4/21/09

4/21/09 I think the 2nd day of school was harder than the first! Alysa announced that she didn’t want to go back which made Laina decide that she didn’t want to go either. I ended up having to drop Chris and Dave off for their meetings so that I could have the car to stay with the kids at school for a little bit. Laina’s teachers came and took her from me. Even though she was crying, she went and everybody told me that she was fine from that point on. Morgan and Cole went off to their class together and Alysa grabbed my leg and wouldn’t let go. I felt so torn between helping her and wanting to make sure that Laina was o.k... Fortunately Laina’s teachers helped me with that problem!! So, it was off to Kindergarten Spanish again for me. Alysa wouldn’t do anything unless I was right with her. She had so much fun when she did the stuff though!! Today was P.E. (deportes?) which really threw all the kids for a loop. The teacher, Teacher Allan, is quite loud and can come across as being very mean if you don’t’ know what he is saying!! Alysa didn’t want to go….of course! I ended up doing p.e. with her and had a blast. The teacher was doing some crazy dance/chants that Alysa got the giggles doing. (so did I!!) I think he realized that she was having fun so he kept doing more. By the end of p.e. she was all smiles!...as long as I was within arms distance! After a little more time in class, I left and headed to the playground again. I wasn’t there for long before all of the kids had me circled again asking questions and trying to practice their English. It didn’t last much before I was told that Alysa needed me again. UGH!! Back to kindergarten for me! I stayed with Alysa until after recess and then told her she had to go to her English class by herself. She was kicking and screaming but her teacher never came to get me! I did however get a call from Cole’s teacher (an American lady! Cole thinks he is so special!!) saying that Cole had gone to p.e. and got pretty upset because the teacher didn’t speak any English and he didn’t understand what he was supposed to do. She put him on the phone with me and I tried as hard as I could to be strong but my heart broke hearing my sad little boy who has worked so hard to be strong and to try new things!! I finally talked him into staying in his English class.
At 12:00 all the preschoolers finish but Laina was supposed to stay with a few of the other kids until 1:00 when Alysa got done. I was sitting in the car (Alysa’s teacher had sent me with a little video of Elder Wirthlin;s talk ‘Come What May, and Love It’.) in case Alysa had another breakdown and could see Laina at the front of the line with her backpack and coat on ready to go. I wasn’t sure if the teachers didn’t know that she was staying or not so I waited for a while. I finally opened the door and heard her bawling!! When I got there she was freaking out that I wasn’t there. I ended up just taking her out to the car with me for another hour until Alysa was done.
At 1:00 Laina and I ran back in to get Alysa. She was a little late getting something done but when she finally came out she looked pretty teary eyed. She told me that she had cried 5 times. As we were walking to the car, Morgan and Cole came along with the principal from the other building. (The 3,4, & 5 grades are in a different building just down the street) They were supposed to stay until 3:00 but the principal said that they were having a pretty rough day and they didn’t want to stay. She also told me that the 5th grade class has English in the morning and Spanish in the afternoon. If Morgan wants to continue doing the private Spanish class with Cole that she will need to go into the 4th grade English class in the afternoon. At this point I am not overly concerned about which class she is in! I guess on the up side, I didn’t have to drive back to the school at 3:00 to pick them up!!
We spent the afternoon trying to juggle homework for 4 kids. It is pretty tough going from two kids doing homework that they could do by themselves to trying to walk 4 kids through homework that I don’t even understand!! We finally got to the point where I told the kids to put the homework away, change out of their uniforms and go outside and play! It wasn’t too fun frantically trying to finish the homework before bed but they (o.k., I) needed a break!
Once Chris and Dave got back the kids were bouncing off the wall. They act like Dave is their favorite uncle coming to visit or something . I think they’re just excited to have somebody here that teases them and speaks English. They wouldn’t leave him alone for two seconds when we went to dinner (yummy pizza again!!) and out for ice cream. (We love going to Sarita for their cheap ice cream cones!!)
I think right now that I just need some reassurance that I am not the worlds worst parent for putting my kids through these trials. I seem to be questioning it quite frequently. I don’t regret our decision to move down here and I know it is the right thing for us to do but it is killing me to see my kids so sad and scared at school. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day!! I will be spending the next two days at school with the kids since Chris is going to be gone with the car to Guatemala City. Chris will drop us off in the morning and then we’ll get a ride home with Lily,. The Chaneys said they’d take us to school on Thursday and then catch a ride home again with Lily.
Oh, almost forgot… Lily told me that the 5th grade English teacher is 7 months pregnant and that they are probably going to need somebody to teach the class for a month or so after she has her baby. The principal talked to me briefly about it today and wanted to know if I might be interested. Since I am going to be stuck at the school all day tomorrow and Thursday, she said I could go observe the class and see if I would be comfortable teaching.
Well, I am exhausted beyond exhaustion so I am going to get this posted and go to bed.