Julian's First Week of School

This is coming a litle late, as we have been running around ragged these past couple of weeks. Julian started school on September 2nd at the Language Academy Elementary in the Spanish dual-immersion program. We found out that Julian was accepted the week prior to school starting. Thank goodness that we were able to do all of the pre-kindergarten orientations etc with Julian before we all started on this venture. There was a lot of info to take in! And it was all done in englich then in spanish so it took a little longer than we anticipated.

I will explain how the Lanuage Academy's curricullum works. He is in the Spanish program which is Dual-style immersion: half of the kids are english only speakers and the other half are spanish only speakers. He will be getting 90% of his instruction in spanish for kindegarten. The other 10% of the time will be taught in english, and it will be readingin and linguistics or what we used to call "language" lessons. In 1st grade it will be 80%/20% Spanish/English instruction, 2nd grade will be 70%/30%, and so on until 50%/50% is reached in 4th grade. He should be fluent by middle school (which will be taught 50/50 at the Language Academy...it is a K-8). Obviously, this will take strength from ELi and I. I put extreme value on literacy and work with Julian at home on his reading (he reads to himself and Gabi all the time now). Reading scores tend to be low on an average in immersion schools up to 2nd grade, then they go back up to average and above. I am in a mind to think that my son will be above average in that he already knows how to read and we stress the importance of that sort of growth in the home. I am so excited for Julian. He will go to San Diego High School which has a fabulous program, loads of opportunity and prides itself on scholastic excellence as I would like. ANyhow, it seems as though I am planning our children's education a little far in advance doesn't it? Gabriella will automatically be admitted to Language Academy because Julian was accepted, which is a good thing. It took a lot of advance planning, hoop jumping, praying, and phone calling to get Julian in this school!

This is Julian after he found his desk the week before school started when we went to the kindergarten orientation:

Posing before getting in line...My boy's first day at school!!!



He was all business when we got to school. He sat and waited with his class under the sign for his teacher's name (Senora Ortiz).

Julian on his way to class...the woman with the orange dress at the front of the line is Senora Ortiz. Julian is just to the left of her (at the front of the line like a good boy :) ). The principal is the woman to the right in the black. She is very nice and wanted all of the kindergarteners to feel welcome:

He takes the bus...yep! Julian LOVES the school bus! We did take him as a family on his first day, but he took the bus home that afternoon and every day since. I asked the woman in charge of transportation (along with just about ANYTHING else we had needed as new enrollees) if it was absurd to even think about putting him on the bus and she told me that t was not uncommon at all for kinder students to ride the bus to school...HA! Well, that took the whole argument about mileage on our cars and how out of the way it is for us out of the equation when we were weighing pros and cons of sending Juji there.

Julian's best buddy, Luca, is on his bus for the first couple of weeks until a stop is made for him at our local elementary school (just around the corner from us yipee!). Luca is in the French immersion program at L.A. but they look for each other every day at recess and lunch time! Luca's siblings are very familiar with the campus and take care of Julian like he is a little brother too. Here is a pic of them on the second day morning...they always sit in the front seat :)

Here is Juji's bus coming in to the bus stop after his first day at school!!!! I am such a stalker...

Julian getting off of Bus B after a long first day of school:

I did it all by myself, mama!!!


Senora Ortiz gives colored cards to send home with the kids to let the parents know how they did for the day. From best to worst the colors go as such: blue, green, yellow, white, red. Most days Julian brings home BLUE! His first day bringing one home, he said everyone got green cards...he was very happy! We now use this as an incentive for good behavior...although, I am proud that my little boy seems to have a great attitude in class with zero incentive (patting self on back lol). He will earn a squirt bottle on Friday if he brings home greens and blues only this week. The teacher called me the end of the first week because I had questions for her. SHe told me that she had wanted to contact me sooner to tell me that Julian was so charming and well behaved. She said he was so polite and she uses him as a positive role model for the class! I have to say it was so incredible to have that said about my boy...especially being that I wansnt there to remind him of his manners. My eyes filled with joyful tears...moreso than when he marched off to class the first day. I am very pleased with this adventure altogether, I think.

We got home and he did a little victory pose:


My proud little hambone:






ANyhow, this has been a long tale...and whoa, it is only the beginning isn't it? SO much has gone into getting him into the kindegarten that we wanted for Julian. And now we leave him in the hands of the teachers at the Language Academy. I leave him to forge relationships with kids his age. I trust him to use his manners, make sound judgement when necessary, study hard, and...

EAT ALL OF YOUR LUNCH, SILLY GOOSE!!!