Hello everyone and Happy New Year!
We have now been home longer than we were in Kazakhstan. A significant milestone in our life and family!
Time is passing quickly as we settle into our new life and new routines. Although there have been a few moments of frustration, mostly due to the still present language barriers, we have been making an amazing transition into a solid family of four.
One important family routine has been our Bedtime Story. Both David and Kate love the one on one time and we are quickly plowing through the entire Dr Suess collection. One of the current favorites is "Green Eggs and Ham." In fact, they enjoyed that particular story to the point that breakfast last Saturday morning was indeed Green Eggs & Ham! (it's amazing what you can do with a little butter and food color!). Bill warmed up the frying pan while Cathe went upstairs to wake the kids. They were already awake and their noses had already picked up the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. The looks on their faces when they saw what was on their plates was absolutely priceless! In typical kid fashion, they expressed their amused disgust at what they saw, but only hesitated a moment before devouring the meal.
School has been going very well. We are truly thankful for the warm acceptance both received from their new teachers and fellow students. They are getting very good at sounding out words and are beginning to comprehend many of the more complex concepts. We have a lot of catching up to do, but they are both enthusiastic and eager to learn. We have even worked in items from their background which is helping score additional points. (David had a Social Studies project to create a poster to advertise the "New Colonies in America," which he wrote out in Russian)
One of the things the care givers kept stressing before we left Kazakhstan was that neither was one of the best students. Although Bill was concerned about holding both back a grade, we both agree that it was the best thing we could have done to give them a solid foundation in their new environment. Not only do they have to learn English, they have to learn American history to catch up with their peers. Both are very bright and learning new concepts at an exceptional rate. Although they are a year older than most of their new peers, we would recommend that anyone adopting older children take a little time to access current progress and place thier children based on academics rather than just age. We're quickly discovering that their previous academic performance was most likely just due to their need for one-on-one family time with academics. That approach is also helping us work through maturity and social skills.
Although we have not experienced any major issues, we have had to frequently pause to explain that certain behaviors are not proper. In some respects, our children are old beyond their years. They have seen and experienced things that will have life long effects. In other ways, they are immature, having missed out on early years of just being able to be kids. There are also learned behaviors from their time in the orphanage system which also need a little retuning.
The colder weather these past few weeks has kept us indoors more than we would like. We all like to be active outdoors and the kids are trying to wear out their new bikes. There's another quickly learned skill to share! No problem getting them both to wear helments, but we still have to work on proper methods for stopping (brakes instead of dragging shoes). Thankfully it won't be long before the days get longer and we can get back outside. Although winter is shorter in the mid-south, we are stuck with a lot of in-between weather: cold and rainy. It has given us more opportunity to work on English and academics though. When we asked if they missed winter in Kazakhstan, both quickly replied, "No!"
January has been a good month and we're looking forward to the new successes awaiting us in February.
We have now been home longer than we were in Kazakhstan. A significant milestone in our life and family!
Time is passing quickly as we settle into our new life and new routines. Although there have been a few moments of frustration, mostly due to the still present language barriers, we have been making an amazing transition into a solid family of four.
One important family routine has been our Bedtime Story. Both David and Kate love the one on one time and we are quickly plowing through the entire Dr Suess collection. One of the current favorites is "Green Eggs and Ham." In fact, they enjoyed that particular story to the point that breakfast last Saturday morning was indeed Green Eggs & Ham! (it's amazing what you can do with a little butter and food color!). Bill warmed up the frying pan while Cathe went upstairs to wake the kids. They were already awake and their noses had already picked up the wonderful smells coming from the kitchen. The looks on their faces when they saw what was on their plates was absolutely priceless! In typical kid fashion, they expressed their amused disgust at what they saw, but only hesitated a moment before devouring the meal.School has been going very well. We are truly thankful for the warm acceptance both received from their new teachers and fellow students. They are getting very good at sounding out words and are beginning to comprehend many of the more complex concepts. We have a lot of catching up to do, but they are both enthusiastic and eager to learn. We have even worked in items from their background which is helping score additional points. (David had a Social Studies project to create a poster to advertise the "New Colonies in America," which he wrote out in Russian)
One of the things the care givers kept stressing before we left Kazakhstan was that neither was one of the best students. Although Bill was concerned about holding both back a grade, we both agree that it was the best thing we could have done to give them a solid foundation in their new environment. Not only do they have to learn English, they have to learn American history to catch up with their peers. Both are very bright and learning new concepts at an exceptional rate. Although they are a year older than most of their new peers, we would recommend that anyone adopting older children take a little time to access current progress and place thier children based on academics rather than just age. We're quickly discovering that their previous academic performance was most likely just due to their need for one-on-one family time with academics. That approach is also helping us work through maturity and social skills.
Although we have not experienced any major issues, we have had to frequently pause to explain that certain behaviors are not proper. In some respects, our children are old beyond their years. They have seen and experienced things that will have life long effects. In other ways, they are immature, having missed out on early years of just being able to be kids. There are also learned behaviors from their time in the orphanage system which also need a little retuning.
The colder weather these past few weeks has kept us indoors more than we would like. We all like to be active outdoors and the kids are trying to wear out their new bikes. There's another quickly learned skill to share! No problem getting them both to wear helments, but we still have to work on proper methods for stopping (brakes instead of dragging shoes). Thankfully it won't be long before the days get longer and we can get back outside. Although winter is shorter in the mid-south, we are stuck with a lot of in-between weather: cold and rainy. It has given us more opportunity to work on English and academics though. When we asked if they missed winter in Kazakhstan, both quickly replied, "No!"
January has been a good month and we're looking forward to the new successes awaiting us in February.
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