Gabi's teacher is great! She has high expectations for behavior, she differentiates work based on each child's level (and, of course, Gabi tested advanced for a first grader), and she really cares about the kids and understands what is important to them. She has experience as a Highly Gifted and Talented teacher, too.
Last year, she spent the year teaching in Abu Dhabi in the UAE -- AWESOME! She sometimes uses an Arabic phrase to get the children's attention, which Gabi tried to teach me.
Four weeks ago, Bella started PreK three days a week. She is a bit sad that she doesn't get to go to the same school as Gabi, but the public Early Childhood Education classes (at all three elementary schools in our neighborhood!) are all full.
Bella is in an excellent PreK class at a private preschool down the street, though, and we are very happy with it. Annabelle's teacher has great classroom management skills, really encourages the kids, and uses a fabulous curriculum that incorporates everything from Spanish to gardening, from dancing to recycling. Her spelling is a bit poor, but the kids are too young to notice. She seems to be able to take everything in stride when something doesn't go as planned, and I'm sure that's often the case with a classroom full of 4-year-olds.
Gabi started school four days after Bella, so she's been in first grade for three and a half weeks now. Her school playground has a map of the United States painted on the blacktop, where she posed in Colorado on her first day of school.
Each girl's school is about half a mile away, but in opposite directions. We can take walking/biking trails through the Greenway the whole way, and we only cross one street to get to each school. That adds up to four miles of exercise a day! Sometimes I cheat and drive Bella, though. I did get a bike trailer to put the little ones in so we can bike instead of walk, and that goes much faster.
Gabi's school doesn't start until 9 AM (first bell rings at 8:55), so we have plenty of time in the morning to get ready and even pause for a picture on our front porch. Bella doesn't always cooperate, though. I try to get Bella to school by 8:30, since her class starts circle time then.
My three girls on our front porch before walking to school:
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