Maternelle

Monday Isolde started maternelle, which is what Belgian preschool is called, and she has now completed her first week.  The Belgians call it school and it's also (usually) housed in a regular school, but in effect it is like Swedish preschool förskola, with some differences.  Some maternelles don't admit children until the age of four (e.g. the European Schools) but most Belgian schools, and especially the municipal ones, welcome children from the age of two and a half.  Before that there are nurseries, crèches, for babies and toddlers from three months old and up, and most of them welcome children up to four years old.  Maternelle, as it's considered school, is free of charge (but not free of expenses), whilst crèche can be quite pricey (at least compared to Swedish fees), around 6-800 euros per month. 

Isolde is only attending in the morning to start with, 08:30-11:45, but eventually, when we feel she's got used to it, especially a new language, she will stay the whole day until 15:30.   Then she will eat lunch and also nap there.  Once we're both working she will have a longer day, but then she will take part in after-school care (and before school if we need it), garderie, that is offered in the school but not necessarily in her classroom. 

So what is different from a Swedish preschool?

• As it is in a school the activities take place in a classroom rather than in several smaller rooms (at least at Isolde's school; some maternelles are different), though the toys and materials are similar to Sweden (just a bit more plastic haha) and they have organised the room so it feels like several rooms.
• The children wear their shoes indoors, i.e. the same shoes they arrived in (and that is also true for a lot of other countries of course but not Sweden).
• The children must have a backpack so that they can bring a snack and also take home notes from the school.
• There are set school hours (but garderie outside of those hours as explained above).
• There's no induction and parents are not allowed to stay, not even on the first day.  Crèches on the other hand have an induction period, but usually they are still only babies when they start there.  Two and a half is not that old either in my view, but when in Rome...
• The school requires the children to be potty trained though accidents are allowed of course and some schools help more actively with the training than this particular one.  This is why we had to get Isolde dry and as you know, we were successful!  Though she had two accident this week but only two in a whole week is alright I think.  The toilets are very typically French/Belgian - no seat and they have to sit directly on the cold porcelain, poor things! The children attending all day are allowed to wear nappies for the sieste however.
• We have to provide the school with certain items such as wipes (2 packs), tissues (2 boxes), paper towels (1 roll), glue (3 sticks) and plastic bags for dirty or soiled clothes, as well as a box for Isolde change of clothes. 
• We have to pack a snack, mainly fruit, every day for morning snack time and when she goes a full day, also for the afternoon I think.
• Once she starts attending all day we will pay for lunch.  It's not too expensive though and they get a two-course lunch (main meal and dessert), and also soup if we want.  At some school you can also pay for milk to go with morning snack time but I haven't heard anything from our school about that yet at least.
• Staff levels are lower.  I don't know yet exactly how many they are in Isolde's class but I think at least 12 and there's one teacher and one teacher assistant.  Many of the children only attend the morning like Isolde though.
• They follow school hours, so this means the day starts 08:30 and finishes either 11:45 or 15:30 (garderie available outside these hours as mentioned earlier) and if you want to pick them up earlier than 15:30 you can't do it before 14:30 because before that it's lunch and nap time. 
• On Wednesdays, like in France, school is only a half-day (earlier there used to be a half-day on Saturday instead but while that has been abolished the half-day Wednesday remains.  Not very practical for working parents, but fortunately the garderie simply opens earlier on Wednesdays.
• As it's part of school, once we're both working we need to find a solution for the school holidays such as Easter and the summer (Christmas we'll be in Sweden for two weeks anyway), as the school closes during these periods.  Crèches on the other hand are open throughout usually though apparently close for a certain period around Christmas and Easter.  In the summer there are other places that offer activities, so eventually we'd have to enrol Isolde in camp or similar during the summer.

What else could be interesting to know?  Most schools in Belgium are divided according to language (French and Dutch), and some are very strict and only allow one language to be spoken and sometimes even have separate school yards (won't go into Belgium's historical political, cultural and lingual complexities now...), but as Isolde's school is a municipal school, both languages are spoken but I think the teaching is in French only, or at least the main language is French.

Beyond the two Belgian languages (well, actually there are three; German as well), many other languages are spoken at Isolde's school as it's a very international area we live in.  Apparently it has as many as 40 nationalities.  In Isolde's class there are several Japanese children, and in the school in general, which is due to a Toyota factory and test runway nearby.

You can read more about the school here and if you go to galerie there are lots of pictures.

So how was Isolde's first week?  Well, it went far beyond our expectations.  We were quite worried about the first day, as we wouldn't be allowed to stay with her.  And we were also worried about the fact that the doesn't understand the language.  And finally we were worried she would not want to use the toilet or that they wouldn't be able to remind her often enough (or that she wouldn't understand), and that there would be a lot of accidents (and we were really hoping she wouldn't do no 2 there!).

Isolde ready for her first day

But turns out we didn't have to worry (although we are prepared there could be a backlash at some point)!  Isolde is just amazing, we're so proud of her!  We had talked about her going to preschool again and she was looking forward to it.  We had also talked about making new friends but I think maybe she still thought it was her old preschool in Sweden she was going to, or maybe not as she seems to have understood that we now live here and Sweden and other things are not here.  So even though she didn't really want to stay long when we visited the week before (although it might have been because there weren't any other children there then), she was very happy on her first day and wanted to start playing right away and she didn't mind being left there at all.  When Peter picked her up three hours later there had been no tears and no wee wee (well, only in the toilet where it should be). 

The week has continued in the same fashion - she skips happily through the corridor to her classroom and says "bye mummy" even before I've had the chance to help her take her sweater off and hang up her backpack.  Wednesday morning I didn't leave right away because on the Tuesday she had peed her pants after I had left, so I wanted to double-check that she didn't need to go to the toilet.  But then she wanted to leave with me again.  But I started talking about the toy cars and that maybe they would get to paint (she loves painting) and then she was fine again and I took the chance and left.  One day she had been a bit upset because we had packed peach for her and she apparently wanted other fruit, and on Thursday she didn't make it to the toilet again, but otherwise, no difficulties.  It probably helps that she's been to preschool before and that the concept is not new to her (even if it's a bit different from what she's used to).  And maybe the fact that she's quite a late talker, and she's used to people not understanding her and having to make herself understood with body language, helps her now in an environment where she doesn't understand the language.  They say that the language won't be an issue before long.  They told us that the children usually pick up quite a lot in two-three weeks; they have more trouble with the parents!  Luckily Peter and I speak a little bit of French (and we're planning to refreshen our knowledge of course) and one of the teachers also speak English.  So a very good first week!

Now a well-deserved for all of us before another week of preschool, work and daddy duty!