Dylan's First Days of School

In England, children attend school full-time, five days a week during the school year they turn five.  So basically, 4-year olds start what they call "reception" which is similar to our "kindergarten".  Dylan was attending preschool in Aiken 4 days a week.  That was 9:00-12:00.  Now he will be going to school Monday through Friday from 8:50-3:10.  He is ready for it, but I am not sure I am ready for him to be such a big boy already.

We visited Dylan's school last week.  The "head teacher" (principal) was very welcoming, and she showed us around every room in the school.  Dylan was eager to see everything.  He did not act shy at all.  His class was in music at the time, so we just talked to his teacher briefly.  She was very sweet to him, and she told him she had a special helper picked out to show him around for the first week. 

Here are a few of the differences we noticed about schools here:

• Most schools are FREE, including Catholic schools.  Dylan is attending St. Peter's, which is a "public" school under the Church of England, so it is Christian based. 
• All schools here use UNIFORMS, which I love already! 
• Parents drop off and pick up children every day.  Many of them walk, but I will have to drive.  It's only about a 3-4 minute drive through neighborhood streets, but it would be a long walk. 
• Class SIZES are big.  Dylan's class has 23 students.  He came from a class of 13 students in SC.
• Most schools have a KITCHEN where the students have a cooking class once a week.
• They go OUTSIDE a few times every day, even in the cold and damp weather.  There is a covered play area just outside of Dylan's classroom.  He'll have to adjust to the cold weather!
• They begin learning FRENCH at 4 & 5 years old.
• In general, the schools are older buildings which are CROWDED and full of curriculum materials and working areas in every hallway and open space. 
• I haven't seen a great deal of CURRICULUM yet, but from the class newsletter, it appears that Dylan will be covering material that would be expected of a kindergarten student in the U.S.

We worked SO hard to get the kids to bed at a decent time so Dylan would be rested and ready for school.  I believe it was at least 9:30 p.m. before they fell asleep.  When I went to wake them in the morning, this is what I saw.  Sure makes it hard to wake them up when they look so sweet like this, especially after struggling to get them to sleep!

They did wake up nicely for me.  Dylan was excited to start school on Monday.  He wanted to stay all day, but the head teacher suggested we start with a half day.  He went right into his class, sat down on the rug with the other children and turned around to wave to me.  Easy as that!  When I picked him up at noon, the first thing he said was, "Mom, can I stay all day tomorrow?"  So he enjoyed his first day, which told me he felt comfortable there.  We went and got a treat to celebrate how brave he was on his first day.  We also picked up some Lunchables for him to take for lunch.  I know, not the healthiest lunch, but easy for me while we are still at the bed and breakfast.  Yes, he could purchase lunch at school, but we do not recognize half of the food on the menu.  I'll get into the food here in a future post.

Dylan was exhausted Tuesday morning, so I let him sleep a little more and took him to school at 10:00 a.m.  He was a happy camper and so excited about staying for lunch.  He had another successful day today from 9:40-3:10.  We are getting there.  He has made a few friends, and he keeps telling us about playing outside and playing hockey in the gym.  I asked if he did any work, and he said no.  Such a typical response from a young boy.  Then he remembered doing numbers on his own white board with a marker.  He also told me about a book he is working on about a bumblebee.  They are doing teddy bears this week.  He was supposed to bring in a teddy bear, but since our things have not arrived yet, he brought in Rex the dinosaur from Toy Story. :)  He also came home with an easy reader book and a reading log in his bag.  It looks like they send it back and forth every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  The teachers and parents write comments about how he does reading the books.  I am anxious to see how he does with this reading system.

I will post a new picture of him in his uniform when his logo sweatshirt arrives.  He has black "trousers", a white collared shirt, dark school shoes and he will have the purple sweatshirt with the gold logo.  CBC colors for all of you St. Louis people!

On another note, our shipment has arrived in London, cleared customs and will be delivered to our house on Friday! Too bad Eric doesn't get Monday off for MLK. :)

Thank you for all of your continued e-mails, facebook notes, and calls!  This week is going much better for all of us.  We are trying to Skype when we have time in the evenings.  The highlight of my weekend was doing Skype with my adorable niece, Lily.  She showed off her new trick...her Miss America wave!  It was the cutest thing ever!  She was really looking at us on the computer, smiling and waving to us!  We miss you all so very much!