Buying supplies
A list of needed supplies was handed to me when the registration was final and I started to search for all the requested things immediately. I made a shopping list in an online store until I discovered it was not going to arrive before October 1st, I printed the shopping list and went hunting for the items in other stores nearby. It would have been easier to do it online but I just wanted to get it over with. Thankfully, it was not a big deal if she didn't have everything immediately, especially not because the books weren't ordered yet. Yesterday, the last few items arrived, but she managed perfectly fine at school during the first week.
The books
They handle the book part quite great and better than I ever remembered from my school days. Granted, we didn't have apps yet at the time so this is probably the difference. The app is very convenient and you can keep in touch with the teachers as well as other departments in-app. I could download a list in the app to email to the bookstore and go there to get it sorted. We had to wait a few days before all books were available so for the first 4 days, she had to work with a classmate instead of in her own book.
Instead of buying foil to cover the books, we were shown these foil book covers. Just slide in the book fold the edge and you're done! I wish it was this simple, the second size she sold us was supposed to fit but we ruined at least 3 of them. Sigh. Thankfully, we had a few extra covers and they are all covered nicely now. Just wondering who thinks of these sizes, there was not 1mm room to slide in the book so doomed to rip the foil.
All her books, the maths, and language books have three of them as they are for the second and third quarter as well. And on top of the regular books, some workbooks and an agenda which needed to have 1 page per day apparently, but has not been used once.
Backpack issues
When her actual first day arrived, we didn't have any books or an idea of what she needed to fit in her backpack daily. I bought a backpack a bit bigger than the one she had and hoped for the best.
It was ideal as she can just put 1 or 2 bottles of water on the outside without risking harming any school supplies. Then we arrived at the schoolyard and saw most kids with trolleys instead of backpacks. Now let me be clear, I can only applaud that because it's way too hot most days to carry a heavy backpack even if it's just for a few minutes to get home, and let's not forget it's not good for your back anyway. I hated carrying so much weight when I was in school, so to be honest, these people here, are smart using these trolleys instead.
We decided to hunt for a trolley but only found really expensive ones OR the other option, the trolley frame to put the backpack on. We went for that one as she liked her backpack anyway and it was brand new. And then we tried fitting the books at home, but they didn't fit! On top of that, there was no trolley sleeve on the backpack (I forgot to check that) but I could have added one myself, that is if the books would have fitted!
Trolley
Thankfully for us, we bought the backpack and frame of the trolley, as well as a lot of school supplies at the same store and I decided to check if the backpack had any dirty spots, which wasn't the case (yay), and just walk back to explain the situation and ask if we could return both items to buy a more expensive but bigger trolley. We had to add 15 euros or so, but I was very happy he didn't make a fuss because it would have been a real waste of money otherwise. This is the one we bought:
I love the colors, it's big enough and the water and lunchbox can fit in the smaller department on the front so still no risk to damage any books or supplies and now she fits right in with the rest of the kids that have trolleys instead of backpacks.
Some DIY crafting was needed
Some items we bought were a bit boring, like her pink pencil case, as you can see below, I upcycled that one a bit, I will write a tutorial about it later.
On Monday, she has to take most of the books so her trolley is super heavy. I'm very happy that we have changed the backpack to a trolley, they should be careful with their backs so this is a better solution. We definitely underestimated this, we thought it could never be that heavy for a first grader. I admit we were wrong!
First Homework
As this is a new milestone in a new phase of her and our lives, I wanted to show you her first homework as well. Thankfully, this was something that she practiced before so not a hard task. She had to color the fish, then cut them out and glue them on another piece of paper. Below is the result:
After this first day of simple homework, reading exercises were added and of course, I had to google some things myself to make sure I was not going to help her the wrong way. I think reading may become the biggest issue because she has been happily practicing maths for a few days after school, all voluntary!
Friends and the first test
Yesterday I received a message in the school app that next Tuesday, they will get the first test about maths. Honestly, I'm happy it's going to be maths and not from the language class (Catalan) because at least she's doing great with this from day one and it will motivate her if this test result is good. She's in luck as I was good in maths and never had issues myself so I will be able to guide her through this.
Last, but definitely not least, it's great to see her making friends. Several mornings, a child and parent were trying to get her attention to wave at her calling her name, and greeting her. I can see she isn't the odd one out and what I also like to see is that I have not once heard children misbehave or bully another child, which was something always going on in Budapest. There were a few rotten apples always terrorizing the schoolyard. According to our daughter, no kids are fighting or being bullied. This should be normal of course, but we all know, kids can be ruthless. I was a bit scared of her being targeted due to the language but it seems I didn't have to worry after all.
So far so good!
Today she has her first absence day. She caught a cold after a few days at school but we decided if the school is not going to make a fuzz, we will not keep her home because we remember this being a true issue in Budapest, never breaking through the pattern of building some resistance against these colds. I'm glad we just send her as she was feeling good, just had a runny nose and for a few days, a little throat ache.
Her absence has nothing to do with the cold because she's already back to normal thankfully! The reason is the appointment at the immigration office which we've been waiting for since the beginning of August. During the holidays, nothing happens over there, and it was quite stressful that she was still at home while not having this done yet. I felt this could be an issue with school but it seems that she will not miss that much and catch up later.
If all goes well, both boyfriend and daughter will have their residency card soon, apparently, I already had one myself from the last time we lived here. I had no clue that this was a residency card, I thought it was just my NIE number. Luckily for me, this meant I didn't have to go with them this time!
Fingers crossed that everything will keep going smoothly as it's starting to go now.
Thanks for reading!