Sorry I haven't been able to let you know how the Brazilian school experience has been going. We are still getting used to the routine and that means mommy doesn't have time to be at the computer.
Michael was somewhat excited for his first day and I was sick to my stomach. I only cried a little though and that was in private. I was so anxious to pick him up and he seemed happy enough in the car with the two neighbor boys, so I was expecting a good report. Steve made it home soon after we had walked in the door, so we sat down to hear all about his first day. Basically, he hated it. (I can say that here, but we have had to remove the word "hate" when talking about school because of his bad attitude. He will never learn to appreciate school with that sort of attitude.) His complaints are that the kids don't respect the teacher and talk all the time. Then the teacher has to yell and/or not let them go out to recess until everyone is quiet. He just can't understand why they don't obey the teacher. Not that he is totally obedient at home, but to be so openly disobedient is hard for him to accept. His other complaint is that he finishes what the teacher tells them to do and then he has to sit and wait "forever" for everyone else to get done. We tried to explain to him that waiting on the other students is very normal and is that it has to do with patience, which is a good skill to learn. He is just spoiled by home school. So, he now has to come up with something good that happened at school each day, and that is usually recess. But on Tuesdays it is indoor soccer for the highlight. On Thursdays he has swimming and judo, but he said the water was cold so he didn't like that so much and he hasn't made up his mind on if he liked judo or not. I think he is waiting to see if the boys do judo correctly or if they get crazy and start hurting each other. I know, he is a regular Eore.
As for home school in the mornings, we are somehow getting it done. I try to finish up with him by 11am so he has time to do his independent work before going to school and then that also gives me time to get lunch on the table. We do lunch the Brazilian way...it is the big meal of the day. We need to be sitting down at the table at noon for him to eat, brush teeth, and get his uniform on for school so we can walk out the door at 12:45pm. Starting in March, we will add piano lessons to the routine two times a week from 9am - 9:45am. We should be able to get some work done before he goes and then I will get lunch almost done while he is gone. Happily, his piano teacher lives just down the block...what a blessing!!! He wants to take guitar, but I told him that as long as his piano teacher lives on our street, he would take piano! (They are with Asas and should be moved to a flight base in northern Brazil in 2009) Anyway, we had some late nights last week with getting his homework done for the Brazilian school and that made him tired in the mornings, but after that happened twice I have been able get him to bed on time.
Okay, here are some pictures for you! The boys with Michael are Natan and Daniel, our neighbors.
No comments:
Post a Comment