First Day of School

First day of Scuola Materna

Emma wanted a picture too with her Pooh backpack

A milestone has approached in our lives way to quickly! We can hardly believe that Samuel went to his first day of pre-school today. Now that we all have successfully survived the first day, the nervousness seems to have settled a little bit. Thanks to all of your prayers Samuel more than survived. When I went to pick him up at lunch time it took quite a bit of effort to get him out of the school building. He wanted to stay and play...of course! What kid wouldn't want to leave a playground and classroom filled with new and cooler toys?! When we asked how school was and what he did all we got for an answer was a description of the toys. He has been asking all afternoon to go back to school.

We arrived punctually as a family to drop Samuel off. He made his way over to the toys and didn't waste anytime finding a large semi-truck to play with. Emma cautiously made her way over as well to grab a large lizard...she would make Aunt Jennie proud. We met his teacher, Vittoria, and she seems very nice. My guess is that she is in her 50s and must have a lot of energy to work with 25, 4-5 year olds. After talking with her about our desires for Samuel this first year this is what we have concluded for the moment. Half days, five days a week.

They really want the kids to stay through lunch before leaving for the day. We are hoping to hold off on that for as long as we can. She said a couple of months would be acceptable. However, when they charge you 5 euros a day for lunch that will add up super fast. That's around $7 a day for one meal. Now granted they give them the full 7 course meal...so Italian. They don't allow kids to bring lunches to school because they want equality so that kid's don't feel superior or inferior to each other. Clothing is more of a pressure and point of teasing one would think rather than if your mom packed you PB&J sandwhich versus a bowl of pasta. I would be all for the uniforms and bring your own lunch, but this is the system we find ourselves in.

Samuel will go to school from 9am to noon at this point so we can bring him home for lunch. Their time is mostly playtime and activities. This year will serve Samuel more for learning of the language than it will be educationally. At least from what we can see.

After school we went to pick up his list of school supplies. Hey Jen, we have to bring TP as well. I chuckled when I saw that. You bring stuff for the whole class to share it seems.

Thank you again for all of your thoughts, emails, phone calls, and most of all prayers! We love you all!