“Look, Grandma”, Austin said as he held up a poster listing the different learning centers in his new Kindergarten classroom at Mundo Verde Charter School.
I read in Spanish, “Escritura, Biblioteca, Arte, Juego Dramático, Bloques, and Matemáticas.” It was then that the reality of Austin’s bilingual school sank in. I was thrilled as I imagined the conversations we will have in the future when he is fluent. Having been a keen observer of Austin’s love of language and words, I always had a sense that he had an “ear” for foreign languages. From the time he was very young he and I would play with Spanish words and he would repeat them perfectly
The first thing on my “must do” list for our recent trip to Washington was to visit Austin’s new school. We drove there late Friday afternoon in heavy rush hour traffic. Mundo Verde is on P St. NW, in the very heart of the inner city. Hayden pointed out his route via bike paths which he said is the only way to manage all the traffic. (He has a new electric bike with seat on the back for Austin and does the pickup every day.) As we approached the school I saw other parents biking with children almost as if this were another country. It seems unusual especially when you live in a place like Asheville where everyone drives everywhere.
Demonstrating the new electric bike...
Mundo Verde, a K – 5 bilingual school, is urban with very little green space around it and three- story high buildings. We found Austin in an art classroom absorbed in silk screening. Evidently this is one of his after school “special” activities.. He was in no hurry to leave. When we enticed him away we went up to his regular classroom on the third floor. Austin walked all around giving us a tour.
Poster in Austin's Classroom...he is not the only "A"....
“What do you like about your new school,” I asked.
“Recess,” he replied. That was not the answer I expected until he explained. “We have recess for a whole hour in the park two blocks away,” Austin explained. He seemed very enthusiastic about learning chess after school and of course, PE during the school day. He was quiet about the Spanish and I didn’t push him as he’d only been in school a month.
“Where do you eat lunch?” I asked.
“We eat in our classroom,” he replied. “But we can’t have any junk food,” Austin told me seriously. Of course, I didn't mention Austin's sweet tooth.
Kid with a sweet tooth....
Back outdoors Austin went running off with some kindergartners who were waiting to be picked up. Art and I noticed how comfortable Austin seemed playing with these kids….almost as if he’d always been at this school. We noted the cultural diversity of children all playing together – the Latino children, the African American children, the white kids, and then the Asian, Muslim, and others mixed in.
It took time to drag Austin away to come home with us. Hayden said it’s like that every day. Evidently he has loved his new school from the very first day and though he has trouble waking up early, when it’s time to leave, he’s more than ready to head off for another day at Mundo Verde. He goes with his Dad to Nora’s house (she is a classmate), which is two blocks away, and Nora’s Mom drives both children to Mundo Verde every morning.
Visits to Washington are always about Austin and noticing how he’s changed since we last saw him. This visit we witnessed the transition from his small two-wheeler bike without training wheels, to a bigger bicycle. Learning to finally ride a bicycle by yourself is a “rite of passage” in every child’s life and we were there to see it.
Austin and I have always bonded over bedtime reading . This time he stayed awake for one story and fell asleep. Gone are the afternoon naps and the “read me one more, Grandma.” At 5 ½ he is ready for bedtime at the end of his day. Art and Austin got together over the puzzle we brought him. Austin has a keen eye for fitting puzzle pieces together. He can study the scrambled pieces and focus on a specific one. Most of the time it fits right where he thinks it will. Art came home and ordered himself a puzzle to do in the evenings. Perhaps he needs to sharpen his skills in order to keep up with Austin.
Sunday morning we went to Homestead Farm in Poolesville, Maryland where we picked apples and pumpkins and bought fresh veggies. I remember fall apple picking at this same farm holding Austin’s little hand as he toddled up the rows of apple trees. This time there was another family with us and Austin ignored all the adults and took off with Maddie, who is also 5, to find apples and put them in their own wheel barrow. Where did that little boy go I wondered? But as I watched him running around, I noticed how excited he got when he spotted a ladybug on a rotten apple on the ground. “Come look at the ladybug,” he yelled to us. He has a fascination for insects and seemed more interested in the bugs crawling around than picking the apples.
“He will be a Spanish speaking entomologist,” I said to Art.
“And a chess player and champion jigsaw puzzler,” added Art.
Austin and Maddie
Checking out the pumpkins...
A highlight of our visit was the Co-op 5K on Hanes Point on a chilly Saturday morning. Hayden had registered all five of us and we got up and out early. Lining up to get our numbers, we Aaronsons got numbers #1 – 4 because entrants were put in alphabetical order. The race was casual but started at 8 a.m.. Art and I took off walking fast, Hayden ran the whole way, and Jessica watched Austin take off on his scooter and was going to walk/run. Sadly, Austin took a bad fall trying to keep up with his Dad but Hayden and Art and I crossed the Finish Line.
We stayed for the awards. Just as we started to walk away I heard the announcer say “First Place in the Women’s 70 – 79 category is Kristina Aaronson.” I went up and received a gift wrapped prize and had my photo taken. The next announcement came with “First Place in the Men’s 70-79 category is Arthur Aaronson.” Art followed me to receive his gift and have his photo taken and then we stood together in disbelief. We had won pairs of socks and REI gift cards and ,of course, had had no competitors in our age group… even walking.
Awards to the winners...
“We’ll be back again next year,” I told Hayden. “Let’s make it a yearly event…”
Our long weekend went by fast and I came home with a sense that Austin is fast asserting his independence in small ways. He was excited to have us visit but I missed that little boy who used to peek into our room early in the morning and then come in and roll around on the bed. Now he is more caught up in being around other children and less enamored of “hanging out” with the adults all the time. He asks for “play dates” which his parents arrange. As social as he is, I watched him a few times sitting quietly by himself concentrating on putting together a Lego space ship. He did it himself without help. He has a keen sense of how things fit together and can make his small hands work to connect things.
Austin is used to being able to do things well but he always holds back until he’s sure about trying something new. He was born cautious and always will be. Having said that, he’s amazingly adaptable to new situations as he has shown starting at Mundo Verde this fall and having his teacher, Miss Gaby, teaching only in Spanish.
"You can ask questions in English," Austin told me as if to reassure me that he was just fine.
I would have liked to have heard the conversation Hayden repeated to us when Austin told him that in his “old” school he knew all the answers. But he didn’t always want to raise his hand to answer everything and make the other children feel bad. Then he went on to tell his Dad, “in my new school I don’t know all the answers.” That seems just fine with him. I like to think he enjoys a challenge.
