Grand Finale of preschool {Time capsule}

Surprise! We found a water melon growing near out steps.

A time capsule of this transition which turned out to be surprisingly delightful.

It came sooner than I expected, and I felt happy instead of stressed. Taking the kids out of preschool has been looming before us for a while. We needed somewhere fun and safe for them to play over the last couple of years but now things have progressed and it’s time to get used to being at home together as we plan to try homeschooling.

The kids were going to be at preschool until the end of August...but in early June about 4 or 5 things came together and we realised we would finish up in June. It had been such a lifesaver, we put our eldest in in desperation- he needed more climbing and friends than we could find elsewhere.  So I thought taking them out would be hard, but when it was the right time it felt like we suddenly didn’t need it anymore.

Such a big relief- the thing I was dreading disappeared.

Dress up day at preschool

It was Fairy Tale Dress up day on the Thursday. Our son was so excited, he came up with the idea to dress up as the big bad wolf. He begged me to buy a grey t shirt to go with his grey shorts, he found socks to put on his arms and worked out a mask. We painted it together on the Wednesday afternoon. It was fun to see him having so much fun planning his costume. Painting with him at home also made me less stressed about homeschooling. Yes it was messy, but so thankful we have been given some paints and paint brushes, and he has so much fun painting. That was one of the things I like about preschool- they do so much fun messy stuff there, which the kids love and I don’t have to set up or clean up.

Our son worked hard writing and drawing on the Thursday afternoon, he was excited to make cards for his teachers. We also made granola for them in our toaster oven. Both our kids were given huge handmade cards with finger prints and photos of their class. I went early to pick up and got some photos of them near the world map with friends.

Some of the books we bought in the last week of preschool.

 Choosing a new-to-us book to take home was a feature of those last few days. A bookshop just opened up near preschool, full of English language kids books!!! As we won’t be in town much after this, I let the kids choose a book each 3 days in a row. Exciting, festive! Added to our Peppa collection, got our first Mr Man book and, our sons new favourite , our first Enid Blyton. I didn’t know if he would be ready for so many words and so little pictures but he LOVES it. I’m reading it to him for the second time now, he keeps asking for it again.

June skies are amazing

I was glad our son already had an idea about homeschool from when we visited a friend in February. All the other kids are going to different schools, or continuing on at the same school. He is just staying home to play and read books for now, but he calls it homeschool, and he is really excited about it. Yay!

Tuk tuk ride home on final day of preschool

I'm still being asked to read this book everyday almost a month after we bought it! I thought it would be too many words and not enough pictures but he loves it. The word "tiresome" has entered his vocab. 'oh Mummy, you are tiresome"

The first week after preschool we were up to Psalm 19 so that matched the amazing sunsets we were having. At the start of the week we had some kitchen shelves made for the pantry, I spent the next few days unpacking our kitchen boxes while Soeun and the kids went to visit Grandma. One child came back with a sore face after falling down some stairs! On the way back they had a boat ride at sunset. The next Sunday I went to house church and discovered a homeschooling family is moving near where we live (where no other expats live... yet?) Exciting times.

Soeun's sunset boat ride photo

Where our non cautious child met her swollen mouth.

New shelves, unpacking boxes we packed back in October.