Ultimately, I blame myself for my nearly two-year-old turning more and more Israeli every day. Isn’t that what I always wanted, immigrant-self?
Doesn’t mean it isn’t absolutely terrifying. On a daily basis.
Here’s the latest report from gan:
1. Speaking Hebrew: His chatter is getting better and better every day there. He’s counting to ten (!). The ganenet shows obvious pride when he calls me Ima at the end of the day (“but he understands English right? Ok, that’s good…”).
2. Fighting back: Yesterday the ganenet says to me, “Great news! We are so proud of him… He finally started fighting back when the bigger kids pick on him! He gets so into it… pulling hair, yelling back… Really standing up for himself.” Pride! Only in an Israeli gan… Can’t have a friar son, right?
3. American fashion: Ok, not so Israeli. More like immigrant-chic. But he gets cheers from the teachers for always coming to gan taking fashion seriously. Dressed to impress while the other kids wear pajamas.
“He always looks good…”
“Yeah, we get sent clothes by our parents from chul.”
“Very American. But good for him!”
We’ll see how that changes in a couple years; then #2 will come in handy, won’t it?
As a side note, I’m extremely pleased we put him in a ‘proper’ gan as opposed to a mishpachton. It was the right decision for our kid. He’s the youngest (and smallest) but he’s benefited so much from the year so far. Following the other kids, learning how to talk, getting better at playing with others and independently.
But more than the kid skills, it’s the picking up Hebrew and just local behavior (for better or worse). There’s going to be a lot I can’t teach him, so socializing on a daily basis is giving him the goods. With no siblings (yet) we felt it would be really important for our son-of-immigrants first-born.
Whadya got: