International Student starts school

   It has been 2 full months of having a 15 year old International student in our home.  The first month was filled with Google translator and sign language to communicate.  He has done really well with learning how to communicate with us.
  The second month began the start of school.  Now luckily, we send our kids (and new international student) to a private school that focuses on International students.  So he was not the only Chinese speaking boy in a school full of English kids.  He had people he could communicate with.  So how is school going for him?  Not well.
   While he has learned the routines of our household, even learned to predict what I will say so he can translate it in his head.  He has not adjusted to school life very well.  I saw him sitting with another Chinese boy on the first day and I asked him if he made a friend.  He didn't know the boys name so I told him to introduce himself the next day and make a friend.  (It has been 3 weeks and he still doesn't know that kids name.)  Now onto classes.
   He is shuffling around to the 7 periods he was assigned, He got that part down, which classroom to go to when the bell rings.  But he doesn't bring home very much homework, I think because he doesn't understand what the teachers are saying so he misses big gaps.  The only homework I have helped him on is Spelling.  He brought home his first spelling list and it was words like.  Immeasurable, Improbable, Impoverished.  WHAT?  Those are the kind of words that a 1st year English student is assigned?  Well my son (who is in the same grade and same class) brought home the same list.  It began to make sense.  10th grade Spelling words, no adjustment for non-English speakers.  So I helped him learn how to spell them, he still failed the first quiz.
    Week 2 spelling words (I before E except after C rules).  Really?  Although these words were easier to spell, they were almost more confusing.   Receive and Receipt spelled with and EI while Grieve and Achieve are spelled IE.  Then we got to the word Beige, this does not follow the rule so how will he learn to put it into a category?  I couldn't even begin to explain to him the word Beige, I gave up and told him to just learn to spell it.  As the Host Family for this student, I made him learn how to spell it rather than learn the meaning, if this 15 year old boy ever needs to describe that color, I give him full permission to just say TAN!