The Calm Before the Storm

It has been a few days since I last blogged because quite honestly things have just been too stressful. Leora is having a very difficult time adjusting to school and hebrew in general. We have tried everything, including spending quite a bit of time with her at gan. The teacher has even called in the school psychologist to give us some words of wisdom. Basically, she was no help and just suggested that we continue coming and spending at least an hour with Leora every day. It is just pushing off the screaming tantrum that is guaranteed to happen. Leora is just so overwhelmed and frightened by all the hebrew around her. She loves to talk and share stories and just finds it impossible because of the language barrier. She is having a difficult time socially, perhaps because she has scared the kids with her temper tantrums. It's a good thing she is not too aware of the other kids not embracing her, but it breaks my heart to see my fun, lovable, energetic girl having such a hard time. David and I keep debating back and forth if maybe we need to switch her gan where the teacher knows a little more english and where she can have a fresh start with the kids. Tomorrow is her birthday, so hopefully the day will be good.
Rivka and Zvi are thank G-d doing so much better. We still get the complaints, but they are much less intense. I am so happy that they now come home with stories about friends they've made and instances where they've used their hebrew. Their teachers call or write notes about their progress and they report such nice things about them. They started private Ulpan lessons this past week and seem to enjoy that. (I'm even learning some new words "aleh" - leaf).
We had a very nice shabbos and maybe that's why I was able to sit down and blog. My friend Adina came for shabbos. She is great with the kids and keeps them entertained with card games. We ate dinner at home and went to friends for lunch. We had a really nice time and got to meet another family who had a son Zvi's age. They really hit it off. Rivka went to David's mom's for shabbos and had an incredible time. She loved the one-on-one attention from Savta and was so happy that she went.
I just got back from a run and the house is so calm and quiet. Everyone is asleep, maybe even David. I don't even want to start thinking about what tomorrow morning will be like, the start of a new school week.