1st Day of School!

Friday, 4 September, was Katie's first day of school. Katie has been in school 4 days a week this past year, but this year was a big deal:
1. Because this is Kindergarten!! For real (and no matter what country we live in), she is in school now!
and 2. Because she switched to a new school!!

Katie is now attending an international school called ICS (International College Spain). It follows the IB program and is much more similar in style and philosophy to schools in the states. We hope this will make her transition back to a TX school easier when that time comes.

We kicked off a new tradition this year, one that comes from my childhood: the back to school lunch! Katie & I enjoyed lunch together the week before school started, to celebrate the new beginning. We ate at a place called Frankie & Benny's that makes yummy American style pizza. Then we went shopping for her new backpack and to spend the money Mimi & Poppi sent her for some new school supplies. She loved the shopping and spending of money - maybe as much or more than the lunch! :-)

Thursday we got to go meet her new teacher, Ms. Moran. Ms. Moran is from Ireland. Katie enjoyed seeing her new classroom and the new school.









On Friday, Katie was up and eager to get on her way. She was ready WAY before Mom & Dad were! Katie doesn't exactly wear uniforms at her new school, but they have a gym outfit that they wear on gym days. Since they have gym 3 times a week, it about amounts to the same thing :-)




Unfortunately we can't quite walk to school, even though the new school is closer than the old one. We clocked it at 26 minutes the week before school started. A bit too much for EVERY morning! But we park on a street down the hill from the school and walk up the hill so as to avoid the traffic. If we get there on the late side, sometimes it feels like we're walking to school :-)





Each morning, they line up to wait for their teacher and their class's turn to go inside. Katie was REALLY upset when she found out at meet-the-teacher that we could not go upstairs with her to her actual classroom. But on the first day, she did great! It's actually a great system because any leaving drama is lessened by the structure and the distance from the actual classroom.

And finally: the actual back-to-school outfit :-). We had bought this before we realized that the first day of school was a gym day and that she would wear her gym clothes. So this was on Wednesday, the 4th day of school :-) Katie is LOVING her new school and has quickly settled in and made friends. This is a HUGE answer to prayer, as her transition to the 1st Spanish school was not so smooth. She is still adjusting to the schedule - by Thursday or Friday each week, she is pretty worn out. She goes 5 days a week from 8:50 -4:05 - 1 day and almost an hour longer than her school last year. Actually, I think Mommy & Daddy are still adjusting too - we get pretty worn out by the end of the week too! :-) But we are so thankful that we have found a place where Katie is doing so well!