School Ends, School Starts

The kids finished preschool and kindergarten in Seattle in June.

Mr. Nobes charmed his teachers everyday with his sweet, calm personality and winning smile. He is such an amiable kid (when he is at school). This is the only picture I got of him at graduation; the rest were videos of the kids singing adorable songs. One was some kind of chant about the bible? "B-I-B-L-E the bible is the book for me!" Cracked me up.  Their graduation theme was Mexican fiesta and we had a delicious pot luck feast afterward. Teacher Joan and Teacher Bonnie will be greatly missed! They are some of the sweetest, kindest ladies ever.
It was a remarkable year in kindergarten for Sienna. Although I loathe all the graduation fanfare for small people our society engages in, I realized it's kind of cute when it's your own kid. I tried to check my bad attitude at the door and just enjoy the spectacle. Let us try and forget that Noah spilled his dinner of Cheez-It party mix all over the floor before the show even started. Party on.

 

But seriously, I think this girl is ready for high school. She learned so much this year, I was practically watched the brain wrinkles settle in with my own eyes. (Kind of a gross image.) Here she is with her darling friend Simone. I was grateful she had a great little group of friends in her class. That always makes going to school so much more enjoyable.

Her teachers Mrs. Heindl and Ms. M are heros. They brought their A-game everyday. It was astonishing to watch them work their magic on these impressionable little humans. Not only did the kids learn plenty of school subjects, they also learned about being good citizens and humans. It gave me some serious school pride. Go Eagles!

When we arrived in Luxembourg and registered for school on June 24, we thought we were registering for the next school year. We were informed that the kids would be expected to be in school for the time remaining this year. We've heard stories about people being jailed for not putting their kids in school here? No such thing as home school, apparently. So, we were not asked, we were told. School was slated to end July 15 so the kids started going last Monday, June 29 and have finished their first week as of today! Hooray! Eight days left to go!

It started out fine. By yesterday, though, Noah was breaking down. I left him kicking and screaming in his teacher's arms and this morning he was crying upon arrival, but more resigned to his fate. I am not looking forward to the remaining eight days. The tough drop-off is made worse by the fact that I have to do it twice a day on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, when I have to bring the kids home for lunch then take them back for more school in the afternoon. What kid wants to go back to school after a two hour lunch at home? We are doing our best. Noah has to get used to it since this will be his schedule next year. It makes me a little sad not to give him one more year of really chill preschool, but I know he can rise to the occasion. By next year he'll be speaking Luxembourgish better than all of us.

Here's Noah's preschool. He will not attend here next year, he'll be in kindergarten.

 He'll be here, where Sienna is now. And I believe Sienna will still be here, too.

 Our dearest little brave girl in front of her school. She has been a trooper so far. And she's losing her front two teeth this week (lost the first last night and the second one is hanging by a gum thread - ew, another gross image). She is doing so well with changes upon changes upon changes.

 This is another school on campus, it houses the cafeteria and older kids.

Here's another school on campus. I'm not sure who goes here, but there's a fun little playground in front that we've enjoyed a few times.