In Which Kyle Returns to His Elementary School

When Kyle was in school, he was part of what is called an Immersion Program.  This program began at a local elementary school in Indianapolis the year Kyle went into kindergarten and helped the students in the program learn Spanish.  I can never remember all the specifics, but basically this program "immerses" students in the Spanish language and culture at an early age so that by the time they're older (say, graduation age), they are fluent in Spanish and know tons about Spanish culture, geography, etc.  I believe this might be done at more schools now, but twenty years ago, Kyle's school had an advantage of piloting the program.  

The result of all those years of Immersion?  Kyle STILL speaks fluent Spanish, even though he doesn't get to practice very much.  He learned how to read in Spanish initially and taught himself to read in English.  We have lots and lots of storybooks from Kyle's elementary years that are in Spanish and he really wants to make it a goal to read to our kids in Spanish as well as English.  Several of his grades were conducted entirely in Spanish, there were some half-and-half, and then by the time he got to high school, he took Spanish classes like everyone else does, but his were way more advanced than any I ever had available to me, like a Spanish film-making class or an AP Spanish Literature course.  His geography credit in high school was all about Latin-American countries, I think.

Because he stuck with the program throughout school and completed all of its requirements, Kyle graduated not only with a diploma from Indiana but also with a certificate that I understand is kind of like a diploma in Spain.  Neat!  He made a lot of close friends in Immersion and also got the opportunity to have teachers from several Spanish-speaking countries like Puerto Rico, Spain, Costa Rica, etc.

So the reason I blog about this now is because we had the opportunity to visit Kyle's elementary school recently when his younger brother, Jacob, graduated from the Immersion Program last week (the graduation ceremony is held at the elementary school).  You know how when you're an adult and you go back to your elementary or pre-school and you realize how SMALL everything is?  Kyle was experiencing a lot of that when we visited.  I also got the opportunity to meet some of his Spanish-speaking teachers, all of which were very wonderful and spoke to Kyle in Spanish and me in English (thank goodness).  They were all very surprised to find out one of their first students was married and expecting a nino (baby).  They exclaimed that it made them feel old.  Well, I suppose if any of my students came back to visit me and announced they were married with kids, it would make me feel old, too, I guess!  It was very hard for me to understand the Spanish they spoke to Kyle because they spoke SO quickly...even though I'm a Spanish minor and had several years of Spanish study myself.  I couldn't imagine how difficult it would have been to have studied with them as a young child!  But that's what makes the graduates fluent, I guess.

Some pictures of our visit:

The school has changed a lot since he left (as any school does), but I thought it was neat that everything was Spanish-style.  I'm easily amused, I guess.  I thought this cut-out was pretty funny, so I had Kyle pose beside it.

Kyle helped to paint these banners when he was in school and was really excited to see them all hanging up still.

Room names and signs in Spanish and some English.  I couldn't get over how cool that was!

Jacob getting his awards.

Yummy torta (cake).

After the ceremony, we all went out to get Mexican food (seemed fitting).  It was a good night!

Tiger's Opinion About His Haircut

Last spring/summer we had a major flea problem with our three kitties.  We made the mistake of opening all our windows every day for about two weeks straight, which we assume allowed fleas to come through the screens and for our cats to pick them up easily (they lay in the window sills when the windows are open).  It seemed like nothing we did last summer could kick these fleas!  We used products around the house to kill the fleas and eggs, we medicated the cats frequently, gave them more baths and combed them regularly, kept the windows closed, put out "flea traps" (lights that attract the fleas and cause them to stick to a sheet), monitored the cats for worms, washed everything we could, vacuumed every day, got rid of rugs where fleas could be hiding...everything we could think of!  It seemed like they just passed them back and forth to each other no matter what we did.  After last summer, I know I can say with conviction that I.  Hate.  Fleas.

Well, after the warm weather wore off, the fleas just died out.  Finally!  We continue to medicate the cats every six weeks and give them regular baths and do all of the other things listed, and luckily, no fleas yet this year.  We would really like to keep it this way since we are preparing for a baby, so we decided to take it a step further this summer and get rid of most of the cats' hair so if they get fleas, they have a harder time of hiding...

...so, we scheduled all three cats with the groomer for haircuts!  

Keebler has had two other haircuts before and although he hates going out in the cat carrier and is sort of reserved when he gets home, the day after his haircut he is soaking up the attention from extra pats and the cool feeling of hairlessness.  Keebs has long hair and it grows quickly, so we've begun getting him shaved every four or so months so that it doesn't get too long and matted.  Since he doesn't shed easily, all the extra hair kind of accumulates until he is a big puffball.

Max and Tiger, on the other hand, are short-haired cats and shed frequently.  Even though fleas are easier to find on them, they also wrestle a lot, which means a lot of hair on the ground and in the rugs.  Since it's getting warmer out and this is the shed-iest season of all, there's always a rogue furball or two floating around the house, even if we'd just cleaned it 15 minutes before!  They'd never had haircuts, so we weren't sure how they'd react, but we suppose by how quickly their hair grows that we might only need to shave them once a year.

My advice--if you take your cat or dog to be groomed, take them to the vet for it!  We took Keebler to Petsmart the first time because they could get him in quickly and it cost twice as much as the groomer with our vet charges.  Plus, Petsmart can't sedate animals if necessary because they're not medically trained to.  I think all together with our three cats, we spent under $150 for three haircuts and two sedatives (Tiger and Max).  Keebler is so docile that he has never needed to be sedated.

Anyway, Tiger and Max did NOT like going to the groomer.  Tiger was very mad when he came home and would hiss at the other two cats and cry and complain for hours...even if no one was in the room.  He was awfully cuddly with us still (he needs a piece of humble pie every so often) but it took him awhile to get used to his cut.  When Max came home, he was still pretty loopy.  He walked around in circles and fell when he leapt off our bed but forgot to put out his feet to land.  If Max ever got drunk, we know exactly what he'd act like.

Max was sort of pitiful, but Tiger was just plain hilarious when he was throwing his temper tantrum:

Keep your fingers crossed for us for a no-flea, hairless, clean summer!