A Little Boredom

My sister came on Tuesday to go ice skating with us and then left Wednesday morning taking Michaela with her.  Natasha seemed a little bit better after they left, we're wondering if she was jealous that Michaela took Hailey's attention from her. The older girls tried to include Natasha, but since most of what girls do together involves talking, it's kind of tough to include someone who doesn't speak English.  Natasha is learning pretty well, but not the level needed to keep up with whatever it is that teenage girls chat about.

She is picking up English rapidly.  I'm a bit disappointed that she hasn't used the Pimsleur ESL program I gave her (except when we're in the car and I turn it on) but she does understand a lot of what is said around the house.  We can pretty much function in the house without the translator app now but for anything without contextual clues we need the app.

After Tracey left yesterday we spent the day catching up on things.  Hailey was working on Chemistry most of the day, Marine was catching up with real estate clients from the holidays and I was working on preparations for our new listings.  That left Natasha aimlessly wandering the house complaining that she was bored (internet is banned for the moment).

Boredom is often an issue for new foster kids (or Ukrainian orphans). They've always had very structured days in an institutional setting, or they've just been left with unlimited TV & internet access. We're the types who think it's important and healthy for kids to have down time in which to read, play or create things and just learn how to entertain themselves sometimes.  In the end it always works out well and it's amazing how resourceful and creative kids become.  But in the beginning there's a bit of an adjustment.  She has tons of crafts which we gave her for Christmas so wasn't without possibilities but she spent most of the day wandering.

She did help make dinner, we had a sushi night and I wasn't sure how that would go over but she loved it! Then as little kids were heading for bed Natasha discovered the guinea pig. She and Hailey were up until after midnight playing with it and didn't quite understand why I wouldn't let it sleep with them.