Maddie's first day at de Morgenster

I posted a few days ago about the wonderful experience we have had with Maddie's preschool thus far.  Her first day of school was last Thursday, September 19th.  The school is called, de Morgenster, which means, "The Morningstar."  It is about a 5 minute cycle away from our current house, and probably a minute or two shorter from our next house.  The school is a primary school, which is a new experience for Maddie, coming from the nursery school environment last year.  Maddie will be going to school five days a week, from 8:30-12:00.  The school is tuition free for us, which is definitely a bonus.  There are two teachers in Maddie's class, who share the days throughout the week - Juf Hetty and Juf Jose ("juf" means "teacher") - both are wonderful women who are kind, energetic and know English quite well.  They have warmed to Maddie immediately and I think it will be a very positive year.  Maddie is happy with them, too! :)

We all went to school together for her first day, and it was a blur.  Brant and I sort of rushed in the building with her, got her settled with her things, and rushed out.  Nobody was forcing us to leave quickly, but being that the school has been in session for a month, we were the only "new" family, therefore the only lingering parents.  It felt natural to just walk away and let her figure things out.  The funny thing was, as we left the building, we both sort of got a pit in our stomachs as though we had just "thrown our baby girl into the lion's den," mainly because she is the only English speaking child in the building!  But she has proven to be a rock star each day, and continues to talk about school with excitement and enthusiasm.  (Again, take note of the post I did about this a few days ago!)

So here are the pictures we snapped on that first morning.

The children all have a big blue bag hanging outside the classroom to hold their coats.  Inside the room, the have a separate place for their backpacks, which holds their snacks.  Maddie's color and shape symbol is a red square.  She was proud of herself for finding the bag right away that morning (we had been the day before to orient ourselves with the school and teacher, so she had been shown once before).

Choosing her morning activity.  The little girl staring at us is named Lisse ("Lissa"), and Maddie says she is real nice.  I asked her if she plays with her or talks to her, and she tells me, "No.  But Lisse is real nice." :)

Love my girl!

View of the cute class as we are leaving.  It looks like she is going to have great fun here!

Maddie, with Juf Jose, settling right in.

There is a park located directly across the path from the school, which makes it extra convenient (or inconvenient, depending on who you ask, and at what time of day).  Maddie came out the doors after school and ran into Daddy's arms, then to Mommy's and exuberantly over to Geoffrey.  We were all so happy to see each other! :)

Her teacher told us that "Maddie is a clever girl" and that she is going to be great this year. :)  We agree.  So very proud of her.