School Days

So we made the (difficult) decision to put the kids in school this Spring. Two days a week from 9-2 in a Spanish immersion program. This decision was actually much harder for Mommy than it was for Daddy. I literally could not make the call so Chris did the enrollment, payment etc, all tasks that would usually fall on me! But here we are 7 weeks in and I can finally say it's a good decision. The first 3 weeks or so were just brutal. Charis would cry and cry. One morning I stood around the corner, out of eye-shot, and listened as she cried for a solid 30 minutes! Thinking all the while, "this is so not worth it". I mean it would be nice if they pick up some Spanish, but not worth damaging her psyche. But now life is good. I no longer have to chase her to get her to put on her school shirt. She, unprovoked, says "We are going to school today!", before she would just say "No, I don't wanna go to school."

The school made the excellent decision to make Charis the "Estudiante de la semana" a few weeks ago, which involved us making a big poster for her with pictures of things she loved on it. This seemed to be the turning point. Since then, things have been good. And they do seem to be picking up some Spanish. My mom says "Carly, they just walk along saying words that I cannot understand." She then demonstrated how she tries to repeat the words back to them, not sure if that's helpful! Gotta love the effort though :-) We are excited to have found this school and think it is going to be an exciting time for them!