As we start to wind down on our time in Chile we think about all we have learned over the last year and a half. I think Max has changed the most of all of us.
Max: He no longer needs 11 hours of sleep each night! It's more like 10.5. Mornings are still not fun for him but it is a lot better for him. My favorite way to wake him up now is to put on some of his favorite music. He has learned to ride a bike, even on city streets! His confidence continues to grow on the bike. He has earned the title of "fastest reader in the family" in both English AND Spanish! He has grown quite a bit taller! His stamina is quite a bit more! From our first weeks in London getting tired walking around to 10 mile hike in the foothills of the Andes! Last hike he said "We could take the road, but let's take this path because it is harder!". He's discovered that he loves dancing. Michael Jackson was his inspiration and he can dance a mean Smooth Criminal imitation.
Isaac: the reluctant Spanish learner finally turned the corner in August and is now reading grade-level books in Spanish and writing book reports with limited help. His speaking is also quite good and has passed both his mom and dad in speaking ability. He will always prefer to read in English, however, and takes any chance he can to read. He has developed his climbing skills over the last year and a half with many trips to climbing gyms and a climbing class at school. He completed his first climbing competition and even received 2nd place in the competition for the boys category of his age group. He is happy to be doing math with the older kids, finally, as math in Chile isn't up to the level they were used to at home. He volunteers for activities at school and really enjoyed the Spirit Week at school, taking on the role of team mascot. His hiking abilities have also grown! He discovered that he really enjoys hikes with a clear summit goal and likes climbing steep climbs with rocks to scamper up.
Mom: limps along with her Spanish and has gotten comfortable speaking one-on-one with people. Reads at a 3rd grade level, albeit at a much slower pace than Max. He kindly shares his school books with me! Hiking has also become the favorite family pastime with so many easy accesible hikes close to the city.
Chris: hair has gotten a little more grey and has gone through more shoelaces than we can count. :) Has been playing with a frisbee team with players mostly half his age and he can keep up. Has maybe gotten some science done with here, to boot.
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
Recent weeks! Earthquakes and such
Just a quick run down of recent weeks--a lot happened even though it felt like this last month went by pretty slowly!
Our Spanish is coming along SLOWLY, it feels. Max seems to be doing pretty well in school. He was excited to pick a poem about dogs to memorize for his class poetry month presentation. He worked hard at it and we made 10 cut out puppies on sticks for him to use as a prop. He was pretty proud that he had one of the longest poems in the class :) I'm continuing to do some language exchanges and work on my own with you tube videos and computer quizzes. But the listening and following along with stories is challenging, even if I understand most of the words! Everything is processed at a slower pace. Isaac is pretty good at squirting around working on his Spanish at school--he does A LOT of math work at school, which he does on his own since the 5th grade math is too easy for him, so he works in his own workbooks. Not sure how to better help him get up to speed and have interest in working on his Spanish. The monthly books his class reads are just so challenging for him and neither boy likes looking words up in the dictionary, so now I have Max read and underline words and I look those up for him. Max's books for his class are much more manageable than Isaacs! I do give Isaac quizzes on the computer and am working through my workbook with him, but he definitely is not interested!!!
April included many days off of school and many holidays! This was a relief to everyone involved in the "Driving of Car to school in the mornings"! Good Friday and 1/2 the day before, Easter Sunday meant everything was closed. The next week on Wednesday was Census Day, which meant everything was closed and we were suppose to stay in our house until the census takers came by to count the family. We were confused on whether we all needed to be present or just one. Chris was knee deep in work these past few weeks so he was just working all day. Boys and I went to the park a few times during the day and our census person came by at about 5pm. It was kind of a long day! Then we had rain on Thursday so no yoga. And on Friday many schools were closed (not ours!) because of river flooding and water issues.
Chris left on Friday to Baltimore and his meeting. The boys and I went to the Science March on Saturday, which was interesting to see just how many people came out, but was also not really so much fun for the boys. We didn't know anyone, talked to two families, but the crowd was so big that it was hard to stay connected with anyone. And the march was really not that loud! No chants! Just some whistles, really didn't get one in the protest mood. We were about to leave the group while sitting at Plaza de Armas and my phone died on me. I was nervous about finding our way home, so I thought we should stick with the group until the end of the march, where I knew how to get home. We stopped for a bathroom break and ice cream close to the end, then made the walk back to the bus stop. Ended up being quite a long walk and we were quite tired by the time we got home. My phone battery is going, so that must have been what happened as it happened again the next Saturday.
We didn't do too much on Sunday except take a walk to Plaze Ñuñoa and a small wine festival there. Isaac really got involved in making hexaflexagons, something he saw on a video on Khan Academy. He was totally involved in doing that all day. I was anxious about having to do all the morning driving the next week so really was not relaxed or in a good mood on Sunday! I also signed up to help out in an English classroom at a local school and was starting that on Monday, also kind of anxious about that. Was glad when Monday was over! Turns out the school had a special program for Diá de Libro and my 2nd grade class was mostly involved in a special assembly. It was cute to see all the hats they made and listen to the story. It was VERY loud in that school, lots of children in each classroom.
Both Isaac and I came down with a sore throat and headache virus that made us feel a bit under the weather last week. Neither of us felt HORRIBLE, and Isaac continued to go to school each day, and it never progressed to a cold. I didn't go into my volunteer job Wednesday and didn't do yoga because of it on Thursday---hard to do downward dog with a headache.
Also, we got to experience our first earthquake shakes last week! Saturday night I felt it, boys were both asleep. Then on Monday there was a much stronger one but we were out playing football at the park. Friday we felt it twice, the boys were at school and had to evacuate the school building--though they tell me they only heard windows shaking and the floor didn't move! The epicenter was off the coast of Valparaiso in the ocean. I think the highest was a 7?? A bit of a strange sensation, felt a lot like the simulation at the Natural History Museum in London!
We made it through the week, but I really didn't do too much other than get the kids to school and home. I did a lot of searching for apartments for our move (!) and that was a bit stressful as it seems there are not furnished apartments near here or anywhere close to the school to make it a more tolerable drive. Also so much distraction from the awful politics in the US. Very hard to not feel powerless and depressed about the state of things.
We were very happy once Friday rolled around! I did meet with two friends on Friday for coffee and had some good Spanish practice. It was a nice sunny day! We were happy for the evening of movie night and cookies. Slept in on Saturday, everyone else was busy so the boys and I took a leisurely trip into the city again to stroll up Cerro Sta Lucia hill and the castle. It was a nice time! My phone pooped out on me again, but this time I had my paper map with me and i knew exactly how to get home. We stopped and played at the park at Parque Bustamante with a good climbing structure and played with a kid named Diego, who was 8 years old. Isaac wanted to play tag on the climbing structure because he's super fast and coordinated moving through all those ropes. Max and I are not so much! Max slipped on one rope and got a good rope burn! Sunday we were all going to bike the cyclovia (roads shut down on Sunday for us to bike), but Isaac slipped on the rug in the bedroom and knocked his ribs into the bed and got a good scraping! He didn't feel well enough to bike, so Max and I went out for a short bike. Got our tires pumped up as they were low and that helped! I also did grocery shopping since we had nothing in the house! Ate down to the crumbs during the week :) Ran to the feria after our bike and had invited a woman over who is here from Boston College on a Fulbright. She got here before i got back and the boys did a nice job entertaining her. We had a nice lunch of empanadas and salad, then went for a walk to the park and played some football. It was a nice afternoon!
Monday was a nice surprise because it was a holiday! And Chris got home Monday morning, when I thought he was getting home Monday night. We met some friends at the park in the afternoon. Nice relaxing day.
Now it's May!
Our Spanish is coming along SLOWLY, it feels. Max seems to be doing pretty well in school. He was excited to pick a poem about dogs to memorize for his class poetry month presentation. He worked hard at it and we made 10 cut out puppies on sticks for him to use as a prop. He was pretty proud that he had one of the longest poems in the class :) I'm continuing to do some language exchanges and work on my own with you tube videos and computer quizzes. But the listening and following along with stories is challenging, even if I understand most of the words! Everything is processed at a slower pace. Isaac is pretty good at squirting around working on his Spanish at school--he does A LOT of math work at school, which he does on his own since the 5th grade math is too easy for him, so he works in his own workbooks. Not sure how to better help him get up to speed and have interest in working on his Spanish. The monthly books his class reads are just so challenging for him and neither boy likes looking words up in the dictionary, so now I have Max read and underline words and I look those up for him. Max's books for his class are much more manageable than Isaacs! I do give Isaac quizzes on the computer and am working through my workbook with him, but he definitely is not interested!!!
April included many days off of school and many holidays! This was a relief to everyone involved in the "Driving of Car to school in the mornings"! Good Friday and 1/2 the day before, Easter Sunday meant everything was closed. The next week on Wednesday was Census Day, which meant everything was closed and we were suppose to stay in our house until the census takers came by to count the family. We were confused on whether we all needed to be present or just one. Chris was knee deep in work these past few weeks so he was just working all day. Boys and I went to the park a few times during the day and our census person came by at about 5pm. It was kind of a long day! Then we had rain on Thursday so no yoga. And on Friday many schools were closed (not ours!) because of river flooding and water issues.
Chris left on Friday to Baltimore and his meeting. The boys and I went to the Science March on Saturday, which was interesting to see just how many people came out, but was also not really so much fun for the boys. We didn't know anyone, talked to two families, but the crowd was so big that it was hard to stay connected with anyone. And the march was really not that loud! No chants! Just some whistles, really didn't get one in the protest mood. We were about to leave the group while sitting at Plaza de Armas and my phone died on me. I was nervous about finding our way home, so I thought we should stick with the group until the end of the march, where I knew how to get home. We stopped for a bathroom break and ice cream close to the end, then made the walk back to the bus stop. Ended up being quite a long walk and we were quite tired by the time we got home. My phone battery is going, so that must have been what happened as it happened again the next Saturday.
We didn't do too much on Sunday except take a walk to Plaze Ñuñoa and a small wine festival there. Isaac really got involved in making hexaflexagons, something he saw on a video on Khan Academy. He was totally involved in doing that all day. I was anxious about having to do all the morning driving the next week so really was not relaxed or in a good mood on Sunday! I also signed up to help out in an English classroom at a local school and was starting that on Monday, also kind of anxious about that. Was glad when Monday was over! Turns out the school had a special program for Diá de Libro and my 2nd grade class was mostly involved in a special assembly. It was cute to see all the hats they made and listen to the story. It was VERY loud in that school, lots of children in each classroom.
Both Isaac and I came down with a sore throat and headache virus that made us feel a bit under the weather last week. Neither of us felt HORRIBLE, and Isaac continued to go to school each day, and it never progressed to a cold. I didn't go into my volunteer job Wednesday and didn't do yoga because of it on Thursday---hard to do downward dog with a headache.
Also, we got to experience our first earthquake shakes last week! Saturday night I felt it, boys were both asleep. Then on Monday there was a much stronger one but we were out playing football at the park. Friday we felt it twice, the boys were at school and had to evacuate the school building--though they tell me they only heard windows shaking and the floor didn't move! The epicenter was off the coast of Valparaiso in the ocean. I think the highest was a 7?? A bit of a strange sensation, felt a lot like the simulation at the Natural History Museum in London!
We made it through the week, but I really didn't do too much other than get the kids to school and home. I did a lot of searching for apartments for our move (!) and that was a bit stressful as it seems there are not furnished apartments near here or anywhere close to the school to make it a more tolerable drive. Also so much distraction from the awful politics in the US. Very hard to not feel powerless and depressed about the state of things.
We were very happy once Friday rolled around! I did meet with two friends on Friday for coffee and had some good Spanish practice. It was a nice sunny day! We were happy for the evening of movie night and cookies. Slept in on Saturday, everyone else was busy so the boys and I took a leisurely trip into the city again to stroll up Cerro Sta Lucia hill and the castle. It was a nice time! My phone pooped out on me again, but this time I had my paper map with me and i knew exactly how to get home. We stopped and played at the park at Parque Bustamante with a good climbing structure and played with a kid named Diego, who was 8 years old. Isaac wanted to play tag on the climbing structure because he's super fast and coordinated moving through all those ropes. Max and I are not so much! Max slipped on one rope and got a good rope burn! Sunday we were all going to bike the cyclovia (roads shut down on Sunday for us to bike), but Isaac slipped on the rug in the bedroom and knocked his ribs into the bed and got a good scraping! He didn't feel well enough to bike, so Max and I went out for a short bike. Got our tires pumped up as they were low and that helped! I also did grocery shopping since we had nothing in the house! Ate down to the crumbs during the week :) Ran to the feria after our bike and had invited a woman over who is here from Boston College on a Fulbright. She got here before i got back and the boys did a nice job entertaining her. We had a nice lunch of empanadas and salad, then went for a walk to the park and played some football. It was a nice afternoon!
Monday was a nice surprise because it was a holiday! And Chris got home Monday morning, when I thought he was getting home Monday night. We met some friends at the park in the afternoon. Nice relaxing day.
Now it's May!
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
First month of school--Max
1. How is you Chilean school different than your school in the US?
it is in spanish
2. How is it similar?
it has lunch
3. What have you been surprised by in school?
how easy the math is
4. What has been challenging in school for you?
the language
5. Are the other kids accepting of you even though you don't speak much Spanish?
yes
6. What things do you like about school?
lunch /academias (special classes at the end of school two days a week--musica and experiments)
7. What things don't you like about school?
speaking the language
8. How are you learning Spanish while at school? What do others do to help you learn? What do you do to help yourself learn?
talking and doing other stuff in spanish
9. Would you recommend this experience for other students in the US?
yes
it is in spanish
2. How is it similar?
it has lunch
3. What have you been surprised by in school?
how easy the math is
4. What has been challenging in school for you?
the language
5. Are the other kids accepting of you even though you don't speak much Spanish?
yes
6. What things do you like about school?
lunch /academias (special classes at the end of school two days a week--musica and experiments)
7. What things don't you like about school?
speaking the language
8. How are you learning Spanish while at school? What do others do to help you learn? What do you do to help yourself learn?
talking and doing other stuff in spanish
9. Would you recommend this experience for other students in the US?
yes
Saturday, April 08, 2017
First month of school---Isaac
Guest post by Isaac
1. How is you Chilean school different than your school in the US?
in spanish, subjects are much different levels
2. How is it similar?
school
3. What have you been surprised by in school?
lots
4. What has been challenging in school for you?
spanish, easy math, language
5. Are the other kids accepting of you even though you don't speak much Spanish?
yes
6. What things do you like about school?
climbing after school on Tuesday and more that I can't think of right now
7. What things don't you like about school?
being bored
8. How are you learning Spanish while at school? What do others do to help you learn? What do you do to help yourself learn?
listening to other kids
9. Would you recommend this experience for other students in the US?
if they like chile and hardly understanding anything everybody says
1. How is you Chilean school different than your school in the US?
in spanish, subjects are much different levels
2. How is it similar?
school
3. What have you been surprised by in school?
lots
4. What has been challenging in school for you?
spanish, easy math, language
5. Are the other kids accepting of you even though you don't speak much Spanish?
yes
6. What things do you like about school?
climbing after school on Tuesday and more that I can't think of right now
7. What things don't you like about school?
being bored
8. How are you learning Spanish while at school? What do others do to help you learn? What do you do to help yourself learn?
listening to other kids
9. Would you recommend this experience for other students in the US?
if they like chile and hardly understanding anything everybody says
Sunday, March 05, 2017
Perros at the Granja and other various perros in Southern Chile
Guest post by Max:
the one sitting is Capitan .THE TWO Playing are either Lily or Nasha and Copper the other one is loca/daisy
the perro is darka la blanca with dad
boooooooooo! boo is her name
peeerrrrrrrroooosssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yyyaaaayyyy!! the perros are coming with us on a hike
max the lab enjoying a bath!
cooper hurray 😀
perros on da porch of our cabaña
🐶🐶🐶
the two perritas sleeping later stole stole moms shoes
gorda back. chola front
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| Here are some of the perros the one Isaac is petting is either Lily or nasha |
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the perro is darka la blanca with dad
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| perro on hike |
yyyaaaayyyy!! the perros are coming with us on a hike
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| max petting max😀😀🐶🐶🌯 |
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| chocolate very sweet 🐶🐶😀😀😀😀😀😀🐶🐶 |
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| gorda near our cabaña |
gorda back. chola front
Sunday, February 19, 2017
Hiking conversations
One might be asking what we talk about while hiking. The boys have gotten to be pretty good hikers, and have tolerated 3-4 hour hikes. It's not always easy to get them going, as they'd rather sit and read books most of the time, but usually once we get on the trail they are pretty good. Max, being the youngest, sometimes is harder to get going or needs more distractions to keep him going. Sometimes he'll just SIT DOWN mid trail if he's done or tired. We've worked out that he can sit anytime he needs to and count to 10, then get back up and keep going. On some hikes now, he is often at the head of the line for a good period of time! We encourage him to use walking sticks, too, and that helps.
The boys often get into familiar conversations that we hear on many of our hikes. The main topics revolve around 1) food/food memories 2) animals/pets 3) video games. 4) Sometimes they talk about books they've read, too. This trip they can get into hour + conversations about the video games they are playing (I never know what they are talking about) and they go off on their own in deep conversation. Yesterday they talked about Harry Potter and Max gave us all the review of the newest book. Sometimes they review the stories we hear on audio book Wayside School. 5)TV shows/movies. Usually this involves singing songs from Phineas and Ferb or reviewing favorite movie titles. There is ALWAYS talk about food. This week they talked longingly about a visit to the Cheesecake factory with Gigi and what kinds of cheesecake they got. I often get reminded that my attempt to make baked Alaska didn't turn out! We always hear about various pets, our cat Charlie and our neighbor dog Addie as well as Emma, Hamilton, Ranger, etc. etc.
The boys often get into familiar conversations that we hear on many of our hikes. The main topics revolve around 1) food/food memories 2) animals/pets 3) video games. 4) Sometimes they talk about books they've read, too. This trip they can get into hour + conversations about the video games they are playing (I never know what they are talking about) and they go off on their own in deep conversation. Yesterday they talked about Harry Potter and Max gave us all the review of the newest book. Sometimes they review the stories we hear on audio book Wayside School. 5)TV shows/movies. Usually this involves singing songs from Phineas and Ferb or reviewing favorite movie titles. There is ALWAYS talk about food. This week they talked longingly about a visit to the Cheesecake factory with Gigi and what kinds of cheesecake they got. I often get reminded that my attempt to make baked Alaska didn't turn out! We always hear about various pets, our cat Charlie and our neighbor dog Addie as well as Emma, Hamilton, Ranger, etc. etc.
Saturday, February 04, 2017
Hike in Parque Aguas de Ramón--Guest blogger: Max
Today we took a hike in high hills but not andes. Me and Isaac wanted to do a treetop thing but parents wouldn't allow so we went hiking like originally planned.it was very close and it was nice weather. here are some photos.
after hike we went to a grocery store
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| north hills |
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| view of hill |
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| picture of dad on rock |
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| rocky hillside |
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| dirtiness of shoes and feet at the end of the hike |
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| cool suspension bridge over water |
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| sign for tree like poison ivy |
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| picture of awesome boys |
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| beginning of hike |
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| valley between hills |
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| cool cactuses with red stuff |
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| creak near end |
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| cool waterfall |
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| Awesome children on rock |
after hike we went to a grocery store
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