First Weeks In School

What do I think about school so far?

So far, everyone is happy!  There are some obvious differences between our new school and our old school.

Uniform - This is the biggest difference from our school in the US.  Just about every school in the UK has a uniform whether public or private.  Each week the newsletter reminds parents of the uniform components and how it's mandatory to wear it.  We had to purchase the polos & sweatshirts from the school and the pants from the department store.  I am happy to report that the department stores have a school uniform section with extremely affordable clothes.  They bottoms are all polyester and the tags suggest to keep away from flame.  Nail polish and dangle earrings are prohibited.  Girls can only wear stud earrings.  Oldest Kiddo added a barrette to her hair today, I do hope that is an approved accessory.  It is nice to know what the kids will wear each day, but I have to keep up with the laundry as they each only have two polos and sweatshirts.

 

Lessons - Oldest Kiddo has many enrichment lessons planned into her week.  Each week she has PE two times, a clarinet lesson, a chess lesson, and a French lesson.  Soon swimming will be added to the mix.  That's one busy week!

Transportation - We live over one mile from school, and getting to school takes some planning.  We have two options: walk all the way (30 minutes) or take a bus 2/3 of the way and walk the rest (15 minutes).  I plan for the bus to school as it gives the kids a relaxed morning.  I use my favorite app to see what time the bus will arrive.  Lately the bus schedule isn't as convenient so we've had to walk in a pinch or arrive at school earlier than I like.  The kids love the bus.  After school I have the kids take turns to decide if we should walk or take the bus.  It's been rain and windy for most of the afternoons so the bus has been our main mode.  

Dressing for PE - Both kids have to change their clothes for PE.  I can't imagine the scene in Youngest Kiddo's room.  I bet most of their PE time is spent changing their clothes.  The most awkward part is that both kids change in the classroom.  In front of each other.  Oldest Kiddo is getting to the age where the genders should really be separate, in my opinion.  Another expat mom on the playground agrees with me.  She shared her concern with the Head Teacher, and she was told her that this is just the way they do it in Britain.  End of story.  Now we plan for her to wear a tank top under her uniform on PE days.  

School lunch (also called school dinner) -  At our old school Oldest Kiddo could decide each day whether or not she wanted hot lunch.  Here the kids have to decide for half of the term (aka semester, trimester) if they want hot or packed lunch.  The school was gracious to let the kids try hot lunch for a week so they could decide if they liked it.  There are three choices per day plus a dessert.  As you can see below the menu is quite varied.  After a week of hot lunch both decided they want packed lunches until the half term.  Secretly I wanted them to take the hot lunch so I didn't have to pack lunches every morning.  Oh well.  

Friendly Parents - I am surprised and humbled by the number of parents that have introduced themselves on the playground.  A few continue to talk to me in the morning, which I really appreciate.  One funny thing is that it's gotten around that we are from Chicago.  When people introduce themselves they say, "I hear you're from Chicago.  That's the Windy City, right?"  or "Wow, they have a lot of snow there right now!"

As long as the kids are happy, so am I.  Wait until the month is over and I'll share how many miles I've walked this month.  You won't believe it.  

Finding A School In London - We Found One!

The kids survived their first week in British Public Schools.  Well, Oldest Kiddo survived.  Youngest Kiddo developed a fever on Thursday night.  I was really surprised that he got sick since.  In the last eight weeks they've been all over the city, been breathed & coughed on, and touched every railing and pole on transportation that they should have Superman immunity.  I guess nothing is immune to the germfest that is a five-year-old classroom.  By Saturday morning he was back to himself, eating everything he could to make up for the missed meals.

Starting school has not been without it's own set of frustration and annoyances along the way.  Back in October I shared my take on how you apply for schools.  Since we applied after the school year started, our process was a little different, but you get the idea that it's a pain in the arse.  Our house is on the border of another school council (for ease of understanding we will call it a district).  I applied for schools in our district and in the neighboring district.  We have a school that is approximately 20 houses away, and dreamed that it would be amazing to be offered a place for both kids.

I applied before Christmas, and I knew I would not hear anything until the first of the year.  In January I received an offer in the post for Youngest Kiddo at a school about a mile away.  An email to the district revealed that Oldest Kiddo would be offered a spot at the school by the house.  That was a bummer for us because we really wanted them at the same school.  A week ago Thursday, Matt received a call from the Head Teacher in the neighboring district for a school just over a mile away to offer both kids a spot.  Since the kids have been out of school since mid-November we jumped at the chance for them to start school together on Monday.

We met with the Head Teacher, and she took us on a tour of the school to meet the teachers.  Before we left we purchased the uniforms and did a little happy dance all the way home that they were going to school.

On Monday morning the kids were elated to go to school.  They got ready in record time, and they happily walked the distance to school.  I'll admit that I got a little teary when I walked away from the school; these two kids have been my shadow 24/7 for the last eight weeks.  The tears quickly dissipated when I reveled in the peace while I enjoyed a latte and pain au chocolat at the coffee shop.

When I arrived home the post man had just delivered the day's mail.  In the day's mail was an offer for both kids at the school by the house.  Are you kidding me?  What happened to the offer the district sent me last week for Youngest Kiddo to go to another school?  I was beyond angry at this moment.  Over the weekend I came to terms that the trip to school would be just over one mile each way.  We'd have to leave for school 30-40 minutes before the bell to make sure Mr. Short Legs could make the trip.  Now my district can change their mind and make a different offer?!

We could take the kids out of their current school and place them by the house.  I've already bought the uniform shirts, but the school by the house requires the same pants and shoes.  Ugh, but they could not stop talking about how much fun they had on their first day.  Oldest Kiddo even says she made a friend.  The pros & cons continued.

Ultimately we decided to keep them at the first school.  This school is rated higher than the school by the house.  To give the kids some additional sleep time, we can take the bus to and from if they so choose.  I look at the walk each day as a free gym membership.  Plus the location is super convenient to the shops I need to visit several times a week since my refrigerator is miniscule.

Lesson Learned - Expat Faux Pas

There is no How To manual for moving to a foreign country.  Sure, there is help to get the kids into school, find a place to live, etc.  However, the day-to-day tasks are a learn on the job type of situation.

I was lucky enough to experience two in the same day.

Quick back story:
If you want to watch television in Britain, you have to pay for a TV license.  For the annual cost of £145.50 for color TVs and £49 for black & white TVs (they still exist?), you have access to over fifty Freeview channels via an aerial antenna.  Funny that it's called Freeview, yet you still pay for a license.  Our aerial did not pick up the channels so we had an installer out to the house to replace the bum antenna that was left for us.

My first faux pas was upon opening the door.  He asked if I had a parking permit he could use.  We have not purchased a parking permit as we do not have a car.  Mr. Installer was not pleased with that answer.

"You should really have a permit for the contractors that come to your house.  If I get a ticket it's on you to pay for it," says Mr. Installer.

I don't think I responded to his declarative statement, yet my mouth opened as if my brain had a response to share.  Truthfully I have not seen a traffic officer on our street, but that's not to say today wouldn't be the day they decide to check permits.  He did bring up a valid point.  If you have someone out to the house and live in a parking-restricted area, what are you to do?

The next one took me by surprise when Mr. Installer requested a "cuppa tea."  First of all, that is quite forward when I'm used to the host offering the beverages instead of the guest.  Secondly, I'm paying Mr. Installer to do work and not drink a cuppa.  To dissapoint Mr. Installer once again, I had to break it to him that I had no tea in the house.

His response was much the same as I had when he told me I'd pay for his ticket.  He shook his head and said something about how I should have tea for my contractors as well.  I shared that we had just moved into the house and I did not have a fully stocked pantry as of yet.  He did not need to know we've been here for a month.

Mind you this whole situation is taking place in about three minutes.

Over the course of his one-hour installation, he brought up wanting/needing/how I should provide tea at least three times.   By the last time he brought it up, I sternly told him that if I had tea I would gladly make it for him.  Since I don't have any tea I can't.  He sensed the annoyance in my voice and surprisingly became really nice for the last bit of time he was here.  Possibly because he knew he could leave and get tea somewhere else?

Lessons learned:
Our local council sells temporary parking permits on a perforated sheet of 10 cards.  When needed I am to scratch off the date and time and the contractor places it on his dash.

I did a search to see if it is really necessary to provide tea for the contractors that come to your house.  The overwhelming answer was yes.  Some go as far as making meals & snacks, but mostly just tea.  I'm still not on board with this.  Having a cuppa keeps them from doing the job I'm paying them to do, but I guess it's part of the culture.  Now I have a box of tea in the pantry so I don't disappoint again.

You can be most assured that there will be more faux pas to come.

A Tale of Two Cities

Our friends and family back in Chicago are dealing with some outrageous weather today.  The windchill is predicted near 50 below zero fahrenheit, and the wind chill warning lasts until noon on Tuesday.  Schools are closed today for fear of the little cheeks & noses that might freeze on their way to school, no matter how short the walk.  I also think about my colleagues that drive from some more rural areas that would have to deal with drifting snow on the roads.  Good choice by the school districts to be safe.  Chicago Public Schools are even closed today, and that rarely happens.

In addition to the significant wind chills, the midwest has experienced quite a bit of snow in the last week.  Over New Years Eve & New Years Day our former hometown received 12 inches of snow.  Since then a few more inches have fallen to put the total amount of snow on the ground to almost 20 inches.

The kids would love to have a little bit of snow in London, but we can certainly do without the extreme wind chill.  Stay warm my friends!

A4 Update - December 2013

Incase you missed it, here's a December recap

Tower of London & Tower Bridge

• We moved into our house in a great borough in London
• Oldest Kiddo has lost 3 teeth (5 in all since moving to London!)
• Our container from The 407 arrived just before Christmas.  The kids were so happy to have their toys!
• Santa found us with no problems, whew.
• While getting used to grocery shopping in England, I think we bought milk almost everyday
• We submitted the kids' school applications; not sure when we will hear back about placements.  Fingers crossed that it's very soon.  
• We hosted our first overnight visitor.

Who Are the People in Your Neighborhood?

We have no idea who lives in our neighborhood.  No one makes eye contact on the street.  When you take the chance and say, "Hello," they look shocked that someone is speaking to them.  

However, the people in our neighborhood live in some pretty impressive houses.  Much of the area near our house and the Underground station is a long-standing conservation area (CA) comprised of many Queen Anne-style homes.  The CA has stringent rules about changes to outside and even the inside of some houses.  Their careful consideration is our gain.  I feel like each time we head outside, we see something new and always beautiful.

The half mile to the Underground station may seem far, but it is a lovely walk in our neighborhood.  The houses have similarities, but they all have a different twist that makes them unique.  We've come across different stained glass front windows, ornately tiled front garden paths, and well-kept hedges on our exploratory walks.

If people won't talk to us, their houses sure tell nice stories.

Click & Collect

When we signed the lease for our London house, we knew that we would not get a car.  There's really no need as we have all the transportation we need in easy reach.  A quick walk to the end of our block is the bus that takes us to and from the High Street (aka Main Street).  When we need to head a bit further out, we walk a short half mile away to the Underground Station.  

Not having a car has provided us many bonuses.  Among them, the kids get great exercise walking to and from the Underground station several times per week.  We get to see the variety of shops and parks in our neighborhood.  Finally, Matt and I get the chance to appreciate the beautiful architecture of the houses in our neighborhood (a post to come!).

Not having a car has provided a few inconveniences.  

- Whatever we buy we have to carry home.  

- We have no choice but to walk everywhere.  Even if it is raining (and it has been raining a lot).

- Not everywhere we want to go is easily travelled to by bus or train.  

I solved the first problem shortly after moving in.  I bought a granny grocery trolley.  Yes, the grannies use them, but so does everyone else.  It's hard to carry milk and grocery bags home, especially when the kids can't carry anything very heavy.  This beauty can hold two jugs of milk and 5-6 grocery bags.  I shopped for all of our Christmas groceries, knowing that the stores would be closed or highly picked over but the time I returned, and only the bag I could not fit inside was bread and eggs.  Not too shabby.  

When we want to go somewhere not close to the Underground, it takes quite a bit of planning.  Before Christmas we needed to go to IKEA.  Back at the 407 we had an IKEA within 10 minutes of our house.  This trip took around an hour.  It was a fun combination of walking, Overground train, Underground train, and more walking just to get there.

What do you do when you need large goods but have no way to transport them to your house?  Sometimes you need a new couch or dining table, but it won't fit through the Underground's turnstile.  

Let me introduce you to the amazing concept of Click & Collect.  

Click & Collect is a service that most of our common retailers participate.  Think of if like Peapod grocery delivery on steroids.  There are typically two ways to do the Collect.  Once you Click (order), the goods can either be Collected at a specific location for free the next day or delivered to your house for a low fee or even free at a time you schedule.

John Lewis is the department store we've spent a lot of money at to furnish our home.  Click & Collect here provides the option of home delivery for a small fee or free pick up the next day at it's partner grocery store, Waitrose.  We had John Lewis deliver our television to the house, but I chose to pick up Christmas presents at the Waitrose since I needed to grocery shop anyway.  

To solve the bed debacle from a week ago, we took the convoluted trip to IKEA and successfully found what we needed.  They so kindly offered to deliver the heavy as heck furniture the next day for £30.  That price was a deal to us since we had no car and a rental would be way more than that.  Plus they carried all the way to the top floor!

I tried to Click & Collect for Christmas groceries, but the Brits are such planners that all of the delivery slots were booked a week in advance.  For now, I don't mind doing my own grocery shopping.  As long as I have my trusty granny grocery trolley I have no worries.  

Just think if Click & Collect was widely used in the US.  My Target budget would go way down.  Maybe they'd let you click on a category called "Add something I didn't know I needed."  

Moving & Furniture Education

After almost one month, we are finally in our new home!  Even better news is that our container from America arrived on Tuesday.  Such a relief for the kids to be in their own rooms with their own toys.

The day was quite interesting.  Four young men arrived to remove the rental furniture and bring in the goods!  The kids camped out in the front window to watch all the fun while staying out of the way.

All of the men were extremely polite (like just about everyone else in Britain) and they were very careful with all of our boxes.  There were several memorable quotes of the day.

#1 - "You must have had a massive kitchen in the States," says the crew leader after dragging in the kitchen boxes.  

The funny thing is that we did not have a massive kitchen.  I was just quite creative in my space usage.  I'm finding that coat closet we turned into a pantry at The 407 was key to my kitchen organization.  I'll spare you a photo of the equally crowded table behind me.  

As more and more boxes piled in with a basement or storage room label, they ended up in the conservatory (sun room).

  

#2 - "Your mattress is not going to fit up to the top floor."

That wasn't the only thing; our dresser would not fit either.  Both pieces of furniture were at a proper height to fit into the stairwell, but when the guys needed to lift it up to the next step, they needed about five more inches to clear the ceiling.  The geometry did not lie.  No way, no how were they making it up to our room on the top floor.  The dresser made it up one floor and settled in Youngest Kiddo's room.  Lucky kid now has a pretty nice dresser.  Our headboard, footboard, nightstands & mirror easily traveled up the second set of stairs to our room.  Initially we thought about having the movers take our bedroom furniture back to their warehouse to store for the duration of our time in England since the main storage piece wasn't a part of the deal.  The figures came in that we'd have to pay £200 ($327) for transportation back to the warehouse, £70 ($115) a month for storage, and £40 ($65) a month to insure our furniture.  Once we did the math and figured out the cost for almost two years of storage would be around $4,000 we decided to save that money and creatively solve the problem in house.  Where is the box spring now, you ask?  Don't even think of becoming jealous.  I'm sure you'll see this new idea in next month's Better Homes & Gardens.   

For the short term, that's a big old American box spring in my entryway.  You'd think an easy fix is to buy a split queen box spring.  That would be easy in America, but not in England.  They have divans (dih-van) instead of box springs.

It is a huge box on wheels.  Some have drawers and some do not.  They are an all round toe stubber.  When we had our rental furniture I appreciated that they were on wheels so vacuuming was simple.  Trusty old IKEA has divans that are not on wheels, and if we can make the measurements work we will order up a split divan to use underneath our American mattress.  As for the box spring in the entryway?  It might go up for sale, or broken down for a nice fire.  We will see.

More photos and updates to come once we come up for air after an unpacking marathon this weekend.  For now Matt and I are camping in our bedroom with the mattress on the floor.  The kids are enjoying the toy disasters in their rooms.  I'm happy to have a home.

Case Study To Prove Helicopter Parenting Is Bad For Your Kids

I am not a scientist or psychologist, but I do pay a lot of attention.  More on that later.

One of Matt's colleagues graciously invited our family to her son's birthday party.  He was celebrating his 4th birthday at a climbing, sliding, and swinging place.  It was a bit out of town, but we knew the kids would enjoy the physical activity.  

I've been to these kinds of places before.  I know what they are all about:

• Kids screaming
• Kids tattling
• Parents disciplining other people's kids 
• Kids crying
• Germs

Hey, it wasn't about me.  My kids would thoroughly enjoy an adventure of their own today, and I had a fresh bottle of Purell in my bag.  Another bonus of the venue location - they got to ride on another train line.  So the family navigated up to King's Cross/St. Pancras station to get on the First Capital Connect up to the venue.

The layout of the venue was as expected: the climbing structures on one side and tables & seating for parents on the other.  The kids quickly doffed their coats and shoes and started playing.  

Back to my opening statement - I am not a scientist or psychologist, but I do pay a lot of attention.  In the three and a half hours at the party a paradigm shift occurred.  Past performance is not indicative to today's adventure.  

• Kids screaming - Yes but at a tolerable level on par with their play enjoyment
• Kids tattling - NONE!
• Parents disciplining other people's kids - NONE!
• Kids crying - One girl cried because she got hit by a piece of equipment, but she worked through her tears by herself and returned to playing.  
• Germs - duh

Here's my non-medically trained opinion on this - helicopter parenting is an unknown phenomenon on this side of the Atlantic.  They are actually almost opposite of this.  I have regularly seen parents pushing childless strollers at the mall and museums while their child zips ahead (sometimes a bit too far for my liking).  I get the sense that both parent and child have an understanding of each other's location, and both parties are OK with this.  A little freedom for the kids is a good thing.  

My new list of events that occur at the climbing, sliding, swinging place:

• parents relax with a cappuccino from the cafe
• kids play, play, and come tell mom and dad the amazing feat they just accomplished
• kids work out conflicts or don't have any
• everyone leaves content
• decontamination chamber when you arrive home

I won't say it out loud, but I might actually go back some time.  

That is if my Purell stash is full :)

House Hunting......For the Last Time?

On Tuesday we spent the day house hunting with our favorite relocation house hunter, Brian.  He took us out on our first hunts in October, and we were happy to spend the day with him again.

Back in October Brian spoke of different clients that brought their kids on the house hunt and how it adds a whole new level of stress to the day.  The kids really don't want to be in the car.  The kids get hungry.  The kids have to pee.  The kids have a meltdown by the third house.  We all had a good laugh about that, and we were so happy that they kids were back in the states with the grandparents.  

We had the kids today.  Oh, fate is a cruel mistress.  

Here's how the day started:

• On the walk from the bus stop to Brian's meeting spot, Youngest Kiddo had to go to the bathroom.  I learned back on our trip to Germany that when you see a clean bathroom, you use it.  In this case it was 9:30 in the morning and access to bathrooms was limited.  I snuck into a sit down restaurant to use the WC.  
• All five of us squeezed into Brian's rental car.  I got the middle seat to make sure Oldest & Youngest Kiddo didn't murder each other before we got to the first property.  It's been a long time since I had to sit on the hump.  That used to be the best seat in the car.  Not as cool as I remember.
• Youngest Kiddo thought it would be fantastic to run and jump all over the first two properties.  As.loud.as.he.could.  Matt and I just smiled and tried to deflect the estate agent's attention elsewhere.  
• After the second property, Youngest Kiddo said, "I have to vomit."  First of all it's hilarious to hear him say vomit.  What four-year-old kid says vomit?  Upon arrival to the third property, he sat on the front porch breathing slow and deliberately.  Matt and I tag-teamed supervision on the front porch and did not pay much attention to him, as this has happened many times before. 
• On the way to the fourth property, Youngest Kiddo looked at me to say in a pathetic, choking voice, "I'm going to vomit."  We were at a stoplight so I opened the door and Youngest Kiddo proceeded to vomit out the door.  I'll spare you the details, but the boy was not lying.  We had to decide what to do at this point - Matt ditch us to take Youngest Kiddo home or press on.  We took the risk to press on.
• At the fifth property, he was back to his jumping and running self.  I also have to add after using the bathroom at the property.  

It wasn't even lunchtime.

• The rest of us were starving for lunch, but we questioned what we should do with Youngest Kiddo.  He claimed that he was hungry, so we took another risk to press on.  You'd think we never fed the boy, he sure horked down his food.

Matt said I was going to sit next to him in the car for the rest of the day.  I was willing to take that challenge.  Do you notice I have not said a word about any of the properties?

We saw the whole range of properties - common terraced houses and high rise places.  I took many photos of the ones we liked.  One place was cute inside, but outside it as if "Wanted" posters should hang on the fences.  The hideous last place reminded me of a retirement high rise on the bad part of town, I did not want it digitally forever remembered.  Here's some good ones from the 10 properties.....

Youngest Kiddo was excited for the tiny, low sink.

Lots of storage in the reception (living) room 

Yes, that's a washing machine AND a tumble dryer - heaven

It was stuck in the 90's but the conservatory was gorgeous

Beautiful kitchen with garden in the back

Of the ten properties we viewed, we have one winner that we want and a back up if needed.  Another one of our other relocation representatives is negotiating the rent on one of the properties as I type this.  I sure hope for my sleep quality that it works out in our favor.

I'm sure Brian added many stories to his repertoire today.

My Favorite New App of ALL TIME

Traversing London outside of the Underground stations is a bit tricky.  The city streets are not on a grid system, and the streets names change randomly from block to block.

Underground stations are not always nearby, so a bus is often the way to go (plus it's a bit cheaper).  Up until now I've had to swap between a bus app and an Underground app in order to get where we need to go.  One main difficulty with the apps is that they had difficulty finding my actual location.  If I was not somewhere big, like the Tower of London, it got confused.

That is until I downloaded Citymapper app.   

It determines my exact location and tells me all of the transportation options (walk, bus, rail) and combinations of the modes.  It gives approximate times for each mode and tells what times the next bus or train arrive.  It's free and you also get New York City routes.  

Yesterday I found an amazing feature of the app.  When I scrolled through my options to get back to our apartment, one of my choices was jetpack.  Nice.  

This morning I tried to show the option to Oldest Kiddo, but it changed - to teleporter.  When I tapped it, the app told me that this mode was still in beta :)  Later in the day I needed directions and the fun option was a catapult.  It even came with a short video (gif?) of a person catapulting from point A to point B.  Hilarious.

The best bit of all, the app is free!

*These opinions are all my own.  I love this app!

Out And About Town

We've had some housing woes in the last week which put me into a pretty decent funk.  When we left The 407, I figured we'd be in our house long before now and starting up a home routine.  We left on November 15, and as of December 1 we still have no where to live.  That's a whole other post.  Despite cloudy skies in my head & outside, being out and about has been the best medicine.

On Wednesday I was searching out different London travel blogs to see if there were any free or inexpensive places we could go.  I came across Coram's Fields, which is just a short walk from our apartment.  The kids were content with the play structure just inside the gates.  They have no idea what the rest of the park holds.  I'm holding that in my back pocket for later in the week.

Today we went to the London Zoo.  I had a bit of sticker shock when we paid for our entry.  One adult and two kids was £51 ($83!).  A small disclosure, I'm working off a London travel book from 2006, and the prices have increased quite a bit.  I've ordered the newest edition.  I can apply today's admission to a family pass so we don't have to pay that again!

I think all of the families in London were shopping or elsewhere today because we had just a few people with us at each exhibit.  The animals were eager to be photographed today and many readily came up to the glass to check us out.

These are the bearded pigs.  They were adorable!

Oldest Kiddo was excited to visit the Reptile House because Harry Potter visited the same location in the first book.  No parseltongue was spoken today.

On our way to the edge of the park we had to cross a bridge over the Regents Canal.  This is a beautiful gem in the city.  If we were super gutsy, we could rent a houseboat on the canal instead of a flat or house.

Early last week we visited the London Transportation Museum in Covent Garden.  I've always enjoyed the shop here but never toured the museum.  The kids got in free so the £15 admission was not too bad.  The museum starts at the beginning of London's transportation roots to present day.  My kids were engaged the entire time!  They got to see carriages, trains, and busses.

Even the props are realistic, ew

We walked back through Covent Garden to find a cool Lego snowglobe.  It is comprised of over 120,000 Lego bricks put together by one guy.  One guy.  He's the only certified Lego professional in the UK.  I wonder if that's for a reason :)

 

Cheers to bright days and more fun family outings!