school days

it's 10:01 AM on Tuesday and i'm sitting at the kitchen table with my coffee and bowl of cereal in our quiet apartment. the only sounds are the tapping of my keyboard, the distant hum of a lawn mower, and the quiet whirring of the air conditioner (yes, it's October 1 and yes, the high temperature will be 79° today). it's bizarre and amazing and unsettling, all at the same time. at least the familiar detritus of shoes, toys, and half-drunk cups of milk leftover from breakfast remains -- because i'm sitting down to write this instead of cleaning it all up! 

the first day of preschool. melt my heart!

Greta insisted on wearing this exact outfit, and on bringing her beloved Candy and Cat-i-corn to school

we're now into our third week of school, and this is the first time both girls have been out of the house regularly while i'm home. it's very strange. i didn't think it would be, because in Pittsburgh, they both were in daycare three days a week, but then, i was headed off to work and so most of my time apart from them was spent seeing patients, returning phone calls, filling out forms, arguing with insurance companies, and chatting with coworkers. now i find myself with roughly 15 kid-free hours a week and it's just -- strange. i love the quiet and the freedom. i miss them. i vacillate between super productive cleaning sprees around the house (without interruption, and without the other rooms getting destroyed in the process), or just sitting down with my book and reading for a few hours (!), or more likely, some combination of the above. i've been able to spend more time doing freelance transcription work and it feels good to help contribute a teeny bit financially to our household, but then of course, that extra money is going right back out as preschool tuition for Cecilia, so is it really making a difference?

well, i think the school experience in itself is worth it. both girls are doing really well, although of course there have been ups and downs. i completely misjudged how they would react to the beginning of the school year. my introvert Greta who thrives on hours of self-directed imaginative play, loves to stay up late, and hates being forced to sit and down and work on a project unless it's her own idea -- i thought she was going to kick against the goads of kindergarten (scuola primaria in Italian). and we've certainly had the morning outbursts of "i don't want to go to school! i want to stay in bed!" (don't we all?!), but for the most part, she has taken to school like she was born to do it. on her first day, she looked so tiny carrying her huge backpack up to the classroom and sitting at an actual desk, but she was so excited to see her school friends and she was absolutely overjoyed when she met her teacher. "Mommy, she's so pretty and she's kind! and she speaks a little English, too!" the first day of class was abbreviated, from 9 AM to noon, and when i picked her up, she came running down the stairs with her other classmates with a huge smile on her face. i asked her what her favourite part of the day was and she said, "all the things!" and chatted excitedly the whole way home.

lining up with the rest of her class

where did my baby go?!

all smiles when it was time for the parents to leave

this is what greets you as you leave her hallway!

Cecilia, on the other hand, was completely thrown for a loop by the prospect of staying in a class without her big sister or Mommy and Daddy. she knows the teacher very well already, and she knows several of the kids in the class (since it's a mixed age class for 3- to 5-year-olds, she knows the kids who were there last year). and she's much more outgoing and carefree than Greta, so i figured she would just be delighted to play. nope! on the first day she was a little confused so she didn't put up much of a fuss when we left, but the next day she knew what was coming and cried and screamed when i tried to say goodbye. she whimpered, "but Mommy, i'm too little to be without a gome-up!" (grown-up) i gave her a huge hug and said, "i know, sweetie, that's why Maestra Agata and Maestra Yasmin are going to take care of you! they're going to be the grown-ups to take care of you at school!" and in a heartbreaking sob, she said, "but they're not Mommy!!" oof, talk about a knife to the heart. of course i wondered if we were actually doing the right thing. maybe she wasn't ready for preschool after all. but the teachers were great with coming up with strategies to help the kids transition, including having them bring in a favorite stuffed animal and having the parent pick them up early. a few times that first week, Cece's teacher called Greta's teacher and had Greta come to the preschool classroom a few minutes before their morning break/snack time to play with Cece, which really helped. and i picked her up after ninety minutes or so. most days she would say, "i was a bit shy, and i cried a little bit, but Maestra helped me feel better." 

and lo and behold, on Friday of that first week, she gave me a huge hug and walked into the classroom without looking back. on Monday of the second week, she ran into the class and gave her teacher a huge hug. and ever since, she's been completely delighted to go to school (as i predicted she would be from the beginning). as much as it broke my heart to leave her crying those few days, i'm also so proud of her for adjusting and i think it's so important for her to develop healthy attachments to other caring adults. i pick her up around 11:30 every day and she tells me all about her day -- painting, coloring with markers, building with blocks, singing, and reading books. she loves to hang her jacket on her hook (marked with her special symbol, a yellow flower -- "fiore giallo," she announces proudly). she's picked up a fair amount of Italian and the other day she told me, "Maestra said, 'Vieni qua!' (come here) and so I comed!" 

special dinner of spaghetti carbonara on the first day of school. both girls ate two bowls full!

 we celebrated the end of the first week of school with a special trip to Bimbo Time. the girls love it because of the carousel, rides, arcade games, and ball pit. Nick and i mostly love it because we can't stop giggling over the name.

while Greta was off to a great start at school and still loves her classes, it's been a bit of adjustment to transition out of preschool mode to actual classwork. i think i took three different trips to the home goods store and the stationery store and probably made two or three Amazon purchases to finally round out all of the school supplies she needed -- specific kinds of notebooks with rules and squares, specific kinds of pens and pencils, another specific type of drawing sketchpad, a laminated placemat and apron for painting, and plastic covers to fit all her school books (which are beautifully colored with glossy pages!). and of course, everything has to be labeled with her name. she decided this year that she wants to be called Margaret at school, which is precisely why we wanted to give her the full form of the name (i'm a Katharine, and loved being able to transition from Katie to Kate!). 

there were two lists of supplies like this, and they were nearly the death of me! 

but we have been having a mighty battle over homework, which is annoying to say the least. i'm annoyed that they even have homework in the first place, because they spend 30 hours a week in class. Monday, Wednesday and Friday they are in school from 8 AM to 1 PM (with a morning break), and then Tuesday and Thursday they are in school from 8 AM to 5 PM (with morning and afternoon breaks, and 90 minutes break for lunch/free play). that's a lot at ages five and six! but the homework is only assigned on their "short" days and it's typically 4 pages total: 2 pages out of a math workbook and 2 pages out of an Italian workbook. at this point, the workbooks are very easy (for example, tracing and then writing the number 3, drawing an object to complete a set of 3, or practicing the cursive letter O), so it's probably ten or fifteen minutes' worth of work. so then i'm annoyed that it can take literally hours for us to get through it. i mean, we don't sit at the table for hours because neither her sanity nor mine could take that, but at times she just refuses to do it. i really can't blame her for wanting (and needing!) to have unstructured play time, and of course i don't have her sit down to do her homework as soon as she gets back from school, but then again, it's stuff she could easily do within minutes and be done with it. 

well, yesterday i finally decided to sweeten the pot for her a little bit and we made a sticker reward chart and scheduled in breaks (5 minute break after each page, and a half-hour break between the two workbooks). she did the math homework without too much grumbling, and then sat down and did the Italian homework perfectly in FIVE MINUTES. two pages, just like that, the way i knew she could! i wanted to hug her and strangle her at the same time. and also, i have much more insight into the struggles i'm sure my own mother had with homeschooling me, because i'm pretty sure i pulled the same kinds of foolishness with her. 

all that to say, it's been good. i'm so glad we have a good school within easy walking distance, with good friends and good teachers. and i'm stepping out of my comfort zone a little bit with the other parents. last year, if i didn't know how to say what i wanted to say in perfect Italian, i just wouldn't say anything, so our conversations never really progressed beyond "ciao, come stai?" or "che carino, che bello!" (how cute, how nice, commenting on their children). now, my Italian is a little better, but i also realized that it's a lot less awkward if i just make the attempt to have a conversation, throwing in English words now and then. many of them do speak at least a little English, so we can at least have a somewhat meaningful exchange rather than me just standing there with a weird smile on my face. 

the preschoolers wear this tuta da ginnastica (sports suit) on Tuesdays and Thursdays for gym class

Cecilia showing me her muscles

this is Greta's old tracksuit from last year. at €50, i was not about to buy another one for Cece
so the waistband of her pants is rolled over about three times. sorry, kid! 

and now, i've got just enough time to do a whirlwind clean of the kitchen and maybe fold a basket of laundry before i head down the hill to pick up Cecilia. i'm excited to see what the rest of the year brings!