A Big Day for a Big Boy

After much deliberation we decided to register Noam to Eaton's School, a kindergarten next to our place, in Central Park. 

As we were trying to decide where to send him, the language was an issue for us.  We felt that Noam had enough of 3 languages in his little brain, as he is raised by a French Canadian mom (oui oui, c'est moi!) and an Israeli dad (speaking Hebrew), with the support of our beloved Lili Ayi (who obviously speaks Chinese). We also figured that English can be learned much more easily, and it is available (almost) everywhere, while Chinese, French or Hebrew are languages requiring much more efforts to master, while also being geographically bound. 

We explored the idea of sending him to public Chinese kindergarten, but were deterred by the rigidity of their approach. Private Chinese schools seemed to focus a great deal on the English language to the detriment of Chinese, as the affluent Beijingers want their kids to be bilingual. The French School could only take him at 3 years old. The Canadian School is too far. The Hebrew/Jewish school is way way too far in the suburb, and integrating a bit too much religious aspects to its program for our taste.  

So we had accept the fact that English would be part of Noam's early education, while still preferring schools with Chinese-English bilingual programs. And in the end, not only the convenience of Eaton's became a great factor in our selection, but also the number of Noam's friends registered there too. 

So today was the big day: Noam's first day in school. We filled the little back pack with change clothes, diapers, slippers and a bottle of water, and off we went. Arrived in the class, Noam met Felicia and her team of teachers (15 kids for 3 teachers). As we already went to a Montessori class before, Noam felt at ease and navigated pretty quickly among the tables and children, exploring the various developmental toys and meeting his new friends, and some of his playmates. Of course the good byes were hard for both of us, but Felicia later reassured me that he did not cry for too long after my departure. 

When I came back to pick him up, he was so busy playing with the others that he did not notice me at first, and when he did, he continued playing for little more before running to me. It made me feel good, knowing that he is feeling safe and comfortable there. And the best comment was when one of the teacher told me: "He is a cool kid"! What a nice compliment! 

Cool, Noam!!! ;-)