ESL and the internationally adopted child

So, your child is going to school. Does he or she understand English? Language acquasition for fluency takes 5-7 years. There are dependant factors; how old the child is when introduced to the new language, are they becoming bilingual (maintaining first language take more effort and so new language aquasition takes longer), how old the child was upon starting to learn the new language, etc....
ELL departments are set up for kids who live in a bilingual world. There are different challenges for kids who do not. Here is an excellent article that addresses the ELL in school piece of the puzzle. http://www.adoptionarticlesdirectory.com/Article/Internationally-adopted-post-institutionalized-students-in-an-ESL-class/261

IMPORTANT travel informaion. No Skype use or is it accurate?

This news just out all over the internet. Ethiopia has apparently banned the use of Skype and other voice communication via the Internet. In fact it is a crime and punishable. You will want to take this into account when you are planning your travel.

"The country’s government recently ushered in new legislation that criminalises the use of services such as Skype, Google Talk and other forms of Internet phone calling.
The new law, which came into effect on 24 May, makes use of Internet voice services punishable by hefty fines and up to 15 years in prison."

Read the whole report, here are the articles:
http://ethioandinet.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/ethiopia-criminalises-skype/
http://www.techcentral.co.za/ethiopia-criminalises-skype/32723/

The BBC on this
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18461292

Despite all the news channels proclaiming that this is real......
Another blog claims that they have investigated this and found it to be exaggerated and not as wide sweeping as believed. I don't know if this is accurate, but it is worth a read. It sounded plausable to me. Check out the news on this Ethiopia blog.  http://danielberhane.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/official-skype-and-similar-activities-are-not-banned-in-ethiopia/
Apparently the final word is not out yet, but you may be able to use Skype after all! Maybe...............

You would be wise to check with your agency and follow their guidelines irregardless. Just to be safe. 

End of school = feelings of abandonment ?

The end of a school session, whether for a short break or summer vacation, can bring a load of feelings to the surface for any child. Some kids are just so glad that school is out they give little thought to what they will miss about it. Summer or any break is the best! Other kids love school and are sad to go for a variety of reasons, missing friends, a good teacher, fear of the unknown of next year, slow adjusters to change, etc. These are all very normal for any child. For an adopted child there may be one added reason to be sad school is over, abandonment. What? Oh, it may not be the case for every kid, nor even the majority, but for some, this is as real as school itself.
I recently had the opportunity to sort this out with one of my own, trying to put myself in his shoes for a while. Imagine that you once lived with a loving family who (for whatever reason is apt to your child) sent them to a facility with a lot of children and a few grown ups (orphanage but also school), you now have grief which translates into fear of going to school at all, anxiety and nervous energy with no real good outlet. Oh, no you say, my child asked to go to school, he loves it. Yep, so did mine, sometimes it works, other times, not so well. That desire came from the hopes and dreams painted for them by those adults in Ethiopia. When you go to America you will go to school, lucky child! Or maybe from seeing older kids go and the natural desire to be like older siblings. This often translates into some anxiety that seems to stem from no where. Abandonment. Ok, so we get to the end of the year, our child understands his permanence in our family, no longer worried about school. Just in time, school is out and he crashes in a heap of tears and sadness. What? Is this attachment? Does he love is teacher more than mom? Is he just overly sensitive to change, etc? Well, maybe yes, but more likely no. Abandonment. Yep, remember he once lived at a place full of kids and a few grown ups. Then it was his turn to go with his forever family, leaving what he had finally somewhat adjusted to and he never saw any of them again.............. subconscious abandonment, will this happen this time too? No, not this time. But, what if you move? This child could relive his trauma again and will need you to explain that it is ok to grieve, ok to feel sad, to cry and say what he is afraid of. You can remind him that in the midst of change that is every so hard, good still comes. Look for it and be glad when it comes. Love lives in your heart forever even when you are not with those who you love.
Ok, so your child has been home a year or two and this has not come up. So, we are all good, home free, right? Maybe. Maybe not. This happened for our little one, for the first time, after four years home. You never know when those old feelings and scars will pop back up to stir things up. You never know, be prepared, eyes wide open. Talk openly when/if they come up and  things settle a lot faster. No, I don't think it is feeding them ideas, I think it is giving words to feelings that are buried so deep they are like a big cloud of confusion. Name it, talk about it, it becomes manageable.

Adoptive Families on line magazine

Adoptive Families is a really great web magazine. I want to share it with you in hopes that you will find it useful. Go ahead and subscribe for yourself. This month find articles on Doctors, life books, attachment, racism, to name a few. Check it out for yourself.