[MamusiaWI]

We've had our children home a year and a half. What are your experiences with school, ESL/ELL teachers, ESL/ELL programs, grade placement at arrival, progress levels . . .

What do you do for the summer? do you try to do workbooks, use tutors or lessons to continue to close the gap between where they are and what is average/benchmark for their age and/or ability?

Beth and Tim + three

[momraine]

My son has been home a little over two years now and is out of ESL and getting good grades. They do have a summer ESL program at our school, but we didn't use it, it was mostly for kids who don't speak English at home and so might loose it over the summer. Since we only speak English at home we used summer as family bonding time. He picked up more English every day.

[MamusiaWI]

I guess you hear a lot more about when things go wrong or not as well as you'd hoped. Thanks for sharing that things went pretty well. It can be a touchy issue. I catch daughter 10 E, singing along to a Christmas CD and sometimes when she watches her favorite childhood movie Mulan. It is very sweet.

[taia]

My kids (son 13, daughter 11) came here a bit over a year ago. They already speak English comfortably. They still need ESL/Bi-lingual program to master the language of course. I like their teachers this year. They are very good. I have some problems with other teachers. My son forgets his homework, or does homework at home but forgets to turn it in. Sometimes I think that he misses what the teacher assigns if it's not a simple message: do page so-and-so. Sometimes I think he's lying to get out of doing it, but I am not sure. Every time we do his homework, he does it without struggles. But now and then he forgets, and I get a report with a bad grade because of missing work. I wish his teachers would be more willing to be in touch with me, but they ignore all my attempts to communicate. I complained, but it did very little. At this point I try to encourage him to remember and pay attention to what is assigned. Maybe one day....
My daughter tries hard. School is more difficult for her than her brother. But she's making a steady progress.
She is in fourth grade, so she has one teacher (plus ESL teachers).
We speak Polish at home, and I don't let them switch to English while talking to me. They speak English with their friends outside.
For the summer, I chose sports activities at the park district near home. They'll have 3 hours of sports every day. I was thinking about signing them up for extra studies but then decided not to. Summer should be about fun, especially that we're still in the process of bonding.
Perhaps one day we should get all together since we don't live too far away?
All the best!
Anita

[lastpaige]

We are a family of home educators, so we don’t have experience with school, programs, or grade levels for any of our children. Progression, however, that we’ve experienced!

Our boys came home days before turning 8. They come from a background of severe neglect. We got to visit their classrooms in Poland and it was a joke. The only thing they were learning there was how to be obnoxious. Their first year home they did nothing other than learn about being in a family, language, character, obedience, etc. They are now almost 9 1/2. While I was very concerned about “making up for lost time” I simply continued to remind myself that they are exactly where the Lord wants them, and that they’ll ‘come along’ when they’re ready (academically, emotionally, etc.).

They started their academic work this past January (that’s when we start our year) and have finished the first Saxon math book. They work through two lessons a day and are picking up the concepts quickly. The second book will be done in a matter of months and they will finish the year somewhere in the middle of the third book. Not bad for boys who couldn’t add two and two last year.

Their reading is also coming along nicely. Not as fast as math, but there is nice steady progress. Emotionally they are also growing – not exhibiting nearly as many bursts of tears over what we would consider something silly (crying over spilt milk and the like). We do games and things to help the Cumulative Cognitive Deficit. (They don’t even know what we’re doing – just that we’re having fun and learning new words and ways of thinking.) Their English is fantastic, they’ve picked up some ASL from me, and they’ve lost no Polish. They do mix Polish and English together sometimes, but that will iron itself out in time.

We study for a quarter, take three week offs, and then start the next quarter. During the time off the boys help the rest of us deep clean portions of the house for a few days, and the rest of the time we do things that we don’t otherwise have time to do. (Plant the garden boxes, shift seasonal clothing, go to the park for extended time, go to the zoo, play outside for hours on end, bake and cook together.) We do continue to study with the boys – but we cut the work load way back – just enough so their brains are still in a forward gear when we get back to our normal academic load.

Summers here are hell (we live in AZ) so we have our big break at the end of the year. Around the holidays there is plenty to do, gifts to make, etc., so filling the time is never a problem.

We really don’t concern ourselves about whether or not they are on par with the average Xth grader or the average 9 year old. For us it’s more important that they are working to their own potential.