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Published: February 19th 2006
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Ellie off to school
Here is our cutie girl, ready for her first day of school. By all accounts, it seems that Ellie had a successful first week of school. A few of the mornings she was anxious/nervous/reluctant/downright stubborn about not going to school. Once we got to the school, however, her teacher would come to the door, take her hand and say, “Come on, Ellie.” Ellie would smile and go right in. At noontime, when we would come to pick her up, she’d still be smiling and tell us about “the new friends” she made that day.
Overall, I am not too impressed with the school - I think Dara’s first impression of Yendry, the director, was correct - she is not the greatest. Actually, on the first day of school, as Dara and Ellie walked up to the door the director was just arriving at the school! I couldn’t imagine Carrie or Naomi (the directors of Ellie’s school back home) showing up just as the kids arrive. She is nice to the children and I think does fine with them, but in more of a superficial way -- same with regard to the parents. I do, however, really like Ellie’s teacher, Alejandra. She is very nice and caring and I feel she is making
Ready for the day
Ari's bus picks him up at 7:45 or 7:50, then we just head around the corner to Ellie's school. an extra effort to make sure Ellie is doing well, is included when the other kids play and so on.
On Thursday night, we had a meeting at the school. It was for Yendry to explain to the parents about the Montessori method and what to expect during the year. It was really a bunch of hot air and served to reinforce our feelings about her. There was a lot of attitude and “It’s not my problem/responsibility" coming from her. For example she talked about the importance of punctuality - they are going to start their circle time at exactly 8:00 so if you arrive at 8:03, you will have to wait outside until circle time is over. Of course, school is supposed to be over at noon and some of the parents need to get right out to catch a bus or wait 45 minutes for the next one but Yendry doesn’t care - the kids didn’t get out until 10 or 15 past everyday this week. In the meeting she actually told the parents not to bother her at the end of the day about making the bus or anything like that. Right after she had ranted
about punctuality. There was another big discussion because Yendry announced that the kids would not celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day in school (that is mother’s and father’s would not come in - they would still do crafts and whatnot) because she didn’t want kids who didn’t have a mother or father feeling left out. Very good, nice sentiment. But when one of the parents chimed in about how bad she had felt at school on Grandparents’ Day when she didn’t have any living grandparents, Yendry said, “Well, I decided that we would celebrate Grandparents’ Day. If your kid doesn’t have a grandparent you can just find another old person to fill in.”
We did find out at the meeting that another teacher is going to be starting next week which is good because I felt that the student/teacher ratio was way too high (with the new teacher it is better, but still not quite where I think it should be). As it turns out, the new teacher, Yancy, is going to be Ellie’s teacher and Alejandra is going to be with the older (kindergarten) kids. Alejanda assured us that she would still be keeping an eye on Ellie
European School Picnic
Last Saturday we went to Ari's school picnic. We got a chance to meet some of his friends and their parents. Here he is with Isaac, the other American boy in his class (from California -- his parents are teachers at the school). - it is a pretty small school and the classrooms are all very open, so we’re not worried. Plus Yancy seems very nice, too. She used to teach at the Golden Valley school - the other Montessori school just up the road that we had looked at (the one that was building the new building out in the middle of nowhere - well, they are still a long way from being able to move to the new school). When we went up and introduced ourselves to her after the meeting she remembered us from when we went to look at that school.
Yes, it seems that we are quite memorable, especially the kids - but we don’t take it personally. It happens all the time -- Dara took the kids to the taqueria (little taco shop that sells food essentially out of the window of their house) across the street. When I went back with the kids a few weeks later, they not only remembered the kids, but remembered what Dara had ordered. Dara went back to a shoe store a couple weeks after she’d been in looking around. The sales lady remembered her and the kind of shoes
Ellie and friends
These are some new friends that Ellie met at Ari's school picnic. Audrey, the girl in the purple, is Isaac's sister. She reminds Dara of Olive. she was looking for. (Of course, when I went back to the used car places I had visited, they didn’t remember me.) We were at the mall (yes, there are malls here and they look just like malls back home, only smaller) and a twenty-year old girl came up to us and said she remembered us (the kids) from the internet café near our house. Well, she ended up as our babysitter while we went to the meeting on Thursday.
Anyway, Ari has been doing very well at school too. He has his cursive writing down pat. He’s not the fastest, but he is neat - I don’t think there has ever been a Bortman with such neat penmanship. He had a fieldtrip to see bees at the local university - yes, parents need to sign a permission slip, just like back home. He has a test each Friday with spelling words and sentences to write and math problems to solve and he's doing really well on those. For his poem “prop” this week he made a sock puppet complete with arms, legs and bead necklace (sorry, no video). Math is still too easy for him. But that is
Gym Uniform, too
Ellie has a different uniform for Tuesdays -- the day she has gym. Also, her hair is supposed to be up in a pony tail or pig tails everyday for school -- something she is not used to. ok since he is working hard on the other stuff. This weekend we're working on a model of a bee...in papier mache. It's never boring around here!
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Emily Lyons
non-member comment
HI
Hi my name is Emily and I was online looking at Costa Rica, I love the country although I don't know a ton about it. I came across your site for some reason and your adventure sounds amazing. I am wondering how you found a host family. I am a single mom from Minnesota and I want to go on an adventure with my son. I was thinking of renting an apartment but I am also concidering a host stay instead. I am just wondering if you would mind e mailing me and letting me know what service you went through or how you went about finding a trustworthy family to live with. Why did you choose to stay with a family and not rent? Do you know of anyone in Costa Rica looking to host? My e mail is lyon0169@metnet.edu. Thanks, any info you can share would be great! Emily