21st Cenury Life

With a big shout-out to my husband, who stayed up until 2:30 last night setting it up, I'm thrilled to announce we finally have Internet!

Turns out that the "open house" at M's school wasn't really an open house after all.  Rather, it was a uniform sale.  I stopped by the school and learned that I was supposed to have received an email in early August containing vital information about M's school schedule for the first week, the protocol for organizing a home visit and instructions for making payments.  Oh well, a one-letter typo in the email address meant I didn't receive any of this information.  I'm happy that the preschool director was able to accommodate our request for a home visit even though we missed the deadline by 3 weeks.

For you Americans out there, it's common practice in British preschools for teachers to visit students at home at the beginning of the school year to solidify the link between home and school.  I think it's a great idea (like a parent-teacher conference at the start of the year) and I think it's the kind of thing that will help M adjust to his new teachers.  I'm looking forward to it.

M's schedule for "Induction Week" was quite abbreviated: one hour on Tuesday and Wednesday and two hours on Friday.  On Tuesday he didn't start until 10:30 and he was so excited about school we actually arrived at about 10.  He had a great time playing with the toys and meeting his teachers.  He also impressed his teachers by sitting cross legged at circle time without being asked (thank you, 3-and-a-half years of daycare).  On Wednesday one of the other kids in M's class was outside the school when we arrived.  He recognized us right away and waved.  It was a great welcome and really made us feel like we belong.

InterNOT

Still no Internet at home so I'm at the world's most child friendly Internet cafe, sans child. Although since the kids outnumber the adults and the general din is closer to a kindergarten than a cafe, I tend to think if I didn't have a kid I would hate this place. And that would be a shame because it's my only source of wifi.

We arrived back in Amsterdam on Tuesday. Mairtin and I flew alone, without Peter, which went surprisingly well, thanks in part to the hour plus nap he had on the way to the airport, my mother joining us for check-in and Peter picking us up at the airport. Kind of back to business as usual except the jet leg gave me insomnia for three days, which was a first.