[nskapk]

My wife and I adopted a seven year old russian boy. We live in the western suburbs of Chicago. We would like to find a russian school or program where our chiild could attend and meet other russian speaking children. We want him to retain his language in some way. We've been told it's impossible, but we'd at least like to provide him with some cultural exposure. Is anyone aware of such a thing?

[erickk]

You might try a university in the area and see if they have anything. When we took a Russian class the woman who taught it had just finished getting her PhD and her husband is Russian. She told us that there was a group of Russian students who were parents and they had play groups for their kids. They liked it when people who adopted older Russian children brought them to the play group. They were happy parents were encouraging their children to be bilingual. It's not school, but gives them an opportunity to hold onto their Russian but still learn English. When the group met they only spoke in Russian-it also encourages the parents to learn too. We were going to do it but our son was younger (3 at the time but adopted at 15 months) and did not like it when we spoke Russian. It sounded like a good idea.

[regalroy]

Our child is a 6 year old boy, and the way we found local friends for him, (most are an hour away), is by calling ballet company's. There is a local ballet company right here in town, and owned by a russian lady. There are russian students in it. This led us to a russian tutor, which led us to other parents in the area.
Also, call local adoption groups in your area, (did I miss you had done that)? They may also be able to share your phone number with other couples. The school system we are finding is also helping, we called a couple of the near us to find out about russian kids attending, and everyone had a couple. The private tutoring places also had russian children in their programs. Sky is your limit.

[BrandyHagz]

Not sure how west you are...but I know Dist. 204 had some information and resources for International Adoptees who were school age when we lived there last year. It may take some digging around, but you should be able to find something, or at the very least they could point you in the right direction!

Good luck