ISB

Vivian is now officially registered at ISB, and we are so excited.  We had an appointment on Friday to submit the rest of our paperwork and meet with her guidance counselor.  The counselor was really nice and gave us tons of useful information.

We also got Vivi's uniforms while we were there.  Her schedule goes back and forth between P.E. days and foreign language days.  She will be taking Thai this year, since the Thai government requires that anyone living in Thailand take at least one year of Thai.  Next year, she will probably take Mandarin.  On P.E. days, she wears her P.E. uniform to school, and on foreign language days she wears her regular uniform.  Ironically, after Jeff banning all my red clothes from my wardrobe, the elementary school shirts are bright red.  The P.E. shirts are yellow, which was the other color in the recent Thai conflict.

Vivian is required to wear a hat every day, otherwise she won't be allowed to go outside for the two recesses they have.  She's also supposed to bring a water bottle every day.  They take the heat seriously here.  In fact, older students are required to have an EKG as part of the standard school physical form.

Since Friday was a bit hectic, Vivian and I didn't really have time to explore the campus, so we went back on Monday.

It's all an open air courtyard system, which could get interesting in one of the heavy rains we've seen, but I assume they have a rain plan.  One of the things Vivian is most excited about is that after the "bus" (read van) that picks her up at our house drops her off at school, she can leave her backpack in her classroom and then go play on the big playground until the bell rings.  In Arlington, she had to sit quietly on the floor in front of the classroom.  I think this will be a much more active daily schedule, which is great for my super energy child.

It looks like she'll also have some great quiet reading time though.  The library has a really cool design and a great collection of easily accessible books.  They have an Elephant and Piggie display right near the front door, so Vivian grabbed a few and plopped down in one of the swinging pod chairs.

In the foreground, you can see part of a book basket.  They have baskets by series and topics, right at kiddie level, so it will be easy for Viv to explore.  I think we will probably go back again this week.  The upper school library is supposed to be equally awesome, and I'm allowed to check books out with my parent ID, so I'll have to figure out how to do that.

Overall, we're really excited for school to start next week.  Vivian has already played with three other kids who are going into first grade, and I'm sure she'll have tons of friends by the end of the first week.