My Family

I love these guys so much!!

First Day of School

Last Wednesday Andrés began school. In the picture the director is holding his backpack and his teacher is holding him. Both of them are very nice and helpful, wanting him to adapt as quickly and smoothly as possible.
After school, he and I headed out to purchase some school supplies, the aforementioned guardapolvo and some cuadernos (notebooks). Each class has its own different colored cuaderno, and his teacher Dolores asked us to buy 3: yellow, red, and green. So we headed out on the train. It's a trip I won't soon forget.
Have you ever seen those moms with out of control kids and you wonder why they don't just take them in hand? Well, maybe it's because the kids are just having a nervous day and is totally out of control, and the mother is taken by surprise. I know I sure was.
Andrés had to touch everything in each store that we enter. "Don't touch," was a 5 second command, and even if he remembered for longer than that, it certainly didn't apply to the next store. The worst store was the last. We went into a clothing store and when we were attended, he hid himself, not coming out when I called him. Then after we looked at the pants, he hid again, this time inside a rack of clothes, knocking off a bunch when I told him to come out. After the 5 second, "don't touch ANYTHING!" wore off, he tried on the pants and proceeded to touch the mirror, which then fell off the wall and almost hit him on the head! Finally, when I was paying, he decided to "admire" the window display with his hands - a snowman complete with tons of styrofoam snow. The owner finally told him "hands off!" as I was doing yet another "Don't touch!!"
For as wonderful as the prices were at this clothing store, I wonder if I dare step foot inside ever again. Maybe with the girls it will go better. And for having this experience, I will now give any exasperated mother the benefit of the doubt next time I see her, as she tries to get her kids under control. It could just be one of those days for her...

Starting school, Argentine style

This is the official Argentine public school uniform, called a guardapolvo (dust-guarder). And for the first time in our family's history, one of ou children has to wear it. Andrés began school yesterday in a local public school. This pic was taken after his second day, and you can see how smily he is. It wasn's that way after the first day...hopefully it will be a better experience as the days go by.
Andrés is going to public school for several reasons, the first and most important is that he is considered Argentine by the government and homeschooling is not an option in their minds. So since he has to be enrolled in some school, and we found one three blocks away from our home we decided to give it a try. The main reason we even considered enrolling him is that he is so social, and he has no friends, not at his old school, not in church, and no other option to make them at this point. Being in a public school will also force him to learn Spanish.
At first he was not thrilled with the idea of learning Spanish, but when I told him that he will make friends, have many boys in his class, and they won't move away every year (as the international kids did at his old school), then he liked the idea.
Yesterday he came home upset, that the kids were crowding around him and wouldn't leave him alone, that they were calling him names (how does he know?) and some girls were chasing him. So he was overwhelmed and said, "Well, we gave that a try!" and determined that he wasn't going back today. But today was another story.
In his newly bought clothes, including the uniform, with his backpack full of his new notebooks and candy to share with all his classmates, he went to school with a better attitude. And came out with a smile on his face. The candy worked, apparently, but there wasn't enough to share so he had to share the rest of his snack (granola bars) and he was HUNGRY!! His sisters had prepared a snack for him when he got home, and he was treated like a king.
Next week we start homeschooling with the girls, even though the materials haven't arrived yet. Andrés will have some English work to do as well, and we'll have the mornings to do it. I'm looking forward to getting back into a routine, and hopefully a month from now our lives will return to some normalcy.