A day in the life of an international school student

September 30, 2010

I visited the kids at school for a parent coffee-get-together, one of many the school hosts. Class parents often make their own homemade food for these events, so I go as often as I can. This time didn't disappoint with homemade egg rolls for breakfast. Clearly, I have ulterior motives for visiting my kids at school.

I paired the coffee event with my reading a book to Boom's class and having lunch with Alice and Griffin. One nice thing about the school is they encourage parents to join their kids at lunch sometimes, and it's a secret pleasure of mine to go. But, first, I read to Boom's class. This school is so loaded with expat oil money and more that they even have smart boards in the class for the 3 year olds. It's kind of over the top. Instead of my holding a book up and reading it to them, as I guess only dinosaurs do, the teacher held the book under an electronic overhead projector so that each page was projected up on the smart board screen. She turned the pages for me while I read. With the lights off and the book so distant from me, it felt almost as if the kids were watching a movie in the dark rather than having an intimate moment with me, getting lost in a book together. But, Abraham seemed proud to have his favorite pirate book and his Mommy projected on screen, holding my hand tightly the entire time.

Then, he and his adorable classmates raced tricycles, ran a lap around their age-appropriate soccer field on a track, and did ring-around-the-rosie with a haphazard, rambunctious style that seemed to be throwing off his task-oriented teacher who had the best-laid plans, until they were met by a bunch of 2 and 3 year olds tired of tasks.

I was surprised to see how rough Boom got with some of the other kids. In his old school he would never hit or shove roughly (he'd save it for his siblings) but in this class the first thing I saw was his shoving a younger, upset girl down on the ground. He continued to be rough the rest of the morning. And, I think some of the other boys were similar. I spoke with the teacher about it later, when our parents had coffee with her, but I'm not sure she has a system down that's working to manage it yet. It's honestly hard for me to watch Boom hurting anyone else, especially when it seems like if the environment were to improve, then he would too.

At lunch with Alice and Griffin, it was just plain exhilarating for me to see how well-liked they were. Alice had a close, close friend named Valeria, who rides on her bus and lives next door to us. And, Griffin was begged by 2 boys from his class to be goalie for the much anticipated, post-lunch soccer match. One of the boys asked Griffin if he'd come have a playdate at his house. In Brooklyn, I'd taken for granted how well-loved they were by their long-time best friends, and I didn't realize how much I missed seeing them adored by their friends, and vice-versa. Although, I must say, Griffin is both expanding his friendships (usually he only has one, isolated friendship in his class) and holding back his passion for his new friends somewhat. Maybe he feels disloyal to his best friends in Brooklyn, otherwise.