First Things First

Starting a fully-functioning Preschool- from nothing- in less than a month, seems like an impossible feat. In fact, it would be impossible if not for some really amazing family and friends and awesome people who are are willing to jump in with us and intrust us with their kid's education.

Today was our first day of school. Breath a deep breath with me. I am so happy to finally be in session! The anticipation and preparation has had me really anxious, but now that I know what I am up against, I feel much more confident that we can meet the needs of our students.

We did our best to start today with Circle Time, but tears from a couple new students directed us toward smashing Playdough instead. We'll try again tomorrow. When everyone settled down we had fun making Alligator crafts (A is for Alligator, you know)  and singing Alligator songs like, "Five Little Monkeys Swinging In A Tree....",

Then it was snack time. There were actually a few minutes of quiet chewing in between 'S' and 'E''s story telling. 

The little ones got a bit silly... just how we like it. 

 After snack time time we ran around for a while and got all our wiggles out before sitting down for some Fine Motor Skill Activities with the Preschoolers. They did really well!

Mr. El asked 'E' what a alligator says... Perfect.

 The Toddlers had their own Messy Play time. Does it get any more fun than finger-paint and Playdough?

The kids had pretty much had it with structured play by the end of the day and the playground was calling them. I'm pretty sure these two could have played with the sand syphon all afternoon. 

All in all, I'm glad the first day is over and I'm looking forward to our first second day of school. I think that is was just the right amount of craziness. You know, the kind when you still have the wits to choose whether to laugh or scream? We did a lot of laughing. 

Not as many students showed up as we expected, but 10 was just the right number for today. What a mixture of race and language we are! We have 3 Korean students who speak mainly Korean and very little English or Indonesian. 3 Indonesian students who speak mostly Indonesian and little English. 2 Indo-Americans who speak both Indonesian and English. 1 American who only speaks English. And one pretty, little Dutch girl who speaks mainly Dutch and a little English and Indonesian. 

We teach and play in English, but wow, if I had Korean and Dutch teachers things might be a bit smoother. No matter, we'll make it work. Kids are like sponges. Thank God.