School Update

The kids completed their first "full" week of pre-school. Maia had two days the previous week and four regularly schedule days last week. After the first day, she took to the bus like a pro! She absolutely loves riding the bus and actually taught the bus driver and aide the correct "sign" for the word bus. It's wonderful to have her look forward to going to school each day. I can see the difference that speech therapy is making for Maia as well. She is trying some new words which is fun to hear. A humorous side story...there is a little boy with DS who rides Maia's bus. He gets on the bus right before Maia and was crying every day when the bus stopped at our house. Mark asked if we had any toys that he could give the little boy to cheer him up. I stopped at the dollar store and picked up some stickers as well as a small package of plastic dinosaurs, thinking he could give the little boy something every day. The following morning, Mark gave the little boy a dinosaur. He was very happy as the bus left our house. When the bus arrived back at our house to drop Maia off, the aide told Mark that the little boy had liked the dinosaur a lot BUT kept throwing at the aide - lol! So, Mark is limited to handing out stickers. :-)
Matthew had his regularly scheduled three days of pre-school. He also loves going to school, although he is still a little disappointed that he doesn't get to ride the bus. The teacher tells us that he seems to comprehend a great deal of what is said, but isn't talking much in class yet. I think the language barrier makes it a bit difficult to play with the other kids at this point. He's learning words and talks a lot at home, even though we don't always understand what he's saying (in Russian). That might be for the best when he's mad at us - lol! The kids have chapel weekly and Matthew's teacher said he did a wonderful job of sitting quietly and listening during his first chapel. The school day (well... afternoon) goes quickly for Matthew and he usually wishes that he could stay longer.

We're blessed that the kids have great teachers who see their potential and create an environment that makes them excited to go to school every day!