Open House

Thursday night was Parent Open House at the American Nicaraguan School. We drove ourselves into Managua in the evening, skipping dinner to be on time. We were greeted by two volunteers behind a table of schedules just like at home, except here there was no line. The college counselor, Rachael gave us a quick kiss hello and invited us to see the UPenn people who would be visiting at 7:00, but we decided not to check them out because we really aren't ready to start all that.

ANS is a large campus with rows of about 5 classrooms connected by covered walk ways. When we first visited in the spring last year, Noah said it looks like a resort, but really it just looks like a school in California. We got lost a few times, but managed to meet most of both kids teachers. Some teachers were talking to groups of parents at a time, but mostly we got to chat individually with the teachers and took the opportunity to see how the kids were adjusting.

Things seem to be going well. The math teachers were enthusiastic as usual about our brilliant children. We told them they go to school with about 1000 other kids that are just as smart as they are at home. But maybe not as conscientious about their school work. As some of the few native speakers of English at the American school, our kids enjoy a huge advantage over their classmates in reading and writing. Still these kids are getting ready for the same AP tests that the Juniors in the states are taking. I wish my kids were having the opportunity to study more about Nicaragua and speak more Spanish, but I'm afraid this is the consequence of waiting until they are this old and far along in their education to come here.

I'm enjoying being a private school parent for the first time. The classes are small, I don't think there are more than 18 in any of the kids classes and they each have only 4 or 5 kids in their Spanish Language Learners class and about 12 in their math classes.

We finished of the evening in the band room where we ran into our friends Thelma and Laurence because Hobbes is the premier Trombonist at the school. The band teacher is excited about Noah's ability and paid him a very high compliment. He said, he's by far the best clarinetist and I have 2 Koreans who play!