We successfully made it through our second week of school. This week started out a little harder, not bad but the initial excitement had worn off so it was harder. We are so thankful... all three girls have wonderful teachers and are adjusting better than expected. There is and will be a lot of adjusting to come... each one of the girls is facing the changes in their own way as well.
Sahara's personality is amazingly suited to adjust to our new place, new language, new friends, etc... Her teacher speaks English very well, which is good and bad for Sahara. She helps explain what needs to be done but it means Sahara isn't forced to start using Portuguese. And if Sahara doesn't have too... she won't:) The other challenges for Sahara are that her, in Portugal, they start out with cursive (1st grade) so Sahara is considerably behind in writing. They also teach multiplication in 2nd grade and Sahara hadn't started it at all yet. And, of course, the obvious language issues. But her teacher is so great... she is keeping Sahara for an extra hour 2 days a week to help catch her up on everything. In a few weeks they will start having English class during the day, and since Sahara isn't behind on learning English:) the teacher is going to use that time to help Sahara as well.
Bria's teacher doesn't speak any English, none! Which means that Bria is picking up Portuguese quickly. She doesn't say much in Portuguese yet but seems to understand really well. She keeps up with the all the class work and does it all perfectly. 1st grade, is their first year of real school here so Bria is starting out with all the other kids. Bria has a harder time being dropped off, a few tears but then seems to have a great day. And she went to school Friday with no tears all day!!
Tirza loves school! It's funny because she had a harder time being dropped off in the States. But they are very affectionate with the kids here. Lots of hugs and kisses, lots of attention. Which Tirza just loves, most days she goes into class very happy. We pick her up when we finish language class and she is always playing great when we get there. Her class normally takes a nap in the afternoon but she doesn't need a nap anymore and we have the afternoons free so it works out really good. They just let her play in her room or go outside until we get there. Her teachers tell me that she talks to them in Portuguese all morning, and then when we get there she switches back to English. Funny, they say kids know who to talk to in what language.
Oh and Mark and I don't cry too much at our school:) Actually, right now we have our favorite teacher 3 days a week and it is just great! We are slowly, slowly adding to our ability to understand and speak. I can understand most one on one conversations but responding is a whole different thing. Several times last week I thought of a way to respond a good 2 minutes after the person I was talking to walked away. Frustrating but I keep reminding myself that, in time, it will get easier. Wanting to talk to the girls teachers is great motivation to learn.
And just a fun video of the beach... to keep you all thinking of visiting!
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