We feel so fortunate to have found an absolute gem of a school -- we'd be hard pressed to find a better school anywhere and, the added benefit to us, the girls are already speaking Catalan and Spanish. Aoife is quite the little linguist; any native speaker who gets the chance to interact with her can hardly believe her progress, and neither can we! Aine is already able to tell her teachers what she's done over the weekend and sing countless songs. We are so excited!
Part of what is absolutely wonderful about our school is the sense of community. There is always something going on in which everyone has the opportunity to participate: children, teachers, auxiliary teachers, parents and other staff all! Here´s a bit of the fun and wonder!
Aine all decked out after the school Carnival parade. The girls' had fairly simple costumes this year, Smurfs ... err Pitufos ... err Barrufets. Barrufets, yes that's it! Aine, what a super-dee-duper-cutie!
The girls together, post parade.
This is the first and only time Aoife has EVER let anyone come near her with face paint. The fact that she let her teacher give her both blue-flushed cheeks and glasses speaks volumes for both that magical woman and this school!
During carnival week the girls got to participate in different fun, themed days. This was both Pajama and Crazy Hair Day! Yes, she's that cute!
Three tails for little sissy.
A couple of sweethearts all ready to head of to school.
Aine from the back.
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There are other less elaborate but equally meaningful activities that get sprinkled through the year. There are a couple picture below ... and a couple more to come ...
Aoife got a wonderfully sweet little book sent home one afternoon which she was to share with the family and then make an illustration of what she thought the main ideas were. It was a little challenging reading such a long story in Catalan, but Daddy translated into Spanish to make sure that everyone (ummm, Mommy) would catch everything. (I must admit, my Catalan is coming along pretty nicely too, my comprehension at any rate.) Anyway, Aoife's illustration is above. She totally got the central ideas, and it's pretty stinking cute too!
The book and instructions.
The climax of the story.
The really cool thing is that each student gets to bring the book home, complete their drawing, send it back to school and then it becomes a sort of quilt at the end of the year when students revisit the book and put them together. So lovely!
Aoife´s class also has a mascot, Piu-Piu. She got to bring him home one weekend and take care of him.
The final version of Aoife´s poster to take back to school also had Catalan descriptors. I got brave and adventurous.
Aoife, Piu-Piu and her Vella Quaresma (another fun lovely experience).
More fun at the park ... with Piu-Piu ... Yay!
In the coming weeks Aine will get to be Student of the Week -- la Protaganista -- and the entire school will have their end of year, "open-doors" party. We'll look forward to sharing some of that, too.
We miss you!
XO
