Caliban – Opinion and Righteous Anger

Eloïse has completed her first full week at primary school and enjoyed every minute of it. She has greeted the start of each new day with enthusiasm and excitement, which has proved quite contagious.

We’re all slowly getting used to the new 07:00 starts, but it’s still strange to find oneself falling asleep on the couch at midnight and having to go to bed. Nevertheless, we’ve already fallen into a default new routine.

The Sonos alarm wakes us with BBC Radio 6 at 07:00 (there are no good Dutch radio stations, unfortunately), at which point we all get up.

Sarah dresses the children while I go downstairs, prepare Eloïse’s breakfast and make coffee. Sarah then comes down with the children and makes Eloïse’s lunch.

At around 08:10, I get on the bakfiets and take both children with me to school. Sometimes Sarah goes with me, especially the first few days, but the general case will be that only one of us goes. The person who goes takes both children, in order to give the other parent a bit of a breather. It’s only half an hour before I’m back with Little Lu, but you have to take what you can get and every little helps.

At 12:50, I head out again, once again with Lukie in tow, to pick up our happy girl. She’s always smiling, happy to see me and full of tales of the morning’s events.

This morning, for example, saw Eloïse have her first eurhythmy lesson. She described it as praatdansen (talk-dancing), but I couldn’t get much more out of her than that.

At this stage, we couldn’t be happier with Eloïse’s progress at her new school. Not only does she really enjoy the lessons (if you can call them that) and the juf, she’s already made a good friend in Bracha, another new girl who started the same day as she. It can’t be long now before they’re inviting each other over after school.

And now it’s the weekend: no more 07:00 starts for two whole days!

Eloïse’s tertiary day at school saw an altogether more confident girl say her goodbyes at 08:30. She held our hand as we stood behind her chair and children continued to file into the classroom, but when we said we had to go and asked for kisses, she obliged and said goodbye without a struggle.

We waited outside the classroom until the door was closed, Eloïse remaining quietly content the whole time.

There were no last minute clutches and certainly no tears. We left behind a perhaps still slightly nervous child, but nevertheless a happy one, who is pleased to be at her new school and looking forward to the new experiences and adventures that will be coming her way in the weeks, months and years ahead.

As a parent, it’s hard to believe that she’ll theoretically remain at this school until she’s twelve. The previous phase, the peuterspeelzaal (play school), lasted only a year and a half and yet represents an entire era in her short life. This is it now, the real thing: (primary) school.

It’s good that the weekend is upon us. The week was long enough for Eloïse to warm to and gain confidence with her new environment, but not so long that it became fatiguing. This way, she was able to comfortably slide into place and now has two days to process all of the new impressions with which she has been bombarded. The fact that the Vrije School has children of this age attend for only half the day helps, too, of course, although I suspect that Eloïse would soon be happy to stay there all day.

Today, she’ll be making bread!

Speaking of fatiguing, this new seven o’clock lark is bollocks. Whilst I’ve finally found a use for the Sonos‘s alarm function, it’s unpalatable to actually need it. Winding back my bedtime is proving hard, but by either an act of will or sheer exhaustion, it will eventually happen. It will have to.

Winters are going to be unpleasant. Biking in the dark in freezing temperatures: I can’t wait.

Eloïse had another successful day at school on Thursday. She said that she spoke to one of the other children, so she’s starting to come out of her shell now.

Friday should be quite easy now, I think, although I should be careful about totting up my domesticated fowl.

It was an excruciatingly hot and muggy day today. Rain broke the spell this evening and tomorrow should be cooler.

I forgot to blog a second time yesterday to report on Eloïse’s first day at basisschool.

Luckily, there were few or no more tears after we had dropped her off yesterday. Juf Yvette reported that everything was fine after we left.

Eloïse herself said that she had fun and would like to go back. She received a chocolate muffin at Bagels & Beans as a reward for doing so well on her first, nerve-racking day and proceeded to spend most of the afternoon telling us about the other children and what she’d done that morning.

Dropping her off today was much easier than yesterday. We’d said our goodbyes at 08:30 and Sarah had already left the room. I turned to leave, too, when Eloïse’s vice-like grip clenched my arm.

I was unable to reason my way away from her, but Yvette saw what was happening and quickly swooped, picking up Eloïse and asking her if she was ready to play again like yesterday. Eloïse nodded, so, before she could turn to me again, I beat a hasty retreat and closed the door behind me.

Through a slit in the covered glass panes of the door, I could see Eloïse sitting on a chair in the circle of children, a little bit red-eyed, but not crying.

I’m hoping that, by tomorrow, she’ll be confident enough to need no more reassurance. She really likes the new school and talks about wanting to be there; it’s just the reality of being left alone that demands a little bit more confidence of her than she has at this point.

After drop-off today, there was a meeting for new parents, held by a remedial teacher and an intern begeleidster (teaching coach). That was followed by a tour of the toddler classes and those of groups 1 to 6. The Vrije School (Steiner) doesn’t number the toddler classes; in the rest of the Dutch educational system, the class she’s now in would already be called Group 1.

We were given a copy of the school guidebook, told about the structure of the school and given a run-through of important information, such as how to report sickness, etc. Coffee was served, which my brain, at least, as yet unaccustomed to this new timetable, appreciated.

Afterwards, we walked through the school and got to see the children of groups 1 to 6 at work. Each class made a peaceful and orderly, yet pleasantly informal impression. The teachers were enthusiastically at work and the children looked involved. It’s only a fleeting impression, of course.

I like the way the school has received us in the first week. Neither we nor our child have been left to flounder. Information has been forthcoming and there was ample opportunity today to ask questions. I get the impression that the staff we met genuinely care about the work they are doing. They seemed thoughtful and involved in what they were doing.

If Eloïse makes the same leap tomorrow that she made today, going to school and saying goodbye to us will be routine by Monday. The most important thing is that she, herself, wants to be there. Her obstacle is internal, her own shyness, and we’ve seen in other situations that she needs only a short time to overcome this.