The Last Couple of Weeks

A lot has been happening here in Egypt over the past couple weeks for us.  School started, Princess had her first day of JK (KG1 – or Junior Kindergarten), Dimples returned to the nursery and Hubby and I had the pleasure of meeting our classes again.  

The weeks of preparation for classes to start came and went very quickly.  Last year, there was not enough time in the world for me to prepare for the first day of teaching.  This year, I was ready days in advance and could not wait to meet the kids.  The first days of parent meetings and the first day with the kids were everything I had pictured that they would be.  

But, nothing could prepare me for the first day of class for Princess.  We were concerned that our little girl who has refused to wear pants since she was 18 months old would put up a huge fight about having to wear the uniform pants and polo shirt.  That proved to not be very difficult at all.  Taking her to her class on the first day, I got all weepy eyed and emotional as I delivered her to the JK class.  Even though we teach in the same building, it was still very emotional to drop her off with her teacher.  I never had this difficulty at the nursery...there is just something about taking your kid to Kindergarten.  It made me think of how quickly the time has flown by since she was born.  Thankfully for me, she walked right into her class, sat at a table that was set up with a picture and markers to color with and that was that.  

Since the first day of classes, we have discovered that she LOVES her music class and that she is always the first to start the songs and dances.  We have found out that she DOES NOT CARE for Phys-Ed.  This is particularly disturbing for me, who has a Kinesiology degree and spent my life on a court or field of some kind.  I have since discovered that it is because her PE teacher speaks Arabic and she does not understand.  Now that we have that dealt with, PE has been more enjoyable for her.  She proudly shows us her work for the day and she is picking up on rhyming schemes and is able to read very simple stories.

Dimples carries on with his day as usual.  Nothing has changed for him since last year.  He still has the same teacher, but there are new kids in his class.  We hear reports that he is very reliable and compliant and works well with others.  The staff is excited when he opts to speak words in Arabic, even though the classes are taught in English.  I guess they like that he is picking up on their language.  We are thrilled to hear that he is starting to pick up on Arabic.  He probably knows more than we do. 

When we took Dimples to nursery this year, there was confusion as to which class he would be in.  They wanted him to be in a Nursery class which would mean that he would graduate from the Nursery this year and begin JK next year.  We were shocked that this would even be a suggestion!  He is far too young to be preparing to go to JK.  Princess is 4, JK seems reasonable.  Dimples would have been set to start JK at 3 and Kindergarten at barely 4 years old.  That is much too early.  So, we convinced them to keep him in the Toddler program and he is thriving there.  We did not see a need to rush him along into formal schooling.  Nursery is still primarily based on play.

I am sure by now that you have heard much about the dismay of the Arab world over the past week or so.  I have opted not to publish my personal comments or opinions, but, please know that our daily life has been uninterrupted by these events.  If we did not have television to watch the news, we may have never known about these events.  

Anyway, that is a little update from our part of the world.  I hope to keep the blog updated more frequently in the coming weeks as the excitement from the first couple weeks is now winding down.  I will add pictures on the next post, the one of Princess on her first day of school is priceless.