Preschool Update

It's been more than a month since I've written about the preschool. It seems like so much has happened in this last month! It's been a huge learning curve for the kids and for us. But, thankfully, Joseph and Faith really love going to school!

This preschool is in a very Shia neighborhood and celebrates Shia Muslim holidays. It's been a lot for us to figure out how to deal with it.

There are times that all of the kids wear black to school to commemorate the death of someone in their history. We've chosen to put our kids in black out of respect for the people. But, we've also had to tell the teachers at the preschool to have our kids sit out when they are commemorating the deaths of these leaders.

We've used the opportunities to talk to Joseph and Faith about our hope in Jesus, who rose from the dead!

Joseph's favorite color has been black for a long time and so he gets excited when he gets to wear black to school!!

It's a good thing that they're happy to wear black, because the Shia month of mourning starts next week. We're not sure what to expect for how it will effect the preschool.

I took pictures of both classes and gave them as gifts for Eid. It was a fun little project for me!

Joseph LOVES his class!! He calls them "my boys." It's really fun when we drive through the village and Joseph sees one of his classmates!

His class is called the "Butterfly Class," which I think is funny since there are only boys! Joseph doesn't see anything weird about it.

This is Joseph's friend from when we first moved here a year ago. Sometimes when I'm walking Faith to her classroom I can hear Hussein yell, "Yusif" (Joseph's name in Arabic) as Joseph is opening his classroom door!

Hussein wasn't at school the day I took the class picture, so his Eid gift was this picture. Best buds!

Faith's class is the "Smurf Class" and she loves Smurfette, so she's happy!! Her class is bigger than Joseph's with both boys and girls. There are three girls named Fatima. So she has learned to call them Fatima Hussein or Fatima Jaafer, using their Father's name along with their first name!

I've been excited that for the first time Joseph and Faith are interested in the Arabic Alphabet! It's more than just wanting to know it. They see the need to know it!

Here they are saying the Arabic letters on an Arabic Alphabet chart!

Joseph and Faith have "homework" to complete most days. It's been really good for me to help them so much and know what they're learning in class.

This is Faith's homework. She's writing the numbers 1, 2, and 3 in Arabic, which looks like: ٣، ٢، ١  

Here they are working on their homework one day after school!

Arabic is very different than English. This worksheet shows how it starts from the right and goes to the left.

On days that they don't have homework we do fun things like painting! They love painting!!

Joseph painted his name in Arabic.

Here's one of Faith's paintings. I painted her name in Arabic at the bottom in Orange. You can also see how she painted the letters from her name in English: FAITH

This last week Faith started learning the letter:  ج

Each of the Arabic letters looks a little different depending on if it's at the beginning, middle, or end of a word.

I wrote the different forms of the letter on the whiteboard for her in red.

Joseph has learned how to write his name in Arabic and we're extra proud of him!!

Great job, Joseph!!!