School in a foreign language
I'm a huge fan of rewarding the little girl for doing her best at school. Last year, when she joined the first class of Spanish public school without speaking more than a few words Spanish, we expected nothing from her. If she'd fail Spanish all year, it would be fine as long as she tried her best. Some kids need more time to adjust than others and it surely wasn't easy having a teacher who clearly didn't want to be there and struggled to handle the classroom full of very loud kids.
I felt so proud that she never really complained about going to school, even though at first, she stood there on the school yard by herself without having friends as she could not really speak back. It broke my heart the first month seeing that but yet she would always find something positive to say about school. She turned out to be very resilient and we made sure to reward her for making an effort and trying her best so she would not stop doing so.
Lots of practice
While I don't master the grammar of the Spanish language yet, and I surely did not do so a year ago, I made sure to practice Spanish in a fun way every day with her to make sure we'd all learn something new every day.
This could be very fun when for example I tried to remember how to tell the delivery guy that I'd come to the gate when they called me, as our doorbell was broken the first months. I had to learn because we lived at the end of a long hallway and if I wouldn't tell them that I was coming, they'd be gone.
Estoy llegando a la puerta was the thing Google told me to say when I looked up "I'm coming to the door".
To remember it, I'd sing it and she'd sing it with me every time, loudly laughing when dad panicked whenever they'd call him for a delivery, haha. Not to shame my boyfriend btw, because he was overloaded with work and he just didn't have the capacity to switch to Spanish while being in a workflow while we had the time to repeat things over and over. But it was a fun little moment between mommy and daughter when it happened. These little (maybe stupid) things I cherish.
Tutor did wonders
I mentioned it before but I can't express enough how happy I am that I thought out of the box by asking the daughter of our hair dresser if she'd be willing to help her with homework. I remembered she told me that she was looking for a job and studied English as well as Spanish. She seemed like such a friendly girl and my daughter clearly liked her. This is a success story that made all of our lives so much easier. Especially that of our daughter, and I hope this collab will be ongoing for as long as my daughter needs it.
Amazing report
Where other kids all had the advantage of speaking the language, our daughter was able to pull up her 5 average for "lengua" to a 7 average at the end of the first school year. She made such progress that we were extremely proud that this little brain fart I had by asking her help, turned out to be probably one of the best ideas of the year.
Holidays
Of course during the holidays there was not much practice besides the fun Spanish practicing in a playful way rather than in a student environment. I would not have been surprised if the 12 week holiday would have made her forget most things she learned. It turned out that this was not the case.
Several 100% exams
She had several exams where she made 0 mistakes. The biggest celebration was when she had a 10 for a lengua exam. Imagine that, last year she knew nothing, had a 5 on average for the Spanish classes all year, until she upped her grade to a 7 average by the end of the year, and now she understands things so well that she can even have 10 on an exam.
This was such a proud moment for us that we told her she can pick dinner to celebrate. It became tradition that with every 10, dinner was her choice. Thankfully, this usually meant some chicken pasta and not mc Donalds, haha. And yes, she managed to get several more 10's in the first trimester!
Excitement for the report card
The last week of school she sadly became ill again so she missed a final exam. I was worried a bit that it would mean her grade would go down so I contacted her teacher on Monday to ask what to do. I considered sending her there for just the exam the next day but the teacher was clear, don't worry it's important she gets better and she's done enough things in class to make sure her grade is as it should be.
When this report card was uploaded on the school side yesterday, I screamed "OH MY GOD" from excitement:
I could not believe what I saw, I never even thought she could have a 9 average for "knowledge of the environment" (conocnimiento del medio) because she also had a 7 for one of the previous exams but it turns out that the class activities indeed count very hard towards the final grade.
The 9 for artistic classes was not fully unexpected as she's super creative, but it's great to see that's being recognized!
Physical education has been a straight 8 from the first trimester last year, so well done!
Seeing the 9 average for Spanish classes is something that made me shed a tear, I mean, see how far she came? She's a rockstar and so is her tutor, they make a great team!
Now the final three grades are a 10! I don't think I ever had multiple tens on a report card but she has.. English, maths and I think that educational education is how much they pay attention in class, but I'm not sure. Either way, things are going AMAZINGLY well.
Milestones are here to be remembered
I'm going to print the report card and frame it, as we're so proud of her. She clearly loves going to school as well and I'm happy this is the case because this could have surely been different if the struggle would have been too much for her to keep up with the other kids.
And yes, she picked dinner tonight, haha. And I will probably find some gift in the next week to reward her as well, I just need to find it first..
Signed,
The proudest mommy in the world!
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