Mandilón

We have finally signed up for school!

Which, by the way starts in just a week, on Tuesday.

We had to have empadronamiento (registration/proof of living where we say we are living) to sign up for school, and we needed a rental contract to get empadronamiento.

Parents at our old school in the US were urged to buy school supplies back in June. Here in Spain, we had nothing ready and didn't even know which school would have spots for us, do I was getting nervous. 

Well, today we got our padron and signed up for school all in the same day. The school which had spots available for all three was the third closest to our place, so a bit far actually. But still closer than our school in Texas. 

They have a list of books we need to buy, but as far as supplies go, we were instructed to not worry, bring a pen, a pencil, and an eraser on day one and they'd let us know about anything else once school starts.

Primary school includes Infantil grades in the same building, that is 3 to 5 year olds (kinder is not a thing). Infantil is optional, but free. We casually checked the boxes for the options: Bilingual (English) program: Yes/No, Asturian language/Culture, Religion/Ethics. No limited spots or waiting lists for the bilingual program.

The school day is broken into two sessions with "Comedor" in-between - a 2.5 hr long break for lunch and play/extracurricular activities. Kids also could use it to go home, but sounds like almost everyone stays at school for Comedor. Also bringing own lunch isn't an option (maybe if you insist?) I didn't fight it, I hate packing lunches. The school has a kitchen and a healthy menu. We shall see.

Extracurriculars are offered by a separate (nonprofit?) organization and you have to pay for them. However, it appears that it's easy to opt in at any point throughout the school year.

Overall this was an easy and pleasant experience. We got to meet the 2nd grade teacher, who was most wonderful and welcoming as were the rest of the school employees. Feeling good about it.

Oh and I thought that mandilón (from the short list of school supplies on the website) was a type of a folder. The youngest needs a green one with buttons (clips?) in front and the students name written on both sides in upper case. Turns out it's actually a little robe/long shirt to wear over regular clothes for messy activities like lunch and arts. We already bought one at Hipercor. Now to figure out how to put a name on it (iron-on letters?)!

Also blogger sucks and I can't rotate this image!