Kathy: English 101

As we've explained in previous posts, Leah May is spending her first grade at the public school down the street so that she can enroll in an English as a Second Language (ESL) program. And wow, is the program ever working! Here are just a few of the sentences we hear her say several times a day now:

"Rene, stop it!"
"Rene, that's mine!"
"Rene, leave me alone!"
"Rene, don't tell me what to do!"

Okay, so maybe she's just learned these phrases from the Rene School of English and Sibling Rivalry. But her English really is coming along quite nicely. We're very proud of how well she's learning vocabulary and already speaking in complete, correct sentences. Of course, she still has a long way to go. Twice now she's asked David, who likes to listen to baseball games on the radio while he washes dishes, why he's reading baseball.

Both kids are still really enjoying the school year. Rene's doing very well in second grade so far, and we think Leah May is doing great in first grade, especially considering how little English she's able to read, write or understand. She's in a special "reading recovery" program to help her catch up to grade level on her reading.

And that's the academic report from our household. Too bad bickering isn't a subject in either kid's school; they'd already be in a master's program!