A day at LCI

Since several of you have asked, here is my schedule for a typical day:

9:15-9:45 – Arrive at school
10:00-12:00 – Morning kinder starter class—mostly six and seven year olds with one eight year old and one girl who says she’s five but doesn’t look a day over two for a total of fifteen
12:00-1:00 – Lunch
1:00-2:00 – Afternoon activity of some sort with morning kinder class
2:10-3:20 – Preschool class—four kids from the kinder class plus one more boy
3:30-4:45 – Sometimes free time, sometimes conversation with Karas, Julian’s daughter
4:50-ish-6:10 – Advanced class with Karas, Chad, and Harry

The morning kinder class is a handful, but their class is supposed to be lots of fun and games and activities so it’s pretty easy. We read stories and color and sing and learn things like ‘What is your name?’ and ‘How old are you?’ and other basic English phrases and words. The preschool class is difficult because they are used to the fun and games of the morning class, but I actually want them to work. It’s my goal to teach them how to read. We’re breaking down the alphabet into sounds and slowly transferring those sounds into words. It’s slow going, but they’ll get it. I love having conversation with Karas. She gets to practice her English, and I get to learn about places to eat and shop or get a pedicure and my hair cut. She is distracted by Harry in the advanced class, so the one-on-one forces her to actually think about what she’s saying. Harry, 15, is brilliant. He has amazing comprehension, a large vocabulary, decent grammar skills, and an accent better than Julian’s. Chad struggles. I don’t know why I have him and Harry in a class together. With them, I talk about current events, movies, what they do during the day, and we also do a little grammar and read a story or article or essay of some kind. On Fridays I let them pick a game, usually Monopoly or Clue or Sorry or Uno.

Stay tuned for the acupuncture story and others.