Spanish school

Since we are living in Spain, and spanish is such a valuable language, we decided to send the kids to spanish school out in town.  They do have american schools on base, but we just thought that this is such an amazing opportunity for the kids to learn spanish and decided to take advantage of it.  School in Spain starts at age 3, so Kailey also gets to go to school.  They go to school from 9-2 everyday.  There teachers speak NO english and in Kailey's class there is only one other little girl that speaks English and Spanish and in Ethan's class there are two little girls that speak English.

The first week of school was a little rough and a bit of an adjustment.  Ethan is a very social little boy and came home upset because he didn't know how to ask the other kids to play with him.  So we had to practice "puedo jugar" which means, "Can I play".  Kailey didn't cry the first day, but the next couple of days cried and clung to me.  Her teacher had to pry her off of me.  Her teacher is this young guy named Pablo and he is good-looking, dresses in cargo shorts and t-shirts everyday--totally doesn't look like a teacher, but he is fantastic.  Ethan's teacher is also wonderful.

The school they attend is called "Cristobal Colon" or Christopher Columbus school.  This school is kind in a bad part of town and a lot of the gypsy kids go to this school.  After school, we wait outside of a cement wall and the kids come out through a gate, so basically it is this big mosh pit of parents waiting for their kids.  It is interesting, because most of the parents are smoking, the women are SOOO trashy looking and covered with tattoos--it is a very poor part of town, but because it is where most of the poor kids go, the school gets a lot of money.  The school is very nice and the kids really are enjoying school now.

Ethan and Kailey still don't understand a lot, it has only been 3 weeks, but it is fun to hear them come home and tell me something new.  The other day Ethan came home and said, "I learned how to spell sun--S--O--L."  I stopped for a minute and was like, that isn't how you spell it, oh wait sol is the word for sun in spanish.  Yesterday he learned how to spell grapes--which is uvas.

I am just so excited for this opportunity and so grateful to have kids that are so resilient and willing to try new things.  I really do have some amazing kids and it is going to be so awesome to hear them speaking spanish better than me pretty soon!!!