UPDATED: Calvin's first school picture

When Calvin's forskola said that they were having picture day on Wednesday, I remembered my own first school picture -- me with a red tear-stained face in front of a backdrop of evergreen trees.  I honest-to-goodness remember the day (probably because I cried and because I was 5), but I remember what had happened.  We were all standing in line, waiting to take our pictures and the girl ahead of me started to freak out because of the bright flash-pop from the camera whenever a picture was taken.  She started crying and even though I wasn't scared, it was infectious and I couldn't stop crying myself.  I wasn't scared of the camera but it was just enough that other kids were frightened so I figured they knew something I didn't.

Fortunately when I dropped Calvin off for his picture, I noticed that they had the kids playing in a room separate from the professional photographer.  The kids would play and then would go in, one at a time, to get their pictures taken.  They were standing, posing, laughing and having fun.  I left Calvin crossing my fingers that he wouldn't be too nervous.

We just received the pictures in the mail today and while he is not smiling, he is a super cutey-pie-pants with no tears!  No crying! It was great.  He looks a little bored, if not in the middle of doing something with his hands.  Maybe the itsy-bitsy spider?  I'll never know.  Best of all, we received these pictures for free/our taxes already paid for them and instructions on how to pay for them.  Perfect!

UPDATE:

So above I mentioned that the pictures were free.  I mean, who gives the product to the customer and then says, "Here's what you owe us and we know that you'll pay it."  Well, the Swedish school picture people do.  I mean, my friends at Lifetouch, is that a model that would work in the US?  Usually you have to put in your order and pay upfront, then the product is delivered.  Right?  Or at least, they send a watermarked proof copy and you can choose to buy based on the quality of the picture.  I guess Swedish parents don't really like this model since you have to return the pictures you don't want to buy so you feel obligated to buy them all -- it's just easier that way.  Fortunately for us, we love the pictures and were going to buy them anyway. (I'm pretty sure the grandparents wouldn't want us returning these pictures!) Bankgiro is processed and paid for!

Run Calvin! Run!

Calvin's förskola sent out a reminder to all parents that the kids would be running around the soccer field on Tuesday morning and that all parents were welcome to come and cheer them on/help out.  In my mind, this meant that the kids would head down to the field and run around like kids do.  In a haphazard manner. When Calvin and I got down to the field, we found not only his fellow classmates ready to run, but they all had race numbers pinned to their jackets.  Orange cones outlined the perimeter of two soccer fields and the teacher, Oliver, ran the entire course to show the kids where to go.  The course was a proper course and even featured a water table at the halfway mark.

Dagis - Is the 3rd time the charm?

Checking out the place before any kids start for the year

I have written past articles about our/my struggle to find an appropriate daycare/dagis/forskola for Calvin.  No place was good enough, clean enough, friendly enough, [insert your own values] enough for me to consider placing him there.  I even thought that child-friendly Sweden would be a cake-walk to find the right fit, but alas, the perfect dagis remained out of reach. I had to tell our first Swedish dagis

I broke up with dagis

(Dagis=preschool=daycare)

I was so excited for Calvin to start preschool (or dagis) here in Stockholm.  We had successfully navigated the application system and attended an open house.  I even blogged about (here) a comparison between my experience with the US daycare system and the Swedish system.  All systems were "go" we just needed to complete inskolning or in-take.

Now, to my credit, I was really sure, no positive, that this time around, we were going to do the daycare thing up right.  Calvin was 12 months old, able to toddle around and get himself from place to place.  We are struggling a little bit with his weight and getting him to eat any food that isn't a fruit, but we're working on it slowly but surely.  I figured that he would see the other kids eating chicken and think it was a good idea too.  The 4 days of in-take were supposed to show me how he was going to interact with the other kids and the teachers.  That was not how our experience went down.  I'm going to put this into bullets to keep myself on track but you'll be able to see the warning signs when I did.

Day 1 of in-take -- 9am-11am

• Hang out with Calvin and 2 other kids and sang some songs with the teacher
• I noticed that the doors between the classrooms were kept open and the kids were crawling or walking between rooms
• Numerous times, other teachers would pop in and ask if I had seen so-and-so
• Noticed one girl was sickish looking and was being rocked by a teacher
• Calvin loved playing with all of the toys but I was with him by myself with him for about 1 hour (where are the teachers?)

The only interaction I saw between a teacher and Calvin all day

Do you see the sick girl in the back? I do...

Food?

Day 2 of in-take -- 9am - 12pm

• Met some other moms and kids -- Calvin played with them and got ran over a few times by the older kids (no big deal)
• Spoke with the Director of the preschool who was holding sick girl from Day 1 and as she told me that she had a recurring fever proceeded to say that "I would never enroll my child here unless they were 18 months old.  They will just get too sick because it is up to the parent to get their child if they have a fever.  One girl has had an eye infection for 4 days now and she keeps getting dropped off."
• Spent more time playing with other moms and kids (again, where are the teachers)
• Had 20 minutes of singing in a play room with a slide.  Calvin started climbing the slide and nearly fell off.  If I hadn't been there, he would have fallen on his head as the teacher was distracted with the other kids
• Lunch time -- kids are served pasta and chicken and food is placed in front of them.  To entice them to eat, the teachers squirted ketchup on their pasta.  
• Calvin sat there and cried.
• We left...

So, I was mulling the above information over in my head and combined it with some other things that we had to take into account.

1. The school was going to close in July (as most of Sweden does) and we are moving out of the area mid-July so Calvin would be changing schools.
2. Calvin would really only attend the school for a total of 30 hours for the entire month with upcoming visitors and trips in June.
3. The director of the school said in no uncertain terms that their school isn't designed for 12 month olds.  He should really be older before attending dagis.

Between the safety, health and nutrition factors listed above, I didn't think that enrolling him for 1 month was really worth the stress, worry and affect on his schedule.  The school enforces 1 nap a day (12-2pm) and getting him adjusted during in-take was a real struggle.  It was clear, I had to break up with dagis. This relationship just wasn't going to work out.

When I went to the school on our 3rd day of in-take to break off our agreement, Calvin took the longest nap ever -- a total of 4 hours for his morning nap.  RECORD BREAKING!  He was so exhausted from only getting 1 nap a day that his body was trying to catch up.  I think that we will need to transition to 1 nap eventually, but right now, he is too young for it.  The school is really designed for older kids and their schedule, lunch menu, and fever protocols (or lack thereof) really reflect that.

Jon jokingly said, "So, when are you going to send Calvin to school?  Will he be home schooled until he is 10 years old?"  I hope not!  I really wanted this to work out for all of us.  My consulting work is really taking off and my projects are getting busier and busier. I need time away from Calvin (at least a few hours each day) to be productive at work.  He really loves interacting with the other children and being outside playing.  I just didn't think that his safety was going to be looked after appropriately and that is really my main concern.  I know he'll get fevers and that he won't eat their food at first, but he would adjust eventually.

Sigh...oh well.  I may be on the way to being an overbearing mom but at least I'm honest about it.