home to a diverse population. Nineteen percent of the
students are Hmong, many of them recent immigrants from Laos, Vietnam,
Thailand and other Asian countries. Many of the Hmong children started
school unfamiliar with a classroom setting, knowing very little
English and lacking basic literacy skills. They struggled to catch up
with classmates, even after going through several grades.

DeGallier had to do something. The children sing and hum along,
stumbling through the unfamiliar words but catching on to the musical
tempo. When they get restless, Chan cajoles them with an oversized
book full of pictures of clowns and acrobats.
"Have you ever seen someone dressed like this before?" she asks, as
Moua Vang, mother of two of the children, translates the question into
Hmong. The children shake their heads no in response. "This is a
clown," Chan said, emphasizing the pronunciation.
Once a week, the community recreation room at Kirkland Heights
Apartments is transformed into a preschool, with books, colorful Legos
and worksheets with traceable letters and numbers.


The "play-to-learn" group was started about a month ago to better
prepare Hmong children who live in these low-income Kirkland
apartments for school. DeGallier first spoke with some of the 30 Hmong
families who live here; he also contacted the Seattle-based Chinese
Information and Services Center, which runs several other
"play-to-learn" groups throughout King County. The groups are mostly
for immigrant families and their preschool-age children. The Kirkland
group is the first specifically for Hmong children.
"The whole concept is to build cognitive development through play,"
DeGallier said. "These are parents who really want to support their
children doing well in school, and they appreciate being given some of
the tools to be successful."

Because the culture is so insular, and because the adults work so hard
to make ends meet, it helps to have preschool come to the children,
rather than the other way around, said Yee Xiong, president of the
Hmong Association of Washington. "Sometimes you have to go into their
house to teach them for them to see what you've got," Xiong said.
During weekly 1 ½-hour-long sessions, the children are guided through
structured activities that focus on the basic building blocks they
need before kindergarten. Chan, who works for the Chinese Information
and Services Center, leads them in singing the alphabet song; they
then work on numbers and colors. On a recent Tuesday, she pointed to
numbers laid out sequentially on the floor on flashcards. "What number
is missing?" Chan asked. Several numbers are thrown out, until finally
a boy shouts, "Three!"

"That's right!" Chan said, and the boy beams. When playtime is over,
she addresses a group of mothers. Vang translates. The mothers can
help the children at home, Chan says. They can point out letters on
billboards they pass, they can read books. The mothers nod. At home,
the children get excited when it's time to go to the group, said Chong
Yang, the mother of a 4-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl. They look
forward to it every week, she said. Many of these children didn't know
their letters or numbers, said Vang, who has four children ages 4
months to 6 ½ years. They are already learning so much, she said.

Historical bond

About half of the residents in Kirkland Heights are Hmong. Many at the
subsidized apartments make their living farming flowers in rented
plots of land in Carnation, Duvall, Monroe and Woodinville. The Hmong
have forged a special bond with the United States. As U.S. allies in
the Vietnam era, they fought encroaching communism in Laos. When the
United States pulled out of Southeast Asia, many Hmong became
refugees. About 300,000 fled across the border from Laos to Thailand
after 1975, many later resettling in the United States. Today about
1,000 Hmong live in King County. Many of the adults here know little
English, Vang said, but they want their children to learn and do well
in school. Xiong, whose cousin lives at Kirkland Heights, observed the
play-to-learn group on a recent Tuesday.

"I hope the parents see it as something valuable, not just something
to come do once a week, but something to do on a daily basis," he
said. Hmong families also want to ensure that their children
understand their culture. The families follow their elders, who want
younger generations to remember their roots and language, Vang said.
"The elders don't want parents to teach English at home," she said.
"They are afraid that in the future, the kids can't communicate with
them." Xiong understands that fear. He worries that his own nieces and
nephews won't know Hmong, or that they will lose their native language
once they learn English. But children also need to be successful in
U.S. schools, because, ultimately, education is what will help the
Hmong succeed and move beyond "working just to put bread on the
table," he said.

"But it's really rare to see a family be successful and hold onto to
their traditions," Xiong said. "Few are able to do that." Vang
remembers how her daughter, Rose, who is in the first grade, struggled
after she started school without any English or academic support. She
hopes her two sons, Eagle, 4 ½, and Mihn, 2 ½, and her daughter Lilly,
4 months, will be better prepared. Maybe, one day her children will go
to college, she said. Like many Hmong, she grows and sells flowers.
But if her children do well in school, they can do something else, she
said. "I want them to [be] using their brains, not using their
muscles," she said.


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