Jude's First "First Day of School"

Today was Jude's first day of "school." He has started his transition days in the Hedgehog Nursery group at the International School of Amsterdam. He will be going just a few hours a week until September 5th, when full days start for the little ones. There was a lot of anticipation for the day. We'd been telling Jude for weeks about starting at "daddy's school," and leaving Compananny. "But no me want new nannies. But not me want new friends." So sad to hear :(

I attended the lower school orientation yesterday without Jude and was fighting back tears just sitting in the auditorium listening to the principal speak. Why did no one tell me to bring tissues to orientation?! I was feeling such immense gratitude for Jude getting to start at ISA. There is a lot of buzz about kids starting school too early, but we knew he would be ready. At this point, the program is still just all about playing as day care would be anyway. And it appears to be a wonderful program. The facilities alone would make me almost consider paying tuition if he didn't get to go for free (almost). Seeing all of the older kids with their parents also had me thinking about how quickly time will go by and that before we know it we'll be sitting there with our 1st grader, 6th grader, high school senior....

The excitement of the day meant a bad night's sleep for everyone, but Maeve. Or maybe it was the 80+ degree heat and lack of air conditioning. We all made it out of the house just before 8 and drove in together. We get the perk of faculty parking right near the entrance of the school. Pete walked us down to the play area outside of the Early Education Center and then said his good byes as he had his own big first day to prep for. His department is just down the hall from Jude's room, which is so comforting should there ever be a problem. When it was time to enter the classroom, Jude became very apprehensive and wanted to stay in the hallway and just look through the window. He wasn't crying or clinging to me, but I could tell he didn't know what to make of this new situation. A few of the classroom assistants came out to try to coax Jude in and finally one was successful. It didn't take him long to see how awesome the classroom was and get to work playing. The group of 12 (will be 20 by the end of the year) students are split in two with only 6 in the classroom at a time for now. The 5 little friends we met today were Norwegian, German/Italian, Israeli, American and Dutch/Chinese. How fortunate are we to get the enrichment of such an international diverse playgroup??

ID badge is a bit too big

The boys on their first day

I told Pete that I was fine to get Jude to his classroom area, but Pete said that he really wanted to walk with him down the hall

The "science" table held Jude's attention the longest. At this point the teacher made a comment to please not dress kids in nice clothing that can get ruined by play. Thank goodness for that as Jude wears mostly hand me downs! 

And a Peppa Pig book!

The assistant was impressed that Jude asked permission to walk up the mirrored stairs as he didn't want to break them. 

When playtime was over, Pete came to meet us and we all walked back to his classroom where he was getting ready to meet with his seniors. Pete loves showing Jude off to his students and the students love ogling over Jude. 

Oh, yeah, Maeve was there, too, being just the sweetest. Smiling at everyone, napping in her stroller, making my life easy :) I have a feeling we'll have a lot of good family time within the walls of ISA. I can't get over how nice, convenient and fun it is to have Jude under the same roof as Pete!

Jude takes to the upper school halls. No Big Deal.