The day before school started, we went to a meet and greet in Cameron’s new Kindergarten classroom! Of course, I found out about it at the last minute…we’d bumped into her teacher in the office while dropping off some veggies for the teacher luncheon and I stopped to introduce ourselves….The minute she realized Cameron was her student, I saw her expression change — and in that second, I knew I was going to have difficulty finishing the conversation! Her teacher speaks to her only in Spanish (in fact, I have found out that she told the kids she only speaks Spanish and not English!)–this is part of the dual immersion protocol. She only gets English instruction from the other Dos Alas teacher!
Anyway, I was able to extract the words “hoy” and “a las dos” from our conversation…enough to make me realize there as something at 2pm TODAY that I hadn’t previously been aware of. Her teacher looked at me and asked, “puede?” And, doing a quick mental calculation of how many hours of work I’d get in if I left early, I replied, “oh, si, si.”
So, we made it! (Phew!). I’d forgotten Dylan had one of these events as well. Cameron got a worksheet with “activities” to mark off which basically took her around the room in a sort of self-guided tour–find your cubby, draw your self-portrait at one table and write your name at another (skills assessment, too!), get your picture taken, etc.
Here she is working on her self-portrait.
Oh, yes. One of the activities was to find the bathroom (muy importante!) and to make a new friend.
She just officially finished her first week of school and so far so good. We were expecting meltdowns from having to keep it together in a classroom where you pretty much understand only a teeny tiny bit–and the teachers have a drop-off-at-the-door policy (unlike the traditional K classrooms where you can come in and hang out for as long as you like). But, she is doing remarkably well. She likes it, she looks forward to it (still) and she talks about playing with Micah (with whom she went to preschool–she is also in Dos Alas, but in the other class) and recognizing kids from both soccer (which started on Tuesday as well) and after-school care (we did a dry run with both kids in after-school care so that she could have some exposure to the environment and to Nikki before the routine kicked in). All of these pre-first-day-of-school things (after-school care, soccer practice, and the classroom meet and greet) really seems to have helped her transition in…huge credit to her teacher as well for so quickly creating a comfortable space for Cameron and the rest of her peers! We have heard only extremely positive things about the Dos Alas Kindergarten teachers…they are loving and warm and expressive. Cameron has already learned a few Spanish words and is now singing Twinkle Twinkle in Spanish as well!
