Mi familia nueva y Monteverde

Este pasado Domingo I met mi familia tica nueva. There is a mom, dad and 2 1/2 year old boy.


They are all really nice, but I feel like I don't get to spend much time with them :/ 
Monteverde is beautiful and all of the people are friendly, but its a lot more spread out than Heredia!


We visited the local primary school, Santa Elena Primary School twice this week, teaching a few lessons about the rain forest as well as observing.
I really enjoyed spending time with the children there. The atmosphere at this school, as well as the primary school in Heredia, is a lot more laid back. Students are given more responsibility for their own learning and behavior. Por ejemplo, they are expected to bring their homework in every day but there is no consequence if they do not. There are also not as many regulations for them during their break time as we have in the U.S. Students are allowed to mingle around the school, eating snack and playing with whoever. From what I observed there is no behavior management system in place, students are just expected to do the right thing and are occasionally called down if they are being disruptive. 
My biggest take away from the school visit is that kids are kids wherever they are, no matter what language they speak. 


Later in the week we toured El Trapiche (which means sugar mill in Spanish) and got to see how coffee and sugar are made. We saw everything from the plants they grow on to the machinery they use to peel and sort the coffee beans as well as roast them. We learned about the different types of beans and how there can be anywhere from 1 to three beans within a pod. The pods with only one bean are called Peaberries and are the best because they are more concentrated, but are also the most rare. We also got to see how the sugar is extracted from the sugar cane plant, then boiled down to make sugar and we even got to make our own candy!
It was really neat to see some of the luxuries we take for granted (sugar and coffee) growing in their truest form.  
El Trapiche


Language and Literacy Development

So far I have seen many examples of literacy in my home stay. I was pretty surprised by this because my first family did not have much of this. In the little boy's room there are the letters of the alphabet posted up on the wall along with numbers 1-10. They also own a number of children's and adult books, both in English and Spanish. The children's books consist of topics like numbers, colors, vehicles, Disney characters, etc. Within the adult books there is a lot of nonfiction. Books about Costa Rica and laminated pamphlets about every thing in nature in Costa Rica from birds and insects to trees and other animals. The little boy that lives with me loves these booklets; he points to the different animals and tells me their names, sometimes in English and sometimes in Spanish. I can also tell that the parents are making a conscious effort to help the boy develop his language skills. Sometimes it is difficult for me to determine what he is saying because one, he is a 2 year old and still has difficulty forming all of his words and two, I do not know the language well enough to distinguish what he is saying. There is a lot of verbal communication between the mom and child and it is obvious that his mom is trying to teach him the correct way to pronounce certain words as she corrects him and models the appropriate way to say things.


I would like to find out what kind of support systems there are for parents to help teach their children literacy here. As the required age of beginning school is not until 7 years old, how do parents teach their children until then?

La semana pasada...

Wow the week has really flown by! 

We visited La Paz Waterfall Gardens, the Poas Volcano, a coffee plantation, Ecovillas and spent a week with our first Tico families. We also visited a local primary school and a community founded by Nicaraguan immigrants called La Carpio. 

Just one of the many edible plants at Ecovillas

Visiting the Ecovillas was very interesting. It was great to see a community of people growing their own food and taking an interest in the well-being of our environment. Steven Brooks, the founder of Ecovillas, showed us many plants and trees that produce food from various fruits and herbs to leaves for salad. While this group takes sustainability to a bit of an extreme, this is a concept I have a lot in common with. I was raised to always think about how my actions effect others as well as the environment, therefore I take pride in protecting and conserving our world. I love the idea of growing your own food and not having to depend on a store for survival, but am not sure I would be willing to move to Costa Rica for it. :)
Ecovillas - Tico Times  Ecovillas


La Carpio was a great experience. It was really sad to see the children, and all of the people, living in these conditions. There was garbage in the street, dirt floors and more.  At the same time though it was inspiring to hear how much progress they have made. How people were working hard and trying to better their quality of life. It was also great to hear Gale's story (the founder of the Humanitarian Foundation) and what she has done to help these people; trying to educate them about things like health, hygiene, and cleanliness, things that we often take for granted in the United States. Being able to have a warm shower with clean water, having medicine and a warm bed when we are sick, even having food to eat. It was great to have the opportunity to spend time with some of the children of this town and see that despite everything they do not have, they are still able to find happiness and joy in their lives. It made me realize how much stuff we have in the US and how we really don't need any of it to be happy. I would love to do something to help these people, raise money or supplies to donate... 
CRHF La Carpio


I loved the primary school visit and wish we could have spent more time there. All of the kids were really nice and seemed to enjoy having us there. We read books to the students both in English and Spanish, had them draw pictures of their favorite animal and write four sentences about why it is their favorite.


On the weekend we visited the beach at Manuel Antonio and explored the surrounding rainforest. We saw many animals from frogs and lizards to monkeys, sloths, and even a white tailed deer. 
On Friday we attended a dance held by the community church. This was really neat to experience because it was truly a community event. Many families were there with their parents, children, grandparents, brothers and sisters. It was great to see everyone come together like this and partake in a cultural experience. It really made me realize that we don't really have anything like this in the US, something that brings people of all ages together. What do we have that defines our culture?  I am sad I had to leave my first family. I really enjoyed spending time with them and finding out more about their culture. It was interesting how much of the family lived close together. Por ejemplo, in my house in Heredia there was the mom and her two daughters living in one house, along with their husbands and children. Also in an apartment above this house lived my mama tica's son and his family. She has one more daughter that lives just a short way down the road. It was neat to see the family so close and such an integral part of each others lives. 


Last night I met my new family for the next 2 weeks. They seem really nice and have a 2 and a half year old boy. I am really looking forward to getting to know them and experiencing a different part of Costa Rican culture. 


Language and Literacy Development in Costa Rica:
While in Costa Rica I will be completing a project on language and literacy development in this country. I have started by gathering information about the culture in general and forming my questions for my study.

• I want to know what role the parents here play in their children's education, especially before and during preschool. 
• Does my child (Tico brother) enjoy reading/ listening to stories? 
• Does my family have a lot of books in their house? 
• Are there a lot of books in the school libraries? 
• Is there a lot of verbal communication between the child and parents? 

I will be forming more questions as I find out more about my family and the culture. 
An obvious limitation that I will have with my project is the language barrier.

Dia dos :)

I'm so excited to meet mi familia mañana, but a little nervous tambien. The waterfall gardens were amazing today; birds, butterflies, frogs, snakes, and cats oh my! From all the excitement, walking and elevation were were exhausted by the time we reached the shuttle back. The bathrooms at La Paz were definitely a highlight with waterfalls for sinks and mosaic floors. It has been great practicing my Spanish so far and the ticos have been muy simpatico. I find it getting easier with each new person we encounter. All of the food we have had has been delicious and every dish has been different. We found out that every "town" has 5 basic thing: a school, a church, a soccer field, a store of some type, and a bar; the first 3 being the most important :) I am really looking forward to meeting my family and am excited to learn all that I can about them and their way of life. I am excited to eat with them and find out what dishes are more traditional in their household. I am expecting them to be very welcoming and am curious about how much English they know. Tomorrow we will visit the Poas volcano and CPI, ending the day with dinner with our new families :) can't wait!

Almost Ready!

Almost finished packing!
I'm so excited to be in Costa Rica in 2 days!


I am most excited to be living with host families as I believe this will provide us with the most authentic experience of Costa Rican culture possible. 
While I am there I plan to study the language and literacy development of the children I am living with, accompanying them to school and observing them at home. I'm curious to see how much English the children know, if any. I am a little nervous about the language barrier and how much my families and I will be able to understand one another. 
Through my time in Costa Rica I hope to gain a better understanding of what English language learners experience here in the U.S. and apply this knowledge to my future teaching practices. 


I have never been on a trip like this and am just looking forward to soaking up the Costa Rican culture!