A's first day of school wasn't great, unfortunately. It was very overwhelming for her. When kids would ask where she was from (expecting the answer to be another state) and she would tell them Ukraine that would ignite a firestorm of questions. All. Day. Long. Hopefully this week will be a good "breaking in" period and the novelty of having a new student from Ukraine will wear off by next week. She is also worried that her teachers don't understand that her English reading/writing skills are not developed yet. Her ESOL teacher will be testing her today to see what level she should be on. When Alex went into her ESOL class yesterday the teacher asked if English was her second language. Alex said no. Then the teacher asked why she was in the class then. Alex said it was because English was her fourth language. Little Miss Smarty Pants strikes again. :) We really want her to keep her Russian, Ukrainian and Spanish skills up, but I worry throwing English into the mix is going to cause something to slide. Thankfully she was able to connect with one of her friends from Spain on FB and she keeps in contact with friends from Ukraine so that should help keep her conversational skills fresh.
I walked her to the bus stop this morning. Well, I walked her almost all the way to the bus stop. We stopped about 30 yards short and she just stood there. I waited for her to either say something or start walking again. I asked her if she wanted to walk the rest of the way alone (I didn't want to embarrass her as none of the other kids had their moms with them :) ). Finally the bus came and she said she didn't want to ride it. I said that was fine and I would drive her. She was relieved and said she would ride the bus home after school. As I dropped her off I said I hoped she had a good day, and she smiled and said she would try.
Only three more weeks and then it's Spring Break. Can't wait! I think we are all going to need the break!
Oh, I just dont know what to say. I have the same feeling for A as I do when I drop our A off and watch her walk to the playground, alone, and all I can think is "Am I throwing her into the shark tank?" and this is 2 mos. later. I just think these kids are so brave, it amazes me. I was always the new kid as a navy brat, but I had 2 siblings and my answer was (usually) just another state, and I spoke english fine.
ReplyDeleteThats amazing she has 4 languages! AG doesnt know that Ukrainian and Russian are different, and when we sorted out they are different, she thinks Ukrainian is Russian and Russian is Ukrainian (because "everybody in ukraine speaks this one") oy. Confuses her ELL teacher who tries to compare words in Russian to English.
We bought a TON of dvds and we call this her "russian homework". Usually on Friday she'll watch a movie or 2, so she can keep up with her language. She also talks to a boy who was hosted at the same time as her (though she does not know him) on the phone. Lastly, we are installing russian rosetta stone, just to practice words. She says she doesnt want to keep her russian, but we're trying. Maybe some of those are options for Miss A.
I hope it gets better. I know the novelty of AG has certainly worn off, and the kids have given her some space. Hopefully the same will happen for y'all.
Shark tank are the exact words I used yesterday to describe how I felt leaving her at school yesterday. They told me she would have a "buddy" all day to walk around with her since she changes class every hour, yet she still ended up eating lunch at the wrong time with the wrong grade. At least there was a boy there who was able to help her get her locker opened when she couldn't figure it out.
ReplyDeleteShe prefers Russian over Ukrainian. Everything in school was done in Ukrainian, but everything outside of school was Russian. She is fluent in spanish because she was hosted in Spain for 6 summers and 6 Christmases by the same family. Then the family decided they didn't want to host her again which is how she ended up on the American program. She spoke absolutely no english when she got here last summer and she picked it up so quickly. I think if she loses any language it is going to be Ukrainian. We already have Rosetta Stone in Spanish and I would love to get it in Russian for me.
I need to message you via e-mail at some point so don't be confused when you get one from me. :)
I can imagine it is overwhelming. Our administrators said that sometimes they recommend kids only come for 3 days a week for 1-2weeks to try to settle in. Alex is very brave!! Knowing Spanish in the US has got to help communicate... especially with how south you guys are. Find any family owned Mexican restaurants around town where she might have some fun showing off to the family and new friends?
ReplyDeleteWe got our testing back on ELL (English Language Learners) -- what they call ESOL here since many kids in the program already know multiple languages -- which they call a "bi-lingual" assessment. Dennis uses Ukrainian and Russian interchangeably at times. He is surprised when people speak Russian to him and it takes a while to figure out... he started parroting the tester at first thinking he was being asked to learn new words. Eventually he got most of the questions right in Russian/Ukrainian and half the questions right in English. I'm proud of him!
Alex' spanish will be a big help to her here b/c we do have a large spanish speaking community. She is funny a/b using her other languages with people she doesn't know, though. I don't know why. The girl who showed us around the school on Tuesday is from Russia and is still fluent, but Alex would only speak to her in English. I don't push it, but tell her it's okay to use her other languages around me.
ReplyDeleteD has made some amazing progress since being home. It is amazing what can be accomplished with the right support and opportunity. I am really looking forward to hearing about what Snezhana's reaction to him is when she sees him again. I think she is going to be blown away!
We agree that he will surprise her when she is here this summer. They talked on the phone last weekend and about 1/2 way into the conversation he started answering her questions in English! We had a translator listen to their conversation aftewards and she wrote that she could not figure out what he was saying back to her ... so I had to tell her he was speaking English! He has a lisp in both languages so it was hard for the translator to determine that he switched languages! Today he had a filling for a cavity and two sealants done! He was brave and didn't even flinch when the big needle went in.
ReplyDeleteAnxiously awaiting it...
ReplyDeleteDid today go any better for Alex?
Melissa~ That is great that he switched to English. Hopefully he will still retain enough Russian/Ukrainian to be able to speak with her this summer. If not, she will just have to learn English! :)
ReplyDeleteBN~ She doesn't get home for another hour. Writing an e-mail now...