Kids’ progress and some new Grownups

I have discovered the best way to close an account with a business or service where a call centre is the sole means of contact. They don’t make it easy for you usually, right? There is always some new offer, or something else you need to know, or a reason why it’s not as straightforward as just cancelling the service.

Tell them you’ve left the country and now permanently live outside of GB. End of conversation. I’ve enjoyed using this numerous times over the last week. Top tip.

Back to School – Reuben

So the kids started back at school on Monday and I think they both found it hard in their different ways. Reuben managed fine on the whole. He mentioned a few times that he missed some of his friends from Scotland, and he had a few temperamental fluctuations in reaction to things which we would not generally have expected to elicit much of a response.

He does have the energy for five days of school and the mental capacity for everything required of him in school time though. His teacher Juf Gemma [en:teacher Gemma], has said that Reuben is progressing wonderfully and mastering the tasks he is given with relative ease. He will almost certainly go into Group-4 when the ten weeks of language school are completed. This is certainly what El and I want, so it’s a relief to hear that it’s very likely to happen.

Reuben enjoys school, he says as much. I’m amazed by how fast he is learning his Dutch. He definitely gets satisfaction from learning, and he has taken to his class and teachers nicely. There are other kids in his language class who have no Dutch and only very basic English, so I think Reuben understands how much more difficult his learning experience could be.

I received a text from the Dad of one of Reubens friends from back the Scotland School. He shared pictures of the chalk art which his girl and one of Reubens other friends had created. It was a welcome back message for when we next come to Scotland. Very, very sweet of them. I was touched to see that he was thought of still. My favorite bit is ‘Me We love you with our heart as a friend Reuben’. In fairness theirs was a complicated relationship, so it was perhaps warranted.

Reuben also had a video call with Zayn, his best friend from Scotland School, midweek after school. They blabbered away to each other and chuckled at who knows what. Reuben really liked that.

Back to School – Ariana

She didn’t have a brilliant week. She finds school hard for a few reasons.

1. The class being so full (20 other kids)
2. Her joining half way through the year
3. Her being physically smaller and having less stamina than the other
4. Everything being in Dutch
5. Having never previously done five days a week of care

She is perpetually exhausted just now, but refuses to take naps at the occasional opportune moments like Wednesdays (when school finishes at 12:30) or the weekend. She told El this week that she just wants to be big like the other girls. All in good time, love.

She went into class in tears a few morning this week, but the teachers are really excellent and take good care of her. Juf Rianne sent us a message one morning to reassure that Ariana had cheered up very soon after El had departed.

Bread rolls and other things

Lunch for the older two is usually a cheese or a ham sandwich. This week I bought a different type of bread roll than usual, you know, just to mix it up. I didn’t struggle to interpret the main title on the packaging – wit [en:white] elke dag vers [en:every day fresh] – I assumed this was reassurance that the rolls were fresh and kept tasting fresh every day.

When I was preparing the sandwiches I noted that it didn’t seem like the best bread, and I perhaps wouldn’t buy it a second time, but it would suffice.

When I fished their lunchboxes out of their respective bags, I discovered a considerable amount breadroll still present. El took up a very brief investigation which uncovered the reason for the unpalatable luncheon. You see, having felt a sense of achievment at having easily interpretted the main text on the packaging when shopping, I had failed to tackle the lower-right text ‘afbakbroodjes’ [en:Bake-rolls]…
Poor kids were eating unbaked, half-bake bread rolls. ha! I’ll be honest – I laughed very hard when El told me.

Felix

The boy has been pretty great. He’s certainly enjoying all the time with El to himself. He’s saying lots of words, and these are words which actually communicate his needs and wants. ‘More’ is fairly heavily used word.

He’s a little ball of energy. Laughing at everything, running here there and everywhere and interacting with the world around him.

Life of grownups

A few other interesting developments :

We have found a gastouder [en: guest parent / childminder] for Felix! Childcare for a < school age child was something we were told would be very difficult to arrange. Waiting lists at daycares are about a year long apparently. Never underestimate Eliane. She now has a group of friends from the school and baby club which have connected her with some very useful resources and pieces of information which otherwise would have taken a long time to come across. One of these friends shared the gastouders details with El, who subseqently got in touch, took Felix around for a visit (2 minute walk to her house from ours) and agreed Mondays and Thursdays from May! Sorted.

Childcare for Felix is needed because there is an excellent chance that El will be fixing Dutch teeth in the soon, upcoming period. More on this another time.

We’ve started making friends and acquaintances across the neighbourhood. We went with two families to a local park yesterday and spent the morning at the Kinderboerderij [en:Kids park and zoo for small petting animals]. These types of parks are very common in The Netherlands. Our friends’ kids are all pretty similar ages to our three, and I think everyone, kids and adults had fun chatting and getting to know one another.

Reuben and Felix are quite a cute combo. They are far enough apart in age that there is not yet much competition, Felix gets someone to follow him around, and Reuben gets a subordinate to do silly things for him. There is also ‘Boy’ who is an important part of the family. He is by Felix’s side all day long.

..and finally, here is the princess herself, with her ‘Royal Teacup’