Samuel's First Day of School

Samuel started 5th grade at Global Village Academy yesterday. I really don't think he is ready for 5th grade work at all, so it's a bit worrisome. His schooling in China was rather sketchy, and he only completed half of the third grade last year. We have no school records, of course. He's just learning to speak English, and can't read it at all. And I have no idea where his math skills lie. (They tried to test him a couple of weeks ago, but he was afraid and not very cooperative!) He is in the fifth grade only because he is almost 12. BUT, I was assured that they would work with him and assess what was needed, and do what they need to do to help him. So for now we're going with that! We spent the last couple of weeks preparing for it. Every day we'd talk about what date school began. I let him pick out three colors of uniform shirts, and we ordered and received those. I let him choose new school shoes. We went to Target for the school supplies and got those ready. We went to the school every day for two weeks. Sometimes we would go in and talk to the ladies at the front desk. Sometimes we would talk to Caylie's teachers. Sometimes we would look for Justin and Samuel's classrooms. Twice we got to talk to Samuel's Chinese teacher, which was the best thing. Sometimes we would just walk around the outside or shoot baskets on the playground. I really wanted him to feel as comfortable as possible with the place! And yesterday was finally the day.

. . . Before School . . . 
Samuel is not one for a lot of pictures, but I told him I ALWAYS take pictures of my kids on the first day of school, so he went with it. (I promise I will do another Back-To-School post about Justin, Keelan, and Caylie's first days!)

Outside of the school, it was a madhouse, of course. A sea of humanity waiting outside the school until the doors opened at 8:00am! I kept telling him tomorrow would be better. We left Justin at the back of the school with the middle schoolers, so he saw that Justin was OK going by himself.

When we finally got inside, we up to his classroom and he got a big smile on his face when we saw Kang laoshi (Chinese teacher). But then he started to get scared and didn't want to go into the room. But she was GREAT with him. She just kept talking to him in Chinese and putting him at ease. He went into the room, and she told him where to hang his backpack, but of course he did not want to be separated from his backpack. She didn't make him, though. She let him keep it at his desk.

She put him at a desk beside her desk, and gave him a little chore to do of folding some papers for her. Just busy work to keep him occupied and to let him feel successful at the first thing he was asked to do. She was excellent.

I told him it was time for me to go take care of Tessa, and he hugged me and said goodbye. It was amazing. I don't know how he'll do with all the other new things and changes of the day, but he'll get through it, and tomorrow nothing will be as strange or new.

. . . . . After School . . . .

I think it went well! Honestly, I waited all day for my phone to ring, and it never did, so if he got upset, he must not have melted down too much!

When I picked him up, he had a big smile. I asked him if he had a good day and he said "good". I asked him if he had 3 teachers; he said yes. I asked him what he ate for lunch, and he said, "Pizza, uuugh." So yeah, I think it was ok! (Except for that lunch!)

I emailed his Chinese teacher to ask how the day had gone, and she said he'd done a good job. She said he'd introduced himself to the class, but that he was a little shy. (Frankly, I cannot even imagine him standing up and introducing himself to a class, but I'll go with it, haha.) She said he'd said hi to her in the hallway in the afternoon when he was going to his other classes. He told her he liked the school. I emailed his math teacher to let him know the situation; that Samuel likely wasn't understanding much of his lessons or directions at this point. He said he would be patient and work with him, so I will count on that.

Today Samuel was up early (as he is every morning) and ready to go again. :)