First Days

Last week was the start of school around here.  Sigh.  August 5th seems way, way, way too early to be starting school.  But, it's what it is.

We went to Back to School Night, and discovered that neither of the 2nd grade teachers were there that even.  Huh.  One was still on her way to Costa Rica, and the other had a family issue.  We also learned (4 days before school started) that the school day has been lengthened by 30 minutes.  Well, then.

Forrest was excited for  2nd grade, which was good. In fact, this is how he looked...

 

Those front teeth are growing in quit nicely.  Noah took him that first morning and met his teacher, Mrs. Rodrigez, who is super sweet and genuinely cares for her students.  When we did have a parent meeting the following week with both second grade teachers, she could already tell me some things about Forrest that she was noticing.  Sigh of relief! We have been praying for a restorative year for him, and us as far as school goes!!

The only blip was that the name on his desk was his middle name (cultural moment:  lots of people here go by their second name.  Most people have 4 names.  What a North American would think of as first and middle names, and then two last names, one from dad and one from mom.  So, if Forrest was really Tico, his name would be Forrest Dooley Kamper Runals, which we have seen on different papers.  And it often messes the computer systems up when we say we don't have a second last name)

A big change for us this year is Forrest is now in the mainstream Spanish class.  Last year he was in the Spanish as a Second Language class, which was wonderful! It was just him and 2 other kids.  This year, they felt like he was ready for the mainstream class, and that is just stunning to me.  He seems to be doing just fine and yesterday he came home with a Boleta Feliz (A Happy Ticket) for working so hard and participating so well!  Wonderful!

Oh!  The other wonderful part of this school year is our neighbors are sending their son to the same school!  Yeah, carpooling...it's a.mazing!  It's week two of school and I haven't had to drop off or pick up yet!  Noah works 10 minutes from school so he does most of the afternoon pick ups.  It is lovely!! Especially with Quinn still taking naps.  Thankful!


Elliot started Kindergarten at home this year.  He was a bit apprehensive about starting, but once he realized he got to have cool things in his backpack too, he was ready!  He wanted to have his first day of school photo on the Brincaline.  Benefits of Home school.

He sat right down and was excited to get some work done.  Again, thankful!  He is not a bookish kid.  He would much prefer to be building something, exploring something, creating something.  To sit and write letters has been a challenge in the past.  But that first morning there was only cooperation!  And by this week, he is reading!  Yep, he was ready!  The plan is for him to go to kindergarten in MI when we are back this winter.

Speaking of that...there is a public school two blocks from the house we will be staying in, and it just so happens that that is the building with the Spanish Immersion classes for Kindergarten and 2nd grade!!  I contacted the coordinator of the program earlier this summer and explained our situation and it looks the like the boys will be part of those classes for the second semester!  I just laughed, how like God to provide for our boys language skills while we are on Home Assignment as well!!  Amazing!