Obsi's Middle School Open House

Obsi's school had open house so we all (except Seth) went so Obsi could give us a tour. He still struggles with opening the lock on his locker. Totally foreign concept for an Ethiopian to deal with one of those!

It was fun talking to all Obsi's teachers but it was also very important. Obsi is having a hard time with transition to American school. He still gets lost and confused. It makes him close to being late for his classes. He has almost missed lunch because he missed that it was lunch time and was waiting for his next class to start. The room was dark and the teacher was at lunch!

Obsi's teachers are having to make a few adjustments for him. One teacher has helped him and his fellow Ethiopian friend in making schedules they understand. Schedules that have been simplified. Other teachers have had to lessen his homework or give him alternate assignments. They are all wonderful!

Obsi seems to be a perfectionist. He does his math assignments and then when he is done with all his homework, he goes back to math and does it again. He works at homework from after school until bedtime and then gets up early and does more. School doesn't like that he has to do that. A boy shouldn't be spending all his free time doing homework. The school authorities have seen in their testing that it takes Obsi a long time to do his work. He translates back and forth to figure things out. He also doesn't have a grasp of all our english words and meanings. For instance: if a teacher talks about a city block, Obsi pictures a building block and can't understand what she is trying to say.

Hot lunch has been good. We have had to work through what is included in $2.05 and what is extra. Lunch was costing us $4.50 per day for the first weeks. I think Obsi understands now. The extras cost way more than what we would pay for in a grocery store and we all tried to explain that to Obsi. If he really like these extras that he was buying everyday, I told him I would buy packages of the stuff and send it with him everyday at a much cheaper price. I have explained it to the principal so he could keep an eye on Obsi going through the lunch line.

I got a positive email from a teacher yesterday that showed Obsi making progress. He finally looked her in the eye and said hi to her. He's not getting lost so much. He is following doing oral corrections on homework. That had been a huge struggle.

Overall, school is a huge cultural adjustment and he comes home exhausted.

Brewer Game

We took in a Brewer Game last week. They won so it was good!

Labor Day Weekend

This last weekend we went "up nort". My dad's family have a bunch of land on a lake and he has a small lakefront plot on which he has a trailer. My family (as a child) went there quite a bit while I was growing up. Since we (my husband and boys) took up camping, we haven't been up there much. Like, 10 years! Here are some pics of that weekend.

School

Everyone got out the door on time yesterday! There were some slight problems getting home though. I decided to go get Seth and Obsi first thinking Alex could hang out after school with his friends, also thinking Valders and Cabrini both got done at 3:00. Valders doesn't get done until 3:15....oops. Seth came out of school just fine shortly after the bell rang. Obsi, well, we waited and waited until kids coming out of school slowed way down. This is at 3:30. So, I give Seth my cell phone knowing Alex will call, while I go hunt down Obsi. First hurdle was finding the Middle School office from the wrong end of the building. After lots of help, I arrived and asked everyone in the office if they saw Obsi. They had seen him with Nati but he was no where after that. They thought he may have went home with Nati so they called the bus company. Nati doesn't ride the bus. They announced over the loudspeaker for Obsi to please come to the middle school office. 10 minutes later, the district office called that they had him in their office. By this time, it is 3:45. Poor Alex! Someone walked Obsi to the office and Obsi said he was waiting where the middle schoolers get picked up because I didn't tell him where I was picking him up. I dropped him off on the other side of the building but never told him I would pick him up in that same spot. We got to Alex's school at 4:05. Alex was not a happy boy but he handled it well.

Obsi said school was good. And that it was a long day with so many teachers. He was tired!

Unfortunately, soccer practice was at 5:00. It was like pulling teeth to get Obsi to get ready for soccer. Then we left without shin guards and had to back-up down the driveway to get those. We were 5 minutes late for soccer.

Tamirat is taking the bus this year. He catches it at the end of our driveway. As I was pushing him out the door, we forgot to pack his lunch. Darn!. I quickly made 2 pb sandwiches and Seth drove him to the end of our driveway. First day and not sure if the bus would be early or late. We are the very first stop.

With the whole mess of things after school, we got home at 4:15 and Tamirat should've been home but wasn't. Weird. Tamirat got home about 10 minutes later. He tried to tell me why he was so late but I just couldn't understand. But he did try to explain it all in English the best he could so that was really amazing. He just doesn't quite know the words for things yet. I had him explain to Obsi and what happened is a boy that was supposed to be on his bus didn't get on after school so they had to find him before they headed out to take all the children home. They found that he got on the wrong bus. We all laughed about it after our situation with finding Obsi.

Tamirat loves going to school. He didn't know his teachers name so I told him I wanted to know it today. We will see if he remembers it. Tamirat loves being around other children which is why he loves school so much. His English has gotten so much better than where he was last May. I hope they treat him like the other students when it comes to homework and tests. Last May, I wanted them to just let him take it all in with no expectations and no grading. Guess I better meet the teacher soon!

Seth needs to drop a class and add a different one. It will be interesting to see what he picks.

Alex started school on Monday already. He likes 7th grade much better than 6th grade. He was a trooper last year. One teacher he had never smiles. Not sure that teacher even likes kids. He got through it! This year is looking much better.