The next topic I will fill everyone in on is learning English, keeping Russian, and school work overall. Alex was initially resistant to school work, but now, really engages at times with gusto. He is conversationally fluent even in big groups of kids who are talking fast and furious. He can read menus, signs, and other things in daily life he sees. He can read English at about the 6-7th grade level with good comprehension. Sometimes he can read over that level, but then the comprehension suffers as his mastery of vocabulary declines. I purchased a middle school level Geology book and he is reading that by himself. We have also been working on vocabulary words. I got a list of common TOEFL words and we learn about 2 a week. I put them up on the fridge (as he is always in and out of the fridge) with both the English and the Russian. I figured out pretty quickly that his Russian vocabulary wasn’t up to snuff, so in a way, I am teaching both at once! We reinforce these with the whole family using them in sentences over and over again. This has been really successful in building his vocabulary up. In fact, he was so excited the other day when he used one of the words, banter I think, in his homeschooling group and the other kids didn’t know what it meant and he had to explain it to them.
He is doing Algebra 1 and except for some catchup work with concepts that he had missed before, is doing well. It will take us about 18 months I think to get through the full year of Algebra 1, but I am ok with that. He is also doing Physics, World History (which I am just reading to him out of a world history text), and World Geography. I am able to do this with Amanda, so it is nice to be able to double up on some teaching. In the fine arts category, he is doing a digital photography class and taking drum lessons.
The last thing I am doing with Alex is a sociology course. I found a grad student at UW that teaches a lot of homeschooling classes and he is teaching both Amanda and Alex together. They are reading The Social Animal by Brooks and once a week they get together and talk about it. I read it to Alex and then he dictates to me what he wants to write, Amanda of course has to write an essay every week on the topic. She also has been reading The Blank Slate as a complementary text to keep the level up for her, as Alex is much slower of course with the reading. This has been a great way to push Alex and his critical thinking skills. It has also been tough as we are confronting a myriad of social issues and topics like parenting, attachment, poverty, education ideologies, etc. But it has been good also for him to understand how to separate his personal experiences and talk about them societally as a whole. It hasn’t been easy - these are pretty tough concepts to master, but I think it is a good introduction to higher order thinking for him. Also, even though some of the topics that are brought up have hit a little too close to home, we are plugging along trying to help Alex make sense of everything in his world.
I am concerned with Alex keeping his Russian intact. We encourage him to talk to as many people as he can in Russian and every day, he has to read out of a Russian book. We are blessed living in Seattle at the number of bookstores around that carry Russian language novels. Also, our library system has a rather large collection of Russian language books, both fiction and non-fiction. For now, he is reading fiction in Russian - currently a shoot ‘em up sci-fi book. I also have him write in Russian when I can think of it, but I do notice that it is getting harder for him to do it.
I am always asking Alex if it is getting hard to remember Russian, and so far it isn’t. But I live in fear that one day he will find it hard. We have found a little European deli with the cutest older couple running it from Kiev. They have the most scrumptious food! The owners, Gregory and Sveta, have taken a liking to Alex and we go there frequently. I always insist that he speak Russian to them, and he is always insisting on practicing English. I always say that he practices enough English with his linguistically retarded family! This is repeated every time we go and now we start the conversation on the way there! And by the way, I always get my way!
I do seem to bounce up and down on how Alex is doing overall. There are days I couldn’t be more pleased with his progress, but there are also times when I panic that nothing I do will be enough. I am trying to learn how to calm down at these times and take things slowly, but time marches on inexorably and makes you seem like you are losing ground.
Alex is a jump learner and when he is processing new information or at a new stage of language acquisition, he appears to move backwards. I have learned that these are not really backward motions, but actually processing times and he will appear to leapfrog out of it when he is finished processing. But the waiting as he is processing - yikes, nail biting! I don’t wait well!
He gets frustrated with himself at times and feels like he could be doing better, but I have to keep reinforcing that he is doing really well and that he is actually ahead of the game. He doesn’t always believe me and sometimes says he will never be able to go to a university, but then in the next breath, he will ask about college and his future. So where there was only hopelessness before, there is now a light shining. I don’t think he really knows how to react to it, but at least we are cutting through the darkness an inch at a time.
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