It's June 6 and we are at the end and also at the beginning. We are at the end of another semester and of our first year here. We survived! We are at the end of our year of immersion in Lithuanian school for Katie and Dylan. The kids ended their year with some fun activities. Dylan's class went to Palanga to the Amber Museum. They also went to a zoo and a military place where they learned about dogs that are trained to sniff out drugs. They also got to hold a grenade. Katie's class went to a new ropes course that was installed in the city. She had a great time climbing around the tree tops.
As
I reflect back on this year it has been a challenge, but also a year of growth.
The kids have gained confidence- they have learned to navigate around a foreign
city by foot and by bike. They have no difficulties ordering and paying for
their favorite treats at local shops (independent of parents).
We
are also at the beginning
of some new adventures. We are beginning
homeschooling. This was not an easy decision for our family to make. Katie has
really enjoyed the social aspect of school and has a nice group of girls in her
class. Both kids have worked hard on language acquisition and have had some
success. After a lot of discussion we felt that we needed to homeschool to keep
them up to date on US curriculum standards for our eventual return to the US.
While they both are making strides in understanding Lithuanian they are not
quite there with academic language acquisition. I have recently purchased our
homeschool curriculum and am hopeful that we can have a fun year. We are
working on soccer or other extra curricular activities to promote friendships
with other kids their age.
We
are also at the beginning
of our visit to the US. We will be in Lititz June 11-17. June 17-21 we will be
visiting with some of Ken's family. We will be in Canton June 21-24. After
visiting some friends we will return to Lititz from June 26-July 9. We hope to
see many of our friends and family while we are in town. Feel free to give us a call.
We are also beginning a search for a new apartment. Our current apartment is big and spacious and meets our needs in many ways but it is terribly expensive to heat in the winter. We are hoping to find something closer to LCC that is more economical. We have a lead on an apartment, so keep your fingers crossed for us!
In my last post I was lamenting our long winter. I'm happy to announce that spring did arrive. The city has been beautiful with spring flowers and budding trees.
There was a celebration in Old Town on Armed Forces Day, we didn't realize it was armed forces day until we got downtown and saw the ships and military paraphenilia. We didn't stay long but it was interesting.
We had a nice day and headed to the beach - we weren't planning on swimming, we thought the water would be too cold, but Katie couldn't resist a swim in the Baltic
We had a visit from Flat Stanley, Katie took him to school one day!
The week after school let out Katie invited the girls in her class over. They made cupcakes, shrinky dinks and bagel pizzas.
