The School Year Begins

The kids started school on Monday August 23rd.  They were all very eager and excited
to start something new.  They all looked so cute in their uniforms, and we headed out
to meet the bus. The bus stop is only about a 5 minute walk, up from our apartment, on
the closet busy road.  The bus is very round and yellow, I think Danielle termed it the
Yellow Submarine!  Their is a driver and also an adult attendant that comes out and
gathers up the children.  The windows are very large which is nice for seeing the kids
inside as the load onto the bus.  They are the last stop on the way to school, and the
first drop off on the way home, which makes it only about a 10 minute ride for them.

The kids have enjoying meeting some new friends at school, and like their unique names,
and then try to remember where everyone is from.  The teachers and staff at the school
are also from all over the world.  Kendall said it is hard when there is spelling tests, because
with her teachers accent it is hard to know exactly what word she is asking for! 

We will have a parent -teacher conference already this Friday.  It is designed for the parents
to tell the teacher everything they need to know about each child.  We have 25 minutes
with each teacher.... seems like a very long time to me.... considering the conferences we
have back home where we cover a lot of information in a 10-15 minute slot.  We'll see how it goes!

There was an assembly the first day of school, which I also attended where some announcements were made
for the new students, as well as singing the school song.  It was neat to see everyone together in the gym.

Next week the PSA will be hosting coffees for the parents and they are seperated into grade levels.
It gives us a chance to meet the other parents of the children in the same grade level as yours.

The kids have also started swimming this week for their gym time.  This will go on for the first 6 weeks of school.  The pool is outside so they need to do this while the weather is still nice. 

The school also offers "Clubs" after school which are a variety of activities and sports.  The only bummer is there is a cap number, and it is on a first come/first serve basis so we have our finger crossed the kids get into the activities they are interested in. 

So far, we are pleased with the school, the location, the size, and the attitudes of our kids when they come home from school :)