Lizzie goes to Pre-school

Lizzie started Pre-school this week.

You’d think that I’d have more time, but instead I have less.

Pobudka

Everybody washed, dressed and into the car.

Drive to school.

Unpack 2 kids and enter school.

Take off 2 kids’ jackets. Lizzie changes shoes to slippers. (I’ll get to the slippers later.)

Walk to classroom. Kiss and say goodbye.

Leave crying Lizzie. Drag happy Rosie out.

Put on Rosie’s coat and pack her into the car.

Drive back home. Unload Rosie.

Get ready for work and wait for the nanny.

Greet the nanny and go to work.

Work. Work. Work.

Pick up Lizzie either when the nanny is still with Rosie or take Rosie. Repeat packing and unpacking as above in reverse minus the tears and the good-byes.

It was Lizzie’s initiative to go to Pre-school. Poland has got a public Pre-school system albeit with a limited number of places and limited funds. I had heard of the “recruitment” process and knew that we would not have enough points to get in. Points are awarded based on different things like if you are a single parent or not, employed or unemployed, or take advantage of public benefits. They also consider the number of children in the family, proximity of your residence to the school, kind of car you drive, hair color, favorite hobbies…just kidding! I almost gotcha.

We are employed. We are married with 2 children. We live in close proximity to the school but our official permanent residence is elsewhere. There was no hope for us, but then I heard that the City was building a new Pre-school in our district. We filled out our forms last Spring and we got in. We still have to pay a small tuition, food and supplies, but it is still cheaper than a private daycare center and way cheaper than a nanny (which we also have). We were considering nursery school for Rosie. We even visited one center close to our home, but Rosie was so overwhelmed so she is staying with the nanny. Well, we could say that Rosie has a babysitter not a nanny. In Polish, many people use the word niania so we have just adopted the word nanny. The word nanny just sounds so pretentious in English as if she had her own wing in our house and vacationed with us on the Riviera. Our girls’ nanny is a very nice and active lady in her 50’s. We really like her and I think she likes us, too.

Now we have come to the end of our first week at pre-school and we already had one sick day. Let’s hope that next week goes smoothly.

Please check out the next post about slippers.