Lots of Firsts!

First day of school.  First swim lesson.  First guitar lesson.  All in two days.  Add in a trip to the dentist and you'd think a couple of Ukrainian boys would be overwhelmed and grumpy.  Not the case here.  "Tomorrow?"  they keep asking.  These guys are ready for ANYTHING.

1. First day of school.  As you probably know, I love our school.  It's a small private school that we've been a part of for eight years.  For reasons too numerous to list, I've thought from the beginning that it would be a great fit for Elijah and Isaac.  They've only been there one day, but what a wonderful day it was.  "Good school!" is what they said over and over when they got home.  This morning I stayed at the school for an hour or so until I was confident that both boys would be okay without me.  A couple of the teachers texted or emailed me with updates and photos during the day.  All indications are that the boys had a fantastic time and fit in beautifully.  Eli shadowed Clay in 4/5 grade and Isaac is in a 2/3 grade class.  I know, this is way above their current academic level, coming from Uglegorsk.  But, the primary concern for this first semester is age-appropriate language acquisition and peer interaction.  "Let's give them an opportunity to catch up.  They are obviously very bright," is what the principal told me.  This semester they will be treated as foreign exchange students, with loose grading and individualized curriculum.  At the end of the semester, the staff and I will huddle and decide where they should be placed for real in the fall.

2. First swim lesson.  If you know these boys' personalities at all, you can probably figure out how this went.  Eli was very cautious, with a tight grip on his kickboard, expressing concerns about how deep the water was.  Isaac was trying to wrestle free from the instructor's grip so he could GO.  They both had a great time, which is what always counts in the end.

3. First guitar lesson.  Just Eli.  :)  Eli is such a hard worker and has great attention to detail.  I have no doubt he will stick with it, practice regularly, and progress nicely.

So, what ARE we doing tomorrow?  School (yay!), then dinner at a friend's house, who's daughter is a classmate of Isaac's.

So far, so good.

Waiting for Eli and Clay at the music studio

First day of school!

Waiting to swim

Passed Level 1 on the first day!

My boys