Skool

I was catching up with the world this morning on Facebook and seeing all the pictures of kids as they're geared up for their first day of school here in Texas.  We're preparing to kick off our school year here at home as well.  As we homeschool our kids, our school year starts when we start it.  Jodi and I are both from northern states (Illinois and Washington), and in those states school doesn't start until after the Labor Day holiday, so this August thing still is a bit odd to us.  Bekah will be finishing up her senior year of high school this year!

For Kayleigh and Michael their school started when they got here back in May.  English, English, and English!  We've been using the Rosetta Stone software and that has worked very well, in addition to the good 'ol immersion method (just being around everyone else who speaks English!).  I have to say we are all surprised how well they've picked it up after only 3 months.  Both are speaking quite a bit of it, working on writing and reading as well.  Kayleigh has really been motivated to learn and is excited for her school year to start.  Michael is a 13 year old boy, so you know how that goes, not quite as amped up for it :)

Both kids continue to do very well and seem very happy here.  Michael is pretty easy to read and is very happy in our family, had jumped right in with no reservations.  He still surprises us at how warm and open he is, smiles all the time, and is one of the guys here in our family.  Kayleigh is still harder to read, but a friend from another family who was also adopted from Ukraine spent the night this past weekend, they had a long talk, and she is very happy here (we can tell but it's nice to hear as well :)  I think because she was a bit older, had to be the adult so to speak watching out for Michael, etc, that it's taken longer for her to relax and just get into being a kid.  Both kids continue to get along awesomely in our family :)