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Rats & My French Speaking Son

Yesterday was parent teacher conferences at the elementary school and I was very excited for them! 

I knew Maggie would be doing well--I just wanted to make sure she wasn't being too silly in class.  And thankfully, she is behaving and learning at a great pace.  She has fallen in love with reading and that makes me and her teacher very happy!

I really wanted to talk to Dax's teacher about him getting bullied every day by this girl.  Sounds crazy that a girl is beating my son up, but there is blood or bruises nearly every day.  So, I brought it to the teacher's attention and hopefully it will be taken care of starting today.  Academically, Dax is doing very well and the teacher is doing great things to keep him challenged and interested!

I knew that Tiki's teacher and I would have a lot to talk about.  He is coming a long way academically, but still has a long way to go in order to catch up.  He is pushing boundaries in class with behavior and his teacher and I have been on top of it.  I just like having fifteen minutes with her to stay on the same page.  I absolutely adore Tiki's teacher!

And that brings me to the title of this post.  Tiki's teacher told me a very interesting story that I wanted to share.  She is so well educated and so smart and she pays attention to Tiki and what is going on.  Any other teacher probably would have stopped this event as it started and brushed it off as something crazy, but Tiki's teacher was smart enough to go with the story and it was very interesting what she learned! 

One day the class was talking about mice and one little boy said how scared his mom was of a little mouse.  A few minutes later, Tiki had some one on one time with his teacher and he started talking about the HUGE mice in Africa (rats).  As he was talking about how big they are and how ugly they are and how long their wiskers are and how big their teeth are, he fell into French speaking. . .as the story got more traumatic for him, his English turned into French.  (Thankfully, his teacher speaks French and she noticed it and began conversing with him in French. . .he had NO idea that this transition had happened!)  Then he began to tell about how scary the rats were and how they would bite him and chew on the other kids.  It was a very scary story for Tiki and his wonderful teacher took him through the whole thing in French!  When the story was over, he was back to English speaking.  WOW! 

She told me that in traumatic situations that children often revert back to the language they spoke during that time.  So interesting.

She also told me some things he said about the orphanage and the nuns.  He told her that his mommy (me) thinks the nuns are very nice but when I would leave, they would be mean to him.  I guess I shouldn't talk about how nice they are because that probably invalidates the truth that he knows and it may keep him from telling things to me because I already have my preconceived thoughts.  I really need to keep that in mind as things about his past begin to slowly bubble to the surface!

So, that was parent teacher conferences yesterday.  I am so thankful for my kids and for their progress in school!  I am blessed!

Comments

Leslie Kirk said…
Wow, what a story! I'm so glad that Tiki has a wonderful teacher, and a wonderful Mommy!!! :)
Unknown said…
I am so thankful I have not seen any huge mice in Rwanda, small, but no rats. (And I better not see any in March & April.) Thankful for his teacher's ability to speak French and his ability to open to her. How encouraging for you as a momma giving her best to make sure her kiddos receive all they need. And often more. XO
Unknown said…
Thank you for sharing this. We just don't know what they have gone through and that hurts so much as a mom. I ache to talk to Nate about just life as an adoptee, I can't imagine what it must be like for you with Tiki.
diadelkendall said…
Fantastic story. Thank you so much for sharing.
Kristyn said…
home now and catching up on blog reading! i'm so glad tiki has an awesome teacher that could converse with him in french. that is perfect.

and excited that you guys are headed on a disney dream cruise!

(trying to breast feed and getting spit up all over. she really wanted my milk, but now its too much for her to handle!)
4325 Osprey said…
unbelievable! how cool that God would put Tiki with that teacher :)!!
looks like i have a lot of braner blogging to catch up on. can't wait!

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