First Day of School 2016

First Day of Last Year of Preschool, 2016, Age 6.  

K is wearing the official outfit of someone entering First Year in Russia (school jumper, white blouse, white stockings, black shoes, and the required white bows).  Uniforms are not required in preschool, but since we had the uniform left over from when E started First Year, why not?  

Here, K is holding a bouquet for her two preschool teachers.  They alternate doing the morning and afternoon shifts, so neither teacher is always AM or always PM, and K sees both every day.  It is common to bring flowers on the first day of school, also known as the Russian holiday "Day of Learning."  There is also a separate "Teacher's Day" (every profession has a day), later in the month.

First Day of Middle Group Preschool, 2016, Age 4. 

Here is A, with her requisite bows, and a dress.  The jeans are just for going out in the cold (she will take them off at preschool).  Her sneakers (on her feet) are for outside only, the ones she is holding in her hand are for inside only (everybody, kids and adults, have "outside shoes" and "inside shoes").  And her bouquet for her preschool teacher.

First Day of School, Year Three, 2016, Age 9.  

A few hours later, E is getting ready for school.  This is her official school uniform, with a white blouse from last year, stockings and brand new black shoes (from the US).  She usual wears glasses, just didn't have them on at the instant of the photo.  She is proudly holding the bouquet she designed for her teacher. She opted for the required white bow in the back holding her braid.

"School Number 9, in the name of Alexander Pushkin, with a specialization in physics and mathematics" (I kid you not, that is the official name of the school--on the red sign above the front door).  The school is over two hundred years old. That building is about a hundred years old.  Served as a "hospital away from the front" during WWII.

Class "3B" with teacher Marina Petrovna, 1 September 2016.  

A couple kids are missing, who left early, or didn't hear the announcement of the photo after lessons on the first day.  Total cohort: 33 children, 22 boys, 11 girls.

P. S. Back to the grindstone, with a brand new Lands' End backpack fresh from the USA.  

2 September 2016