School is Back in here in Costa Rica!!

So summer is officially over for the kids here in Costa Rica and that includes our household!  School started back for Sophia on Monday!  The school had all of the kindergartners and first graders start school on Monday and 2nd grade through 7th started on Tuesday!  So Benjamin and Lizzie started on Tuesday!  Boy did 5:30am come quickly!!  Guess we have to get back in that routine!  All 3 questioned why they had to get up in the night time!  But school starts at 7am here, so we have to leave the house no later than 6:25am!  That is one reason that I love school uniforms because at least we don’t have to figure out clothes, it is mandated by the school down to even their socks and shoes and even hair accessories!  The school colors are red and navy and white, so they are to only wear hair accessories in those colors!  Good thing there is Pinterest because I am going to have to get to making new hair bows and flowers for them because we only have one flower that Sophia can wear!  She loves accessories!  Lizzie does too, just a bit less blingy than Sophia!  Ok, so on to their first days…..

Sophia gets settled in and her precious teacher “Teacher Jessica”  says, “Hello Sophia.  Welcome.”  And that really soothed Sophia, hearing her speak in English.  I got to meet some other parents and then it was time to go and leave my baby to her school work.  Sophia calls to me and I go over there and she says, “Mommy, I am the only one with yellow hair!  But I can do this.  I will face it like I do karate.  I will focus!”  I almost cried right then, but I did make it back out to the car.  I picked her up from school and she was all smiles.  I had been prepping her for first grade by telling her how it was not going to be like kindergarten and she would have a desk and have to sit still and raise her hand and less play time.  So she quickly and happily informed me that first grade was easy!  They colored and played outside and she even made a friend!  Hopefully, she will like the rest of the school year as much as the first day!  🙂

So then Tuesday we pack everyone up and we are off for Benjamin and Lizzie’s first day!  We all first headed to Lizzie’s class.  We walked in and were looking for her name on her desk and she saw a desk with the name Lisa and was just thrilled!  If you recall, Lisa was the sweet friend she made last year that started school a week after Lizzie and her dad is from California so she speaks English!  So we were optimistically hoping that it was the same Lisa!  I met her teacher and helped her get settled then we had to take Benjamin to his class.  Last year Benjamin entered 5th grade, even though he should have been in 4th because 4th grade was full.  So we decided that although academically, he could advance, we wanted him to be with his age group, so he is started 5th grade again with his age group!  His home room teacher is the man that taught him Spanish last year!  He really liked Benjamin and had complimented me on what a polite and nice boy Benjamin was, so he seems very happy with it!  He is missing his old friends, but he saw some on the playground, and they got to hang out there, so hopefully he will be making new friends in his new class quickly!  When I picked them up at the end of the day, I found out that Lisa was in fact the Lisa we were hoping for, Lizzie’s 2nd grade teacher, teacher Hazel, had been promoted to 3rd grade and was Lizzie’s teacher again (she was thrilled) and everyone had had a wonderful day!

God is so good to our children.  Being in school can be difficult.  It can especially be difficult if you look completely different from everyone else and speak another language from everyone else.  However, God has given our children many blessings and has shown this is what He wants for our lives!  He has blessed them with friends.  The teachers have seen God’s light in them and have shared that with me.  He encourages them.  But I do ask that you pray for each of them.  It is not easy to learn reading, math, science, social studies, writing in a language different from your own.  They are in a bilingual school, so they are also being taught English grammar and reading and so their friends also are coming to learn the heart language of our kids.  So that will continue to improve as our children’s Spanish improves and the others improve their English.  In the meantime, we are just enjoying each day in school and taking our time to enjoy what we do have in common and that out weighs the differences!

Makes me hope that this might encourage the readers of this blog to reach out to and make friends with someone else that is different from you.  If you see someone who does not speak English somewhere and they could use a helping hand, I hope this might encourage you to step out of your comfort zone and see if you can assist them or just offer a friendly smile and helping hand.  I know that love and friendliness from strangers here has really encouraged us.  🙂

Ephesians 5:2

New American Standard Bible

² and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

Here are some pics!

Lizzie and her new teacher!!

Sophia at her desk!!