Un Buen Compañero (A Good Classmate)

Yesterday was the last day for Silas at the Chilean school where he began 1st grade in March of 2022. After a unique yet positive pandemic Kindergarten experience mostly with a single classmate, Isabella, he was over-the-moon excited to be surrounded by other children. We chose the Academia Nerudiana, just a few blocks from his former school, having never met another parent whose child attended there. The factors for our choice revolved mostly around our priority of Silas' continued Spanish language acquisition; at a small school; which was close to home.

And he had a great semester. We were initially uncertain with his unusual schedule running from 1:45 to 6:45 PM (after dark this time of year!) But in the end, it allowed Silas to do homeschool in English with Elisa each morning and he excelled, developing his reading and writing and even beginning his multiplication facts. This relaxed our expectations for his Chilean school, which we later learned focused more on integration than academic rigor. His small school had a wonderful family feel and teachers truly called to working with special children.

At our first (and last) parent/teacher conference, we were happy to hear from Profesora Hilda that Silas was well-loved by his classmates and she described him as having great "empathy" for them. What better quality could we ask for? Meanwhile at home, Silas often would pray for each of his teachers, his school director, the "inspectors" who stood and welcomed students at the door - all by name - before bedtime. 

He loved "religion" class. In years' past at other Chilean schools our older children attended, we opted out of this in order to avoid any confusion for them. And while we had some interesting discussions and explanations with Silas this semester, overall his excitement revolved around songs and Bible stories that celebrated Jesus. He also loved PE class (or Phys Ed, as he preferred to call it!) Quite uniquely, this particular class was held from 8:00 to 10:00 AM on Wednesdays - with regular classes that evening as well. It was an early and LONG day!

A special memory from this semester was the school's 21 de mayo celebration for Chile's "Mes del Mar" (Month of the Sea.) The highlight of the month is celebrating Captain Arturo Prat Chacon, a Chilean lawyer and naval officer and national hero of the War of the Pacific. He was a gentleman soldier who valiantly led his troops and boldly sacrificed his life while boarding an enemy ship during battle in Iquique's port. Both Silas and another student wished to play the role of Prat in their class presentation, so the teacher did cachipun (rock/paper/scissors) to determine who it would be. Silas later excitedly told us, "The teacher said no one could cry about the result. I didn't think I would win, but I did!" We delivered him to school in the uniform that Tia Catalina carefully crafted, and Silas got a smile from ear to ear when the inspectora greeted him, "Bienvenido, Capitan Prat!"

These screenshots from the WhatsApp chat for Silas' first grade class are sweet, because the parents of several students and his teacher expressed good wishes and kind words for him. One little girl said she liked it very much that Silas was in the class, and several little boys expressed that they would miss him very much. His teacher said she was glad they met! Silas was teary as we left school for the last time yesterday, but we are thankful for this positive experience in his life and look forward to what God has in store for him in Michigan this fall.