In the last 2 weeks I met with teachers from Anton’s school
and from Ilya’s school for what I am guessing is a semi-annual review. Both had really good reviews so I’ll start
with the youngest.
Anton has adjusted really well to kindergarten. He (usually) goes into the room without any
problems barely waving bye to me. In the
last 3 months his German has really increased – he understands what his
teachers are saying to him and is starting to say some words back to them. At this point he still uses a lot
of English words but it’s not a problem for them. He is finally potty-trained! Anton is very high energy but also plays nice
with kids when they play calmer games like pretend kitchen. Anton absolutely loves puzzles and can spend
an hour just working on a puzzle. As a
side note – Chris and Ilya are working on a 1000-piece puzzle together and they
left it on the coffee table one night when I told all 3 boys to clean up and
Anton in his efforts to listen cleaned A LOT of puzzle that was already
built. Ilya was crying and I think Chris
was really close to crying as well. That
was, however, my fault in not paying attention – Anton actually did what he was
told and cleaned up :(
Anyway, things are going good for Anton. One potential problem that we see in the
future is that we might have to change his kindergarten because this one is set
up more like a nursery- meaning they play a lot but there is very little
organized activities. By the time Anton
is 6 (if we are still in Germany) or 5 in the States, he will need to know that
there are times when you can play but there is also time to sit nicely and
listen to the teacher.
Now to Ilya … my amazing middle child … I spoke with 2
teachers – one that teaches Russian and one that teaches German and math. They both sang him praises. His Russian is slowly coming – Ilya is not
saying sentences yet but he is using words to ask questions and to get his
teacher’s attention. The teacher says
that his reading skills are really good, he still needs to work on his
dictations (she reads something out loud and the kids have to write it down)
but mostly because he doesn’t put spaces in the correct place and he doesn’t
always use capitals correctly. That
might have something to do with the fact that while he can write, he doesn’t
always understand the words that he is writing so things might run together for
him. Also – apparently his cursive handwriting is really
good for a boy his age!!! Not much was said
about his German except that in 2 months it has much improved and his
handwriting is pretty good in that as well.
In math, Ilya is above average when he does not hurry up and tries to
get through his work too fast. So
overall, the teachers are happy with where he stands but we need to increase
his vocabulary in order to make his life easier. Also – first graders in Germany do not get
grades, just a written evaluation, which makes a fairly happy mama.
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