Eleri began school this year. She is attending the British School, Dulwich College. She is at the campus for preschool through Year 2 (US 1st grade) called DUCKS. The name of her school-aged program is Nursery. She has a lovely class of children; her teacher is Mrs. Allison and the class is called the Pelicans. School at the age of 3 is ALL day in Shanghai. I looked into other half-day programs, but none were available. In addition, Eleri was only on the wait list for 18 months!! I chose Dulwich over Concordia based on the reading programs. Elle is the youngest in her class as she just turned 3.

Elle takes a nap each day at school (all the kids are required) so she has her nap mat from Pottery Barn. Elle doesn’t do well with the nap because she is an “Asian kid”. She has had the benefit of Imelda which means she grew up taking a nap in her cot in the dark…not on the road like Emmy while I ran errands.

I drove Eleri to and from school for the first month. My friend, Jenny, has a daughter, Bonnie, in another Nursery class. Jenny and family live at Yanlord in the same tower. She needs to get Bonnie on the bus because her baby is due soon. So we put them on the bus together. It was harder for me to put my 3 year old on the bus than it was for Elle. All of Elle’s life she has seen Emersyn go to school on a bus. I think for Elle it is part of going to school. The Dulwich School has a little red school bus. Elle’s little head barely peaks over the window.

Eleri’s school begins at 8:30am to 3:00pm. She gets on the bus at 7:25am. She is more of a sleeper than Emmy – getting up is a bit more of a challenge for Elle. Elle returns from her day of school at 3:30pm.