School Days

Our oldest daughter entered kindergarten last year in October, after being home for 2 months. She had dropped her native language by this point (sad day) and was only speaking English in broken sentences.  She was scared and shy (naturally) and I originally had no plans of entering her into formal schooling for that school year.  I had every intention of homeschooling her.  Well, intentions are all good and nice, but when reality hit and I found myself in a new city with zero connections, my husband gone at a new job way more than I was used to, and two 3 year olds and a 2 year old, homeschooling was not happening.  I could barely make it through the day, much less attempt to teach her anything.  And I wasn't even setting a high American kindergarten standard.  I was trying to teach her the ABCs, numbers, English.

I remember specifically the first time we went to the library here shortly after we moved.  There was some sort of special reading event, and they had a craft component.  I really REALLY needed my 5 year old to do some of the craft on her own for like 5 minutes.  But she wasn't having it when I told her she had used enough glue. And all of a sudden I had 4 children all acting like 2 year olds and I knew it was time to leave. I basically had to drag my oldest out (I wasn't against throwing her over my shoulder if necessary) and fuming, all the way home, I thought, I'm never going to leave the house again. I can't even go to the library.  Yes, perhaps I tried too much too soon, but I was just so LONELY inside that strange house in the strange city.  That event convinced me of one major thing we had not considered when we decided to adopt out of birth order - our new oldest child did not have anyone but younger children to learn appropriate social skills from.  Currently she was following the actions of our bio 3 year old twins - who had decided to regress (naturally) from anything positive we may have taught them.  At least at school she would be around other children her age and maybe that would help her learn how to do some things independently while also learning some academic content.

Because the school year had already started, we didn't have any choices but our zoned school.  That was all good and well, but we started a year of nothing but frustration for me.  Ella had a fine year.  It wasn't long before I started thinking of first grade and what our options could be.  This was a tough choice, because I knew if I sent our children to a school outside our neighborhood, how would that affect our specific geographic location of our church plant? We had chosen our neighborhood ON PURPOSE to plant a church and now were going to send our kids elsewhere to school?

Early in the spring, after securing a spot with a nearby, more diverse population, I was driving home one night and noticed a sign at our neighborhood entrance about an open house for a new charter school.  I was totally confused because I had searched high and low for every public, private, and charter school that could be an option for us.  This new school, starting with grades K-2 and adding a grade every year until it was K-8, was located in our neighborhood. Like 2 blocks from our house. Like we could walk there.  At the open house I met a board of directors and principal with a crazy awesome vision of student-led and project-based learning. A charter school with flexibility and local control.  A desire for collaboration and community.  WHAT?! Sign us up.

Ella was accepted and because of her spot, all of our other children have secured spots as well.  I am so incredibly thankful for this new opportunity.  Her class has a beautiful blend of colorful faces, there are six (COUNT THAT - 6) adoptive families in a school with 6 classes.  The teachers and staff are kind, energetic, creative, and positive.  My main concern with my super smart girl was self-confidence. She entered in not really wanting to TRY anything because it would be hard or she would be wrong the first time.  I knew she was totally capable, but she hadn't seen it yet and hadn't seen it all through kindergarten. I communicated that with her teacher, and it wasn't long at all before I began to see a shift.  She was writing paragraphs for her homework, sounding out every single word and spelling it all wrong, and was okay with it! She was trying! She was bringing books to home for me to read to her! Her reading was improving. I was receiving consistent communication with the school, making great connections, and she even had her first friend over last week!

Today I asked her to tell me 3 cool things about her day.  Her responses were: flip-flop addition (which she explained - basically it's the first introduction to the commutative property of addition [former math teacher here]), she got to play reading games on the computer, and what they did in art class.  (Last year her answers were about what candy she ate and if she went outside.)  So, then I said, "Okay Ella, you told me three super cool things.  Tell me something today that wasn't super cool."

Ella: "I don't really like Drop Everything And Read."

Me: (a little sad - I want her to love reading. and she is getting better, but it's very hard for her) "Oh. Why?"

Ella: "Well, I don't really like my teacher's timer.  It's too short and goes off and I want more time to finish my book."

Me: "Oh - you wish it was longer?!"

Ella: "Yeah. I love reading."

And all the angels rejoiced.