I planned to write this post when I had four months until our family's departure for Jyvaskyla but school started for my husband, then my daughters, and then me and by the time I sat down to write, two more weeks had passed! It's hard to believe that Fulbright Orientation was only a month ago or that we will be off to Europe so soon!
There has been an unbelievable amount of behind the scenes paperwork going on in Connecticut as we prepare to leave. I have had to send notarized papers all over the country to get apostilled, a process I had never heard of until I was at the Finnish Consulate trying to apply for Residence Permits for my family. We are waiting on one final piece to come back with the apostille and then we can send everything to the Consulate in Washington, D.C. so then it can be sent to Helsinki. I had my medical check up this week and once the State Department says I'm physically fit (or at least fit enough!) we will be able to book our plane tickets. We are working on finding schools for both of our girls. We initially wanted to throw the girls head first into a Finnish school and hoped they would learn a lot of Finnish very quickly. We thought it would be great for them to have to learn Finnish by interacting with their pers in schools - the sink or swim approach. However, after reconsidering and thinking about how much change we were thrusting on our four and six year old, we have pulled back a little from that idea and have found a different option. There are some English speaking schools that offer bilingual education so they can both continue to do some learning in English but will also learn Finnish. We think this is a more reasonable approach to school for both girls. Talia already knows how to count to five (although she often reverses four and five) and can almost get all the way to ten. She also likes to say "kiitos" (thank you) around the house! Interestingly, Tea is actually still considered a "pre-schooler" in Finland. Students start compulsory education in the fall of the year they turn seven, which is our equivalent of second grade!
Our biggest accomplishment is that we have found a place to live while we are abroad! We will be renting a house from a family that will be traveling for the same six months we are in Finland. It's great to know we have a place to stay and we are feeling very relieved. One of our fears was that we would be living in a two bedroom apartment and that we would spend six months trying to keep our VERY LOUD children quiet. We are thankful that we don't have to worry quite as much about how much noise our girls make!
I haven't had much time to think about my project in the past few weeks. School is back in full swing and it's hard to believe we are only a week and a half into classes. As I work with students getting ready to apply and then transition to college I continue to think about the right path for each one. Will they get the right support they need? Is a university the right path for each one? How can I best prepare my students as a learning specialist now so that when they are in a university setting they can still be successful. I am eagerly looking forward to visiting different schools in Finland to see how they support their students and prepare them for the university and vocational tracks.
