C's First day of School

Inside the classroom, at his cubby, on Open House Day.

C began school on August 15, 2012. He entered into Year 2 at Discovery Minds Primary School in Discovery Bay, which is located in our community. We were very fortunate that he was accepted into this school because it is so close to our house. Schooling in Hong Kong for ex-patriots is EXTREMELY competitive, expensive, and overall a nightmare for every parent. There are limited spaces available and loads of students who need to attend English speaking schools. When we toured in February 2012 to decide if we wanted to relocate to Hong Kong, we were told by all of the schools that we had already missed the deadline for enrollment into the following year! (Apparently, even if you have no idea that you may relocate to Hong Kong, you may want to put your children on the school waiting lists now. This way, in 4 years, they will have a spot, should you so choose :))

Anyways, C & E were  numbers like 178 and 220 in most of the schools. Oh, and I forgot, to apply to the school it costs thousands of dollars$$$$. If you would like your child moved to the top of the list, some schools are willing to take an additional $100,000-$500,000 (Hong Kong dollars) from you. But be warned, this does not guarantee a spot, you just move up the list. We were fortunate the hubby's company does have an excellent reputation with the American school in Hong Kong, so we were offered spots for our children there. We reluctantly had to decline because the kids would have an hour commute, since we could not live on that island due to my motion sickness :( Luckily, our lovely new primary school opened in DB, and we actually were able to apply on time for that one, so places were given for the kiddos!!!! I am very serious about the school situation, there are some people here who have children in 3 different schools or have to home school because there are just not enough places.

Back to C. Discovery Minds Primary School is a British-based, English speaking school. C is in Year 2, which is similar to 1st grade in America. He has 22 children in his class, and he is the only American. He has lots of kids from Europe, several from Australia, and several from Asia in the class. All of the children speak English plus their native language(s). He takes Mandarin classes several times a week, in addition to citizenship, music, numeracy, literacy, handwriting, art, physical education, sciences.

All of the children wear these lovely little uniforms, as C is modeling on his first day.

Outside his school, without the hat!!

That's his teacher, Miss Simpson, in the line speaking to the children. He is acting pretty brave for the picture, but it was pretty tough for him (and Mom & NaNa!) NaNa was actually here for the kids first days of school. Mark was traveling back in the USA and I couldn't handle all of the stress of the first days of school, moving into the duplex, finding my way around Db and Hong Kong by myself! So thanks Mom!

His school day runs from 8:30-3pm. He was very excited to see us at the end of the day, but he did a great job and was very brave for us!

A quick hug for support from E! She started 2 days later.