Wait Listed

From before the time Ben was born, we wanted to teach him spanish.  We just always knew we would do it. He was born in Texas and a large percentage of our close friends spoke spanish, so it came easily to teach it to him.  Then we got the orders to move to Virginia and we flew down my mother-in-law to stay with him in our home while we went to find an apartment (my sister and bro-in-law were there too, but both at work during the daytime). 

 

Ben was 11 months old and getting decent at signing and recognized lots of words.  Unfortuately for Grandma Anne, he only knew those key phrases and words in spanish. She came a day early so she could see our routine before I left.  By the end of the day I realized the potential problem we had in front of us.  In addition to the typical schedule a mother leaves with a caretaker, I had to write a signing dictionary and a spanish dictionary with pronunciation guide.  That summer we went home and my mom commented how sad it was to not be able to communicate with her grandchild.

 

When we left Texas, Ben only spoke spanish. In Virginia we only had english speaking friends.  It was hard for friends to babysit him and eventually his needs moved beyond my ability to communicate with him in spanish.  Because I'm the primary care taker and I was resorting to english more and more often when my vocabulary couldn't keep up with my needs, he began speaking english.  Then he turned against spanish almost completely.  That's common.  Kids stop speaking another language if they don't have to do it, even if they can communicate perfectly well in it.

 

All through this, we've kept up the hope that he would be able to do the Spanish Immersion Program in school.  In our school district the admit kids based on a lottery system.  There are 100 kids in each grade in the participating schools.  Half the classes are spanish immersion, so 50 kids.  Half those kids come from the feeder school and the other from the surrounding schools, here is where the lottery comes in since we have only 25 slots for all the kids in the county to compete over.  If you have one child in the program, all the younger siblings are automatically granted a spot in the program.  Now we have less than 25 spots.

 

We got our letter last week.  We were wait listed for both schools we applied to enter.  Ravensworth Elementary #31.  Laurel Ridge Elementary #19.  Then you choose one school to "accept" your placement and have to drop the others.  So here we sit.  We accepted out wait list spot at Laurel Ridge.  But let's be serious.  There are probably 20-22 open spots.  We're #19 on the list.  The ENTIRE class would have to decline for us to get in.

 

I'm disappointed and relieved all at the same time.  We wanted our kids in the program.  We wanted it BAD.  It's great for them to develop that part of their brains.  It's amazing to have the skill to speak another language.  On the positive side, if we were accepted, that mandated I drive my kids (Ben, Maddie and Jacob) to school and pick him up in the kiss and ride line for the next 11 YEARS.  At a minimum next years pick up time will fall right in the middle of Jacob's nap time.  If we stay at our current english school, the bus driver deals with all of that hassle.  I'm a fan of that!!

 

Besides, life seems to be handing me a deck of cards quite nicely stacked for other big things to happen in our family life in the next few years.  And spanish honestly just isn't one of them.  Time will always tell and I can't wait to see what the future holds for the bunch here at the Zufelt Zoo.