Hello again, Kristin!
I thought of something I was wondering about Ronaldo. How is his English coming along? R.J. just came to the orphanage February 27, 2006, and Molly confirmed for me that he had no formal schooling before being at GLA. However, from the updates we're getting, it sounds as though he is a very fast learner, so I'm just curious how his learning of English is coming along. (Is Joyce the English teacher you spoke of?)
Also, for their formal schooling -- other than the English they learn from the GLA teacher -- do they go off campus (away from GLA) for school each day? How far is that? I presume the kids walk. How many hours of school a day does Ronaldo attend? (I completely understand if you don't know, in which case I can ask Molly.)
Finally (for now), if you were to suggest some more gifts and/or toys for us to send to Ronaldo, what do you think he would enjoy the most?
That's all I can think of right now.
Thanks again,
Angie
Hi Angie!
I can definitely tell that Ronaldo is a fast learner. I think he’s at the stage where he understands a lot of English, but doesn’t speak a lot of it yet. I would ask him questions in English, and he would respond in creole. I’m sure that he will be doing very good by the time he comes home. He also hangs around with Georgy a lot, and Georgy is very fluent, so I’m sure he will pick it up. Joyce (the English teacher at GLA) teaches like 5-6 classes in the mornings, about 30 min. each.
GLA has a teacher come in to teach for their formal schooling. I don’t know how long he’s there, because they were off for the summer, but I know that in their new houses, they actually have a specific “classroom” to meet in which is pretty cool.
I think Ronaldo would love more little matchbox cars, those were the thing that he chose to take down with him. When kids get gifts from their parents, Molly lets them take one toy down to play with, and then they can get another one in a week. It makes them last, and it’s hard to guard all of your stuff against the other kids when you can’t hang on to it. He would also love a basketball. When we would go on walks, we would pass a house that had a basketball hoop. Ronaldo would always have to point that out to me “Gade, (look), basketball!” and then he would make these dribbling motions and pretend to do a slam dunk, everytime, without fail. It was pretty cute. A deflated one with a pump might send pretty easy. I think he would also love more pictures. I think he’s at the age where he really understands that this will be his new family, and he loved seeing the pictures of you guys.
Talk to you later, and let me know if you have any other questions I can answer.
Kristin
