FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. We have a lot to catch up on.
When I last left you, the plan was for the girls to go to the international school (still a Finnish public school, but in English) at least for this year. And that still is the plan. But we'd thought about moving them to the bilingual school next year, or even our neighborhood Finnish school. It's important to us that the girls learn Finnish well, and we were worried that being at the international school would impede their acquisition of the language. Still, it was the best option for us for many reasons that I've already explained, even if my heart still pined for that bilingual school that seemed to give us the best of both worlds.
Well, when I went to meet with the principal last week in preparation for the girls' arrival, he mentioned something offhand about there also being a bilingual Finnish/English track at the international school. I was like STOP RIGHT THERE AND TELL ME MORE.
I knew about the bilingual tracks at the dedicated language magnet school in the center of the city, but I had no idea it was also available at the international school. And I suppose the principal had never mentioned it because I had never asked. But it's actually on the website, if in small print: a CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) program right there at the girls' school! These CLIL programs are a linguist's dream and I am thrilled that the girls have a chance to participate in one.
That said, it was a hard morning on this first day of school, and understandably so. We'd thought the girls would be going to school in English, and we'd prepared them for such, and all of a sudden we were putting them in a classroom where they would be hearing a LOT of Finnish, both in general goings-on as well as actual subject matter learning. There were some tears and some major questioning-my-parenting moments. Could I really do this to my kids?
And the answer is that I don't know. We are going to give it our best for a while and if it is not the right path for us, we can put the girls in the English-only class at the same school. There are going to be lots of hard times ahead but I think the payoff will be worth it. Eventually.
I have to hand it to the principal, teachers, and students at the school: this morning, when faced with two teary-eyed, jet-lagged American girls who know half a dozen words of Finnish each, the adults and children laughed and smiled and made them feel comfortable. The principal introduced Miriam to her class and asked for a volunteer to be her buddy for the day. And do you know - half the class raised their hands, begging for the chance! It warmed my heart.
I'm heading out to pick up Miriam soon. I hope to hear good things but I'm prepared for this to be quite a struggle. Sometimes it's hard separating my eager linguist self with ready-made guinea pigs (my kids) from my mothering self.
