Summer School

It’s summer time! Elisabeth and Max sure were glad when the school year ended and we sure were glad to see their report cards. We’re proud of their progress not only academically, but we’re also glad to see them grow in the way they interact with their teachers and their classmates. Along with school Elisabeth and Max were both taking piano lessons from Jana this year and Elisabeth was participating in ballet, while Max was involved in gymnastics.

This summer we’re hoping we’ll get to see our family in Durand as much as possible. That’s worked out pretty well so far because in May and June I was teaching a Sunday school in Rockford on the book of Acts. The kids will also have the chance to take swimming lessons and spend lots of time at the pool. They’re excited about that.

What they’re not so excited about is that this summer we’re also putting a lot of emphasis on Slovak school work. Every Monday through Thursday for two to three hours Max and Elisabeth have to do some work that will help prepare them for the transition to Slovakia.

For Max the major transition will be the Slovak language. Max understands Slovak perfectly, but he doesn’t speak it at all. He really has a hard time even thinking of the words, let alone getting out a whole sentence. Jana has him going through some of the first grade materials to help him get a head start.

Elisabeth’s a little better at Slovak than Max is. She not only understands perfectly but with a little help she can stutter out enough broken Slovak to communicate on a very basic level. We think she’ll be speaking Slovak in no time at all once we get to Slovakia. On the other hand, Elisabeth will be transitioning into third grade in Slovakia. The students there will have learned a lot of Slovak geography and Slovak language and it seems like the Slovak schools also go a little bit faster in Math, which is the subject that is the most challenging for Elisabeth. That means Elisabeth’s focus this summer is math and Slovak language.

I’m not sure how I would have taken it as a first or third grader if someone told me that during my summer break I was going to have to do homework. They sure don’t like, but so far they’re being real troopers.