First Day of School!!

Today the kids were off to school and reality was now setting in that I was actually sending my 3 year old to Pre-K.  The cutoff for Swiss schools is Dec 31st, vs the August/early September back in the states, so with the new cut off Aaron is old enough for school.  He is potty trained, but doesn't always feel the need to use the toilet.  We will see how this goes in school.

The kids are riding the bus to and from school which are really large vans with booster seats since it is law they are in a booster seat until 12 years old.  The girls start earlier then Aaron so they had to be ready to catch the bus at 6:50, yikes that is early!!  Aaron gets on at 8:30 and rides by himself.  Although today I rode with him to ease the transition, and it also helped me say good-bye to my baby as he heads off to school.  It was very weird for me to take the public bus back by myself with no kids to keep track of.  I need to call the school to see if they help the small kids from the bus to their classroom.  Today there were no teachers in sight and I don't know if I am comfortable having my 3 year old ride the bus when there isn't anyone on the other side to help him get to class.  It isn't uncommon for kids to be walking to and from school by themselves at all ages, so it may just be the way they do things here.  They will all ride the bus back and get dropped off at 4:40.  I am sure they will all be very tired at the end of the day!  Here are a few pictures from this morning.  Looking at the pictures now, the girls seem a little nervous, hopefully that wore off when they got to school!

Hailey and Sydney waiting for the bus.

On the bus and ready for school.

Aaron ready to catch his bus to school.

We made it to school!

They wear uniforms to school so it will be easy in the morning since they have a choice between a white short or long sleeve polo and can wear what they want on the bottom.  Aaron has a smock he wears over his clothes.  I can't wait for them to get home and hear all about their day, hopefully I can get more than a "good" out of them!


End of Day Update:


We all survived the first day of school, barely!  Girls were on the bus at 6:50 and reassured them there would be teachers on the other end to direct them.  Well, I guess I should know better since we are in a different country as there were no teachers in sight and after a few minutes Sydney was in tears because she didn't know where to go.  They finally found a teacher to direct them and there day started to get better from there.

I took the bus with Aaron to put our minds at ease only to get a call at the end of the day that he missed part of his instructions and took his backpack and headed outside of school rather than back to his classroom.  He was MIA for awhile until a teacher found him crying after the other kids told his teacher he went outside.  The door is normally locked but was open due to 90+ degree heat.  Oh yeah, he also had 2 accidents at school : (

Aaron fell asleep on the bus within a few minutes of leaving, per Sydney.  Both girls complained their stomach hurt due to motion sickness, so will send bags with them in their backpacks in case they are going to get sick.  Hopefully it had more to do with the heat that the driving since his driving seemed fine this morning.

Guess it can only get better from here : )