First Day of School (2015-2016)

Today was the official first day of school for Cameron and Harrison! While most Belgian schools started yesterday, the boys were able to go to the school for a few hours yesterday to meet their teachers, see their rooms, and meet the other children in their classes. Cameron was very excited to start another school year, especially after seeing his good friends yesterday. Harrison wasn't quite as sure when we left this morning, but he seemed to be fine when we dropped him off.

Cameron will be in the equivalent of a kindergarten class (upper pre-primary) this year. 

Harrison will be in the equivalent of a preschool class (lower pre-primary) this year. 

The boys wanted to ride their bikes to school this morning.

There are seven kids in Cameron's class right now, mostly five year olds, and he has a new teacher this year, Miss Mia (from Ireland). This year he will start to read, count and recognize numbers 1-100 (although he can already do that for the most part), learn more about addition and subtraction (he can also do this pretty well), and follow IPC theme units. 

Harrison will be in a class with 13 children, two and a half to four years old. He will have the same teacher as he had at the end of last year, Miss Inbal (from Israel). He will have IPC theme units and continue to work on literacy and numeracy, more specifically, recognizing the sounds of each letter and working on numbers 1-20. There will also be plenty of playing and fun in his classroom! Harrison will be one of the oldest kids in his class and one of two returning kids this year, so I think he will have a different role at school than he did last year. Last year he was one of the younger kids and more of a follower. We are interested to see if he takes more of a leadership role this year or not. He was not too sure about being in class without Cameron, but I think being on his own will help him develop and grow!

It's usually difficult to get a rundown of the day from the boys, but from what I could gather, they both had a good first day. They had big smiles when I picked them up and are looking forward to going again tomorrow. We are looking forward to a great year!

Harrison Goes to School?!

It's true! Today, Harrison went to school for the first time. I'm a little surprised myself that this happened, but indeed it did!

Before last week, we had no intention of sending Harrison to school this year at all. He hadn't been showing any interest in going to school and we just really didn't feel like he was ready. However, over the past weeks, he started asking more questions about school and showing much more interest. Last week, Harrison started asking us every morning if he could stay at school. Cole and I started talking about it and thinking through the situation. We decided that there was really no good reason why we couldn't entertain the notion and started thinking through the pros and cons of sending him to school. 

After talking through it, we settled on the following pros and cons.

Pros: He would get to interact with other children. If we were in the U.S., Harrison would have a chance to interact/play with children at least three times a week if not more at church, small group, the library and gym, play dates, etc. Here, it's not so easy because most children are either in school or daycare from a very young age, so there aren't those opportunities for interaction here. Second, he could be in class with Cameron for the remainder of the year, helping him ease into the school and routine. 

Con: The only con we could really see was that it would make our (really mine) lives slightly more difficult as I would have to go to school three times a day for drop off/pick up. 

After working through the pros and cons, we decided to talk to Cameron's teacher, Miss Inbal, to see what thoughts she had about Harrison coming. She was immediately very supportive of the idea and told us that she thought Harrison was ready. Seeing as Harrison met the requirements for joining the school (age and potty trained) and we got the go ahead from his teacher, we decided to fill out the application and move forward. Miss Inbal told us last Thursday that she would be happy to have him starting on Monday. So, after a whirlwind think through, we decided that Harrison's first day would be today (on a trial basis)!  

Harrison was soooooo excited to go to school today!

 We went to the store this past weekend and let him pick out a little book bag to take to school. 

 Cameron was also super excited to have Harrison come to school with him. He was happy to be the big brother and help Harrison with packing his book bag, making sure he had what he needed, and showing him the ropes when they arrived at school.

 Once we were at the school, Harrison was gone! I tried to get a picture of him with his teacher, but he only wanted to run in and get started!

He will only be going part time, so I picked him up after a couple hours. He was very happy, but also tired. Miss Inbal told me that he did great...followed the rules and participated in the activities. She said he asked for me a few times, but was otherwise very happy. On the way home, I was very happy to hear a few details about his morning and also that he liked being there. We stopped for a celebratory donut on the way home.

Other than taking a little bit longer nap, Harrison was his happy, normal self this afternoon and evening. We will continue to see how he does over the next few weeks and then decide if we will continue to let him go. I'm thankful for a happy little man who is open to new experiences, and also a wonderful school where we can let him grow! Tomorrow is picture day at school, so we'll see how that goes! :) 

First Semester of School (2014-2015)

Cameron finished up his first semester of school a few weeks ago and had a great couple of months. He started going all day and is now one of the oldest children in his class this year. He has loved these changes and has really enjoyed seeing his good buddies on a daily basis again! He has also made some new friends as well. His class is quite diverse again this year which has given us lots to talk about. He is still the only child in his class from the U.S.

 

They started out the year by studying houses and homes. They talked about what homes looked like in different cultures, brought in pictures of their homes, went on a scavenger hunt around Gent to look for different kinds of structures, learned how houses and buildings are built, and they even came to our loft to watch some construction outside of our home.

Showing the class pictures of his house

Scavenger hunt

Using the Three Little Pigs story to learn about different kinds of houses

Cameron was soooooo excited to have all the children come to his house for the afternoon. They ended up playing most of the time, but did take a moment or two to look at the construction workers outside of our loft. There were 20 kids and 4 teachers!!

The children made chocolate balls and a special heart to thank us for opening our home!

Before fall break, the kids had fun celebrating Halloween.

After fall break, Cameron's class began a new unit about shopping. They went shopping at several stores and markets around Gent, talked about money and saving money to buy things, and created their own shop in the classroom. They also went to a grocery store to buy ingredients to make pizzas in their classroom. To end the unit, they baked some muffins and other goodies and made some jewelry to sell in their shop. They raised €90.00 in their shop and used the money to help support a project in a village in Africa. 

Sold out!

During the first semester, the children also studied cooperation and resilience. I have enjoyed seeing how Cameron has incorporated these concepts at home.



The children ended the semester with a Christmas program, but I will write about that later. Cameron had a great first semester and created lots of wonderful memories. Below are some of the other things he enjoyed during the semester like music class, yoga, swimming, and fun with friends.

music class

Yoga

Practicing some yoga at home.

Harrison spent a couple hours in Cameron's class one day while I was busy with Teacher's Appreciation Day. Harrison loved it and Cameron was a great big brother!