A Special Normal Evening

Blessing and the whole second grade did wonderfully at the second grade patriotic program. Chloe, Theo, Grandma and I attended, while Kyle, Zach, Grandpa and Sophie attended Ben's choir concert. (Divide and conquer is the motto when you have 6 kids in 3 different schools - next year it will be 4 different school -yipes!)

Anyhow, the program was beautiful, inspiring and Blessing seemed to be surrounded by friends. It felt so normal and nice. Afterwards, we all headed to the new local ice cream parlor to celebrate Ben and Blessing's success. Blessing ran into a friend there as well.
On the whole, a pretty simple evening, but it sits well in my heart and mind because even though we had to split up for a while, it felt like we were pretty unified as a family. It made me happy.

The letter S

Kyle is good. While I just understand what Theo and Blessing are saying and go from there, he takes the time to work with them so other people will understand them too.

The latest focus is making sure that they don't truncate the end of their words. It can provide some comical situations. This one occurred when Theo wasn't making his plurals clear:

Kyle: You have to say the end of your words. You have to pronounce the s at the end of words.

Theo: I "dooz!"

"Swee swee narabell" and "Thank you Mary Tarry"

Blessing has been singing. The first line is from Disney's Cinderella "Sing sweet nightingale." I recognized the tune. So, that helpedme know the words.

The next song was a mystery to me. Who is Mary Tarry? I keep asking myself as she belts it out as she swings on the backyard swing set. I knew she had learned it at school, but I couldn't think of any historical figure with that name.

Luckily, J came to visit the other day and they were singing it together. "Military" the word is military and it is being sung at the 2nd grade patriotic program this week.

I am glad that Miss B doesn't let words get in the way of her making a joyful noise :)

I can insult my mama, but you better not!

So, after almost four months of really frightening stories from mostly Theo, but Blessing as well, Benjamin mentioned in conversation that he didn't want to ever go to Liberia.

That set off a big defense mechanism in Theo and he proceeded to say that the US was the stupidest country he had ever been in and that he hated it here. (When Theo argues, you have to realize he goes down to about an 7-8 year old mentality.)

I sat him down and explained that Ben loved him and that everything that Ben knows about Liberia has been taught to him by Theo. I repeated to him his comments about beatings, being hungry, being robbed, childhood prostitution, human sacrifice, being forced to do adults jobs for minimal pay, workers stealing the toys that were meant for the children, etc. . . I then added that to a 7 year old like Ben, that that would sound like a scary place.

I suggested that he tell Ben something nice about Liberia. His response: "They have nice people, and supermarkets and people have businesses there." Not exactly a travel brochure. He then decided to tell me that it was all a lie; that none of what he has said in the last 3 1/2 months is true.

Well, I am really not sure how to deal with this. Of course what he has been saying (with the exception of the human sacrifice thing) has been widely reported by more than just my 12 year old. I have always been very careful to focus on the positive of T&B's country of birth. None of these negative views have come from me, but I don't know that going into denial over where he came from is exactly a healthy answer???

WHAT!!!!

I went to a meeting this morning with T&B's teachers and the ESL district leader. I was hoping to get some answers on whether or not we should push on or retain, particularly Blessing in her current grade.

To my continued frustration, B's teacher feels like it is too difficult to test B, because once she hits a topic or subject that she doesn't know or understand, she shuts down. Okay, so, I ask the teacher to use her powers of observation and tell me if she thinks that B is even close to being at the academic level she should be at for the end of second grade.

The disturbing answer: Out of 30 kids in her class, she thinks maybe 6 of the children are at the end of second grade academically.

WHAT!?? Is this as disturbing to anyone else as it is to me???

Frustrated!

I am at a loss.
I am running into dead ends as far as answers go.
The public school is not meeting Blessing's needs. This is evident by her consistent behavior issues in school. She had one good week and I though that maybe she had overcome a barrier. However, last week she had "strikes" from her teacher 4 out of the five days and this week she started Monday with three strikes and has gotten one everyday since, except for today.

It is normal for ESL students to have some acting out difficulties because they are in a situation where they are not understanding for 6 hours. That is why they have ESL programs. Her school does not have an ESL program in place.

So, I have been trying to coordinate a home school situation, but am not getting a lot of cooperation at the district or on a private level. I keep running into educators that tell me, "we cannot retain her because of language."

So, now I have demanded testing, which frankly should have been done months ago! She is not just having language difficulties. She does not understand the subject matter. She is not on grade level with her skills, and frankly she is socially quite behind as well.

The teacher argues that she is tall and it would be awkward. What?!? We are so concerned with "no child left behind" that height is a determining factor in selecting an appropriate grade???

So, I suggested to Blessing that she might have a better time if I schooled her at home, but she says she would miss her friends. Argh!

I guess I have not found the right solution. My biggest prayer is that a spot will open in the charter school that will allow her to be social with children her own age and do academics on the appropriate levels for her skills. Their ESL program is also in place and functioning.

Easter

So, this is T&B's first Easter in the states. They had dyed eggs once before, when an adoptive parent had gone in at Easter time. The idea of decorating with glitter and wax was new, as were the plastic eggs filled with candy and small toys. We don't do the Easter Bunny. We never have. I think that dude in the suit in the mall is pretty much terrifying and I don't like the focus being taken away from Christ.