Until late April 2010, Teagan attended daycare and kindergarten. She had friends and teachers and these people always knew more than me and were generally more appealing than me (although, I had my place and we both knew that either Dad or I were the best when life was tough). But now, we have each other, on our own for 9 hours a day. I have learnt so much; apparently, it is not sad to eat lamb shanks as they are from boy lambs and we don't need many of them as only the girl lambs grow up and make wool and more babies so we can eat the boy lambs!! Also, if I stay in bed too long and sleep I will die like Gabby so it is really important that I get up quickly. In spite of her bossiness (standard in little girls I am told), Teagan's behaviour is "aimicable"; please is present most of the time and I am often brought a glass of water or a slice of toast with a smear of spread on it and due to her strong affinity with God, she has introduced me to the pleasure of Grace prior to eating any meal.
Now to the constructive education component. How does one educate a 4.5 year old? My solution taking the Teagan approach is artwork, provide her with paints and something to make and we are all winners. A key recent hit has been painting a cube and sticking favourite words on it then throwing the cube (like a dice) and saying the word that is on the side. We also love Sesame Street's podcasts "The word on the street", yesterday we studied "exquisite" and today it has been "pollination" (including a 39 deg C walk around the local gardens to get flowers). While is all seems slow going, we are generally both having fun.
Yesterday, however, started from quite a different angle. Teagan has to work each morning straightening shoes and earns 1 Riyal (NZD0.40) for this task. She has been saving up to buy "something". This morning it was time (after 4 days of waiting) and she biked to the compound shop and bought a polished stone egg (what!! I think). Nevermind, each to her own. At this particular point in time she is now gathering all of her "special things" into boxes and hiding them around the house for "Dad to find when he gets home", these boxes a piled into a washing basket for ease of transportation. Yes, please, I say and clean it all up in the process of finding it as this villa is become devoid of all treasures.
On to the real stuff, formal education. Yesterday we visited our two preferred schools here in Doha, both of which are likely to have a place for Teagan. One has a cost of NZD 30 K per annum (Compass International) and the other one NZD 18 K per annum (Sherborne Academy). Schools here are not all created equal and are also vastly different. Each school has compulsory Arabic or Islamic lessons (depending on your religion) and children are allowed to enter certain schools depending on their citizenship. Of the two we had selected to explore further, both will provide Arabic lessons and studies for Teagan, follow in the British Primary Curriculum for Maths and English and in one case the International Primary Curriculum for other subjects. Both schools would suit us academically however, I did prefer Sherborne Academy due to the specific music and art departments and facilities and more formal approach (suited to my "independent and opinionated child". If you are interested in taking a look at these International Schools, here are the links: Compass International www.cisdoha.org and Sherborne www.sherborneqatar.org . Following our visit, Teagan who has been of the opinion that she will NEVER go to school, told me: "Mum, inside of my head, I have been thinking; and you know that now my head says that I want to go to school", clearly, the school visits have been a positive.
Now the real test is, will Teagan be formally accepted. Teagan will go through an academic assessment which, I assume, will be rather interesting. There will be six children with one parent each doing a variety of tasks in a classroom. At worst, I will have a heck of a good time watching the whole process and at best, all of the children and parents will enjoy themselves with the net outcome being acceptance for the next school year starting September 15, 2010 into their first year of "Pre-preparatory" (aka, new entrance or reception).
All said, I will become baby-less. Once Teagan was 5 lb 7 oz or 2.5 kg and expressed her opinion in only one style with Ross, Gabby and I together constituting her world. Once she begins school, she will have her own international accent, speak more languages that Ross and me, her own network of friends and Ross and I will become "knowledge-less". Oh, the true blessings of having a child.
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