Kindergarten Reflections

Last day of kindergarten!

First day of kindergarten last August

The bus-stop gang: a lively crew to start each day with!

 I wish I had some fun stats to share about how much Cora has grown or changed this year, but I didn't do a great job keeping records. I know she started the year with a number of missing teeth, lost a few more along the way, and has since replaced all but two that we are still waiting for. Total lost to date: 8!
I know she's grown at least 1/2 and inch since her birthday in January. She got a big hair cut this winter, and now you can see in the pictures her hair is as long today as it was last August.

On a more exciting note, she has learned so much in school. I'm so impressed with how well she handled this year. It was a big step of faith to put her in 1)Spanish immersion and 2) all-day every-day kindergarten. She had to start all over in a new school and make new friends in a class that had been together for at least one year of preschool. She had to adjust to being away from home for much of the day, every day. (I think that was a harder adjustment for me than for her!) She had to adjust to everything being taught in Spanish, learning to read and write and do math and other subjects in Spanish, and at the end of the year to only speak Spanish in the classroom. Overall, she sailed through the year without too much trouble. What an answer to prayer!

As a person with an invested interest in foreign language acquisition, it has been a fascinating year for me to watch the process. At this point, Cora can already carry on a simple but long conversation about most daily activities with me in Spanish. Her accent and pronunciation are impressive but the grammatical accuracy is like speaking with a 3 year old (but after only 9 months of academic immersion!). Spanish speakers would understand what she means even though she might say the equivalent of "I likes a apple." As with anyone learning a language at any point in their life, that will improve with time and more target language exposure. She has also transferred a lot of the language skills to English on her own. She enjoys writing notes to friends and sounds out the words in English (however she's not learning English phonics yet).

In short, Cora has really enjoyed kindergarten. She seemed to get along well with her classmates and teachers and made a couple close friends, too. But I'm excited to have her home with us for the summer! Let summer vacation begin!