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| Our daughter dressed for school! |
It was a day of some excitement and some nervousness. We had gone through these “first-day-of-school jitters” in France but we had some assurances there that the school day would be filled with fun and engaging activities, that there would be at least one other American in her class and that her teacher would have a least a little English. On the islands we had none of these assurances. Her teacher would speak no English. Most likely, our daughter would be the only anglophone, the only foreigner, the only white kid not only in her class, but in the entire school. And finally, the standard that often passes for preschool on the islands is the kids sitting in one spot quietly all day, everyday with little to no engagement.
We knew all this going in, our friends on other islands have struggled finding a preschool on the islands where they do anything, but we knew we needed to find one. Our daughter has been bored--she started school in France and is used to it. All the other kids her age go to school. Plus, we noticed that she was hesitant to engage island kids (unsure about language and just being different). We knew in this regard that school would be a great way to get her interacting with island kids, brushing up her French and maybe even learning some local language too.
For this year, we weren’t really concerned about how much she would learn (she loves learning and we will supplement at home), but the point is trying to find a school where they actually DO something with the kids. I visited three preschools within walking distance of our house that seemed like options. The goal of the visit was to see what the school was like-- do they engage the children?
The first school had some fun pictures painted on the walls (an encouraging sign) and the adults seemed friendly, but the school rooms were small and dark, with tightly packed benches, no room for kids to walk around in the room and not all children would have even a table or desk to write on.
The second school had make-shift rooms created from bigger rooms with partial plywood walls, but they had posters up and it seemed like some instruction was happening. Then at recess the little kids were mixed with the older kids and I imagined our daughter (the natural object of attention as the only white kid) thrown among kids all the way to 12 years old and I didn’t feel comfortable.
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| Our youngest learns to crawl! |
The last school was the one that I had been told was the most “serious”, in that they actually teach kids French (the language of instruction in all the schools on the islands). The rooms were bright and colorful and there were posters on the walls. The room were still crowded but there was table space for everyone and I saw them writing and coloring handouts. It was the obvious winner, but the test would be in actually sending our daughter to school.
Would she hate it? After her fun and engaging school experience in France, would she be bored to tears? Would she be isolated? Would she make friends? In short, was this going to be a positive or negative experience for her?
Our daughter ran into the house after her first day with a smile.
-“How was school?”
-“Good! I made three friends!”
PRAYERS ANSWERED
Our daughter has been excited about going to school and overall it seems like it has been a positive experience for her. We were given permission to officially introduce our future teammates to one another (over email of course) and it has been a blessing to see our team begin to interact-- it helps us imagine what the team will be like and gets us excited about having them join us! We have found some great resources for learning the local language-- a grammar book and a dictionary!! These are resources we weren’t necessarily thinking we’d have so they are a blessing.
PRAYERS REQUESTED
Continue to pray for our daughter's school experience--it is a little boring and for the most part it sounds like they stay in their seats in one place for the entire day and color--no outside time. We will specifically need discernment whether to stick with this school next year (when our son would be starting too). Megan has been having sciatica pain again for the past few weeks. Pray for some relief as she tries different things to help. At the end of the month there will be a special gathering for representatives from all those groups interested in our type of work on the islands -- begin praying now for the travel of all those coming and that the weekend would be a great time of fellowship, learning from one another and mutual understanding.
