In-Schooling...Settling in

We have survived our first week in our Stockholm apartment.  I think I average climbing the 5 flights of stairs about 2x a day, luckily I usually only carry G up them once.  Both M and I are feeling the walking and the climbing in our legs and it makes us wonder when will it just be natural to do all the climbing and not so much work.  But all of this is really for another post since the main focus this week was getting G settled into daycare.  

A little background

Every kid has the right to go to förskola (daycare) from 1 years old.  (Paternal leave is about 1.5 years here at 85% pay so for the first year the parents, both mom and dad, are able to take time and care for the baby.) The cost of förskola is a percentage of the combined income based on amount of kids with a maximum fee per month.  In order to get into a center you apply to either the municipality centers or there are private centers that have their own queuing system. The only difference I was able to find in public vs private was the queuing system and even that is changing and the private schools are being placed in the municipal system.   

As I mentioned previously, we got into a förskola very quickly.  As part of the helping parent and child adjust to this new environment and routine there is a period of time called in-schooling.  For the first 3 days, parent and child attend the school from about 9:30am- 3pm.  The parent acts as the child's guide through the days activities. On the first day though if the child doesn't take a nap, you go home early and try again the next day. If those three days went well then the following 2 days are still short days but the child attends the school alone.  

G Amazes us all

G and I started in-schooling on Monday.  When we arrived the first day there was circle time where there was singing and greeting the new kids, another child started too that day.  After which was some free play followed by fruit and lunch.  It was looking pretty good but then all fell apart at nap time.  The school has a room dedicated to napping where there are pads, blankets and pillows for each kid that sleeps.  The kids are assigned a spot so each day they go to the same pad and for the most part lie down and fall asleep.  WELL not my kid.  She kept looking around and sitting up and refused to nap.  I decided rather than fight her we would leave and the teachers were all very sympathetic and said "new place, tomorrow will be better." (G fell fast asleep the moment we left the building.)

The next day went about the same BUT this time I was talking to one of the teachers about how G doesn't fall asleep with me and that I need to just leave the room.  And that is exactly what we did.  I put G down for a nap, she whimpered and then slept for 1.5 hours. The teacher exclaimed that she had never seen a kid fall asleep like that on the 2nd day of being there.  

The third day was a little bit of a mess.  M came with us and that was all well and good. The kids started out playing outside which G loves and she barely looked up to see where we were once she got out. It was when we had to go inside that her whole world fell apart and from that moment on she was a bit of a mess.  Luckily the teachers saw that G was very independent and didn't need me around so the rest of the week she went by herself.  On the first day when I showed up I could hear her giggling from down the hall and was greeted with hugs and laughter.  

All and all I think G will do just fine in school, leaving me time to get a job, learn swedish and catch up on some reading. ;)