teaching again

Sometimes timing just amazes me. We (and by that I am really meaning me) just finished gathering our paperwork and sent it off to the US. About a month ago, Eton House (the international school where our older two attend) asked me if I would be willing to substitute for the rest of the year. I said possibly, as I was in the thick of gathering all of our documents. And last week, I talked with the principal again about what they needed and then I started on Monday. The very next day after I started working, we sent all of the documents to the US. Coincidence? I think not. I love when you can see the hand of God working even those small details out perfectly.

I am teaching a class of 4 year olds. And wow, after almost a week in, I have a couple observations. First off, I think when I did this before I had more energy. Or less kids of my own. But wait, could those things be related?

And secondly, 4 year olds are darn cute. A couple of the girls in my class are tiny which just multiplies their cute factor exponentially. I have a thing about not showing pics of other people's kids here without their permission or would show you just how cute they all are. One challenge that I have never dealt with on this big of a scale is not a single child in my class is a native English speaker. I have had one or two ESL students, but not an entire class. In fact here it is not called ESL as we call it in the States, instead they call it EAL for English as an Additional Language. Not second, ADDITIONAL. Humbling, don't you think? If you walk into my room, you are likely to hear Korean, Japanese, Chinese, English, German or any mixture of the above. Makes for an interesting class dynamic. But surprisingly, I have not really needed a translator yet. I wish we could all learn language like 4 year olds do. One of my girls is Japanese, and speaks well in both English and Chinese as well her native Japanese. 3 languages at 4 years old. My Chinese is okay, but by no means fluent. There you have it, me humbled by a 4 year old.

I hope to keep updating you as our journey with the adoption progresses. And just life things. But I have to frank, right now I am just happy to get my family fed and a decent amount of sleep each night. I am sure that I will find my groove, but I am not there yet. So in the meantime if I am silent for a while, assume that all is well. Because if it wasn't, then I would blog. But for now, I need to get sleep so I can keep up with my new little munchkins.