Emerson at School

In January Emerson began school at St. Leonard's Nursery. We visited several schools after our arrival in the fall and St Leonard's was our first choice. We feel very blessed that she was given a place in the afternoon class. The city of Edinburgh has several "public" nursery schools (which are like American preschools) and children who are 3 and 4 years old can apply for a half day program. She started on January 15th and absolutely LOVES it!

A very excited Emerson on her first day of school. This is in front of the door to our flat.

Inside St. Leonard's on her first day...we are working on the picture face:)

St. Leonard's is a great little school near downtown, close to the main University. They have big open classrooms with beautiful windows looking out onto the garden. I have taken some pictures of the garden, but I will take some more once everything starts blooming this spring. St. Leonard's is an Eco school so the children learn a lot about conserving, recycling, and being healthy. They do lots of planting and spend a good bit of time outdoors.

This is the way we go into school each day- through the garden gate. You can see all of the classroom windows. Emerson's class is the green door on the left in this photo.

Another picture of the garden, I think it is more interesting in person...we'll work on some better pics this spring.

In her first few weeks of school Emerson got to celebrate Burns Day (Robert Burns's Birthday) by tasting haggis and learning several Scottish nursery rhymes. Trey and I got quite a kick out of listening to Emerson say her poems at the dinner table....she is becoming aware of the Scottish accent now that she is around locals for a good bit of the day. For example her poem that begins "round about" she says roon aboot, because that is how her teacher taught it to her. Her class also celebrated Pancake Day. Who knew pancakes had their own holiday?! I had to do a little online research for this one because I couldn't believe there really is a Pancake day. The technical holiday is Shrove Tuesday, the day before Ash Wednesday, but the common name is Pancake Day. I guess as the story goes, on Shrove Tuesday you are supposed to use up all of the sweet ingredients in your pantry by making a big batch of pancakes before the start of Lent.

This is how we walk to school...Ward in his stroller, rainshield down on most days and Emerson on her buggy board. This is the corner of our street Blacket Avenue.

Emerson's starting school has been good for Ward and I too. It gives us a great excuse to get out of the flat for a little bit each day when we walk Emerson to school after lunch. Trey picks her up and walks her home (most days she ends up riding on his shoulders). We have walked her to school in all kinds of weather...rain (of course), wind that practically blows the stroller off of the sidewalk, snow, sleet, fog, and sunshine. The best was the day that we had ALL of these in one walk!