The end of another school year
Off they went last Wednesday for the last day of the school year. Kindergarden 2 and Grade 2...
Beertje is no longer a newbie in school. There is a whole group of tinier children running around to whom he seems to be a tall experienced kid. All toddlerhood has disappeared. Although obviously still very playfull and full of imagination and adventures, he's an experienced pre-schooler, knowing all the processes of the school well. He navigates through them with the knowledge what should happen when and how. In this corona year no parents were allowed in the school, so we could no longer bring him to the class and unload his bag as we used to do in the first 2 years, but that was no longer necessary. The lost items were low. All went well. He came home with new songs and lots of stories.
Kabouter turned into a playful student. We hear that his class acts very young (compared to the year preceding them) with a need of a lot of playtime, talking etc. Kabouter is no exception, and often we have feedback that he jumps up to his friends to start telling a story when it crosses his mind etc. He's still a child alright. But where grade 1 is the transition of pre-school to elementary school, we are far past this transition. Homework is made, he reads books fluently now, follows the news and what happens in the world and he starts discussing with us and he learned to calculate. That makes it sometimes harder for him to play the "childish" games his brother requests from him, which he picks up with reluctance but a sense of duty and responsibility.
Beertje is no longer a newbie in school. There is a whole group of tinier children running around to whom he seems to be a tall experienced kid. All toddlerhood has disappeared. Although obviously still very playfull and full of imagination and adventures, he's an experienced pre-schooler, knowing all the processes of the school well. He navigates through them with the knowledge what should happen when and how. In this corona year no parents were allowed in the school, so we could no longer bring him to the class and unload his bag as we used to do in the first 2 years, but that was no longer necessary. The lost items were low. All went well. He came home with new songs and lots of stories.
Kabouter turned into a playful student. We hear that his class acts very young (compared to the year preceding them) with a need of a lot of playtime, talking etc. Kabouter is no exception, and often we have feedback that he jumps up to his friends to start telling a story when it crosses his mind etc. He's still a child alright. But where grade 1 is the transition of pre-school to elementary school, we are far past this transition. Homework is made, he reads books fluently now, follows the news and what happens in the world and he starts discussing with us and he learned to calculate. That makes it sometimes harder for him to play the "childish" games his brother requests from him, which he picks up with reluctance but a sense of duty and responsibility.
We were happy that the schools have been open all year with the exception of one week that resulted in a national extended Easter break. Their little school has been spared of Covid outbreaks. I am only aware of one week where some children in another class were absent for Covid but no classes have ever had to be quarantined. Half of the year we were asked to only use the after school care if no other option, so we got the habit of picking up the boys amidsts (sometimes during a mobile) meetings and then continue to work a few hours with them playing/doing homework/ mostly watching ipad on the other floor. Nevertheless I also avoided being there at the exact end hour of school as to avoid most other waiting parents.
Now at the end of the year I was right there at the end time and the crowd felt weird, but at least I had the opportunity to wave to their teachers and gave a distanced thumbs up to the other parents who had volunteered to arrange for a class thank you gift.
Now at the end of the year I was right there at the end time and the crowd felt weird, but at least I had the opportunity to wave to their teachers and gave a distanced thumbs up to the other parents who had volunteered to arrange for a class thank you gift.
And then it was time to walk these 2 little goofballs home and start their vacation. That shouldn't change our routines too much: most of the weeks Jan and I work and the boys go to the playground in the neighbourhood, alternated with some summer camps in some weeks. Not too often, I've learned it is easier to get in a new routine that is followed by multiple weeks: alarm clocks at the same time as always, sandwich boxes prepared as always and walking to the playground rather than school. The real vacation is still a few weeks away...patience (and hopefully no delta variant chaos by then).
Just a flashback to September at the start of this year.
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