The last week of school was also the First Grade Awards Ceremony. Nathan is in the dual language program at Hicks which began the year he started kindergarten. It's an optional program, but if you're going to do it, you had to start in kindergarten or first grade. It was hard for us to decide whether to do that or English only, but we chose to participate. In kindergarten and first grade, they are on a one day English, one day Spanish schedule. His Spanish days are Spanish only days. It was hard on him in the beginning. He thought that his Spanish days were longer, and for a while, thought that he was the only one that didn't know Spanish! But it has really started to pay off. Nathan can read in Spanish and understands a lot of what is spoken to him. And his accent is amazing! It is still hard for him to speak Spanish, but they have told us that this is what is to be expected. I can tell that he has had a little bit of a struggle in learning because half of his instruction is in Spanish, but this too is to be expected. If you compare where he is academically to an English only student, it might look as if he is a bit behind, but dual language students are supposed to even out in the upper grades. To keep him up to speed, I've been doing extra work with him at home during the summer, and he has Spanish tutoring in the summer also. But we have been so proud of his progress!
At his awards ceremony, he got a certificate for being an excellent reader in Spanish, a certificate for "giggle monster" which means that he always makes everyone laugh and has a great sense of humor. Plus he got a gold medal for the Exceptional Reader program and another gold medal for perfect attendance! The Exceptional Reader program was a voluntary program in which the kids had to read different books and complete different activities about the books they read. Based on the number of activities, they could earn a bronze, silver, or gold medal. Our little boy went for gold! And the perfect attendance reward was just luck! Nathan got sick during the year, but it was always during the weekend or a holiday! So proud of Nathan and all of his achievements!!!!!
And then we went to Orange Leaf to celebrate where we saw one of his best friends, Drew.
