We just dropped Ouest off for her first day of school. What a moment. Bittersweet.
Here’s how this came about.
A few months back Ouest started talking about going to school. She talked about it and talked about it. We read Berenstain Bear books about it, and every time we saw kids in their school uniforms it was brought up. Ali and I, ever the attached parents, really had no intention of putting her in school, but Ouest didn’t know this, and she kept on about it.
Finally, when Ali and I were discussing our plans for the summer, we decided that we’d let her give pre-school a shot. When we got here to Mazatlan we did some research, but then eventually talked ourselves out of it, for one reason or another. Mostly because our research wasn’t turning up any easy answers. And since we weren’t overly eager to begin with, it was easy for us to change our minds. Instead we decided to try and find a girl/lady to come in and play with the kids for a couple of hours a day, teach them some Spanish, and generally just horse around and have fun with them both.
We decided this on Wednesday morning. Later on that afternoon I was at the beach with Ouest while Lowe napped, when I met a man named Marco. A local guy—the kind of guy who strolls the beach hitting up tourists for tours or whatever—just trying to hustle up a buck. Normally these guys get a swift cold shoulder from me, but Marco was friendly, he knew I was “local” and wasn’t looking for anything, so we just talked casually about life, kids, the beaches this time of year, whatever.
After he walked away it occurred to me that he was exactly the kind of guy who would be able to hook us up with a nanny. So when he wandered by again an hour later I stopped him and told him what we were looking for.
“Yeah man, my daughter could do that. She has three kids, that’s what she does.”
So the next morning Marco showed up at the door promptly at nine with his 23-year-old completely non-English speaking daughter Carla. He introduced us then took off for the beach. For the next two hours Carla played with the kids, drew pictures, taught them words for things I didn’t know, like clouds, and basically did exactly what we’d hoped she would.
That was last Thursday. That night I walked up to the store after the kids were in bed and noticed a big banner across the road just two blocks up from us.
Bienvenidos!
The sign was welcoming kids back to school. The bright blue building had another banner out front listing the costs for everything from Kindergarten to Secondary. It looked like a nice place, it was super close, and oh, what the hell.
So Ali and I went back on Friday morning and met the very friendly lady at the front desk. She didn’t speak any English but we were able to do pretty well until eventually a teacher arrived who did speak some English. The two of them showed us around, answered our questions, and eventually we took the sign-up forms and the long list of things we needed to buy and told them we’d see them the next day.
Buying school supplies isn’t a big deal—if you’ve got a week or two to do it. But in our case we had three days. The list included her uniform, a CURP (government form), a bunch of other paperwork, all of her school supplies, books, etc..
That afternoon Ouest and I went out shoe shopping. She needed tennis shoes. There are a dozen shoe stores within a few blocks of us, so we started wandering through them. I was just going to get her a pair of Converse, but then we walked into one store where I asked a lady where the girl’s shoes were and she asked, “Para escuela?” Ummm, yeah, I guess for school. She then walked me over to a separate display with all-white shoes only. School shoes. All white. Got it.
“Do you have these in 17?” Mexican size.
She crinkled her nose and shook her head, “No 17s.”
Two days to school, the stores were all a zoo, and there were no more all white 17’s to be had. We walked from store to store getting the same answer. Two hours of wandering the streets later we finally stumbled into a store with a white pair of tennis shoes in size 17. And for only 300 pesos. I had been just about ready to break down and buy the only other pair we’d seen, Nikes, for 1,100 pesos (about $90!). That’s how extreme things had gotten.
Then we were off to the uniform store where everything was hanging up sorted by school. Colegio Gilberto Owen stood proudly in blue and white, and we gathered up all of our stuff. All except the most important part, the dress—or jumper as they appear to call it. They didn’t have any more in her size and wouldn’t have any until after school started. Not a huge deal, but I was bummed because I didn’t want her to feel different on her first day. I asked if there were any other stores, but with so many schools in town each store seems to represent only a select few.
On Saturday we went to the papeleria (stationery store), handed over our list, and watched as they piled up all of our stuff. The list covered an entire page top to bottom. Paper, pencils, crayons, coloring book, puzzle, rubber mat, eraser, pencil sharpener, wood sticks, paint brush, toilet paper, wet wipes, an apron, and on and on and on.
The next day we were off to Mega, the big supermarket, for a lunchbox and other things.
On Monday we went back to the school to drop off our paperwork and pay for her registration and books. That’s when we noticed that the older kids had started that day and the girls were all wearing knee high socks and black flats. Crap, more shoes.
So Ouest and I were off shoe shopping again. We went back to the store where we had lucked upon her white shoes the day before. No luck this time around. Fortunately we only wandered for an hour or so before we found her black shoes at the fanciest “Macy’s style” store in town. We dropped more money on shoes, though Ouest did look adorable.
During these couple of days Ouest was giddy. While I was putting her to bed one night she looked me right in the eyes and said, “I’m so excited to go to school, Papa.”
And thank goodness, because the last thing we wanted to do was force her to go to school. This was for her, because she had shown a real interest in going to school, and because more and more she’s been showing a real interest in having friends to play with too. Hell, the other day at the playground she said goodbye to a girl and gave her a hug. After twenty minutes of playing together—a hug!
Anyway, so it’s been a busy weekend. Ali and I are super nervous. All we want is for her to have fun and to have other kids to laugh and play with. The school seems nice, her room is bright, all seven kids sit at one big table in the middle of the room surrounded by the alphabet, colors, and numbers, and her teacher is a very nice young lady with a big smile. We think she’ll really enjoy it.
But of course there is that one thing that makes us so hesitant, so nervous—the language. We’ve only met one lady in the school who speaks a lick of English. Ouest’s teacher does not. Ouest is going from maybe a 3% Spanish immersion at home to a 100% full-on immersion. This would be super difficult for us as adults to handle, so how will a three-year-old do it? I mean, look at that picture above, there is a carrot next to the letter Z, and a fish next to the P. What kind of crazy language is this anyway?
As I type this Ouest is two hours into a five hour day. My heart is beating faster than normal. I want to just go and sit out front of the school and wait for her, listen for her, just in case she needs me. Needs me to take her to the bathroom, or tie her shoes, or open up those pesky ziploc bags at lunchtime.
I was waiting outside at 1:00. Ali was at home while Lowe napped. Ouest came bounding down the steps and her face lit up when she saw me waiting for her. She ran up and immediately started in about how she lost her pencil sharpener. I assured her we could stop on the way home and pick up another one peso pencil sharpener and then prodded her about the rest of her day.
Her teacher showed me her homework, which consisted of having Ouest take a red marker and trace some yellow lines that the teacher had drawn into her homework notebook. Why does every teacher in every school in the world now feel it is necessary to give homework? I mean we’re talking about maybe a two minute project. How can that not be accomplished in class? I digress.
We walked across the street to the panaderia, got a milk and a snack and sat outside to talk about her day. She had made one friend, Fatima, and one other girl hadn’t been nice—she wouldn’t share the Dora pirate puzzle. Ouest didn’t eat much because she wasn’t hungry, but she drank her juice box. They played a game where everyone sat in a circle and something happened—I’m not sure what. She went to the bathroom with the teacher’s help. She didn’t need her new white shoes today. And that’s about it. That’s what I was able to draw out of her one painstaking detail after another.
The most important thing to me though, came as we sat on the windowsill of the bakery. Ouest said to me in her happy singsong voice, “I had so much fun at school today, Papa.”
When we were walking home I said, “Mama is going to be so excited to hear all about your day.”
And she replied, “Papa, you can tell Mama what me said.”
It’s universal, kids just don’t care to tell you about their day at school.
(Cost for Pre-School in Mexico $334USD: registration $95, books $95, uniform $54, two pairs of shoes $65, supplies $22, school photos $3. Plus $67 a month tuition.)
66 Comments on “First Day of School”
Oh! Ali, this was the BESTEST POST EVER!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If I remember, the first day of school was definitely harder on me than my kids!
With that big, bright, beautiful smile of hers, Ouest will have no trouble making friends and her desire to learn will serve her well in the classroom.
As for you two, you’d better start listening to Spanish CDs because Ouest will be spouting Spanish in no time! 🙂
We hope so. I want her and Lowe to be able to talk about us right in front of our faces without us having a clue what they are rambling on about. 🙂
Hmm.. Get’s annoyed with the boat, then puts Ouest in school for months. I think you just made a life-changing decision.
LOL!
If I had a dollar for every time somebody thought they had us all figured out…
Kitty is just as excited to start her 2 day week preschool as Ouest is to start hers. I figure I am in this is to give my kids as many varied and different experiences as possible so if she currently wants to experience school, so be it.
Ouest is too adorable with her braids and school shoes. She looks like a Norman Rockwell painting. <3 Hope she is having a blast!
Thanks Cidnie, we totally agree. Putting her in pre-school in Mazatlan does not mean we just bought a house and will never remove her from her little school until she is eighteen. It’s just an experience for her. Hopefully a fun one.
This was such a great post, and the pictures are amazing! Don’t worry about the language, she’ll absorb it all like a sponge. When I was in 3rd grade, Nora, a girl from Syria moved to town with her family. She didn’t know any English at all, but when we graduated 9 years later, she was the valedictorian. The only caveat: She’ll come home having learned lots of things from her teachers, AND from her classmates.
Right. That is the downside to the whole schooling thing isn’t it?
Yep. I’ll never forget seeing MY sweet little girl (who’s entering 4th grade this year) flip my son “the finger” when she was in 1st grade! I said, “Where did you learn that?” “On the bus”, she said. Here on Nantucket, elementary school kids ride the same bus as the middle- and high school kids – which is insanity.
Love, love, love this post. She is PRECIOUS in her little school uniform. Good job guys on listening to what she needed and acting on it. You guys roll with the flow and it is going to serve your kids well in this life. Did Lowe miss her or was he loving some one on one with you two?
The one on one time is another big reason that we’re excited about this. Lowe’s one on one time with me has been sorely lacking, compared to Ouest. So now the three of us drop Ouest off at school and then Lowe and I spend a couple of hours wandering the city looking for things to do. Then we come home and he can have his Mama time again too. Works out nice.
A carrot next to the letter Z… hilarious.
Thank you. Thank you very much. I’m here all week. 🙂
“Thank you. Thank you very much. I’m here all week . . . Try the pescado with zanahorias.”
There – fixed it for you. 😉
Funny thing about that joke is that for the life of me I can’t tell if the commenters have understood I was joking or if they really think my Spanish is that bad.
Heh…I feel your pain, Pat. Being misunderstood can often be the negative side effect of being creative.
“Gracias. Muchas gracias. Estoy aquí toda la semana. Pruebe el pescado con las zanahorias.”(Wish there was an emoticon for “rim shot.” Hmmm…I wonder what “rim shot” is in Spanish – “el borde disparó?”) 😉
Hey! We moved to France without knowing any French at all, and immediately put our 4- and 5-year old girls in 100% French-speaking public school. They knew no French at all when they started. And they were totally fine. Even after the excitement and newness wore off, they still loved it. By the first week, they were doing better than some of the more nervous native kids. Other kids will come out of the woodwork to help Ouest, she’ll be a mini-celebrity, and she’ll learn Spanish amazingly fast. As parents, you’ll also get plugged into the community and into cool things that are happening that you would never have known about otherwise. On the negative side, her learning Spanish means that you have now just acquired a tiny, ever-present, tyrannical Spanish tutor. You will start to hear about how terrible your Spanish and accent are with a kind of glee you never imagined. But she will have the time of her life.
Haha. Never thought of her as growing up to be my tyrannical Spanish tutor, but now that you mention it I can totally see that this is what I’ve gotten myself into.
Oh my, could she be any cuter? She will benefit so greatly from the immersion experience! My son Zachary wanted and still wants nothing to do with any kind of school ever. But Naia definitely has the personality for it. Around here they are just too expensive though. Maybe I will ship her to you for a few months 😉
We kind of choked at the cost too, but realize that it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the States. Thing I can’t figure out is how the locals manage to put four or five kids through school at the same time. These costs add up big time.
I was missing stories about Bumfuzzle but I agree wtih the others this post made up for it 🙂
Agree, best post ever. And Mazatlan is going to open up for you all as no town ever has.
Hi-I can’t remember how or when I started reading your blog. But I am a regular now. 🙂 I’m sure you aren’t surprised to have so many comments about school. All parents have to deal with that sick feeling when their kid goes off happily for their first school experience. My daughter is about to enter 5th grade and I still feel it. But underneath it is a feeling of pride for the person they are becoming. Quest will do great. And man, is she a cutie in the uniform! It is always good to rock the fashion.
My daughter has been in a Spanish language program since 3, too. One thing to remember is that Quest is still figuring out English. This pretty much means she is a sponge for language in general. If some gringo ever tells you she translates from English to Spanish and vice versa, that would be bunk. She’ll just know the word in each language. I think linguists call in “code switching” or something fancy like that. A true gift you are giving her in school and out.
Sweeeeeeet!!! this is great.
I’m pretty sure we are going to send Micah to school in Mexico for a while anyway. He’s older though – 5 – but still, encouraging to read your experience! I think you are doing it the right way, too. Local, 100% immersion, sounds right.
xoxo m
Yep, she has no English fallback here. Other than I think they spend three hours a week learning English with a different teacher. She better Ace that class. 🙂
I LOVED this post! One of my favorite language-immersion fun facts is that the kids after a dizzying first day usually FORGET to mention the fact that the teacher speaks an entirely different language than they do! They are so caught up in the newness and the big-kid-ness of the situation – the friends! the activities! the adventure! – that something so obvious to adults as simple LANGUAGE usually passes them entirely! They tuck and roll and go with it. It’s so cool. Bravo for tackling this big step and thank you for sharing it with us! I’m loving the vicarious adventure!
That’s true. Ali and I keep bringing it up to her, but I suppose we should just forget about it like she probably has.
Having a son about to enter 6th grade, I can assure you the lack of information about their day doesn’t change. My son often just shrugs when I ask him what he did or claims they did absolutely nothing. Really? The teacher just had you put your heads down on your desks for the whole day and sit quietly? “Yep, pretty much.” Heaven forbid I finally pry some information out of him only to have his mom ask him to repeat it all. Time to just strap a video camera to his head so I can watch what goes on for myself. Thanks for the great site – been a reader since you guys were out sailing in the cat.
I would love to be a fly in the wall of that classroom right now. 🙂
What a great post! My boat kid wanted to go to school when he was 11 and we were in the Bahamas. He ended up going for two years! I was so anxious, in the beginning, but it turned out to be a great experience for him. We had never intended staying someplace for so long but, after thinking about it, we realized that we were giving our son the opportunities we had intended when we started our journey on the sailboat!
OMG! I can’t believe how big she is. Lowe getting his haircut and Ouest starting school in the same week? I can’t believe how well you are handling it. That’s awesome, how exciting!
Seriously right? Lowe is no longer a baby boy, and Ouest is no longer a little girl, she’s a big girl. What is happening!
here’s my experience, take what you wish. 🙂 We homeschooled the kids all the time in the US and when we reached Mexico they were 10, 8, 5 and 3. Since we were traveling around in an RV we continued to homeschool. It wasn’t until #1 and #4 kids really WANTED to go to school and we had settled in Mexico that we started school. Unfortunately, by then, most of their school mates spoke enough English that they learned very little spanish. It took about a year for those kids to begin to learn Spanish. Son #2 (kid 2) was finally convinced to do school but his school had little to no English and even though he started later than the other kids, his Spanish is better. Finally, kid 3 went to same school as kid 1 and there is far too much English at her school (kids want to learn English so they will speak it to her) and her Spanish is not good enough to be fully competent in classes yet.
So, long way to say that Ouest is at an ADVANTAGE with 100% Spanish. She’ll actually pick it up faster that way. Is she enrolled in SEP yet (nor sure if SEP starts at prescolar)?
Yeah I can see how once the kids start learning English that your kid wouldn’t get a chance to speak Spanish any more.
SEP? I’m not sure. The school talked to us about how we would get official paperwork stating that she went to school here from X to Y, and that she could then take that paperwork with her wherever she ended up next. But that’s all we know.
yup, that’s SEP. I think you should see $180 charge for it. IF she wants to continue school in Mexico (even infrequently) being in SEP will really help that. As she’s a Mexican, if she decides she wants University it will be helpful to have been in SEP for secundaria, end of primaria (for 6th exams) and, obviously, Prepa. But even without there are always ways. 🙂 Never at a loss for adventure, you guys, eh? 🙂
You know, a while back there was a post here about having kids being taken care of by others. I was a little upset by it and mainly because my daughter is similar to Quest. She’s 4 and this is her second year of preschool. She asked for it long ago, she is an independent child who strives to learn everything she can. Without school she is bored and misses her friends. So what’s wrong with sending kids out into the world, if only for a few hours a day, especially if it’s what they really want? I’m glad Quest had a nice time! She’ll love it!
Oh! And one more thing…my niece who was 3 at the time started school in Colombia and didn’t know any Spanish. She was fluent within a very short time! You better start learning more yourself!
Agreed. I think I need to take some of this free time to take some classes myself.
Wonderful…..She looks so happy and so excited…and Yes, she is adorable in her school uniform….She will teach your son a lot too. Sounds like a great way to spend time…gives you a break so you can have adventures with Lowe…What a wonderful new adventure.
Pictures of Ouest with her big Dora roller bag and spanking new clothes and pigtails were the most adorable. What a joyous child you have! (Well, really both of them). Loved the pictures!
Thanks Christina.
How totally exciting for her and terrifying for you. And the pictures say it all: she looks ¡tan contenta!
She will be the tyrannical Spanish tutor soon. You will semi-enjoy it too! As soon as my parents realized I could speak English well enough, I became their designated spokesperson for years to come.
I can’t wait for the day we’ve got a translator in the family. 🙂
Have you ever heard of Duolingo.com? It’s amazing, it really helped me remember what I’d learned and forgotten from Spanish classes in school.
There is a TED presentation about it too, about how it’s being used to help automate the translation of the internet. It was developed by the guy who created the anti-spam Captcha, who later modified Capthca text boxes to help convert books into digital text… really cool program, and it’s free!
Just checked it out. Looks really cool. Simple to use, and FREE. I’m going to take a closer look soon. Thanks for the tip.
Hey guys
What a lovely post, Ouest is also growing up so fast and I love the fact that you get to spend so much time with her. We admire your lifestyle!
You make us realise that life is far too shirt to always be working – we are working to that goal.
It is man. I’ll be turning 40 soon and still feel like I’ve hardly scratched the surface. Who has time to work until they’re dead? Do everything you can to make it happen and you’ll never regret a second of it.
OK. See if they can teach her how to cook some awesome Mexican food (fish tacos, pico de gallo, flan, etc.) In home economics class and you’ll be set for life. This and the Lowe haircut post should be in you Top Ten list. These are the days! 🙂
Right? That would be amazing. 🙂
These are the days indeed.
The way Ouest marched and bounded into the world shows what a chip off the block she is. As I recall, you two jumped into a cat to go ’round the world with more guts than experience with boats. I gather you freaked out and angered many other “serious cruisers” on CF. LOL, typical. Good on you guys for not loaded your kids with your worries like many parents crawling with ANTS (automatic negative thoughts) and giving them enthusiasm for life. Lowe’s haircut seemed to make him into a much older boy. A great post with wonderful pics to illustrate. Maybe see ya this winter.
Thanks for the kind comment Jon. I hope we do see you this winter.
Pat you made me think all this time you were different! Nope, that little girl has you wrapped around her little finger . Isn’t it great? The kids are so cute. Kelley was raving about Lowe’s new do. You’re a good Dad.
Come on Harlan, we’ve hung out, you knew I wasn’t different. And yeah, you know all about being wrapped around a little finger. 🙂 Say hi to the gang back in Norman.
So I’ve been reading your blog for three years(ish) now…checking in on the daily, talking about bum-posts with my fellow bum-lover friends…usual blog-stalker type of stuff. Anyway, for whatever reason I’ve never felt the urge to comment before. But this post! This doozy of a post complete with school uniforms, a nervous papa and a school-loving little “tell mama what me said” Ouest… I just couldn’t help myself. I hope your sweet girl has a wonderful time at school and thank you (and Ali) for sharing bits of your awesome adventure on this space…its been a true joy to read along 🙂
Thanks Tisse, we appreciate the kind words. Please, comment any time. 🙂 Happy to have you along.
Hi- this was great. Wonderful to hear your story. In the US the class size is about twice that big…. Anyway, I had a Hungarian friend in Detroit. When they landed there, their son was in 1st grade. He did not speak a word of English at the time, but within a half a year he sounded like a native.
All the best,
Charlie
Awesome post! It made me smile while reading it, remembering my own kid’s first days at school. My youngest just graduated high school and (being ever the independent one) is off to explore the world and live on her own for a year before going to college. I am just as nervous as her first day of school, about her being away and me being an empty nester at 46. Another bittersweet time of life. You have a long time before you have to worry about that luckily!
Good for her Brett, and for you. All the best.
Great post. I felt just about the same way this morning as my youngest daughter left this morning to start her sophomore year at Virginia Tech…enjoy!
This is the most precious post ever! We are having a baby in December, our boat – although for sale – is in La Paz, and we are so excited for a world of adventures to come. If we master a small portion of the awesome parenting you are doing, we’ll be thrilled. I love catching up on your blog – Cheers, Kara
This post made me smile so much. She is so serious! You can tell she will just love school! So happy for her!
I have followed your blog for quite a while and have always been tempted to post a comment.
My wife and I and two boys (almost 3 and 5) live a fairly similar life to you guys in that we live in Latin America. Both our boys go to a local school where all their classmates only speak Spanish. You’re going to be amazed at your wee girls Spanish in only a couple of weeks. Our boys are fully bilingual and are happy in either language. My wife and I did not grow up bilingual (but can get by in Spanish), and it still blows us away when we hear them talking with their mates. You are going to love it!
I agree, Ouest will be teaching you guys Spanish in a couple of months. She will catch on SO fast. She looks adorable in her school uniform, I know that doesn’t make up for the cost, but she does.
I know this is an old post, but you sent me the link to it when responding to your “20 years” post. I reread it again and smiled all the way through. As a former teacher, whose son (a Wanderer groupie) was in my classroom for 3 years, I am so appreciative of the way your kids get to move through this world. They have grown into lovely young people who will be a tour de force when they strike out on their own. Believe me when I say that you won’t be as ready for it as they are and Ouest’s first day of school will have been a walk in the park for you emotionally by comparison. Keep on doing what you’re doing and I love being along for the ride.