School Stuff

Freddy's class hosted a Mother's Day morning on Monday, complete with coffee and lemon biscuits. They set up the classroom with different activity stations and let us spend time shadowing our children as they showed us what they like to do.

Getting a glimpse into his school life and getting to know the children in the class fills so many holes in a greater picture that I am always trying to fill. I pepper the kids with questions and try to get school conversations rolling all the time, but there is nothing like seeing it all with my own eyes.

First I was presented with my Mother's Day gift after which Freddy asked to take my picture.

9 out of 10 of his shots come out with all or part of the head chopped off.

Freddy's Mother's Day card listed 4 things he likes about me.

They are:

1: I make "super good" dinners

2. I make delicious cakes

3. I love Freddy

4. I sometimes let him watch The Wild Kratts (a nature show) on the iPad.

Who could ask for more than a good dinner, good cake, a mother who loves you, and nature shows?

We did a worksheet together, made a clay necklace pendant, played wtih play dough, and built block towers. 

I was back at the school yesterday for a ceremony celebrating the life of Madre Mozzarello, who I continually call Madre Mozzarella.

There was a bit of drama in the begining when a mother from Moojie's class showed up only to find her daughter was not at school despite the fact that she had already been dropped off. Apparently, the girl had caught a bus to a another town to see her boyfriend since there were so classes. Say what?

I feel like I have a good grasp on dealing with pushing toddlers, sharing, toy management, and play dates. Kids skipping school to see boyfriends was definitely not on my motherhood radar. Is it bad that my first reaction was "thank goodness it was your daughter and not my son!"? Moojie did comment that just thinking about my wrath would prevent him from ever pulling a stunt like that.

Back to the ceremony. Freddy got to parade a banner around and then bring it up to the podium. He has quite the fan club among the junior high girls who all made "ahhhhh" noises to Moojie who is not amused by his brother's popularity.

Despite some major differences in the childrens' education here in Portugal compared to my own growing up- this playground centerpeice being just one example- junior high is really the same the world over, and I'm so grateful that I get to be a part of their school life.