A Big School Boy

Sunday was Big E's first day of preschool!  (It's called KG-1 here) I took him to school and walked him to his class. He seemed a little nervous and wouldn't even whisper his name to his teachers or even point to his name from the name tags that were on the table, but as it turns out, our neighbor's 4 year old is in his class and he was so excited to tell me that she is in his class.  If anyone asked how his day went, he'd just say, "good," in a matter of fact way.



I can hardly believe that he's in school.  It really does seem like last year that I was spending all day with just Big E, and now he's living up to his blog name.  Miss A asked for him throughout the day, "Where's E...?"  The house was also much quieter.  Last week I had 8 kids including my two all day Sunday through Thursday. Sunday I just had three, including Miss A.  Today was just Miss A and me for the morning. We talked and played with the little pots and pans.  I'm hoping to give Miss A some one on one time as she almost never gets it from me.

There is a bus that supposedly picks up students.  But Steve and I decided that I would take him to school and pick him up, and now I'm glad that we made that decision.  We planed to use the bus only in an emergency.  But there has been quite the fiasco.  The first day the bus didn't come to the compound until 2:30, 50 minutes after school got out.  It took me 10 minutes to get home.  We were told that the school had it's own bus.  So it shouldn't have taken that long.  The next day the bus was full and two of the girls that I watch didn't make it on the bus.  The school failed to call me as their care giver or the parents of the children who didn't make it on the bus.  The school found another way, but it wasn't a QF bus/van.  It was from a taxi service.  And the driver hadn't been around long and the girls had to tell him how to get to my house.  This doesn't inspire confidence.  As of today, the story is that there is a bus, it is not just for Qatar Academy Sidra (QA Sidra), the school Big E goes to, it is for all the schools in Qatar Foundation (QF).  According to the person my neighbor talked to at QF Transport, it is a first come first serve basis and an adult should accompany children.  What??? How does that make any sense?  If the bus is full, how are these kids going to arrange another ride? And if an adult should accompany children, how will there be enough room for all the kids and why on earth would an adult ride the bus if they could just take them home themselves??  Sooo glad I'm taking Big E, though I still have to stress about it and be up to date about it because to all the kids that I watch that go to that school.

edited to add: I should mention that Big E goes to school Sunday through Thursday 7 am -1:40pm, except on Tuesdays when school's out at 1:00.  It's not my ideal, but that's what there is around here.  There isn't such a thing as half days or only on certain days, unless your child is under three and goes to a nursery school, which is just day care.