Off to School

This morning we dropped our kids off at school! There is a single small private school in Puriscal that is “bi-lingual.” I put “bi-lingual” in quotes, because they only have two periods during the day in which they teach and speak English. The rest of the day is taught in Spanish. This is fine for us, because what we really want is for the kids to learn Spanish quickly. Right now the kids are just sort of auditing their classes. The school year in CR ends in mid November. So we worked out an agreement with the director of the school for our kids to go to school for free. In exchange they will help the other students learn English. It is a very small school. It covers the grades from kindergarten through high school, yet it only has 62 students total.

Matthew was the least excited about going. He clung to mom and dad and refused to make eye contact with anyone, let alone speak to them. They put him in 3rd grade (which is where he finished last year in the states).

Elisabeth seemed to take it all in stride. They put her in the 8th grade! Why? I’m not sure. We think it is a temporary arrangement, but we really don’t know why. The kids in her class are way older than her. In the states she would be in 6th grade this year. the director of the school does not speak English, so I wasn’t able to get an explanation of why he did this. However, there is an 11 year old girl at the school who spent the last 9 years in the US. She spoke with the director and told us that Elly is only in the 8th grade temporarily and then they will move her to the right place.

Hannah was placed in the fourth year of high school. I think this equates to the 11th grade. Again, I’m not sure what the director is thinking, but oh well. As long as they learn a little Spanish we are good to go. Hannah’s biggest concern was that she didn’t have anything “cute” to wear to her first day of school. You can see by the photo she was really excited about me taking pictures.