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After one week exactly, we have found a school for the girls. It’s a miracle.

They will be attending a school that teaches a half day in English, a half day in Spanish, and also some Italian! The school is mostly Porteño children with a few foreigners besprinkled in, but not many.

The school has a neat “new student” ritual. First, we interviewed with the senior staff while the children were present. Then, the next day, the girls came in during the morning Spanish class, got a little tour of the school, visited their classrooms, and then had a big coca cola and cookie party with their future classmates. The whole thing ended up with a bunch of kids on a sugar rush running around the play area.

After that, we spent the afternoon, and I mean the whole afternoon, buying all things school uniform. (Zoe is pissed that there is a skirt for school and a field hockey skirt.) We still have to go find their shoes. And, we forgot if Monday was the day that they wear their gym clothes or their school uniform.

Hours are a bit crazy–they go to school from 7:50 am to 5:00 pm, but they do have a one-and-a-half hour break from 12:00 pm to 1:30 pm for lunch. The kids can stay at the school to eat and play, or they can go home for lunch.

We’ll see how it goes, but their program looks pretty good. They teach chess as a part of their curriculum, they have a good computer room and a science lab as well as using different teachers for different subjects at the elementary level. Also, they have gym twice a week–one is an extended physical education day in the school and one is at a field off campus.

Cross your fingers for Monday. Poor girls, it’s a lot to absorb.

Follow up post to my previous item on the death of the dream that the girls would attend the same elementary school where Ian works.

Well, after Ian facilitated communications between us and the school, we heard from them just recently–something like a month-and-a-half later! They said that we could be on a waiting list.

We wrote back something to the effect of: “Thanks, but we’ve already moved on.”

Which, again, circles back to the “we have to do it all in person” nature of Argentina (not complaining, just observing).

Ian has recently obtained a position as a teaching assistant at a bilingual elementary school in Buenos Aires.

In our dreams, the girls attend this school where Ian teaches (getting to see their Uncle in the afternoons) solving all of our “finding school problems” before we arrive in Buenos Aires.

Alas, it is probably a pipe dream. They don’t like relatives of teachers to attend the school. And, Ian says the kids are a bit out of control. Of course, it’s hard to know if it’s the school, if it’s cultural, or if Ian isn’t used to the joy of teaching elementary school rug rats!! (Nothing like hanging out with grade-school aged children to help him appreciate the high school students he taught!)

So the dream is probably dead, but it was lovely while it lasted!

Zoe, our resident tom boy daughter, is concerned that she will have to wear uniforms while attending school in Argentina. It’s not exactly the uniform, per se, but the fact that girls wear uniforms with skirts (gasp–skirt is the “s” word to Zoe).

Just the thought of wearing one sends her into spasms of whining angst! Quelle horreur!

Not to promote Nike(!), but here is another ad that completely embraces why we want to make sure the girls stay involved in sports.

We want the girls to continue to be active in sports while we are in South America, but we are a little concerned about the prevalence of field hockey, in which the girls have no interest, especially since it is not really played in the Pacific Northwest.

Zoe wants to continue to play soccer, but is nervous that no girls play and that all of the kids will be really good since everyone is soccer obsessed. We don’t know if they will have baseball/softball available for her.

For Zelda, we are considering martial arts since she has already informed us that she doesn’t want to play soccer in an intense environment.

I love to quote parts of this Nike ad to the girls (popular during women’s Olympic hockey fever) because it completely represents how we want our girls to live–fierce and free.

“When I invented me the world went, “What?” WOMEN DON’T PLAY HOCKEY! A place for me didn’t even exist when I first came along. When the ice opens up in front of me, wide and wild, I don’t feel like a first; I don’t feel like a guy; I just don’t see anything in my way. When a woman wins, victory is passed around like cake; everybody gets some, wallflowers and followers and fierce ruling divas alike. Play ‘cause you love it; play ‘cause you mean it. And win for a bigger world than the one you started in.” –Cammi Granato, in a Nike ad.

When people ask Tom and I if we are going to home school the girls while we are away, Tom and I always have to wait for our hearts to resume beating after the moment of sheer terror passes. NO, we are not going to home school. Reasons are below:

1. School is how you get rid of, I mean socialize, your kids.
2. They never listen to us, so I can’t imagine them starting once we arbitrarily declared ourselves “teacher.” Anyone with kids can tell you that parents rank down around, oh, I don’t know, armadillos, in terms of the stock our children put in our knowledge. Pretty much any first grader on the playground is given more cred than we are.
3. The wee ones are supposed to be learning the language (that would be Spanish) while we are there.