Back to School!

(and Happy Birthday!)

LaValley Family
March 29, 2025

We started School!

This is why the newsletter is so late. Our new schedule has been very busy.

The name of the school is Nova Geração (New Generation). It is a Christian school with grades from pre-k to 9th grade. It is a small school, with only one class in each grade. Each class only has around 10-12 students. We found the school because some of our friends in our apartment building go there.

I really like the school. In the first three hours at school, during lunch, 7th, 8th, and 9th graders were coming up to me to meet me. I am now the most popular kid at school. A kid in my class is from England and is fluent in Portuguese and English, so he translates for me sometimes. His English sounds like American English though so I can easily understand him. Also, the school days only last until 12:00pm.

My teacher is very strict, and I have too much homework. All the girls in my class are very friendly. But my friend who lives in our building is in 3rd grade. I get to play with my friends during lunch and PE. They have a no-phone policy at the school but the director of the school made an exception for us. So I get to use my phone to translate my work during class. Also, I love the gym class.

I like school and I play with my friends. I don’t understand what they talk about, but I know how to say bathroom: “BANHEIRO.”

Top 3 Moments

Everyone pretty much had the same top 3 moments this month.

1. Starting school.

2. Naomi’s birthday party.

My birthday party was so much fun. I turned 10 years old. I had three friends who live here in our apartments, and two friends from gymnastics. We had a pool party with pizza.

3. Going to the beach in Barra Velha again.

Culture

Southern Brazil barely celebrates Carnaval. It wasn’t even a holiday for them until a couple years ago.

DIY motorcycles: we have seen a lot of people here in Brazil that have attached a leaf blower or weed-wacker motor to their bicycles so they can go faster!

Vocabulary & Phrases

Since us kids are starting school, we are going to teach you how to say each common subject for school.

School - Escola (Eh-sko-la)

Math - matematica (mat-ay-ma-chi-ka)

Language Arts - Artes da linguagem (Art-ches-da-lean-gwa-gem)

Science - Ciencias (see-en-see-us)

History - Historia (ee-store-ee-uh)

Physical Education - educação física (ed-ju-ca-souw fee-see-ca)

Interesting Facts

Our school was started by an American missionary 30 years ago!

Opinions: Not Top “3” Moments

Lollipop tooth removal. My (Caleb) tooth literally got yanked out by this lollipop. Our dentist said this was the first time in his 24 years he’s ever seen this happen!
One of my baby teeth that had a crown on it. The entire tooth came out, not just the crown.
Brazilian hospital. Jojo got sick and recovered, but she must have given it to me (Caleb). I got so sick and dehydrated that finally in the morning my dad took me to the emergency room. Everyone there (even random people) was very helpful to us. I was there for almost 8 hours, and they gave me two IVs and took a blood sample. The grape juice they gave me tasted like it was from heaven. It took me several days to fully recover. I even lost 5 pounds.
Joinville baptism. My dad was riding his bike home and got caught in a rainstorm.
Curitiba hotel. This went from bad to acceptable, to terrible. The hotel had a great lobby and an ok pool. The room they put us in looked like it was 30 years old and had a terrible smell coming from the bathroom. My dad went and talked to the front desk, and they moved us to a new room. The new room didn’t look much better, but at least it didn’t stink. We went to eat at a mall next to the hotel, and it was pretty cool. We went back to the hotel and went swimming. The pool was on the roof, so the view was really cool. When we got back from church that night, the TV in our room was on. That was weird. When we woke up in the morning, the AC unit in the room started leaking during the night, and there was water all over the floor and my mom’s bag. My dad had to use four towels to clean up all the water. What is crazy is that the Front Desk didn’t even act surprised when my dad told them about these issues. They never even apologized. We got outta there as soon as we could.