One week down!

This was one of those weeks where, as a parent, your heart just bursts with love and pride about your kids. We asked Charlotte and Cyrus to do something harder than Piers or I has ever done - go to school in another country, in another language - and they DID it! Actually we didn't ask, really - we insisted. And they were awesome. We were all quite nervous on the first day. There were some tears, but overall, it was a great week. On the first day, Charlotte was befriended by Conchita, who speaks just enough English to be able to communicate. She sits next to Charlotte, brings her into playground games, and basically makes sure she is included and connected each day. Cy had Eva by his side, and Eva is also fantastic - she helps when asked but she doesn't translate every interaction (we are happy about this). Cyrus wrote a comprehensive and (to me) very funny summary of the first day (including a follow-up in the comments section). Both kids were told by their surprised teachers that they knew more Spanish than they first let on. On the first day, Charlotte was asked to take a turn reading aloud in Spanish, and was complimented on her clear pronunciation. She was also told she didn't have to do an autobiographical language arts assignment because the teacher assumed she wouldn't understand it, but she translated the document and did it anyway ... and then was asked to read what she had composed to her class. (This went great. The other kids were especially surprised that she had visited 3 African countries). They both got huge praise from us, and also from the teachers. Outside of school, both kids are tossing random Spanish words into regular life, and they both understand the structure of sentences in the speech around them even when they don't know specific words. And they both already know words that Piers and I don't. They naturally pronounce 'c' and 'z' as 'th' , which will never be natural to me. (Next up - vosotros! which is also not familiar to us since it is not used in Mexico. But C&C are both learning it). I don't want to oversell it - they are not chatting in Spanish, no magic process has (yet?) led to their rapid absorption of the language, and even if they understand more and more each day, they mostly have no idea what is happening around them. BUT both kids are ordering their food in Spanish at restaurants and are willing to do errands on their own, like going to the grocery store and the bakery without panicking that they won't know what is happening. Proud proud proud. We got milkshakes (batidos) and pizza on Friday to celebrate.

So happy that they were getting milkshakes. The place was actually closed when we got there, but the owner was still cleaning up from the day and when she heard that the kids had come specifically to her establishment to celebrate the end of their first week, she made them milkshakes anyway. 

Blissed out

Dinner at New Little Italy, our regular pizza place

Cy's rainbow schedule (sorry, not sure how to rotate)