A great kid

We just got back from Andrea's school meeting.  She's doing so well and her advisor is pleased.  Andrea started to do the word find while we were there and found every word.  I am so proud!

I guess what happened at first was this:  I never struggled in school.  Nothing was hard for me.  I was reading before kindergarten.  So when I saw her struggling with what I thought were simple concepts, I was frustrated.  None of my kids are average intelligence.  They are all waay above the norm.  This is not to say they all have what I call walking around smarts, but they are bright.  Then came Andrea who struggles with everything.  She is bi-lingual and can effectively translate for someone, so I just figured she'd also do well from the get-go when I started being her teacher.

Was I in for a surprise!  I never took into consideration the fact that she was born prematurely in a country where moist preemies don't survive or that she was starved for the first 8 months of her life.  These things affect learning on a grand scale.  Now I'm not blaming myself, but I can see that I was expecting too much.  When we dropped back to simpler things and she began to have success, we began to see a difference.  There's so much for her to learn.  Don't get me wrong, but Mexicans are not truly a literate people.  Sentences never end, they use no capital letters, don't care how it's spelled and the hand-written word runs together in a very confusing way.  I'm a stickler for grammatically correct phrases and good punctuation.  That alone should stupify my 10 year-old Spanish-speaker.  I just had to chill.

We both did.  Andrea's first few weeks were tear-filled days full of frustration for both of us.  Teachers in Mexico tend to call a kid "bad" if their work has mistakes.  Truly great for the self-esteem.  So everytime I pointed out a mistake or had her re-do something, she cried and asked, "Did I do bad?"  Getting over this hump has been horrific.  She just wants to be a good girl for us.

Andrea is a wonderful girl!  She wants to hear the word good, but so many descriptives fit her.  She is bright, pretty, full-of-fun, helpful, outgoing, friendly, slender, brave, determined . . .well, I could go on and on.  I'm so glad I have this opportunity at this time in my life to raise another child.  She's a great kid.