Here I come school

Yesterday on the way to drop off Joel for his first day of preschool here in Australia you would have thought we were dropping him off for his mission. He was so proud of himself. Preschool here seems a bit different but then I only have experience with the preschool I found for Joel. First difference is that it's from 9-3. LONG day. They are to bring "morning tea" (snack), lunch, a wide brimmed hat, and a water bottle. It's the law here that kids are to have a wide brimmed hat on when they go outside during school. A couple of months during the year the ozone opens up and you are at risk for severe sun damage. Another difference is in the U.S. the teacher ususally comes out and gets your child out of the car, safely takes them into school and the mom whisks away to freedom. :) Here you take your child in, sign them in put their lunch in the fridge and hang around a bit talking with other moms, interacting with your child, etc. There is no rush to leave. The major difference that I see was in the structure. Joel's preschool in the U.S. was very structured. The kids sat up to tables most of the day. They had activities to do, changing every 15 minutes or so. He did lots of structured learning on alphabet, sounds, blends, phonics, shapes, counting, etc. Here, they have a series of stations set up around the room and outside. They spend as much time outside and they do inside. When the kids come they can choose what interests them. The stations I saw were playdough, paint, dinosaur station, sandbox type thing, music, train building, drawing, magazine cutting, dressup, music, etc. There are a lot of stations. The kids pick what they would like to do. Teachers seem to follow them around, asking questions, pointing them in directions that would further their learning. They do come together for story time/music time. But there doesn't seem to be any "lesson". Which is soooo weird for me, coming from a teaching background. I asked, how do they learn to write/read. The director said they all do. When they show interest in one of the stations that has to do with that, the teacher seizes on the opportunity and gives a lesson. Joel kept asking, when does school start? What am I supposed to do? I explained to the teacher the background he has with preschool and she said she'd help him throughout the day. I finally left and had a fun day with Will. I was surprised with how fun he was to be around with Joel gone. When I picked Joel up he was very happy and asked to come back. Another difference is you pick how often you want them to go. 1-5 days a week. There was an opening for a 2 day a week class so that's what Joel is doing. He'll go to preschool until the end of Novemeber, have 2 months off for "summer" and then start kindergarten in February.