Spanish Lessons: Day 1

I am sitting in the Spanish school‘s open air cafeteria enjoying a big bowl of bananas, pineapple and coffee as my boys have their first Spanish lesson upstairs.

An aside: There are no indoor restaurants here, and even businesses rarely have walls. There are roofs for when it rains, but no doors.

They boys are in the open air classroom to the left in this photo – actually I just looked up and noticed the classrooms do have sliding glass doors to close them off for quiet or rain:

Their teacher’s name is Silvia. It so happens that she has a two-year old son who is at the same school that the boys will be starting at next week – it also has a daycare component.

Lil D was reluctant to come here this morning. He whined quite a bit but realized he had no choice and went with the program. As we were waiting for the teachers to come greet the students (most from Switzerland; some from Canada and the US) Lil D told us he had a dream about his regular school last night and he is starting to miss it.

I have to remember that this a child who likes routine and clearly defined expectations. This transition may be more difficult on him than on his little brother.

After the introductions, Silvia took the boys up to her classroom and Derek and I listened to the school orientation (which included a presentation from the surf instructor who offers lessons in Spanish for extra practice, of course).

Silvia asked me to go upstairs after the orientation and I did. The boys had each drawn a picture of themselves. They looked happy.

The boys start their real school next week. I will begin taking classes here when they get to full day school. I’m pretty excited about that. I’ve always imagined a few weeks in a Spanish-speaking country at a language school and here I am!

I have figured out that four weeks of four hours per day of classes is the time equivalent of two semesters of university Spanish, not to mention the opportunities for immersion.

I figure I can commit to four weeks, doing my work in the afternoons. After that, I will re-evaluate. Perhaps the surf lessons in Spanish will be enough – ha!

Derek is going the Rosetta Stone route for language learning. He knows himself well and is not a group learner. If he gets started now with the basics, he will have ample opportunity to practice while we’re here no matter what method of learning he chooses.

Okay – the boys will be done soon so I’ve got get my work in while I can. After morning lessons, we’ll spend the rest of the day at the beach with my little niece, her parents and my parents who all arrived (very tired) late in the day yesterday.

Coming soon are posts about running in the heat (oy!), a metal utensil phobia in one son, and grocery price comparisons between Ottawa and tourist town Costa Rica.

It’s not too late to join the Plank to Plunk Down challenge. Today is Day 1!

Ooooh – just as I was about to hit publish the boys walked by me with their teacher as they went for a walk. Cute!