End of toddlerhood / Kindergarden



Last week Beertje said goodbye of the kindergarten and as such also our journey as parents of toddlers came to an end. I'll have to learn to understand that I am not longer a mother of little ones, boohoo.  As of now I have 2 children that read along, try to understand the world and discuss and that cannot necessarily be comforted so easily with a cookie and a hug and that do no longer fit so easily my lap or belly/arms. 


Anyway, there was a small ceremony to wave the children of the 3rd kindergarten and those of the 6th year of elementary school goodbye. It was similar as the reception we had for Kabouter in 2019.   As Jan was abroad, I rushed out of the office mid-afternoon as this time I knew that I didn't want to miss it and that I wanted to have one parent present for Beertje. 


They all lined up under applause, waved,  ...there were typical goodbye and thank you speeches by the teachers, and they performed a little dance.   While Kabouter's goodbye song became a little hit in our house for the coming years, Beertje performed on something by K3 that fortunately doesn't stick to his mind. Much to my relief, we've not had any request yet to play it at home.  Let's keep it that way.  That being said, apart from the choice of music , they were very cute. 

The children of grade 6 performed with a self-made dance which was quite impressive. 









Then it was time for thank you gifts and souvenirs. 






After the school organized reception and hanging around and catching up with everyone,  the parents of the toddlers stick around and squatted the school garden for a BBQ.  We felt like hanging around longer than just a good reception. So while the 12 year old's left for a party on their own somewhere and the teacher's left the school grounds for a end-of-year party for their own, we got the key of the school gates and dragged in our BBQ and foods and drinks.  Shortly after, there was an impressive buffet of salads and set tables with a long row of eating children. 

And then it was time for the parents to sit down, eat, socialize until beyond the children's bedtime...only to realize in time that the children had created a mud bath near the sand garden...with mud dragged back into the already cleaned toilet building. Whoops, but after a 2nd round of cleaning by us, we left clean school grounds behind on one of the longest summer evenings of the year. I'm sure we'll be allowed to squat the school more often :). 

We returned home with full stomachs, gifts, dirty children and good memories and gratitude. Another milestone reached. 










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