A hodge podge of education

Abigail in her first Art Class for the academic year 2011-12.

Abigail's Russian education has not been a smooth road to date.

When we came back to Russia in May last year we had high hopes for Abigail to reach fluency in the Russian language. We found a kindergarten for her to attend within weeks of arriving. It was a Montessouri school. It of course had a Russian flavour. The Montessouri system is not good for a language learner. The kids were allowed to do any activity they chose. As a result, Abigail was often ignored by the teacher, and she really didn't progress very well. On a couple of occasions, Melody was there to see Abigail left out of group activities because she had not yet developed the confidence to participate (I guess that's the Montessouri philosophy). It was a disaster. Abigail was not happy. She wasn't even sleeping very well.

Then after some months of that situation we had a change. Through a neighbour we found some where different for Abigail to attend. It is a "Children's Education Centre." It's run at a social assistance centre. Abigail starting attending there three times a week for a couple hours. She enjoyed it so much that I remember running into our room in the middle of the night jumping up and down telling us how happy she was. So we were certainly very happy for the change.

I am sure that this change was good for Abigail's Russian language and that she began to passively learn a lot. But we did not notice a lot of obvious change. Then in March there was a move in location for the Children's centre. At first we were disappointed about this move. Previously it was a 15 minute walk to the Children's centre through the forest in Akademgorodok. The new centre is 6 bus stops towards the city. We thought it would mean extra travel time. In the end it has not meant extra travel time, but it has robbed Melody of the nice walk so often. After the move to the new location in early April, Abigail's teacher decided to put her in extra classes. (This mean Abigail was attending two groups instead of one.) Abigail was now going to the children's centre 5 times a week. A couple days a week she would also have individual lessons after the regular group classes.

Once Abigail started going to the Children's Centre (still often called kindergarten in our family) five days a week, we noticed a real change in her Russian language. It improved rapidly from this point onwards. It is significant to note that she only had two months of five days a week in April and May.

Then came Summer holidays. Abigail did have some contact with other Russian children during the Summer, but of course it is never enough for a young language learner. Our two weeks in Evenkiya living with a family were wonderful for Abigail's Russian. Our Evenki friends have a daughter the same age as Abigail. They played together in Russian every day.

So coming into the start of a new academic year, once again we have had high hopes for Abigail's education and her assimilation into the Russian language. On top of her Russian education, we also have to educate her in English. Abigail does about an hour and a half of home school in English each day. It's a real challenge to know if we are educating her properly.

We certainly do want her to fit in well to Russian society, to speak Russian fluently and to have Russian friends. If these things happen for Abigail, then she will be happy. Her happiness will go a long way towards our happiness and our ability to live in Russia long term.

Getting a schedule started in Russia is never an easy thing. Abigail's teacher had actually hoped to recommence classes in mid August. The language school I teach at also reopened in mid August. We were completely happy with the idea of resuming a schedule immediately after returning from our Evenki trip. But things have of course not turned out that way.

Abigail's teacher decided to start classes on September 1st. (This is the first day of the school year for regular school children.) We were naturally still happy with this. (In the mean time, I have only had one student at the language school until this week. I now have a second class to teach.) But it still did not work out this way. Her teacher, Natalya was sick at the start of September. So Abigail has not had any Russian classes yet.

The other day Melody's parents who are visiting, met a lady in the playground. She heard them speaking English and tried her English on them. Her story is a different one, which I won't go into here, but we did learn from her about "grade zero" as it is colloquially called. It is also called "Doshkolonok" or "onto school kids". It is a preparation year. At first we thought this might be a full year of school. But as we went to the school to enquire about it we have learnt that it is two hours a week. This may not be a lot, but it will be very helpful in preparing Abigail for Russian school the following year.

We have learnt from friends and neighbours that if we had not enrolled Abigail in this preparation year, which from now on I will call Russian Prep, her chances of attending school next year would be greatly diminished. The local school here is the most sought after in the city. And since there are no private schools in the Russian system this is a big deal. So we are really glad to have found this all out before it is too late. I can thank God that he has been looking after us and led us to people to tell us these things, otherwise we would never have known.

Finally this week we have begun to get our ducks in a row as far as building our schedule is concerned. We have now enrolled Abigail in Russian Prep. This starts October 10th, but as we will be on holidays from the 1st to the 22nd, she will start as soon as we get back. The same day we enquired about Russian Prep we enrolled her in Art School. This is right next door to the Primary School. Art School will be two mornings a week for 45 minutes. Then on Friday we found out the good news that Abigail's teacher is healthy again and hopes to start classes on Monday.

Abigail's week will turn out to be a real hodge podge of education: 3-4 days at the Children's Centre (we are hoping for 4) at 2-3 hours each time; Two art classes; Two Russian Prep classes (one hour each); and 1.5 hours of English home school each day. I sure hope that this all fits together well. I also hope that she can have Russian exposure five days a week, as this is what seemed to make the most difference for her in April and May.

PJ will also have two playgroup mornings at the Children's Centre this year. It really feels like we are beginning to assimilate into Russian culture.

Now is the time in our lives when we move past the "survive" stage and hopefully into the "thrive" stage of our lives in Russia. We still have some building to do, but I can see some hope that this will come together.