Hazel Goes to School

Yesterday Seth, Hazel and I headed to Escola Biblica Crista (that's actually an a with a squiggle over it, but for some reason I cannot get the Portuguese keyboard to work on blogger). ã.  Ha!  I just figured it out.  How random.  As well as a number of other Portuguese symbols - çáéóõ!  Don't have the roof over the letters figured out yet, anyone know:  oh, there's my colon!  Now I just have to find my question mark!

Okay, back to my story.

Seth, Hazel and I headed to Escola Biblica Cristã yesterday.  Here in Brazil, the younger grades have school from 7-11, and the older grades have it in the afternoon.  In the public school system, the highschoolers attend school in the evening.  Also, kids can start going to school this amount at age 2.  The division for ages that go into a certain class are from April to March (so Lyla would be one of the youngest in her class here).  They have what they call Jardim 1, 2, and 3 (Portuguese for Garden) for around ages 3, 4, and 5.  Then they start with grade one at age 6, which is Seth's grade .  We came to the school right around 11, and kids were just getting out of Seth's class when we went to meet his teacher, which was a bit overwhelming.  We said hi to his teacher and talked about which day was best for him to come.  Shaun and I were thinking of sending them once a week to classes like art, gym, etc.  Seth's class has gym on Tuesday, as well as music and math.  I feel like that is perfect, all "international" languages.  (I just accidentally figured out the roof, incidentally: ô.  Shift+"+o.  Fabulous.).  We did recheck out his classroom with just his teacher after, and I think it was more reassuring to him to see the posters on the walls, and see some things that he has been learning in Portuguese, such as numbers, the alphabet, days of the week, parts of the body.  His teacher is super nice, and seems to understand the concept of PSL.  Or is it PLL now question mark.

Hazel's class has gym on Wednesdays.  For her I feel like it's possibly less important what classes she is going to.  It appears it does not bother her to not understand, and she tries to speak it without a hint of self-consciousness.  I think a lot of it is to do with her age.  We were standing in the front entrance of the school when we got there, and the teacher from Jardim 1 stuck her head out of the classroom window that opened to the front entrance.  It was a class of around 9 or 10 students.  She said hi to Hazel and Hazel wanted to get right in there.  She is, however, the age of Jardim 2, so we headed to that classroom.  Well, we opened the door and she started bawling and clinging to me for dear life.  I think she just decided that she wanted to be in the other class, and this class had 24 students.  So we headed back to the other class to talk to that teacher.

We had planned to bring Hazel to class at 7 this morning, however, it seemed like she did not sleep at all last night (along with Lyla who was crying for no apparent reason and Seth who has an ear infection).  She has had itchy feet problems at night, and I am still undecided between it being sand fleas, hookworm again, athlete's foot or just plain old mosquito bites.  I'm doing a very un-nursing type of treatment, which includes treating it with any cream I have.  Well, it's not quite that eclectic of an approach, but in desperation it is getting there.  So we let her (and us) sleep until we woke up.  It was 7:50, and I knew her gym class started at 8 and thought "oh well, we'll try again next week."  I don't even think Hazel had her eyes open (she somehow had weaseled her way in between us in our sleep-starved state) and she asked "What day is it question mark" and "Is it school today question mark."  So I thought I'd seize the moment and made her a quick breakfast and snack for school and we headed off.  Well, gym was done but we got her in the class.  I think I was the mom that stayed that extra minute too long, because all of a sudden she got concerned that I would be leaving.  Our good friend Djane was in the classroom helping and assured me she'd help Hazel get on the bus with her (a lot of the teachers use the school bus for transportation), so I gave our numbers in case anything happened and snuck out of there.  And then I was the mom who opened a window to sneak a picture.  And after arriving home for the next 2 hours I kept saying "I hope she's okay!" and "What if she's crying in a bathroom and can't talk to anyone question mark"  Because truly, I don't think there is any teacher of the elementary level that speaks English.  But I didn't have to worry.  She came home smiling and talked about running around at recess with Sandro and Djane's daughter Sofia, who is a year older than her, and loved every minute.  So cute.

They are almost at the beginning of their school year (it started early February), so I guess for her she will start at the very beginning.  They do somethings a bit different here.  For example, the kids learn cursive writing from Jardim 1.  Most Brazilians do not learn printing throughout their schooling.  I have heard from a mom here that she thinks it is too early, and I tend to agree.  I can't imagine Lyla in school next year (because she could be!) learning cursive writing at age 2 (almost 3).  However, Hazel is definitely loving tracing and learning to print in her English activity and colouring books, so I was not surprised to see a handout of loopy e's done perfectly.  Probably the right age to start school for her, just maybe not full-time.  In Canada she would be scheduled to start kindergarten part-time this coming September, and she would have been one of the youngest in her class.  However, she came off the bus and was sad that she couldn't stay on, and wants to go to school tomorrow!  And I know that it would be super helpful for her Portuguese: she'll be teaching us before you know it.  Seth has been more hesitant.  After seeing the school yesterday, he said he wanted to learn more Portuguese before he went.  But today, after Hazel came home, he said "sure" somewhat uncertainly when we asked him if he wanted to go to school tomorrow.  He is definitely wanting to get out with kids his own age, so we'll see how he feels tomorrow.  Otherwise we'll wait until next week Tuesday.  I know I can't control this, but in my mind I want to give him the biggest opportunity to have a good first day, and I'm not sure if putting him to school on a day when they are doing Portuguese grammar and spelling will be the best idea.

Okay, after all my ramblings and observations regarding the Brazilian school system and my children, I will leave you with a few pictures.  I know they are more interesting than reading my weekly or biweekly essays on life here.

So excited for her first day of school.  I didn't want to buy a uniform for her until we were sure she would  like it.

Waiting for Hazel's bus to come.  We weren't sure exactly what time she would get there, so we waited half-an-hour in the blistering sun in the middle of the day.

The sign to our gated community.

The entrance to our gated community.

We took a lot of pictures as we waited.

Finally, the bus!

Here she is!  Yay for a great day at school!