Even though it’s the summer vacation, we got to go work on William’s school garden. We harvested three heads of lettuce (different varieties) from the common plot and carrots, onions and beans from William’s plot. We also cut a lot of flowers from William’s plot and from the plots of his friends who weren’t there to get them. We had delicious salad for days and have flowers all over the house.
Check out more photos in the Gardening Gallery.
Flowers from William's Garden
On Wednesday Flip the Bear came home with William from school. He goes home with a different child from the class every day. He brings along his pyjamas, toothbrush, comb, two pairs of shoes and three outfits. He also brings his journal so mommy or daddy can write the story of his visit.
Flip the Bear in the Bakfiets
On his way to our house, he rode in the bakfiets with five children: William, Henry, Isabelle (from their class) and Roos and her sister Fleur. Then he watched William’s stuffed frog test out William’s new parachute design from the second storey window.
In the morning he rode in the bakfiets to take the boys to the tram stop when they went to Maastricht and then Daddy took him back to school.
It’s a good thing the boys brought their knights’ costumes with them because their class celebrated carnival today. Their teacher, Juf Yvonne, was a cowboy complete with curly black mustachio. The kids danced a lot and had a parade.
Carnival in the Classroom
Juf Yvonne
It was a good way to spend an otherwise icy cold day.
William is Six!
For breakfast this morning we had our usual birthday pancakes with whipped cream and berries.
Birthday Boy at Breakfast
You’ll notice that both William and his pancake are missing a bottom tooth. Henry’s pancake had all its teeth.
Henry and his Pancake
After that we had to skedaddle to school, but there was snow so the boys were able to have a snowball fight on the way. At school William got to wear the birthday crown that he made yesterday and to hand out treats to his classmates. He chose to introduce them to an American favorite: rice krispie treats (thank you Opa for bringing the rice krispies). He also gave everyone colored streamers. The teacher invited William to stand on the table with his crown on, and everyone sang Happy Birthday (in Dutch and in English) and made a big mess with their streamers. The report is that most of the kids thought the rice krispie treats were good, although one girl seemed confused by hers, perhaps because it was bright blue.
After your class celebrates here, you get to choose two birthday helpers and take them with you to all the other classrooms to give the teachers a treat (chocolate). In return the teacher signs a birthday card for you (with stickers). William chose Henry and a boy named Ruben as his birthday helpers. Apparently Ruben knows everyone, so they even went into the principal’s office.
William's Crown and Cake
Wednesday’s are half days in Dutch schools, so we stopped at a bakkerij to pick out a cake on the way home for lunch (our oven doesn’t work). William chose a Christoffeltaart, which turns out to be a delicious confection of merengue, whipped cream and chocolate. Our Dutch friend Maarten came over for lunch and presented the boys with Legos. William spent the rest of the afternoon building a Lego firetruck and a Lego helicopter. He thinks the Legos are the best gift, although “the bike is good too”. All in all, it’s been a happy day for William and his family.
Doll House with lights
Den Haag City Historical Museum
Henry and I went into the Historical Museum’s attic, and we saw a doll house that had real lights in it. There was a giant book that was taller than us. It was about a naughty boy named Tim.
The bus seats were very, very, very comfortable with seat-belts, and we had shades on the windows.
Their mother would like to add that, contrary to custom in the US, no one asked for any permission slips or money for this field trip. But the school does insist that the five year-0lds change into and out of proper gym attire for their weekly gymnastics class with the gym master.
School Chickens
We started at our new Dutch school today. The school is a 10-15 minute walk from our house, down the shopping street with the bakery. The school had a chicken coop with four chickens and lots of tricycles in the courtyard where the kids have recess. It also has a very nice gymnasium.
The best news is that 4 year olds (groep 1) and 5 year olds (groep 2) are in the same class, so Henry and I in the same classroom. Our teacher, Juf. Yvonne, is very nice. We built a big castle together. We also sat in the circle to listen to a story about a boy who brings a snowball into his house and to sing songs (they were all in Dutch, but we did the hand motions).
Dutch school is fun.
