We have had a very adventurous experience this school year. Our activities and learning have been both fulfilling and surprising. Our time spent in Italy has given us a wealth of learning that is difficult to quantify. Recently I was required to write a year-end summary on each child’s progress. It is a bit boring and doesn’t read exactly like a letter, but I thought that I would combine all the kids’ experiences into one document to share on our blog-spot since it is a good way for me to journal. For those of you who can’t stand long, lengthy explanations, I have omitted much of the boring studies like math and science, and I give you permission to just skip the journaling and go straight to the pictures! Sorry, it’s really long! Enjoy! (I hope!) -Denise
In Italy we found that our biggest obstacle to overcoming the cultural barrier was that we did not speak the language. This has halted our schooling on many levels and we decided as a family that the best course of action would be to put off many of the original field trips and goals we had made in our learning plans until we could master the language. Unlike northern Italy, the people in Naples speak hardly any English. There are few adults who understand English and although the children learn English in school, their ability to speak it was no better then our ability to speak Italian when we first arrived. Our ability to read and understand the historical sites was also limited since only some sites had English narration and an English guided tour was always expensive. The solution required a new coarse of action. In addition to the Italian courses that we have already purchased and continue to study, we felt it necessary to hire three different tutors. Firstly, Roberta has come to our home in the evenings two times a week. The entire family participates in learning the Italian language with her. Her tutoring consists of conjugating verbs and learning vocabulary, and specifically deals with language skills, helping us to communicate with each other in Italian. She is a great addition to our Rosetta Stone and Instant Immersion CD’s and other workbooks. She is very helpful with the pronunciation and accent. Secondly, our good friend from church, Anna Maria has been tutoring Peter, Nicole, and Rachel with their Italian school curriculum. Thirdly, and as required by the school director, Allesia has been attending some of Jessica’s classes at school three times a week and tutoring her about once a week in her home.
Anna Maria has been tutoring Rachel by simply speaking to her as much as possible, first in Italian and then in English. She also reads stories to her in Italian. Rachel enjoys cooking Italian food with Anna Maria. (And we have enjoyed eating it!) We have tried to incorporate games and activities with Anna Maria to help encourage Rachel’s love of learning and to train her ear to the language. Because of her young age, she has a perfect accent! Her pronunciation is better then anyone else in the family! We have enrolled her into the local Italian pre-school. Here she has only Italian speaking friends and teachers. Her teachers have been amazed at her ability to cope in school. Only on the first day did she shed any tears. She is always happy, has made quite a few friends, loves to try the new food, and follows the others’ examples when she needs to follow directions. She has been able to progress well enough to communicate when necessary and can understand a basic idea of what her teachers are teaching. She has memorized lots of poems and songs, knows her alphabet in Italian, and can understa
nd a lot of what the other children have to say to her, even though she still doesn’t have the ability to answer them verbally. Rachel is learning the language by immersion and repetition, not by translating. She is young enough that it is just a natural expansion of her vocabulary. She comes home repeating lots of different phrases used by both friends and teachers. We are really proud of her progress! She tells us that she can’t understand Italian, but frequently corrects our verb tenses and pronunciation! She sometimes gives her mother commands in Italian just for fun because her mother doesn’t understand them. She will probably be fluent faster then anyone. [She told me just today that she asked her friend to come to her house. Her friend didn’t want to and so then she asked if she could come to her friend’s house. This her friend agreed to. I asked her how she said all that, and she answered, “in Italian,” and then repeated the Italian phrases she had used.] She has shown a great amount of self-mastery in exploring her world. We will continue to strive to have as much social interaction as possible with other Italian children through the summer for Rachel. Rachel has good letter recognition and an understanding of phonics. She can read and write her letters in English and has also been reading some basic three letter words as well as some sight words. In addition, she knows her alphabet in Italian and the difference between the pronunciation of vowels and consonants in the two languages. We have become aware that the Italian language is easier for the children to read then English because it is phonetic so we will continue to emphasize the English language and reading so that she stays proficient in both languages.
Anna Maria has been tutoring Nicole with her Italian curriculum on the 3rd grade level. Nicole spends the first half of her day in Italian school learning solely in Italian with no English spoken at all. She is doing a very good job of figuring things out all on her own. None of her teachers speak any English nor do her friends. Her teachers believe Nicole capable
of understanding the Italian language without translating into English, and by simply learning through repetition similar to Rachel. Nicole has spent much of her school time reading short stories and fables and summarizing the story on paper. Anna Maria is instrumental in helping Nicole translate her own words into Italian for her summaries; however, she does not translate word for word. She takes notes while Nicole summarizes out loud, then gives Nicole a finished copy in Italian to copy into her notebook for her teacher at school. At first I thought this sounded like cheating, but it is part of the immersion learning process. Nicole has proven to her teacher that she is very bright and has the patience to endure the confusion and stick with her work. She has the ability to listen and follow directions even when she doesn’t understand all the words. She also loves to read out loud in class. Nicole tells me that she is the 2nd best reader in the class! She has enjoyed many hours of writing in Italian. She has had to learn the Italian cursive in order to do so. Her attention span has been surprisingly lengthy! She has studied Italian grammar and its English counterparts of concrete and abstract nouns, adjectives, and articles (important in Italian because they change according to whether the noun is masculine, feminine, singular or plural). Nicole has also studied the parts of a story and the different types of characters and settings. Nicole is beginning to understand more and more as she applies herself. She doesn’t always understand what she is learning, but her tutor believes that she will progress in the language very quickly because of her young age and bright intellect.
Anna Maria has been tutoring Peter with an Italian curriculum on the 5th grade level. His experiences have been similar to Nicole’s only his courses require a much larger Italian vocabulary that has resulted in a lot of slow progress in each particular subject, but greater progress in the language. Peter spends a lot of time translating his Italian into English and answering the questions. Anna Maria then helps him to re-translate his answers back into Italian. His teachers
at school are much more concerned with him keeping up with the rest of the class, and have been translating things into English for him whenever possible. This may prove to be a disadvantage to him. He has been very motivated to use the Rosetta Stone program so that he can talk to his friends better. Peter has been able to progress through 20 lessons in the past 3 ½ months. He feels that his comprehension is about 40% and has a limited vocabulary which he can use to talk with his friends and be understood. He is still working on overcoming his shyness in speaking though! Peter has been very popular with the other kids who are always curious and admire Americans. He is probably the most popular kid at school and this may be the best motivator for him! Peter continues to read many English books here at home for both pleasure and for information. He always reads a lot and loves it! He is also able to read in Italian very well and understands all the rules of pronunciation. His teacher reports that he can read better then a lot of the Italian kids do! In his book, “Exercizario di lingua Italiana” (Exercise book for Italian Grammer) he has learned grammar such as proper and improper nouns, subject and predicate, direct object and indirect object. He has successfully created a blog-spot on the internet and periodically updates it. He frequently is asked to read and summarize in Italian. He has also written some poems in both English and Italian and continues to write in his journal. He also has an Italian workbook, “Antologia” (creative writing) and has learned about descriptive writing, letters, informative writing, science fiction, fables, and folklore of Naples and Italy.
Jessica’s tutor, Allesia is a college-age student who studied high school at the international school and speaks English very well. She is also the older sister of one of Jessica’s friends in the class. She is a great help to Jessica in her studies, and attends some classes with her as well as helping her out when needed at her home. Instead of putting Jessica into the 9th grade like she would be at home, we opted to place her into the last grade of middle school here, (8th grade). We felt this would be wise for her because of the language, and we wanted her to be able to experience a full curriculum before entering the high school here, where they branch off into different specialties. We feel that it was a wise choice especially after discovering how much more advanced the Italian system is compared to our American school system. She has made wonderful progress and her study time has skyrocketed. Jessica has really put her nose to the grindstone, studying sometimes up to 12 hours a day in an effort to understand her assignments. She has been required to understand some extensive vocabulary and has spent countless hours trying to translate and understand her readings in Italian. In the beginning, it would take her hours to translate only one paragraph, but she can see great improvement in only the
few short months she has studied. She is looking up far less words in the dictionary now.
Because of her perseverance, she has been able to learn new things beyond just the Italian language. She has had to play “catch up,” especially in Math! The kids here start Geometry in 5th grade, and Algebra shortly there after! Jessica’s comprehension level is close to 90% of what she hears and she has a growing vocabulary which she can use to talk with her friends and be understood. She chats on-line in Italian after school, and Jessica’s mother depends on her to be the translator for the family when her father is not at home! One big success story for Jessica was studying WWII. This was an extensive unit that was very in-depth. She spent hours and hours studying for the final test. Her teachers had given her a shortened written test in Italian, but she was able to take her test, and then ask the teacher for more questions. Her teacher allowed her to take the rest of the test and she scored a “Bouno!” (Good). She missed only two questions. Jessica has also kept up her English writing skills by continuing with her short stories and novels and poems and she has also kept a daily journal.
Our family has been studying lots of history. We have learned about ancient Italy (the Greeks and the Roman era) and we have been able to visit the nearby ancient Cumae ruins which house a temple to Apollo. The ruins were settled by the Greeks even before the city of Naples, and is one of the earliest of local sites founded probably in the 8th century BC. Our house overlooks the hills of these ruins. We have also seen a lot of the innumerable Roman ruins throughout the city, which we drive by daily, but we haven’t been able to study them in depth yet. There is an abundance of history to be studied here, and we haven’t even been able to scratch the surface. Peter was able to visit the ancient city of Herculaneum with his friends. Herculaneum was the neighboring city to Pompeii who’s existence was brought to a halt in AD 79, with the eruption of Vesuvius.
We have learned about the local Napolitan culture including many of the fables and songs in Napolitan dialect. “Dialect” is the local language of Naples and is totally different then Italian. The locals here are very proud of their heritage and still use the language often and use it in many theatrical interpretations. Peter has been able to participate in some of these productions and has even been seen on Italian television.
In his book, “Convivenza Civile” Peter has studied good citizenship and environmental issues. The garbage is a huge problem in Naples and we have witnessed first hand garbage burning protests right by our home which shut down all traffic in and out of the area. The teachers in school are now starting to impress upon the children in all grades the need to recycle. Peter’s class especially stresses the social studies and field trips. He has learned intercultural studies and racism, has studied holidays around the world, famine and overabundance, vaccination, clean water, fire safety, the food pyramid, health at the beach, and survival in the mountains. He has also learned about world organizations such as the World Wildlife Federation and UNICEF.
During the month of May, many of the museums and sites are open free of charge to the public and we plan to take advantage of this to do a lot of site seeing. We are also planning a trip to Rome and other sites, with our cousin who will be arriving in May. We have also learned an amazing amount about the Italian culture from everyday life, from their passionate ability to discuss things in loud voices, to their eating habits and daily schedu
le that is so different from ours. We have learned more about this culture then could possibly be written unless we were to write a book. The children have all had so much fun learning the ways of the Italians and how to fit in. The culture is very affectionate with lots of kissing
and hand holding between friends. Jessica’s friends especially do lots of this! Even Rachel is understanding the differences in appropriate behavior according to each culture. She is fascinated to learn new things about Italians, and has learned that the Italians are extremely protective and concerned about children. (At the same time, they absolutely love any childhood antics and spoil them rotten with anything they want.) Rachel understands that she needs to dress warmly and is careful to select her dress appropriately so that her teachers don’t “freak out” (in her own words). She also understands that taking her shoes off is completely unacceptable in the Italian culture (because your feet will get cold and you might step on something that would hurt you.) This has been difficult for all of them, especially Jessica! We are all learning a lot, and it has been a pleasure for us to be so well accepted by the community.
The hands-on art classes in Colorado with Terrie Watts were a pleasure for all of the children. They loved this class. Rachel continues to do many art projects and is progressing in her small motor skills. She is getting better at drawing by mimicking her older sister, Nicole. She has recently learned to draw horses. Nicole continues to fill her album with spectacular horses and has begun to add other animals. The girls her age love to draw fancy Italian dresses (imagine that!) She has a collection of dresses drawn by her friends and has taken up the hobby herself now! We haven’t been able to do very much study of the art history like we planned to. However, we have been able to appreciate gazing at the many architectural wonders, marble statues, frescos, mosaics, etc. They are beautiful! We are looking forward to our tip to Rome to see the Sistine Chapel in two weeks!
Rachel was able to learn to ski at Powderhorn resort, along with her siblings. We weren’t able to spend our entire winter on the slopes as was originally planned, but the short time we had was great fun! Nicole’s teacher was able to spend two days on the slopes with her and he said she picked up right where she had left off last year. She learned some new skills such as side sliding, and skiing backwards. We all look forward to it again in the future, perhaps in the Italian or French Alps! We have also started a regular exercise program coached by dad made up of calisthenics. This has been inspired by all the good Italian cooking! Rachel runs laps around our house with her mom, and Peter and Jessica have also gotten in some running with mom. Mom needs all the encouragement she can get! We have also been able to do a little bit of hiking with an outdoor adventure club that is well established here.
All of the children have enjoyed studying music by singing a lot of Italian songs in church and at school. Jessica joined a choir at school and sang a lot of gospel music in Italian. The kids have all dabbled with the piano and Peter has joined Jessica in learning the guitar. Jessica has even composed a few songs on the guitar.
Our studies this school year would definitely be defined as thinking “out of the box”! The kids’ active learning time at home and in the community has greatly increased. We consider their academics and the learning which doesn’t show up on a test to be of great value, even though some of the learning has been slow and painful. We look forward to even greater progress again next year!
