Overall a really good day today with the girls! I went to bed last night feeling somewhat frustrated with some of the ways that they were speaking to us -- we had some issues at dinner and as I mentioned yesterday during the day as well. So thanks to the Virtues Project (from a KIPP PD last summer -- shout out to Blanca!) and the Happiness Project (a blog I've been reading in the last few days) I decided that I want us to focus deliberately on increasing love in the family. For me, this means looking for opportunities to compliment the children, tell them I love them, hug them if they'll let me and at least pet them if they won't. I found that this morning I had a lot more positive feelings because I was trying to find those chances! So the research bears out.
We talked with them after lunch about the idea of love being central to a happy family and how we are going to look for ways to show love to each other, and while they were kind of distracted and resistant, I think it had a good effect because after a short time of playing with their Barbies on their own, they came out to the patio where we were sitting and started showing us tricks their Barbies can do (mainly being thrown up in the air) and then asked me to come with them to bathe and change and style the Barbies. We had such a good time together, and Fer even said, "We are using loving words!" Afterwards they put on a show for us both -- magic tricks involving the Barbies appearing out of pillowcases and from behind their backs. We gave lots of "applausos" and it was really fun.
After that we spent about 45 minutes doing schoolwork, practicing math and reading, and then went on a little walk to the grocery store for a snack. When we came back they watched about 30 minutes of Maya and Miguel in English and then got out their stickerbooks to dress the princesses and popstars! (Thank you KIPPTia Sarita for such a great gift!)
Dinner went well -- the girls got a little at loose ends before so they were a bit distracted but as usual the food was very good and they enjoyed it. After dinner they each chose books to read with us. Fer read 2 books out loud to Chris, all in English! Wendy helped me read 3 books also, repeating the English back and identifying some new words. They were both so tired after that they suggested only 1 Kitty, which we all watched together and now they are in bed.
One more day to go before our second Integration meeting. We are hoping that on Wednesday all will go well and we will be issued the certificate that will allow us to submit our court papers. Laura, the girls' teacher, suggested doing a cooking class tomorrow, so we will do that in the afternoon, as well as Fitness Infantil in the morning, of course. We may also need to go shopping for another outfit to wear. I packed very minimal, maybe too minimal, and we don't really have a backup cute outfit for Wednesday. So that will be another errand to run in the afternoon.
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