Portuguese Preschool

I received a question in one of the comments on my blog about Portuguese preschool for the boys. I had, in fact, mentioned it previously on my blog (you can read the post by clicking here) that we were considering sending the boys to a free preschool offered on the island. This was in fact, the case, but we have since decided not to put them in the school.

It was a tough call. We were excited by the possibility of giving Sidge and Isaac a real immersion into a second language. However, neither JB nor myself could get peace with the whole thing. There were three main things that didn't sit right with us.

The first and biggest was that we, in general, are not huge fans of public schooling and most likely will be homeschooling in the near future. I'll be writing much more about this in the future, but for now I'll just say that we have decided to start Isaac in school late so that the boys will be in the same grade, and to do at least Kindergarten, from home. I will make no statement about how long will we homeschool. I plan to take it one year at a time. Again, stay tuned for much more on this choice in the future. It's one that I do not take lightly, is not pushed on anyone else, and is simply the direction the Lord is leading us for our boys.

The second reason is that we just couldn't get over the fact that we'd be putting the boys into an environment where people did not speak English. It would be overwhelming to me, and I'm an adult. Especially given Isaac's shy nature, it didn't sit right with us. We have heard from a lot of people that while learning a second language would be incredibly beneficial, they probably would not be fluent in just three mornings a week. We had also heard that unless they continued practicing it, they would lose it quickly. Portuguese is not a widely used language (like Spanish), and therefore, we had to ask ourselves if we would even be considering the preschool option if it wasn't for the language part. We wouldn't. If we took that out of the equation, we wouldn't do it.

And the third was that another friend, who had had her son in the Portuguese preschool, had decided against it, giving us reason to question it's appropriateness for our family as well.

In the end, it was simply our spirit. That still, small voice that you hear. We couldn't find peace with it, and I have made too many mistakes in my life when I didn't listen to that still, small voice to not listen to it this time. JB and I feel that if we aren't on the same page, thinking the same way, we don't do that thing we are thinking about. Whether it be buying a sofa, doing IVF, or how we educate our children.

And so we decided not to do it. I plan, instead, to spend the next year doing my "letter of the week" with the boys. I know that they will get just as much at home as they will at school -- especially through the social activities I have with friends in the neighborhood and on Base. I look forward to weekly story times at the library, MOPs weekly activities, and playdates with friends. And if God tells us otherwise, we are open to listening.